tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6858195271318930432024-03-17T20:04:09.975-07:00Roland San Juan---------------------------------------http://www.blogger.com/profile/04026996012133110417noreply@blogger.comBlogger8817125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-685819527131893043.post-4387240233760327252018-04-02T18:11:00.001-07:002018-04-02T18:11:31.155-07:00 Trump’s Protectionism and China’s Emergence as a World Economic Power <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Trump’s Protectionism and China’s Emergence as a World Economic Power
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By <a href="https://www.globalresearch.ca/author/james-petras" title="Posts by Prof. James Petras">Prof. James Petras</a><br />
Global Research, April 02, 2018<br />
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Url of this article:<br /><a href="https://www.globalresearch.ca/trumps-protectionism-and-chinas-emergence-as-a-world-power/5634351">https://www.globalresearch.ca/trumps-protectionism-and-chinas-emergence-as-a-world-power/5634351</a>
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<em>US Presidents, European leaders and their academic spokespeople
have attributed China’s growing market shares, trade surpluses and
technological power to its “theft” of western technology, “unfair” or
non-reciprocal trade and restrictive investment practices. President
Trump has launched a ‘trade war’, – raising stiff tariffs, especially
targeting Chinese exports – designed to pursue a protectionist economic
regime.</em><br />
The China-bashers of the western world ignore the developmental
experiences of the past two hundred and fifty years, starting with the
post-revolutionary United States policy of protecting ‘infant
industries’.<br />
In this essay we will proceed to criticize the model underlying the
current western attack on China. We will then turn to outlining the
experience of countries which overcame backwardness in the course of
successfully industrializing their economies.<br />
<strong>Development in Historical Perspective</strong><br />
Western ideologists claimed that ‘backward economies’ should follow a
development path originally established by successful countries, namely
the UK.<br />
They argued that ‘stages of development’ begin by embracing liberal
free market policies, specializing in their ‘comparative advantages’,
namely exporting raw materials. Economic ‘modernization’ would lead,
stage by stage to a mature high consumption society.<br />
The advocates of the liberal stage theory dominated the economic
departments of major US universities and served as the planning strategy
advocated by US policy makers.<br />
Early on, dissenting economic historians pointed out serious
anomalies. For example the ‘early developers’ like the UK secured trade
advantages, products of a world-wide empire which forced colonies to
exporting raw materials under unfavorable terms of trade, an advantage
which ‘later countries’ lacked.<br />
Secondly the post-revolutionary US led by Treasury Secretary
Alexander Hamilton successfully promoted protectionist industrial
policies to protect US “infant industries” from the established UK
Empire. The US civil war was fought precisely to prevent US plantation
owners from linking their exports to British liberal free traders and
manufacturers.<br />
In the mid-19th and early 20th century, developing countries like
Germany, Japan and Soviet Russia rejected the ideology of free trade and
open markets in favor of state-centered protected industrialization.
They succeeded in overcoming backwardness, competing and overtaking the
‘early developers’ like the UK.<br />
In the post-World War 2 period, after unsuccessful attempts to follow
the ‘western free market’ model, South Korea, Taiwan and Malaysia
successfully pursued statist, protectionist export models of
development.<br />
Regions and countries which followed western free-market policies
specializing in primary goods exports like Latin America, Africa, the
Middle East and the Philippines failed to overcome stagnation and
backwardness.<br />
A leading economic historian <strong>Alexander Gerschenkron</strong>
argued that economic backwardness provided emerging countries with
certain strategic advantages which involved systematic substitution of
imports by domestic industries leading to dynamic growth and
subsequently competitive export strategies. (Economic Backwardness in
Historical Perspective: A Book of Essays)<br />
The successful late developing countries borrowed and acquired the
latest productive techniques while the early developed industrializer
remained with the existing outmoded methods of production. In other
words, the developing countries, guided by the state, ‘jumped’ stages of
growth and surpassed their competitors.<br />
China is a superb example of Gerschenkron’s model. Through state
intervention, it overcame the constraints imposed by the monopoly
controls of existing imperial countries and rapidly advanced through
borrowing the most advanced technology and innovations and then moved on
to become the most active filer of advanced patents in the world. In
2017 China surpassed the US filing 225 patents in 2017 while the US
lagged behind with 91 (FT 3/16/18 p. 13).<br />
An excellent example of China’s advances in technological innovation
is the Huawei Group, which spent $13.8 billion on research and
development in 2017 and plans to increase its annual R&D budget to
$20 billion a year. Chinese companies will lead standard setting in
next-generation technologies, including networking (FT 3/31/18 p 12).
Washington’s resort to excluding China from US markets has nothing to do
with China ‘stealing’ US patents and secrets and everything to do with
Huawei’s R&D spending directed at obtaining talent, technology,
equipment and international partnerships. The White House’s
protectionist Sinophobia is driven by its fear of Chinese advances in
fifth generation high-speed data networks, which are undermining the US
ability to compete in cutting edge technology.<br />
China’s competitive excellence was the result of the state’s
systematic substitution of advanced technology, which allowed the
economy to gradually liberalize and out-compete the US in global and
domestic markets.<br />
China has followed and exceeded the example of earlier late
developing countries (Germany and Japan). It combined advanced
industrial export growth as the leading sector with a relatively
backward agricultural sector providing cheap labor and low-cost
foodstuffs.<br />
China is now moving up the development ladder, deepening its domestic
market, advancing its high technology sector and gradually reducing the
importance of the low value consumer and rust belt industries.<br />
<strong>Cry-Baby Economies Revert to Protectionism</strong><br />
The US failure to compete with China and its resulting trade deficits
are a result of its inability to incorporate new technologies, apply
them to domestic civilian production, increasing income and upgrading
and incorporating the labor force into competitive sectors which could
defend the domestic market.<br />
The state has surrendered its leading role to the financial and
military elites which eroded US industrial competitiveness. Moreover,
unlike China the state has failed to provide leadership in identifying
priority targets compatible with intensified competition from China.<br />
While China exports economic products, the US exports arms and wars.
The US has a surplus of arms exports and a growing commercial deficit.<br />
China has multi-billion-dollar infrastructure investments in over
fifty countries that enhance trade surplus. The US has
multi-billion-dollar expenditures in over 800 overseas military bases.<br />
<strong>Conclusion</strong><br />
US charges that China has emerged as a world-economic power by unfair
trade and theft of US technology ignores the entire history of all late
developing countries, beginning with the US rise and eclipse of the UK
during the 19th century.<br />
The US attempt to turn back the clock to an earlier stage of
protectionism will not raise US competitiveness nor increase its share
of the domestic market.<br />
US protectionism simply will result in higher prices, unskilled
labor, war debts and financial monopolies. A US “trade war” will simply
allow the Chinese state to divert trade from the US to other markets and
re-direct its investments toward deepening its domestic economy, and
increasing ties with Russia , Asia, Africa, Latin America and Oceania.<br />
The US ‘blame game’ with China is misplaced. Instead it should
re-examine its reliance on a laissez faire economy with neither plan nor
reason. Its resort to tariffs will increase costs without raising
income and improving innovation.<br />
Current US protectionism began ‘still born’. The White House has
already downgraded its tariff which targeted competitors. Moreover its
$60-billion-dollar tariff on China affects less than 3% of its exports.<br />
Instead of seeking to blame outside competitors like China it would
be wiser to learn from its experience and absorb its technological
advances and its strategic investments in infrastructure and domestic
consumption. Until the US reduces its military spending by two thirds,
and subordinates its finance sector to industry and domestic households
it will continue to fall behind China.<br />
Instead of returning to the strategy of backward countries relying on
protecting infantilized industries, the US should accept its
responsibilities to compete through state directed development linked to
upgrading its labor force, raising skills and expanding social welfare.<br />
*<br />
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<em><strong>Prof. James Petras</strong> is a research associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization.</em></div>
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<b>Disclaimer:</b> The contents of this article are of sole
responsibility of the author(s). The Centre for Research on
Globalization will not be responsible for any inaccurate or incorrect
statement in this article.
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Copyright © <a href="https://www.globalresearch.ca/author/james-petras" title="Posts by Prof. James Petras">Prof. James Petras</a>, Global Research, 2018</div>
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---------------------------------------http://www.blogger.com/profile/04026996012133110417noreply@blogger.com46tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-685819527131893043.post-209293317596253332018-04-02T18:10:00.001-07:002018-04-02T18:10:53.094-07:00 Why the Nuclear War Is No Longer Unthinkable? <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Why the Nuclear War Is No Longer Unthinkable?
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By <a href="https://www.globalresearch.ca/author/maxim-nikolenko" title="Posts by Maxim Nikolenko">Maxim Nikolenko</a><br />
Global Research, April 02, 2018<br />
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Url of this article:<br /><a href="https://www.globalresearch.ca/why-the-nuclear-war-is-no-longer-unthinkable/5634383">https://www.globalresearch.ca/why-the-nuclear-war-is-no-longer-unthinkable/5634383</a>
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<em>Just a few weeks before his reelection,<strong> President Vladimir Putin</strong> delivered a <a href="http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/56957">speech</a>
to the members of the Federal Assembly, setting an agenda for the
country’s military and economic development. Internationally, this
annual event has gained attention as Russia, apart from other things,
announced the enhancement of its nuclear delivery systems. In total, the
development of six new delivery systems was announced, with videos
demonstrating their strike capabilities. The Kremlin’s show of force was
vividly aimed at the international audience, precisely, the powers of
the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).</em><br />
The response to Putin’s address was immediate.<br />
<blockquote>
“We don’t regard it as the behavior of a responsible international player,” commented the U.S. State Department spokesperson, <strong>Heather Nauert. </strong></blockquote>
With that note, she was referring to the video animation showcasing
Russia’s new intercontinental ballistic missile system called Sarmat.
President Putin announced this missile as “a very powerful mighty
weapon.” A missile with almost indefinite endurance means “nothing, not
even perspective” anti-ballistic missile systems “could be an obstacle
for it.” Consequently, this will, according to Putin, restore the
balance of power between Washington and Moscow. “Nobody wanted to listen
to us” on the matter, he stressed. “Well, listen to us now.”<br />
The theme of Russia being an irresponsible international player was
reiterated across the conventional corporate media apparatuses.
Washington is, again, talking about the Cold War.<br />
Accordingly, Putin’s address must be taken as a challenge to the U.S,
requiring it to make a strong response. “Oddly,” therefore, “Mr. Trump
has said almost nothing about the new era of competition with Mr. Putin
or Russia,” reported the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/01/world/europe/russia-putin-speech.html">New York Times</a>
on March 1. The presentation of Sarmat cruise missiles “sharply
escalated the military invective in the tense relationship between” the
two nuclear powers. <a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2018/3/1/17066598/putin-speech-missile-nuclear-election">Reporting</a>
on the same day, the liberal American news outlet Vox stated that if
Russia has the weapons it demonstrated, then it “purposefully raised the
stakes in the decades-long nuclear standoff.” The Washington Post, in
the meantime, went to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/putin-speech-adds-to-freeze-in-us-russia-relations/2018/03/01/ffab9174-1d8d-11e8-ae5a-16e60e4605f3_story.html?utm_term=.e2625a261e4a">amplify</a>
the rhetoric of American’s most aggressive foreign policy strategists:
“U.S. defense officials have consistently cited Russia as the most
significant strategic threat to the United States, and the primary
reason to build up its defense budget.”<br />
Indeed, the enhancement of Russia’s missile capabilities should be taken as a worrying development.<br />
If one looks at this development objectively, however, and, is
concerned about the “strategic” security of people, including those
living in the U.S, then they would inevitably spot the United States to
be the biggest threat to international security, with its “defense
budget” feeding the new power rivalry.<br />
<strong>The Balance of Power </strong><br />
Conspicuously, warmongering Western media outlets have failed to
report the most important point of Putin’s remarks about his
government’s defense policy.<br />
<blockquote>
“Our military doctrine,” he stated, “says Russia reserves
the right to use nuclear weapons solely in response to a nuclear
attack, or an attack with other weapons of mass destruction against the
country or its allies, or an act of aggression against us with the use
of conventional weapons that threaten the very existence of the state.”</blockquote>
The reason for the enhancement of the nuclear delivery systems was
stated, too. In fact, the statement replicated what the President has
already said on numerous occasions. The audience in America, for
example, had had an opportunity to learn about Russia’s geopolitical
agenda in 2017 from a series of documentary films called <em>The Putin Interviews.</em> They were produced by an American filmmaker, Oliver Stone.<br />
There, Putin criticized Washington for unilaterally withdrawing from
the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 2002, a framework established to
maintain a balance of power between Washington and Moscow during the
Cold War. To put it in Putin’s words, the treaty “was the cornerstone of
the system of the international security,” as it limited the number of
locations where the two powers could place their anti-ballistic missile
systems, installed for defending one side from an incoming nuclear
missile attack from the other. Ignoring the fact that both powers have
acquired enough nuclear arms to annihilate both each other and the rest
of mankind, the treaty provided a framework under which the balance of
power between the two sides was measurable. The threat of nuclear war
was consequently reduced.<br />
In an environment where the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty is no
longer in place, Putin stated that “to preserve the crucial element of
international security and stability, mainly the strategic balance of
power, we would be obliged to develop our offensive capabilities.” This
implies the development of the “missiles capable of surmounting any
anti-ballistic missile system.”<br />
The “crucial element of international security and stability” has
been jeopardized by NATO, or the expansion of the military alliance and
its forces into Eastern Europe. Incorporating countries of the former
socialist block, the alliance not only maintains a military presence in
states such as Romania, Poland and Latvia but uses the power vacuum
created from the absence of a missile treaty to install its
anti-ballistic missile systems near the Russian border. President Putin
has outlined the danger such a trend poses to Russia quite
instructively. Admittedly, the first threat is the placement of
“anti-ballistic missiles in the vicinity of our [Russian] border.” The
second threat arises from the fact that “the launching pods of these
anti-ballistic missiles can be transformed, within a few hours, into
offensive missile launching pods.”<br />
For bringing the Putin Interviews to the American audience, Oliver
Stone was condemned as an apologist for the Kremlin. On the matter, it
is worth quoting an <a href="http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/06/07/oliver-stones-putin-interviews-will-teach-you-little-about-putin-and-even-less-about-russia/">article</a>
from the Foreign Policy, a reputable news publication. While dismissing
the interviews for telling “little about Putin and even less about
Russia,” the piece was alarmed that the series amplifies “the Kremlin
line”, which, of course, consists of “conspiracy theories.”<br />
<strong>Iranian Threat in Europe </strong><br />
Perhaps, we should ignore Putin’s “conspiracy theories” and use
Western sources to test whether his concerns about Washington and NATO
are valid. On 12 May 2016 <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-nato-shield/u-s-activates-romanian-missile-defense-site-angering-russia-idUSKCN0Y30JX">Reuters</a>
published an article about America’s first operational ballistic
missile defense site in Romania. The U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary
Robert Work justified the site for the following reason:<br />
<blockquote>
“As long as Iran continues to develop and deploy
ballistic missiles, the United States will work with its allies to
defend NATO.”</blockquote>
To quote Reuters, the missile defense site in Romania is part of what
will be NATO’s “defensive umbrella” on the continent, stretching “from
Greenland to the Azores.” Since Iran is presented as the primary threat,
the Secretary-General of the alliance, <strong>Jens Stoltenberg,</strong> pointed that the missile defense system “does not undermine or weaken Russia’s strategic nuclear deterrent.”<br />
Not long before Putin’s March 1 address to the Assembly, the United States 2018 <a href="https://media.defense.gov/2018/Feb/02/2001872886/-1/-1/1/2018-NUCLEAR-POSTURE-REVIEW-FINAL-REPORT.PDF">Nuclear Posture Review</a>
outlined that Washington “does not wish to regard” Russia as an
“adversary.” The reality, however, considerably challenges this claim.
First, it is worth examining the country that has been described as a
threat to NATO. Indeed, the premise of Iran being a threat stems from an
alleged nuclear program that Tehran is undertaking. Yet when the United
States opened its ballistic missile defense site in Romania, the threat
of Iran was dismissed by the Ploughshares Fund, an influential nuclear
security think tank based in Washington.<br />
<blockquote>
“The system was designed to protect against an Iranian nuclear missile,” stated its <strong>President Joseph Cirincione</strong>.
“There is not going to be an Iranian nuclear missile for at least 20
years. There is no reason to continue with that [defensive umbrella]
program.”</blockquote>
It is also worth asking whether Iran’s nuclear program exists in the first place. In 2007, the U.S. <a href="https://www.dni.gov/files/documents/Newsroom/Press%20Releases/2007%20Press%20Releases/20071203_release.pdf">National Intelligence Estimate</a>
judged “with high confidence that in fall 2003, Tehran halted its
nuclear weapons program.” This, however, did not stop the United States
Defense Secretary from persuading Europeans to both take a tougher
stance against Tehran and pursue the development of missile defense
sites. Released by WikiLeaks, the U.S. diplomatic cable from 2010
reveals the meeting between the<strong> Defense Secretary Robert Gates</strong> and the Italian <strong>Foreign Minister Franco Frattini</strong>.
Summarizing the meeting, the cable discusses how Secretary Gates was
stressing that an “urgent action is required. Without progress in the
next few months, we risk nuclear proliferation in the Middle East, war
prompted by an Israeli strike or both. SecDef predicted “a different
world” in 4-5 years if Iran developed nuclear weapons.”<br />
Supported by Gates and announced by President Obama, the European
Phased Adaptive Approach was enabled in 2009, starting the work on a
defensive umbrella for Europe against the non-existent Iranian threat.
Unsurprisingly, the approach was propelled by business interests of the
missile defense producers. In 2017, the German Deutsche Welle <a href="http://www.dw.com/en/us-and-poland-strike-105-billion-missile-defense-deal/a-41433719">reported</a>
on a $10.5 billion missile defense deal between the United States and
Poland. After Romania, Poland will be the next Eastern European country
to open a missile defense site. “Made by US defense contractor Raytheon,
the missiles are reportedly designed to detect, track and engage
unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), cruise missiles and short-range or
tactical ballistic missiles.” Interestingly, the Iranian threat was not
mentioned as an influencing factor in the deal. “Poland is one of a
handful of eastern European nations that has increasingly built up their
military capacity in the face of potential Russian aggression.”<br />
<strong>The Unipolar Moment in Europe </strong><br />
As we broke down the myth about the Iranian threat, it is now worth
examining the threat of “potential Russian aggression.” Apart from
providing space for the current and future missile defense sites,
Eastern Europe has been hosting thousands of American and European
troops in the vicinity of the Russian border. At the end of his term in
the White House, President Obama enabled what was <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/01/trump-nato-europe-russia/512648/">reported</a>
as the “largest NATO buildup in Europe since the Cold War.” Adding to
the existing military contingent were “thousands of additional U.S. and
NATO troops,” stiffened by “87 new tanks, 144 Bradley fighting vehicles,
60 additional fighting and transport helicopters, and much other
advanced” military “equipment.” Poland’s <strong>Undersecretary of State for Defense Tomasz Szatkowski </strong>made
clear that the deployment responds to Russia’s “aggressive actions in
our vicinity,” precisely, its actions in “Ukraine and the illegal
annexation of Crimea.”<br />
Indeed, evaluating the Kremlin’s actions in Ukraine is impossible if
NATO is excluded from the picture. Incorporating into its membership
countries of the former Warsaw Pact, including the three Baltic states
of the former Soviet Union, NATO has gradually expanded deep into the
territories formerly assigned to Moscow’s sphere of influence. This
development, however, grotesquely <a href="https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/russia-programs/2017-12-12/nato-expansion-what-gorbachev-heard-western-leaders-early">undermines</a>
an agreement struck between the Cold War rivals before the Soviet Union
ceased to exist. Geopolitically, the final chapter of the Cold War is a
unique and extremely revealing period. In negotiations between
Washington and Moscow about the future of NATO in post-Warsaw Pact
Europe, the Foreign Minister of the Soviet Union, <strong>Eduard Shevardnadze,</strong> was assured with the “iron-clad guarantees” by the U.S. Secretary of State, <strong>James Baker</strong>,
“that NATO’s jurisdiction or forces would not move eastward.”
Complicating this assurance was the future of Eastern Germany. The
Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev perhaps understood that a fragmented
Germany creates a rift between the two sides in cooperation. He,
therefore, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1990/07/17/gorbachev-drops-objection-to-united-germany-in-nato/1b4500de-81ce-4d27-89f9-1863d53baf42/?utm_term=.0f8e074bb707">concluded</a> to the reporters in the summer of 1990:<br />
<blockquote>
“Whether we like it or not, the time will come when a united Germany will be in NATO, if that is its choice.”</blockquote>
Gorbachev, nonetheless, took the word of his Western counterparts
that the Western military presence will not move further eastward.<br />
The “iron-clad guarantees” was a mere lie. After visiting the NATO
headquarters in Belgium in July of the following year, the Russian
delegation concluded in the <a href="https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/dc.html?doc=4325708-Document-30-Memorandum-to-Boris-Yeltsin-from">memo</a> that<br />
<blockquote>
“NATO should make a clearer, more detailed and definitive
statement about the need for a gradual decrease in the military efforts
of that organization.”</blockquote>
Indeed, it alliance was “lagging behind the current realities” facing
Europe. The Russians gave a prophetic warning to Western partners,
stressing that vagueness “could be used by the conservative forces in
our country to preserve the military-industrial complex of the USSR.”<br />
<a href="https://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/nato-ukraine.jpg"><img alt="" class="size-medium wp-image-5615223 alignright" height="168" src="https://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/nato-ukraine-300x168.jpg" width="300" /></a><br />
The premise that NATO is no longer justified as a military apparatus
was unthinkable. As the Soviet Union ceased to exist, there was euphoria
in Washington. To understand the mood of those guarding the American
power in 1990, it is worth reading the work of a political commentator
and proud American imperialist, <strong>Charles Krauthammer</strong>,
who declared “The Unipolar Moment” in an essay for the Foreign Affairs
magazine. Indeed, the United States was now the only global empire.<br />
<blockquote>
“American preeminence,” Krauthammer points out, “is based
on the fact that it is the only country with the military, diplomatic,
political and economic assets to be a decisive player in any conflict in
whatever part of the world it chooses to involve itself.”</blockquote>
To maintain such a status quo, it is important not to regard
“America’s” military “exertions abroad as nothing but a drain on its
economy.” The defense spending is indeed vital for the empire. In this
context, the relationship within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization
can be summarized as following: there is “the United States and behind
it the West, because where the United States does not tread, the
alliance does not follow.”<br />
The post-Cold War decades have demonstrated that Krauthammer’s
extreme far-right judgment represents an overarching establishment view
on the strategy of American foreign policy.<br />
Employing its “military, diplomatic, political and economic”
supremacy, the United States has aggressively been pursuing its imperial
objectives in Eastern Europe, spearheading the expansion of NATO and
influencing political processes in countries such as Ukraine and
Georgia. The case of Ukraine is particularly revealing, as the events
there have been used to justify the militarization of Eastern Europe.
Indeed, the West never hid its support for the protests that took place
on Kiev’s Maidan Square between November 2013 and February 2014.<br />
<blockquote>
“Since Ukraine’s independence in 1991,” <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2fYcHLouXY&t=462s">emphasized</a> the <strong>Assistant Secretary Victoria Nuland</strong>,
“the United States has supported Ukrainians,” investing “over five
billion dollars” to make an impact on their political and economic
structure.</blockquote>
The investment was a success; Ukrainian freedom, as that is how it
was conventionally described, was achieved in an undemocratic coup
against the elected <strong>President Viktor Yanukovych.</strong> Coming on his place was the establishment of the current President, <strong>Petro Poroshenko</strong>, a neoliberal pseudo-fascist and a solid choice for Washington. In 2006, Poroshenko was described in the U.S. diplomatic <a href="https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/06KIEV1706_a.html">cable</a>
as “our Ukrainian insider.” Turned President, the “Ukrainian insider”
drifted the country towards Washington’s consensus, implementing the
grotesque package of IMF-drafted economic reforms and welcomed hundreds
of Western military advisers on Ukrainian soil. The military advisers
are there for a reason: they are training the army to wage war against
Russian-speaking secessionists in the Eastern Donbass region, in a
conflict that has left over 10,000 people dead and over one million
displaced. Admittedly, one would be called mad to claim that there would
be war in Ukraine before a Western-backed coup.<br />
Russian has been responding to the developments in Ukraine. There is
no doubt that it is providing material support to the rebels in Donbass.
President Putin, in fact, has inexplicitly <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jffB8NCOnYU">pointed</a>
to this while assuring reporters that “the self-proclaimed Republics
have enough weapons” to fight against the Ukrainian army. Moscow’s
response to the conflict in Donbass, however, strikingly differs from
its initial response to the coup, symbolized by its reactionary
annexation of the Crimean Peninsula. The reason for that was never a
guarded secret. While it is true that most people in Crimea supported
unification with Russia, the Kremlin’s rapid decision on the matter had
perhaps less to do with the fact that the Crimean population consists of
a Russian majority, and more to do with the presence of Russia’s
historic Black Sea naval base in Sevastopol. Speaking for Oliver Stone’s
documentary film <em>Ukraine on Fire</em>, President Putin summarized the importance of a military base in Crimea for the following reason:<br />
<blockquote>
“The base, per us, doesn’t mean anything, but there is a
nuance I would like to point out. Why do we react so vehemently to
NATO’s expansion? We are concerned with the decision-making process. I
know how decisions are made. As soon as the country becomes a member of
NATO, it can’t resist the pressure of the U.S. And very soon anything at
all can appear in such country – missile defense systems, new bases or,
if necessary, new missile strike systems. What should we do? We need to
take countermeasures.”</blockquote>
Of course, it is possible to make a case that Ukraine is not a member
of NATO. In fact, there seems to be no enthusiasm within the alliance
about the prospect of Ukraine’s membership. While for the <a href="https://www.kyivpost.com/ukraine-politics/poroshenko-ukraines-membership-eu-nato-not-viable-2018-will-happen-eventually.html">establishment</a> in Kiev, “membership” in NATO is a “strategic goal,” the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, <strong>John E. Herbst</strong>, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/this-what-would-happen-ukraine-joined-nato-2017-7">stated</a> that this goal will not be fulfilled anytime soon. The European NATO members “are anxious about provoking Moscow,” he says.<br />
This does not mean, however, that Ukraine cannot be used as a
satellite member of the alliance. Without a formal membership, the
“Ukrainian insider[s]” of Washington have permitted the West to maintain
a military contingent in the country, for example, allowing its <a href="http://defence-blog.com/news/nato-ships-arrived-in-ukrainian-port-of-odessa.html">naval ships</a>
to enter the Black Sea port in Odessa. If Crimea remained a part of
Ukraine, it is somewhat plausible that Kiev would have hosted these NATO
ships on the peninsula. Perhaps this answers why the annexation caused
such an outcry from the West.<br />
Amidst the developments discussed above, Russia’s defense policy can
indeed be viewed as a response to NATO’s provocative expansionism and
Washington’s zealous pursuit to maintain its “unipolar moment.” This
unilateralist position has empowered “the conservative forces” in
Russia, who are preserving and enhancing the country’s defense
capabilities.<br />
Tensions between the two sides are consequently rising; nuclear war is unthinkable no more.<br />
<strong>An Irresponsible Global Player</strong><br />
<a href="https://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/john-hyten.jpg"><img alt="" class="size-full wp-image-5619153 alignleft" height="275" src="https://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/john-hyten.jpg" width="220" /></a><br />
Raising the stakes following Putin’s address was, again, the United
States. The response to Russia was delivered by the Commander of the
United States Strategic Command (STRATCOM), <strong>John Hyten </strong>(image on the left). Speaking before the House Armed Services Committee, Hyten carried a <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/us-reminds-russia-we-are-ready-for-all-nuclear-threats/4285445.html">message</a>
that should frighten anyone concerned about the long-term survival of
mankind. “We are ready for all the threats that are out there and no
one, no one should doubt this,” stated the General. Continuing from that
note, Hyten reassured the committee about America’s preparedness to
obliterate Russia:<br />
<blockquote>
“By the way, our submarines, they [the Russians] do not
know where they are, and they have the ability to decimate their country
if we go down that path.”</blockquote>
In Russia, Hyten’s remarks were featured in a news segment with the following question: is “American pursuing global suicide?”<br />
Washington’s war rhetoric is not novel. While being the only country
to use nuclear weapons in war, the United States has repeatedly been
threatening to destroy the societies it perceives as its strategic
“adversaries.” In an <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-politics-iran/clinton-says-u-s-could-totally-obliterate-iran-idUSN2224332720080422">interview</a>
on ABC’s Good Morning America in 2008, then-presidential candidate
Hillary Clinton emphasized that the U.S. can “totally obliterate” Iran.
Clinton’s message was replicated in 2017 by President Trump, though the
threats were now directed against a different country. Speaking before
the General Assembly of the United Nations, Trump announced to the whole
world that Washington is prepared to “totally destroy North Korea.”<br />
Admittedly, there is a serious debate in Washington about <a href="https://www.csis.org/analysis/bloody-nose-policy-north-korea-would-backfire-ex-cia-analysts">employing</a>
what they call the “bloody nose policy” against Pyongyang. The total
destruction will be inflicted by a “preventive war”, promoted by Trump’s
former National Security Adviser, <strong>Herbert McMaster,</strong> and the incumbent neocon <strong>John Bolton</strong>. Agreeing with their stance is <strong>Henry Kissinger,</strong> the National Security Adviser under President Nixon. Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Kissinger <a href="https://thediplomat.com/2018/01/the-trouble-with-kissingers-north-korea-advice/">points</a>
out that “The temptation to deal with” North Korea “with a pre-emptive
attack is strong and the argument is rational.” This is madness. The
“rational” argument advocates for a nuclear war and genocide. The North
Korean side, moreover, has repeatedly requested for peace negotiations –
all rejected by Washington.<br />
Unsurprisingly, however, the “bloody nose policy” was not received
well by the American public, amidst the ongoing propaganda campaign
about the North Korean threat.<br />
To reverse the words of the U.S. State Department spokesperson, this
can’t be regarded “as the behavior of a responsible international
player.” While purposely escalating tensions, the United States is
driving the world towards war.<br />
<strong>Public Opinion vs. Power </strong><br />
The growing threat of war is measured fairly by the Doomsday Clock.
Developed and updated by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, since 1947,
the clock measures the proximity of a catastrophe that will endanger, if
not extinguish, the conditions for an organized existence of human
beings on Earth. When America and Soviet Union enabled the
Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, the <a href="https://thebulletin.org/timeline">doomsday clock</a>
was set at 12 minutes before the midnight, a point of the hypothetical
global disaster. The threat was at its lowest – 17 minutes before the
midnight – when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. Since then, however,
the instability in the world caused by Washington’s desire to retain a
unipolar supremacy has increased the risks dramatically. For the year
2018, the clock was set at 2 minutes before midnight. Today, humanity is
as close to a catastrophe as it was at the height of the Cold War in
1953.<br />
Operating within the structure of power, ignoring this danger, and
perpetuating the status quo that brought us to this point, indeed, is
equivalent of committing a crime against humanity. The contemporary
rivalry between two nuclear powers can’t be logically justified.<br />
If the leaders of both countries are genuinely concerned about
defending the interests of their citizens, then it should be their
priority to diffuse friction. Interestingly, while enhancing its defense
policy, Russia, still, seems to show greater eagerness for detente than
Washington and NATO. In his interview with the Russian leader, Oliver
Stone asked why Putin persistently refers to the West as “our partners.”
The answer was immediate: the “dialogue has to be pursued further.”<br />
It is, moreover, safe to judge that most people in the world do not regard nuclear weapons as a guarantor of peace. Within the <a href="http://www.nuclearfiles.org/menu/library/opinion-polls/nuclear-weapons/public-opinion-poll-on-nuclear-weapons.html">domestic</a> realm of the American empire, 77 percent of people favor elimination of all nuclear weapons. An important message was also <a href="http://www.icanw.org/campaign-news/draft-un-resolution-to-ban-nuclear-weapons-in-2017/">delivery</a>
by the United Nations General Assembly vote for the resolution L.41, a
“legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading towards
their total elimination.” In the 2016, as many as 123 countries,
including North Korea, voted in favor of the resolution. Only 39 voted
against. Unsurprisingly, the major nuclear powers were among them.
Interesting, nonetheless, is the behavior of small NATO states in
Eastern Europe: many of them, too, voted for the doctrine of those
leading the world towards destruction.<br />
Eliminating the risk, as well as changing the status quo of
unilateral extremism and imperialism, is not an impossible task. For
they attain enough political influence, the citizens of the empire have
always posed a threat to the imperial structure. As a proud
imperialist, Krauthammer understood this threat and summarized it in the
following way:<br />
<blockquote>
“Can America support its unipolar status? Yes. But will
Americans support such unipolar status? That is a more problematic
question. For a small but growing chorus of Americans this vision of a
unipolar world led by a dynamic America is a nightmare.”</blockquote>
He is right.<br />
*<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<em><strong>Maxim Nikolenko </strong>is founder and editor of <a href="http://alterbeacon.com/">Alternative Beacon.</a></em></div>
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<b>Disclaimer:</b> The contents of this article are of sole
responsibility of the author(s). The Centre for Research on
Globalization will not be responsible for any inaccurate or incorrect
statement in this article.
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Copyright © <a href="https://www.globalresearch.ca/author/maxim-nikolenko" title="Posts by Maxim Nikolenko">Maxim Nikolenko</a>, Global Research, 2018</div>
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---------------------------------------http://www.blogger.com/profile/04026996012133110417noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-685819527131893043.post-21405938822455802672018-04-02T18:09:00.002-07:002018-04-02T18:09:53.185-07:00 Mass Deception and the Prelude to World War <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Mass Deception and the Prelude to World War
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By <a href="https://www.globalresearch.ca/author/colin-todhunter" title="Posts by Colin Todhunter">Colin Todhunter</a><br />
Global Research, April 02, 2018<br />
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Url of this article:<br /><a href="https://www.globalresearch.ca/mass-deception-and-the-prelude-to-world-war/5634378">https://www.globalresearch.ca/mass-deception-and-the-prelude-to-world-war/5634378</a>
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<em>In Libya, NATO bombed a path to Tripoli to help its proxy forces
on the ground oust Gaddafi. Tens of thousands lost their lives and that
country’s social fabric and infrastructure now lies in ruins. Gaddafi
was murdered and his plans to assert African independence and undermine
Western (<a href="https://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2016/01/06/new-hillary-emails-reveal-true-motive-for-libya-intervention/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">not least French</a>) hegemony on that continent have been rendered obsolete.</em><br />
In Syria, the US, Turkey, France, Britain, Saudi Arabia and Qatar
have been helping to arm militants. The Daily Telegraph’s March 2013
article “US and Europe in ‘major airlift of arms to Syrian rebels
through Zagreb’” reported that 3,000 tons of weapons dating back to the
former Yugoslavia had been sent in 75 planeloads from Zagreb airport to
the rebels. The New York Times March 2013 article “Arms Airlift to Syria
Rebels Expands, With CIA Aid” stated that Arab governments and Turkey
had sharply increased their military aid to Syria’s opposition fighters.
This aid included more than 160 military cargo flights.<br />
Sold under the notion of a spontaneous democratic uprising against a
tyrannical political leader, Syria is little more than an illegal war
for <a href="https://theecologist.org/2015/nov/28/syria-illegal-war-energy-capital-and-empire" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">capital, empire and energy</a>. The West and its allies have been <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jun/03/us-isis-syria-iraq" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">instrumental in organising the war</a> as elaborated by Tim Anderson in his book ‘<a href="http://www.worldfinancialreview.com/?p=4900" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Dirty War on Syria</a>’.<br />
Over the last 15 years or so, politicians and the media have been
manipulating popular sentiment to get an increasingly war-fatigued
Western public to support ongoing wars under the notion of protecting
civilians or a bogus ‘war on terror’. They spin a yarn about securing
women’s rights or a war on terror in Afghanistan, removing despots from
power in Iraq, Libya or Syria or protecting human life, while then going
on to attack or help destabilise countries, resulting in the loss of
hundreds of thousands of civilian lives.<br />
Emotive language designed to instill fear about potential terror
attacks in Europe or myths about humanitarianism intervention are used
as a pretext to wage imperialist wars in mineral-rich countries and
geostrategically important regions.<br />
Part of the battle for the public’s hearts and minds is to keep
people confused. They must be convinced to regard these wars and
conflicts as a disconnected array of events and not as the planned
machinations of empire. The ongoing disinformation narrative about
Russian aggression is part of the strategy. Ultimately, Russia (and
China) is the real and increasingly imminent target: Moscow has stood in
the way of the West’s plans in Syria and both Russia and China are <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/countingthecost/2018/03/china-petro-yuan-dollar-hegemony-180331091248813.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">undermining the role of the dollar</a> in international trade, a lynchpin of US power.<br />
The countries of the West are effectively heading for war with Russia
but relatively few among the public seem to know or even care. Many are
oblivious to the slaughter that has already been inflicted on
populations with the help of their taxes and governments in far-away
lands. With the reckless neoconservative warmonger John Bolton now part
of the Trump administration, it seems we could be hurtling towards major
war much faster than previously thought.<br />
Most of the public remains blissfully ignorant of the psy-ops being
directed at them through the corporate media. Given recent events in the
UK and the ramping up of anti-Russia rhetoric, if ordinary members of
the public think that Theresa May or Boris Johnson ultimately have their
best interests at heart, they should think again. The major
transnational corporations based on Wall Street and in the City of
London are the ones setting Anglo-US policy agendas often via the
Brookings Institute, Council on Foreign Relations, International Crisis
Group, Chatham House, etc.<br />
The owners of these companies, the capitalist class, have off-shored
millions of jobs as well as their personal and company tax liabilities
to boost their profits and have bankrupted economies. We see the results
in terms of austerity, unemployment, powerlessness, privatization,
deregulation, banker control of economies, corporate control of food and
seeds, the stripping away of civil liberties, increased mass
surveillance and wars to grab mineral resources and ensure US dollar
hegemony. These are the interests the politicians serve.<br />
It’s the ability to maximise profit by shifting capital around the
world that matters to this class, whether on the back of distorted free
trade agreements, which open the gates for plunder, or through coercion
and militarism, which merely tear them down.<br />
Whether it is the structural violence of neoliberal economic policies
or actual military violence, the welfare of ordinary folk around the
world does not enter the equation. In an imposed oil-thirsty, war-driven
system of globalised capitalism and over-consumption that is wholly
unnecessary and is stripping the planet bare, the bottom line is that
ordinary folk – whether workers in the West, <a href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/01/26/global-capitalism-and-livelihoods-denied-whipping-indias-farmers-into-submission/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">farmers in India</a> or civilians displaced en masse in war zones like Syria – must be bent according to the will of Western capital.<br />
We should not be fooled by made-for-media outpourings of morality
about good and evil that are designed to create fear, outrage and
support for more militarism and resource-grab wars. The shaping of
public opinion is a multi-million-dollar industry.<br />
Take for instance the mass harvesting of Facebook data by Cambridge
Analytica to shape the outcomes of the US election and the Brexit
campaign. According to journalist<strong> <a href="http://bellacaledonia.org.uk/2018/03/20/scl-a-very-british-coup/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Liam O’Hare</a>,</strong>
its parent company Strategic Communications Laboratories (SCL) has
conducted ‘behavioural change’ programmes in over 60 countries and its
clients have included the British Military of Defence, the US State
Department and NATO. According to O’Hare, the use of the media to fool
the public is one of SCL’s key selling points.<br />
Among its activities in Europe have been campaigns targeting Russia.
The company has “sweeping links” with Anglo-American political and
military interests. In the UK, the interests of the governing
Conservative Party and military-intelligence players are brought
together via SCL: board members include “an array of Lords, Tory donors,
ex-British army officers and defense contractors.”<br />
O’Hare says it is clear is that all SCL’s activities have been inextricably linked to its Cambridge Analytica arm. He states:<br />
<blockquote>
“International deception and meddling is the name of the
game for SCL. We finally have the most concrete evidence yet of shadowy
actors using dirty tricks in order to rig elections. But these operators
aren’t operating from Moscow… they are British, Eton educated,
headquartered in the City of London and have close ties to Her Majesty’s
government”</blockquote>
So, what are we to make of the current anti-Russia propaganda we
witness regarding the nerve agent incident in Salisbury and the failure
of the British government to provide evidence to demonstrate Russian
culpability? The relentless accusations by Theresa May and Boris Johnson
that have been parroted across the corporate media in the West indicate
that the manipulation of public perception is everything and facts
count for little. It is alarming given what is at stake – the escalation
of conflict between the West and a major nuclear power.<br />
Welcome to the world of mass deception <em>à la</em> <a href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2014/09/12/pr-mind-control/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Edward Bernays and Josef Goebbels</a>.<br />
US social commentator Walter Lippmann once said that ‘responsible
men’ make decisions and have to be protected from the ‘bewildered herd’ –
the public. He added that the public should be subdued, obedient and
distracted from what is really happening. Screaming patriotic slogans
and fearing for their lives, they should be admiring with awe leaders
who save them from destruction.<br />
Although the West’s political leaders are manipulating, subduing and
distracting the public in true Lippmannesque style, they aren’t ‘saving’
anyone from anything: their reckless actions towards Russia could lead
towards a war that could wipe out all life on the planet.<br />
*<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<em><strong>Colin Todhunter</strong> is a frequent contributor to Global Research and Asia-Pacific Research.</em></div>
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statement in this article.
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Copyright © <a href="https://www.globalresearch.ca/author/colin-todhunter" title="Posts by Colin Todhunter">Colin Todhunter</a>, Global Research, 2018</div>
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---------------------------------------http://www.blogger.com/profile/04026996012133110417noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-685819527131893043.post-72598138189594486122018-04-02T18:09:00.000-07:002018-04-02T18:09:05.850-07:00Scenes From Monday's Stock Market Meltdown<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
https://www.thestreet.com/story/14542267/1/scenes-from-monday-stock-market-meltdown.html<br />
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Scenes From Monday's Stock Market Meltdown</h1>
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Monday was a terrible day for investors as the Dow lost 758
points at one point. Here are several quick takes from various sectors
TheStreet covers.</div>
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<time datetime="2018-04-02T18:21:14-0400">Apr<span> </span>2,<span> </span>2018<span> </span>6:21<span> </span>PM<span> </span>EDT</time>
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Dow Off Sessions Lows But Still Down 459 Points. Watch What Happened Now!</div>
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The bulls got stampeded on Monday.<br />
At <a href="https://www.thestreet.com/story/14540819/1/stocks-slump-as-china-hits-united-states-with-tariffs.html" target="_blank">one point on the session</a>,
the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 758 points. It closed down 459
points. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite each entered correction
territory, down 10% from an all-time high. A one-time hot tech stock
such as Netflix (<a href="https://www.thestreet.com/quote/NFLX.html">NFLX</a>) was smashed by 5.1%. Even high-yielding General Electric (<a href="https://www.thestreet.com/quote/GE.html">GE</a>) , by no means a fundamentally solid company at the moment, tanked 3%.<br />
Here are several observations on the session across TheStreet's newsroom.<br />
<h2>
Oil Tanks</h2>
<ul>
<li>Via <a href="https://twitter.com/AndersKeitz?lang=en" target="_blank">@AndersKeitz</a></li>
</ul>
So much for oil being a bright spot.<br />
Oil
stocks were slammed Monday as prices tumbled amid fears of a trade war
between the U.S. and China. U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate
futures contracts for May delivery fell 3.2% to $62.85 at 5 p.m. New
York time. Brent crude futures, the global benchmark, fell 2.7% to
$67.49.<br />
The Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (<a href="https://www.thestreet.com/quote/XLE.html">XLE</a>) , which holds oil giants including Exxon Mobil Corp. (<a href="https://www.thestreet.com/quote/XOM.html">XOM</a>) , Chevron Corp. (<a href="https://www.thestreet.com/quote/CVX.html">CVX</a>) and <a href="https://signup2.thestreet.com/signup?originId=AAP0003&c3OriginId=037527&productCode=SB-9&promotionCode=PRAA-0661&MID=/cap/marketing/bypass_mlp_dynamic_signup.jsp&firstVisitPuc=TSCD&currentPuc=TSCD&sessionid=CABBFCACC5F91D49C20F829E42488144&ordertype=trial&ZUORA_ENABLED=true&ZUORA_OID=AAP0003&ZUORA_ENABLED=true&ZUORA_OID=AAP0003&flowid=130a4757720&flowtype=hard_ft&url=https://www.thestreet.com/k/index.html" target="_blank">Action Alerts Plus holding</a> Schlumberger Ltd. (<a href="https://www.thestreet.com/quote/SLB.html">SLB</a>) , fell 2% to $66.06.<br />
WTI
futures had been rising above $65 a barrel headed into the week after
the long holiday as the decline in active rigs eased some concerns about
surging shale production. U.S. oil producers brought seven rigs offline
for the week ending March 29, cutting the U.S. oil rig count to 797,
according to oilfield services giant Baker Hughes. While it was the
first decrease in oil rigs in three weeks, there are an additional 135
active oil rigs than there were during the same period last year.<br />
Investors
searching for early signs of an impact from the budding U.S./China
trade war need not look any further than oil prices. If declines
persist, it may signal economic slowdowns in each country later this
year.<br />
<h2>
Selling Persists in Tech</h2>
<ul>
<li>Via <a href="https://twitter.com/NelWang?lang=en" target="_blank">@NelWang</a></li>
</ul>
Beset
by concerns about regulation and government action, Big Tech continued
to weigh the broader market down on Monday. This time, though, there was
an assist from chip stocks, as a report that <a href="https://signup2.thestreet.com/signup?originId=AAP0003&c3OriginId=037527&productCode=SB-9&promotionCode=PRAA-0661&MID=/cap/marketing/bypass_mlp_dynamic_signup.jsp&firstVisitPuc=TSCD&currentPuc=TSCD&sessionid=CABBFCACC5F91D49C20F829E42488144&ordertype=trial&ZUORA_ENABLED=true&ZUORA_OID=AAP0003&ZUORA_ENABLED=true&ZUORA_OID=AAP0003&flowid=130a4757720&flowtype=hard_ft&url=https://www.thestreet.com/k/index.html" target="_blank">Action Alerts Plus holding</a> Apple (<a href="https://www.thestreet.com/quote/AAPL.html">AAPL</a>) would be <a href="https://www.thestreet.com/story/14541663/1/intel-shares-plunge-as-apple-reportedly-tkktk.html" target="_blank">ditching chips</a> made by Intel (<a href="https://www.thestreet.com/quote/INTC.html">INTC</a>) in its Macintosh personal computers sent Intel's shares down as much as 9%, although they closed down 6%.<br />
The <a href="https://www.thestreet.com/story/14541988/1/semiconductor-selloff-adds-to-monday-s-market-woes.html" target="_blank">Philadelphia Semiconductor Index</a> (SOX) fell 3.7%.<br />
Overall, the Nasdaq fell 2.7% on Monday, turning the index negative for the year. Among notable losers were <a href="https://signup2.thestreet.com/signup?originId=AAP0003&c3OriginId=037527&productCode=SB-9&promotionCode=PRAA-0661&MID=/cap/marketing/bypass_mlp_dynamic_signup.jsp&firstVisitPuc=TSCD&currentPuc=TSCD&sessionid=CABBFCACC5F91D49C20F829E42488144&ordertype=trial&ZUORA_ENABLED=true&ZUORA_OID=AAP0003&ZUORA_ENABLED=true&ZUORA_OID=AAP0003&flowid=130a4757720&flowtype=hard_ft&url=https://www.thestreet.com/k/index.html" target="_blank">Action Alerts Plus holding</a> Amazon (<a href="https://www.thestreet.com/quote/AMZN.html">AMZN</a>) (down 5.2%), Tesla (<a href="https://www.thestreet.com/quote/TSLA.html">TSLA</a>) (down 5.1%), Netflix (down 5.1%) and <a href="https://signup2.thestreet.com/signup?originId=AAP0003&c3OriginId=037527&productCode=SB-9&promotionCode=PRAA-0661&MID=/cap/marketing/bypass_mlp_dynamic_signup.jsp&firstVisitPuc=TSCD&currentPuc=TSCD&sessionid=CABBFCACC5F91D49C20F829E42488144&ordertype=trial&ZUORA_ENABLED=true&ZUORA_OID=AAP0003&ZUORA_ENABLED=true&ZUORA_OID=AAP0003&flowid=130a4757720&flowtype=hard_ft&url=https://www.thestreet.com/k/index.html" target="_blank">Action Alerts Plus holding</a>
Nvidia (down 4.6%). The only big cap tech company that emerged
relatively unscathed was Apple, likely on optimism about its move to
design its own PC chips.<br />
<br />
<figure class="figure-left"> <img alt="Source: Bloomberg" class=" img-responsive" src="https://s.thestreet.com/files/tsc/v2008/photos/contrib/uploads/c88ed805-36c2-11e8-96fb-37725be62226.jpg" width="600" /> <figcaption> Source: Bloomberg </figcaption> </figure> <h2>
The Broader Markets</h2>
<ul>
<li>Via <a href="https://twitter.com/BrianSozzi?lang=en" target="_blank">@BrianSozzi</a></li>
</ul>
The <a href="https://www.thestreet.com/story/14542213/1/top-tips-from-thestreet-s-jim-cramer-after-monday-s-stock-market-meltdown.html" target="_blank">S&P 500</a>
closed below its 200-day moving average for the first time since late
June 2016. But it wasn't just that occurrence that should have investors
spooked, it's how ugly the tape was for most of the session. Stocks
coming off their lows into the close have all the feel of a sucker's
rally on Tuesday morning that lends way to another nosedive later in the
session. </div>
---------------------------------------http://www.blogger.com/profile/04026996012133110417noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-685819527131893043.post-39211353360815679522018-02-14T00:20:00.000-08:002018-02-14T00:20:27.781-08:00Who is Behind Fake News? The Brussels Terror Attacks: Fake Videos and Images. “The Man in the Hat” <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Who is Behind Fake News? The Brussels Terror Attacks: Fake Videos and Images. “The Man in the Hat”
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By <a href="https://www.globalresearch.ca/author/michel-chossudovsky" title="Posts by Prof Michel Chossudovsky">Prof Michel Chossudovsky</a><br />
Global Research, February 13, 2018<br />
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Url of this article:<br /><a href="https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-brussels-terror-attacks-fake-videos-and-images-the-man-in-the-hat/5519591">https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-brussels-terror-attacks-fake-videos-and-images-the-man-in-the-hat/5519591</a>
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The mainstream media is currently waging a campaign against the alternative and independent media including Global Research.<br />
Progressive online media is accused of propagating “fake news”. Are these allegations justified?<br />
Read this April 20, 2016 Global Research report on the MSM coverage of the March 2016 Brussels terror attacks. T<strong>he corporate media routinely use fake images and videos</strong>
with a view to misleading the public in its coverage of controversial
events including the “war on terrorism”. Who are protagonists of “fake
news”?<br />
<strong>Michel Chossudovsky,</strong> Global Research, 13 February 2018<br />
***<br />
<em>After a month of exhaustive police investigations, the Belgian
authorities have identified and arrested the alleged (surviving) terror
mastermind of the airport bombing, the “man in the hat” Mohamed Abrini.
The other four alleged terrorists involved in the kamikaze bombing
attacks at the airport and the metro station are reported dead. </em><br />
According to reports, Abrini was identified on a Brussels airport
still photo released by one or more airport video security surveillance
CCTV cameras.<br />
This photo –which identifies three of the terror suspects– has become a central piece of evidence in the police investigation.<br />
In this still photo, the mystery “man in the hat” allegedly <strong>Mohamed Abrini</strong> is seen accompanying the two alleged suicide bombers, who according to reports blew themselves up in Brussels airport.<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Screen-Shot-2016-04-19-at-21.26.30.png"><img alt="" class="aligncenter" height="413" src="http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Screen-Shot-2016-04-19-at-21.26.30-1024x688.png" title="Screen Shot 2016-04-19 at 21.26.30" width="614" /></a>\</div>
Moreover, Abrini happens to be, according to French police
investigators, the main surviving suspect of the Paris November attacks.<br />
The official story is that the attacks in both Paris and Brussels
were ordered by the ISIS, which just so happens to be supported by
Turkey and Saudi Arabia in close liaison with Washington and NATO
headquarters in Brussels. (The issue of US-NATO-Israel support of the
Islamic State is amply documented).<br />
According to media reports:<br />
<blockquote>
The revelation that a Paris attacks suspect escorted two
of the Brussels bombers to their deaths at the city’s airport is the
strongest sign yet that the Islamic State attackers who brought mayhem
to both European cities — killing a total of 162 people — were
intimately linked. (See <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/09/paris-attacks-suspect-mohamed-abrini-charged-with-terrorist-murders">Guardian</a> April 9, 2016)</blockquote>
<div>
Abrini is said to have confessed “his presence at the crime scene,” according to the official communique<br />
<strong>The Authenticity of the Still Photo of the Three alleged Terrorists at Brussels Airport </strong><br />
Our analysis below will largely focus on the authenticity of the
still photo allegedly from the Brussels airport CCTV surveillance
cameras. CCTV systems are able to to take high resolution images on a
time lapse basis. The still picture could also have taken by
closed-circuit digital photography (CCDP), which is used to generate
still digital images.<br />
<strong>TIMELINE [March 22, 2016]</strong><br />
To address this issue, it is important to recall the timeline:<br />
<strong>7:55 am local time</strong>: “Surveillance footage shows
three suspected attackers exiting a taxi and pushing luggage trolleys
through Brussels Airport. Surveillance captured still images of the
three suspects.” (See image ab0ve)<br />
<strong>ONLY Three minutes later,</strong> it sounds absurd: Explosion According to reports the kamikaze bombers blow themselves up.<br />
<strong>7.55-7.57am: Very much in a hurry, </strong>Abrini is said to have<strong> left the airport between 7.55am and 7.57am.</strong> before the blast occurred a<strong>t 7.58am</strong><br />
<strong>7:58 am.</strong> Gunfire is reported in the departures terminal followed by <strong>an explosion. There were two blasts: a second blast erupts 10 seconds later.</strong><br />
<strong>8.20 am:</strong> The airport is closed. all roads and railway to the airport are closed.<br />
<strong>9.07 am</strong>, DH.be (Dernière Heure), one of Belgium’s
largest print and online media released an exclusive video footage of
the bomb attack recorded by the CCTV surveillance cameras of the
airport. This video was aired on all major TV networks, the images went
round the World.<br />
<strong>The SOURCE OF THIS VIDEO released by Dh.be at 9.07am did
not emanate from the CCTV cameras of Brussels airport [22/03/216, DH.be
logo pasted on the Moscow 2011 footage],<strong> it was a rerun of a 2011 bomb attack at Moscow international airport. (see image below)</strong></strong><br />
Below is the screenshot of DH’s video release.<br />
<a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Screen-Shot-2016-03-22-at-14.45.47.png" rel="lightbox[5515894]" title="Screen Shot 2016-03-22 at 14.45.47"><img alt="" class="aligncenter" height="465" src="http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Screen-Shot-2016-03-22-at-14.45.47-1024x665.png" title="Screen Shot 2016-03-22 at 14.45.47" width="717" /></a><br />
Now compare this to<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong>Moscow airport attacks (January 2011)</strong> <strong>Video 1 scan (Moscow airport, January 2011)</strong></div>
<a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Screen-Shot-2016-03-22-at-14.57.44.png" rel="lightbox[5515894]" title="Screen Shot 2016-03-22 at 14.57.44"><img alt="" class="aligncenter" height="502" src="http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Screen-Shot-2016-03-22-at-14.57.44-1024x797.png" title="Screen Shot 2016-03-22 at 14.57.44" width="645" /></a><br />
<strong>9:10 am:</strong> A blast is reported on a train at the Maalbeek metro subway station, near the headquarters of the European Commission.<br />
<strong>AGAIN: The video broadcast of the Maalbeek metro explosion
was not from the CCTV cameras as reported by the police and the media.
It was from the Minsk, Belarus metro bomb blast in April 2011.</strong><br />
(see photo scans at the foot of this article)<br />
What we can conclude is that:<br />
1) Dernière Heure broadcast a video of the Moscow airport bomb attack
instead of the Brussels blast (recorded by CCTV camera) airport attack.
Was it sloppy journalism or something else? This is a matter for the
police to investigate. (The broadcast of the video footage of the Minsk
metro attack was equally misleading).<br />
2) The official CCTV airport security video <strong>was not available to Dernière Heure at 9.07am and the public was misled by the release of the Moscow video. </strong><br />
One would therefore assume that if the CCTV video footage of the
blast had been available to Dernière Heure, they would have broadcast it
instead of the Moscow footage<strong>. </strong><br />
3) Assuming that the airport CCTV video footage was not available to Dernière Heure at 9.07am, <strong>how
come they were able to get their hands on still images from the CCTV
video surveillance system showing the three alleged terrorists. </strong><br />
<strong>10.25am, l</strong>ess than an hour and a half following the
release of the “fake” Moscow CCTV surveillance video of the bomb attack
(i.e. Moscow) by Dernière Heure, a still image is released by Dernière
Heure of the three alleged suspects walking with trolleys in the airport
at 7.55am, three minutes before the first blast in the departure
terminal.<br />
The image allegedly from an airport CCTV surveillance camera in the departure terminal was released by DH.be at <strong>10.25am</strong>, it was tagged EXCLUSIVE, No other media had early access to this alleged airport CCTV video and the still images. <strong>The latter were presented with some confusion as photographic evidence pertaining to the identity of the terror suspects. </strong><br />
Most media reports acknowledged that the mysterious photo of the
alleged suicide bombers was released by the Brussels police rather than
DH.be.<br />
The twitter entries below confirm the exact time at which the airport photos were released:<br />
<strong>First Release by DH.be at 10.27am (entitled “Photo Exclusive” by DH.be)</strong><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Screen-Shot-2016-03-24-at-19.10.53.png" rel="lightbox[5516269]" title="Screen Shot 2016-03-24 at 19.10.53"><img alt="" class="aligncenter" height="411" src="http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Screen-Shot-2016-03-24-at-19.10.53-1024x856.png" title="Screen Shot 2016-03-24 at 19.10.53" width="491" /></a></div>
<strong>12.58pm,</strong> is the time at which the still image is
“officially” released by the police in liaison with the office of the
prosecutor. (procureur)<br />
<strong>Release by Politie Brussel/Police de Bruxelles: 12.58pm </strong><br />
<a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Screen-Shot-2016-03-24-at-19.22.46.png" rel="lightbox[5516269]" title="Screen Shot 2016-03-24 at 19.22.46"><img alt="" class="aligncenter" height="645" src="http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Screen-Shot-2016-03-24-at-19.22.46-753x1024.png" title="Screen Shot 2016-03-24 at 19.22.46" width="474" /></a><br />
In an unusual twist, it would appear that Dernière Heure had access
to the alleged CCTV still images from the surveillance cameras BEFORE
the police.<br />
The media reported that the photo was from federal police sources and
was provided on the instructions of the federal prosecutor [procureur]:<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Screen-Shot-2016-04-21-at-09.30.13.png"><img alt="" class=" wp-image-5521146 aligncenter" height="73" src="http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Screen-Shot-2016-04-21-at-09.30.13-1024x104.png" title="Screen Shot 2016-04-21 at 09.30.13" width="717" /></a></div>
DH.be <strong>released the still image of the three alleged terrorists at 10.25am,</strong> t<strong>wo and a half hours before its official release by Brussels police at 12.58pm,</strong> <strong>which suggests that the exclusive image published by Dernière Heure DID NOT emanate from the police authorities.</strong><br />
There is always the possibility that a police and/or airport
surveillance personnel made these still images available to Dernière
Heure prior to their official release by Brussels police at 12.58pm. It
is also possible that the still images were taken by a CCTV camera which
was live streaming and that this video livestream was accessible to
the public.<br />
The third possibility is that the Brussels police took cognizance of
the photograph which Dernière Heure described as a still image from the
CCTV airport surveillance system and decided to release it without
verifying its original source.<br />
On April 7, new video footage showing the man in the hat leaving the airport, <strong>circa 7.56am-7.57am was made public. The still image of him leaving the airport is stamped 7.54am </strong><br />
<a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/180373cf843218739d160d.jpg"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-5521398" height="400" src="http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/180373cf843218739d160d.jpg" title="180373cf843218739d160d" width="600" /></a><br />
<br />
<strong>Now let us recap: </strong><br />
DH.be released both the Moscow 2011 video of the bomb attack at
9.07am (instead of the Brussels airport CCTV footage) as well as the
still image allegedly from the same CCTV airport source (in the
departure terminal) of the three terrorists <strong>at 10.25am. </strong><br />
Did DH.be have access to the security CCTV cameras?<br />
<strong>At 9.07am, they did not have access to the CCTV video footage.</strong>
They presented Moscow footage (in lieu of Brussels footage) at 9.07am
under the byline: “video de surveillance a l’aeroport”. They then
claimed that<strong> the still image released at 10.25am</strong> was from the same source, namely the CCTV camera system at Brussels airport, departure terminal.<br />
Let us play the devil’s advocate: If DH.be had been in possession of the real surveillance video footage<strong> at 9.07am</strong>,
why on earth would they have released the Moscow airport footage and
then one and a half hours later come up with an allegedly authentic
image from the CCTV airport cameras.<br />
There is another important caveat. While police and surveillance
authorities would be able to view and analyse almost immediately the
camera footage of the bomb explosion, the same does not apply to the
process of identifying <strong>three passengers with trolleys </strong>mingling amongst several hundred airline passengers also with trolleys in the departure terminal.<br />
In other words, to identify three individuals from a large number of
airport CCTV cameras with hundreds of passengers travelling early
morning would not have been an easy fast-track undertaking: the still
images pertaining to hundreds of passengers would have had to be
examined, compared to police photographic records, etc: An almost
impossible task to achieve in a matter of two hours after the blast,
assuming that Dernière Heure had access to the CCTV surveillance video
data. Normally, journalists would not have had access to the CCTV
camera footage prior to the police authorities.<br />
Moreover, the airport was immediately evacuated and closed down at<strong> 8.20am,</strong>
twenty-two minutes after the blast. A state of chaos prevailed. And we
are led to believe that the journalists of Dernière Heure managed in
collaboration with CCTV camera surveillance personnel and/or police to
get hold of the still image of three alleged terrorists, which they
released at<strong> 10.25am,</strong> prior to the conduct of a police investigation and less than two and half hours following the<strong> 7.58am bomb blast. </strong><br />
<hr />
<strong>Video 2 scan (Minsk Metro, April 2011)</strong><br />
Here is a screenshot of the Minsk 2011 video footage broadcast on
Belgian network TV and on the internet depicting the explosion in the
Metro in Brussels, March 22, 2016<br />
<a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Screen-Shot-2016-03-23-at-17.17.57.png" rel="lightbox[5516074]" title="Screen Shot 2016-03-23 at 17.17.57"><img alt="" class="aligncenter" height="361" src="http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Screen-Shot-2016-03-23-at-17.17.57-1024x573.png" title="Screen Shot 2016-03-23 at 17.17.57" width="645" /></a><br />
<div>
Now Compare the above to the screenshot of the Minsk April 2011 attacks.<br />
<a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Screen-Shot-2016-03-23-at-17.08.42.png" rel="lightbox[5516074]" title="Screen Shot 2016-03-23 at 17.08.42"><img alt="" class="aligncenter" height="594" src="http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Screen-Shot-2016-03-23-at-17.08.42-1024x849.png" title="Screen Shot 2016-03-23 at 17.08.42" width="717" /></a><br />
<h2>
<strong>These are the questions for police investigators. </strong></h2>
</div>
1. Why did Dernière Heure deliberately broadcast at <strong>9.07am</strong> the video footage of the January 2011 Moscow airport terror attack?<br />
Why did the media broadcast the video footage of a Minsk, Belarus
metro terror attack in 2011 in lieu of the surveillance video of the
metro?<br />
<strong>In other words both the metro and airport videos were “fake”. </strong><br />
2. Did Dernière Heure interface with Belgian police and intelligence
prior to releasing the Moscow airport video which was broadcast
Worldwide?<br />
3. Who authorized the release of this fake video?<br />
4. What are the legal implications of this negligence on the part of Dernière Heure?<br />
5. Where did Dernière Heure get the still image from which they released as an EXCLUSIVE at <strong>10.25am</strong> prior to the conduct of a police investigation?<br />
6. Was there evidence of them having access to the CCTV cameras? Did
the CCTV airport surveillance personnel provide Dernière Heure with
access to CCTV footage? Assuming they did, how on earth did the Derniere
Heure journalists manage to single out a still image of three
passengers, establish and corroborate their identity in the absence of a
police investigation and without immediate access to police records.<br />
7. Did the police corroborate the identity of these three individuals <strong>prior to 10.25am</strong> and communicate the results of their investigation to Dernière Heure?<br />
Highly unlikely: lest we forget, the police released the still image <strong>at 12.58am</strong>,
two and a half hours later. By that time, the EXCLUSIVE picture by
Dernière Heure had been picked up by the news chain, it had circled the
globe prior to its official release by the Brussels police.<br />
<strong>Concluding Remarks</strong><br />
People in Belgium who are living the dramatic aftermath of this
national catastrophe and loss of life: Draw your own conclusions. Is
your government telling the truth?<br />
The Belgian police, by addressing these seven questions, should be in
a position to establish the authenticity and the source of the still
pictures of the three men at the airport. Will they undertake this task?<br />
<div>
For full report containing the videos of the Minsk and Moscow bomb attacks, see:<br />
<strong><a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-brussels-attacks-what-is-true-what-is-fake-three-daesh-suspects-at-brussels-airport/5516269">The Brussels Attacks: What is True, What is Fake? Three Daesh Suspects at Brussels Airport</a></strong>By <a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/author/michel-chossudovsky" title="Posts by Prof Michel Chossudovsky">Prof Michel Chossudovsky</a>, March 25, 2016<br />
<strong><a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/fake-video-used-in-news-coverage-of-brussels-terror-attacks/5515894">Fake Video Used in News Coverage of Brussels Terror Attacks</a> </strong>By <a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/author/michel-chossudovsky" title="Posts by Prof Michel Chossudovsky">Prof Michel Chossudovsky</a>, March 22, 2016<br />
<div>
<strong><a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/more-fake-video-reports-of-the-brussels-terror-attacks/5516074">Media Manipulation: More Fake Video Reports of the Brussels Terror Attacks</a> </strong>By <a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/author/michel-chossudovsky" title="Posts by Prof Michel Chossudovsky">Prof Michel Chossudovsky</a>, March 23, 2016</div>
</div>
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<b>Disclaimer:</b> The contents of this article are of sole
responsibility of the author(s). The Centre for Research on
Globalization will not be responsible for any inaccurate or incorrect
statement in this article.
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Copyright © <a href="https://www.globalresearch.ca/author/michel-chossudovsky" title="Posts by Prof Michel Chossudovsky">Prof Michel Chossudovsky</a>, Global Research, 2018</div>
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---------------------------------------http://www.blogger.com/profile/04026996012133110417noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-685819527131893043.post-3791422171872960492018-02-14T00:08:00.002-08:002018-02-14T00:08:38.596-08:00 When Is There Going to be Accountability for US Wars and Aggression? <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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When Is There Going to be Accountability for US Wars and Aggression?
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By <a href="https://www.globalresearch.ca/author/rick-sterling" title="Posts by Rick Sterling">Rick Sterling</a><br />
Global Research, February 03, 2018<br />
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Url of this article:<br /><a href="https://www.globalresearch.ca/when-is-there-going-to-be-accountability-for-us-wars-and-aggression/5628151">https://www.globalresearch.ca/when-is-there-going-to-be-accountability-for-us-wars-and-aggression/5628151</a>
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<img alt="" class="attachment-single-post-thumbnail size-single-post-thumbnail wp-post-image" height="240" src="https://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/sarin-syrie.jpg" width="320" />
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<em>It’s WMD all over again.</em><br />
<em>Anonymous “US officials” are once again accusing a targeted
“regime” of using “chemical weapons” and threatening that the U.S.
military may have to “hold it accountable”. Once again, western media is
broadcasting these accusations and threats without skepticism or
investigation.</em><br />
The <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-administration-syria-probably-continuing-to-make-use-chemical-weapons/2018/02/01/23064386-0785-11e8-b48c-b07fea957bd5_story.html?utm_term=.ceb4eadfb504">Washington Post</a> story is titled “Trump administration: Syria probably continuing to make, use chemical weapons”. Jane’s Defence Weekly<a href="http://www.janes.com/article/77559/us-warns-of-assad-s-evolving-cw-munitions"> quotes</a> a U.S. official saying “They clearly think they can get away with this ….”<br />
<a href="http://www.jerusalemonline.com/news/middle-east/the-arab-world/us-official-assad-still-using-chemical-weapons-34052">Jerusalem Online</a> says<br />
<blockquote>
“A US official says Syrian President Assad’s forces may
be developing new types of chemical weapons, which which could reach as
far as the US..”</blockquote>
The <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-usa/u-s-says-syria-may-be-developing-new-types-of-chemical-weapons-idUSKBN1FL665">Reuters story</a> in the New York Times says<br />
<blockquote>
“US officials have said the Syrian government may be
developing new types of chemical weapons, and President Donald Trump is
prepared to consider further military action…. President Bashar al Assad
is believed to have secretly kept part of Syria’s chemical weapons
stockpile….”</blockquote>
The <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-administration-syria-probably-continuing-to-make-use-chemical-weapons/2018/02/01/23064386-0785-11e8-b48c-b07fea957bd5_story.html?utm_term=.ceb4eadfb504">Washington Post article</a> concludes with the threat,<br />
<blockquote>
“If the international community does not take action now
. . . we will see more chemical weapons use, not just by Syria but by
non-state actors such as ISIS and beyond,” the first official said. “And
that use will spread to U.S. shores.”</blockquote>
Based on a review of facts from recent history, it is very likely the
story is false and is being broadcast to deceive the public in
preparation for new military aggression. Anyone who thinks that
politicians don’t consider timing and marketing needs to only recall the
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/07/us/traces-of-terror-the-strategy-bush-aides-set-strategy-to-sell-policy-on-iraq.html">statement </a>of a GW Bush official that<br />
<blockquote>
“from a marketing point of view, you don’t introduce new products in August.”</blockquote>
The “product” was the PR campaign to get the American public to accept the invasion of Iraq.<br />
When is there going to be some accountability for the US military
industrial complex and their political and media enablers and promoters?<br />
The invasion of Vietnam with over 500 thousand US soldiers was preceded by the phoney <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_of_Tonkin_Resolution">Gulf of Tonknin incident</a>
where a US ship was supposedly attacked by a North Vietnamese vessel.
It was untrue and President Johnson knew it. The resolution was passed
unanimously (416-0) in the House and only Wayne Morse and Ernest
Gruening had the integrity and insight to oppose it in the Senate. Was
anyone ever held accountable for the lie that led to 55 thousand dead US
soldiers and millions of dead Vietnamese? No.<br />
The 1991 attack on Iraq and subsequent massacre of Iraqi soldiers and civilians was preceded by the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1992/01/15/opinion/deception-on-capitol-hill.html">fabricated testimony</a>
of the Kuwaiti Ambassador’s daughter pretending to be a nurse who had
witnessed Iraqi soldiers stealing incubators and leaving Kuwaiti babies
on the floor. Were the marketing officials Hill & Knowlton and
politicians such as Tom Lantos who managed this deceit ever held
accountable? No.<br />
In 2003 the US launched the invasion of Iraq leading to the death of
over a million Iraqis based on the false and fabricated evidence
provided by the CIA and uncritically promoted by the mainstream media.
For example, <strong><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_R._Gordon">Michael Gordon</a> </strong>and <strong><a href="https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Security-Watch/Backchannels/2013/0318/Thomas-Friedman-Iraq-war-booster">Thomas Friedman</a> </strong>promoted and lauded the invasion at the NY Times. Were they held to account? No, they carry right on to today.<br />
In 2011 the US led NATO attacks on Libya with the stated purpose to
“protect civilians” from massacre. This was explained and encouraged by
journalists and pundits such as <strong><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/01/opinion/kristof-from-libyans-thank-you-america.html">Nicholas Kristof</a> </strong>and <strong><a href="https://www.juancole.com/2011/08/top-ten-myths-about-the-libya-war.html">Juan Cole</a></strong>.
NATO officials bragged about their operation. After the brief western
euphoria, it became clear that the campaign was based on lies and the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Slouching-Towards-Sirte-NATOs-Africa/dp/1926824520">real result</a>
was an explosion of extremism, massacres and and chaos which continues
to today. Accountability? None. One rarely hears about Libya today. Out
of sight, out of mind.<br />
In August of 2013 we heard about a massive sarin gas attack on the
outskirts of Damascus. Human Rights Watch and others promoting a western
attack quickly accused the Syrian government. They asserted that Assad
had crossed Obama’s “red line” and the US needed to intervene directly.
Subsequent <a href="http://whoghouta.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-conclusion.html">investigations</a>
revealed the gas attack was not carried out by the Syrian government.
It was perpetrated by a Turkish supported terrorist faction with the
goal of pressuring the Obama administration to directly attack Syria.
Two Turkish parliamentarians presented evidence of Turkey’s involvement
in the transfer of sarin. Some of the best and most time-proven US
investigative journalists, including <strong><a href="https://consortiumnews.com/2014/04/07/the-collapsing-syria-sarin-case/">Robert Parry</a> </strong>and <strong><a href="https://www.lrb.co.uk/v36/n08/seymour-m-hersh/the-red-line-and-the-rat-line">Seymour Hersh</a></strong>,
researched and discovered the evidence points to Turkish supported
“rebels” not Syria. Despite the factual evidence exposing the “junk
heap” of false claims, mainstream media and their followers continue to
assert that Assad committed the crime.<br />
In April 2017 it was the same thing: US and allies made accusations which were never proven and ultimately <a href="https://consortiumnews.com/2017/11/04/the-trumped-up-syria-sarin-case/">discredited</a>.
The UN / OPCW investigation team never visited the scene of the crime.
They discovered the curious fact that dozens of victims in multiple
locations showed up at hospitals with symptoms of chemical injuries <u>before</u> the attack happened. This is strong evidence of <a href="https://consortiumnews.com/2017/11/09/did-al-qaeda-dupe-trump-on-syrian-attack/">fraud</a>
but that investigation was not pursued. With or without awareness of
the deceit, Trump ordered missile strikes on a Syrian air base which
killed 13 people including four children. Accountability? None.<br />
Recently it has become clear that dark forces in the US government ad
military do not intend to stop their efforts to destroy Syria. Despite <a href="https://www.trtworld.com/middle-east/tillerson-says-us-has-no-intention-of-building-syrian-border-force-14361">confusion </a> and
contradictory claims in the US administration, a core fact is that the
US is training and supplying a sectarian military militia inside
northern Syria against the wishes of the Syrian government. The US said
they were in Syria to get rid of ISIS but now that ISIS is largely gone,
the US military says it is not leaving. On the contrary, the US
military <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/raqqas_dirty_secret">helped escort</a> ISIS fighters from Raqqa to al Bukamal and the US is now <a href="https://www.rt.com/news/417034-syria-militants-destroyed-tanf/">training</a> ISIS fighters to be reincarnated as yet another anti-Assad “rebel” force.<br />
As always, US aggression needs some measure of political support. To
gain that, they need a justification. Thus it’s WMD all over again. Once
again. the “bad guys” are using chemical weapons on their own people.
Supposedly the Syrian government is incredibly stupid …. they just keep
on using chemical weapons and giving the US a justification to act as
judge, jury and executioner.<br />
Most of the American public is too busy, distracted or overwhelmed
with problems to investigate U.S. government claims. Mainstream media,
including some alternative media, are failing badly. They are supposed
to be holding government to account, critically questioning the
assertions, investigating the facts, exposing contradictions and
falsehoods. Along with the politicians and government, they have some
responsibility for the ongoing wars and aggression. They all should be
accountable. When is that going to happen?<br />
*<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<em><strong>Rick Sterling</strong> is an investigative journalist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. He can be reached at <a href="mailto:rsterling1@gmail.com">rsterling1@gmail.com</a></em></div>
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Copyright © <a href="https://www.globalresearch.ca/author/rick-sterling" title="Posts by Rick Sterling">Rick Sterling</a>, Global Research, 2018</div>
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---------------------------------------http://www.blogger.com/profile/04026996012133110417noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-685819527131893043.post-1027261233477897392017-12-01T20:58:00.004-08:002017-12-01T20:58:51.147-08:00ICC Prosecutor Requests Investigation Into U.S. Military, CIA for Alleged War Crimes in Afghanistan<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><b>
ICC Prosecutor Requests Investigation Into
U.S. Military, CIA for Alleged War Crimes in
Afghanistan</b></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;"><br />
<br />
Fatou Bensouda asked judges to authorize an
investigation of reported human rights
abuses in Afghanistan, including allegations
of rape and torture by the U.S. military and
CIA.<i><br />
</i><br />
<b>By Mike Corder</b><br />
The Associated Press</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">
November 21, 2017 "</span><a href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/"><span style="color: black; font-size: large;">Information
Clearing House</span></a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">"
- NETHERLANDS -The prosecutor of the
International Criminal Court asked judges
Monday to authorize an investigation of
reported human rights abuses in Afghanistan,
including allegations of rape and torture by
the U.S. military and CIA, crimes against
humanity by the Taliban and war crimes by
Afghan security forces.<br />
<br />
The announcement marked the first time ICC
Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda has gone after
Americans for alleged war crimes and sets up
a possible showdown with Washington. The
United States is not a member state of the
court, but its nationals can be charged with
crimes committed in countries that are
members.<br />
<br />
The U.S. State Department said in a
statement that it was reviewing Bensouda’s
authorization request, but opposes the
International Criminal Court’s involvement
in Afghanistan.<br />
<br />
“Our view is clear: an ICC investigation
with respect to U.S personnel would be
wholly unwarranted and unjustified,” the
State Department said.<br />
<br />
“More broadly, our overall assessment is
that commencement of an ICC investigation
will not serve the interests of either peace
or justice in Afghanistan.”<br />
<br />
As well as alleged crimes by American troops
in Afghanistan, Bensouda wants to
investigate the activities of CIA operatives
in secret detention facilities in
Afghanistan and other countries that are
court members.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 18pt;">
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">
Bensouda said in a summary of her request
that “information available provides a
reasonable basis to believe” that U.S.
military personnel and CIA operatives
“committed acts of torture, cruel treatment,
outrages upon personal dignity, rape and
sexual violence against conflict-related
detainees in Afghanistan and other
locations, principally in the 2003-2004
period.”<br />
<br />
She added that the Taliban and its allies
are suspected of crimes against humanity and
war crimes “as part of a widespread and
systematic campaign of intimidation,
targeted killings and abductions of
civilians” perceived as supporting the
government or opposing the Taliban rebels.<br />
<br />
Afghan security forces are, in turn,
suspected of involvement in “systematic
patterns of torture and cruel treatment of
conflict-related detainees in Afghan
detention facilities, including acts of
sexual violence,” Bensouda said.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">
<em>This article was originally published by</em></span><span style="font-size: large;"><em>
</em></span>
<a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2017/11/20/icc-prosecutor-requests-investigation-into-us-military-cia-for-alleged-war-crimes-in-afghanistan.html">
<span style="font-size: large;"><em>The Star</em></span></a><span style="font-size: large;"><em>
- </em></span><br />
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---------------------------------------http://www.blogger.com/profile/04026996012133110417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-685819527131893043.post-42141995617320352362017-12-01T20:58:00.001-08:002017-12-01T20:58:36.895-08:00Trump’s Middle East Peace Plan: Dead On Arrival?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><b>
Trump’s Middle East Peace Plan: Dead On
Arrival?</b></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;"><br />
<br />
Trump's peace plan will be highly favourable
to Israel and dismissive of the Palestinians</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;"><b>
By Richard Silverstein</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">
November 21, 2017 "</span><a href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/"><span style="color: black; font-size: large;">Information
Clearing House</span></a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">"
- </span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">From
almost the first day of his presidency, US
President Donald Trump </span>
<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/feb/15/israel-palestine-donald-trump-two-state-solution-netanyahu" target="_blank">
bragged</a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
that he would solve the Israel-Palestine
conflict. Among his claims was that he could
do what no US president had done. He </span>
<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/24/israel-palestine-trump-arab-peace-initiative" target="_blank">
called </a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">it
"the ultimate deal".</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">By
now, most of the world knows Trump is an
empty braggart and that his boasts have
almost no connection to reality.</span><br />
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">A vague plan</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">But over the
past week or so the New York Times and
Israeli media have </span>
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/11/world/middleeast/trump-peace-israel-palestinians.html" target="_blank">
reported</a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
that a Trump peace plan is indeed taking
shape. Sources have been vague about the
exact contents of the plan though one common
feature to every report is that the US will
recognise a Palestinian state as part of the
overall deal.</span></span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">
Beyond the recognition of a state, the
deal would offer Palestinians almost
nothing further</span><br />
</blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Last week, the
Israeli news show Hadashot </span>
<a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-israel-dismiss-tv-report-claiming-trump-ready-to-recognize-palestinian-state/" target="_blank">
laid out the provisions of the peace plan</a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
that had been leaked to it. Beyond the
recognition of a state, the deal would offer
Palestinians almost nothing further.
Jerusalem would not be accepted as
Palestine's national capital. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">No
settler would have to evacuate a single
settlement, let alone an entire settlement.
Israel would hit a payday in terms of
getting almost all of what it's demanded and
failed to get from previous US
administrations.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">The
US would recognise most of Israel's stated
security needs, including for the ongoing
presence of Israeli forces along the Jordan
border, the TV report added.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">It
said Netanyahu, for his part, was pushing
for the retention of overall Israeli
security control in all Palestinian
territory. This is a position Netanyahu has
publicly demanded, and which, if granted,
would underline that the Palestinians would
not be gaining full sovereignty.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">The
New York Times earlier reported that under
the provisions of the agreement Israel would
open trade with the Arab world and its
airlines would be permitted to overfly Gulf
airspace. Arab states, says the Times,
particularly Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United
Arab Emirates and Jordan "could add their
own commitments, like overflights by Israeli
passenger planes, visas for business people
and telecommunications links."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">
There would be "land swaps", but considering
that no settlements or settlers would be
removed, it's unclear what land would be
swapped and why. Or as the Times of Israel
summarised the Hadashot report: "The
borders, however, would 'not necessarily' be
based on the pre-1967 lines."</span><br />
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">False assumptions</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">
Why, you might ask, would any Palestinian
agree to such a deal? Well, apparently Trump
and Netanyahu believe that Arabs are so
venal that they will sell their birthright
for a few billion Saudi petrodollars.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">
Sunni Arab states and others would provide
hundreds of millions of dollars in economic
assistance for the Palestinians under the
plan, to help encourage Palestinian
Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to accept
the deal, the report said.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">I
would venture to say that if you asked any
Palestinian whether, if offered a choice, he
would prefer to be personally wealthy over
his nation achieving full recognition and
sovereignty, we would know what the answer
would be.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Such a strategy
</span>
<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/how-trump-could-surprise-the-world-on-israeli-palestinian-peace-making/2016/11/30/6e1f9c76-b5bc-11e6-959c-172c82123976_story.html?utm_term=.8e102565b8d9" target="_blank">
follows a longstanding false assumption</a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
by Israel and the US that the Palestinian
problem is an economic one at its root, and
not political. Secretaries of state and
Israeli prime ministers have touted
improvements to the Palestinian economy as
the way to resolve the overall conflict for
many years. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">This is a false
and insulting premise. But in case you're
wondering how or why the plan was leaked
now... remember that Netanyahu faces </span>
<a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-to-be-questioned-a-6th-time-in-graft-probes-on-sunday/" target="_blank">
four separate corruption scandals</a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">.
He's been interrogated for the sixth time by
Israeli police this week.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">
Netanyahu is desperate to change the
subject. What better way to do that than by
leaking to the Israeli public that he might
achieve what no other Israeli leader has
ever achieved: lasting peace with Israel's
Arab neighbours.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">An </span>
<a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/saudi-israeli-normalisation-dangerous-171119083143078.html%20(" target="_blank">
op-ed</a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
published by Al Jazeera dismissed the offer
to the Palestinians as not only demeaning,
but also a repudiation of the Saudis' own
2002 peace plan:</span></span><br />
<em>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">…The
Kushner deal will not do even minimum
justice to the Palestinian national project.
While the deal offers strategic gains to
Israel, such as ending a Saudi Arab boycott,
it offers only tactical gains for the
Palestinians, such as financial assistance,
prisoners' release, and a silent, partial
freeze of settlement activities outside the
large settlement blocs.</span></em><br />
<em>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">The
Kushner deal will practically fragment the
Saudi-sponsored 2002 Arab Peace Plan that
offered Israel full normalisation in return
for full withdrawal from Arab lands occupied
in 1967. By pressuring Abbas to accept the
deal, the Saudi leadership is undermining
its own initiative, accepting to partially
normalise relations with Israel in exchange
for an alliance against Iran.</span></em><br />
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">Saudi message to Abbas</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">
Though the US has suggested that one way in
which its approach is different than
previous peace plans is that neither party
will be pressured to agree. There will be no
threats.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">
This claim has already been belied by two
separate media reports of threats being made
against the Palestinians if they reject the
deal.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">In the first
instance, Israeli media </span>
<a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/saudis-told-abbas-to-accept-trump-peace-plan-or-resign-report/" target="_blank">
reported</a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
that when King Salman summoned Abbas to
Riyadh for talks last month, apparently the
Palestinian leader pointed out that the deal
being offered was less than any Palestinian
could accept. The Saudis were having none of
it and presumably told him that if he
rejected the deal they would make his life a
living hell. He should, in that event,
resign.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">
Presumably, that would enable the Saudis to
install a more quiescent figure like
Mohammed Dahlan, now comfortably ensconced
in Dubai, who would do their bidding. In
fact, according to Al Jazeera's op-ed, none
other than Dahlan himself "happened" to have
been invited to Riyadh at the same time
Abbas was there. The Saudi message to Abbas
was clear: If we can't get you to do what we
say, we'll find someone who will.</span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">
We've come to see the outlines of what a
Trump deal would involve: The provisions
would be highly favorable to Israel and
dismissive of the Palestinians</span><br />
</blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">
Considering that they'd just successfully
forced the Lebanese premier, Saad Hariri, to
resign, the Saudis thought this would
intimidate Abbas. But the leader of the
Palestinian Authority realises if he sells
out the Palestinian cause history will make
a mockery of him.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 18pt;">
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<span style="font-size: large;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Last week, the
State Department "miraculously" dusted off
an obscure 1994 law declaring that, if the
Palestinians call for the International
Criminal Court to investigate Israeli war
crimes, the </span>
<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/18/politics/state-department-palestinians-washington-mission-israel/index.html" target="_blank">
US must close the PLO mission in Washington
DC</a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">The US has
noted that Abbas' speech to the UN General
Assembly last autumn did just that: It
called for the ICC, which </span>
<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/law/2015/apr/01/palestinian-authority-becomes-member-of-international-criminal-court" target="_blank">
now included Palestine among its members</a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">,
to hold Israel accountable for the massive
loss of civilian life in Gaza during
Operation Protective Edge.</span></span><br />
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">Trump's deal: A sham</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">
Unspoken in these reports was the not so
subtle threat that the US would close the
mission if the PA rejected the Trump peace
plan.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Though Abbas
isn't known for having much political spine,
the PLO's former chief negotiator Saeb
Erekat didn't miss a beat in </span>
<a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/11/18/565084773/palestinians-threaten-to-suspend-talks-if-u-s-closes-plo-mission" target="_blank">
responding</a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
that if the US did close the Palestinian
diplomatic facility, that the PA would cut
off all communication with the US. That
would certainly put a crimp into Trump's
peace plan.</span></span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">
Creating a viable Palestinian state at
this stage is impossible without
enormous Israeli concessions and this
Israeli government isn't going to do
that</span><br />
<em>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">-
Prof Stephen Walt, Harvard University </span></em><br />
</blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">
Through all this we've come to see the
outlines of what a Trump deal would involve:
the provisions would be highly favourable to
Israel and dismissive of the Palestinians.
The urge of the latter to summarily reject
the deal would be mitigated by overwhelming
pressure from the Saudi royals to accept it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">
Frankly, despite the near universal
consensus from Israel, the US, and Saudi
Arabia that this deal is a good one; and
despite the enormous pressure they can bring
to bear on the Palestinians to accept it - I
don't see how they can pull this off.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">The
US may be banking on the universal acclaim
they expect from the world to finally see a
serious peace plan accepted by almost all
the parties to the conflict. But I'd bet
that the world will see through the proposed
agreement as a sham being perpetrated on the
Palestinians. Stephen Walt, the Belfer
Professor of international relations at
Harvard University, told me:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">"It
is hard to believe that Kushner, Friedman
and co. are going to come up with a deal
that would work, because creating a viable
Palestinian state at this stage is
impossible without enormous Israeli
concessions (reversing 40 years of policy)
and this Israeli government isn't going to
do that." </span><br />
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">Iran factor</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Middle East
observers have </span>
<a href="http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/abbas-riyadh-saudis-court-palestinian-support-alliance-israel-113726755" target="_blank">
noted</a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
another long-term factor favouring an
agreement: Iran. Both Israel and the Saudis
see Iran as a far more formidable,
intractable obstacle than the Palestinians
are. They believe if they can solve the
smaller problem (Palestine) the world will
look far more favourably on their aggressive
approach to confronting Iran and Hezbollah.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">
"The Arabs and the Israelis are facing two
enemies, Iran and terrorism, and they must
form an alliance to confront them," a
western diplomat said, speaking on condition
of anonymity. "But this alliance cannot be
established without resolving the
Palestinian issue; Saudi Arabia cannot work
openly with Israel in the face of Iran
before solving the Palestinian issue, and
having the Palestinians themselves involved
directly in such an axis."</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Though Trump's
negotiators have declared they won't attempt
to force the parties to adhere to a timeline
or a deadline to resolve the matter, </span>
<a href="http://www.mako.co.il/news-military/israel-q4_2017/Article-55fd6284b40df51004.htm" target="_blank">
a Israeli media report indicates</a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
Trump has plans to introduce the plan
publicly as early as January.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><em>
<strong style="font-weight: 400;">
<span style="font-size: large;">- Richard Silverstein</span></strong><span style="font-size: large;"> writes
the Tikun Olam blog, devoted to exposing the
excesses of the Israeli national security
state. His work has appeared in Haaretz, the
Forward, the Seattle Times and the Los
Angeles Times. He contributed to the essay
collection devoted to the 2006 Lebanon war,
A Time to Speak Out (Verso) and has another
essay in the upcoming collection, Israel and
Palestine: Alternate Perspectives on
Statehood (Rowman & Littlefield).</span></em></span><br />
<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">
<img border="0" height="52" src="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/see-also.JPG" width="187" /></span></div>
<div align="center">
<a href="http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2017/Nov-21/427295-palestinians-freeze-meetings-with-us-over-office-row.ashx">
<span style="font-size: large;"><strong>Palestinians 'freeze'
meetings with US over office row</strong></span></a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">:
The Palestinians have frozen all meetings
with the United States after it decided to
close their representative office in
Washington, officials said Tuesday.</span></div>
<div align="center">
<a href="http://www.arabnews.com/node/1197116/middle-east">
<span style="font-size: large;"><strong>Palestinian
reconciliation talks begin in Cairo:
</strong></span></a></div>
<div align="center">
<a href="http://mondoweiss.net/2017/11/struggle-binational-shulman/">
<span style="font-size: large;"><strong>Palestine: ‘Struggle
for basic rights within binational state has
begun and we will win’</strong></span></a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;"><strong>
</strong></span></div>
<div align="center">
<a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.824008">
<span style="font-size: large;"><strong>Israel Moves to Seize
Private Palestinian Land in occupied West
Bank</strong></span></a></div>
</div>
---------------------------------------http://www.blogger.com/profile/04026996012133110417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-685819527131893043.post-33793669005418899342017-12-01T20:57:00.001-08:002017-12-01T20:57:56.953-08:00Who Gets to Push the Nuclear Button?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h1>
Who Gets to Push the Nuclear Button?</h1>
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Who Gets to Push the Nuclear Button?<br />
Paul Craig Roberts<br />
William Binney is the former National Security Agency (NSA) official
who created NSA’s mass surveillance program for digital information. He
says that if the Russian government had conspired with Trump, hacked
the Democratic National Committee’s computer, or in any way influenced
the outcome of the last US presidential election, the National Security
Agency would have the digital evidence. The fact that we have been
listening to the unsubstantiated charges that comprise “Russiagate” for
more than one year without being presented with a scrap of evidence is
complete proof that Russiagate is entirely fake news. <br />
The fake news originated with CIA director John Brennan and FBI
director Comey conspiring with the DNC in an effort to discredit and
unseat President Trump and at a minimum prevent him from damaging the
vast power and profit of the military/security complex by normalizing
relations with Russia. <br />
Consider what this means. The directors of the CIA and FBI made up a
totally false story about a newly elected President and fed the lies to
the presstitutes and Congress. The presstitutes never asked for a drop
of evidence and enlarged the Brennan/Comey lie with a claim that all 17
US intelligence agencies had concluded that Russia had interfered. In
actual fact, a handful of carefully selected people in three of the
agencies had prepared, perhaps under duress, a conditional report that
had no evidence behind it. <br />
That it was fake news created to control President Trump was
completely obvious, but corrupt security officials, corrupt senators and
representatives, a corrupt DNC, and corrupt media used constant
repetition to turn a lie into truth.<br />
Here is Binney: <a href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2016/12/creator-nsas-global-surveillance-system-calls-b-s-russian-hacking-report.html" rel="noopener" target="_blank">http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2016/12/creator-nsas-global-surveillance-system-calls-b-s-russian-hacking-report.html </a><br />
See also: <a href="https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2017/11/19/top-nsa-whistleblower-claims-russiagate-fake-increase-war-spending.html" rel="noopener" target="_blank">https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2017/11/19/top-nsa-whistleblower-claims-russiagate-fake-increase-war-spending.html</a><br />
Having shoved Trump into the militarist camp, his enemies have turned
on Trump as an unstable, volatile person who might push the button.
Senator Bob Corker (R, TN) and Senator Chris Murphy (D,CT) are using the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee to portray President Trump as a
quixotic person who shouldn’t have his finger on the nuclear button. We
have gone full circle, from Trump who wants to defuse nuclear tensions
to Trump who might push the button.<br />
If Senators Corker and Murphy were really concerned and not just
orchestrating a new way to attack Trump, they would bring out the fact
that Russiagate is a hoax that has made nuclear war more likely. As I
have pointed out, Washington has convinced Moscow that Washington is
planning a surprise nuclear attack on Russia and also collecting Russian
DNA for a tailored Russian-specific bio-weapon. I cannot think of
anything more likely to trigger nuclear war than the escalated tensions
that Russiagate is preventing Trump from reducing. See: <a href="https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2017/11/13/will-america-survive-washington-paul-craig-roberts/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2017/11/13/will-america-survive-washington-paul-craig-roberts/ </a><br />
For the record, contrary to the erroneous assertions of “nuclear
experts,” the president cannot simply order a nuclear attack. The
president either has to accept a Joint Chiefs war plan and order a
launch when the military is ready or he has to accept the advice of his
national security adviser to launch in retaliation for incoming enemy
ICBMs. If a president simply ordered a nuclear strike, he would be
ignored.<br />
If it is not the president who must make the nuclear decision, who is
it to be? The military? We should be thankful that that was not the
case when the Joint Chiefs pressured President John F. Kennedy to
approve a nuclear attack on the Soviet Union.<br />
The question who should have launch authority is an easy one to answer. <em>No one. </em><br />
If nuclear missiles are incoming, launching does not protect you.
You are already going to be destroyed. Why destroy the other side of
the world in an act of revenge. It is pointless.<br />
There is no such thing as a preemptive strike that prevents retaliation. <br />
Nuclear war is an act of insanity. Nothing can justify it.<br />
The purpose of diplomacy is to prevent war. However, ever since the
Clinton regime attacked Serbia, US diplomacy has been used to cause
wars. During the 16-years of George W. Bush and Obama the US destroyed
in whole or part seven countries, killing and maiming millions of
peoples and producing millions of refugees. Not a single one of these
wars was justified. Everyone of these wars was based in lies. The last
US government that showed any respect at all for truth was the George
H. W. Bush administration.<br />
Before launching each of these acts of unprovoked aggression,
Washington demonized the leader of the country. To get rid of one
person, Washington did not flinch at murdering large numbers of people
and destroying the infrastructure of the country. This tells you that
Washington has no morality. None. Zilch. Therefore, Washington is
capable of launching a preemptive nuclear strike. Back when nuclear
weapons were puny by today’s standards, Washington nuked two Japanese
cities while Japan was trying to surrender. That was in 1945, a
lifetime ago. Whatever bits of morality that still existed then are
long gone.<br />
Today a CNN editor-at-large named Chris Cillizza, published online an
article titled, “There’s a massive moral vacuum in the country right
now.” At last, I thought, a presstitute has realized that Washington’s
constant nuclear threats against other countries shows a complete
disrespect for the life of the planet and indicates a moral vacuum. But
no, the presstitute is talking about sexual harassment, especially that
of Roy Moore in the 1970s. And it is all Trump’s fault. How can he
lead when he harasses women himself? <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/16/politics/roy-moore-mcconnell-trump/index.html" rel="noopener" target="_blank">http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/16/politics/roy-moore-mcconnell-trump/index.html</a><br />
President Trump intended to normalize relations with the other major
nuclear power. He has been prevented from doing so by the
military/security complex, the DNC, and the presstitutes. <br />
Cillizza says sexual harassment is a “very big” consequence of
Trump’s election. I am left wondering if CNN’s editor-at-large
considers nuclear war to be as serious as sexual harassment.</div>
---------------------------------------http://www.blogger.com/profile/04026996012133110417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-685819527131893043.post-1827697481639903132017-11-07T17:16:00.001-08:002017-11-07T17:16:01.528-08:00Presidents and the War Power<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h2>
<a href="http://ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2014/october/08/presidents-and-the-war-power/" title="Presidents and the War Power"><span>Presidents and the War Power</span></a></h2>
<div class="post-attributes">
<div class="post-authors uBlogsy_font_style40">
<div class="uBlogsy_author uBlogsy_font_style30" style="margin: 0;">
<span>Written by</span>
<span class="uBlogsy_author_name">
<a href="http://ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/?author=Ivan+Eland" title="Ivan Eland">Ivan Eland</a><span></span> </span>
</div>
</div>
<div class="post-date uBlogsy_font_style40">
Wednesday October 8, 2014<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null"><img class="printer-icon" src="http://ronpaulinstitute.org/images/icons/printer.png" /></a></div>
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<img alt="Bombs Over Libya" height="148" src="http://ronpaulinstitute.org/media/119439/Bombs-over-Libya_240x148.jpg" width="240" /><br /><br />President
Barack Obama's claim that he doesn't need congressional authorization
for his current war in Iraq and Syria is troubling. The country's
founders would pass out upon hearing his claim that the post-9/11
congressional approval of force in 2001 against the perpetrators of
those attacks and their abettors and the congressional resolution
approving George W. Bush's invasion of Saddam Hussein's Iraq in 2003
give him the current authority for a very different war against very
different people. However, Obama is not the first president to believe
that he has the rather imperial authority for war by executive fiat.<br /> <br />
Up until 1950, for major conflicts, presidents followed the nation's
founders' intent in the U.S. Constitution to obtain a declaration of war
from Congress. For the Korean War, however, Harry Truman, really the
first imperial president, decided that this vital constitutional
requirement was optional. Unfortunately, as I note in my new book
-- Recarving Rushmore: Ranking the Presidents on Peace, Prosperity, and
Liberty -- once a bad precedent is set, meaning that the chief executive
gets away with an unconstitutional act, future presidents will cite it
in carrying out their own questionable actions.<br /> <br /> Over American
history, that process has thus resulted in an expansion of presidential
power much past what the founders had envisioned when they wrote their
constitutional blueprint. Thinking of the powerful European monarchs of
the day, who took their countries to war on a whim and let the costs in
blood and treasure fall to their unfortunate citizens, the founders
wanted an executive with severely restricted powers. Congress was to be
the dominant branch of government, and the executive's role merely was
to narrowly execute and enforce laws passed by that body. Even the
president's commander-in-chief role, much abused by modern chief
executives, was to be restricted narrowly to commanding the U.S.
military in battle. In fact, contrary to the conventional belief in
Washington and among the American public, the Constitution gives most of
the powers in defense and foreign affairs to the Congress, not to the
president. The erroneous notion that the chief executive is the "sole
organ of American foreign policy," derives from the non-binding part of a
Supreme Court decision in the 1930s (that is, fairly recently).<br /> <br />
In the Constitution, the founders signaled their intent for Congress to
approve even minor uses of force by the United States. The document
says that Congress will issue letters of marque and reprisal. At the
time, letters of marque were issued to private ship captains to raid an
enemy nation's commerce.<br /> <br /> So it is curious from his past
behavior that Obama, a constitutional lawyer, believes that if he avoids
putting "combat troops" on the ground -- defining this narrowly to
exclude Special Forces hunting terrorists and American military trainers
of local forces -- and limits his attacks to air strikes, it's not a
real war that would require congressional approval. His criterion seems
to be that if no Americans would be killed, it's not a "war" that the
Congress needs to bother with authorizing. Yet aircraft can get shot
down or malfunction and pilots can be captured or killed. Also, the
people being bombed would probably call it a war, and so the people's
representatives in Congress might want to comment on whether the United
States should be in a state of hostilities with them.<br /> <br /> The
people's representatives don't always make the right decision -- as they
didn't in President James Madison's pointless War of 1812, James Polk's
war of aggression against the weaker Mexico to steal its land, William
McKinley's colonial Spanish-American War, or Woodrow Wilson's ruining of
the twentieth century by American entry into World War I -- but they
should at least get to vote, as the nation's founders intended and the
Constitution states.</div>
---------------------------------------http://www.blogger.com/profile/04026996012133110417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-685819527131893043.post-46134497734338070332017-11-07T17:15:00.001-08:002017-11-07T17:15:22.589-08:00Dubious Osama bin Laden Documents: A Pretext for a War on Iran<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<h2>
<a href="http://ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2017/november/06/dubious-osama-bin-laden-documents-a-pretext-for-a-war-on-iran/" title="Dubious Osama bin Laden Documents: A Pretext for a War on Iran"><span>Dubious Osama bin Laden Documents: A Pretext for a War on Iran</span></a></h2>
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<span>Written by</span>
<span class="uBlogsy_author_name">
<a href="http://ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/?author=Kurt+Nimmo" title="Kurt Nimmo">Kurt Nimmo</a><span></span> </span>
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<div class="post-date uBlogsy_font_style40">
Monday November 6, 2017<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null"><img class="printer-icon" src="http://ronpaulinstitute.org/images/icons/printer.png" /></a></div>
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<img alt="undefined" rel="31031" src="http://ronpaulinstitute.org/media/121474/bin-laden.jpeg?width=443px&height=295px" style="height: 295px; width: 443px;" /><br /><br />The CIA has given the <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.longwarjournal.org/" href="https://www.longwarjournal.org/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Long War Journal</a> exclusive access to the supposed Osama bin Laden files taken from his “compound” in Pakistan.<br /><br />The
Long War Journal is a project of the Foundation for Defense of
Democracies (FDD) where its editors are senior fellows. The foundation
is a refuge for neocons and a staunch supporters of Israel and its
policies. It is also a vocal advocate of confronting Iran.<br /><br />So it
shouldn’t come as a surprise the CIA “shared” a carefully selected
portion of the documents — some 500,000 files — with the Long War
Journal.<br /><br />The released documents focus on Iran and its supposed relationship with al-Qaeda.<br /><br />On November 1, <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/newly-released-bin-laden-document-describes-iran-al-qaeda-link-n816681" href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/newly-released-bin-laden-document-describes-iran-al-qaeda-link-n816681" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">NBC News</a> reported:
<blockquote>
The trove also provides new insight into the often
adversarial relationship between al Qaeda and Iran — the Sunni Muslim
terror group and the Shiite republic — in the form of a 19-page report
described by the Long War Journal as “a senior jihadist’s assessment of
the group’s relationship with Iran.”</blockquote>
Intelligence officials describe the report as “evidence of Iran’s support of al Qaeda’s war with the United States.”<br /><br />It
cites the escape of al-Qaeda members from Afghanistan to Iran after the
US invaded Afghanistan. I have written about this previously. There is
no evidence al-Qaeda worked with Iran. Iranian officials said they have
held al-Qaeda members in detainment, although they will not release
further information, including names.<br /><br />Once again, the neocons are
attempting to spread lies and fabrication as a pretext to step up
hostilities against Iran, same as they did with Iraq.<br /><br />The CIA and
the neocons at FDD are counting on the ignorance of the American people
to sell these lies. It’s safe to say most Americans are unaware of the
fact Shiite (Iran) and Sunni Muslims (primarily the Saudi Wahhabi
variety) are sworn enemies and it is extremely unlikely they would
cooperate on anything.<br /><br />Naturally, the establishment media grabbed this fairy tale and ran with it.<br /><br />“Iran and al-Qaeda: Best of Frenemies,” headlines <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-11-03/iran-and-al-qaeda-best-of-frenemies" href="https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-11-03/iran-and-al-qaeda-best-of-frenemies" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Bloomberg</a>.<br /><br />The alt-right aka New Right website <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2017/11/02/cia-releases-bin-laden-files-reveals-collusion-iran-muslim-brotherhood-inspiration/" href="http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2017/11/02/cia-releases-bin-laden-files-reveals-collusion-iran-muslim-brotherhood-inspiration/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Breitbart</a>,
once again home to former Trump strategist Stephen Bannon, writes that
“[a]mong the most interesting revelations are details of Iran’s
collusion with al-Qaeda and bin Laden’s citation of the Muslim
Brotherhood as a formative influence on his political thought.”<br /><br />Is this the same Muslim Brotherhood that collaborated with the CIA?<br /><br />“According
to CIA agent Miles Copeland, the Americans began looking for a Muslim
Billy Graham around 1955… When finding or creating a Muslim Billy Graham
proved elusive, the CIA began to cooperate with the Muslim Brotherhood,
the Muslim mass organization founded in Egypt but with followers
throughout the Arab Middle East,” writes Arab historian <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="http://www.redmoonrising.com/Ikhwan/BritIslam.htm" href="http://www.redmoonrising.com/Ikhwan/BritIslam.htm" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Said Aburish</a>.<br /><br />For more, <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXY2C-iWbVY" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXY2C-iWbVY" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">see this interview with F. William Engdahl</a>.<br /><br />After
Trump said he wants to designate both the Muslim Brotherhood and Iran’s
Revolutionary Guard as terrorist organizations, the CIA stepped in and
said that wouldn’t be a good idea. The agency is currently headed up by
Mike Pompeo, a rabid anti-Iran zealot.<br /><br />“MB groups enjoy
widespread support across the Near East-North Africa region and many
Arabs and Muslims worldwide would view an MB designation as an affront
to their core religious and societal values,” according to the <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/765115/Donald-Trump-terror-radical-Islamic-CIA-Muslim-Brotherhood-America" href="http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/765115/Donald-Trump-terror-radical-Islamic-CIA-Muslim-Brotherhood-America" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">CIA</a>.<br /><br />I’m
curious what Arabs and Muslims think about the CIA’s killer drone
program and Trump’s merciless bombing of Syria. Is this considered an
affront to their core religious and societal values?<br /><br />It seems the
non-stop deluge of negative news — including this latest batch of fairy
tales — has resulted in an unfavorable view of Iran by Americans. If <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="http://news.gallup.com/poll/189272/after-nuclear-deal-views-iran-remain-dismal.aspx" href="http://news.gallup.com/poll/189272/after-nuclear-deal-views-iran-remain-dismal.aspx" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Pew Research</a> can
be believed, only 14 percent of Americans hold a favorable view of Iran
and nearly 70 percent disapprove of the Iran nuclear deal.<br /><br />Meanwhile, thanks to endless propaganda, <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2016/02/21/gallup-poll-shows-americans-prefer-terrorist-nations-over-iran-why.html" href="https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2016/02/21/gallup-poll-shows-americans-prefer-terrorist-nations-over-iran-why.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">many Americans look favorably on Saudi Arabia</a>, a country where 92 percent of citizens approve of the Islamic State.<br /><br />“One
might reasonably wonder, then: why do Americans hate and fear Iran,
over and above even the nation — the royal family and their
clerics — that were actually behind 9/11? Might it be, perhaps, because
the Shia clerics of Iran are as fundamentalist as the Sunni ones in
Saudi Arabia? Not at all; but, yet, Americans seem to assume that that’s
the case,” writes Eric Zuesse.<br /><br />I disagree with Zuesse on his
belief that Saudi Arabia was the prime motivator behind the 9/11
attacks. It certainly participated, but the blame falls squarely on the
United States and its intelligence agencies. If not for the CIA and
Saudi partnership, there would be no al-Qaeda, no al-Nusra, no Islamic
State, and other Wahhabi terrorist organizations.<br /><br /><em>Reprinted with author's permission from <a href="https://medium.com/@kurtnimmo/dubious-osama-bin-laden-documents-a-pretext-for-a-war-on-iran-481bd8b9847d">Medium.com</a>.</em></div>
---------------------------------------http://www.blogger.com/profile/04026996012133110417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-685819527131893043.post-48693765076608824712017-11-07T17:13:00.001-08:002017-11-07T17:13:14.452-08:00Washington Corruption Is Unparalleled In History<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<b><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Washington Corruption Is Unparalleled In History</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">By Paul
Craig Roberts</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">
November 07, 2017 "</span><a href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/"><span style="color: black; font-size: large;">Information
Clearing House</span></a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">"
- Dr. George Szamuely, a distinguished member of
the Global Policy Institute of London
Metropolitan University, is a British citizen
and not a partisan of US politics. He has
carefully investigated the so-called Russian
dossier and reports that it was entirely the
work of the Hillary Democrats. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">This
fact was known at the beginning both to former
CIA director John Brennan and to former FBI
director James Comey. Yet both went along with
the DNC-invented story of Russian election
hacking and Christopher Steele’s fake “dossier”
on Trump’s imagined relations with Russians.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">The
presstitute media told the lies that they were
supposed to tell. The consequence of this plot
has been to waste the first year of Trump’s
presidency and to prevent President Trump from
reducing the dangerously high tensions with
nuclear power Russia. This is a disservice not
only to President Trump but also to the American
people and the planet itself. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">Dr.
Szamuely delivers the sordid details of the plot
by a corrupt American establishment to destroy a
president selected by the people and not by the
ruling interest groups. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">You can
read the story </span>
<a href="http://theduran.com/obama-hillary-clinton-weaponized-dossier/">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">here</span></a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">:
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">The
arrest of Paul Manafort by former FBI director
Robert Mueller is a further indication of the
corrupt character of Washington and the “law”
that it utilizes as a weapon. Mueller is
supposed to be investigating “Russiagate.” His
arrest of Manafort has nothing whatsoever to do
with Russiagate. Mueller arrested Manafort on
the basis of allegations that in 2006, a decade
prior to “Russiagate,” Manafort did not report
as income payments he received as an
unregistered agent for the Ukrainian government.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">
According to newspaper reports at the time,
Zionist Neoconservative Richard Perle, a former
member of the Defense Policy Board and an
Assistant Secretary of Defense, served as an
unregistered agent for Turkey and was not
arrested for his violation of the registration
act. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">But
Manafort is different. By arresting Manafort,
who served for a time as Trump’s presidential
campaign manager, Mueller can pile on false
charges until Manafort buys his way out by
providing Mueller with false charges against
Trump. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">In US
federal courts today, charges no longer have to
be proven, just asserted. If Trump’s surrender
to the military/security complex and abandonment
of his intention to normalize relations with
Russia do not suffice to make Trump acceptable
to the military/security complex, Mueller can
squeeze Manafort until Manafort agrees to
whatever story Mueller hands him. The last thing
Manafort or Trump can count on is justice. There
has been no justice in the US “Justice” system
for decades.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;"><em>Dr.
Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of
the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate
editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was
columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News
Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many
university appointments. His internet columns
have attracted a worldwide following. Roberts'
latest books are </em></span>
<a href="http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/inbound/nbe81oi9d" rel="follow" target="_blank">
<span style="font-size: large;"><em>The Failure of Laissez Faire
Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West</em></span></a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;"><em>,
</em></span>
<a href="http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/inbound/7o5oendn3o">
<span style="font-size: large;"><em>How America Was Lost</em></span></a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;"><em>,
and </em></span>
<a href="http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/inbound/w9noii8">
<span style="font-size: large;"><em>The Neoconservative Threat to
World Order</em></span></a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;"><em>.</em></span><br />
<em><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">The
views expressed in this article are solely those
of the author and do not necessarily reflect the
opinions of Information Clearing House.</span></em><br />
<em><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">See
also - </span></em><br />
<div align="left">
<a href="http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/358241-ex-trump-aide-on-mueller-indictment-trump-is-f-ked">
<span style="font-size: large;"><strong>Ex-Trump aide on Mueller
indictment: Trump is 'f---ed'</strong></span></a></div>
<div align="left">
<a href="http://tinyurl.com/yawr4k28">
<span style="font-size: large;"><strong>“We don’t know what’s in
Trump’s tax returns. But the GOP tax plan offers
clues.”</strong></span></a></div>
<div align="left">
<a href="http://thesaker.is/do-you-think-his-assessment-is-accurate/">
<span style="font-size: large;"><strong>Do you think Paul Craig
Roberts assessment regarding Russia is accurate?</strong></span></a></div>
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---------------------------------------http://www.blogger.com/profile/04026996012133110417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-685819527131893043.post-50367861034814579452017-11-07T17:12:00.004-08:002017-11-07T17:12:48.228-08:00Libya, Syria, Ukraine – Same Playbook, Same Puppet Masters<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<b><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Libya,
Syria, Ukraine – Same Playbook, Same Puppet
Masters</span></b><br />
<b>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">By Chris
Kanthan</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">
November 07, 2017 "</span><a href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/"><span style="color: black; font-size: large;">Information
Clearing House</span></a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">"
- Geopolitics becomes a lot easier if we can
discern repeating patterns. For example, the
common thread through the crises in Ukraine,
Libya and Syria is a clever but ruthless
playbook of regime-change. This stratagem of
toppling governments while appearing noble
should perhaps be called the “geopolitics of
crocodile tears.”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">There
were times in history when a powerful country
would simply invade the weaker ones. Now the
elites resort to elaborate Hollywood-style
scripts brimming with inspiring heroes, sob
stories and altruistic efforts.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">Here
are the simple facts: Libya and Syria were a tad
bit too independent and successful, and thus
have been targeted by globalists for a long
time. Ukraine, which borders Russia, is a
treasured piece on the geopolitical chessboard –
get Ukraine and Crimea, you weaken Russia
immensely.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">The
fundamental ploy in Libya, Syria and Ukraine was
the same: rile up the population and then stage
a coup in the midst of chaos, while claiming to
liberate the people.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">The
coup is carried out in many stages.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><strong>
<span style="font-size: large;">Stage 1</span></strong><span style="font-size: large;">:
Planned Protests</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><strong>
<span style="font-size: large;">Stage 2</span></strong><span style="font-size: large;">:
Protesters killed, leading to outrage and UN
resolutions/sanctions</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><strong>
<span style="font-size: large;">Stage 3</span></strong><span style="font-size: large;">:
Armed mutiny and attempts to force the
government out</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><strong>
<span style="font-size: large;">Stage 4</span></strong><span style="font-size: large;">:
If Stage 3 fails, sponsor a full-fledged civil
war to overthrow the government</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">Simple
enough? Let’s hop on the time machine back to
2011.</span><br />
<strong>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">Act 1:
“Peaceful” protests</span></strong><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">While
all three cases were portrayed as “peaceful
protests,” the facts on the ground couldn’t be
more antithetical. The beginning is always
peaceful and this sets the tone of the
narrative. But truly peaceful protests always
fizzle out when there is no major crisis in a
nation.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">The art
of protests and violence are not well understood
by the public. There are many elites and groups
who are experts in mass psychology. Just like a
clever marketing person creating a viral ad,
there are social engineering gurus who know how
to create protests and riots. For example, with
10 provocateurs and 100 well-paid community
leaders, one can easily create a protest of few
thousand people and then turn it into a riot.
Once chaos begins, mob mentality sets in, and
then innocent protesters morph into dangerous
elements.</span><br />
<em><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">
With enough money and weapons, you can overthrow
any government.</span></em><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
Libya was a </span>
<a href="https://www.africanexponent.com/post/ten-reasons-libya-under-gaddafi-was-a-great-place-to-live-2746">
stable and wealthy country</a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
under Gaddafi. Everyone had access to free
school, free college and free healthcare; young
married couples got a free apartment; and Libya
had the </span>
<a href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2015/10/20/libya-from-africas-wealthiest-democracy-under-gaddafi-to-terrorist-haven-after-us-intervention/">
highest HDI</a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
(Human Development Index) in Africa. Similarly,
Syria was prosperous and safe. Under Assad, the
</span>
<a href="https://worldaffairs.blog/2017/07/07/assad-is-not-a-brutal-dictator/">
GDP had tripled</a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
(in US dollars), inflation was low, and debt was
cut in half. Millions of tourists visited Syria
every year because it was beautiful, free and
safe. In Ukraine, the economy wasn’t so great
and people weren’t too happy with the
politicians, but that’s normal for Ukraine.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
So how do you organize protests in such
situations? In Libya, the excuse was “</span><a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2011/02/201121755057219793.html">Day
of Rage</a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">,” which
was the anniversary of clashes in 2006 when
police killed a few protesters. For the first
few days in 2011, the protests and the riots
were limited to small, remote towns. Large
cities such as Tripoli, the capital, </span>
<a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/clashes-reported-on-libyas-day-of-rage-2217687.html">
were calm</a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> and
seemed unaware of the protests.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
In Syria, the first few attempts to organize
protests in February failed miserably. Then with
more money and propaganda through Saudi-funded
mosques, the protests began in March in Daraa, a
small border town (which is close to … ahem …
the U.S. military base in Jordan). The famous
Omari mosque in Daraa </span>
<a href="http://archive.almanar.com.lb/english/article.php?id=7353">
turned into a warehouse</a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
for weapons, ammunition and cash. Just like in
Libya, large cities such as Damascus and Aleppo
were quiet and normal.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">In
Ukraine, thanks to George Soros, USAID and NED,
there was a well-established system of
grassroots movement that could spring into
action at a moment’s notice. Outside of Kiev,
there were no protests, but the media made it
seem like the whole country was behind the
Euromaidan faux revolution.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">At this
point, the corporate media all over the world
would show wonderful pictures and videos of
peaceful protesters demanding freedom and
justice. Who can be against that? The media
always makes sure that these protests are
labeled “spontaneous.” Of course, most people
outside these countries believe the narrative.</span><br />
<strong>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">Act 2
Scene 1: Provocateurs and Snipers</span></strong><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">This is
where peaceful protests turn violent and bloody.
However, there is a twist in the plot that is
hidden from the public: the use of provocateurs
and snipers by the same people who organized the
protests. These trained provocateurs would
attack the police/military and burn down
government buildings. Some of them are like
Antifa, but others are professional militants
armed with lethal weapons and trained to kill.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
In Libya, on the third day of the protests,
police stations and security headquarters were
</span>
<a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2011/02/201121755057219793.html">
burned down</a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">. In
Syria, even before the protests spread to other
places, dozens of Syrian military soldiers were
</span>
<a href="https://www.rt.com/op-edge/157412-syria-hidden-massacre-2011/">
ambushed</a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> and
shot to death. (I describe the events in Syria
in details in my book, </span><em>
<a href="https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/747104">
Syria – War of Deception</a></em><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">).
In Kiev, masked thugs threw </span>
<a href="https://www.rt.com/news/233807-ukraine-maidan-riots-photos/">
Molotov cocktails</a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
and beat up the police with chains and iron
rods.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">Then,
at the end of Act 2 Scene 1, snipers come in to
radically alter the story. Carefully placed on
rooftops and tall buildings, the snipers target
the police and the protesters. When the police
are shot at, they naturally assume that the
bullets came from the protesters, and so the
police fire back. Sometimes there are also
provocateurs with guns on the ground among the
protesters, and they shoot at the police as
well.</span><br />
<div class="alignright">
</div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
In Libya, to add fuel to the fire, the snipers
cruelly shot and </span>
<a href="https://www.salon.com/2011/02/19/libya_snipers_kill_15/">
killed 15 people in a funeral</a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">.
In Ukraine, analysis of bullets and shells
proved that the </span>
<a href="https://www.rt.com/news/ashton-maidan-snipers-estonia-946/">
same snipers</a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
killed both the protesters and the police.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
Ignoring all these, the global media and the
politicians have only one narrative regarding
all three countries: the government brutally
attacked/murdered peaceful protesters. (Example:
NPR’s article discussing in June 2011 an
incident where 120 Syrian soldiers were </span>
<a href="http://www.npr.org/2011/06/07/137024602/syria-120-government-troops-killed-by-gunmen">
massacred and mutilated</a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
by the “peaceful protesters.”)</span></span><br />
<strong>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">Act 2,
Scene 2: Political/Economic Attack </span>
</strong><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
Regarding Libya, </span>
<a href="http://in.reuters.com/article/idINIndia-55078920110222">
Merkel said</a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
right away that Gaddafi was waging war on his
<em>own people</em>. Western media </span>
<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8339347/Libya-Muammar-Gaddafi-fires-on-his-own-people.html">
screamed</a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> that
Gaddafi was firing on <em>his own people</em>.
The </span>
<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/26/libya-protests-obama-gaddafi-leave-now_n_828712.html">
White House condemned</a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
Gaddafi for using mass violence against <em>his
own people</em>.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">A month
later, the exact phrase was used against Assad.
In Assad’s case, this propaganda would last for
the next six years, and later expanded to “Assad
kills and gases <em>his own people</em>.”</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
In Ukraine, after the president was ousted, he
was </span>
<a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/ukraines-president-wanted-for-mass-murder-of-civilians-acting-interior-minister-says/">
charged</a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> with
“mass killing of civilians.”</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
This technique is a well-known form of
psychological warfare and is called </span>
<a href="https://infogalactic.com/info/Atrocity_propaganda">
<em>atrocity propaganda</em></a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">With
crocodile tears and faux outrage, the West came
up with UN resolutions against Syria and Libya,
which were probably written months before.</span><br />
<strong>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">Act 3:
Bloodless Coup</span></strong><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
In Ukraine, the West used neo-Nazis rather than
jihadists as the provocateurs. The </span>
<a href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2014/05/america-backed-fascists-ukraine-73-years-ago.html">
CIA befriended pro-Nazi Ukrainians</a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
(who were thus anti-Russian) right after WW II
and the relationship never went away.</span></span><br />
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Yanukovych">
<span style="font-size: large;">Yanukovych</span></a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">
was a democratically elected President of
Ukraine who had also twice been the Prime
Minister. In 2004, he won the Presidency, but
George Soros organized a “color revolution” and
clamored for a new election. Lo and behold, the
pro-US candidate won with 51% of the vote in the
new election.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">Then
six years later, Yanukovych ran again and won
the presidency fair and square. Four years into
his presidency, he was simply driven out of the
country by the US/EU coalition.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">This is
the reality of U.S. spreading “democracy.” <em>
You are free to choose whoever you want, as long
as it’s the right candidate</em>.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
In Libya and Syria, Gaddafi and Assad were tough
and not so willing to give up easily. Within a
month after the first protest in Libya and
Syria, the </span>
<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/mar/17/un-security-council-resolution">
UN had passed resolutions</a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
that authorized arming “civilians” (a.k.a
jihadists), and also gave NATO the right to
shoot down Libyan planes. The Orwellian term “No
Fly Zones” meant that only Gaddafi couldn’t fly
his planes, but NATO/US planes could. On March
19, one month after the protests started, the US
</span>
<a href="http://abcnews.go.com/International/libya-international-military-coalition-launch-assault-gadhafi-forces/story?id=13174246">
started bombing Libya</a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
with Tomahawk missiles. Syria was saved from
NATO attacks, thanks to Russia and China.</span></span><br />
<strong>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">Act 4 –
Civil War</span></strong><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">In
Libya and Syria, weapons and money poured from
the outside to fuel the civil war. Libya fell
within a year, since NATO acted as the air force
for the terrorists and destroyed Gaddafi’s
planes, tanks and arsenals.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
In Syria, less than half of 1% of the population
joined the armed militia. This is why the
“revolution” faltered after a few months, and
tens of thousands of </span>
<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/30/foreign-jihadist-iraq-syria-unprecedented-un-isis">
foreign jihadists had to fly into Syria</a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">.
Thanks to the billions of dollars of cash and
weapons from benevolent Saudi Arabia, Qatar and
others, the war went on for six years,
destroying a prosperous country and ruining the
lives of 20 million people.</span></span><br />
<strong>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">Trail of
Chaos</span></strong><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
Six years later, Libya still doesn’t have a
unified government; Al Qaeda and militias </span>
<a href="http://allafrica.com/stories/201709290159.html">
rule</a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> half the
country; and there is even </span>
<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/10/libya-public-slave-auctions-un-migration">
slavery</a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> now.
More than a million Libyans have fled to Europe,
creating new problems.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">Syria’s
GDP has fallen 65% since 2011, its debt has
doubled, Al Qaeda holds a large province, and it
may take twenty years to rebuild the country.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">Ukraine
is split in half, and people who have lived
together for 1000 years are now at war with each
other. Using Ukraine as an excuse, the US and
NATO are now spending billions to counter
“Russia’s threat.”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">So this
is the geopolitical strategy of protests, proxy
wars, and propaganda. Americans need to wake up,
understand geopolitics, and demand an end to
these expensive and immoral wars of chaos,
misery and destruction.</span><br />
<em><span style="font-size: large;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Chris Kanthan is
the author of a new book,<strong style="font-weight: 400;">
Syria – War of Deception</strong>. It’s
available in a </span>
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Syria-War-Deception-Mini-Version-ebook/dp/B075H6HCF3/">
condensed</a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> as
well as a </span>
<a href="https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/747104">
longer</a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> version.
Chris lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, has
traveled to 35 countries, and writes about world
affairs, politics, economy and health. His other
book is <strong style="font-weight: 400;">
Deconstructing Monsanto</strong>.</span></span></em><br />
<div align="left">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;"><em>This article was
originally published by</em></span><span style="font-size: large;"><em> </em>
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<a href="https://www.activistpost.com/2017/11/libya-syria-ukraine-playbook-puppet-masters.html?">
<span style="font-size: large;"><em>AP</em></span></a><span style="font-size: large;"><em> -</em></span></div>
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---------------------------------------http://www.blogger.com/profile/04026996012133110417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-685819527131893043.post-28325438369540685912017-11-07T17:12:00.002-08:002017-11-07T17:12:23.130-08:00"Explosive" Leaked Secret Israeli Cable Confirms Israeli-Saudi Coordination To Provoke War<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="content">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><b>
"Explosive" Leaked Secret Israeli Cable
Confirms Israeli-Saudi Coordination To
Provoke War</b></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;"><br />
<br />
<b>By Tyler Durden </b></span>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">
November 07, 2017 "</span><a href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/"><span style="color: black; font-size: large;">Information
Clearing House</span></a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">"
- </span><span style="font-size: large;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Early this
morning, Israeli Channel 10 news published a
leaked diplomatic cable which had been sent
to all Israeli ambassadors throughout the
world concerning the </span>
<a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-11-06/making-sense-saudis-game-thobes" target="_blank">
chaotic events</a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> that
unfolded over the weekend in Lebanon and
Saudi Arabia, which began with Lebanese
Prime Minister Saad Hariri's unexpected
resignation after he was summoned to Riyadh
by his Saudi-backers, and led to the Saudis
announcing that </span>
<a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-11-06/verge-catastrophe-saudi-arabia-says-lebanon-declared-war" target="_blank">
Lebanon had "declared war"</a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> against
the kingdom. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">The
classified embassy cable, written in Hebrew,
<strong>constitutes the first formal
evidence proving that the Saudis and
Israelis are deliberately coordinating</strong>
to escalate the situation in the Middle
East. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">The
explosive classified Israeli cable reveals
the following:</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
<span style="font-size: large;">On Sunday, just after
Lebanese PM Hariri's shocking
resignation, Israel sent a cable to all
of its embassies with the request that
its diplomats </span><strong>
<span style="font-size: large;">do everything possible to
ramp up diplomatic pressure against
Hezbollah and Iran.</span></strong></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The cable</span><strong><span style="font-size: large;">
urged support for Saudi Arabia's war
against Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen.</span></strong></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The cable stressed that
</span><strong><span style="font-size: large;">Iran was
engaged in "regional subversion". </span></strong></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Israeli diplomats were
urged to appeal to the "highest
officials" within their host countries
</span><strong><span style="font-size: large;">to attempt
to expel Hezbollah from Lebanese
government and politics. </span></strong></span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-size: large;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">As is already
</span>
<a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-09-11/breaking-news-saudi-crown-princes-secret-visit-israel-brings-embassy-scramble" target="_blank">
well-known</a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">,
the Saudi and Israeli common cause against
perceived Iranian influence and expansion in
places like Syria, Lebanon and Iraq of late
has led the historic bitter enemies down a
pragmatic path of unspoken cooperation as
both seem to have placed </span><a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-08-24/netanyahu-putin-iran-must-leave-syria-or-we-will-act" target="_blank">the
break up of the so-called "Shia crescent"</a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> as
their primary policy goal in the region. For
Israel, Hezbollah has long been its greatest
foe, which Israeli leaders see as an
extension of Iran's territorial presence
right up against the Jewish state's northern
border. </span></span><br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">
This is a EXPLOSIVE thread that proves
how Saudi and Israel are deliberately
coordinating to escalate the situation
in the MidEast. </span>
<a href="https://t.co/dMe4PnkwTf">
<span style="font-size: large;">https://t.co/dMe4PnkwTf</span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">—
Trita Parsi (@tparsi) </span>
<a href="https://twitter.com/tparsi/status/927649640941416448?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">
<span style="font-size: large;">November 6, 2017</span></a><br />
</blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">The Israeli
reporter who obtained the document is Barak
Ravid, senior diplomatic correspondent for
</span>
<a href="http://news.nana10.co.il/Article/?ArticleID=1272790&sid=126" target="_blank">
Channel 10 News</a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">.
Ravid announced the following through
Twitter </span>
<a href="https://twitter.com/BarakRavid/status/927629611713941505" target="_blank">
yesterday</a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">:</span></span><br />
<ul>
<li>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">I
published on channel 10 a cable sent to
Israeli diplomats asking to lobby for
Saudis/Harir and against Hezbollah.
<strong>The cable sent from the MFA in
Jerusalem [Israeli Ministry of Foreign
Affairs] to all Israeli embassies</strong>
toes the Saudi line regarding the Hariri
resignation.</span></li>
<li>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">
The Israeli diplomats were instructed to
demarch their host governments over the
domestic political situation in Lebanon
- a very rare move.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The cable said: </span>
<strong><span style="font-size: large;">"You need to
stress that the Hariri resignation shows
how dangerous Iran and Hezbollah are for
Lebanon's security."</span></strong></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
<strong><span style="font-size: large;">"Hariri's
resignation proves wrong the argument
that Hezbollah participation in the
government stabilizes Lebanon,"</span></strong><span style="font-size: large;">
the cable added.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The cable instructed
Israeli diplomats to support Saudi
Arabia over its war with the Houthis in
Yemen. The cable also stressed: </span>
<strong><span style="font-size: large;">"The missile
launch by the Houthis towards Riyadh
calls for applying more pressure on Iran
& Hezbollah."</span></strong></span></li>
</ul>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">1
\ I published on channel 10 a cable sent
to Israeli diplomats asking to lobby for
Saudis\Hariri &against Hezbollah </span>
<a href="https://t.co/AbeLPC35GP">
<span style="font-size: large;">https://t.co/AbeLPC35GP</span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">—
Barak Ravid (@BarakRavid) </span>
<a href="https://twitter.com/BarakRavid/status/927629611713941505?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">
<span style="font-size: large;">November 6, 2017</span></a><br />
</blockquote>
<em><span style="font-size: large;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Watch today's
Hebrew broadcast Channel 10 News report
which features the Israeli diplomatic cable
- the text of which is featured in Channel
10's screenshot (below) - </span>
<a href="http://news.nana10.co.il/Article/?ArticleID=1272790&sid=126" target="_blank">
here</a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">. </span></span></em><br />
<div align="center">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">
<img border="0" height="266" id="_x0000_i1026" src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DN-Vw3tXcAAomyL.jpg" width="472" /></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Below is a
rough translation of the classified Israeli
embassy cable using Google Translate as
released by </span>
<a href="http://news.nana10.co.il/Article/?ArticleID=1272790&sid=126" target="_blank">
Israel's Channel 10 News</a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">: </span></span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
<span style="font-size: large;">"To the Director-General:
you are requested to urgently contact
the Foreign Ministry and other relevant
government officials [of your host
country] and emphasize that the
resignation of Al-Hariri and his
comments on the reasons that led him to
resign</span><strong><span style="font-size: large;">
illustrate once again the destructive
nature of Iran and Hezbollah and their
danger to the stability of Lebanon and
the countries of the region. </span>
</strong></span>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">
Al-Hariri's resignation proves that the
international argument that Hezbollah's
inclusion in the government is a recipe
for stability is basically wrong. This
artificial unity creates paralysis and
the inability of local sovereign powers
to make decisions that serve their
national interest. It effectively turns
them into hostages under physical threat
and are <strong>forced to promote the
interests of a foreign power - Iran</strong>
- even if this may endanger the security
of their country. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The events in Lebanon and
the launching of a ballistic missile by
the signatories to the Riyadh agreement </span><strong><span style="font-size: large;">require
increased pressure on Iran and Hezbollah
on a range of issues from the production
of ballistic missiles to regional
subversion."</span></strong></span><br />
</blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Thus, as things
increasingly heat up in the Middle East, it
appears the anti-Iran and anti-Shia alliance
of convenience between the Saudis and
Israelis appears to have placed Lebanon in
the cross hairs of yet another looming
Israeli-Hezbollah war. And the war in Yemen
will also continue to escalate - perhaps now
with increasingly overt Israeli political
support. According to </span>
<a href="http://news.nana10.co.il/Article/?ArticleID=1272790&sid=126">
Channel 10's commentary</a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
(translation), "In the cable, Israeli
ambassadors were also asked to convey
<strong>an unusual message of support for
Saudi Arabia</strong> in light of the war in
which it is involved in Yemen against the
Iranian-backed rebels."</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">All of this
this comes, perhaps </span><a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-10-28/shocking-viral-interview-qatar-confesses-secrets-behind-syrian-war" target="_blank">not
coincidentally</a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">,
at the very moment ISIS is on the verge of
complete annihilation (partly at the hands
of Hezbollah), and as both Israel and Saudi
Arabia have of late increasingly declared </span><a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-09-11/breaking-news-saudi-crown-princes-secret-visit-israel-brings-embassy-scramble" target="_blank">"red
lines"</a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> concerning
perceived Iranian influence across the
region as well as broad Hezbollah acceptance
and popularity within Lebanon.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">
What has both Israel and the Saudis worried
is the fact that the Syrian war has
strengthened Hezbollah, not weakened it. And
now we have <strong>smoking gun internal
evidence that Israel is quietly formalizing
its unusual alliance with Saudi Arabia</strong>
and its power-hungry and hawkish crown
prince Mohammed bin Salman</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">
<em>This article was originally published by</em></span><span style="font-size: large;"><em>
</em></span>
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---------------------------------------http://www.blogger.com/profile/04026996012133110417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-685819527131893043.post-20500901435485331742017-11-07T17:10:00.002-08:002017-11-07T17:10:15.662-08:00 “Unparalleled Catastrophe”: The Possible Use of Nuclear Weapons by the US Within Months? Why?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div class="title">
<h2 itemprop="headline">
“Unparalleled Catastrophe”: The Possible Use of Nuclear Weapons by the US Within Months? Why?</h2>
<h3 class="subtitle">
Part I</h3>
<div class="meta">
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<div class="author">
By <a href="https://www.globalresearch.ca/author/jan-oberg" title="Posts by Jan Oberg">Jan Oberg</a></div>
<div class="grDate">
Global Research, November 07, 2017</div>
<div class="sourceDate">
<a href="http://blog.transnational.org/2017/11/tff-pressinfo-434-nuclear-weapons-use-within-months-part-1-why/" target="_blank">Transnational.org</a> 5 November 2017</div>
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<em>That’s what I hold quite likely in case the present US
administration under Donald Trump’s formal leadership continues down the
path its in-fighting militarist fractions seem to have chosen.</em><br />
We’re in the worst, most dangerous situation since the Cuban Missile
Crisis. Sitting down and hoping for the best is neither responsible nor
viable or wise.<br />
I can only hope that I will be proved wrong. That the present
extremely dangerous tension-building will die down by some kind of
unforeseen events or attention being directed elsewhere.<br />
The world could quite well be drifting toward what Albert Einstein
called ’unparalleled catastrophe’. It’s something we may – or may not –
know more about when President Trump returns from his trip to Japan,
South Korea, China, Vietnam (APEC where he also likely to meet Russian
President Putin) and the Philippines.<br />
Except for 93-year old Jimmy Carter offering to go to North Korea, we
witness nobody taking any mediation initiative – not the UN’ S-G
Guterres, not the EU, not European NATO countries, not BRICS, not single
countries like Sweden, not… well, you name them.<br />
It’s about denial, about heads deep down in the sand, people hoping for the best at the moment when humanity’s future is <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/these-psychiatrists-say-trump-poses-an-imminent-threat-to-humanity/">in the hands of a couple of leaders</a> from whom they would probably not buy a used bicycle.<br />
That this silence all around is a roaring fact, is about as tragic and dangerous as the situation itself.<span id="more-6690"></span><br />
What most people don’t recognise – mainly thanks to the Western mainstream media – is that this is an <strong><em>a</em></strong>-symmetric
conflict, an extremely a-symmetric conflict at that. For instance,
North Korea’s military expenditures compared with those it must see as
its adversaries in case of war is about 1:100, China excluded.<br />
Why is the present situation so dangerous?<br />
Why are we facing, seriously and for the first time since the Cuban Missile Crisis, an increasing risk of nuclear war?<br />
Here some, but not all, the reasons:<br />
– the vastly superior US is run by what must in a historical perspective be close to a <em>kakistocracy</em> –
government by the worst, least qualified and most unscrupulous
citizens. There was no reason for Trump’s spontaneous golf club
statement about doing something the world has never seen before, i.e.
worse than Hiroshima and Nagasaki; neither for his post-dinner party
statement about calm before the storm; North Korea issues statements and
make tests that indeed offer reason for concern but they come out of
dwarf who sees himself cornered and cheated repeatedly;<br />
– asymmetric conflicts are particularly dangerous because the
superior side may successively be seduced by love of his own strength
and belief in his infallibility – while the weak side may react in panic
and draw the conclusion that it is better to strike first than be hit
by an overwhelming, all-destructive blow by the superior adversary;<br />
– the rush into ’group think’ – we can make no mistakes, we are
morally superior. Attacks and warfare, by definition, rest on what
Norwegian philosopher Harald Ofstad so precisely called ’contempt for
weakness’ – an integral part also of the Nazi ideology. All US leaders
and the far majority of news reports in our media build on little but
clear contempt for North Korea;<br />
– since the US of today is inept at diplomacy and second to none in
only one field, namely the military, hubris is a factor that can’t be
excluded; additionally, the US has not yet bothered to appoint an
ambassador to Seoul. One indeed wonders what kind of contacts there
actually are beyond the North Korean ambassador to the UN; the risk of
the parties getting their lives crossed is immanent and large;<br />
– as reported by the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/28/world/asia/north-korea-nuclear-weapons-japan-south-korea.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=1">New York Times</a>,
one can already sense the rationale behind the increasingly serious
talk in South Korea and Japan about acquiring some national nuclear
capacity; they too do not feel confident or secure with the so-called
nuclear umbrella ’protection’ of a US under Trump that is even more
unpredictable than Pyongyang and they know that North Korea could make
them victims in a game that would not hit or hurt the US mainland. If
within a few months or a year, 2-3 countries in the region feel
compelled to acquire nuclear weapons, I for one fail to see how a
nuclear exchange at some point later can be avoided;<br />
– President Trump’s speech to and about Iran and the nuclear deal was
not only totally unacceptable in terms of US-Iran relation and his –
fake – image of Iran; in all its primitive anti-diplomacy thrust, it
also sent a signal to everybody in Pyongyang that there is no point in
trying to achieve a written agreement with the U.S. because, simply, you
cannot trust it;<br />
– today’s US does not have a unified, consolidated foreign policy and
much less a cohesive strategy or doctrine. We see helter-skelter
procedures and ongoing fight among the White House, Congress, Pentagon,
State Department, CIA and other so-called intelligence services –
something that can only add to the increasing danger;<br />
– there is no clear taboo in the US against the US using nuclear weapons. A <a href="http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/full/10.1162/ISEC_a_00284">recent scientific study reveals</a> that
a clear majority of men and women in the US would find it OK to kill 2
million civilian Iranians if that could save the lives of 20.000 US
soldiers in trouble in that country;<br />
– Western mainstream media that still shape most people’s opinions
about the world and adversaries of US and NATO has stopped, long ago,
asking critical questions and using alternative expertise. We’re fed
with only Western perspectives while the North Koreans, their interests,
history, fears, worldview, leadership and policies are written off as
not worthy of analysis and reporting;<br />
– experts used by these media have been educated in understanding
only Western academic theories and perspectives and they themselves and
their research is paid by NATO governments, think tanks and corporate
funds – no risk there that such unfree, for all practical purposes
commissioned, research would lead to massive critique of US policies in
this case either. One may easily imagine, however, how the same media
and experts would express themselves and fulfill their expert roles had
any other country in the world repeatedly, recklessly and unpredictably
issued one nuclear-use threat after the other;<br />
– politics have gradually become devoid of intellectualism and, to
quite an extent, knowledge and awareness of dilemmas, compared with a
couple of decades ago. The type of people and background that populated
the White House at the time of Kennedy don’t exist anymore. More money
is spent on marketing decision than on intellectual inputs into them.<br />
– and if there is no nuclear exchange in the near future, there may
well be later because the U.S. leads in absurd investments nuclear
weapons development, <a href="https://www.defensenews.com/breaking-news/2017/10/31/americas-nuclear-weapons-will-cost-12-trillion-over-the-next-30-years/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Breaking">planning to spend US$ 1200 billion – 1,2 trillion – on nuclear weapons development</a>.
Without fearology, making citizens – taxpayers – fear whoever is
around, there would be a mass mobilisation against such perverse
squandering of money.<br />
The hashtag #<em>metoo</em> against sexual harassment is urgently
important, pointing to a huge problem and the necessity of ending
patriarchy – which happens to also be a basic driving force underlying
militarism and war.<br />
Sexual harassment is totally unacceptable. But threatening the
annihilation of large parts of, or all of, humanity is an issue of quite
a different order.<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
It is indeed time, too, that hashtags such as, say,</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<em>#metoo_fornuclearfreedom</em> or <em>#metoo_notonuclearwar</em> or <em>#metoo_forBANtreaty</em> –</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
taking the larger perspective of humanity as one – would be used by millions or billions of people in months to come.</div>
However, in these dark times, we need of course much much more than clicking <em>Like </em>buttons and using hashtags on social media.<br />
We need a sweeping global mobilisation and manifestation of civil
society demanding that weapons in the hands of a few hundred people that
can kill us all are incompatible with civilisation.<br />
We need emphasis on the fact that there has never been held a
referendum that gave these few people a mandate to hold humanity’s being
or not being in their hands.<br />
We need pointing out that the real international law violators and terrorists – nuclear balance of <em>terror</em> advocates – be stopped.<br />
That is, a sweeping BAN and nuclear abolition movement, particularly in the nuclear weapons countries.<br />
Part 2 to follow shortly will outline some of the steps that must be taken.<br />
<div class="copyright">
The original source of this article is <a href="http://blog.transnational.org/2017/11/tff-pressinfo-434-nuclear-weapons-use-within-months-part-1-why/" target="_blank">Transnational.org</a></div>
<div class="copyright">
Copyright © <a href="https://www.globalresearch.ca/author/jan-oberg" title="Posts by Jan Oberg">Jan Oberg</a>, <a href="http://blog.transnational.org/2017/11/tff-pressinfo-434-nuclear-weapons-use-within-months-part-1-why/" target="_blank">Transnational.org</a>, 2017</div>
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---------------------------------------http://www.blogger.com/profile/04026996012133110417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-685819527131893043.post-7032588283309410392017-11-07T17:09:00.001-08:002017-11-07T17:09:41.948-08:00“False Flags” Are So Common that U.S. Officials Commonly Discuss Them<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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“False Flags” Are So Common that U.S. Officials Commonly Discuss Them</h2>
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By <a href="https://www.globalresearch.ca/author/washington-s-blog" title="Posts by Washington's Blog">Washington's Blog</a></div>
<div class="grDate">
Global Research, November 06, 2017</div>
<div class="sourceDate">
<a href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2017/11/false-flags-common-u-s-officials-commonly-discuss.html" target="_blank">Washington's Blog</a> 5 November 2017</div>
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<em>Despite the attempt to marginalize the concept, “false flags” are so common that U.S. officials frequently use that phrase.</em><br />
The Washington Post <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29742-2004Jun9.html" target="_blank" title="notes">notes</a> that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld approved as an acceptable interrogation method<br />
<blockquote>
A technique known as “<strong>false flag</strong>,” or deceiving a detainee into believing he is being interrogated by someone from another country.</blockquote>
NBC News <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/news/investigations/war-anonymous-british-spies-attacked-hackers-snowden-docs-show-n21361" target="_blank" title="points out">points out</a>:<br />
<blockquote>
In another document taken from the NSA by Snowden and
obtained by NBC News, a JTRIG official said the unit’s mission included
computer network attacks, disruption, “Active Covert Internet
Operations,” and “Covert Technical Operations.” Among the methods listed
in the document were jamming phones, computers and email accounts and
masquerading as an enemy in a<strong> “false flag” </strong>operation. The same document said GCHQ was increasing its emphasis on using cyber tools to attack adversaries.</blockquote>
Washington’s Blog asked high-level NSA official Bill Binney* if he had heard of the term “false flags” when he was with the NSA.<br />
Binney responded:<br />
<blockquote>
Sure, they were under deception and manipulation
programs. I was not involved in doing them; but, I did have to figure
out some that the other side was doing. The other side called them
“dezsinformatsiya” and Manipulatsiya.”<br />
<span id="more-69964"></span><br />
The Brits have been doing this for several hundred years and are quite good at it.</blockquote>
Washington’s Blog asked Philip Giraldi – a former counter-terrorism
specialist and military intelligence officer with the CIA – the same
question with regards to his experience with the CIA.<br />
Giraldi responded:<br />
<blockquote>
Yes, of course. We did false flags, and called them that,
frequently in the operations directorate using false documentation to
indicated that we were nationals of a country that was not the United
States. Almost every CIA officer had false third country identification
when operating overseas….</blockquote>
We followed up by asking:<br />
<blockquote>
Is it fair to say some of the false flags were for the
purpose (i.e. premeditated) of blaming another country or group … not
only just in case caught?</blockquote>
Giraldi replied:<br />
<blockquote>
Sometimes if it were a covert action attempting to do
just that but more often just for cover reasons to make one appear to
not be American…</blockquote>
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_David_Steele" target="_blank" title="former CIA clandestine services case officer">Robert David Steele</a> –
a 20-year Marine Corps infantry and intelligence officer, the
second-ranking civilian in U.S. Marine Corps Intelligence, and former
CIA clandestine services case officer – <a href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2015/03/steele-every-single-terrorist-attack-u-s-false-flag-egged-intelligence-services.html" title="said">said</a>:<br />
<blockquote>
Most terrorists are false flag terrorists or are created by our own security services.<br />
***<br />
In the United States, every single terrorist incident we have had has
been a false flag, or has been an informant pushed on by the FBI.</blockquote>
Steele has repeatedly and publicly said (and also confirmed to
Washington’s Blog) that he personally carried out a “false flag” attack
while working as a U.S. intelligence officer.<br />
Indeed, false flags are <a href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2017/07/ff.html" title="so common">so common</a> that there are official rules of engagement prohibiting false flags in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_flag#Naval_warfare" target="_blank" title="naval">naval</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_flag#Air_warfare" target="_blank" title="air">air</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_flag#Land_warfare" target="_blank" title="land">land</a> warfare.<br />
* William Binney is the highest-level NSA whistleblower in history.
Binney is the NSA executive who created the agency’s mass surveillance
program for digital information, who served as the senior technical
director within the agency, who managed six thousand NSA employees, the
36-year NSA veteran widely regarded as a “legend” within the agency and
the NSA’s best-ever analyst and code-breaker, who mapped out the Soviet
command-and-control structure before anyone else knew how, and so
predicted Soviet invasions before they happened (“in the 1970s, he
decrypted the Soviet Union’s command system, which provided the US and
its allies with real-time surveillance of all Soviet troop movements and
Russian atomic weapons”).<br />
Videos<br />
Examples of False Flags mentioned by senior US officials<br />
Colonel <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Wilkerson" target="_blank" title="Lawrence Wilkerson">Lawrence Wilkerson</a>, former chief of staff to Colin Powell:</div>
---------------------------------------http://www.blogger.com/profile/04026996012133110417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-685819527131893043.post-23284905868519375902017-11-07T17:08:00.001-08:002017-11-07T17:08:54.432-08:00Iran Accuses U.S. Government of Using Bin Laden’s Files to Distort Truth about 9/11<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Iran Accuses U.S. Government of Using Bin Laden’s Files to Distort Truth about 9/11</h2>
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By <a href="https://www.globalresearch.ca/author/southfront" title="Posts by South Front">South Front</a></div>
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Global Research, November 06, 2017</div>
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<a href="https://southfront.org/iran-accuses-u-s-government-of-using-bin-ladens-files-to-distort-truth-about-911/" target="_blank">South Front</a> 4 November 2017</div>
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<em>On November 2, Iran Foreign Minister Javad Zarif accused the CIA
and the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) think tank of
spreading fake news using the Bin Laden files that were released by the
CIA on November 1.</em><br />
In a tweet, Zarif accused both the CIA and the FDD of selectively
releasing documents that link Iran with al-Qaeda in order to accuse Iran
of playing a role in the 9/11 attack.<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
A record low for the reach of petrodollars: CIA
& FDD fake news w/ selective AlQaeda docs re: Iran can’t whitewash
role of US allies in 9/11</div>
— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) <a href="https://twitter.com/JZarif/status/926169491695947776?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 2, 2017</a></blockquote>
Back on November 1, the FDD highlighted one of the Bin Laden’s files
that describes an alleged deal between al-Qaeda and Iran. Al-Qaeda
planned to strike US interests in “Saudi Arabia and the Gulf” in
exchange for Iran offering them “money, arms, [and] training in
Hezbollah camps in Lebanon.” The file was allegedly written by one of
bin Laden’s lieutenants.<br />
This was not the first time western think tanks attempted to accuse
Iran of participating in 9/11. The FDD itself is known for its anti-Iran
studies and reports. Such think tanks are usually founded by Arabian
Gulf countries, or Israel.<br />
Even after 16 years after 9/11 most of mainstream think tanks and
main stream media still ignore the fact that 15 of the 19 terrorists
involved in the 9/11 attacks were Saudi citizens when they provide
coverage of the horrifying terrorist attack.<br />
These institutions even ignore the fact that the US itself has armed
al-Qaeda-affiliate groups indirectly since 2011, and directly since 2014
in Syria. <a href="https://southfront.org/former-qatari-prime-minister-admits-qatar-saudi-arabia-turkey-and-us-coordinated-efforts-to-support-terrorists-in-syria/">This was confirmed by the former Qatari Prime Minister on October 26</a>.<br />
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The original source of this article is <a href="https://southfront.org/iran-accuses-u-s-government-of-using-bin-ladens-files-to-distort-truth-about-911/" target="_blank">South Front</a></div>
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Copyright © <a href="https://www.globalresearch.ca/author/southfront" title="Posts by South Front">South Front</a>, <a href="https://southfront.org/iran-accuses-u-s-government-of-using-bin-ladens-files-to-distort-truth-about-911/" target="_blank">South Front</a>, 2017</div>
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---------------------------------------http://www.blogger.com/profile/04026996012133110417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-685819527131893043.post-31162552497346062332017-11-07T17:07:00.001-08:002017-11-07T17:07:23.898-08:00The Strategies of Global Warfare: War with China and Russia? Washington’s Military Design in the Asia-Pacific<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The Strategies of Global Warfare: War with China and Russia? Washington’s Military Design in the Asia-Pacific</h2>
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By <a href="https://www.globalresearch.ca/author/michel-chossudovsky" title="Posts by Prof Michel Chossudovsky">Prof Michel Chossudovsky</a></div>
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Global Research, November 07, 2017</div>
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Global Research 22 August 2017</div>
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<em>First published in August 2016, this article documents US war
plans directed against China and Russia. It should be understood that
from a strategic point of view, US threats against North Korea are a
stepping stone towards China and Russia.</em><br />
<strong><em>Highlights;</em></strong><br />
<em>The Contemporary Context involves a scenario of a nuclear attack
on Russia. “Kill the Russians”: The New Cold War is no longer Cold</em><br />
<div>
<em>A former CIA Official is calling for the “Killing of Russians”. The US media and the the State Department applaud. </em><em>(scroll down for more details)</em><br />
</div>
<a href="http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RR1100/RR1140/RAND_RR1140.pdf" rel="lightbox[5539814]" title="Screen Shot 2016-08-05 at 11.55.56"><img alt="" class="aligncenter" height="307" src="http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Screen-Shot-2016-08-05-at-11.55.561-1024x439.png" title="Screen Shot 2016-08-05 at 11.55.56" width="717" /></a><br />
<a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Screen-Shot-2016-08-05-at-11.59.021.png" rel="lightbox[5539814]" title="Screen Shot 2016-08-05 at 11.59.02"><img alt="" class="aligncenter" height="195" src="http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Screen-Shot-2016-08-05-at-11.59.021-1024x279.png" title="Screen Shot 2016-08-05 at 11.59.02" width="717" /></a><br />
<strong>Michel Chossudovsky, November 7, 2017</strong><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
***</div>
<strong>Introduction</strong><br />
<div>
It is important to focus on Southeast Asia and East Asia in a broader
geopolitical context. China, North Korea as well as Russia are
potential targets under Obama’s “Pivot to Asia”, involving the combined
threat of missile deployments, naval power and pre-emptive nuclear war.<br />
We are not dealing with piecemeal military endeavors. The regional
Asia-Pacific military agenda under the auspices of US Pacific Command
(USPACOM) is part of a global process of US-NATO military planning.<br />
US military actions are carefully coordinated. Major military and
covert intelligence operations are being undertaken simultaneously in
the Middle East, Eastern Europe, sub-Saharan Africa, Central Asia and
the Asia Pacific region. In turn, the planning of military operations is
coordinated with non-conventional forms of warfare including regime
change, financial warfare and economic sanctions.<br />
<a href="https://store.globalresearch.ca/store/the-globalization-of-war-americas-long-war-against-humanity/"><img alt="" class="alignright" height="306" src="http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Globalization-of-war-front-cover-michel-chossudovsky.jpg" title="Globalization-of-war-front-cover-michel-chossudovsky" width="205" /></a><a href="https://store.globalresearch.ca/store/the-globalization-of-war-americas-long-war-against-humanity/">To order Michel Chossudovsky’s book from Global Research click image </a><br />
The current situation is all the more critical inasmuch as a US-NATO
war on Russia, China, North Korea and Iran is part of the US
presidential election debate. War is presented as a political and
military option to Western public opinion.<br />
The US-NATO military agenda combines both major theater operations as
well as covert actions geared towards destabilizing sovereign states.
America’s hegemonic project is to destabilize and destroy countries
through acts of war, support of terrorist organizations, regime change
and economic warfare.<br />
While, a World War Three Scenario has been on the drawing board of
the Pentagon for more than ten years, military action against Russia and
China is now contemplated at an “operational level”. U.S. and NATO
forces have been deployed in essentially three major regions of the
World:<br />
<ol>
<li>The Middle East and North Africa. Theater wars and US-NATO sponsored
insurgencies directed against Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen
under the banner of the “Global War on Terrorism”</li>
<li>Eastern Europe including Poland and Ukraine, with military
maneuvers, war games and the deployment of military hardware at Russia’s
doorstep which could potentially lead to confrontation with the Russian
Federation.</li>
<li>The U.S. and its allies are also threatening China under President Obama’s “Pivot to Asia”.</li>
<li>Russia is also confronted on its North Eastern frontier, through the deployment of NORAD-Northcom</li>
<li>In other regions of the World including Latin America and
sub-Saharan Africa, US intervention is geared towards regime change and
economic warfare directed against a number of non-compliant countries:
Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador, Bolivia, Cuba, Salvador,
Honduras, Nicaragua.</li>
</ol>
In sub-Saharan Africa, the thrust has largely used the pretext of
“Islamic terrorism” to wage counterterrorism ops under the auspices of
the US Africa Command (USAFRICOM).<br />
In South Asia, Washington’s intent is to build an alliance with India with a view to confronting China.<br />
<strong style="font-size: 1.5em;">Pivot to Asia and the Threat of Nuclear War </strong><br />
Within the Asia Pacific region, China, North Korea and Russia are the
target of a preemptive nuclear attack by the US. It is important to
review the history of nuclear war and nuclear threats as well US nuclear
doctrine as first formulated in 1945 under the Truman administration.<br />
<strong>HIROSHIMA AND NAGASAKI </strong><br />
<div style="padding-left: 30px;">
<em>“We have discovered the most terrible
bomb in the history of the world. It may be the fire destruction
prophesied in the Euphrates Valley Era, after Noah and his fabulous
Ark…. This weapon is to be used against Japan … [We] will use it so that
military objectives and soldiers and sailors are the target and not
women and children. Even if the Japs are savages, ruthless, merciless
and fanatic, we as the leader of the world for the common welfare cannot
drop that terrible bomb on the old capital or the new. … The target
will be a purely military one… It seems to be the most terrible thing
ever discovered, but it can be made the most useful.” (<a href="http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/bomb/large/documents/fulltext.php?fulltextid=15">President Harry S. Truman, Diary, July 25, 1945</a>)</em></div>
<div style="padding-left: 30px;">
<em>“The World will note that the first
atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima a military base. That was because
we wished in this first attack to avoid, insofar as possible, the
killing of civilians</em>.<em>.”</em> (President Harry S. Truman in a radio speech to the Nation, August 9, 1945).</div>
[Note: the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6,
1945; the Second on Nagasaki, on August 9, on the same day as Truman’s
radio speech to the Nation]<br />
(<a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=GAN20050807&articleId=819">Listen to Excerpt of his speech, Hiroshima audio video</a>)<br />
<a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/hiroshima_afterbomb.jpg" rel="lightbox[5539814]" title="hiroshima_afterbomb"><img alt="" class="aligncenter" height="323" src="http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/hiroshima_afterbomb.jpg" title="hiroshima_afterbomb" width="430" /></a><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
Hiroshima after the bomb</div>
Is Truman’s notion of “collateral damage” in the case of nuclear war
still relevant? Publicly available military documents confirm that
nuclear war is still on the drawing board of the Pentagon.<br />
Compared to the 1950s, however, today’s nuclear weapons are far more
advanced. The delivery system is more precise. In addition to China and
Russia, Iran and North Korea are targets for a first strike pre-emptive
nuclear attack.<br />
US military documents claim that the new generation of tactical
nuclear weapons are harmless to civilians. B61 mini-nuke depending on
the model has a variable explosive capacity (one third to almost 12
times a Hiroshima bomb).<br />
<strong>NUCLEAR DOCTRINE AND POLITICAL INSANITY</strong><br />
Let us be under no illusions, the Pentagon’s plan to “blow up the planet” using advanced nuclear weapons is still on the books.<br />
The tactical nuclear weapons were specifically developed for use in
post Cold War “conventional conflicts with third world nations”. In
October 2001, in the immediate wake of 9/11, Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld <strong>envisaged the use of the B61-11 tactical nuclear bomb in Afghanistan. </strong>The targets were Al Qaeda cave bunkers in the Tora Bora mountains.<br />
Rumsfeld stated at the time that while the “conventional” bunker buster bombs “‘are going to be able to do the job’, … <strong>he did not rule out the eventual use of nuclear weapons.”</strong><em> (</em>Quoted in the Houston Chronicle, 20 October 2001, emphasis added.)<br />
The use of the B61-11 was also contemplated during the 2003 bombing and invasion of<strong> Iraq</strong> as well as in the 2011 NATO bombings of Libya.<br />
In this regard, the B61-11 was described as “a precise,
earth-penetrating low-yield nuclear weapon against high-value
underground targets”, which included Saddam Hussein’s underground
bunkers:<br />
<blockquote>
”If Saddam was arguably the highest value target in
Iraq, then a good case could be made for using a nuclear weapon like the
B61-11 to assure killing him and decapitating the regime” (Defense
News, December 8, 2003).</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://socioecohistory.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/b61-11_tactical_nuclear_bomb.jpg"><img alt="Picture: B61-11 tactical nuclear bomb. In 1996 under the Clinton administration, the B61-11 tactical nuclear weapon was slated to be used by the US in an attack against Libya." class="aligncenter" height="200" src="https://socioecohistory.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/b61-11_tactical_nuclear_bomb.jpg?w=1000&h=438" width="500" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
B61-11 tactical nuclear bomb. In 1996
under the Clinton administration, the B61-11 tactical nuclear weapon was
slated to be used by the US in an attack against Libya.</div>
All the safeguards of the Cold War era, which categorized the nuclear
bomb as “a weapon of last resort”, have been scrapped. “Offensive”
military actions using nuclear warheads are now described as acts of
“self-defense”. During the Cold War, the doctrine of Mutually Assured
Destruction (MAD) prevailed, namely that the use of nuclear weapons
against the Soviet Union would result in “the destruction of both the
attacker and the defender”.<br />
In the post Cold war era, US nuclear doctrine was redefined. There is
no sanity in what is euphemistically called US foreign policy.<br />
<strong>At no point since the first atomic bomb was dropped on
Hiroshima on August 6th, 1945, has humanity been closer to the
unthinkable…</strong><br />
<h3>
<strong style="font-size: 1.17em;">Nuclear War is Good for Business</strong></h3>
Spearheaded by the “defense contractors” (Lockheed Martin, Northrop
Grumman, Boeing, British Aerospace et al), the Obama administration has
proposed a <strong>one trillion dollar plan</strong> over a 30 year
period to develop a new generation of nuclear weapons, bombers,
submarines, and intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) largely
directed at Russia and China.<br />
<h2>
<strong>War with Russia: From the Cold War to the New Cold War</strong></h2>
Blowing up Russia, targeting Russian cities is still on the
Pentagon’s drawing board. It is also supported by enabling legislation
in the US Congress.<br />
<blockquote>
<strong>The US House of Representatives H.Res. 758 Resolution</strong><br />
On 18 November 2014, a major resolution H. Res. 758 was introduced
in the House of Representatives. Its main thrust consists in portraying
Russia as an “Aggressor Nation”, which has invaded Ukraine and calling
for military action directed against Russia.</blockquote>
In the words of Hillary Clinton, the nuclear option is on the table.<strong> Preemptive nuclear war is part of her election campaign.</strong><br />
<a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Screen-Shot-2016-01-09-at-23.30.07.png" rel="lightbox[5539814]" title="Screen Shot 2016-01-09 at 23.30.07"><img alt="" class="aligncenter" height="505" src="http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Screen-Shot-2016-01-09-at-23.30.07.png" title="Screen Shot 2016-01-09 at 23.30.07" width="589" /></a><br />
Source: National Security Archive<br />
<blockquote>
According to 1956 Plan, H-Bombs were to be Used Against
Priority “Air Power” Targets in the Soviet Union, China, and Eastern
Europe.<br />
Major Cities in Soviet Bloc, Including East Berlin, Were High
Priorities in “Systematic Destruction” for Atomic Bombings. (William
Burr, U.S. Cold War Nuclear Attack Target List of 1200 Soviet Bloc
Cities “From East Germany to China”, <a href="http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/nukevault/ebb538-Cold-War-Nuclear-Target-List-Declassified-First-Ever/" target="_blank">National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 538</a>, December 2015</blockquote>
<a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Screen-Shot-2015-12-27-at-11.31.48.png" rel="lightbox[5498130]" title="Screen Shot 2015-12-27 at 11.31.48"><img alt="" class="aligncenter" height="284" src="http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Screen-Shot-2015-12-27-at-11.31.48-1024x405.png" title="Screen Shot 2015-12-27 at 11.31.48" width="717" /></a><br />
Excerpt of list of 1200 cities targeted for nuclear attack in alphabetical order. National Security Archive<br />
The above declassified document provides an understanding of the
magnitude of a first strike nuclear attack with more than 1000 Russian
cities targeted.<br />
<h2>
<strong>The Contemporary Context involves a scenario of a nuclear attack on Russia. </strong></h2>
<div>
<h2>
<strong>“Kill the Russians”: The New Cold War is no longer Cold</strong></h2>
A former CIA Official is calling for the “Killing of Russians”. The US media and the the State Department applaud:<br />
<a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Screen-Shot-2016-08-14-at-11.54.17.png" rel="lightbox[5539814]" title="Screen Shot 2016-08-14 at 11.54.17"><img alt="" class="aligncenter" height="455" src="http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Screen-Shot-2016-08-14-at-11.54.17-1024x650.png" title="Screen Shot 2016-08-14 at 11.54.17" width="717" /></a><br />
<br />
<strong style="font-size: 1.5em;">Pivot to Asia: China is threatened by the US military in the South China Sea and the East China Sea</strong><br />
<strong>WAR WITH CHINA IS CURRENTLY ON THE DRAWING BOARD OF THE PENTAGON AS OUTLINED IN A RAND REPORT COMMISSIONED BY THE US ARMY</strong><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RR1100/RR1140/RAND_RR1140.pdf" rel="lightbox[5539814]" title="Screen Shot 2016-08-05 at 11.55.56"><img alt="" class="aligncenter" height="307" src="http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Screen-Shot-2016-08-05-at-11.55.561-1024x439.png" title="Screen Shot 2016-08-05 at 11.55.56" width="717" /></a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Screen-Shot-2016-08-05-at-11.59.021.png" rel="lightbox[5539814]" title="Screen Shot 2016-08-05 at 11.59.02"><img alt="" class="aligncenter" height="195" src="http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Screen-Shot-2016-08-05-at-11.59.021-1024x279.png" title="Screen Shot 2016-08-05 at 11.59.02" width="717" /></a><br />
<div title="Page 3">
<a href="http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RR1100/RR1140/RAND_RR1140.pdf">According to the Rand report</a>:<br />
<blockquote>
Whereas a clear U.S. victory once seemed probable, it is
increasingly likely that a conflict could involve inconclusive fighting
with steep losses on both sides. The United States cannot expect to
control a conflict it cannot dominate militarily.<br />
http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RR1100/RR1140/RAND_RR1140.pdf</blockquote>
</div>
<h2>
<strong>Attack China Preemptively (“In Self Defense”)</strong></h2>
<a href="http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RR1100/RR1140/RAND_RR1140.pdf">The report </a>is
notoriously ambiguous. It focusses on how a war can be avoided while
analyzing the circumstances under which a preemptive war against China
is a win for the US:<br />
<blockquote>
The need to think through war with China is made all the
more important by developments in military capabilities. Sensors, weapon
guidance, digital networking, and other information technologies used
to target opposing forces have advanced to the point where both U.S. and
Chinese military forces seriously threaten each other. <strong>This creates the means as well as the incentive to strike enemy forces before they strike one’s own</strong>.
In turn, this creates a bias toward sharp, reciprocal strikes from the
outset of a war, yet with neither side able to gain con- trol and both
having ample capacity to keep fighting, even as military losses and
economic costs mount.</blockquote>
<div title="Page 3">
The presumption of this report is that China is
threatening us, which justifies pre-emptive warfare. There is no
evidence of a Chinese military threat. Within the realm of trade and
investment, China’s constitutes a potential competitor to US economic
hegemony. According to<a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/chinas-pivot-to-world-markets-washingtons-pivot-to-world-wars/5541802"> James Petras: </a></div>
<blockquote>
<div title="Page 3">
To counter China’s economic advance, the Obama regime has implemented a policy of <strong>building economic
walls at home, trade restrictions abroad and military confrontation in
the South China Seas – China’s strategic trade routes.</strong></div>
</blockquote>
<div title="Page 3">
The purpose of the RAND report is that Chinese
policymakers will read it. What we are dealing with is a process of
military intimidation including veiled threats:</div>
<div title="Page 3">
<div title="Page 10">
<blockquote>
While the primary audience for this study is the U.S. policy community, <strong>we
hope that Chinese policymakers will also think through possible courses
and consequences of war with the United States, includ ing potential
damage to China’s economic development and threats to China’s
equilibrium</strong> and cohesion. We find little in the public domain
to indicate that the Chinese political leadership has given this matter
the attention it deserves.</blockquote>
The Report outlines “Four Analytic Scenarios” on how a war with China could be carried out:<br />
<blockquote>
The path of war might be defined mainly by two variables:
intensity (from mild to severe) and duration (from a few days to a year
or more). Thus, we analyze four cases: <strong>brief and severe, long and severe, brief and mild, and long and mild</strong>.
The main determinant of intensity is whether, at the outset, U.S. and
Chinese political leaders grant or deny their respective militaries
permission to execute their plans to attack opposing forces
unhesitatingly.</blockquote>
</div>
</div>
<div title="Page 3">
The concluding comments of the report underscore the
potential weakness of China in relation to US-allied forces “…they do
not point to Chinese dominance or victory.”</div>
<div title="Page 3">
The report creates an ideological war narrative. It is
flawed in terms of its understanding of modern warfare and weapons
systems. <strong>It is largely a propaganda ploy directed against the Chinese leadership.</strong>
It totally ignores Chinese history and China’s military perceptions
which are largely based on defending the Nation’s historical national
borders.</div>
<div title="Page 3">
Much of the analysis focusses on a protracted
conventional war over several years. The use of nuclear weapons is not
envisaged by the RAND report despite the fact that they are currently
deployed on a pre-emptive basis against China. The following assertions
are at odds with US nuclear doctrine as defined in the 2002 nuclear
posture review, which allows the use of tactical nuclear weapons in the
conventional war theater:</div>
<div title="Page 3">
<div title="Page 9">
<div>
<div>
<blockquote>
It is unlikely that nuclear weapons would be used: Even
in an intensely violent conventional conflict, neither side would regard
its losses as so serious, its prospects so dire, or the stakes so vital
that it would run the risk of devastating nuclear retaliation by using
nuclear weapons first. We also assume that China would not attack the
U.S. homeland, except via cyberspace.</blockquote>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div title="Page 3">
While the US, according to the report, does not contemplate the use nuclear weapons, the report examines the circumstances <strong>under which China might use nukes against the US to avoid defeat.</strong> The analysis is diabolical:</div>
<div title="Page 3">
<div title="Page 50">
<div>
<div>
<blockquote>
Thus, it cannot be entirely excluded that the Chinese
leadership would decide that only the use of nuclear weapons would
prevent total defeat and the state’s destruction. However, even under
such desperate conditions, the resort to nuclear weapons would not be
China’s only option: It could instead accept defeat.<strong> Indeed,
because U.S. nuclear retaliation would make the destruction of the state
and collapse of the country all the more certain, accepting defeat
would be a better option (depending on the severity of U.S. terms) than
nuclear escalation.</strong> This logic, along with China’s ingrained no-first-use policy, suggests that Chinese first use is most improbable. (p. 30)</blockquote>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div title="Page 3">
In other words, China has the option of being totally destroyed or surrendering to the US. The report concludes as follows:</div>
<div title="Page 3">
<div title="Page 88">
<blockquote>
In a nutshell, despite military trends that favor it,
China could not win, and might lose, a severe war with the United States
in 2025, especially if prolonged. Moreover, the economic costs and
political dangers of such a war could imperil China’s stability, end its
development, and undermine the legitimacy of the state. (p 68)</blockquote>
</div>
</div>
<h2 title="Page 3">
<strong>Southeast Asia</strong></h2>
<div title="Page 3">
Washington’s objective is to draw South East Asia and
the Far East into a protracted military conflict by creating divisions
between China and ASEAN countries, most of which are the victims of
Western colonialism and military aggression: Extensive crimes against
humanity have been committed against Japan, Vietnam, Cambodia, Korea,
the Philippines, Indonesia. In a bitter irony, these countries are now
military allies of the United States. Below are selected clips
confirming extensive US war crimes and crimes against humanity:</div>
<hr />
<div title="Page 3">
<strong>US WAR CRIMES AND CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY</strong></div>
<div title="Page 3">
<strong>Indonesia </strong></div>
<div style="text-align: center;" title="Page 3">
<a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Screen-Shot-2016-08-24-at-10.47.56.png"><img alt="" class=" wp-image-5542299 aligncenter" height="154" src="http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Screen-Shot-2016-08-24-at-10.47.56-1024x220.png" title="Screen Shot 2016-08-24 at 10.47.56" width="717" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Up to one
million killed in Indonesia, the CIA acknowledges 105,000, The lists of
Communist sympathizers (and their family members) were established by
the CIA </span></div>
<strong>Korea</strong><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Screen-Shot-2016-08-24-at-10.59.45.png"><img alt="" class="aligncenter wp-image-5542302" height="567" src="http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Screen-Shot-2016-08-24-at-10.59.45-1024x900.png" title="Screen Shot 2016-08-24 at 10.59.45" width="645" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<strong>Vietnam</strong></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Screen-Shot-2016-08-24-at-11.09.56.png"><img alt="" class="aligncenter wp-image-5542305" height="272" src="http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Screen-Shot-2016-08-24-at-11.09.56-1024x453.png" title="Screen Shot 2016-08-24 at 11.09.56" width="614" /></a></div>
</div>
<div>
<strong>THE LIST OF US CRIMES IS EXTENSIVE: 37 “VICTIM NATIONS” SINCE WORLD WAR II</strong></div>
<div>
<a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Screen-Shot-2016-08-24-at-11.54.13.png"><img alt="" class="aligncenter wp-image-5542317" height="131" src="http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Screen-Shot-2016-08-24-at-11.54.13-1024x208.png" title="Screen Shot 2016-08-24 at 11.54.13" width="645" /></a></div>
<div>
<hr />
</div>
<div>
<h2 style="text-align: left;">
<strong>China and ASEAN </strong></h2>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Bilateral economic relations with China are
slated to be destabilized. The Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a US
hegemonic project which seeks to control trade, investment,
intellectual property, etc in the Asia Pacific region.</div>
The RAND report states in so many words that maritime territorial
disputes in the South China Sea and East China Sea would have a
devastating impact on Asian countries, extending from India to Japan:<br />
<div title="Page 85">
<div>
<div>
<blockquote>
The possibility of a Sino-U.S. war drawing in other
powers and many states cannot be excluded: In addition to Japan, perhaps
India, Vietnam, and NATO would be on the U.S. side; Russia and North
Korea would be on China’s side. Fighting could spread beyond the region.
War aims could expand, and as they did, so would the costs of losing.
Even if nuclear weapons were not used, China might find other ways to
attack the United States proper. (p. 65)</blockquote>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<h2>
US Deployments in the Asia-Pacific. China is encircled with US Military bases</h2>
<h2>
<a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/empire-in-asia-e1377199333368.png"><img alt="" class="aligncenter" height="504" src="http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/empire-in-asia-e1377199333368.png" title="empire-in-asia-e1377199333368" width="580" /></a></h2>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Source Antiwar.com</div>
<strong>THAAD MISSILE DEPLOYMENT IN SOUTH KOREA DIRECTED AGAINST CHINA</strong><br />
THAAD missiles are deployed in South Korea, against China, Russia and
North Korea. Washington states that THAAD is solely intended as a
Missile Shield against North Korea.<br />
<a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/160708-D-ZZ999-567.jpg" rel="lightbox[5539814]" title="160708-D-ZZ999-567"><img alt="" class="aligncenter" height="267" src="http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/160708-D-ZZ999-567.jpg" title="160708-D-ZZ999-567" width="400" /></a><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
THAAD System</div>
<strong>THE JEJU ISLAND MILITARY BASE DIRECTED AGAINST CHINA </strong><br />
Less than 500km from Shanghai<br />
<a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/jeju-map.gif" rel="lightbox[5539814]" title="jeju-map"><img alt="" class="aligncenter" height="263" src="http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/jeju-map.gif" title="jeju-map" width="338" /></a><br />
</div>
<div>
<strong>THE REMILITARIZATION OF JAPAN UNDER PRIME MINISTER ABE’S GOVERNMENT </strong></div>
<div>
Japan is firmly aligned behind the US. It is a partner in the Jeju
Island military base. Recent reports confirm Japan’s deployment of
surface to ship missiles in the East China sea.</div>
</div>
<blockquote>
<div>
<em>Japan is planning to deploy a new type of missile to the East
China Sea, where Tokyo is engaged in a tense territorial dispute with
Beijing. The decision marks a significant milestone in the drive by
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government and the ruling Liberal Democratic
Party (LDP) to remilitarize Japan. The planned missile system will be
designed locally, by the country’s expanding defence industry, rather
than being supplied by the United States or another ally.</em></div>
</blockquote>
<div>
The Japanese media has intimated that “the missile will have a built-in capacity to strike at land targets”.<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Screen-Shot-2016-08-22-at-10.38.59.png"><img alt="" class="aligncenter wp-image-5541978" height="473" src="http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Screen-Shot-2016-08-22-at-10.38.59-1024x676.png" title="Screen Shot 2016-08-22 at 10.38.59" width="717" /></a></div>
The US had military cooperation agreements with South-Korea,
Philippines, Japan, Vietnam, Cambodia. More recently Malaysia has become
a treaty ally of the US. under Washington’s pivot to Asia. According to
<a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/us-china-geopolitical-standoff-malaysias-role/5504770">South Front:</a><br />
<blockquote>
“This is seen as a major shift in Malaysia’s foreign
policy which maintained a limited relationship during the tenure of
former premier Mahathir Mohamad who openly opposed attempts of the West
to create a unipolar world.</blockquote>
<strong>US PROPOSED MILITARY BASE IN SABAH, EASTERN MALAYSIA? </strong><br />
At stake from Washington’s standpoint is the control of strategic waterways.<br />
The Malaysian government has entered into a close relationship with
the US characterized by purchase of US military equipment, the conduct
of US-Malaysia war games in 2014.<br />
According to unconfirmed reports, a US military base is contemplated
by the Kuala Lumpur government. The purpose of these initiatives is
ultimately to destabilize bilateral relations between Malaysia and
China.<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Screen-Shot-2016-08-24-at-07.54.20.png"><img alt="" class=" wp-image-5542286 aligncenter" height="126" src="http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Screen-Shot-2016-08-24-at-07.54.20-1024x194.png" title="Screen Shot 2016-08-24 at 07.54.20" width="663" /></a></div>
<h2>
America’s War on Terrorism in South and Southeast Asia</h2>
The counterterrorism strategy applied in the Middle East and Africa
is also contemplated in Southeast Asia. It is used as a pretext to
justify military deployments including the construction of military
bases.<br />
The potential target countries are: Pakistan, Bangladesh, Thailand,
Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines. Also of significance in discussing
America’s Pivot to Asia, US intelligence also supports Islamist
insurgencies in the Xinjiang Uighur autonomous region.<br />
<h2>
<strong>The Global War on Terrorism is a Big Lie. </strong><strong>Al Qaeda is a Creation of US Intelligence</strong></h2>
From the outset of the Soviet-Afghan war in 1979 to the present,
various Islamic fundamentalist paramilitary organizations became de
facto instruments of US intelligence and more generally of the
US-NATO-Israel military alliance.<br />
The US has actively supported Al Qaeda affiliated terrorist
organizations since the onslaught of the Soviet Afghan War. Washington
has engineered the installation of Islamist regimes in Afghanistan and
Pakistan. It has destroyed the fabric of secular societies.<br />
Confirmed by Israeli intelligence media, the Al Qaeda opposition
fighters in Syria are recruited by US-NATO and the Turkish high command.<br />
They are the foot-soldiers of the Western military alliance, with
special forces in their midst. The Al Qaeda affiliated “moderate”
terrorist organizations in Syria are supported by Saudi Arabia and
Turkey.<br />
The counter-terrorism agenda is bogus. It’s a criminal undertaking.
What is being bombed is the civilian infrastructure of a sovereign
country.<br />
For further details see Global Research’s <a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/theme/9-11-war-on-terrorism">War on Terrorism Dossier</a><br />
<em>The above text is a point by point thematic summary of Prof. <strong>Michel Chossudovsky</strong>‘s presentation at the the University of the Philippines Cebu Conference on ASEAN and the World. </em><em>UP Cebu, Cebu, 24-25 August 2016</em><br />
<br />
<br />
</div>
<div class="copyright">
The original source of this article is Global Research</div>
<div class="copyright">
Copyright © <a href="https://www.globalresearch.ca/author/michel-chossudovsky" title="Posts by Prof Michel Chossudovsky">Prof Michel Chossudovsky</a>, Global Research, 2017</div>
</div>
---------------------------------------http://www.blogger.com/profile/04026996012133110417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-685819527131893043.post-14750908316305080942017-11-07T17:02:00.003-08:002017-11-07T17:02:56.957-08:00“Wipe the Soviet Union Off the Map”, 204 Atomic Bombs against 66 Major Cities, US Nuclear Attack against USSR Planned During World War II<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="title">
<h2 itemprop="headline">
“Wipe the Soviet Union Off the Map”, 204 Atomic
Bombs against 66 Major Cities, US Nuclear Attack against USSR Planned
During World War II</h2>
<h3 class="subtitle">
When America and the Soviet Union Were Allies</h3>
<div class="meta">
<div class="post-info">
<div class="author">
By <a href="https://www.globalresearch.ca/author/michel-chossudovsky" title="Posts by Prof Michel Chossudovsky">Prof Michel Chossudovsky</a></div>
<div class="grDate">
Global Research, November 04, 2017</div>
</div>
<div class="catAndTag">
<div class="cats">
Region: <a href="https://www.globalresearch.ca/region/russia-and-fsu" rel="tag">Russia and FSU</a>, <a href="https://www.globalresearch.ca/region/usa" rel="tag">USA</a></div>
<div class="cats">
Theme: <a href="https://www.globalresearch.ca/theme/culture-society-history" rel="tag">History</a>, <a href="https://www.globalresearch.ca/theme/militarization-and-wmd" rel="tag">Militarization and WMD</a></div>
<div class="cats">
In-depth Report: <a href="https://www.globalresearch.ca/indepthreport/nuclear-war" rel="tag">Nuclear War</a></div>
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<em>According to a secret document dated<strong> </strong>September 15, 1945, “<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-pentagon-estimated-204-atomic-bombs-could-destroy-the-soviets-2014-10">the Pentagon had envisaged blowing up the Soviet Union </a> with a coordinated nuclear attack directed against major urban areas.</em><br />
<em>All major cities of the Soviet Union were included in the list of
66 “strategic” targets. The tables below categorize each city in terms
of area in square miles and the corresponding number of atomic bombs
required to annihilate and kill the inhabitants of selected urban areas.
</em><br />
Six atomic bombs were to be used to destroy each of the larger cities
including Moscow, Leningrad, Tashkent, Kiev, Kharkov, Odessa.<br />
The Pentagon estimated that <strong>a total of 204 bombs would be required to “Wipe the Soviet Union off the Map”</strong>. The targets for a nuclear attack consisted of <strong>sixty-six major cities.</strong><br />
One single atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima resulted in the immediate
death of 100,000 people in the first seven seconds. Imagine what would
have happened if 204 atomic bombs had been dropped on major cities of
the Soviet Union as outlined in <strong>a secret U.S. plan formulated during the Second World War.</strong><br />
<em><a href="https://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/hiroshima_afterbomb.jpg"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-5395103" height="323" src="https://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/hiroshima_afterbomb.jpg" width="430" /></a></em><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
Hiroshima in the wake of the atomic bomb attack, 6 August 1945</div>
The document outlining this diabolical military agenda had been
released in September 1945, barely one month after the bombing of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki (6 and 9 August, 1945) and two years before the
onset of the Cold War (1947).<br />
<strong>The secret plan dated September 15, 1945</strong> (two weeks
after the surrender of Japan on September 2, 1945 aboard the USS
Missouri, see image below) , however, had been formulated at an earlier
period, namely at the height of World War II, at a time when America
and the Soviet Union were close allies.<br />
<a href="https://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/untitled-design-99-1.jpg"><img alt="" class="aligncenter wp-image-5616641" height="342" src="https://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/untitled-design-99-1-1024x536.jpg" width="653" /></a><br />
It is worth noting that Stalin was first informed through official channels by Harry Truman of the infamous <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan_Project" title="Manhattan Project">Manhattan Project</a> at the Potsdam Conference on July 24, 1945, barely two weeks before the attack on Hiroshima.<br />
The Manhattan project was launched in 1939, two years prior to
America’s entry into World War II in December 1941. The Kremlin was
fully aware of the secret Manhattan project as early as 1942.<br />
Were the August 1945 Hiroshima and Nagasaki attacks used by the
Pentagon to evaluate the viability of a much larger attack on the
Soviet Union consisting of more than 204 atomic bombs? The key documents
to bomb 66 cities of the Soviet Union (15 September 1945) were
finalized less than a month after the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings
(6, 9 August 1945):<br />
<blockquote>
“On September 15, 1945 — just under two weeks after the
formal surrender of Japan and the end of World War II — Norstad sent a
copy of the estimate to <strong>General Leslie Groves</strong>, still
the head of the Manhattan Project, and the guy who, for the short term
anyway, would be in charge of producing whatever bombs the USAAF might
want. As you might guess, the classification on this document was high:
“TOP SECRET LIMITED,” which was about as high as it went during World
War II. (Alex Wellerstein, <a href="http://blog.nuclearsecrecy.com/2012/05/09/weekly-document-the-first-atomic-stockpile-requirements-september-1945/">The First Atomic Stockpile Requirements </a>(September 1945)</blockquote>
The Kremlin was aware of the 1945 plan to bomb sixty-six Soviet cities.<br />
The documents confirm that the US was involved in <strong>the “planning of genocide” against the Soviet Union.</strong><br />
Moreover, central to our understanding of the Cold War which started
in 1947, Washington’s September 1945 plan to bomb 66 cities into
smithereens played a key role in triggering the nuclear arms race.<br />
The Soviet Union was threatened and developed its own atomic bomb in
1949. While the Kremlin knew about these plans to “Wipe out” the USSR,
the broader public was not informed because the documents were of course
classified.<br />
Today, neither the 1945 plan to blow up the Soviet Union nor the
underlying cause of the nuclear arms race are acknowledged. The Western
media has largely focussed its attention on the Cold War US-USSR
confrontation. The plan to annihilate the Soviet Union dating back World
War II and the infamous Manhattan project are not mentioned.<br />
Washington’s Cold War nuclear plans are invariably presented in
response to so-called Soviet threats, when in fact it was the U.S.
September 1945 plan to wipe out the Soviet which motivated Moscow to
develop its nuclear weapons capabilities.<br />
<strong>Had the US decided not to develop nuclear weapons for use
against the Soviet Union, the nuclear arms race would not have taken
place.</strong> Neither The Soviet Union nor the People’s Republic of
China would have developed nuclear capabilities as a means of
“Deterrence”.<br />
The Soviet Union lost 26 million people during World War II.<br />
The USSR developed its own atomic bomb in 1949, in response to 1942 Soviet intelligence reports on the Manhattan Project.<br />
<blockquote>
Let’s cut to the chase. How many bombs did the USAAF request of the atomic general, when there were <a href="http://blog.nuclearsecrecy.com/2012/04/25/weekly-document-the-third-shot-and-beyond-1945/#comment-4978">maybe one, maybe two</a> bombs worth of fissile material on hand? <strong>At a <em>minimum </em>they wanted 123. <em>Ideally</em>, they’d like 466.</strong> This is just a little over a month after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.<br />
Of course, in true bureaucratic fashion, they provided a handy-dandy chart (Alex Wellerstein, op. cit)</blockquote>
<a href="https://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Screen-Shot-2017-11-03-at-22.07.18.png"><img alt="" class="aligncenter wp-image-5616611" height="530" src="https://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Screen-Shot-2017-11-03-at-22.07.18.png" width="673" /></a><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
http://blog.nuclearsecrecy.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/1945-Atomic-Bomb-Production.pdf</div>
<a href="https://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Screen-Shot-2017-10-30-at-15.58.03.png"><img alt="" class=" wp-image-5615857 aligncenter" height="803" src="https://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Screen-Shot-2017-10-30-at-15.58.03-755x1024.png" width="592" /></a><br />
<a href="https://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Screen-Shot-2017-10-30-at-15.51.20-1.png"><img alt="" class="aligncenter wp-image-5615986" height="833" src="https://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Screen-Shot-2017-10-30-at-15.51.20-1-727x1024.png" width="591" /></a><br />
<a href="https://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/1945-Russian-and-Manchurian-Strategic-Urban-Areas-500x370.jpg"><img alt="" class="aligncenter wp-image-5615866" height="481" src="https://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/1945-Russian-and-Manchurian-Strategic-Urban-Areas-500x370.jpg" width="650" /></a><br />
<a href="https://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Screen-Shot-2017-11-03-at-22.10.25.png"><img alt="" class="aligncenter wp-image-5616612" height="678" src="https://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Screen-Shot-2017-11-03-at-22.10.25-989x1024.png" width="655" /></a><br />
<a href="https://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Screen-Shot-2017-11-03-at-22.11.13.png"><img alt="" class="aligncenter wp-image-5616614" height="822" src="https://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Screen-Shot-2017-11-03-at-22.11.13-817x1024.png" width="656" /></a><a href="https://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Screen-Shot-2017-11-03-at-22.09.50.png"><img alt="" class="aligncenter wp-image-5616613" height="746" src="https://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Screen-Shot-2017-11-03-at-22.09.50-902x1024.png" width="658" /></a><br />
<br />
This initial 1945 list of sixty-six cities was updated in the course
of the Cold War (1956) to include some 1200 cities in the USSR and the
Soviet block countries of Eastern Europe (see declassified documents
below).<br />
<a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Screen-Shot-2016-01-09-at-23.30.07.png"><img alt="" class="aligncenter" height="505" src="http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Screen-Shot-2016-01-09-at-23.30.07.png" title="Screen Shot 2016-01-09 at 23.30.07" width="589" /></a><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
Source: National Security Archive</div>
<div style="padding-left: 30px;">
“According to the 1956 Plan, H-Bombs were
to be Used Against Priority “Air Power” Targets in the Soviet Union,
China, and Eastern Europe. Major Cities in the Soviet Bloc, Including
East Berlin, Were High Priorities in “Systematic Destruction” for Atomic
Bombings. (William Burr, U.S. Cold War Nuclear Attack Target List of
1200 Soviet Bloc Cities “From East Germany to China”, <a href="http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/nukevault/ebb538-Cold-War-Nuclear-Target-List-Declassified-First-Ever/" target="_blank">National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 538</a>, December 2015</div>
<a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Screen-Shot-2015-12-27-at-11.31.48.png" rel="lightbox[5498130]" title="Screen Shot 2015-12-27 at 11.31.48"><img alt="" class="aligncenter" height="284" src="http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Screen-Shot-2015-12-27-at-11.31.48-1024x405.png" title="Screen Shot 2015-12-27 at 11.31.48" width="717" /></a><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">Excerpt of list of 1200 cities targeted for nuclear attack in alphabetical order. National Security Archive</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
In the post Cold War era, under Donald
Trump’s “Fire and Fury”, nuclear war directed against Russia, China,
North Korea and Iran is “On the Table”.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<strong>What distinguishes the October 1962 Missile Crisis to Today’s realities:</strong></div>
<div style="padding-left: 30px; text-align: left;">
1. Today’s president Donald Trump does not have the foggiest idea as to the consequences of nuclear war.</div>
<div style="padding-left: 30px; text-align: left;">
2, Communication today
between the White House and the Kremlin is at an all time low. In
contrast, in October 1962, the leaders on both sides, namely <strong>John F. Kennedy</strong> and <strong>Nikita S. Khrushchev </strong>were accutely aware of the <strong>dangers of nuclear annihilation. </strong>They collaborated with a view to avoiding the unthinkable.</div>
<div style="padding-left: 30px; text-align: left;">
3. The nuclear doctrine was entirely different during the Cold War. Both Washington and Moscow understood the realities of <strong>mutually assured destruction.</strong>
Today, tactical nuclear weapons with an explosive capacity (yield) of
one third to six times a Hiroshima bomb are categorized by the Pentagon
as “harmless to civilians because the explosion is underground”.</div>
<div style="padding-left: 30px; text-align: left;">
4. A one trillion ++ nuclear weapons program, first launched under Obama, is ongoing.</div>
<div style="padding-left: 30px; text-align: left;">
5. Today’s
thermonuclear bombs are more than 100 times more powerful and
destructive than a Hiroshima bomb. Both the US and Russia have several
thousand nuclear weapons deployed.</div>
<strong>Moreover, an all war against China is currently on the
drawing board of the Pentagon as outlined by a RAND Corporation Report
commissioned by the US Army </strong><br />
<a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Screen-Shot-2016-08-05-at-11.55.561.png"><img alt="" class="aligncenter" height="307" src="http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Screen-Shot-2016-08-05-at-11.55.561-1024x439.png" title="Screen Shot 2016-08-05 at 11.55.56" width="717" /></a><br />
<a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Screen-Shot-2016-08-05-at-11.59.021.png"><img alt="" class="aligncenter" height="195" src="http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Screen-Shot-2016-08-05-at-11.59.021-1024x279.png" title="Screen Shot 2016-08-05 at 11.59.02" width="717" /></a><br />
<strong>“Fire and Fury”, From Truman to Trump: U.S Foreign Policy Insanity</strong><br />
There is a long history of US political insanity geared towards providing a human face to U.S. crimes against humanity.<br />
<a href="https://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Truman-9511121-1-402.jpg"><img alt="Truman globalresearch.ca" class="wp-image-5350985 alignright" height="157" src="https://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Truman-9511121-1-402.jpg" width="157" /></a>On
August 9, 1945, on the day the second atomic bomb was dropped on
Nagasaki, president Truman (image right), in a radio address to the
American people, concluded that <strong>God is on the side of America with regard to the use of nuclear weapons</strong> and that<br />
<blockquote>
“<strong>He May guide us to use it [atomic bomb] in His ways and His purposes”. </strong></blockquote>
According to Truman: God is with us, he will decide if and when to use the bomb:<br />
<blockquote>
[We must] <strong>prepare plans for the future control of this bomb.</strong>
I shall ask the Congress to cooperate to the end that its production
and use be controlled, and that its power be made an overwhelming
influence towards world peace.<br />
We must constitute ourselves trustees of this new force–to <strong>prevent its misuse, and to turn it into the channels of service to mankind.</strong><br />
It is an awful responsibility which has come to us.<br />
<strong>We thank God that it [nuclear weapons] has come to us,
instead of to our enemies; and we pray that He may guide us to use it
[nuclear weapons] in His ways and for His purposes”</strong> (emphasis added)<br />
</blockquote>
<div class="copyright">
The original source of this article is Global Research</div>
<div class="copyright">
Copyright © <a href="https://www.globalresearch.ca/author/michel-chossudovsky" title="Posts by Prof Michel Chossudovsky">Prof Michel Chossudovsky</a>, Global Research, 2017</div>
</div>
---------------------------------------http://www.blogger.com/profile/04026996012133110417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-685819527131893043.post-75078518452646414652017-11-07T17:02:00.001-08:002017-11-07T17:02:17.284-08:00China’s Strategic Economic Planning versus America’s Failed Capitalism<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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China’s Strategic Economic Planning versus America’s Failed Capitalism</h2>
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By <a href="https://www.globalresearch.ca/author/james-petras" title="Posts by Prof. James Petras">Prof. James Petras</a></div>
<div class="grDate">
Global Research, November 05, 2017</div>
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Region: <a href="https://www.globalresearch.ca/region/asia" rel="tag">Asia</a>, <a href="https://www.globalresearch.ca/region/usa" rel="tag">USA</a></div>
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Theme: <a href="https://www.globalresearch.ca/theme/global-economy" rel="tag">Global Economy</a></div>
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<div align="center" class="yiv8552372541MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<em>US
journalists and commentators, politicians and Sinologists spend
considerable time and space speculating on the personality of China’s <strong>President Xi Jinping</strong>
and his appointments to the leading bodies of the Chinese government,
as if these were the most important aspects of the entire 19<sup>th</sup> National Congress of the Communist Party of China (October 18-24, 2017).</em></div>
<div align="center" class="yiv8552372541MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<em>Mired
down in gossip, idle speculation and petty denigration of its leaders,
the Western press has once again failed to take account of the
world-historical changes which are currently taking place in China and
throughout the world.</em></div>
<div class="yiv8552372541MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<em>World historical changes, as articulated by Chinese<strong> President Xi Jinping,</strong>
are present in the vision, strategy and program of the Congress. These
are based on a rigorous survey of China’s past, present and future
accomplishments.</em></div>
<div class="yiv8552372541MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<em>The
serious purpose, projections and the presence of China’s President stand
in stark contrast to the chaos, rabble-rousing demagogy and slanders
characterizing the multi-billion dollar US Presidential campaign and its
shameful aftermath.</em></div>
<div class="yiv8552372541MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<em>The
clarity and coherence of a deep strategic thinker like President Xi
Jinping contrasts to the improvised, contradictory and incoherent
utterances from the US President and Congress. This is not a matter of
mere style but of substantive content.</em></div>
<div class="yiv8552372541MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<em>We will proceed in the essay by contrasting the context, content and direction of the two political systems.</em></div>
<div class="yiv8552372541MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b>China: Strategic Thinking and Positive Outcomes</b></div>
<div class="yiv8552372541MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
China,
first and foremost, has established well-defined strategic guidelines
that emphasize macro-socio-economic and military priorities over the
next five, ten and twenty years.</div>
<div class="yiv8552372541MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
China is
committed to reducing pollution in all of its manifestations via the
transformation of the economy from heavy industry to a high-tech service
economy, moving from quantitative to qualitative indicators.</div>
<div class="yiv8552372541MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Secondly,
China will increase the relative importance of the domestic market and
reduce its dependence on exports. China will increase investments in
health, education, public services, pensions and family allowances.</div>
<div class="yiv8552372541MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Thirdly,
China plans to invest heavily in ten economic priority sectors. These
include computerized machinery, robotics, energy saving vehicles,
medical devices, aerospace technology, and maritime and rail transport.
It targets three billion (US) dollars to upgrade technology in key
industries, including electrical vehicles, energy saving technology,
numerical control (digitalization) and several other areas. China plans
to increase investment in research and development from .95% to 2% of
GDP.</div>
<div class="yiv8552372541MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Moreover, China has already taken steps to launch the<strong> ‘petro-Yuan</strong>’, and end US global financial dominance.</div>
<div class="yiv8552372541MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
China
has emerged as the world’s leader in advancing global infrastructure
networks with its One Belt One Road (Silk Road) across Eurasia.
Chinese-built ports, airports and railroads already connect twenty
Chinese cities to Central Asia, West Asia, South-East Asia, Africa and
Europe. China has established a multi-lateral <i>Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank</i> (with over 60 member nations) contributing 100 billion dollars for initial financing.</div>
<div class="yiv8552372541MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
China has
combined its revolution in data collection and analysis with central
planning to conquer corruption and improve the efficiency in credit
allocation. Beijing’s digital economy is now at the center of the
global digital economy. According to one expert, “<i>China is the world leader in payments made by mobile devices</i>”,
(11 times the US). One in three of the world’s start-ups, valued at
more than $1 billion, take place in China (FT 10/28/17, p. 7). Digital
technology has been harnessed to state-owned banks in order to evaluate
credit risks and sharply reduce bad debt. This will ensure that
financing is creating a new dynamic flexible model combining rational
planning with entrepreneurial vigor (ibid).</div>
<div class="yiv8552372541MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
As a
result, the US/EU-controlled World Bank has lost its centrality in
global financing. China is already Germany’s largest trading partner
and is on its way to becoming Russia’s leading trade partner and
sanctions-busting ally.</div>
<div class="yiv8552372541MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
China has
widened and expanded its trade missions throughout the globe, replacing
the role of the US in Iran, Venezuela and Russia and wherever
Washington has imposed belligerent sanctions.</div>
<div class="yiv8552372541MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
While
China has modernized its military defense programs and increased
military spending, almost all of the focus is on ‘home defense’ and
protection of maritime trade routes. China has not engaged in a single
war in decades.</div>
<div class="yiv8552372541MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
China’s
system of central planning allows the government to allocate resources
to the productive economy and to its high priority sectors. Under
President Xi Jinping, China has created an investigation and judicial
system leading to the arrest and prosecution of over a million corrupt
officials in the public and private sector. High status is no
protection from the government’s anti-corruption campaign: Over 150
Central Committee members and billionaire plutocrats have fallen.
Equally important, China’s central control over capital flows (outward
and inward) allows for the allocation of financial resources to high
tech productive sectors while limiting the flight of capital or its
diversion into the speculative economy.</div>
<div class="yiv8552372541MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
As a result, China’s GNP has been growing between 6.5% – 6.9% a year – four times the rate of the EU and three times the US.</div>
<div class="yiv8552372541MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
As far as
demand is concerned, China is the world’s biggest market and growing.
Income is growing – especially for wage and salaried workers.
President Xi Jinping has identified social inequalities as a major area
to rectify over the next five years.</div>
<div class="yiv8552372541MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b>The US: Chaos, Retreat and Reaction</b></div>
<div class="yiv8552372541MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
In
contrast, the United States President and Congress have not fashioned a
strategic vision for the country, least of all one linked to concrete
proposals and socio-economic priorities, which might benefit the
citizenry.</div>
<div class="yiv8552372541MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The US
has 240,000 active and reserve armed forces stationed in 172 countries.
China has less than 5,000 in one country – Djibouti. The US stations
40,000 troops in Japan, 23,000 in South Korea, 36,000 in Germany, 8,000
in the UK and over 1,000 in Turkey. What China has is an equivalent
number of highly skilled civilian personnel engaged in productive
activity around the world. China’s overseas missions and its experts
have worked to benefit both global and Chinese economic growth.</div>
<div class="yiv8552372541MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The
United States’ open-ended, multiple military conflicts in Afghanistan,
Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Niger, Somalia, Jordan and elsewhere have
absorbed and diverted hundreds of billions of dollars away from
productive investments in the domestic economy. In only a few cases,
military spending has built useful roads and infrastructure, which could
be counted a ‘dual use’, but overwhelmingly US military activities
abroad have been brutally destructive, as shown by the deliberate
dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Iraq and Libya.</div>
<div class="yiv8552372541MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The US
lacks the coherence of China’s policy making and strategic leadership.
While chaos has been inherent in the politics of the US ‘free market’
financial system, it is especially widespread and dangerous during the
Trump regime.</div>
<div class="yiv8552372541MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Congressional
Democrats and Republicans, united and divided, actively confront
President Trump on every issue no matter how important or petty. Trump
improvises and alters his policies by the hour or, at most, by the day.
The US possesses a party system where one party officially rules in the
Administration with two militarist big business wings.</div>
<div class="yiv8552372541MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
US has
been spending over 700 billion dollars a year to pursue seven wars and
foment ‘regime changes’ or coups d’état on four continents and eight
regions over the past two decades. This has only caused disinvestment
in the domestic economy with deterioration of critical infrastructure,
loss of markets, widespread socioeconomic decline and a reduction of
spending on research and development for goods and services.</div>
<div class="yiv8552372541MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The top
500 US corporations invest overseas, mainly to take advantage of low tax
region and sources of cheap labor, while shunning American workers and
avoiding US taxes. At the same time, these corporations share US
technology and markets with the Chinese.</div>
<div class="yiv8552372541MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Today,
US capitalism is largely directed by and for financial institutions,
which absorb and divert capital from productive investments, generating
an unbalanced crisis-prone economy. In contrast, China determines the
timing and location of investments as well as bank interest rates,
targeting priority investments, especially in advanced high-tech
sectors.</div>
<div class="yiv8552372541MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Washington
has spent billions on costly and unproductive military-centered
infrastructure (military bases, naval ports, air stations etc.) in order
to buttress stagnant and corrupt allied regimes. As a result, the US
has nothing comparable to China’s hundred-billion-dollar ‘One Belt-One
Road’ (Silk Road) infrastructure project linking continents and major
regional markets and generating millions of productive jobs.</div>
<div class="yiv8552372541MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The US
has broken global linkages with dynamic growth centers. Washington
resorts to self-defecating, mindless chauvinistic rhetoric to impose
trade policy, while China promotes global networks via joint ventures.
China incorporates international supply linkages by securing high tech
in the West and low cost labor in the East.</div>
<div class="yiv8552372541MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Big US
industrial groups’ earnings and rising stock in construction and
aerospace are products of their strong ties with China. Caterpillar,
United Technologies 3M and US car companies reported double-digit growth
on sales to China.</div>
<div class="yiv8552372541MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
In
contrast, the Trump regime has allocated (and spent) billions in
military procurement to threaten wars against China’s peripheral
neighbors and interfere with its maritime commerce.</div>
<div class="yiv8552372541MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b>US Decline and Media Frenzy</b></div>
<div class="yiv8552372541MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The
retreat and decline of US economic power has driven the mass media into a
frenzy of idiotic ad hominem assaults on China’s political leader
President Xi Jinping. Among the nose pickers in print, the scribes of
the <i>Financial Times</i> take the prize for mindless vitriol. Mercenaries and holy men in Tibet are described as paragons of democracy and ‘<i>victims</i>’ of a …flourishing modernizing Chinese state lacking the ‘western values’ (sic) of floundering Anglo-American warmongers!</div>
<div class="yiv8552372541MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
To
denigrate China’s system of national planning and its consequential
efforts to link its high tech economy with improving the standard of
living for the population, the FT journalists castigate President Xi
Jinping for the following faults:</div>
<div class="yiv8552372541MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="text-align: justify;">
1.) For not being as dedicated a Communist as Mao Zedong or Deng Xiaopeng</div>
<div class="yiv8552372541MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
2.) For being too ‘authoritarian’ (or too successful) in his campaign to root out corrupt officials.</div>
<div class="yiv8552372541MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="text-align: justify;">
3.)
For setting serious long-term goals while confronting and overcoming
economic problems by addressing the ‘dangerous’ level of debt.</div>
<div class="yiv8552372541MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
While
China has broadened its cultural horizon, the Anglo-Saxon global elite
increases possibility of nuclear warfare. China’s cultural and
economic outreach throughout the world is dismissed by the Financial
Times as ‘subversive soft power’. Police-state minds and media in the
West see China’s outreach as a plot or conspiracy. Any serious writer,
thinker or policymaker who has studied and praised China’s success is
dismissed as a dupe or agent of the sly President Xi Jinping. Without
substance or reflection, the FT (10/27/17) warns its readers and police
officials to be vigilant and avoid being seduced by China’s success
stories!</div>
<div class="yiv8552372541MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
China’s
growing leadership in automobile production is evident in its advance
towards dominating the market for electric vehicles. Every major US and
EU auto company has ignored the warnings of the Western media
ideologues and rushed to form joint ventures with China.</div>
<div class="yiv8552372541MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
China has
an industrial policy. The US has a war policy. China plans to surpass
the US and Germany in artificial intelligence, robotics,
semi-conductors and electric vehicles by 2025. And it will —because
those are its carefully pronounced scientific and economic priorities.</div>
<div class="yiv8552372541MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Shamelessly
and insanely, the US press pursues the expanding stories of raging
Hollywood rapists like the powerful movie mogul, Harvey Weinstein, and
the hundreds of victims, while ignoring the world historic news of
China’s rapid economic advances.</div>
<div class="yiv8552372541MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The US
business elites are busy pushing their President and the US Congress to
lower taxes for the billionaire elite, while 100 million US citizens
remain without health care and register decreased life expectancy!
Washington seems committed to in State-planned regression.</div>
<div class="yiv8552372541MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
As US
bombs fall on Yemen and the American taxpayers finance the giant Israeli
concentration camp once known as ‘Palestine’, while China builds
systems of roads and rail linking the Himalayas and Central Asia with
Europe.</div>
<div class="yiv8552372541MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
While
Sherlock Holmes applies the science of observation and deduction, the US
media and politicians perfect the art of obfuscation and deception.</div>
<div class="yiv8552372541MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
In China,
scientists and innovators play a central role in producing and
increasing goods and services for the burgeoning middle and working
class. In the US, the economic elite play the central role in
exacerbating inequalities, increasing profits by lowering taxes and
transforming the American worker into poorly-paid temp-labor – destined
to die prematurely of preventable conditions.</div>
<div class="yiv8552372541MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
While
Chinese President Xi Jinping works in concert with the nation’s best
technocrats to subordinate the military to civilian goals, President
Trump and his Administration subordinate their economic decisions to a
military-industrial-financial-Israeli complex.</div>
<div class="yiv8552372541MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Beijing
invests in global networks of scientists, researchers and scholars.
The US ‘opposition’ Democrats and disgruntled Republicans work with the
giant corporate media (including the respectable Financial Times) to
fund and fabricate conspiracies and plots under Trump’s Presidential
bed.</div>
<div class="yiv8552372541MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Conclusion</b></div>
<div class="yiv8552372541MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
China
fires and prosecutes corrupt officials while supporting innovators.
Its economy grows through investments, joint ventures and a great
capacity to learn from experience and powerful data collection. The US
squanders its domestic resources in pursuing multiple wars, financial
speculation and rampant Wall Street corruption.</div>
<div class="yiv8552372541MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
China
investigates and punishes its corrupt business and public officials
while corruption seems to be the primary criteria for election or
appointment to high office in the US. The US media worships its
tax-dodging billionaires and thinks it can mesmerize the public with a
dazzling display of bluster, incompetence and arrogance.</div>
<div class="yiv8552372541MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
China
directs its planned economy to address domestic priorities. It uses its
financial resources to pursue historic global infrastructure programs,
which will enhance global partnerships in mutually beneficial projects.</div>
<div class="yiv8552372541MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
It is no
wonder that China is seen as moving toward the future with great
advances while the US is seen as a chaotic frightening threat to world
peace and its publicists as willing accomplices.</div>
<div class="yiv8552372541MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
China is
not without shortcomings in the spheres of political expression and
civil rights. Failure to rectify social inequalities and failure to
stop the outflow of billions of dollars of illicit wealth, and the
unresolved problems with regime corruption will continue to generate
class conflicts.</div>
<div class="yiv8552372541MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
But the
important point to note is the direction China has chosen to take and
its capacity and commitment to identify and correct the major problems
it faces.</div>
<div class="yiv8552372541MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The US
has abdicated its responsibilities. It is unwilling or unable to
harness its banks to invest in domestic production to expand the
domestic market. It is completely unwilling to identify and purge the
manifestly incompetent and to incarcerate the grossly corrupt officials
and politicians of both parties and the elites.</div>
<div class="yiv8552372541MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Today
overwhelming majorities of US citizens despise, distrust and reject the
political elite. Over 70% think that the inane factional political
divisions are at their greatest level in over 50 years and have
paralyzed the government.</div>
<div class="yiv8552372541MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
80% recognize that the Congress is dysfunctional and 86% believe that Washington is dishonest.</div>
<div class="yiv8552372541MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Never has an empire of such limitless power crumbled and declined with so few accomplishments.</div>
<div class="yiv8552372541MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
China is a
rising economic empire, but it advances through its active engagement
in the market of ideas and not through futile wars against successful
competitors and adversaries.</div>
<div class="yiv8552372541MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
As the US declines, its publicists degenerate.</div>
<div class="yiv8552372541MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The
media’s ceaseless denigration of China’s challenges and its
accomplishments is a poor substitute for analysis. The flawed political
and policy making structures in the US and its incompetent free-market
political leaders lacking any strategic vision crumble in contrast to
China’s advances.</div>
<div class="copyright">
The original source of this article is Global Research</div>
<div class="copyright">
Copyright © <a href="https://www.globalresearch.ca/author/james-petras" title="Posts by Prof. James Petras">Prof. James Petras</a>, Global Research, 2017</div>
</div>
---------------------------------------http://www.blogger.com/profile/04026996012133110417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-685819527131893043.post-7670442508952896832017-10-04T18:23:00.001-07:002017-10-04T18:23:36.927-07:00Syria - US CentCom Declares War On Russia<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h2>
<a href="http://www.ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2017/september/25/syria-us-centcom-declares-war-on-russia/" title="Syria - US CentCom Declares War On Russia"><span>Syria - US CentCom Declares War On Russia</span></a></h2>
<div class="post-attributes">
<div class="post-authors uBlogsy_font_style40">
<div class="uBlogsy_author uBlogsy_font_style30" style="margin: 0;">
<span>Written by</span>
<span class="uBlogsy_author_name">
<a href="http://www.ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/?author=Moon+of+Alabama" title="Moon of Alabama">Moon of Alabama</a><span></span> </span>
</div>
</div>
<div class="post-date uBlogsy_font_style40">
Monday September 25, 2017<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null"><img class="printer-icon" src="http://www.ronpaulinstitute.org/images/icons/printer.png" /></a></div>
<br style="clear: both;" />
</div>
<img alt="undefined" rel="28730" src="http://www.ronpaulinstitute.org/media/121392/syriaoilmap20170917-s.jpg?width=380&height=214" style="height: 214px; width: 380px;" /><br /><em><a href="http://www.moonofalabama.org/images5/syriaoilmap20170917.jpg">bigger</a></em><br /><br />
Yesterday three high ranking Russian officers were killed in an "ISIS
attack" in eastern-Syrian. It is likely that they were killed by US
special forces or insurgents under US special forces control. The
incident will be understood as a declaration of war.<br /><br />The US
Central Command in the Middle East wants the oil fields in east-Syria
under control of its proxy forces to set up and control a US aligned
Kurdish mini-state in the area. The Syrian government, allied with
Russia, needs the revenues of the oil fields to rebuild the country.<br /><br />Last week the Russians issued <a href="http://www.moonofalabama.org/2017/09/syria-russia-accuses-us-of-attacks-direct-coordination-with-al-qaeda.html">sharply worded statements</a> against US coordination with al-Qaeda terrorists in Idleb province and warned of further escalation.<br /><br />Yesterday the Russian Ministry of Defense <a href="https://www.rt.com/news/404365-us-special-forces-isis/">accused</a> the US military in east-Syria of direct collaboration with the Islamic State:<br />
<blockquote>
US Army special units provide free passage for the Syrian
Democratic Forces (SDF) through the battle formations of Islamic State
(IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) terrorists, the ministry said in a statement. <br /><br />'Facing
no resistance of the ISIS militants, the SDF units are advancing along
the left shore of the Euphrates towards Deir ez-Zor,' the statement
reads.<br /><br />The newly released images 'clearly show that US special ops are stationed at the outposts previously set up by ISIS militants.'<br /><br />'Despite
that the US strongholds being located in the ISIS areas, no screening
patrol has been organized at them,' the Russian Ministry of Defense
said.</blockquote>
This map marks the currently relevant conflict area - (US proxies - yellow, SAA - red, ISIS - black):<br /><br /><img alt="undefined" rel="28729" src="http://www.ronpaulinstitute.org/media/121391/eastsyriamap20170921-s.jpg?width=380&height=202" style="height: 202px; width: 380px;" /><br /><em>Map by <a href="https://twitter.com/evil_SDOC">Weekend Warrior</a> - <a href="http://www.moonofalabama.org/images5/eastsyriamap20170921.jpg">bigger</a></em><br /><br />The
accusations are plausible. Large parts of ISIS in Deir Ezzor consist of
local tribal forces from eastern-Syria. US special envoy Brett McGurk
recently met tribal leaders who had earlier pledged allegiance to ISIS.
Deals were made. As we <a href="http://www.moonofalabama.org/2017/09/syria-summary-a-new-clash-looms-in-syrias-east.html">wrote</a>:
<blockquote>
The US diplomat tasked with the job, Brett McGurk, <a href="https://twitter.com/brett_mcgurk/status/898680764304379904">recently met</a> with local tribal dignitaries of the area. Pictures of the meeting were published. Several people <a href="https://twitter.com/domihol/status/899749427207966722">pointed out</a> that the very same dignitaries were earlier pictured swearing allegiance to the Islamic State.<br /><br /><img alt="undefined" rel="28728" src="http://www.ronpaulinstitute.org/media/121390/isismcgurk-s.jpg?width=380&height=381" style="height: 381px; width: 380px;" /><br /><br />Just
like during the 'Anbar Awaking' in its war on Iraq the US is bribing
the local radicals to temporarily change over to its side. This will
help the US to claim that it defeated ISIS. But as soon as the payments
stop the very same forces will revert back to their old game.</blockquote>
The local criminal <a href="https://twitter.com/Narwhal8915/status/910395185057509376">Ahmad Abu Khawla</a>, who had earlier fought for ISIS, was suddenly installed as <a href="http://en.deirezzor24.net/commander-of-deir-ezzor-military-council-abu-khawla-declares-their-goal-is-to-reach-city-of-al-bukamal/">commander</a> of a newly invented "Deir Ezzor Military Council", set up under US special force control.<br /><br />Last night a Russian three-star general and two colonels were <a href="https://www.rt.com/news/404410-russian-general-killed-syria/">killed</a> in a mortar attack while they visited a Syrian army headquarter in Deir Ezzor:
<blockquote>
Lieutenant-General Valery Asapov, of the Russian armed
forces, has been killed after coming under shelling from Islamic State
(IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) militants near Deir ez-Zor, the Russian Defense
Ministry has announced. <br /><br />In its statement, the ministry said
that Asapov was at a command outpost manned by Syrian troops, assisting
commanders in the liberation of the city of Deir ez-Zor.<br />...<br />Lieutenant-General
Valery Asapov is the highest-ranking Russian officer to be killed in
the Syrian campaign. He was a commander of the 5th Army in Russia’s
Eastern Military District, one of the four strategic commands in the
Russian Armed Forces. The army is based in Russia’s Far East, in the
city of Ussuriysk, some 98 km (61 miles) from Vladivostok.</blockquote>
For three years ISIS had besieged Syrian troops in Deir Ezzor city and
its airport. It had not once managed to successfully attack the Syrian
headquarter or to kill high ranking officers. Now, as US proxy forces
"advised" by US special forces, have taken position north of Deir Ezzor,
"ISIS" suddenly has the intelligence data and precision mortar
capabilities to kill a bunch of visiting Russian officers?<br /><br />That is not plausible. No one in Damascus, Baghdad, Tehran or Moscow will believe that.<br /><br />The
Russian military, as usual, reacts calmly and officially attributes the
attack to ISIS. Doing so avoids pressure to immediately react to the
attack. (The US will falsely interpret this as a face-saving Russian
retreat.)<br /><br />But no one in Moscow will believe that the incident is
independent of other recent maneuvers by the US forces and independent
of the earlier accusations the Russian military made against the US
forces.<br /><br />Nominally the US and Russia are both in Syria to fight
the Islamic State. The Russian troops are legitimately there, having
been invited by the Syrian government. The US forces have no legal
justification for their presence. So far open hostilities between the
two sides had been avoided. But as the US now obviously sets out to
split Syria apart, openly cooperates with terrorists and does not even
refrain from killing Russian officers, the gloves will have to come off.<br /><br />US
Central Command has declared war on the Russian contingent in Syria. A
high ranking Russian general was killed. This inevitably requires a
reaction. The response does not necessarily have to come from Russian
forces. Moscow has many capable allies in the area. The response does
not necessarily have to come in Syria.<br /><br />"Accidents" and
"incidents", like an "ISIS mortar attacks", or unintentional bombing of
troop concentration of the other side, can happen on both sides of the
front. Cars can blow up, bridges can collapse. Any US officer or
civilian official in the larger Middle East should be aware that they
too are now targets.<br /><br /><em>Reprinted with permission from <a href="http://www.moonofalabama.org/2017/09/syria-us-centcom-declares-war-on-russia.html">Moon of Alabama</a>.</em><br /></div>
---------------------------------------http://www.blogger.com/profile/04026996012133110417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-685819527131893043.post-83150756301661327322017-10-03T18:19:00.002-07:002017-10-03T18:19:08.722-07:00What They’re NOT Telling You About the Las Vegas Massacre | RedFlagNews.com<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OvzOH60HqA4" width="560"></iframe><br /></div>
---------------------------------------http://www.blogger.com/profile/04026996012133110417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-685819527131893043.post-30949311298344088182017-10-03T18:12:00.001-07:002017-10-03T18:12:02.573-07:00Cyber Warfare Is The Future - Has Our Power Grid Already Been Hacked?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h1 class="entry_title">
Cyber Warfare Is The Future - Has Our Power Grid Already Been Hacked?</h1>
<img alt="News Image" border="0" src="http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/images/recent/gridhacksept262017.jpg" />
<span class="format">By Daisy Luther/Organic Prepper</span> <span class="format">September 26, 2017</span>
<span style="font-family: verdana, sans serif; font-size: x-small;">
Share this article:
<div class="pw-widget pw-size-large">
</div>
</span>
<hr />
<div>
A report by internet security experts, Symantec, says that
a hacking group called Dragonfly 2.0 has gained access to 20 power
company networks. The American power grid has been hacked, but for some
reason, the culprits restrained themselves from taking down the power
like they did in Ukraine recently.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The targets
were in the United States, Turkey, and Switzerland. According to
Symantec, the hackers did gain access to the interface they would need
to control the power equipment, with which they could cause a widespread
blackout. Eric Chien, a Symantec security analyst, told Wired:</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
"There's
a difference between being a step away from conducting sabotage and
actually being in a position to conduct sabotage ... being able to flip
the switch on power generation. We're now talking about on-the-ground
technical evidence this could happen in the US, and there's nothing left
standing in the way except the motivation of some actor out in the
world." </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
While we were all focused on the
natural disasters like wildfires and hurricanes looming over us, this
report went all but unnoticed by the mainstream and alternative media
alike.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
A power grid attack could shut down
commerce and destroy our already precarious financial system. It could
take down our medical system. If the damage was long-lasting, chaos
would erupt and it wouldn't take long for the death toll to skyrocket,
so dependent are we on power at the flip of a switch.</div>
<div>
<center>
</center>
</div>
<div>
How did the hackers get in?</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Remember
how John Podesta ended up being the victim of a phishing scheme that
allowed the Clinton campaign to be hacked? This was pretty much the same
thing. The Symantec report explains that this has been going on for a
couple of years now, but that activity has sharply increased this year:</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Symantec
has strong indications of attacker activity in organizations in the
U.S., Turkey, and Switzerland, with traces of activity in organizations
outside of these countries. The U.S. and Turkey were also among the
countries targeted by Dragonfly in its earlier campaign, though the
focus on organizations in Turkey does appear to have increased
dramatically in this more recent campaign.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
As
it did in its prior campaign between 2011 and 2014, Dragonfly 2.0 uses a
variety of infection vectors in an effort to gain access to a victim's
network, including malicious emails, watering hole attacks, and
Trojanized software.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The earliest activity
identified by Symantec in this renewed campaign was a malicious email
campaign that sent emails disguised as an invitation to a New Year's Eve
party to targets in the energy sector in December 2015.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The
group conducted further targeted malicious email campaigns during 2016
and into 2017. The emails contained very specific content related to the
energy sector, as well as some related to general business concerns.
Once opened, the attached malicious document would attempt to leak
victims' network credentials to a server outside of the targeted
organization.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
In July, Cisco blogged about
email-based attacks targeting the energy sector using a toolkit called
Phishery. Some of the emails sent in 2017 that were observed by Symantec
were also using the Phishery toolkit (Trojan.Phisherly), to steal
victims' credentials via a template injection attack. This toolkit
became generally available on GitHub in late 2016,</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
As
well as sending malicious emails, the attackers also used watering hole
attacks to harvest network credentials, by compromising websites that
were likely to be visited by those involved in the energy sector.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The
stolen credentials were then used in follow-up attacks against the
target organizations. In one instance, after a victim visited one of the
compromised servers, Backdoor.Goodor was installed on their machine via
PowerShell 11 days later. Backdoor.Goodor provides the attackers with
remote access to the victim's machine...</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
...Symantec
also has evidence to suggest that files masquerading as Flash updates
may be used to install malicious backdoors onto target networks--perhaps
by using social engineering to convince a victim they needed to
download an update for their Flash player. Shortly after visiting
specific URLs, a file named "install_flash_player.exe" was seen on
victim computers, followed shortly by the Trojan.Karagany.B backdoor.</div>
<div>
<center>
<a href="http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/product.cfm?product_id=40"><img border="0" src="http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/images/ads/TCC_banner1.jpg" /></a>
</center>
</div>
<div>
Typically, the attackers will install one or two
backdoors onto victim computers to give them remote access and allow
them to install additional tools if necessary. Goodor, Karagany.B, and
Dorshel are examples of backdoors used, along with Trojan.Heriplor. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The moral of this story? Be careful what you do online.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
This was a recon mission.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
So,
they got in but why didn't they do anything? According to one expert,
they were just in there looking around. John Hultquist, a researcher for
FireEye security, said of another such intrusion, "In our experience
groups that have solely targeted energy like this have been carrying out
reconnaissance for attack,"</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
According to the report by Symantec:</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The
Dragonfly group appears to be interested in both learning how energy
facilities operate and also gaining access to operational systems
themselves, to the extent that the group now potentially has the ability
to sabotage or gain control of these systems should it decide to do
so. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Back in July of this year, hackers got
into an American nuclear power plant in Kansas. On the bright side, they
were just into the business side of the Wolf Creek nuclear power plant
near Burlington, Kansas, and did not obtain access to the controls. But
it's still pretty unsettling that they'd even get that close. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
If
someone was able to get into the control section, not only could they
cause a power outage, but they could potentially disable the nuclear
safeguards. Eric Chien suspects that while this hack was originally
blamed on the Russians (because, really, what isn't blamed on the
Russians?) that the Dragonfly 2.0 hackers were the ones who were
responsible. ""It's highly unlikely this is just coincidental."</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Symantec seems to believe this will lead to something much, much worse:</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Sabotage
attacks are typically preceded by an intelligence-gathering phase where
attackers collect information about target networks and systems and
acquire credentials that will be used in later campaigns...The original
Dragonfly campaigns now appear to have been a more exploratory phase
where the attackers were simply trying to gain access to the networks of
targeted organizations. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The Dragonfly 2.0
campaigns show how the attackers may be entering into a new phase, with
recent campaigns potentially providing them with access to operational
systems, access that could be used for more disruptive purposes in
future. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Who is behind Dragonfly?</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Symantec
isn't sure who is behind the intrusions and says that many of their
actions are aimed at making it difficult to figure out.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Some of the group's activity appears to be aimed at making it more difficult to determine who precisely is behind it:</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The
attackers used more generally available malware and "living off the
land" tools, such as administration tools like PowerShell, PsExec, and
Bitsadmin, which may be part of a strategy to make attribution more
difficult. The Phishery toolkit became available on Github in 2016, and a
tool used by the group--Screenutil--also appears to use some code from
CodeProject.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
The attackers also did not use any zero days. As with
the group's use of publicly available tools, this could be an attempt to
deliberately thwart attribution, or it could indicate a lack of
resources.</div>
<div>
Some code strings in the malware were in Russian.
However, some were also in French, which indicates that one of these
languages may be a false flag.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Conflicting
evidence and what appear to be attempts at misattribution make it
difficult to definitively state where this attack group is based or who
is behind it. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The report also references the possibility of a false flag.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Our power grid has been hacked.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Our
grid has been hacked. Symantec's report refuses to disclose which power
plants were compromised, but there seems to be no doubt the hackers
were able to gain access to operational control of them. And while this
has been going on for a few years now, they're getting bolder and nearly
have the pieces in place to widespread sabotage our power grid.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
What
is clear is that Dragonfly is a highly experienced threat actor,
capable of compromising numerous organizations, stealing information,
and gaining access to key systems. What it plans to do with all this
intelligence has yet to become clear, but its capabilities do extend to
materially disrupting targeted organizations should it choose to do so. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
After
last December's malware attack that took down the grid in Ukraine, the
power was back on in most places within 6 hours. But...two months later,
the controls were still not fully operational. Nothing was able to be
done remotely. Someone had to manually control the breakers for months
after the attack.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
In the US, it might not go so smoothly.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
That's
actually a better outcome than what might occur in the US, experts say,
since many power grid control systems here don't have manual backup
functionality, which means that if attackers were to sabotage automated
systems here, it could be much harder for workers to restore power. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
No manual controls? Yay, progress. But the Ukraine attack could have been worse.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The
fact that the hackers could have done much more damage than they did do
if only they had decided to physically destroy substation equipment as
well, making it much harder to restore power after the blackout. The US
government demonstrated an attack in 2007 that showed how hackers could
physically destroy a power generatorsimply by remotely sending 21 lines
of malicious code.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The Ukrainian grid was hit
again with the NotPetya attack earlier this summer, a cyber attack that
quickly spread globally. It's naive to think that</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Our
power grid has been hacked, and it's naive to think that a massive
cyber attack couldn't happen to us. Cyber warfare is the war of the
future and there is more and more proof that it isn't a matter of if,
but when.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Originally published at <a href="http://www.theorganicprepper.ca/experts-prove-power-grid-hacked-09122017" target="_blank" title="Prep">The Organic Prepper</a> - reposted with permission.</div>
</div>
---------------------------------------http://www.blogger.com/profile/04026996012133110417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-685819527131893043.post-26368132251268436642017-10-03T18:11:00.001-07:002017-10-03T18:11:21.748-07:00Ring Of Fire Trembling Renews Fears Over California Big One<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h1 class="entry_title">
Ring Of Fire Trembling Renews Fears Over California Big One</h1>
<img alt="News Image" border="0" src="http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/images/recent/ringoffiresept262017.jpg" />
<span class="format">By Michael Snyder/End Of The American Dream</span> <span class="format">September 26, 2017</span>
<span style="font-family: verdana, sans serif; font-size: x-small;">
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<div>
The portion of "the Ring of Fire" that runs along the west coast of
North America is starting to shake like a leaf. As most of you already
know, the outer perimeter of the Pacific Ocean is known for high levels
of seismic activity, and the experts tell us that more than 80 percent
of all earthquakes and more than 70 percent of all volcanic eruptions
take place within the Ring of Fire. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The North
American section of the Ring of Fire has been relatively quiet for an
extended period of time, but now all of the shaking down in Mexico is
causing a tremendous amount of concern. In fact, some now fear that all
of the shaking down there may be a harbinger of things to come for
California.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Within the last 30 days, there have
been three major earthquakes in Mexico. This latest one was a magnitude
6.2 earthquake, and it was accompanied by an eruption of Mt.
Popocatepetl...</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<i>A magnitude 6.2 earthquake
that shook Mexico on Saturday was blamed for five deaths, spreading fear
among a population reeling from multiple natural disasters and
interrupting the search for survivors from a bigger tremor earlier this
week.</i></div>
<div>
<i>
<center>
</center>
</i></div>
<div>
<i>South of Mexico City, the Popocatepetl volcano
sent a column of ash into the sky, capping a period of seismic activity
including two powerful tremors this month that have killed more than 400
people and caused damages of up to $8 billion.</i></div>
<div>
<i><br /></i></div>
<div>
<i>Mexico's
capital was shattered by Tuesday's magnitude 7.1 quake that flattened
dozens of buildings and killed at least 307 people.</i></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Of
course the magnitude 8.1 earthquake that hit Mexico back on September
7th was the largest earthquake that we have seen down there in ages.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The
earthquakes are getting most of the attention from the media, and
without a doubt they have caused extensive damage, but Mt. Popocatepetl
may be of even greater concern. It has "registered 181 low-intensity
exhalations" in recent days, and on Saturday it erupted explosively
three times.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
A catastrophic eruption of Mt.
Popocatepetl would be a nightmare beyond anything that we have witnessed
in the modern history of Mexico. The volcano sits only about 50 miles
away from Mexico City, and there are close to 25 million people living
in the Mexico City metropolitan area. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
In
recent years, smoke and ash from minor eruptions of Mt. Popocatepetl
have reached the city, but most people living there have absolutely no
idea how immensely powerful the volcano truly is.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Popocatepetl
is an ancient Aztec word that can be translated as "smoking mountain",
and centuries ago enormous mud flows from the mountain buried entire
Aztec cities...</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<i>Historians tell us that
Popocatepetl had a dramatic impact on the ancient Aztecs. Giant mud
flows produced by massive eruptions covered entire Aztec cities. In
fact, some of these mud flows were so large that they buried entire
pyramids in super-heated mud.</i></div>
<div>
<i><br /></i></div>
<div>
<i>But
we haven't witnessed anything like that in any of our lifetimes, so it
is hard to even imagine devastation of that magnitude.</i></div>
<div>
<i>
<center>
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</center>
</i></div>
<div>
<i>In addition to Mexico City's mammoth population,
there are millions of others that live in the surrounding region.
Overall, there are about 25 million people that live in the immediate
vicinity of Popocatepetl. Thankfully, we haven't seen a major eruption
of the volcano in modern times, but at some point that will change.</i></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
As seismic activity rattles Mexico, many living on the California coast are beginning to take notice.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
In
fact, it is being reported that there was a run on emergency supplies
after a magnitude 3.3 earthquake struck near San Jose...</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<i>Last
week residents of San Jose were reportedly stocking up on emergency
supplies over fears the area will be hit by a massive earthquake.</i></div>
<div>
<i><br /></i></div>
<div>
<i>The city was shaken by a number of tremors including a strong 3.3 magnitude quake that was felt throughout the region.</i></div>
<div>
<i><br /></i></div>
<div>
<i>San
Jose is situated precariously close to the San Andreas fault line, an
800-mile fissure that runs almost the length of California.</i></div>
<div>
<i><br /></i></div>
<div>
<i>Scientists
agree that large swathes of southern California - including Los Angeles
and San Diego - are long overdue a "Big One" earthquake of magnitude 7
or more.</i></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
And just last Friday, it was reported that a magnitude 5.7 earthquake "struck off the northern coast of California"...</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<i>A
preliminary-magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck off the coast of Northern
California on Friday afternoon, but there was no threat of a tsunami,
officials said.</i></div>
<div>
<i>
</i></div>
<div>
<i>The quake's epicenter was 133.6 miles
west-southwest of Eureka, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Its
depth was measured at 3.6 miles.</i></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Scientists
assure us that someday the west coast will be hit by a major tsunami.
It literally is just a matter of time. In fact, the Los Angeles Times
reported on one study that discovered that a magnitude 9.0 earthquake
along the Cascadia fault could potentially produce a tsunami which would
"wash away coastal towns"...</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<i>If a 9.0
earthquake were to strike along California's sparsely populated North
Coast, it would have a catastrophic ripple effect.</i></div>
<div>
<i><br /></i></div>
<div>
<i>A
giant tsunami created by the quake would wash away coastal towns,
destroy U.S. 101 and cause $70 billion in damage over a large swath of
the Pacific coast. </i></div>
<div>
<i><br /></i></div>
<div>
<i>More than 100
bridges would be lost, power lines toppled and coastal towns isolated.
Residents would have as few as 15 minutes notice to flee to higher
ground, and as many as 10,000 would perish.</i></div>
<div>
<i><br /></i></div>
<div>
<i>Scientists
last year published this grim scenario for a massive rupture along the
Cascadia fault system, which runs 700 miles off shore from Northern
California to Vancouver Island.</i></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
And don't
forget about the volcanoes on the west coast either. Mt. Rainier is
known as "the most dangerous mountain in America" for a reason, and in
my apocalyptic novel entitled The Beginning Of The End I show why this
is the case. Someday Mt. Rainier will erupt again, and you don't want to
be around what that happens.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
As recent weeks have clearly demonstrated, our planet is become increasingly unstable.</div>
</div>
---------------------------------------http://www.blogger.com/profile/04026996012133110417noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-685819527131893043.post-39852335973916537902017-10-03T18:10:00.004-07:002017-10-03T18:10:48.931-07:00Iran and Turkey Prepare for War in Iraq, Talk Peace With Russia in Syria<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Iran and Turkey Prepare for War in Iraq, Talk Peace With Russia in Syria</h1>
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<a href="http://www.newsweek.com/world">World</a> <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/topic/iran">Iran</a> <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/topic/turkey">Turkey</a> <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/topic/turkish-military">Turkish Military</a> <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/topic/iranian-military">Iranian Military</a> <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/topic/iraq">Iraq</a> <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/topic/kurds">Kurds</a> <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/topic/kurdistan">Kurdistan</a> <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/topic/qatar">Qatar</a> <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/topic/gulf-crisis">Gulf Crisis</a> <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/topic/russia">Russia</a> <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/topic/islamic-state">Islamic State</a> <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/topic/syria">Syria</a></div>
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Traditional
Middle East rivals Iran and Turkey have found themselves united of late
by their mutual opposition to Kurdish independence in Iraq and common
interest in ending the six-year war in Syria, among other leading issues
in the region.<br />
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Turkish
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke Sunday by phone, expressing major
concerns a day before voting opened in the northern Kurdish autonomous
region of neighboring Iraq. Monday's referendum, in which the region's
residents are largely expected to ask for full independence from
Baghdad, has been met with widespread criticism from Iraq's central
government, as well as from Iran and Turkey, which have battled
insurgencies from their own local Kurdish populations and have taken
countermeasures to quell potential instability the vote could bring.<br />
<strong>Related: </strong><a href="http://www.newsweek.com/next-middle-east-war-kurdish-referendum-hope-fear-new-conflict-iraq-669903"><strong class="gr-progress">Next</strong></a><a href="http://www.newsweek.com/next-middle-east-war-kurdish-referendum-hope-fear-new-conflict-iraq-669903"><strong> Middle East war? Kurdish referendum brings hope and fears of new conflict to Iraq</strong></a><br />
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"The
two leaders noted that not canceling the referendum will bring with it
chaos to the region and they also stressed the great importance which
they attach to Iraq's territorial integrity,” Erdogan's office said in a
statement, according to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-kurds-referendum-turke/turkeys-erdogan-to-discuss-response-to-iraqi-referendum-during-iran-visit-pm-idUSKCN1C00UY" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Reuters</a>.<br />
<span class="embed-image"> <span class="figure" itemid="http://s.newsweek.com/sites/www.newsweek.com/files/styles/embed-lg/public/2017/09/25/gettyimages-521522012.jpg" itemprop="image" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject"> <source media="(min-width: 1200px)"></source><source media="(min-width: 992px)"></source><source media="(min-width: 768px)"></source><source media="(min-width: 481px)"></source><source media="(min-width: 0px)"></source><img alt="GettyImages-521522012" class="mapping-embed" height="641" itemprop="contentUrl" src="http://s.newsweek.com/sites/www.newsweek.com/files/styles/embed-lg/public/2017/09/25/gettyimages-521522012.jpg" title="" width="961" /></span> <span class="figcaption"> <span class="caption" itemprop="caption">
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) shakes hands with his
Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani during an official welcoming ceremony
at the presidential complex in Ankara on April 16, 2016. Turkey and
Iran have long taken opposing positions across the majority-Arab Middle
East, but recent developments have brought them closer. </span> <span class="credit" itemprop="copyrightHolder"> ADEM ALTAN/AFP/Getty Images </span> </span></span><br />
Turkey
had already begun conducting military exercises near its border with
Iraq's majority-Kurd north and even said it launched an airstrike
Saturday against militants from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), who
were preparing for an attack on Turkish troops from northern Iraq, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iran-iraq-wargames/iran-halts-flights-to-iraqs-kurdish-region-in-retaliation-for-independence-vote-idUSKCN1BZ09S" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Reuters</a>
reported. Erdogan threatened Monday to cut oil trade and send Turkish
troops to invade the would-be Kurdish state, the Israeli daily <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/turkey/1.814086" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><em>Haaretz</em></a> reported. As polls closed, Turkey and Iraq conducted "large-scale" joint military drills as a show of force, according to <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/latest-turkey-rejects-iraqi-kurds-referendum-50069411" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">the Associated Press</a>.<br />
Shortly after, local media reported that <a href="https://twitter.com/metesohtaoglu/status/912364892098875392">Iran, too, may join the bilateral exercises</a>.
Iran launched its own military maneuvers Sunday to mark the 1980
invasion of Iran by the late Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and the
subsequent eight-year war, according to <a href="http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2017/09/25/536392/Iran-Army-Ground-Forces-Heydar-Karrar-IRGC-Moharram" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Press TV</a>,
the English-language affiliate of the semi-official Islamic Republic of
Iran Broadcasting outlet. The maneuvers have reportedly featured
multiple airstrikes along Iraq's border with Iran.<br />
Iran also
closed its border with Iraq's Kurdish region Sunday and halted all
flights there. While the intensity of Iran's domestic Kurdish insurgency
has never reached the level of Turkey's, Iran also supports
majority-Shiite Muslim Iraqi militias known collectively as the Popular
Mobilization Forces, or <em>Al-Hashd Al-Shaabi</em>, whose influence and movement would likely be restricted as the result of an independent Kurdish state.<br />
These
fighters proved an effective force against the Islamic State militant
group (ISIS) after the jihadists took over about half the country in
2014, and they even fought alongside Kurdish forces also battling ISIS.
The militias are deeply opposed, however, to an Iraq divided between
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi—an ally of both the U.S. and
Iran—in Baghdad and Kurdish Regional Government President Masoud
Barzani in Erbil, whose only steady international support has come from
Israel, further offending local actors.<br />
<span class="embed-image"> <span class="figure" itemid="http://s.newsweek.com/sites/www.newsweek.com/files/styles/embed-lg/public/2017/09/25/rts1dooz.jpg" itemprop="image" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject"> <source media="(min-width: 1200px)"></source><source media="(min-width: 992px)"></source><source media="(min-width: 768px)"></source><source media="(min-width: 481px)"></source><source media="(min-width: 0px)"></source><img alt="RTS1DOOZ" class="mapping-embed" height="561" itemprop="contentUrl" src="http://s.newsweek.com/sites/www.newsweek.com/files/styles/embed-lg/public/2017/09/25/rts1dooz.jpg" title="" width="961" /></span> <span class="figcaption"> <span class="caption" itemprop="caption">
Turkish Army tanks maneuver during a military exercise near the
Turkish-Iraqi border in Silopi, Turkey, on September 25. Turkey joined
Iraq and potentially Iran as well in drills meant to represent a show of
force to the nearby autonomous Iraqi Kurdish Regional Government. </span> <span class="credit" itemprop="copyrightHolder"> Umit Bektas/Reuters </span> </span></span><br />
These
Iran-backed militias retain a presence in disputed areas such as
Kirkuk, whose inclusion in Monday's referendum has made the move even
more controversial. As tensions brewed in the days leading up to the
referendum, Qais al-Khazali, head of the Popular Mobilization Forces
unit Asaib Ahl al-Haq, spoke out against the possibility of a Kurdish
state.<br />
"The enemies of Imam Hussein raised the flag of the
homosexuals in Erbil at the wishes of the Israelis," Khazali said
Saturday, referencing the seventh-century Islamic figure highly revered
by Shiite Muslims for his refusal to pledge allegiance to the Umayyad
caliphate, which he considered unjust and illegitimate.<br />
"We will be victorious over anyone who wants to hurt or divide Iraq," he added, in a speech excerpt provided to <em>Newsweek</em> by Ahmad Majidyar, director of the Middle East Institute's IranObserved Project.<br />
<span class="embed-image"> <span class="figure" itemid="http://s.newsweek.com/sites/www.newsweek.com/files/styles/embed-lg/public/2017/09/25/rts1df45.jpg" itemprop="image" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject"> <source media="(min-width: 1200px)"></source><source media="(min-width: 992px)"></source><source media="(min-width: 768px)"></source><source media="(min-width: 481px)"></source><source media="(min-width: 0px)"></source><img alt="RTS1DF45" class="mapping-embed" height="641" itemprop="contentUrl" src="http://s.newsweek.com/sites/www.newsweek.com/files/styles/embed-lg/public/2017/09/25/rts1df45.jpg" title="" width="961" /></span> <span class="figcaption"> <span class="caption" itemprop="caption">
Majority-Shiite Muslim, Iran-backed Popular Mobilization Forces with
Iraqi rapid response members fire a missile against Islamic State
militant group (ISIS) on the outskirts of Shirqat, near Kirkuk, Iraq
September 23, 2017. The two allied Iraqi forces remain committed to a
unified nation, something that's caused tension between them and Iraq's
Kurdish peshmerga units, which mostly seek independence. </span> <span class="credit" itemprop="copyrightHolder"> Stringer/Reuters </span> </span></span><br />
Iran
and Turkey have also increasingly coordinated across the border in
Syria, where they back opposing sides in a conflict that's killed
hundreds of thousands of people and displaced millions. Iran, along with
Russia, is a supporter of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, while
Turkey backs rebels trying to overthrow him since 2011. Opposition
forces, with help from the U.S. and Gulf Arab states as well, made major
gains early on in the war, but Assad and his allies have since regained
much of what was lost.<br />
A series of Syrian government victories
and a rise in jihadist influence among rebel groups alienated
international backers from the Syrian opposition and, as the Syrian
military took Aleppo late last year, Turkey was forced to come to the
table and make a deal with Russia and Iran. These negotiations, based in
Astana, have since produced a framework for four de-escalation zones
designed to provide refuge for civilians.<br />
As Erdogan wrapped up a
trip to Moscow to discuss Syria with Russian President Vladimir Putin,
Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim announced Monday that Turkey,
Iran and Russia would work together to create a new de-escalation zone
near the northern city of Afrin, which is under the control of the
U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, a mostly Kurdish alliance of Arabs
and ethnic minorities planning their own push for greater autonomy.
U.S. support for Kurds, especially in Syria, has angered Turkey, a NATO
partner.<br />
"We are now taking joint moves with Iran and Russia to
establish a de-escalation zone in the area of the Syrian city of Afrin
in the north of the country," Yildirim said, according to the state-run <a href="http://tass.com/world/967338" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Tass Russian News Agency</a>.<br />
<span class="embed-image"> <span class="figure" itemid="http://s.newsweek.com/sites/www.newsweek.com/files/styles/embed-lg/public/2017/09/25/rtx3hc42.jpg" itemprop="image" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject"> <source media="(min-width: 1200px)"></source><source media="(min-width: 992px)"></source><source media="(min-width: 768px)"></source><source media="(min-width: 481px)"></source><source media="(min-width: 0px)"></source><img alt="RTX3HC42" class="mapping-embed" height="396" itemprop="contentUrl" src="http://s.newsweek.com/sites/www.newsweek.com/files/styles/embed-lg/public/2017/09/25/rtx3hc42.jpg" title="" width="640" /></span> <span class="figcaption"> <span class="caption" itemprop="caption">
A map shows areas of control in Syria between August 30, 2017 and
September 14, 2017. The Syrian military, backed by Russia and Iran, has
retaken large swaths of territory once held by the Islamic State
militant group (ISIS) and other insurgents, some of which received
Turkish support. </span> <span class="credit" itemprop="copyrightHolder"> Institute for the Study of War/Reuters </span> </span></span><br />
Iran
and Turkey have united against a third foe, Saudi Arabia. Persian Gulf
rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia have been engaged in a proxy war throughout
the region for decades. Saudi Arabia cut off relations with Iran
completely early last year after Iranian demonstrators outraged by
Riyadh's execution of an influential Shiite Muslim cleric stormed the
Saudi Arabian embassy in Iran. It was when Saudi Arabia severed ties
with neighboring Qatar earlier this year, however, that Turkey stepped
in.<br />
Shortly after President Donald Trump returned from an
anti-Iran rally in the oil-rich kingdom, Saudi Arabia and allies
Bahrain, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates announced in June a total
boycott of Qatar over alleged ties to both Shiite Muslim groups tied to
Iran and ultraconservative Sunni Muslim groups. Qatar denied the
charges, <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/iran-turkey-syria-war-gulf-crisis-food-military-627610">leading Turkey and Iran to defy the Saudi-led blockade</a> to deliver aid. Turkey also held military exercises on its only foreign military base, located in Qatar.</div>
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