May the source be with you, but remember the KISS principle ;-)
Bigger doesn't imply better. Bigger often is a sign of obesity, of lost control, of overcomplexity, of cancerous
cells
"F*ck the EU": neocons show EU its real place and endanger the US national
security
Victoria "f*ck the EU" Nuland appointed a neoliberal Ukrainian prime minister
and organized coup d'état to install him in power
( Making Ukraine "Khaganate of Nuland"; "Khaganate of Nuland" is an apt amalgam
of khanate and Kagan, a hint on Victoria's notorious neo-con husband Robert Kagan by Asia Times ).
Future Prime Minister – Arseniy Yatsenyuk
(rechristened to “Yats”) with his patron Victoria Nuland. Two statists -- Taygibok (Co-founder of
far right Socialist-National Party, later renamed into Svoboda party) and Klitschko (leader of
pro-Germany, Merkel-financed Udar Party who was just thrown under the bus) are present
If you have neither talent, nor education, but you have family connections you can always
became political commentator in the USA.
Notable quotes:
"... Kagan's argument would be slightly more persuasive if the U.S. were pursuing a policy of global retrenchment. Since that isn't happening, his explanation doesn't make any sense. ..."
"... Middle-class voters in many democratic states started rejecting mass democracy more than a decade ago and more because they were opposed to the empowerment of poorer voters, and that was already happening when Bush was still prattling about the "freedom agenda." ..."
"... It is essential to Kagan's larger case for a hyperactivist U.S. foreign policy that liberal democracy around the world and U.S. activism are inextricably intertwined ..."
"... The biggest problem with Kagan's story is that it mostly ignores the political conditions in the countries where authoritarian strongmen are consolidating power and in the countries where they have been losing it. U.S. support for many authoritarian rulers is undesirable and should be ended, but it doesn't account for the intensifying repression in Saudi Arabia and Egypt. ..."
"... Kagan rarely if ever makes any sense! This is standard for all neo/zio cons. The all important narrative does not rely upon facts, as a matter of course, facts and truth usually get in the way. ..."
"... Thank you Daniel Larison for your quick rebuttal to the ilk like Kagan, Boot, Applebaum and Rubin. Their dangerous ideas keep floating out in the policy sphere, and it's an admittedly mundane task to fact-check their writing each time some publications allow these hucksters to spread their bad ideas. Also, you deserve some type of prize for being the only writer who consistently focuses on the horrors in Yemen. ..."
"... Kagan will make up any story to keep American military engaged, mostly in the Middle East. Aside from the changes in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, which are aimed at repressing homegrown religious nationalism, the wave of so-called anti-democractic movements in Europe are responces to popular sentiments of national identity. ..."
makes
a very questionable claim about U.S. foreign policy:
Autocracy flourished in 2018 because when Washington pursues a so-called realist policy of
global retrenchment, it looks for dictators it thinks it can rely on.
Kagan's argument would be slightly more persuasive if the U.S. were pursuing a policy of
global retrenchment. Since that isn't happening, his explanation doesn't make any sense. The
argument would also be a little stronger if the U.S. didn't look for dictators it thinks it can
rely on at all times . If the U.S. isn't retrenching, and if the U.S. is always in the
market for cooperative authoritarian rulers, those things can't be major reasons why
authoritarian governments have been gaining ground in recent years.
There has been an increase
in illiberal democracies, one-party states, and authoritarian regimes over the last 10-15
years, and most of that has happened in the wake of the economic and political shocks caused by
the 2008 financial crisis.
Middle-class voters in many democratic states started
rejecting mass democracy more than a decade ago and more because they were opposed to the
empowerment of poorer voters, and that was already happening when Bush was still prattling
about the "freedom agenda."
Kagan is eager to tie the fortunes of liberal democracy around the world to the extent of
U.S. involvement abroad, but the former doesn't actually depend on the latter. He has to fall
back on the myth of "global retrenchment" by the U.S. when no such thing has happened, because
he needs that to be true to account for the growth of authoritarianism (or what he
anachronistically insists on calling autocracy). It is essential to Kagan's larger case for a
hyperactivist U.S. foreign policy that liberal democracy around the world and U.S. activism are
inextricably intertwined, but they aren't. Kagan's analysis doesn't hold up because
authoritarianism may wax or wane in various places around the world no matter what the U.S. is
or isn't doing abroad, and those changes are almost entirely beyond our control.
The biggest problem with Kagan's story is that it mostly ignores the political conditions in
the countries where authoritarian strongmen are consolidating power and in the countries where
they have been losing it. U.S. support for many authoritarian rulers is undesirable and should
be ended, but it doesn't account for the intensifying repression in Saudi Arabia and Egypt. The
U.S. has backed the Egyptian dictatorship and Saudi monarchy for decades, so that doesn't tell
us why the Sisi dictatorship and Mohammed bin Salman's de facto rule are so much more
repressive and abusive than their predecessors'. That intensifying repression is one of the
reasons why the U.S. should stop supporting these regimes, but we shouldn't assume that the
repression will lessen once our support is withdrawn. Ethiopia is a recent counterexample
to the trend of growing authoritarianism, and the reasons for that are internal to
Ethiopia.
Kagan is so determined to lay the "springtime for strongmen" at the door of the "so-called
realist policy of global retrenchment" that he isn't paying attention to local causes for these
political changes that have little or nothing to do with us. That may be useful for promoting
his alarmism about the return of "the jungle," but his explanation for why these things have
been happening is based on a fantasy.
Kagan rarely if ever makes any sense! This is standard for all neo/zio cons. The all important narrative does not rely upon facts, as a matter of course, facts and
truth usually get in the way.
Thank you Daniel Larison for your quick rebuttal to the ilk like Kagan, Boot, Applebaum and
Rubin. Their dangerous ideas keep floating out in the policy sphere, and it's an admittedly
mundane task to fact-check their writing each time some publications allow these hucksters to
spread their bad ideas. Also, you deserve some type of prize for being the only writer who
consistently focuses on the horrors in Yemen.
Kagan will make up any story to keep American military engaged, mostly in the Middle East.
Aside from the changes in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, which are aimed at repressing homegrown
religious nationalism, the wave of so-called anti-democractic movements in Europe are
responces to popular sentiments of national identity.
The justifications for military engagement by the neocons are obvious and comic, while the
cowardly writers who give them their patina of legitimacy are laughable and probably more
dangerous.
"while Victoria Nuland's activities were not helpful, believing they caused the Maidan uprising simply believes Putin
propaganda."
That's true. But that's not the whole truth. She definitely served as a catalyst for the violent coup. Yanukovich was a
corrupt neoliberal President with popularity in single digits (with Biden as the key mentor and Manafort as the key election
advisor), although probably less corrupt then Poroshenko, who eventually succeeded him (and also now has ratings in low teens).
In six months or so he would be gone. And Ukraine probably would keep Crimea and avoid Donbass war.
BTW Ukraine was moving apart from Russia since independence, and that process would continue and get to somewhat similar
results without such losses.
By encouraging radical part of Ukrainian nationalists and helping to stage an armed coup d'état using Western Ukrainian
nationalists as a ram, Nuland and Co opened the Pandora box. The process of drifting from Russian influence was forcefully
sped up and led to the loss of Crimea and civil war in Donbass.
So while US policy was to weaken Russia using Ukrainian nationalists (the policy which started after WWII) and the EU wanted
to monopolize Ukrainian markets and push out Russia ("Drang Nah Osten" in neoliberal form) the net result was plunging Ukrainian
population into African style poverty ($2 a day or so).
The arrogance and incompetence of the US neocons have no boundaries. I would recommend to you Stephen Cohen recent book
"War with Russia: From Putin & Ukraine to Trump & Russiagate." He is a pretty keen observer of the events in the region.
Or much older but still excellent UK book: America and the Imperialism of Ignorance: US Foreign Policy Since 1945 by Andrew
Alexander ( Andrew Alexander was a senior journalist for the Daily Mail. He died in 2015. )
The American foreign policy approach proved to be wretchedly consistent. Neocons did great damage to Ukraine and the USA.
And probably deserve some punishment, not sinecures in think tanks like Nuland got. I would like to see the US State Department
neocons hanging from Khreshchatik (the main street in Kiev) lamp posts ;-).
With Russia fully rearmed and still simmering with anger from humiliation and economic plunder organized by Clinton administration
(in this sense Hillary was right -- there is Russian revanchism; she just did not understand that it, for now, is suppressed
by Putin), there are now just two possibilities: (1) "God protects Fools, Children, and the United States of America" or (2)
"The US lemmings led by neocons jump from the cliff."
Neocons like to blackmail Putin using him as the scapegoat, but they do not understand that the person who will replace
Putin might be not some Yeltsin type neoliberal, ready to sell his country and people, but a hardcore nationalist spoiling
for a fight.
Then what? Thermonuclear WWIII and wiping out both the USA and Russia from the map?
I hate the bellicosity and arrogance of the US neocons like Bill Kristol or Max Boot. It is not accidental that 99% of them
are chickenhawks. For the USA to survive and prosper they need to be removed from Washington and exiled to Alaska, or even
farther North. But this is clearly impossible as they are, de-facto, paid lobbyists of MIC, the corrupt stooges, not some ideological
lunatics (many of them do have a pretty decent IQ; this is necessary for a successful lobbyist )
That's probably wrong. Distancing from Russia was the main theme for all post Soviet States.
And the fact that Ukraine had chosen Baltin model -- becoming the sattelite of EU is not
surprising, taking into account connections of Western Ukraine and Germany which goes to the time
when this territory was a part of Austro-Hungarian Empire.
The the fact that this distancing took such a toxic and self-destructing form and incldes the
loss of territory and population, can be attributed to the USA. Here I would agree with the
author.
Notable quotes:
"... The term, roughly translated as Revolution of Dignity, was cooked up at the Jamestown Foundation in Washington, well in advance of Victoria Nuland's assumption of the throne as de facto "Queen of the Ukraine," lording over her subjects, playing the role of "donut dollie." ..."
"... The roots of the conflict in the Ukraine with thousands dead and the threat of, minimally, a wider regional conflict, are attributable to extremist elements in the United States -- those faces and voices seen and heard promoting the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, the supporters of ISIS/Al Qaeda in Syria -- and the cheerleaders of the continued genocide against the Palestinian people." ..."
"A Pew poll from April 2014 revealed that 91 percent of Crimean respondents
believed the referendum was free and fair, 93 percent had confidence in Putin, and
85 percent believed Kiev should recognize the results.
Another poll in June 2014, this one from Gallup , showed 94 percent of
ethnic Russians in Crimea thought the referendum reflected the views of the people and 68
percent of ethnic Ukrainians in Crimea agreed . The poll found that 74 percent
believed that joining Russia would make life better.
A GfK poll from February 2015, sponsored by a pro-Ukrainian group in Canada,
revealed 93 percent of Crimeans endorsed the referendum."
"Enough documents have been released -- citing coup-backed snipers killing dozens of
protesters, US embassy officials planning false flag attacks, extremists downing a passenger
airliner and NATO peddling falsified intelligence -- to make it very clear that the "coup" is
more of an invasion than anything else.
The term, roughly translated as Revolution of Dignity, was cooked up at the Jamestown
Foundation in Washington, well in advance of Victoria Nuland's assumption of the throne as de
facto "Queen of the Ukraine," lording over her subjects, playing the role of "donut
dollie."
The roots of the conflict in the Ukraine with thousands dead and the threat of,
minimally, a wider regional conflict, are attributable to extremist elements in the United
States -- those faces and voices seen and heard promoting the invasion of Afghanistan and
Iraq, the supporters of ISIS/Al Qaeda in Syria -- and the cheerleaders of the continued
genocide against the Palestinian people."
"In 1950, the Nuremberg Tribunal defined Crimes against Peace, in Principle VI,
specifically Principle VI(a), submitted to the United Nations General Assembly, as:
(i) Planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression or a war in violation
of international treaties, agreements or assurances;
(ii) Participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of any of the
acts mentioned under (i)."
@annamaria
Bravo, indeed, Annamaria. Beautiful, perfect, resounding, harsh, unforgiving words for a pair
of worthless human vermin masquerading as civilised, intelligent professionals with a moral
compass.
"... Mitt Romney, Commander of the Fake Internationalists Newly-inaugurated Senator has been promoted to standard-bearer for the bipartisan War Party, filling in for John McCain. ..."
"... Washington Post ..."
"... Doug Bandow is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. A former special assistant to President Ronald Reagan, he is author of ..."
Mitt Romney, Commander of the Fake
Internationalists Newly-inaugurated Senator has been promoted to standard-bearer for the
bipartisan War Party, filling in for John McCain.
No surprise: Senator Mitt Romney does not like President Donald Trump, as he recently
explained in TheWashington Post . But what, one wonders, was the former GOP
presidential candidate thinking two years ago when he supped with the man he now claims to
deplore while seeking an appointment as secretary of state?
Much of Romney's complaint is over manners. Yes, the president is a boor. Most people,
including many of Trump's supporters, recognize that. Trump won not because of his etiquette
but because of what he stood for -- and against.
Romney also defended The Blob, Washington's bipartisan foreign policy establishment. In his
article attacking the president, he offered the usual vacuous bromides that characterize the
interventionist consensus, which poses as internationalism but with plenty of bombing raids,
illegal occupations, and nation-building. Most importantly, this perspective presumes permanent
American domination, irrespective of cost.
Romney wrote: "America has long been looked to for leadership. Our economic and military
strength was part of that, of course, but our enduring commitment to principled conduct in
foreign relations, and to the rights of all people to freedom and equal justice, was even more
esteemed." Indeed, "The world needs American leadership, and it is in America's interest to
provide it. A world led by authoritarian regimes is a world -- and an America -- with less
prosperity, less freedom, less peace."
In fact, Romney appears more committed to dependence on allies than American leadership. For
him, these are two sides of the same coin. The only alternative he sees to Washington in
control is the bad guys leading.
Related is Romney's apparent belief that foreign policy is fixed, irrespective of
circumstance: the very same U.S.-dominated alliances created in 1950 are needed today. Although
America's friends have raced ahead economically, politically, even militarily, Washington must
forever treat them as helpless derelicts. For instance, Russia, a weakened declining power,
faces the U.S. and Europe -- which together have more than 20 times its GDP. Yet Romney sees
Moscow as the greatest threat facing America. It is 1945 all over again.
Romney's most important omission is Iraq. After the war there turned bad, he remained silent
about his support for it. The Iraq disaster is an important reason why Trump won and other
Republicans, including Romney, lost. In 2008, Americans rejected John McCain, the very symbol
of promiscuous war-making. Four years later, Romney criticized President Barack Obama for
leaving Iraq too soon, by which the Republican nominee probably meant leaving at any time. In
saying he would keep more troops in Iraq, he ignored the fact that the Iraqis had refused to
negotiate a status of forces agreement with the Bush administration.
Romney also failed to mention Afghanistan, both as a presidential candidate in 2012 and
senator in 2019. After all, what good can be said for entering the 18th year of nation-building
in a region of little strategic interest? As for Syria, last November, Romney predictably
denounced as "recklessness in the extreme" exiting a multi-sided civil war in a country never
important to America.
Now Romney is being touted as the new standard-bearer for the bipartisan War Party, filling
in for John McCain. Bloomberg columnist Hal Brands theorized that Romney was attempting to
"position himself as heir to John McCain as the congressional conscience of U.S. diplomacy"
(defined as advocating policies designed to prolifically kill and destroy).
Towards this effort, Romney is articulating "a renewed Republican internationalism based on
opposition to aggressive authoritarian regimes." Brands celebrates Romney's Russophobia, saying
he "deserves credit for being anti-Russia before being anti-Russia was cool." No hint that the
U.S. might have contributed to Moscow's hostility through the aggressive "internationalism" of
Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama -- violating commitments not to
expand NATO, dismantling Moscow's Slavic friend Serbia, and encouraging violent regime change
against an elected government that neighbored Russia. After all, equivalent Russian
intervention in Mexico would have triggered an extremely hostile reaction in Washington.
Neoconservative Max Boot lauded Romney for throwing "down the gauntlet to President Trump."
Indeed, argued Boot, "it now falls upon Romney to champion the cause of principled conservatism
in Washington." Boot hoped the freshman senator would lead a general opposition and seemed
especially pleased at Romney's support for the interventionist status quo.
Yet the passion-less Romney is a poor substitute for the perennially angry McCain. It is
difficult to imagine Romney leading Lindsey Graham and Joseph Lieberman on another apocalyptic
ride, demanding that death and destruction be visited upon an enemy du jour. Indeed, Romney
admitted as much, complained TheNew York Times , which noted that he said he
"would only speak out against Mr. Trump on issues of 'great significance,' which means not
much."
Worse, Romney is a typical denizen of Washington and lacks any connection to the disastrous
consequences of his policies. Give McCain credit: he and his sons served in the military. Not
Romney. He received four deferments during the Vietnam War, explaining that he "had other
plans." This sounds eerily like Dick Cheney, who said his five deferments reflected "other
priorities."
Moreover, none of Romney's five sons served. That is, of course, their prerogative. But
their decision further insulated Romney from any consequences of his policies. His response to
questions about their lack of service: "One of the ways my sons are showing support for our
nation is helping me get elected because they think I'd be a great president." Did Romney
believe working for him was as dangerous as fighting Iraqi insurgents in Fallujah? Or that his
personal interest in winning the election was as important as the nation winning a war?
My friend William Smith at the Center for the Study of Statesmanship at Catholic University
argued that Romney's article "is another clear sign that the bipartisan political establishment
is largely oblivious to the terrible tragedy of wartime casualties disproportionately inflicted
on certain communities." Candidate Trump did particularly well in states that so suffered.
Complained Smith: "What is astonishing is that, after all this tragedy, Romney offers only
cliched neoconservative bromides to the many heartbroken communities across the nation."
However, The Blob, which dominates foreign policy under both parties, poses an even larger
problem. These policymakers consider permanent war to be America's natural condition. They seek
to suppress dissident views to ensure united support for permanent war. Anyone who hesitates to
back every proposed new intervention is demonized and marginalized.
The favorite technique, recently employed by Frederick Kagan in The Hill, is to call
opponents, irrespective of their actual positions, "isolationists." Thus did Kagan urge left
and right "internationalists" -- meaning military interventionists -- to work together to
defend "the principle that the United States must remain actively engaged in the world," by
which he meant warring without end on multiple countries.
Exclaimed Kagan: "The isolationists who have condemned the United States involvement in the
Middle East and the rest of the world for decades are about to get their wish. We will witness
what the world looks like when left to its own devices."
Egads. Imagine what might have happened had the U.S. not intervened in the Lebanese Civil
War, armed Turkey to kill tens of thousands of Kurds and destroy thousands of Kurdish villages,
invaded Iraq and triggered sectarian conflict, fostered civil war in Libya and the chaos that
followed, supported decades of violent occupation over millions of Palestinians by Israel,
backed murderous Saudi Arabia in Bahrain and Yemen, supported a coup against Iran's
democratically elected government and a brutal invasion backed by chemical weapons against
Iran's Islamist regime, actively underwritten tyranny across the Middle East, and tried to sort
out the Syrian Civil War. Something bad might have happened.
Yeah.
In Syria, Kagan views as "isolationist" the withdrawal of an illegal military deployment
that risks violent confrontation with Syria, Turkey, Iran, and Russia over minor stakes. In
contrast, "internationalism" means war everywhere all the time, especially in a country like
Syria.
Trump, complained Kagan, is leaving "Afghanistan for no clear reason whatsoever." No reason
other than Washington long ago having achieved its objective of degrading and displacing
al-Qaeda and punishing the Taliban for hosting al-Qaeda. And eventually having recognized,
after more than 17 years passed, trillions of dollars were spent, and thousands of lives were
lost, that using force to create a liberal democracy in Central Asia is a fool's errand. Why
leave, indeed?
It has oft been recognized that Donald Trump is a flawed vehicle to achieve almost any
foreign policy end. However, he still possesses far more common sense than Mitt Romney. It is
time to rescue "internationalism" from those who love humanity so much that they would destroy
the world in order to save it.
Doug Bandow is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. A former special assistant to
President Ronald Reagan, he is author of Foreign Follies: America's New Global Empire
.MORE FROM THIS AUTHOR
"No reason other than Washington long ago having achieved its objective of degrading and
displacing al-Qaeda and punishing the Taliban for hosting al-Qaeda."
One should avoid the back pedal here. the Taliban did not host Al Quaeda in the manner
your reference suggests.
I truly voted against Romney when he ran for president because of his omnidirectional
belligerence. I also didn't like his vulture capitalism style (and I did technical due
diligence for venture capital activities as a side line).
Romney just guaranteed that he won't get the nomination. Amazing, really, stupid and
gratuitous.
He could at the least have shown a little "growth" in the direction of populist disgust with
the wasteful, reckless, failed wars, not to mention concerns about the growth of government and
corporate mass surveillance of the public, and the continuing unholy collaboration between Wall
Street, Silicon Valley, and Washington in ripping off taxpayers and importing cheap labor to
take American jobs.
Not Mitt. He seems to think he's running for president of our utterly discredited,
pseudo-meritocratic "Establishment".
Let's all thank the knuckle-headed Utahns for delivering another unimaginative empty suit to
the Nation's State House. Sure, Trump is often a boor, and unmistakably human, but give me a
man-child with conviction and Devil-may-care determination over a dapper dolt whose ideas are
contrived platitudes and whose passion is a Macbeth-like obsession with stature and power any
day of the week and twice on Sunday. Well written Mr. Bandow! Keep fighting the good fight.
I get the sense that the "isolationist" line doesn't work any more. It was a commonly used
rhetorical weapon 10 years ago, and it effectively silenced opposition. Now it's not used much,
and it seems to be ignored or derided when it is used. Most Americans understand now that
maintaining and expanding an empire is destroying us.
You really don't get Romney, do you. Who are you to decided what anyone sees or feels. Do you
think you could use the word seems like a professional journalist. I don't construe
Romney that way. You SEEM to put words in his mouth and thought in his head. Please be
professional.
My take is Mitt see's himself as a Gerald Ford calming effect, for this 4 year disruption, the
Swamp battles with. The Deep state needs an impeachment win and soon. With that said it will be
ever difficult for the Beltway to change Americans perception , they don't trust the
government.
For someone so smart Romney should realize that Americans will reject him (again), when he
takes up the mantle of McCain (again) as quickly as they did the last time. But that he fails
to realize that substance trumps form, which is why 67 million Americans voted for the
President, demonstrates what a shallow narcisst and sociopath he is. I mean, it's okay to rob
your neighbor so long as you say "please" and "thank you," isn't it?
The writer states: "Now Romney is being touted as the new standard-bearer for the bipartisan
War Party, filling in for John McCain."
I believe The "War Party" are:
"The Maniacs of Militarism"
The maniacs of militarism are creating wars
Countries are bombed by warmongering whores
Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen and other countries too
Are hell holes of the earth, "The work," of this insane crew
Enabled by politicians in positions of power
These well dressed war criminals hide and cower
The generals salute their political masters
Then the brainwashed obey these bemedaled disasters
Cities are destroyed and reduced to rubble
Where are the perpetrators that created all this trouble?
They are residing in luxury and given fancy titles
War crimes trials are needed, and are so vital
But this is not happening: the system is corrupted
And these evil beings, by some are worshiped
Blood-soaked villains that never do the fighting
They are the "experts" that do the inciting
They are the producers of death and destruction
Others are profiteers of all the bloody actions
Missiles, bombs and horrendous weapons
There is no end to the endless aggression
Millions are dead, and millions are homeless
Millions are refugees, and all this is atrocious
Once they had jobs, families, and homes as well
Then their countries were bombed by the agents from hell
Setting the world on fire is what these war arsonists do
The money for their depredations comes from me and you
They have made us all accessories to their criminal acts
Our Taxes are the blood money and that is a fact
Will the people ever say: "We have had enough"?
And put all these villains in secure handcuffs
Then lock them up in maximum security prisons
Then, we can say "goodbye" to the maniacs of militarism
[more info at link below] http://graysinfo.blogspot.com/2017/04/the-maniacs-of-militarism.html
-- --
And:
"More War "
More war is needed to keep armies trained and employed
More wars are needed so that countries can be destroyed
More killing, bombing, destruction and death
More of this is needed until the victims have nothing left
[read more at link below]
Romney is such an empty suit i'm not sure if he isn't weakening his position just by virtue
that, he Romney, supports it.
Does this guy inspire anyone to any emotion other than revulsion? Along with Hillary, they
both strike me both as elites who want to become president, not from any actual passions or
desires, but because they've run out of other things to add to their C.V.
The only thing I can say with certainty that Mitt Romney believes in, is Mitt Romney. So I'm
intensely skeptical that ANYONE in America, aside from the most firebrand resistance types, are
going to take anything coming out of this corporate drone's mouth with any seriousness. And
even for the resistance types the support would equally follow a labrador retriever, just so
long as it opposed Trump, so Mitt doesn't even have that thin thread of loyatly going for
him.
I guess that leaves him with the neocons as BFFs. They're welcome to each other.
Why are we ragging on Romney? Is it because he had the audacity to criticize Trump? Shouldn't
we wait until he actually does something bad before ragging on him? Has he lied 6,000 times in
the last few years, for example? Did he refuse to rake the forests?
I think Romney is simply miffed that the boorish Trump became president and he did not and
sadly, he may be running for president again. I think someone used the word revulsion about
Romney. I approve. It's ironic the boorish Trump isn't nearly as revolting as the urbane Mitt.
@Mike Clements
For me it's the straw man arguments that are most egregious. As an Arizonan, I knew John
McCain, and Romney is no McCain (whose like we will never see again, if we're lucky).
Just to single out one objection to Mr. Bandow's argument: Romney didn't refer to the SOFA,
which supposedly required Obama to abandon Iraq, for the very good reason that Leon Panetta,
who should know, has said that Obama, with plenty of time to do it, made no effort whatsoever
to re-negotiate the SOFA 2011 deadline. Panetta regrets this and so do I.
Romney is the epitome of the decay of the USA. Further, he shows the complete inability of the
Republican party to choose the correct casting. After Bush and Iraq they propose McPain. After
the Great Financial Crisis they propose Mittens. It's akin to cast Dany de Vito to play
Casanova. When Trump is gone, this party is finished.
I approve. It's ironic the boorish Trump isn't nearly as revolting as the urbane Mitt.
That Americans are revolted more by Romney than by Trump, in fact, speaks well for them. All
morally mature folk should be repelled more by a polite, urbane, well-scrubbed pirate, who made
his fortune destroying people's lives and wealth than by a loud-talking, crude womanizer, who
creates wealth and, in fact, shows his concern for the people below him more than the polite,
charming, well-bred pirate.
@Jeeves, Obama would have stayed in Iraq if the Iraqi's had allowed us to continue to kill with
impunity. Thankfully, they said no. And why on earth would you regret us not negotiating a new
SOFA?
If Utah has a problem with Trump they could have elected a Democrat.
Romney is obsolete. Never Trump Republicans are sinking in a tar pit. Romney cannot be
nominated much less elected even if Trump does not run. He can help with the impeachment of
Trump if it comes to that. But again, a Democrat would be more useful.
Here's another example of the untrustworthiness of news-media and of other allegedly
nonfiction presentations, even in many 'scientific' journals -- but this one will be an example
from what has become overwhelmingly the world's leading encyclopedia: Wikipedia.
The CIA-
edited and - written
Wikipedia writes about the anti-CIA Michel
Chossudovsky , by saying against his organization, the Centre for Research on
Globalization, that it "promotes a variety of conspiracy theories and
falsehoods.[7][19][8][20][21][22][23]." However (just to take one example there), the 22nd
footnote "[22]" brings the reader to
a lying 11 September 2013 article in the neoconservative The New Republic . This TNR
article says against the progressive organization Veteran
Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) that "The sources for VIPS' most sensational
claims, it turns out, are Canadian eccentric Michel Chossudovsky's conspiracy site Global
Research and far-right shock-jock Alex Jones's Infowars."
Wikipedia's linking to that lying TNR article is part of Wikipedia's 'proof' that both of
those 'conspiracy' sites (the leftist Chossudovsky's and the rightist Jones's) are false (in
other words: Wikipedia there is blatantly deceiving its readers, and is even assuming they're
stupid enough to believe such a ridiculous thing as that and wouldn't even bother to check
out Wikipedia's sources to find whether Wikipedia is the liar there, and not Chosudovsky's
site that is the liar).
It's also assuming that the Obama regime was truthful when saying that Bashar al-Assad was
behind the 21 August 2013 sarin gas attack in Ghouta Syria . However, that second assumption
is likewise demonstrably false. The TNR's article and its allegation against Assad regarding
Ghouta were, in fact, disproven, on 14 January
2014 , when leading US weapons-scientists Theodore Postol and Richard Lloyd studied
closely all the evidence on that event and the US Government's evidence that Assad had been
associated with causing it, and the Lloyd-Postol finding was unequivocal that "the US
Government's Interpretation of the Technical Intelligence It Gathered Prior to and After the
August 21 Attack CANNOT POSSIBLY BE CORRECT."
Furthermore, Obama actually knew that he was falsifying. Seymour Hersh's 17 April 2014
article in the London Review of Books , proved this. Obama was lying. Neither
Lloyd-Postol nor Hersh is even referred to in today's Wikipedia's article . It still trusts Obama's and TNR's
proven lie that Assad (instead of Obama's 'Syrian rebels' -- a.k.a.: jihadists
) had done that sarin attack. Wikipedia smears Chossudovsky with that proven lie, by simply
reasserting the lie, and by assuming that Chossudovsky's site is less trustworthy than
Wikipedia (which is yet another lie). But that's merely one of many lies that are in the
Wikipedia article against Chossudovsky. No intelligent reader trusts Wikipedia -- or any
source (except sources that the reader has repeatedly confirmed to be true and never to have
asserted falsehoods -- unlike Wikipedia, which is full of distortions, cover-ups, and
lies).
Intelligent skeptics dig down like this (which can be done only online, which is why print
and broadcast 'news' is even less trustworthy than online news), and routinely find that
there's a very selective use of 'evidence' that's behind most claims, and that the reality is
that the 'news' is often false, and, worse than that, the 'news' is usually false for a purpose
or purposes -- that the 'news' is often fraudulent, that it is propaganda , PR, often even of
the lying sort, instead of being honest and carefully verified research and reporting, such as
it claims to be.
Usually, it's false because the intention is to deceive, not because Wikipedia (or whatever
other news-and-public-affairs medium one happens to be considering) merely goofed. As was noted
here, Wikipedia is
edited , and even written , by
the
CIA . (Remember what a "slam-dunk" about "Saddam's WMD"
they delivered to the George W. Bush regime in 2002?) Only sources that are approved by the CIA
are linked to there . Some of the sources are true, but many are not. The article on
Chossudovsky was done for the CIA by an asset of the CIA, about a critic of the CIA. The CIA
represents America's billionaires, and Chossudovsky doesn't.
Extremely wealthy people buy, advertise their corporations in, and/or donate to,
public-affairs media, not in order to profit from them as owners of them, so much as in order
to influence public affairs by means of them. This is one of the ways in which to grab hold not
only of the government, but even of the people who vote for the government and who also buy
those billionaires' corporations' products and services.
Trust should never be given; it should only be earned. Regarding what is public, trust is
earned only rarely -- and is never earned when that trust is in the major 'news'-media (all of
which are owned and controlled by billionaires and centi-millionaires who actually have
interests in many corporations, including some they don't control but only serve or else invest
in). The major 'news'-media don't always lie, but they often lie - especially about foreign
affairs, which are the main focus and concern of international corporations.
For example: where do you ever see, in the major 'news'-media in The West, such high quality
news-reporting as
this, at the obscure news-site 21st Century Wire, from the great investigative journalist
Vanessa Beeley ? What even comes close to such honesty, at CBS, ABC, NBC, Fox, MSNBC, CNN,
BBC, New York Times, Washington Post, Guardian, The Times, New Yorker, The Atlantic, The
Nation, Mother Jones, The Public Interest, National Review, Rolling Stone , Truthout, Truthdig,
Alternet, Salon, etc.? Obviously, nothing, ever.
So: that's why one should always distrust the news. The system here is designed for deceit
of the public.
Here are other recent articles from me, describing other instances of this phenomenon, the
routine deceiving of the public:
4 февраля
гостьей
программы
"Гордон" была
народный
депутат
Украины V - VII
созывов Елена
Бондаренко.
Сильные мира
сего умеют
хранить свои
тайны, и тем
интереснее
задавать им
прямые и
неудобные
вопросы, чтобы
отделить
правду от лжи и
узнать истину.
Они будут
пытаться
уклоняться от
ответов, но
Дмитрий Гордон
постарается
докопаться до
самой сути.
Эти люди
расскажут о том,
о чем принято
молчать – что
волнует
общество и
Дмитрия
Гордона в
частности.
Russia's response provided, in excruciating detail, not only clear disproofs of the Netherlands-headed
investigation's conclusions of Russian guilt, but also provided the still-unrefuted proofs of Ukraine's
actual and incontestable guilt, in this mass-murder.
the Government of Ukraine was, on 8 August 2014, granted veto-power over any official finding which
would be produced by the Joint Investigative Team. Dutch government refuses to reveal 'secret deal' into
MH17 crash probe .. the Holland's science-publishers Elsevier had filed for this information under that
country's Freedom of Information Act, and the [Dutch] Government simply refused to comply with that
law.
the Netherlands Government had partially funded the coup that in February 2014 overturned Ukraine's
Government and installed the new regime, which regime is allied with the United States Government and
actually perpetrated the MH17 shoot-down.
The US regime masterminded this mass-murder in order to win the EU's support for sanctions against
Russia, and the EU knowingly complied The MH17 victims were merely "collateral damages" in the US
regime's secret decades-long and ongoing anti-Russia war.
The BBC had previously posted to their website on 23 July 2014, just six days after the event itself,
a news report in Russian via their Russian service (fortunately archived by Global Research), about the
downing, but they quickly removed it without explanation.
It was already known that NATO and Europhiles from bruSSel has created and executed this plan to
start a casus belli against Russia, all the steps that the European Neo-cons and Azkenazi's are making
from: the association agreement with Ukrianians, the MarraKECH agreement with all the lies and
spinning from Frans Timmermans, Dutch PM Mark Rutte and their Soros sponsord media: Dutch princess
Mabel Bruinsma or better known Mabel van Oranje is working for Soros as Royal family member
MH17, not impossible for me indeed that Rutte knew that the plane would be shot down. The day affter
the disaster Dutch objections against sanctions to Russia were over, though at that moment knowledge of
what had happened was nil.
The possibility of an accident, caused by Ukraine, cannot be ruled out, however.
Ukrainian bombers seem to have used overflying passenger planes as shield against SAM missiles.
I suspect Israel of recently having used the same trick near Damascus, Israeli jets hiding behind
commercial planes, possibly with the hope that Syria would shoot down one or two paassenger planes.
*But also here nothing new.
British admiralty signals to the Lusitania are still secret, as far as I know.
From what is known I get the impression that the British wanted the Lusitania torpedoed.
Finally, a clear and convincing - and unrefuted - case can now be presented to the public, as to precisely whom the guilty party
was, that downed the MH17 Malaysian airliner over Ukraine on 17 July 2014, and why it was done.
The complete case, which
will be fully documented here, displays unequivocally who needed the MH17 murders (of
298
persons
) to be perpetrated. This mass-murder was done for one leader's very pressing obsession. For him, it simply had to be
done, and done at that precise time.
The full MH17 case will be presented here, to be judged by the public, because no court of law which possesses the power to bring
this (or even any) case on the MH17 murders, is willing to do so, and because the evidence in this 17 July 2014 case has become
overwhelming, and is unrefuted.
This
evidence is accepted by both sides
. But it still remains effectively hidden from the publics in the United States and
its allied countries. (The present news-report, which is the first ever to present this entire case, is submitted to all
news-media in English-speaking countries, so that any of them that wishes to provide its audience access to this uncontested and
conclusive evidence in the MH17 case can do so, by publishing this article. Any of them that won't, don't want their audience to
have access to the conclusive evidence in this case, because this article is being made available to all of them to publish, free
of charge; so, there is no other reason not to publish it.)
The complete evidence will be described, and all of the conclusive evidence is linked-to, proving who perpetrated, and who
demanded, the shoot-down on 17 July 2014 of the Malaysian airliner MH17.
This article will start by demonstrating the most important thing, and will demonstrate it by means of
links
to the most conclusive evidence of all
. This is the evidence which absolutely proves that the official Netherlands-headed
investigation into this matter is an intentional and utter fraud -- a fraud which has already been conclusively answered and
exposed by the Russian Government. (Netherlands headed the investigation because
196
of
the 298 murder-victims were Dutch.)
Russia's
response provided, in excruciating detail, not only clear disproofs of the Netherlands-headed investigation's conclusions of
Russian guilt, but also
(and on the basis of
the
very same evidence
that the official investigation had made public on 24 May 2018) provided the still-unrefuted (but
nonetheless still effectively hidden)
proofs
of Ukraine's actual and incontestable guilt, in this mass-murder.
This evidence, of the Netherlands team's fraudulence,
carries the investigation a large part of the way toward its ultimate conclusion, regarding whom the person was who had demanded
Ukraine to commit this crime.
So, Russia's response, on 17 September 2018, used that Netherlands-headed team's own documentation, to disprove that team's
attribution of guilt to Russia, and to
prove
conclusively
Ukraine's
guilt
as having been the actual perpetrator of this mass-murder. Thus, the Netherlands-headed team includes the actual
perpetrator, Ukraine, and not only the Netherlands Government, which had helped overthrow Ukraine's prior and democratically
elected Government and bring Ukraine's current regime into power in February 2014, just months prior to the MH17 shoot-down,
which resulted from that
US
coup
.
Most readers who click onto the links here will be shocked.
What will shock them is the evidence, because it has not
been published in The West (except summarized in less than a half-dozen obscure news-media -- and, even there, generally not
documented, such as it is here).
The links will document and fully prove this stunning turnabout, from Russia to Ukraine. The documentation that was cited by
Ukraine and Ukraine's fellow team-member (the team's leader) Netherlands, against Russia, on May 24th of 2018, contained
previously unrecognized details (which were first pointed out in the Russian presentation on September 17th of 2018) which
irrefutably convict Ukraine. Consequently, Russia's response was ignored in The West, despite that presentation's having been
based upon the very same items of evidence that had been introduced by the Netherlands-led team on May 24th. Thus, the items of
evidence, there, are the same that the Netherlands-led team had themselves provided. The items of evidence here are not in
dispute
.
The current article will be the first-ever to hone-in on the especially shocking key data in Russia's data-packed September 17th
response, the key evidence that Russia was calling attention to there, and which prove Ukraine's guilt beyond any reasonable
doubt -- prove it on the basis of the very same evidence that had been introduced by Ukraine's own team in their presentation four
months earlier. Using the other side's evidence to convict that other side is what makes this denouement the stunning turnabout
that it is.
The Netherlands-headed Ukrainian
team still
refuses to answer
the Russian presentation, which responds to the Ukrainian team's May 24th presentation. Western
'news'-media have likewise almost completely ignored Russia's response. (
One
Dutch medium
did report on it but dismissed it by focusing on a subordinate part: their report said and focused on "Russia
now claims that the video images the investigators used to track the missile's transport to the Ukraine, were manipulated."
However, the part of Russia's presentation that will be discussed in the present article was being entirely ignored in that Dutch
news-report, which, as you will see here, has nothing to do with
any
claim
of manipulated evidence. Britain's
BBC
likewise
focused-in on the "manipulated evidence" that Russia's presentation had attacked. The
Washington
Post
instead headlined
"Who
spread disinformation about the MH17 crash? We followed the Twitter trail"
, and it focused-in on how polarized the public is
over the MH17 case. The West's 'news'-coverage was virtually entirely misdirection and disinformation, as you will recognize from
what follows here. And the evidence here is linked-to, so that you can see it for yourself.)
Trending Articles
US Futures Start 2019 With A Pop
After Monday's panic-buying spree at the close, tonight's opening session of 2019 is more of the same as US
equity
Russia's response documented beyond any question, at all, that this airliner was shot down by the Ukrainian Government, and that
Western (i.e., US-allied) 'news'media have been and are
covering-up
this crucial historical fact and The West's still-ongoing lies about the downing of MH17
.
Those lies are the basis of US and EU anti-Russia sanctions, which remain in effect despite the basis for those sanctions having
been exposed unequivocally, on September 17th, to be based on lies. Thus, continuing to
hide
those
lies is crucial to the liars. This is the reason why Russia's blazingly detailed presentation on September 17th has been
virtually ignored -- to protect the actually guilty. The evidence here proves that those sanctions,
themselves
,
are nothing but frauds against the public, and crimes against Russia -- ongoing additional crimes, which have been, and remain,
effectively hidden till now.
The reader can see and consider here all of the conclusive evidence in the MH17 case -- it can be reached via the present
article's links.
Unlike
the 'news'-reports in The West's 'news'-media, the presentation here is
not
presuming readers' trust
, but is instead providing
to
all readers access to the actual evidence
-- evidence that is accepted by both sides. That's what the links here
are for: examination
by
any skeptics
.
Skepticism in judging anything is not only good; it is essential to justice. Trust should
never be given
;
it should
only
be
earned
.
Otherwise, no democracy can function. Only dictatorship can function in a country that's controlled by lies, and by liars. Liars
are believed by people who have faith in them. Thus, faith in anything or anyone can poison judgment. The way to test the case
that is presented here is to click onto a link wherever one wants to see and examine the evidence. Without examining (usually by
spot-checking) the evidence, no reader can intelligently judge any case. Dictatorship is almost inevitable in a counry where
spot-checking of the actual evidence isn't
the
norm
. Most 'news'-media don't even enable such spot-checking. This is why 'news'-media are so often actually
propaganda-media instead.
So, here's the complete MH17 case, for any reader to judge:
The last announcement from the official investigation, the Netherlands-headed "Joint Investigative Team" (JIT), was on 24 May
2018, and it headlined
"Update
in criminal investigation MH17 disaster"
. It said:
The JIT is convinced that the BUK-TELAR [missile and launcher] that was used to down MH17, originates from the 53rd Anti
Aircraft Missile brigade (hereinafter 53rd brigade), a unit of the Russian army from Kursk in the Russian Federation. This
fingerprint has been compared with numerous images of BUK-TELARS, both Ukrainian and Russian ones. The only BUK-TELAR on which
this combination of characteristics also was found, is a BUK-TELAR that was recorded several times when it joined a convoy of
the 53rd brigade on 23 – 25 June 2014.
Consequently, the JIT presumes that within the 53rd brigade and within the circle around it, people have knowledge about the
operation in which that particular BUK-TELAR was deployed. Already in September 2016, the JIT disclosed that MH17 was downed
with a BUK missile of the 9M38 series.
The missile engine's casing shows the number 9 д 1318869032.
Typical of Western 'news'-media's coverage of that presentation, was CNN's report the same day, May 24th of 2018. It was
headlined
"Missile
that downed MH17 'owned by Russian brigade'"
. It stated: "'At the time this area was under control of pro-Russian
separatists,' said Fred Westerbeke, chief prosecutor of the National Prosecutor's Office of the Netherlands. The Buk launcher of
the 9M38 series 'was transported from the territory of the Russian Federation and was returned to that territory of the Russian
Federation afterwards'."
The Ukrainian side claimed they had finally found evidence which would enable them definitively to place the blame for the MH17
shoot-down on Russia. So, the very next day, May 25th, Britain's Telegraph bannered
"Netherlands
and Australia call for compensation for MH17 victims as they accuse Russia of downing plane"
and reported that "Australia and
the Netherlands have said they hold Russia legally responsible for the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight 17 over Ukraine in
2014 and will seek reparations for relatives of the 298 people killed." This demand against Russia was coming "the day after the
Dutch-led international investigation concluded that the Russian military had deployed the Buk surface-to-air missile that shot
down the plane."
Four months later, on 17 September 2018, the Russian Ministry of Defense youtubed its response, which is titled
"Briefing
on newly discovered evidence pertaining to the crash of the MH17 flight"
. It presented the actual history of the Buk
missile and launcher which Ukraine and the other Governments on the JIT said had brought down the MH17. (The JIT includes four
countries, Netherlands, Ukraine, Belgium, and Australia, with a fifth, Malaysia, having been brought in only later, after it
finally agreed to
allow
Ukraine a veto over any conclusions that the team will publish
. Malaysia's participation
started
on
4 December 2014; but whether Malaysia has actually been
allowed
to play a role in the 'investigation' isn't clear
.) Russia, during the intervening months after the JIT's May 24th
presentation, had tracked down all of those serial numbers,
8868720
,
and
1318869032
,
and
9M38
,
and found (as
you
can see there by clicking on each, especially onto the
"Briefing"
itself
)
that after the acquisition of the launcher and missile, by Ukraine in 1986, from Russia, that missile and its launcher had
always,
and constantly since their transfer to Ukraine in 1986, remained in Ukraine,
and never again were located in Russia. So: if
the JIT's supplied evidence is authentic -- which the Ukrainian team asserts it to be -- then it
outright
convicts
Ukraine. This is an evidentiary checkmate, against the Ukrainian side.
--
With the passage now of years, the precise cause of the shooting-down of the Malaysian passenger plane MH17 on 17 July 2014 has
been becoming clearer and clearer, despite the rigorous continuing attempts by Western 'news' media to cover it up and to hide
from the public the growing and by-now
irrefutable
evidence
(presented here) that clearly shows what and who actually brought down this airliner.
In the years since I headlined on August 24th of 2014 the news,
"MH-17
'Investigation': Secret August 8th Agreement Seeps Out: Perpetrator of the Downing in Ukraine, of the Malaysian Airliner, Will
Stay Hidden"
, the key fact about the official 'investigation' has actually been that the Government of Ukraine was,
on 8 August 2014, granted veto-power over any official finding which would be produced by the Joint Investigative Team. On 20
November 2014, Russian Television headlined
"Dutch
government refuses to reveal 'secret deal' into MH17 crash probe"
and reported that Holland's science-publishers Elsevier had
filed for this information under that country's Freedom of Information Act, and the Government simply refused to comply with that
law. The leaders of Western nations apparently want the black-box and much other basic data in their possession to remain hidden,
and the four nations had signed this secret agreement to allow the Government of Ukraine to block any report that incriminates
Ukraine in the MH17 shoot-down. But additional evidence has nonetheless become public, and all of it confirms and adds yet
further details to the explanation that was first put forth by the retired German Lufthansa pilot Peter Haisenko, whose
independent investigation had concluded that Ukrainian Government fighter-jets intentionally shot down this civilian plane. He
did not rule out the possibility that a Buk missile had simultaneously been used there, but he made clear that at least one
fighter-jet had been used in this shoot-down.
However, if those parts of a Buk missile, which were the focus of the Netherlands team's presentation on May 24th, were indeed
retrieved from the crash-site as that team claims, then a Buk missile had also hit the MH17. Serious question would nonetheless
exist as to whether that Buk was fired by troops who were working for Ukraine, or instead for Russia (or else for Donbas
separatists who were working in conjunction with Russia, which was
Ukraine's
and America's original version of the event
).
Precisely what the method was, by which the direct perpetrators brought down the MH17, has gradually become clearer, despite this
continuation of Western secrecy (and Ukraine's veto-power over the 'findings') regarding the contents of the black boxes, and of
the US satellite images, and of the Ukrainian air-traffic-control radar recordings, and of other evidence-sources that
are
still being held
secret
by
The West and not made available to their 'news' media nor to anyone outside a tight official circle
of those Western
nations' intelligence agencies.
But now, Russia has actually -- on 17 September 2018 -- exposed the outright
fraudulence
of
the JIT's 24 May 2018 presentation, and The West (the US Government's allies) entirely ignored the conclusive evidence that that
presentation by the JIT itself actually contained and to which Russia was pointing, so that there can no longer be reasonable
doubt about The West's intentional and still ongoing fraudulence regarding the entire MH17 matter.
Also entirely ignored in the Ukrainain team's 'explanation' of the event is why Ukraine's air-traffic control had guided the
MH17's pilot to fly over the conflict-zone where Ukraine's civil war was being waged and where Ukraine's war-planes were bombing.
The MH17's pilot
was
instructed by Ukraine's air-traffic control to take that path instead of the one that the airline had planned and that had become
normal during the civil war
. This was highly abnormal, and it doomed the MH17. Clearly, only Ukraine's Government could, and
did, do that -- change the route, and for only that one plane. Yet, still, the Netherlands-headed team blames Russia and is
trusted in The West, but Russia is not. (Now, why would that be?)
Though Russia doesn't possess those black boxes (which,
by
chance, were handed by the pro-Russian separatists to the Malaysian Government's representative, and yet that Government handed
them to Netherland's Government instead of to Russia's
-- apparently trusting Netherlands more than trusting Russia or even
themselves), Russia does possess, and publicly reveals, evidence that's conclusive on its own; and it is 100% consistent with
Haisenko's reconstruction of the event, regardless whether a Buk was involved or not. Russian Television had issued in October
2014 a 25-minute documentary on the event, and it starts with people whom they interviewed in that region, who were describing
their having seen at least one and perhaps two planes rising toward the airliner, and then the airliner coming down from the sky.
Other witnesses told them that they saw an SU-25 fighter plane take off in that general area just minutes before the airliner
came down.
The interviews by the BBC were done by their reporter
Olga
Ivshina
. (Also see
http://archive.is/vFoh9
.)
She had filmed local residents in the crash-debris area. In one passage of her 23 July 2014 news-report, there were two residents
simultaneously who described what they had seen. One of them said, "And there was another aircraft." The other continued
immediately, in order to describe the other plane, "a military one, beside it ['it' being the airliner]. Everybody saw it. It was
proceeding underneath below the civilian one."
Here is the second, and clearer, version of that clip. (It's the one that's
still
live at youtube
.) The key portion on it is at 0:38-042 in the video:
That was the 9 September 2014 repost of it, with the same subscript-translation into English, only the visual is sharper.
And here is an apology, dated 25 July 2014, by the BBC, for their having removed their original video of this interview -- and yet
they still didn't repost it; they still continue to blockade it; even today the only versions available, of these, the earliest
recorded interviews of people who said they witnessed the event, are the independently posted ones, but here is the BBC's
apology:
So: clearly,
BBC
has done all that they could to remove evidence
, which they had mistakenly broadcast, which had fit the retired Lufthansa
pilot Peter Haisenko's reconstruction of the event, and which contradicted the US-Ukrainian reconstruction of it -- the
reconstruction that Western 'news' media project, and on the basis of which US President Barack Obama won from the EU
stiff
increases in
, and
subsequent
extensions of
, the economic sanctions against Russia, all on the basis of lies.
(Subsequently, on 17 December 2018, South Front headlined
"'EDITORIAL
BOARD DEMANDS BLOOD': INSIDE LOOK AT HOW BBC TRIES TO FIND PROOF OF RUSSIAN INFLUENCE ON YELLOW VEST PROTESTS"
, and they
reported that Ivshina had texted to a BBC stringer, on the streets of Paris, instructions of what story-lines were wanted by BBC
management regarding the "Yellow Vests" demonstrations against French President Emmanuel Macron,
"Yes,
I'm searching for the angles))) The editorial board wants blood, yo)))"
. "And if you find these ultra-rightists [at the
protests], will they talk about Putin and Moscow? Well, at least the Russians go to the protests, right?" Ivshina was instructing
her French stringer what to look for, in order for her to be able to report
the
type of 'news' that her bosses wanted to publish
. Perhaps Ivshina had been chastised in 2014 and had learned to never again
be caught reporting anything that challenges the UK Government's anti-Russia propaganda-line.)
So, this valuable eyewitness-testimony to the MH17 event is available despite Western 'news' media (or, more-accurately,
propaganda-media), and the reason for the news-suppression is clear to anyone who views
that
BBC 23 July 2014 report
,
which presents several eyewitnesses, interviewed separately as individuals,
not
as a group
, and yet all of whose testimonies -- perhaps despite Ivshina's wish for them not to say this -- report having
observed
the
very same basic narrative, of at least one
military jet rising toward the airliner just before it came down.
In other words: it is clear that BBC had yanked this report because it didn't confirm the West's story-line, which says that
Ukrainian pro-Russian separatists had fired a "Buk" ground-based missile at the airliner, thinking that the civilian plane was a
Ukrainian Government war-plane about to bomb them and their families. But, first of all, the Ukrainian Government was virtually
admitting there that they
were
bombing these villagers
, which means that they were perpetrating an ethnic cleansing operation there, which
indeed
that Government was doing
; but, secondly, the Ukrainian Government's statement also
acknowledged
that if the event had happened in that way, it would have been unintentional, a tragic accident on the part of the rebels there.
(The
JIT's line now is that it was instead an outright Russian attack against the MH17.)
So, then, why did "the international community" respond with massive economic sanctions against
Russia
on
account of this downing -- by, as it turns out, Ukraine? The whole Western propaganda position was designed for a public of sheer
fools, if not of outright psychopathic ones, who cared not a bit about the plights of the victims of an
ethnic-cleansing
campaign
. They cared only about victims in "The West." The West's basic story-line doesn't make sense without recognizing
that we were financing
ethnic
cleansing
to clear the land in southeastern Ukraine, and that any support that Russia would be providing to those separatists
would have been defensive in nature, not offensive. Yet Russia gets the blame when this passenger jet goes down? Even though
Ukraine's air-traffic control had guided the pilot there? In any case, that story-line of Russian guilt is false, from start to
finish. And now (at least after 17 September 2018) it is finished. But Western 'news'-media still continue to broadcast the lies,
as if it weren't.
Here is how outright
ludicrous
it
actually is, and sound reason in itself that anyone in the military had to have known, from the very get-go, that the "Buk"
'explanation' was a line of pure malarkey:
THE RUSSIAN DOCUMENTARY:
The 22 October 2014 Russian documentary was titled,
"MH-17:
The Untold Story,"
and it presents, among much else, videos of several "Buk" missiles being fired on other occasions, just to
show how utterly ludicrous the initial Ukraine-US-and-allied 'explanation of the MH17 event was. On
5
November 2014
, I summarized that, with screen-shots from the Russian documentary.
So, when even the BBC's reporter wasn't able to find anyone in that entire region who recounts having seen anything of the sort,
just how likely would the Ukrainian Government's line on that matter -- that not only was this done by a lone Buk but it was fired
by (at first) pro-Russian separatists, and (then) by the Russian army -- actually be? Obviously, any person with any military
knowledge whatsoever had to have recognized virtually immediately that the Ukrainian Government's story-line on the MH-17 downing
was a pile of sheer malarkey, but did anyone in the Western 'news' media report that it was -- that the Western line there was not
just a lie, but an absurd one, one that requires an ignorant public in order for it to be able to be taken seriously at all by
the public? One that requires an ignorant public, to
remain
ignorant?
This is supposed to be the Western 'news' media, with a free press, and a democracy, a truthfully informed citizenry, who can
vote based upon truths, not on mere lies?
Several of the locals there told Russian TV's reporter that they had seen a military jet rise toward the airliner; and not a one
of these individuals were any of the same ones who had testified the exact same thing to the BBC's reporter, whose news-piece had
been squelched by her managers.
HERE IS HOW MH17 WAS SHOT DOWN:
Now, to the substance of the explanation of how this plane was actually brought down:
Earlier, I had summarized the evidence for Peter Haisenko's reconstruction of the event, but I questioned his having accepted the
eyewitness testimony to the effect that the planes that shot down the airliner were SU-25s. In Haisenko's Russian TV interview,
he stuck by his belief that it was probably SU-25s instead of SU-27s or Mig 29s, both of which are also in the Ukrainian Air
Force, and all three of which use 30-millimeter machine-guns or "cannons." But since the fact is that all three of those
attack-plane models use machine-guns ("cannons") with 30-caliber bullets (which is the size that clearly was used, especially on
the cockpit), the effect would be identically-sized round 30-caliber entry-holes, no matter what. My last major report on that
evidence, prior to the 8 August 2014 formation of the JIT and their mutual agreement to report nothing that would be
incriminating to Ukraine's Government regarding the MH17 incident, was
"Systematically
Reconstructing the Shoot-Down of the Malaysian Airliner: The Guilt Is Clear and Damning."
That basically fills in (and the
links, in that report, document with pictures and videos that) the actual way that this plane was downed, and that
why
it
was downed was "to get the EU to go along with stiffened sanctions against Russia". Obama (via
the
regime that he had installed in a February 2014 coup in Kiev
) succeeded there in getting the international sanctions against
Russia that he had been wanting. Obama, and certainly not Putin -- and now we know it wasn't Russia at all (not even if a Buk was
involved) -- was the key person behind this. The 298 MH17 murder-victims on 17 July 2014 were murdered by Barack Obama (via his
agents such as
Victoria
Nuland -- she ran Obama's Ukrainian operation
), just as clearly as (if not even more clearly than) Crown Prince Mohammed bin
Salman al-Saud (via his agents at the Sauds' Istanbul Consulate) murdered Jamal Khashoggi on 2 October 2018.
International actions (such as economic sanctions) are based upon such fabrications, and 'evidence' taken out of its full
context, as
this
from the far-right
Forbes
commentator
Paul Roderick Gregory
, but there are no such
fakes
,
nor out-of-context items of evidence, in the case that has been presented here. That's the difference between news-reporting
versus propaganda; but, in the United States today, propaganda passes as if it were 'news,' and authentic news that doesn't fit
the regime's cooked-up narrative is suppressed entirely. The scandal isn't just Obama, and it's not just Ukraine; it is also the
propaganda-organs, and even (though to the least extent) their audiences who subscribe to such lying 'news'-media.
Western governments, and their 'news' media, are treating their citizens, their own publics, not really as citizens, but as
suckers. They are treating them as subjects, instead of as citizens. This is not authentic democracy. It is neo-feudal; it is, in
fact, fascism.
The entire "Buk" 'explanation' of the downing of the Malaysian airliner (the idea that
only
a
Buk missile caused the physical wreckage which was found) is for suckers only; and everyone in official circles, and in the
press, who peddles it, is just as fake as the ridiculous story-line that he or she is peddling. To fall for it, after being
provided all of the authentic evidence, which has been linked-to here, one would have to be a willing
slave
to
psychopaths
.
In this case, the psychopath was Obama, who not only had
perpetrated
a bloody coup to overthrow the democratically elected President of Ukraine in February 2014
but who also was now struggling,
and had a very pressing obsession, to get the EU to accept his sanctions against Russia for its having accepted the pleas of
Crimeans (who had voted 75% for that President) to become restored again to Russia. The 14 July 2014 mass-murder that was set up
to be blamed against Russia was Obama's trick that enabled him to win his way on this.
CONCLUSIONS:
By no means do we know every detail about how the MH17 was shot down, but
what
we do now know for certain is that the narrative for that event which was supplied by Ukraine's team on May 24th -- the official
account of how it happened -- isn't just false; it is outright fraudulent.
Ukraine's team supplied evidence which, if it
is authentic, actually convicts Ukraine. And Western 'news'-media hide this crucial fact.
So, now, we know why Western governments have hidden, instead of making available to the public, the black-box data and the other
evidence that they still refuse to provide to the public. They are aiming to scam the public, not to inform it. Lying is their
game. They might call it 'patriotism.' Traitors would likely do that. Traitors to
any
country
could do it. And, so, they do. Their believers constitute their political base.
Unfortunately, anyone they fool becomes their tool, and everyone else is purely their victim -- helpless to oust (much less, to
replace) the tyrants who make things bad for everyone but themselves and their colleagues, the insiders at the very top.
Just the day before the MH17 shoot-down, Bloomberg News had headlined, on 16 July 2014,
"EU
Readies Russia Sanctions Amid US Pressure on Ukraine"
, and reported that "the US urges the bloc to take a tougher stance
against Moscow." The day before that, on July 15th, Bloomberg's headline had been
"EU
Leaders Weigh Sanctions Against Russia Over Ukraine"
, and that report opened, "European Union leaders meeting in Brussels
will consider expanded sanctions against Russia over the Ukraine conflict, as the US urges the bloc to take a tougher stand
against Moscow." Was the July 17th event only coincidentally timed perfectly in order to achieve what Obama was determined to
produce: the first Ukraine-based anti-Russia sanctions? The
regime
that Obama had installed in Ukraine in February 2014
needed not only his support, but also the support of the IMF (in order
to obtain loans), and of the EU (which it was seeking to join). There was probably even more pressure placed upon the leaders in
Ukraine than there was upon the leaders in the EU. But there was plenty upon them both. The EU was widely reported to be balking
at increasing the sanctions against Russia. Obama needed the EU to approve quickly his increased sanctions, so as to keep the
momentum going for
his
entire anti-Russian campaign, which had been the reason behind his February 2014 coup in Ukraine
. Something dramatic now was
needed, in order for Obama to win the EU's full cooperation. After all,
Obama
had secretly started at least by 2011 his operation to take over Ukraine
. This operation was, for him, one of the central
objectives of his entire two-term Presidency. Ukraine -- and Ukraine alone -- now had within its power the capacity to deliver to
him the EU's participation. Ukraine delivered it, precisely when it was the most urgently needed. This was essential in order for
Ukraine to be able to enter the EU. And entering the EU would be essential in order for Ukraine to be able to enter NATO -- the
next key step in the Bilderbergers' plan.
Perhaps the
survivors'
families
and Malaysia Airlines (which is owned by the Malaysian Government), and their Governments, will file both civil and
criminal charges now initially against Ukraine and its President Petro Poroshenko, and ultimately against Victoria Nuland, Barack
Obama, and the United States, but also against the Dutch Government, for its collusion with the United States Government in its
fraudulent 'investigation' that had
pre-established
blame against Russia
. (However, the secret agreement that Malaysia signed to join the JIT might prohibit Malaysia from
joining such suits.) Netherlands pre-established Russian blame especially by means of its 8 August 2014 secret four-party
agreement (joined later by Malaysia's Government) to allow Ukraine, an actual suspect in this case, to hold veto power over the
assignment of blame in this entire matter. However, not only the survivors of the 298 victims should be suing, but all of the
victims should be represented in this case. There were also many violations of international laws. Obama's
coup
against
Ukraine was one such. The MH17 shoot-down resulted from
that
coup
, couldn't have occurred without it, and was an extension from it. That coup is thus an important part of the MH17 case.
On 20 September 2017, the now 5 countries in the JIT signed a joint
"Memorandum
of Understanding"
saying "Arrangements for signatories and other grieving nations to make financial contributions to the
national proceedings in the Netherlands will be laid down in a financial memorandum of understanding," and that "This Memorandum
will remain in effect for five years and will be automatically extended for successive five-year periods." So, they intend to
continue their 'investigation' into MH17 until they can present to the world evidence that Russia did it. Perhaps before that
happens, however, all of the victims and their children will already have passed away and this fraud and farce will finally end,
as secretly as it began, and only few people will even care, anymore, about it.
Or will victims and their families, instead, initiate whatever legal proceedings they can,
right
now
, against all members of the JIT, for their cover-up, and against the ringleaders, in the US, who demanded this
mass-murder to be done, and against the perpetrators in Ukraine, who actually ordered and did it?
Maybe they'll even be able to get Barack Obama to return to the Nobel committee their 2009 Peace Prize.
Now, which major news-media in The West will report these solidly documented facts? Isn't it time, finally, that they
should start doing that? Or, do they have no honor, at all?
raybies
,
4 hours ago
Over here in the west we only believe what the zionists say.
Who Planned & Then Gave Porki the Go-Ahead to Shoot Down MH17 ?
>>>>>>>>>>>>> ZOG USSA
<<<<<<<<<<<<<
play_arrow
3
play_arrow
iPragmatist
,
1 hour ago
Here's how those bastards stole
the funding from the US taxpayers behind the scenes for obama's 'coup' and then the very anti-Russian
propaganda we have been seeing since.
Sorry, but although I support the view that Ukraine was responsible for the MH-17 crash, I find this article
confusing, repetitive, and, in general, poorly written.
The critical facts available concerning MH-17 have all long been available from several sources. This
article really adds nothing.
The article neglects to identify who or what really shot down MH17. Further, the article neglects to
mention the elephant that is always present when one of these mass murders occurs - Israel. It was mere
moments after MH17 that Israel started to mow the Gaza lawn. See
https://www.vox.com/2018/11/14/18092434/israel-gaza-war-2014-rocket-raid-netanyahu-hamas
ExpatNL
,
14 hours ago
This man was behind shooting
down MH17. Igor Kolomoisky; born February 13, 1963) is a Ukrainian-Cypriot-Israeli business oligarch of
Jewish descent and the former Governor of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast.[10]
A multibillionaire,
Kolomoyskyi is rated as the second or third richest person in Ukraine (after Rinat Akhmetov and/or Viktor
Pinchuk) since 2006.[11][12] and 377th richest person in the world by the Forbes (as of 2011).[9] In
March 2015 The Economist listed his net worth as $1.36 billion.[13] Kolomoyskyi is the leading partner of
the Privat Group and a de facto chairman of the FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk.[14]
Kolomoyskyi is the co-founder
of the PrivatBank (and its informal Privat Group, respectively) and was appointed Chairman of its Board
of Directors in 1997.[5][14] Other fields of activity include: ferroalloys, finance, oil products, mass
media,[15] metal and petroleum industries (also in Russia and Romania).[16]
Kolomoysky has a triple
Ukrainian-Israeli-Cyprus citizenship because dual citizenship is not recognized by Ukraine.[17][18]
Kolomoyskyi explained that: "The constitution prohibits double citizenship but triple citizenship is not
forbidden."[19]
Part of his vast business
empire is Burisma Holdings Ldt, Ukraine's largest private gas firm. Shortly after Russia annexed Crimea,
while U. S. Vice-President Joe Biden was engaged in diplomatic talks with Ukraine, Burisma announced that
Hunter Biden joined the board of the company.[22]
In April 2014 Kolomoyskyi
offered a bounty for the capture of Russian-backed militants and incentives for the turning in of
weapons.[35] He also is believed to have spent $10 million to create the Dnipro Battalion,[34][36] and
also funds the Aidar, Azov, Dnepr 1, Dnepr 2, and Donbas volunteer battalions.[37]
Russia is asking for
Kolomoyskyi to be put on Interpol's wanted list.[38] On 2 July 2014 a Russian District Court authorized
his arrest in absentia for "organizing the killing of civilians".[39]
..together with fellow
Ukrainian oligarch Vadim Rabinovich, [he] founded the European Jewish Union.[47]
giovanni_f
,
15 hours ago
In a completely unbiased 'investigation', one out of two suspects not only made it to the investigators'
panel but even had the right to veto anything from being published what the investigators would find. It was
determined that the other suspect was guilty.
In the new normal of the 2000s this is not a joke but reality.
cwsuisse
,
16 hours ago
This is an interesting article. Although quiet lengthy. I think it is possible for every interested party to
conclude whether the russian or the ukrainian side is guilty of the flight MH-17 crime using exclusively
publicly available clues and information provided by exactly the parties alleging the guilt of Russia:
The ukrainian authorities failed to close the
ukrainian airspace to civil aircraft although serveral military aircraft were shot down by rocket
launchers over the eastern Ukraine in the 48 hours preceding the incident.
No information has been published, why flight
MH-17 has been instructed or permitted to deviate from ist preset flight path.
The voice recordings of Kiev Tower were
confiscated immediately after the incident.
A parliamentary enquiry by the leftist party in
Germany as to why the voice recordings were not published received the hilarious response that the
publication of the voice recordings is not in the national interest.
Reasonable arguments why the Russian side would have benefited from the crime are not available. On the
other hand with hindsight it is absolutely clear that the crime has substantially supported the case of the
Ukraine.
Consequently it is obvious that the majority of the responsibility for the crime rests on the shoulders of
the Ukraine, irrespective whether the plane has been shot down by the ukrainian or russian servicemen.
Clearly the countries of the European Union have colluded in covering up the role of the Ukraine in this
crime, obviously to assure the continued support of their citizens for the future integration of the Ukraine
into the European Union. And the media did participate in the collusion. From my point of view it is pretty
obvious that the Dutch investigation has been infiltrated by the services.
ExpatNL
,
16 hours ago
The USA govt returned Dutch gold that was housed in the USA.
To keep Dutch shut up about the coverup.
Superlat
,
12 hours ago
The Ukrainians either shot it down with a BUK missile system, completely consistent with the damage found,
and other evidence, OR the Ukrainians set it up to look like a military aircraft to be shot down by the
Russians (no evidence this happened).
The USA is a dirty-dealer. I wish the world had the guts to discipline us but they don't.
Fireman
,
16 hours ago
So the anglozionazi empire of **** and their lying pedovore cheeseheads in Bangladesh of the North aka
Holland are murderous thugs? Gee what a surprise.
everybody here in Russia knows it was the americans, british and dutch who facilitated and funded Ukraine's
shooting down of MH17....... however, this is probably the worst written account I have ever had the
misfortune to struggle through ...... meandering and constant repetition makes for painful reading ..... the
author needs to return to journalism school, even with the caveat that most journalism standards today are
rock bottom.
resistedliving
,
14 hours ago
everyone in America, UK and Holland know we killed the:
Skripals
Litvinenko
Markov
Perepilichny
Moskalenko
Politkovskaya
and the list of attempted poisonings too numerous to cite
oh, and Seth Rich just for the conspiracy theorists.
Black Dog 32
,
14 hours ago
I didn't get through the article, but I believe the author is pointing at the serial number on the missile
casing being made in Russia (Soviet Union), but owned by Ukraine. That plus the veto power over
investigation results for Ukraine.
If the veto power is true, then the results should be greeted with nothing but cynicism and skepticism.
JailBanksters
,
17 hours ago
The most obvious thing is, there were two suspects, Russia and the Ukraine.
One of those suspects had complete Kontrol over deciding what was evidence and what wasn't evidence, and the
other was not allowed any where near the investigation or even to review the evidence.
How Efing obvious does it have to be, by exclusion they actually implicated themselves.
It's about as crazy as Clinton deciding which emails to delete and which to show the FBI to prove she had
not breached protocol.
Perhaps if OJ had been a Juror on that day, he might not of gone to Jail !!
And it's just like 911, where the central suspects were leading the Investigation.
Nassim
,
17 hours ago
The whole thing is so obviously made in the USA.
A few months after this crime and mass murder, I met a young Dutch woman in a big shopping centre in
Melbourne. I told her the obvious and she turned so nasty towards me! It was inconceivable to her that the
Dutch government should lie about the murder of so many Dutch citizens. She was convinced it could only be
the "Russians". I wonder if she will ever learn the truth.
For a good summary of the dishonesty of the coroner in Victoria, Australia - 26 Australians who were killed
- I recommend this website:
I live in NL and get much the same response from people. The first LIE always sticks with people. and the
planners of these attacks know that,.
The Dutch Safety Board used to have an open comment and report link on their site.
I have been BANNED from commenting.
Renegade0031
,
19 hours ago
Het was allang bekend dat NATO+BruSSel dit hadden bedacht, Oekraine inlegvel, het pact van
MarraKECH,
de
leugens van Frans Timmermans, Mark Rutte en de Nederlandse SOROS media ( Hij richtte zijn Open Society
Foundation op, een stichting die onder meer opkomt voor democratie, liberale waarden, minderheden en
onafhankelijke media (prinses Mabel, de weduwe van prins Friso, werkt hier al jaren). bron
AD.nl
It was already knwon that NATO and
Europhiles from bruSSel has created and excecuted this plan to start an casus belli against Russia, all the
steps that the European Neo-cons and Azkenazi's are making from: the associatie agreement with Ukrianians, the
Marra
KECH
agreement with all the lies and spinning
from Frans Timmermans, Dutch PM Mark Rutte and their Soros sponsord media: Dutch prinses Mabel Bruinsma or
better known Mabel van Oranje is working for Soros as Royal familly member...
No Yellow vests in the Netherlands!
blueseas
,
19 hours ago
The black box fell into rebel hands so presumably the Russians had it. We're the Russians just plain stupid
and gave it to the dutch?
ExpatNL
,
19 hours ago
Lets discuss the ATC tapes that disappeared along with the Spanish Air Traffic controller who was on
duty that day,
Conscious Reviver
,
19 hours ago
More on Spanish Air Controller @ Kiev Borispol Airport: Ukraine Military Shot Down Boeing MH#17
If this Spanish Air Traffic Controller story is right it implicate Julia Timishenko, who was a
rival to sitting President Poroshenko. Guess who is currently leading in Ukrainian polls? Julia
Timishenko is leading with Poroshenko is second place.
giovanni_f
,
19 hours ago
" We're the Russians just plain stupid and gave it to the dutch? "
No, if they hadn't, the so-called West would have blamed Russia with "tampering". This way it becomes at
last clear that the so-called West has no interest in finding out the truth. there is no media in the
so-called West allowed to even consider an alternative explanation. An IRS visit on the next occasion would
be granted.
blueseas
,
19 hours ago
Come on now. The Russians had to have known that they'd be blamed anyway. Turning the black box over
just doesn't make sense.
Volkodav
,
18 hours ago
Russia has evidence, facts from first.
Quiet document this and other crimes
best waited Kiev and friends fall on own knife
Nassim
,
17 hours ago
The so-called "rebels" naively gave the black box to the Malaysians. The Malaysians handed them over to the
Dutch - without taking a backup. Don't forget that the Malaysians were incredibly corrupt at that time.
Their new government is taking Goldman Sachs to court to get back some of the money they stole.
Someone Else
,
17 hours ago
The rebels recovered the black boxes, but there was no way they were going to hand them over to
Ukrainian authorities. Instead they held them and eventually they handed them over to the Malaysians to
insure that the Ukrainians did not tamper with them. But the rebels did not realize that this conspiracy
was far bigger than just the corrupt government of Ukraine itself. The Malaysians promptly handed the black
boxes right back to the Dutch. Through US pressure the Malaysians were complicit.
green dragon
,
19 hours ago
The Ukraine coup was never about helping the Ukrainian people. It was about causing economic harm to Russia!
It has been five years since the coup and much of the major economic cooperation between Russia and Ukraine
is gone.
The Sanctions have impacted Russia's economy and Ukraine is now a economic mess. Ukraine is being saddled
for loan after loan that future generations will have to pay back. Many of the key resources Ukraine has are
in the process of being asset stripped if they have not already been. Corruption is now rampant. Arms are
funneled through Ukraine to middle east.
ludwigvmises
,
19 hours ago
What about the photoshopped image of a Ukrainian fighter bomber that supposedly shot down MH17. This "image"
appeared on Russian state TV a couple days after the event. Was that also credible and irrefutable?
Renegade0031
,
19 hours ago
illustration?
because tactitcal radar images wont be very helpfull for the audiance due the fact they dont understand
what they see...unless you are a female underwear seller who never has been close to a gun but is a
weapon and ballistic expert like
Eliot
Ward Higgins..
AUD
,
20 hours ago
Ukraine shot down an airliner travelling from Tel Aviv to Moscow back in 2000 or thereabouts. Ukranian air
defence units were carrying out drills at the time & stupidly launched a missile in the vicinity of this
commercial airliner.
What's so hard about the idea that the same thing happened again?
donkey_shot
,
19 hours ago
MH17 was steered onto a route over Ukraine not used by commercial airliners
ever
,
before or after. This fact precludes any possibility of your "mistaken, stupid" scenario having occurred.
Furthermore, there are clearly holes in MH17`s fuselage caused by machine gun fire. It was physically
impossible for Ukrainian air defense units to employ such ground fire: Clearly, MH17 was at the very
least partially brought down by a direct air-to-air attack: What makes that difficult to understand?
AUD
,
18 hours ago
********.
Fuck you Tyler
,
10 hours ago
No possible way machine gun fire applied after the crash ?
ExpatNL
,
20 hours ago
The photos showing cannon fire holes under the pilots side cockpit window say ''NO BUK Missile''
those photos disappeared quickly
donkey_shot
,
18 hours ago
The cannon fire holes do not say "no Buk missile". As the article states, it could very well be that
both
an
air-to-air attack,
as well as a
Buk
(diversionary) attack took place.
ExpatNL
,
20 hours ago
One of the names behind the attack was
John Brennan
ExpatNL
,
20 hours ago
What happened to the ATC tapes and the Spanish air traffic controller?
These questions refused to be answered by DSB and the Dutch govt.
giovanni_f
,
20 hours ago
you don't ask a question when you won't like the answer.
battered
,
20 hours ago
So I am confused which of the stories to 'believe'
was it a blunder that had to be covered up
or
a deliberate false flag
very different
ExpatNL
,
20 hours ago
IMHO it was a false flag attack.
I kept on top of this from the gitgo
There was an email sent to the US Army attache in Kiev and it was posted online back in 2014.
It disappeared very quickly.
It basically encouraged some kind of ''incident' to sway public opinion to the side of Kiev.
rtb61
,
20 hours ago
The Ukraine did it on there own, the US led the coverup but they were not pleased with the event because
lots of Western Europeans and Australians were murdered by the Ukrainian government, who were that
stupid, they thought only Asians would be on board.
However that does not excuse the US's guilt in covering it up and not prosecuting the criminals, they
betrayed all the Australian on that flight and that can never be forgiven.
battered
,
20 hours ago
To both:
If as you say, then would be a crime against humanity (another one)
to prosecute, would need true investigative journalism and not this ridiculous word mess
fulliautomatix
,
17 hours ago
I'd read it.
logang
,
20 hours ago
The photographs of the left wing show parallel incisions pointing at the cockpit. These incisions could
only have been caused by an air to air missile, not a Buk. It's as simple as that. The Dutch threw a handful
of Buk shrapnel into the wreckage in order to falsify the evidence. Evidence suggests that Assistant US Army
attache Jason Gresh (***) initiated the MH17 atrocity with an e-mail to oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky (***), who
organised the shooting down of MH17. Kolomoisky actually apologized for the shooting down of MH17, sayding
that is was a 'trifle'. It's on Youtube.
TitusTheGreat
,
17 hours ago
All very true, unfortunately political reality has nothing to do with fact.
bluez
,
20 hours ago
I saw this before in various places. The "western" media are now all totally corrupt. I didn't remember
seeing the part about the Ukraine veto agreement. That turned the whole "investigation" into a farce.
It's all lies now. In fact they have been making stuff up since forever. When I was in school they told me
it was important to "read the papers." I'm sure they believed it. This rabbit hole goes down to the core of
the earth.
It's the wool that's been pulled over your eyes to blind you, Neo.
Volkodav
,
20 hours ago
Ukraine AF Pilot Vladyslav Voloshyn suspect of shootdown was removed active duty,
given very high level civil position as director airport Mykolaiv.
Much was noticed his talkings, mood, personality stressed
Death by suicide Tokarev.
Very many internet BBC, many media have their version,
but close people Mykolaiv tell local story is different.
Ukraine SBU Officer of Cyber Lt. Col. Roman Labusov, born in Donetsk, defected with files
certain of incriminate Kiev, internal memos of measures to cover guilt for MH17.
This is non find west main media. This I found English:
False Flag Over Ukraine and
Israel's Ground Invasion of Gaza
Shot down or blown up with a bomb or whatever, the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 has all the
fingerprints of a false flag. Maybe a multifaceted one including a diversion from Israel's ground
invasion into Gaza.
We may get distracted but we're not being fooled. Very little the controlled media will tell us about the
downed flight will be even close to the truth but they are working overtime to convince us.
Judge for yourself the authenticity of the following. The translation from Spanish to English is mine:
✈ Carlos.
@spainbuca
PARA VER HAY QUE MIRAR. ✈desde una posición privilegiada, ATC (Air Traffic Control) Borispol, Міжнародний
аеропорт Бориспіль (
ae.infcarlos@yahoo.com.ua
)
Kiev. Ukraine
Joined August 2010
-----
TO SEE YOU HAVE TO LOOK. ✈from a privileged position, ATC (Air Traffic Control) Borispol
[Tweets starting at 8:17 AM - 17 Jul 2014]
Malaysian passenger plane with 280 passengers and 15 crew members crashed in Ukraine, near Russian border
Autoridades de kiev, intentan hacer que pueda parecer un ataque de los pro-rusos
-----
Kiev authorities intend to make it look like an attack by the pro-russians
Cuidado! Kiev tiene lo que buscaba
---
Be careful! Kiev has what it was looking for
Vuelven a tomar la torre de control en kiev
-----
They've returned to take the kiev control tower
Kiev, tiene lo que buscaba, lo dije en los primeros tw, kiev es responsable @ActualidadRT
-----
Kiev, has what it was looking for, I said so in the first tweets, kiev is responsible
Nos van a quitar, nuestros tlf y demás de un momento a otro
-----
They're going to take our phones and other things at any moment
Antes de que me quiten el tlf o me rompan la cabeza, derribado por kiev
-----
Before they take my phone or break my head, it was downed by kiev
Que hace personal extranjero con autoridades de kiev en la torre? Recopilando toda la información
-----
What are foreigners and kiev authorities doing in the tower? Gathering all the information
El avión B 777 voló escoltado por 2 cazas de ukraine hasta minutos antes, de desaparecer de los radares,
-----
The B 777 plane flew escorted by 2 ukrainian fighter jets until minutes before disappearing from radar
Sí las autoridades de kiev, quieren decir la verdad, esta recogido 2 cazas volaron muy cerca minutos
antes , no lo derribo un caza
-----
If the kiev authorities want to tell the truth, it is known that 2 fighter planes flew very close minutes
before, but the plane wasn't downed by one of them.
Nada más desaparecer el avión B 777 de Malaysia Airlines la autoridad militar de kiev nos informo del
derribo, como lo sabían?
-----
As soon as the B 777 Malaysia Airlines plane disappeared the kiev military authorities informed us that
it had been shot down, how did they know?
The tweet {"Sí las autoridades de kiev, quieren decir la verdad, esta recogido 2 cazas volaron muy cerca
minutos antes , no lo derribo un caza"
-----
If the kiev authorities want to tell the truth, it is known that 2 fighter planes flew very close minutes
before, but the plane wasn't downed by one of them.} is a little confusing, perhaps due to the stressful
situation, or a typo. In context with spainbuca's other tweets, perhaps the word "no" in the phrase "no
lo derribo un caza" was extraneous, or perhaps lacked a coma afterwards -- "no, lo derribo un caza"
regarding his previous tweet "Autoridades de kiev, intentan hacer que pueda parecer un ataque de los pro-rusos
-----
Kiev authorities intend to make it look like an attack by the pro-russians"
In any case, despite the circumstances, he laid it out quite clearly:
Autoridades de kiev, intentan
hacer que pueda parecer un ataque de los pro-rusos
-----
Kiev authorities intend to make it look like an attack by the pro-russians
Cuidado! Kiev tiene lo que buscaba
---
Be careful! Kiev has what it was looking for
TeraByte
,
18 hours ago
Me too I asked myself the very question "qui bono" all over again? Was it of Russian rebels´interests to
shoot down on purpose MH 17, unless this happened, because a mistaken identity of a civil airliner of flying
over a war airspace, where downing Ukrainian military aircraft had become a routine. The official truth
sounds foul, because air crash investigators refuse to compare their own findings against BUK missile
creator
Almaz-Antey
and
its provided details of BUK versions Ukraine possessed at that time.
Lokiban
,
21 hours ago
Yes, the Netherlands are corrupt.
If England wanted any hints on how to do the Skripall case they just had to look to the Netherlands and
their blatant corruption right in yer faces mentallity about MH17.
We live in the age of the apocalypse, it has become unstoppable and with all the corruption being outed one
could get a bit shellshocked but hang on, after so much corruption that is being revelead these days, one
tends to get bored.
mikamolyneaux
,
21 hours ago
As always, the crimes of the super-powerful elite are NEVER properly investigated and blame is NEVER
correctly assigned. These guilty psychopaths always get away with murder, blame others or leave their
atrocities unexplained. Sadly, this situation will continue for many years because those of us who read
these news sites and know what's really going on are a small minority and the rest of the world's population
is hypnotized by the mind controlling propaganda programs which the super-powerful elite have put into place
and too many of their paid agents who operate the propaganda programs are more interested in the money they
are paid than in honest work for promoting the truth.
English herbsman
,
21 hours ago
If anyone believe Russia would have the right mind to blow up a civlian airliner during a time where the
globallists wants to rape and pillage it, they have their head up their arses.
It was clear from the get go the Nazi's there ordered the strike on MH17, to provacate a war with Russia.
Especially since half the of Ukraine is fighting to rejoin Russia.
devnickle
,
21 hours ago
Exactly. Hillary is a Nazi. She fits right in. Where is Libya's gold Hitlary? Just wondering?
devnickle
,
21 hours ago
The article doesn't matter. The truth has been obvious from day one. Look at the cannon rounds to the
cockpit. They killed the pilots. Tick....Tock....
devnickle
,
21 hours ago
Ukrainian air force. Orders from Hillary and Nuland.
Internet-is-Beast
,
20 hours ago
Hillary wasn't SOS at that time, Kerry was.
Blue Steel 309
,
20 hours ago
I'd be surprised if this was directed from anyone in D.C., but anyone with 2 brain cells knows
it was perpetrated by Ukraine coup leaders.
devnickle
,
21 hours ago
The Nazi Ukrainian government with approval of Hitlary and Nuland are responsible for this atrocity. NOT
Russia. I have known this from the beginning. Gitmo and guillotines are waiting for crimes against humanity.
Obama is complicit. He went along. There is a blade waiting for him and Michael too.
devnickle
,
21 hours ago
Ukrainian air force jets blew a civilian airliner out of the sky. There is Evidence they thought it was
Putin's presidential plane. It doesn't matter. Hillary, Obama, and Nuland are evil, and need to be
executed. The time has come .
emmanuelthoreau
,
21 hours ago
Nuland's half-brother William (Bill) works for Facebook as an intel analyst, is probably CIA, and one
of the biggest assholes I've ever had the opportunity to meet in my life. And this was during a summer
foreign language immersion program in which he wasn't allowed to speak English, which meant he didn't
have much to say. Not exactly a Rhodes Scholar, that one. He quit before the summer was up, anyway.
We're not done with the Nulands, despite the advice in their father Sherwin's book "How We Die."
They'll be back, along with Victoria's (who probably would've been Sec. of State at some point for
Hillary) odious husband Bob Kagan. At one time Bob outweighed Vickie by a factor of two; not so much
anymore.
devnickle
,
21 hours ago
They are all connected. It's incest, but not about sex. Well, maybe that too. Ewwwww.
Karl Marxist
,
12 hours ago
Complicit is an understatement. Obama is a mass murder no matter how they're sliced. Regime change in
Ukraine, orchestrating or complicit in the outright slaughter of the passengers just to punish, accuse, harm
the people of Russia, Russia, Russia. If Obama, HRC, and those eluded to in this article are not prosecuted
for murder, then as attn. Larry Klayman said to Jason Goodman this past wee, we have no government.
Factually it looks like there already is One World Government which explains why there is no justice. Making
things so complex the real targets are obscured, thus let off the hook to get their sexual jollies with
little nameless kiddies.
fulliautomatix
,
17 hours ago
The Dutch got their gold, which is about as good a result as they could hope for.
Australia, well, Abbott got up and offered Porky the opportunity to buy some
coal: if that isn't "**** you, mate." from an Aussie I've never seen it. The US
still hasn't got around to offering another Ambassador.
Small beans when compared to the value of the actual lives that were lost, but
that's politics in western democracies.
edit: oh btw, i think Al Gophilia was writing exquisite sarcasm.
"... Senate Resolution on December 19, 2019 which calls for "a prompt multinational freedom of navigation operation in the Black Sea and urging the cancellation of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline ..."
"... Calling for a prompt multinational freedom of navigation operation in the Black Sea and urging the cancellation of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. ..."
Senator Ron Johnson (R- Wis) and Richard Durban (D-Ill) and 39 of their colleagues introduced a Senate Resolution on December
19, 2019 which calls for "a prompt multinational freedom of navigation operation in the Black Sea and urging the cancellation of
the Nord Stream 2 pipeline" as shown
here :
Here is a list of co-sponsors of the resolution:
Sen. James Inhofe (R-Ok.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee; Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), ranking member of the
Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Europe and Regional Security Cooperation; and Sens. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Ben Cardin
(D-Md.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), Christopher Coons (D-Del.), James Risch (R-Idaho),
Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Ben Sasse (R-Neb.),
Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), John Boozman (R-Ark.), John Hoeven (R-N.D.), Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.),
Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Doug Jones (D-Ala.), Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.),
Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Roger Wicker
(R-Miss.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), John Thune (R-S.D.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Mitch
McConnell (R-Ky.), and Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.).
Here is the resolution (currently unnumbered) in its entirety:
Calling for a prompt multinational freedom of navigation operation in the Black Sea and urging the cancellation of the
Nord Stream 2 pipeline.
... ... ...
Whereas the United States has important national interests in the Black Sea region, including the security
of three NATO littoral states, the promotion of European energy market diversification by ensuring unfettered European access
to energy exporters in the Caucuses and central Asia, and combatting use of the region by smugglers as a conduit for trafficking
in persons, narcotics, and arms;
Whereas the Nord Stream 2 pipeline is a proposed underwater natural gas pipeline project that would provide
an additional 55,000,000,000 cubic meters of pipeline capacity from the Russian Federation to the Federal Republic of Germany
through the Baltic Sea;
Whereas the Russian Federation's state-owned oil and gas company, Gazprom, is the sole shareholder of the Nord
Stream 2 project;
Whereas, in 2017, there was spare capacity of approximately 55,000,000,000 cubic meters in the Ukrainian gas
transit system;
Whereas Gazprom cut off natural gas exports to Europe via Ukraine in 2006, and again in 2009, over supply and
pricing disputes with Ukraine's state-owned oil and gas company, Naftogaz;
Whereas transit of Russian natural gas to Europe via Ukraine declined precipitously after the completion of
Nord Stream 1 in 2011, falling from 80 percent to between 40 and 50 percent of Russia's total exports to Europe;
Whereas, in 2017, Russian gas accounted for 37 percent of Europe's natural gas imports, an increase of
5 percent over 2016;
Whereas, on December 12, 2018, the European Parliament overwhelmingly passed a resolution condemning both the
Russian Federation's aggression in the Kerch Strait and the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline; and
Whereas, on December 11, 2018, the United States House of Representatives passed a resolution calling upon
the European
Union to reject the Nord Stream 2 pipeline and urging the President to use all available means to promote energy policies in
Europe that reduce European reliance on Russian energy exports:
... ... ...
(9) applauds and concurs with the European 2 Parliament's December 12, 2018, resolution condemning Russian aggression in the
Kerch Strait and
the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, calling for the pipeline's cancellation due to its threat to European energy security, and calling
on the Russian Federation to
7 guarantee freedom of navigation in the Kerch Strait;
and
(10) urges the President to continue working with Congress and our allies to ensure the appropriate policies to deter the Russian
Federation from further aggression.
Fortunately, these two neocons can make all the proclamations they want but without President Trump's support it's all just
words; neocon virtue signalling. And of course President Trump won't support what they're doing because he campaigned on and governs
as an anti-war president.
Ron Johnson is a Bushie neocon who actively supported the neocon ˇJebe! (Please Clap) Bush while Durbin is a Hillary Clinton
neocon who actively supported that drunken, corrupt, warmongering shrew.
Thank all that's holy that we have a genuine anti-war POTUS in office and not either of those two neocons, both of whom were
utterly in the pockets of defense contractors.
Thanks for your research on relevant naval law. The Ukrainian vessel is reported to have violated the ongoing protocol by failing
to take on a Russian pilot as it transited the strait and an important bridge could potentially have been attacked by those vessels.
This was a provocation by Ukraine that seems to have its desired effect on the U.S. Senate. For essential background on the Ukrainian
civil war, I recommend reading Stephen F. Cohen's article in the Nation in 2014, titled "Kiev's atrocities and the Silence of
the Hawks." https://www.thenation.com/article/kievs-atrocities-and-silence-hawks/
Poland and Ukraine cannot stop provoking laughter from international observers. After the
lunatic idea circulating in Ukraine of resurrecting the country's nuclear arsenal, it is
now Poland's turn to send shockwaves around Europe. Polish foreign minister Czaputowicz
proposed that France share its nuclear arsenal and hand over its seat on the United Nations
Security Council (UNSC) to the European Union. It is is worth noting that this suggestion did
not even receive an official comment from Paris, showing that there was little prospect of the
Polish idea being taken seriously . Warsaw continues its opposition to the EU's domestic
policies on migration and austerity, while in foreign policy, agrees with countries like
Ukraine and the United States, particularly the neocon faction opposed to Russia. If there is a
distinctive feature in the political proposals that come from Poland, it is an acute
Russophobia. The idea of hosting a US base on Polish territory, and assuming its
costs, is another Polish proposal. The Americans are serious considering taking them up on
the offer .
The Poles and the Ukrainians would be willing to sacrifice themselves on behalf of their
allies for the privilege of being able to poke the Bear. Fortunately for them, Paris, London
and Berlin have neither the military capabilities nor the suicidal intention to challenge
Moscow with permanent military bases on its border. Neither do they wish to share their nuclear
weapons with other EU countries, nor engage in any such hare-brained ideas that threaten
humanity as the American Aegis Ashore system or the planned US withdrawal from the INF
Treaty.
Off topic...but of interest to many here at MoA....The snipers that executed the Maidan
massacre in Kiev have come forward and have made sworn testimony///
63
https://sputniknews.com/europe/201802151061669056-georgian-snipers-maidan-evidence
"Adding a new twist to the story about the 2014 Maidan shootings, a Sputnik correspondent has
met with the purported snipers. The agency has obtained the records of interrogation of Koba
Nergadze and Aleksandre Revazishvili. Both Georgian nationals, they are ready to testify in a
Ukrainian court."
It was a matter of time when the participants in the Maidan Massacre would surface the coup
d'état didn't stop the carnage of Ukrainians nor corruption of people in power. The
witness accounts were described in the hours as the events unfolded. Only the faces were not
known ...
Maidan Massacre Bombshell: #Georgian snipers reportedly confess to massacring along
with Lithuanian snipers both #Police and #maidan protesters in #Ukraine in Italian
#documentary just broadcast by most popular
#Italian #TV channel [h/t Ivan Katchanovski]
When governments perpetrate crimes, very seldom these crimes are proved beyond reasonable
doubt.
If some in the Dutch government were part of the possible MH17 conspiracy, for me it is
possible, would explain unexplained facts, but if they were, w'll never know.
"... The Pity of It All : A Portrait of the German-Jewish Epoch, 1743-1933 ..."
"... Perhaps you are making too much of the so called decline of the neocons. At the strategic level, there is little difference between the neocon "Project for a the New American Century" and Brzezinski's "The Grand Chessboard," both of which are consistent with US policy and actions in the Ukraine. ..."
"... The most significant difference seems to me to be the neocon emphasis on American unilateral militarism versus Obama's emphasis on multilateralism, covert operations and financial warfare to achieve the desired results. ..."
"... Perhaps another significant difference is the neocon emphasis on the primacy of the American nation-state versus the neoliberal emphasis on an American dominated global empire. ..."
"... Interesting to juxtapose Brzezinski and the neocons. In a Venn diagram they would over-lap 90%. ..."
"... Right now, their interests have diverged over the Ukraine crisis. Though many of the American neocons do support subverting Ukraine as does Brzezinski it looks like Israel itself is leaning towards supporting Russia. ..."
"... Right Sector militias are the fighting force that led the coup against the legally elected Yanukovich government and were almost certainly involved in the recent massacre in Odessa. And you support them for their fight for freedom? You should be ashamed. Zionism is sinking to new lows that they feel the need to identify with open neo-Nazis. ..."
"... Well, the point is that Zionists in Israel do not identify with that particular set of open neo-Nazis. I suspect that this is simply a matter of the headcount of Jewish business tycoons that are politically aligned with (western) Ukraine and Russia. Or you can count their billions. ..."
"... The problem with your reasoning, Yonah, is that you are espousing the Neocon line while not apparently recognizing that embarrassing fact. You lament that the US is no longer playing the role of the world's superpower, and acting as the world's cop, confronting militarily Russia, China, Iran and anyone else. It is precisely that mentality that got us into Iraq, could yet have us in a war with Iran, would like to see us defending Ukraine, and thinks we should confront China militarily over bits of rock it and its neighbors are quibbling over. That is a neocon, American supremacy mentality. ..."
"... Zionism under Likud has played a major role in promoting the neocon approach to foreign policy in the US. It was heavily involved in the birth of that approach, and has helped fund and promote the policy and its supporters and advocates in this country. They (Likud Zionists and Neocons) played a major role in getting us into the Iraq war and are playing a major role in trying to get us involved in a war with Iran, a war in Syria, and even potential wars in Eastern Europe. That is a very dangerous trend and one folks as intelligent as you are, should be focusing on. ..."
"... "nationalist Armageddon that is nowhere found in the article by Sleeper" ..."
"... "The misadventure in Iraq has cost the US and the world a lot. The US a loss in humans and money and willingness to play the role of superpower, and the world has lost its cop. " ..."
"... Tough. Meanwhile hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi lives don't rate a mention. ..."
"... " (let the Russians have their sphere of influence, let the Iranians have their bomb, let the Chinese do whatever they want to do in their part of the world, for after all they hold a trillion dollars in US government debt and so let them act like the boss, for in fact they have been put in that role by feckless and destructive and wasteful US policy). But Sleeper does not say that." ..."
"... But even if we do focus on neocons, neocons don't have opinions about foreign policy and USA dominance that are much distinct from what most Republican interventionists have. How much difference is there between David Frum and Mitt Romney or between Paul Wolfowitz and Donald Rumsfeld? ..."
"... Don't look to the US to get any justice in the ME, nor to regain US good reputation in the world. This will situation will not change because US political campaign fiancé system won't change–it just gets worse, enhanced by SCOTUS. ..."
"... But neoocns have the confidence that if they could impose the neocon's theology on the rest of the world, they can do it here as well on American street . They call it education, motivation, duty, responsibility, moral burden, and above all the essence of the manifest destiny. ..."
At the Huffington Post, Jim Sleeper addresses
"A Foreign-Policy Problem
No One Speaks About," and it turns out to Jewish identity, the need to belong to the powerful nation on the part of Jewish neoconservatives.
Sleeper says this is an insecurity born of European exclusion that he understands as a Jew, even if he's not a warmongering neocon
himself. The Yale lecturer's jumping-off point are recent statements by Leon Wieseltier and
David Brooks lamenting the decline of
American power.
In addition to Wieseltier and Brooks, the "blame the feckless liberals" chorus has included Donald Kagan, Robert Kagan, David
Frum, William Kristol, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, and many other American neoconservatives. Some of them have
been chastened, or at least been made more cautious, by their grand-strategic blunders of a few years ago ..
I'm saying that they've been fatuous as warmongers again and again and that there's something pathetic in their attempts to
emulate Winston Churchill, who warned darkly of Hitler's intentions in the 1930s. Their blind spot is their willful ignorance
of their own complicity in American deterioration and their over-compensatory, almost pre-adolescent faith in the benevolence
of a statist and militarist power they still hope to mobilize against the seductions and terrors rising all around them.
At bottom, the chorus members' recurrent nightmares of 1938 doom them to reenact other nightmares, prompted by very similar
writers in 1914, on the eve of World War I. Those writers are depicted chillingly, unforgettably, in Chapter 9, "War Fever," of
Amos Elon's
The Pity of It All: A Portrait of the German-Jewish Epoch, 1743-1933. Elon's account of Germany's stampede into World
War I chronicles painfully the warmongering hysterics of some Jewish would-be patriots of the Kaiserreich who exerted themselves
blindly, romantically, to maneuver their state into the Armageddon that would produce Hitler himself.
This is the place to emphasize that few of Wilhelmine German's warmongers were Jews and that few Jews were or are warmongers.
(Me, for example, although my extended-family history isn't much different from Brooks' or Wieseltier's.) My point is simply that,
driven by what I recognize as understandable if almost preternatural insecurities and cravings for full liberal-nationalist belonging
that was denied to Jews for centuries in Europe, some of today's American super-patriotic neo-conservatives hurled themselves
into the Iraq War, and they have continued, again and again, to employ modes of public discourse and politics that echo with eerie
fidelity that of the people described in Elon's book. The Americans lionized George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and
many others as their predecessors lionized Kaiser Wilhelm, von Bethmann-Hollweg, and far-right nationalist associates who hated
the neo-cons of that time but let them play their roles .
Instead of acknowledging their deepest feelings openly, or even to themselves, the writers I've mentioned who've brought so
much folly and destruction upon their republic, are doubling down, more nervous and desperate than ever, looking for someone else
to blame. Hence their whirling columns and rhythmic incantations. After Germany lost World War I, many Germans unfairly blamed
their national folly on Jews, many of whom had served in it loyally but only a few of whom had been provocateurs and cheerleaders
like the signatories of [Project for New American Century's] letter to Bush. Now neo-cons, from Wieseltier and Brooks to [Charles]
Hill, are blaming Obama and all other feckless liberals. Some of them really need to take a look in Amos Elon's mirror.
Interesting. Though I think Sleeper diminishes Jewish agency here (Sheldon Adelson and Haim Saban are no one's proxy) and can't
touch the Israel angle. The motivation is not simply romantic identification with power, it's an ideology of religious nationalism
in the Middle East, attachment to the needs of a militarist Sparta in the Arab world. That's another foreign policy problem no one
speaks about.
Krauss, May 6, 2014, 2:11 pm
"Democracy in in the Middle East" was always just a weasel-word saying of "let's try to improve Israel's strategic position
by changing their neighbours".
The neocons basically took a hardline position on foreign interventionism based out of dual loyalty. This is the honest truth.
For anti-Semites, a handful of neocons will always represent "The Jews" as a collective. For many Jews, the refusal to come to
grips with the rise of the neocons and how the Jewish community (and really by "community" I mean the establishment) failed to
prevent them in their own midst, is also a blemish.
Of course, Jim Sleeper is doing these things now. He should have done them 15-20 years ago or so. But better late than never,
I guess.
Krauss, May 6, 2014, 2:16 pm
P.S. While we talk a lot about neocons as a Jewish issue, it's also important to put them in perspective. The only war that
I can truly think of that they influenced was the Iraq war, which was a disaster, but it also couldn't have happened without 9/11,
which was a very rare event in the history of America. You have to go back to Pearl Harbor to find something similar, and that
wasn't technically a terrorist attack but rather a military attack by Japan.
Leading up to the early 2000s, they were mostly ignored during the 1990s. They did take over the GOP media in the early 90s,
using the same tactics used against Hagel, use social norms as a cover but in actuality the real reason is Israel.
Before the 90s, in the 70s and 80s, the cold war took up all the oxygen.
So yeah, the neocons need to be talked about. But comparing what they are trying to do with a World War is a bit of a stretch.
Finally, talking about Israel – which Sleeper ignored – and the hardline positions that the political class in America have
adopted, if you want to look who have ensured the greatest slavishness to Israel, liberal/centrist groups like ADL, AJC and AIPAC(yes,
they are mostly democrats!) have played a far greater role than the neocons.
But I guess, Sleeper wasn't dealing with that, because it would ruin his view of the neocons as the bogeymen.
Just like "liberal" Zionists want to blame Likud for everything, overlooking the fact that Labor/Mapai has had a far greater
role in settling/colonizing the Palestinian land than the right has, and not to speak about the ethnic cleansing campaigns of
'48 and '67 which was only done by the "left", so too the neocons often pose as a convenient catch-all target for the collective
Jewish failure leading up to Iraq.
And I'm using the words "collective Jewish failure" because I actually don't believe, unlike Mearsheimer/Walt, that the war
would not have gone ahead unless there was massive support by the Israel/Jewish lobby. If Jews had decided no, it would still
have gone ahead. This is also contrary to Tom Friedman's famous saying of "50 people in DC are responsible for this war".
I also think that's an oversimplification.
But I focus more on the Jewish side because that's my side. And I want my community to do better, and just blaming the neocons
is something I'm tired of hearing in Jewish circles. The inability to look at liberal Jewish journalists and their role in promoting
the war to either gentile or Jewish audiences.
Kathleen, May 6, 2014, 6:53 pm
There was talk about this last night (Monday/5th) on Chris Matthew's Hardball segment on Condi "mushroom cloud" Rice pulling
out of the graduation ceremonies at Rutger's. David Corn did not say much but Eugene Robinson and Chris Matthews were basically
talking about Israel and the neocons desires to rearrange the middle east "the road to Jerusalem runs through Baghdad" conversation.
Bumblebye, May 6, 2014, 2:33 pm
"some of today's American super-patriotic neo-conservatives hurled themselves into the Iraq War"
Have to take issue with that – the neo-cons hurled young American (and foreign) servicemen and women into that war, many to
their deaths, along with throwing as much taxpayer money as possible. They stayed ultra safe and grew richer for their efforts.
Citizen, May 7, 2014, 9:03 am
@ Bumblebye
Good point. During WW1, as I read the history, the Jewish Germans provided their fair share of combat troops. If memory serves,
despite Weimar Germany's later "stab in the back" theory, e.g., Hitler himself was given a combat medal thanks to his Jewish senior
officer. In comparison to the build-up to Shrub Jr's war on Iraq, the Jewish neocons provided very few Jewish American combat
troops.
It's hard to get reliable stats on Jewish American participation in the US combat arms during the Iraq war. For all I've been
able to ascertain, more have joined the IDF over the years. At any rate, it's common knowledge that Shrub's war on Iraq was instigated
and supported by chicken hawks (Jew or Gentile) at a time bereft of conscription. They built their sale by ignoring key facts,
and embellishing misleading and fake facts, as illustrated by the Downing Street memo.
Keith, May 6, 2014, 7:47 pm
PHIL- Perhaps you are making too much of the so called decline of the neocons. At the strategic level, there is little
difference between the neocon "Project for a the New American Century" and Brzezinski's "The Grand Chessboard," both of which
are consistent with US policy and actions in the Ukraine.
The most significant difference seems to me to be the neocon emphasis on American unilateral militarism versus Obama's
emphasis on multilateralism, covert operations and financial warfare to achieve the desired results.
Perhaps another significant difference is the neocon emphasis on the primacy of the American nation-state versus the neoliberal
emphasis on an American dominated global empire.
So yes, the nationalistic emphasis is an anachronism, however, the decline of the US in conjunction with the extension of a
system of globalized domination should hardly be of concern to elite power-seekers who will benefit. In fact, the new system of
corporate/financial control will be beyond the political control of any nation, even the US. If they can pull it off. An interesting
topic no doubt, but one which I doubt is suitable for extended discussion on Mondoweiss. As for power-seeking as a consequence
of a uniquely Jewish experience, perhaps the less said the better.
Interesting to juxtapose Brzezinski and the neocons. In a Venn diagram they would over-lap 90%. The Ukraine crisis exposes that
10% difference. Brzezinski I very much doubt has any emotional attachment to Israel though he is happy to work in coalition with
them to further his one true goal which is to isolate and defeat Russian influence in the world. In the 1980s both were on the
same page in the "let my people go" campaign against the Soviet Union. Brzezinski saw it as a propaganda opportunity to attack
Russia and the neocons saw it has a source of more Jews to settle Palestine.
Right now, their interests have diverged over the
Ukraine crisis. Though many of the American neocons do support subverting Ukraine as does Brzezinski it looks like Israel itself
is leaning towards supporting Russia. When it comes down to it it is hard for many Jews, right wing or not, to support the political
movement inside Ukraine that identifies with Bandera. Now that was one nasty antisemite whose followers killed many thousands
of Ukrainian Jews during the holocaust. My wife's family immigrated from Galicia and the Odessa region and those left behind perished
during the holocaust. The extended family includes anti-zionists and WB settlers. There is no way that any of them would identify
with Ukrainian fascist movements now active there.
In any case, there does seem to be a potential split among the neocons over Ukraine. It would be the ultimate in hypocrisy
for all of those eastern European Jews who became successful in the US in the last few generations to enter into coalition with
the Bandera brigades.
(I know I'm always grabbing OT threads of discussion, but when it comes down to it, I know much less about Zionism and Israel/Palestine
than many, if not most of the regular commenters here.)
I also am going to drift further off-topic by saying there is strong evidence that the slaughter in Odessa last Friday was
highly orchestrated and not solely the result of spontaneous mob violence. Very graphic and disturbing images in all of these
links:
" and it turns out to Jewish identity, the need to belong to the powerful nation on the part of Jewish neoconservatives.
Sleeper says this is an insecurity born of European exclusion that he understands as a Jew, ..>>
Stop it Sleeper. Do not continue to use the victim card ' to explain' the trauma, the insecurities, the nightmares, the angst,
the feelings, the sensitivities, blah blah, blah of Zionist or Israel.
That is not what they are about. These are power mad psychos like most neocons, period.
And even if it were, and even if all the Jews in the world felt the same way, the bottom line would still be they do not have
the right to make others pay in treasure and blood for their nightmares and mental sickness.
As near as I can tell (correct me if I'm wrong), the Ukrainians themselves are about half and half pro Russia and Pro NATO.
Your glance at the history of the region as to why this is so, and your text on historical Ukranian suffering and POTV on MW commentary
on this –did not help your analysis and its conclusion.
There's a difference between isolationism and defensive intervention, and even more so, re isolationism v. pro-active interventionism
"in the name of pursuing the democratic ideal". See Ron Paul v. PNAC-style neocons and liberal Zionists.
Also, if you were Putin, how would you see the push of NATO & US force posts ever creeping towards Russia and its local environment?
Look at the US military postings nearing Russia per se & those surrounding Iran. Compare Russia's.
And note the intent to wean EU from Russian oil, and as well, the draconian sanctions on Iran, and Obama's latest partnering
sanctions on Russia.
Imagine yourself in Putin's shoes, and Iran's.
Don't abuse your imagination only by imagining yourself in Netanyahu's shoes, which is the preoccupation of AIPAC and its whores
in the US Congress.
Interesting to juxtapose Brzezinski and the neocons. In a Venn diagram they would over-lap 90%. The Ukraine crisis exposes
that 10% difference. Brzezinski I very much doubt has any emotional attachment to Israel though he is happy to work in coalition
with them to further his one true goal which is to isolate and defeat Russian influence in the world. In the 1980s both were on
the same page in the "let my people go" campaign against the Soviet Union. Brzezinski saw it as a propaganda opportunity to attack
Russia and the neocons saw it has a source of more Jews to settle Palestine.
Right now, their interests have diverged over
the Ukraine crisis. Though many of the American neocons do support subverting Ukraine as does Brzezinski it looks like Israel
itself is leaning towards supporting Russia. When it comes down to it it is hard for many Jews, right wing or not, to support
the political movement inside Ukraine that identifies with Bandera. Now that was one nasty anti-Semite whose followers killed
many thousands of Ukrainian Jews during the holocaust. My wife's family immigrated from Galicia and the Odessa region and those
left behind perished during the holocaust. The extended family includes anti-Zionists and WB settlers. There is no way that any
of them would identify with Ukrainian fascist movements now active there.
In any case, there does seem to be a potential split among the neocons over Ukraine. It would be the ultimate in hypocrisy
for all of those eastern European Jews who became successful in the US in the last few generations to enter into coalition with
the Bandera brigades.
Yonah writes The freedom of Ukraine is a worthy goal. If the US is not able to back up our attempt to help them gain their
freedom it is not something to celebrate, but something to lament.
What are you saying? Ukraine has been an independent nation for 22 years. What freedom is this? What we have witnessed is that
one half of Ukraine has gotten tired that the other half keeps on electing candidates that represent those Ukrainians that identify
with Russian culture. They (the western half) successfully staged a coup and purged the other (eastern half) from the government.
You call that "freedom". Doesn't it embarrass you, Yonah, that the armed militias that conducted that coup are descendants of
the Bandera organization.
Does that ring a bell? These are the Ukrainians that were involved in the holocaust. Does Babi Yar stir any memories Yohan?
It was a massacre of 40,000 Jews just outside of Kiev in 1942. It was the single largest massacre of Jews during WWII. The massacre
was led by the Germans ( Einsatzgruppe C officers) but was carried out with the aid of 400 Ukrainian Auxillary Police. These were
later incorporated into the 14th SS-Volunteer Division "Galician" made up mostly Ukrainians. The division flags are to this day
displayed at Right Sector rallies in western Ukraine.
Right Sector militias are the fighting force that led the coup against the legally elected Yanukovich government and were
almost certainly involved in the recent massacre in Odessa. And you support them for their fight for freedom? You should be ashamed.
Zionism is sinking to new lows that they feel the need to identify with open neo-Nazis.
Well, the point is that Zionists in Israel do not identify with that particular set of open neo-Nazis. I suspect that this
is simply a matter of the headcount of Jewish business tycoons that are politically aligned with (western) Ukraine and Russia.
Or you can count their billions. In any case, the neutral posture is sensible for Israel here. Which is highly uncharacteristic
for that government.
Toivo S- The history of Jew hatred by certain anti Russian elements in the Ukraine is not encouraging and nothing that I celebrate.
Maybe I have been swayed by headlines and a superficial reading of the situation.
If indeed I am wrong regarding the will of the Ukrainian people, I can only be glad that my opinion is just that, my opinion
and not US or Israel or anyone's policy but my own. I assume that a majority of Ukrainians want to maintain independence of Russia
and that the expressions of rebellion are in that vein.
My people were murdered by the einsatzgruppen in that part of the world and so maybe I have overcompensated by trying not to
allow my personal history to interfere with what I think would be the will of the majority of the Ukraine.
But Toivo S. please skip the "doesn't it embarrass you" line of thought. Just put a sock in it and skip it.
Well thanks for that Yonah. My wife's family descended from Jewish communities in Odessa and Galicia. They emigrated to the US
between 1900 and 1940. After WWII none of their relatives left behind were ever heard from again. Perhaps you have family that
experienced similar stories. What caused me to react to your post above is that you are describing the current situation in Ukraine
as a "freedom" movement by the Ukrainians when the political forces there descended from the same people that killed my inlaws
family (and apparently yours to). Why do you support them?
ToivoS- I support them because I trust/don't trust Putin. I trust him to impose his brand of leadership on Ukraine, I don't trust
him to care a whit about freedom. It is natural that the nationalist elements of Ukraine would descend from the elements that
expressed themselves the last time they had freedom from the Soviet Union, that is those forces that were willing to join with
the Nazis to express their hatred for the communist Soviet Union's rule over their freedom. That's how history works. The nationalists
today descend from the nationalists of yesterday.
But it's been 70 years since WWII and the Ukrainians ought to be able to have freedom even if the parties that advocate for
freedom are descended from those that supported the Nazis. (I know once i include the Nazi part of history any analogies are toxic,
but if I am willing to grant Hamas its rights as an expression of the Palestinian desire for freedom, why would I deny the Ukrainian
foul nationalist parties their rights to express their people's desire for freedom.)
Political parties are not made in a sterile laboratory, they evolve over history and most specifically they emerge from the
past. I accept that Ukrainian nationalism has not evolved much, but nonetheless not having read any polls I assume that the nationalists
are the representatives of the people's desire for freedom. And because Putin strikes me as something primitive, I accept the
Ukrainian desire for freedom.
What are you supporting? Let me refresh your historic memory: Black's Transfer Agreement. Now apply analogy, responding
to ToivoS. Might help us all to understand, explore more skillfully, Israel's current stance on the Putin-Ukranian matter .?
(I think Nuland's intervention caught on tape, combined with who she is married to, already explores with great clarification
what the US is doing.
"The misadventure in Iraq has cost the US and the world a lot. The US a loss in humans and money and willingness to play
the role of superpower, and the world has lost its cop. Most people here would probably disagree with Sleeper, because he does
not deny that the world needs a cop, nor that the US would play a positive role, if it only had the means and the desire to
do so. People here (overwhelmingly) see the US role as a negative one (let the Russians have their sphere of influence, let
the Iranians have their bomb, let the Chinese do whatever they want to do in their part of the world,"
The problem with your reasoning, Yonah, is that you are espousing the Neocon line while not apparently recognizing that
embarrassing fact. You lament that the US is no longer playing the role of the world's superpower, and acting as the world's cop,
confronting militarily Russia, China, Iran and anyone else. It is precisely that mentality that got us into Iraq, could yet have
us in a war with Iran, would like to see us defending Ukraine, and thinks we should confront China militarily over bits of rock
it and its neighbors are quibbling over. That is a neocon, American supremacy mentality.
Contrast that with the realist or realism approach recommended by George Kennan, and followed by this country successfully
through the end of the Cold War. That approach is conservative and contends we should stay out of wars unless the vital national
security interests of the US are at stake, like protecting WESTERN Europe, Japan, Australia, and the Western Hemisphere. This
meant we could sympathize with the plight of all the eastern Europeans oppressed by the Soviets, but would not defend militarily
the Hungarians (1956) or the Czechs (1968). It also meant we wouldn't send US troops into North Vietnam because we didn't want
to go to war with the Chinese over a country that was at best tangential to US interests. When we varied from that policy (Vietnam
and Iraq wars, Somalia) we paid a very heavy price while doing nothing to advance or protect our vital national security interests.
The sooner this country can return to our traditional realism-based foreign policy the better. Part of that policy would be
to disassociate the US from its entangling alliance with Likud Israel and its US Jewish supporters that espouse the Likud Greater
Israel line.
Zionism under Likud has played a major role in promoting the neocon approach to foreign policy in the US. It was heavily
involved in the birth of that approach, and has helped fund and promote the policy and its supporters and advocates in this country.
They (Likud Zionists and Neocons) played a major role in getting us into the Iraq war and are playing a major role in trying to
get us involved in a war with Iran, a war in Syria, and even potential wars in Eastern Europe. That is a very dangerous trend
and one folks as intelligent as you are, should be focusing on.
Please note, my criticism is directed neither at all Jews in general, Jews in the US, nor or all Israeli Jews. It is directed
at a particular subset of Zionists who support Likud policies, and their supporters, many of whom are not Jews. It is also directed
at Neoconservative foreign policy advocates, comprised of Jews and non-Jews, and overlap between the two groups. Please also note
my use of the term "major role", and that I am not saying the Neocons and their supporters (Jewish or non) were solely responsible
for our involvement in the Iraq war. I am offering these caveats in the hope that the usual changes of antisemitism can be avoided
in your or anyone else's response to my arguments.
The influence of Neocons on US foreign policy has been very harmful to this country and poses a grave danger to its future.
It would be wise for you to reflect on that harm and those dangers and decide whether you belong in the realist camp or want to
continue running with the Neocons.
Please note, my criticism is directed neither at all Jews in general, Jews in the US, nor or all Israeli Jews. It is directed
at a particular subset of Zionists who support Likud policies, and their supporters, many of whom are not Jews.
What about the role of *liberal Zionists*, like Hillary Clinton, in supporting and promoting the Iraq War? Clinton still hasn't
offered an apology for helping to drive the United States in a multi-trillion dollar foreign policy disaster - and she has threatened
to "totally obliterate" Iran.
What about Harry Reid's lavish praise of Sheldon Adelson?
"Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has for some time billed the Koch brothers as public enemy No.1 .
But billionaire Republican donor Sheldon Adelson? He's just fine, Reid says.
"I know Sheldon Adelson. He's not in this for money," the Nevada Democrat said of Adelson, the Vegas casino magnate who
reportedly spent close to $150 million to support Republicans in the 2012 presidential election."
@ yonah fredman "nationalist Armageddon that is nowhere found in the article by Sleeper"
Strange
"state into the Armageddon .. "
"The misadventure in Iraq has cost the US and the world a lot. The US a loss in humans and money and willingness to
play the role of superpower, and the world has lost its cop. "
Tough. Meanwhile hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi lives don't rate a mention.
" (let the Russians have their sphere of influence, let the Iranians have their bomb, let the Chinese do whatever they
want to do in their part of the world, for after all they hold a trillion dollars in US government debt and so let them act
like the boss, for in fact they have been put in that role by feckless and destructive and wasteful US policy). But Sleeper
does not say that."
You do tho, without quoting anyone "here".
BTW Pajero, strawmen no matter how lengthy and seemingly erudite, rarely walk anywhere
I'm going to put this down as Jewish navel gazing.
Jews are disproportionately liberal. Jews make up a huge chunk of the peace movement. Jews are relative to their numbers on
the left of most foreign policy positions.
Iraq was unusual in that Jews were not overwhelming opposed to the invasion, but it is worth noting the invasion at the time
was overwhelming popular. Frankly given the fact that Jews are now considered white people and the fact that Jews are almost all
middle class they should be biased conservative. There certainly is no reason they should be more liberal than Catholics. Yet
they are. It is the degree of Jewish liberalism not the degree of Jewish conservatism that is striking.
But even if we do focus on neocons, neocons don't have opinions about foreign policy and USA dominance that are much distinct
from what most Republican interventionists have. How much difference is there between David Frum and Mitt Romney or between Paul
Wolfowitz and Donald Rumsfeld?
Strongly antiwar incumbent Rep. Walter Jones (R – NC) has won a hotly contested primary tonight, defeating a challenge from
hawkish challenger and former Treasury Dept. official Taylor Griffin 51% to 45%.
Voter turn out was light .. tea party types did a lot of lobbying for Griffin here .but Jones prevailed. Considering the
onslaught of organized activity against him by ECI and the tea partiers for the past month he did well.
@ lysias
Let's refresh our look at what Ron Paul had to say about foreign policy and foreign aid. Then, let's compare what his son has
said, and take a look of his latest bill in congress to cut off aid to Palestine. Yes, you read that right; it's not a bill to
cut off any aid to Israel.
Don't look to the US to get any justice in the ME, nor to regain US good reputation in the world. This will situation will
not change because US political campaign fiancé system won't change–it just gets worse, enhanced by SCOTUS.
The heavy artillery included the detestable Karl Rove, former Governor and RNC Chair Haley Barber and the War Party's highly
paid chief PR flack, Ari Fleischer.
But it was Neocon central that hauled out the big guns. Bill Kristol was so desperate to thwart the slowly rising anti-interventionist
tide within the GOP that he even trotted out Sarah Palin to endorse Jones's opponent"
But neoocns have the confidence that if they could impose the neocon's theology on the rest of the world, they can do it
here as well on American street . They call it education, motivation, duty, responsibility, moral burden, and above all the essence
of the manifest destiny.
Notice also reports (Saudi prince owned) Twitter snuffed Wikileaks channel
+ report southern NY judge is allowing a civil case on 9/11 explosives go to grand jury.
WL (and others) could have leaked copies of wtc vault materials, that might explain mad DC
rush to ditch KSA under Kashoggi - Yemen cover .... impacting on Turkey - Syria dynamics, and
massive info warfare investment of Silicon Valley & II in UK. After all, Condi went
straight to DropBox from DC, and isnt Patraeus there too (not counting the record flood of
spooks who reportedly ran for dem ticket offices in 2018.
Re Ukraine, Biden-Nuland clique are going to be the spanner in that works for DJT.
Uniparty alums like Graham will be prostituting themselves to open the channels.
Trump will have to work hard not to remember how the whole of GOP lined up to back
Hilary in 2016! He will have too much ego to roll over for Biden.
If ingratiation with rank and file troops is a truly personal calculated strategy, we
should see more public overtures to listen to them.
One problem with this fat warmonger (and his wife Victoria Nuland) is that nether he not his children were ever forced to take M16
and fight for the policies he promotes. In other words he is a typical chickenhawk, a lobbyist of MIC on good salary. In some
way this fat pig bellicosity is aside effect of abolishing universal draft. He also probably was not a fighter and never
was severely beaten by super fighters in school or university. A typical nice Jewish kid.
Attempt to build global neoliberal empire reserving for the USA dominant position ("Full spectrum dominance") cost dear to
the common Americans and now it is clear that this initiative of neocons and their paymasters (financial oligarchy and military industrial
complex -- the neoliberal elite in other words) failed.
Kagan might be a talented propagandist of "full spectrum dominance" neoconservative policies, but it is important to understand
that intellectually he is a lightweight: he believes his own propaganda.
From comments: "When one sees Pompeo's lips move about a new American world order, it is Kagan talking with his neo con
war mongering."
Notable quotes:
"... Call a spade a spade: This guy has been part of and feeding the political class with the arguments to continue performing the 'Crime of Aggression' and doing that as part of preserving US primacy doesn't excuse him from the 'Crime of Aggression' part of the ICC mandate. Most of those guys are very much aware of that as demonstrated by Bolton's attack on the ICC. ..."
"... The Obama administration's point person for the overthrow of an elected government in Ukraine was Victoria Nuland, Kagan's wife. Even as the administration's duplicity was intercepted by the recording of her discussing who the U.S. would install as the new leaders, it would be interesting to hear the pillow talk of these two. ..."
"... The theory they embrace is that of an American New World Order, and a bipartisan practice of economic and military Full Spectrum Dominance of the planet to enforce that hegemony against the democratic aspirations of others – and to maintain support domestically for it, necessarily against democratic accountability for war to the American people. ..."
"... "the willingness to apply that power, with all the pain and the suffering, the uncertainties and the errors, the failures and follies, the immorality and brutality, the lost lives and the lost treasure." One can feel his depraved, almost prurient, excitement at the wretchedness he would inflict. ..."
"... Skip the geopolitical arguments. What I see in the photo is an obviously well-fed desk jockey from the Swamp exhorting us to waste yet more blood and treasure on his grandiose political vision. ..."
"... Göring: Why, of course, the people don't want war. Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship. ..."
"... warmongers are opportunists, and democrats are as supportive of war efforts as GOP. This guy is a traitor of the people of this country, period. ..."
"... One should understand that committing to trillions of dollars in military spending each decade pretty much eliminates any possibility of true liberalism spreading. ..."
"... When one sees pompeo's lips move about a new American world order, it is kagan talking with his neo con war mongering. ..."
Today, Kagan is an influential scholar at the Brookings Institution, a columnist at The Washington Post , and a member
of the U.S. Department of State Foreign Affairs Policy Board. Despite being known as a neoconservative, his appeal spans party and
ideological divides. Indeed, Kagan's 2016 support for Hillary Clinton showed his willingness to cross these divides himself in terms
of electoral loyalties.
As a writer and public intellectual, Kagan has skillfully crafted historical narratives and strategic assessments supporting his
overarching neoconservative vision for U.S. foreign policy. His 1996 Foreign Affairs article with Bill Kristol, "
Toward a Neo-Reaganite
Foreign Policy ," still resonates today as a concise hallmark statement of that approach to America's role in the world. With
a long list of prominent books and articles following in that vein, it is little wonder that Andrew Bacevich called him "the chief
foreign policy theorist of the neoconservative movement."
Kagan's newest book,
The Jungle Grows Back: America and Our Imperiled World , fits nicely into his corpus. It is a spirited defense of the
"American-led liberal world order" by one of its most cogent and articulate advocates. It is part curated history, part philippic
for his preferred strategic vision for the United States. In this small volume, Kagan argues that the enlightened order America created
after World War II has allowed for much progress in the world. But this order is not natural, and its great benefits have been "made
possible by the protection afforded liberalism within the geographical and geopolitical space created by American power." To Kagan,
this liberal order is "fragile and impermanent," requiring constant care by its architect and beneficiary, the United States. He
sees the liberal order as being "like a garden, artificial and forever threatened by the forces of nature." Thus "preserving it requires
a persistent, unending struggle against the vines and weeds that are constantly working to undermine it from within and overwhelm
it from without." Otherwise, the jungle will "grow back and engulf us all."
The problem with the book is its reliance on some questionable historical and contemporary assessments, not to mention that it
fails to really make the case for the necessity and desirability of the liberal order in today's world.
Kagan begins The Jungle Grows Back by noting that the last 70 years of peace, prosperity, and the expansion of democracy
and respect for individual rights have been an exception to the historical norm. Far from being the natural course or inevitable,
this progress required something special and unique: that a liberal democratic country like the United States, with so many geopolitical
and economic advantages, rose to international prominence after World War II. Not only that, but, as Kagan argues, American leaders
were willing to use their great power at this special moment in history to act differently and to create a new and unique world order.
Rather than merely defend its narrow national interests, the United States created a liberal international order that it would
take responsibility for upholding and protecting. Kagan argues that this approach wasn't, as some might argue, directed at the Soviet
Union or anyone else in particular (though he admits the rise of the Soviet threat made it easier for Americans to accept it even
as the strategy became more difficult to implement). Instead, "its chief purpose was to prevent a return to the economic, political,
and strategic circumstances that had given rise to the last war." Thus, Kagan believes this internationalist approach was rooted
in a realism about the nature of geopolitics in the 20th century and a realization that the world was a jungle that required "meeting
power with greater power." American leaders had learned from World War II that they had to adopt a new approach to the world, one
that created, in Dean Acheson's words, "an environment for freedom." To do otherwise would be to let disorder reign or for others
to order the international system to the detriment of American interests and values.
Call a spade a spade: This guy has been part of and feeding the political class with the arguments to continue performing
the 'Crime of Aggression' and doing that as part of preserving US primacy doesn't excuse him from the 'Crime of Aggression' part
of the ICC mandate. Most of those guys are very much aware of that as demonstrated by Bolton's attack on the ICC.
"Despite being known as a neoconservative, his appeal spans party and ideological divides. Indeed, Kagan's 2016 support
for Hillary Clinton showed his willingness to cross these divides himself in terms of electoral loyalties."
The Obama administration's point person for the overthrow of an elected government in Ukraine was Victoria Nuland, Kagan's
wife. Even as the administration's duplicity was intercepted by the recording of her discussing who the U.S. would install as
the new leaders, it would be interesting to hear the pillow talk of these two.
The theory they embrace is that of an American New World Order, and a bipartisan practice of economic and military Full
Spectrum Dominance of the planet to enforce that hegemony against the democratic aspirations of others – and to maintain support
domestically for it, necessarily against democratic accountability for war to the American people.
Given that the liberal cultural order in the Homeland is so quickly degrading, the imposition of it internationally is likely
to become increasingly infected by poor judgment as well as resistance to it increasing.
It used to be in popular entertainment that the villains were interested in ruling the world, madmen with megalomania. That
enemy is now within.
"the willingness to apply that power, with all the pain and the suffering, the uncertainties and the errors, the failures
and follies, the immorality and brutality, the lost lives and the lost treasure." One can feel his depraved, almost prurient,
excitement at the wretchedness he would inflict.
Skip the geopolitical arguments. What I see in the photo is an obviously well-fed desk jockey from the Swamp exhorting us
to waste yet more blood and treasure on his grandiose political vision.
"Göring: Why, of course, the people don't want war. Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life
in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally, the common people don't
want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all,
it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether
it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship.
Gilbert: There is one difference. In a democracy, the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives,
and in the United States only Congress can declare wars.
Göring: Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders.
That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing
the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."
In an interview with Gilbert in Göring's jail cell during the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials (18 April 1946)
"Indeed, Kagan's 2016 support for Hillary Clinton showed his willingness to cross these divides himself in terms of electoral
loyalties."
It is probably due to the fact that most people at that time thought Clinton was going to win. So his support for Clinton proved
2 things: warmongers are opportunists, and democrats are as supportive of war efforts as GOP. This guy is a traitor
of the people of this country, period.
One should understand that committing to trillions of dollars in military spending each decade pretty much eliminates any possibility
of true liberalism spreading.
"The same containment strategy appears to be what the Iraq War was about: contain the Iranian Muslim Revolution from not
spilling over from Iraq into US ally nations: "
Had there never been an Iraq War – Muslim revolution could never have spilled over from Iraq to any other nations – because
Saddam wasn't going to allow any Muslim revolution from happening within his borders.
..to his emergence in the post-Cold War era as arguably the leading intellectual advocate for a foreign policy of "benevolent
global hegemony" -- what scholars call "primacy."
An "intellectual" war monger? A "benevolent" Imperialist? ...
"The same containment strategy appears to be what the Iraq War was about: contain the Iranian Muslim Revolution from not spilling
over from Iraq into US ally nations: Saudi, UAE, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan. Afghanistan is just another buffer country to fight the
Iranian stealth war."
I presume that history started in 2003 and that you have never heard of Saddam Hussein (the guy who fought a long war with
Iran aided by the US) or the Sunni Taliban who ruled Afghanistan and were opposed to Shia Iran. Except for the fraud and deceit
done by the neocon controlled US regime of the time, these illegal wars would not have been possible. Pick up some real history
books for a change. Don't learn about the Soviet Union from the Pravda.
Translated by Ollie Richardson & Angelina Siard19:45:09 05/12/2018Aleksey
Zhuravko
Dear friends!
FOR INFORMATION. EVERYONE SHOULD KNOW THIS! IT'S IMPOSSIBLE TO HIDE THE TRUTH.
Today I had a conversation with a serious person from Kiev who is on active service. For
safety reasons I cannot give its name. I trust this person. Many thanks that there are still
decent people.
Here is what he told me. The special
operation in the Black Sea made on November 25th in the Kerch Strait was prepared over
three months by the American intelligence agencies and the SBU. All orders on carrying out a
provocation in the Black Sea were given to Poroshenko by the US Embassy in Ukraine. And
Poroshenko, in turn, personally gave the instructions to the performers. He consciously sent
boats and young guys off to be shot, and members of the crew were equipped with a large number
of cartridges and small arms, having being told that they must fire back to the last bullet.
They were sent to a certain death for the purpose of carrying out a provocation.
There's more. Poroshenko gave the order to not hold any negotiations with Russia concerning
returning sailors, and if the people will insist and kick up a storm around it, then drag out
he negotiation process as much as possible. This order came from the US Embassy in Ukraine.
Dear parents of the aggrieved Ukrainian sailors detained by the border service of Russia!
Your children were used by Poroshenko and his gang as cannon fodder, and you continue to be
deceived. That 50,000 hryvnia that he promised you will end very quickly. He met you only to
calm your anger, to appease you, like saying "we are dealing with this issue
The owner of FC "Lion": It is difficult for us to find a plane that would fly to Ukraine
published 2018/11/28
In 10 Ukrainian regions, martial law imposed by Poroshenko did not come into force de jure,
and
the first "swallows" of this entry have already arrived on Ukrainian soil. And flew in, from
where
Kiev did not expect. European air carriers stated that in connection with the introduction of
martial
law on the territory of Ukraine, they are forced to radically reconsider the air traffic regime
with this
country.
The situation is told by the Ukrainian media, reporting and the accompanying nuances of this
decision.
The nuances are connected with the fact that international-level football matches that are
scheduled
to take place on Ukrainian territory are becoming suspended in the air.
The UNIAN Information Service cites a statement by Jean-Michel Olas, owner of the "Lyon"
(France)
football club: " The decision was made to postpone the "Arsenal" match in London. We do not
know
whether we will fly to "Shakhtar", taking into account the political situation. It's difficult
for us find a
plane whose owners would send him there. Now the decision is made at the UEFA level. "
Earlier it became known that the match between "Arsenal" (London) and Poltava "Vorskla" in
the
Europa League was decided to be moved from the Poltava stadium to Kiev. It is noteworthy that
the
Poltava region by the Verkhovna Rada was not included in the zone of introduction of the
EaP.
At the same time, the possibility of transferring the match outside Ukraine was also
discussed due to
the fact that martial law is beginning to operate in a number of regions of the country.
Conducting two more international matches in Ukraine is open to question.
Recall that the martial law provides, among other things, the closure of airspace. European
air
carriers, apparently, are wary of how Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile systems move along the
streets
of Ukrainian cities. Do they really not believe Poroshenko's words that " the Ukrainian Armed
Forces
did not bring down the Malaysian "Boeing" over the Donbas in 2014 "? ..
(Google translation)
"... This shtick of blaming US state crimes on foreign influence is getting annoying. You know none of this would be happening if the DO didn't like it. If you want to stop CIA's common plan or conspiracy for war, you've got to end the impunity that permits it. Ratify the Rome Statute. With the judiciary completely gelded, that's the only way to get the CIA regime under control. It's that or DCI Poppy Hager swings at Nuremberg II. ..."
"... Nuland admitted to spending $5 billion to set Maidan up. That $5B is worth 10 times that much in Ukraine. You don't spend that kind of money unless you have a follow up plan, and NATOizing Ukraine to attack Russia was it. The trigger was NATO's bitch, the EU, creating such a horrible deal for Ukraine that only an imbecile would have accepted it. Viktor Yanukovych was no imbecile. The "Russian deal" wasn't all that great for Ukraine either, it was just infinitely better than the turd the EU told Yanukovych to sign. ..."
One of the local Washington television stations was doing a typical early morning honoring
our soldiers schtick just before Thanksgiving. In it soldiers stationed far from home were
treated to videolinks so they could talk to their families and everyone could nod happily and
wish themselves a wonderful holiday. Not really listening, I became interested when I half
heard that the soldier being interviewed was spending his Thanksgiving in Ukraine.
It occurred to me that the soldier just might have committed a security faux pas by
revealing where he was, but I also recalled that there have been joint military maneuvers as
well as some kind of training mission going on in the country, teaching the Ukrainian Army how
to use the shiny new sophisticated weapons that the United States was providing it with to
defend against "Russian aggression."
Ukraine is only one part of the world where the Trump Administration has expanded the
mission of democracy promotion, only in Kiev the reality is more like faux democracy
promotion since Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko is clearly exploiting
a situation that he himself provoked . He envisions setting himself up as a victim of
Moscow to aid in his attempts to establish his own power through a security relationship with
Washington. That in turn will help his bid for reelection in March 2019 elections, in which his
poll numbers are currently running embarrassingly low largely due to the widescale corruption
in his government. Poroshenko has already done much to silence the press in his county while
the developing crisis with Russia has enabled him to declare martial law in the eastern parts
of the country where he is most poorly regarded. If it all works out, he hopes to win the
election and subsequently, it is widely believed, he will move to expand his own executive
authority.
There also has to be some consideration the encounter with the Russians on the Kerch Strait
was contrived by Poroshenko with the assistance of a gaggle of American neoconservative and
Israeli advisers who have been actively engaged with the Ukrainian government for the past
several years. The timing was good for Poroshenko for his own domestic political reasons but it
was also an opportunity for the neocons warmongers that surround Trump and proliferate inside
the Beltway to scuttle any possible meeting between a vulnerable Donald Trump and Vladimir
Putin at the G20 gathering in Argentina.
The defection of Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen, together with the assumption that a lot of
anti-Trump dirt will be spilled soon, means that the American president had to be even more
cautious than ever in any dealings with Moscow and all he needed was a nod of approval from
National Security Adviser John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to cancel the
encounter. A heads-of-state meeting might not have solved anything but it certainly would be
better than the current drift towards a new cold war. If the United States has only one vitally
important relationship anywhere it is with Russia as the two countries are ready, able and
apparently willing to destroy the world under the aegis of self-defense.
Given the anti-Russian hysteria prevailing in the U.S. and the ability of the neocons to
switch on the media, it should come as no surprise that the Russian-Ukrainian incident
immediately generated calls from the press and politicians for the White House to get tough
with the Kremlin. It is important to note that the United States has no actual national
interest in getting involved in a war between Russia and Ukraine if that should come about. The
two Eastern European countries are neighbors and have a long history of both friendship and
hostility but the only thing clear about the conflict is that it is up to them to sort things
out and no amount of sanctions and jawing by concerned congressmen will change that fact.
Other Eastern European nations that similarly have problems with Russia should also be
considered provocateurs as they seek to create tension to bind the United States more closely
to them through the NATO alliance. The reality is that today's Russian Federation is not the
Soviet Union and it neither aspires to nor can afford hegemony over its former allies. What it
has made very clear that it does want is a modus vivendi where Russia itself is not
being threatened by the West.
Recent
military maneuvers in Poland and Lithuania and the stationing of new missiles in Eastern
Europe do indeed pose a genuine threat to Moscow as it places NATO forces on top of Russia's
border. When Russia reacts to incursions by NATO warships and planes right along its borders,
it is accused of acting aggressively. One wonders how the U.S. government would respond if a
Russian aircraft carrier were to take up position off the eastern seaboard and were to begin
staging reconnaissance flights. Or if the Russian army were to begin military exercises with
the Cubans? Does anyone today remember the Bay of Pigs?
Crying wolf provides a perfect pretext for the Empire's MIC to line the pockets of the
merchants of death. In keeping with its time-honored tradition of propping up tyrants
kowtowing to imperial hegemonic wishes, America hardly has friends without some military
collaboration. Even the recently anointed sh*thole countries of Africa over 50 such countries
have American military cooperation agreements under the guise of the infamous AFRICOM and the
War on Terror. The number of military bases in sh*thole African countries remain unknown.
..the ability of the neocons to switch on the media
Hard to distinguish between the two really. The "free press" of WMD notoriety, Ghaddafi's
"genocidal drive" against Libyan citizens, Iraq's involvement with 9/11? Iranian arms in
Yemen that have not massacred children in school buses? Iranian fabricated nuclear weapons?
Syrian chemical attacks?
The biggest threats to America come from its "friends"
America is being unwittingly exonerated as an innocent bystander unable to choose her own
friends. It so happens America's "friends" share the common trait of pushing for war. In
countries awash in petrodollars, purchasing billions of dollars in arms used in Yemen to
murder children; Zionists are gifted with American state of the art arsenals to murder
Palestinians, including women and children. The biggest threat to America comes from inside
the deep state itself, especially with the Zionist Israel Firsters pulling strings at
will.
I agree with Phil Giraldi on its analysis of US foreign policy. When lying with dogs, you get
fleas. This saying holds especially true for the so-called US friends such as the Saudis,
Israelis, Ukrainians, Poles, and the Brits. The NeoZion gang plays President Trump is an open
secret. He still employes one of its guiding spirits as national security adviser. As long
this Gordian knot is not cut, American foreign policy will not change, and it's getting
worse. These folks who surround Trump want war, first with Iran and then with Russia. Their
lackey Poroshenko is doing the bitting of Trump and the Zionist regime and their European
puppets. The Zionist regime is deeply involved in steering up tensions. Prime minister
Wolodymyr Hrojsman is Jewish. Is anyone surprised?
What chance does peace have with these people having Trump's ear: Javanka Kushner, Gina
Haspel, Nikki Haley, Mike Pompeo, Mike Pence, Mad Dog Mattis, and John Bolton?
Around 1890 one Rothschild wrote to another 'the only enemy of jews is jews'.
In my opinion at present the only enemy of the USA is the USA, that part of the USA that
failed in getting Hillary elected.
On the European continent a similar situation, even an establishment Dutch politician, of a
christian party, Segers, found out that a substantial part of the Dutch see the government as
the enemy.
He has the illusion that pr can save him, and his cronies.
He never understood. That was evident the moment he started floating names like Romney for
his cabinet. Personally, I sympathize with Trump after what the deep state has done to him
and his family, and I even respect the guy for telling things like they are – the poor
autistic bastard just can't help but blurt out the truth about things* but he's also not the
guy we needed. We needed a fearless, ruthless, and cunning fighter ready to martyr himself
for our interests, the people's interests.
*Global Warming IS a scam – the Paris Accords would not decrease CO2 levels even
under perfect – near miraculous – circumstances and is merely being floated by
the Chinese so they can give off the appearance of doing something while doing nothing, as
they have done before.
The EU IS a vehicle for Germany.
Hatti IS a shit hole, it's just that non-autistic people have the good sense not to say
that out loud.
Trudeau DOES have a fake eyebrow.
Hillary DOES wear a wig, or at least hair extensions on occasion.
China IS screwing us over economically.
Mexico isn't sending us their best, they are dumping their poverty problem onto us.
NATO doesn't have a purpose.
We shouldn't go to war with N. Korea.
We shouldn't destroy Syria but destroy ISIS.
John Brennan and the FBI really did run a deep state coup plot against him during the
campaign and first 100 days.
Russia isn't a big deal unless we make them a big deal.
@jilles dykstra 'One
of many truths lost within this discourse is the reality that the creation of a no-fly zone
would, in the words of the most senior general in the US Armed Forces, mean the US going to
war "against Syria and Russia". '
For a peek into Establishment orthodoxy, check out "Why Does America Spend So Much on
Israel?" on Beltway Conservatism's Cartoon Network, aka the PragerU Channel. I've recently
started auditing classes there via the Videos page here at The Unz Review.
Beyond parody, a pensioned warrior narrates over 3rd grade graphics, telling most
Americans all they care to know about what he calls "Izrul." Perhaps Mr. Giraldi could,
despite the apparent taboo, leave a comment and get some discussion going with the Team Red
NPCs -- it hasn't worked for me.
@Art I've wondered
why we are the way we are. Then I came across this, and I understood:
D.H. Lawrence
"All the other stuff, the love, the democracy, the floundering into lust, is a sort of
by-play. The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet
melted."
This shtick of blaming US state crimes on foreign influence is getting annoying. You know
none of this would be happening if the DO didn't like it. If you want to stop CIA's common
plan or conspiracy for war, you've got to end the impunity that permits it. Ratify the Rome
Statute. With the judiciary completely gelded, that's the only way to get the CIA regime
under control. It's that or DCI Poppy Hager swings at Nuremberg II.
"All the other stuff, the love, the democracy, the floundering into lust, is a
sort of by-play. The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has
never yet melted."
The leading sponsors of terror in the world are Israel and the Zionist controlled U.S. and
Britain and NATO and their terrorist mercenaries ISIS aka AL CIADA and all of the various off
shoots that have been seeded throughout the world by the satanic Zionists.
The Zionists have a long historical experience with bringing terror to the world , one
example being the Zionist/ Bolshevik revolution in Russia where the Bolsheviks killed some 60
million Russians bringing terror to Russia on an industrial level turning the whole country
into a slaughter house!
The Zionist attack on the WTC is but another example of Zionist terrorism, where in one
fell swoop the Zionists killed some 3000 Americans and got away with it and every thinking
American knows that the Zionists did it!
The greatest terrorist kabal in the world is Zionism and these terrorists have control of
every facet of the U.S. government and at some point are going to provoke a war with Russia
that will get the whole world blown to hell and in fact this is what the Zionists want as
they believe they will survive in their DUMBS akd Deep Underground Military Bases which they
have in the U.S. and Israel and Britain, but they care not for the rest of humanity, that is
terrorism in spades!
The enemy is not at the gates , the enemy is in control of the U.S. government and is
going to be the destruction of America!
You can't really pin Ukraine on Trump. Maidan was not spontaneous.
Nuland admitted to spending $5 billion to set Maidan up. That $5B is worth 10 times that
much in Ukraine. You don't spend that kind of money unless you have a follow up plan, and
NATOizing Ukraine to attack Russia was it. The trigger was NATO's bitch, the EU, creating
such a horrible deal for Ukraine that only an imbecile would have accepted it. Viktor
Yanukovych was no imbecile. The "Russian deal" wasn't all that great for Ukraine either, it
was just infinitely better than the turd the EU told Yanukovych to sign.
The real story on Russia is this: the same people that own every "Western liberal
democracy" owned the USSR. The Russians got rid of them, and the USSR collapsed. A new
invasion was hatched under the guise of "Westernizing" Russia. When the Russians saw that
Yeltsin was suckered, and it was the same game, run by the same people, they got a new
sheriff. That sheriff started to sort things out, while the owners fled to the UK and Israel.
The lives of Russians got better, as the owners are gradually being stripped of their power.
The long and short of it, our owners want their ownership of Russia restored.
All wars are economic wars. Capitalism and communism are the two sides of the same coin.
Both seek to concentrate ownership, just in different ways using different scams.
The reason why Trump supports the Ukraine is easy.
"According to the European Jewish Congress, as of 2014, there are 360,000–400,000
Jews in Ukraine."
And there you have it. Wherever or whatever the interest of Jewry there will be the United States standing tall
behind it. Let's just say the Ukraine is guaranteed to stay poor. While the Jews get rich!
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko is clearly exploiting a situation that he himself
provoked. He envisions setting himself up as a victim of Moscow to aid in his attempts to
establish his own power through a security relationship with Washington. That in turn will
help his bid for reelection in March 2019 elections
Nah, Porky needs a war to avoid an election which he would undoubtedly lose.
There's no use having an empire if you can't exact an economic advantage. Ultimately, most of
the events unfolding today are about keeping the loot flowing to lower Manhattan and central
London.
Teenagers who get in trouble often have to ditch their bad friends to turn their lives
around. There is still a chance for the United States if we keep our distance from the bad
friends
It's hard to do if you are in fact the worst of those bad friends.
friends who have been convincing us to make poor choices.
The poor choices had been made long before these friends even appeared on the scene. In
fact, many of these friends owe their very existence and/or influence to the poor choices the
US had made. It's so disingenuous to blame the US politics on someone's influence when the
reality is exactly the opposite.
If the US were in normal country prepared to behave in a sensible way it would've picked
much better partners. But the thing is the US isn't a normal country; it doesn't want
partners – in wants vassals, so it is naturally limited in its choice of friends.
September 17, 2014 US Pursues 134 Wars Around the World
The US is now involved in 134 wars or none, depending on your definition of war The White
House spent much of last week trying to figure out if the word "war" was the right one to
describe its military actions against the Islamic State. US Secretary of State John Kerry was
at first reluctant: "We're engaged in a major counterterrorism operation," he told CBS News
on Sept. 11. "I think war is the wrong terminology and analogy but the fact is that we are
engaged in a very significant global effort to curb terrorist activity I don't think people
need to get into war fever on this. I think they have to view it as a heightened level of
counter terrorist activity." – Global Post
"Not only are white supremacists from across the West flocking to Ukraine to learn from
the combat experience of their fascist brothers-in-arms, they are doing so openly, under the
nose of a shrugging law enforcement -- chronicling their experiences on social media before
they bring their lessons back home."
The timing was good for Poroshenko for his own domestic political reasons but it was
also an opportunity for the neocons warmongers that surround Trump and proliferate inside
the Beltway to scuttle any possible meeting between a vulnerable Donald Trump and Vladimir
Putin at the G20 gathering in Argentina.
Trump isn't vulnerable he hired the Deep State apparatchiks, Bolton, Pompeo and many
others. Trump is a Deep Stater and is doing a great Kabuki theater to dupe his followers into
believing his hands are tied.
How do YOU expect me (and others) to swallow YOUR position?
with a great gulps of satisfaction, that's how.
The conflict between Russia and Ukraine was manufactured by the ZUS State Dept. ((Victoria
Nuland)) and John McBloodstain in particular, when Putin upset the Zionist's plans to do a
'Libya' – to Syria.
It was a bloody coup foisted with 5 billion federal reserve note$, of the famous phone
call ('Yats is our guy'). Since then the imbeciles in Ukraine have been doing Nazi salutes
while taking orders from Jewish supremacist Zionists like Ihor Kolomoyskyi and assorted ZUS
Zionists.
The conflict with Iran started when the CIA deposed the duly elected president Mohammed
Mossadeq in 1953, and installed the brutal quisling Shah in his place. To keep the Iranian
people terrorized for decades into submitting to this perfidy, they utilized the CIA and
Mossad run SAVAK.
"... The American Neocons are Zionists (Their goal is expanding political / military power. Initially this is focused on the state of Israel.) ..."
"... Obviously , if Zionism is synonymous with patriotism in Israel, it cannot be an acceptable label in American politics, where it would mean loyalty to a foreign power. This is why the neoconservatives do not represent themselves as Zionists on the American scene. Yet they do not hide it all together either. ..."
"... American Jewish Committee ..."
"... Contemporary Jewish Record ..."
"... If there is an intellectual movement in America to whose invention Jews can lay sole claim, neoconservatism is it. It's a thought one imagines most American Jews, overwhelmingly liberal, will find horrifying . And yet it is a fact that as a political philosophy, neoconservatism was born among the children of Jewish immigrants and is now largely the intellectual domain of those immigrants' grandchildren ..."
"... Goyenot traces the Neocon's origins through its influential writers and thinkers. Highest on the list is Leo Strauss. (Neocons are sometimes called "the Straussians.") Leo Strauss is a great admirer of Machiavelli with his utter contempt for restraining moral principles making him "uniquely effective," and, "the ideal patriot." He gushes over Machiavelli praising the intrepidity of his thought, the grandeur of his vision, and the graceful subtlety of his speech. ..."
"... believes that Truth is harmful to the common man and the social order and should be reserved for superior minds. ..."
"... nations derive their strength from their myths , which are necessary for government and governance. ..."
"... national myths have no necessary relationship with historical reality: they are socio-cultural constructions that the State has a duty to disseminate . ..."
"... to be effective, any national myth must be based on a clear distinction between good and evil ; it derives its cohesive strength from the hatred of an enemy nation. ..."
"... deception is the norm in political life ..."
"... Office of Special Plans ..."
"... The Zionist/Neocons are piggy-backing onto, or utilizing, the religious myths of both the Jewish and Christian world to consolidate power. This is brilliant Machiavellian strategy. ..."
"... the "chosen people" myth (God likes us best, we are better than you) ..."
"... the Holy Land myth (one area of real estate is more holy than another) ..."
"... General Wesley Clark testified on numerous occasions before the cameras, that one month after September 11th, 2001 a general from the Pentagon showed him a memo from neoconservative strategists "that describes how we're gonna take out seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia and Sudan and finishing off with Iran". ..."
"... Among them are brilliant strategists ..."
"... They operate unrestrained by the most basic moral principles upon which civilization is founded. They are undisturbed by compassion for the suffering of others. ..."
"... They use consciously and skillfully use deception and "myth-making" to shape policy ..."
"... They have infiltrated the highest levels of banking, US military, NATO and US government. ..."
Mememonkey pointed my to a 2013 essay by Laurent Guyenot, a French historian and writer on the
deep state, that addresses the question of
"Who Are The Neoconservatives."
If you would like to know about that group that sends the US military into battle and tortures prisoners
of war in out name, you need to know about these guys.
First, if you are Jewish, or are a GREEN Meme, please stop and take a deep breath. Please put
on your thinking cap and don't react. We are NOT disrespecting a religion, spiritual practice or
a culture. We are talking about a radical and very destructive group hidden within a culture
and using that culture. Christianity has similar groups and movements--the Crusades, the
KKK, the Spanish Inquisition, the Salem witch trials, etc.
My personal investment: This question has been a subject of intense interest for me since I became
convinced that 9/11 was an inside job, that the Iraq war was waged for reasons entirely different
from those publically stated. I have been horrified to see such a shadowy, powerful group operating
from a profoundly "pre-moral" developmental level-i.e., not based in even the most
rudimentary principles of morality foundational to civilization.
Who the hell are these people?!
Goyenot's main points (with a touch of personal editorializing):
1. The American Neocons are Zionists (Their goal is expanding political / military power.
Initially this is focused on the state of Israel.)
Neoconservativism is essentially a modern right wing Jewish version of Machiavelli's political
strategy. What characterizes the neoconservative movement is therefore not as much Judaism as a religious
tradition, but rather Judiasm as a political project, i.e. Zionism, by Machiavellian
means.
This is not a religious movement though it may use religions words and vocabulary. It
is a political and military movement. They are not concerned with being close to God. This is a movement
to expand political and military power. Some are Christian and Mormon, culturally.
Obviously , if Zionism is synonymous with patriotism in Israel, it cannot be an acceptable
label in American politics, where it would mean loyalty to a foreign power. This is why the neoconservatives
do not represent themselves as Zionists on the American scene. Yet they do not hide it all together
either.
He points out dual-citizen (Israel / USA) members and self proclaimed Zionists throughout cabinet
level positions in the US government, international banking and controlling the US military. In private
writings and occasionally in public, Neocons admit that America's war policies are actually Israel's
war goals. (Examples provided.)
2. Most American Jews are overwhelmingly liberal and do NOT share the perspective of the radical
Zionists.
The neoconservative movement, which is generally perceived as a radical (rather than "conservative")
Republican right, is, in reality, an intellectual movement born in the late 1960s in the pages of
the monthly magazine Commentary, a media arm of the American Jewish Committee,
which had replaced the Contemporary Jewish Record in 1945. The Forward, the oldest
American Jewish weekly, wrote in a January 6th, 2006 article signed Gal Beckerman: "If there
is an intellectual movement in America to whose invention Jews can lay sole claim, neoconservatism
is it. It's a thought one imagines most American Jews, overwhelmingly liberal, will find
horrifying. And yet it is a fact that as a political philosophy, neoconservatism was born
among the children of Jewish immigrants and is now largely the intellectual domain of those immigrants'
grandchildren".
3. Intellectual Basis and Moral developmental level
Goyenot traces the Neocon's origins through its influential writers and thinkers. Highest
on the list is Leo Strauss. (Neocons are sometimes called "the Straussians.") Leo Strauss is a great
admirer of Machiavelli with his utter contempt for restraining moral principles making him "uniquely
effective," and, "the ideal patriot." He gushes over Machiavelli praising the intrepidity of his
thought, the grandeur of his vision, and the graceful subtlety of his speech.
Other major points:
believes that Truth is harmful to the common man and the social order and should be reserved
for superior minds.
nations derive their strength from their myths, which are necessary for
government and governance.
national myths have no necessary relationship with historical reality:
they are socio-cultural constructions that the State has a duty to disseminate.
to be effective, any national myth must be based on a clear distinction between
good and evil; it derives its cohesive strength from the hatred of an enemy nation.
As recognized by Abram Shulsky and Gary Schmitt in an article "Leo Strauss and the World
of Intelligence" (1999), for Strauss, "deception is the norm in political life" –
the rule they [the Neocons] applied to fabricating the lie of weapons of mass destruction
by Saddam Hussein when working inside the Office of Special Plans.
George Bushes speech from the national cathedral after 9/11 exemplifies myth-making at its
finest: "Our responsibility to history is already clear: to answer these attacks and rid the world
of Evil. War has been waged against us by stealth and deceit and murder. This nation is peaceful,
but fierce when stirred to anger. . . .[W]e ask almighty God to watch over our nation, and grant
us patience and resolve in all that is to come. . . . And may He always guide our country. God
bless America.
4. The Zionist/Neocons are piggy-backing onto, or utilizing, the religious myths of both the
Jewish and Christian world to consolidate power. This is brilliant Machiavellian strategy.
the "chosen people" myth (God likes us best, we are better than you)
the Holy Land myth (one area of real estate is more holy than another)
the second coming of Christ myth
the establishment of God's Kingdom on Earth through global destruction/war (nuclear war for
the Glory of God)
[The]Pax Judaica will come only when "all the nations shall flow" to the Jerusalem
temple, from where "shall go forth the law" (Isaiah 2:1-3). This vision of a new world
order with Jerusalem at its center resonates within the Likudnik and neoconservative
circles. At the Jerusalem Summit, held from October 12th to 14th, 2003 in the symbolically significant
King David Hotel, an alliance was forged between Zionist Jews and Evangelical Christians around
a "theopolitical" project, one that would consider Israel "the key to the harmony of civilizations",
replacing the United Nations that's become a "a tribalized confederation hijacked by Third
World dictatorships": "Jerusalem's spiritual and historical importance endows it
with a special authority to become a center of world's unity. [...] We believe
that one of the objectives of Israel's divinely-inspired rebirth is to make
it the center of the new unity of the nations, which will lead to an era of peace
and prosperity, foretold by the Prophets". Three acting Israeli ministers spoke at the summit,
including Benjamin Netanyahu, and Richard Perle.
Jerusalem's dream empire is expected to come through the nightmare of world war. The prophet
Zechariah, often cited on Zionist forums, predicted that the Lord will fight "all nations" allied
against Israel. In a single day, the whole earth will become a desert, with the exception
of Jerusalem, who "shall remain aloft upon its site" (14:10).
With more than 50 millions members, Christians United for Israel is
a major political force in the U.S.. Its Chairman, pastor John Haggee, declared: "The United States
must join Israel in a pre-emptive military strike against Iran to fulfill God's plan for both
Israel and the West, [...] a biblically prophesied end-time confrontation with Iran, which will
lead to the Rapture, Tribulation, and Second Coming of Christ".
And Guyenot concludes:
Is it possible that this biblical dream, mixed with the neo-Machiavellianism of Leo Strauss and
the militarism of Likud, is what is quietly animating an exceptionally determined and organized ultra-Zionist
clan? General Wesley Clark testified on numerous occasions before the cameras, that one month
after September 11th, 2001 a general from the Pentagon showed him a memo from neoconservative strategists
"that describes how we're gonna take out seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq, and then
Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia and Sudan and finishing off with Iran".
Is it just a coincidence that the "seven nations" doomed to be destroyed by Israel form part of
the biblical myths? [W]hen Yahweh will deliver Israel "seven nations greater and mightier than yourself
[ ] you must utterly destroy them; you shall make no covenant with them, and show no mercy to them."
My summary:
We have a group that wishes greatly expanded power (to rule the world??)
Among them are brilliant strategists
They operate unrestrained by the most basic moral principles upon which civilization is
founded. They are undisturbed by compassion for the suffering of others.
They use consciously and skillfully use deception and "myth-making" to shape policy
This is not a spiritual movement in any sense
They are utilizing religious myths and language to influence public thinking
They envision "winning" in the aftermath world war.
They have infiltrated the highest levels of banking, US military, NATO and US government.
"... "When I look at this latest incident in the Black Sea, all what's happening in Donbass – everything indicates that the current Ukrainian leadership is not interested in resolving this situation at all, especially in a peaceful way," ..."
"... This is a party of war and as long as they stay in power, all such tragedies, all this war will go on. ..."
"... "As they say, for one it's war, for other – it's mother. That's reason number one why the Ukrainian government is not interested in a peaceful resolution of the conflict," ..."
"... Second, you can always use war to justify your failures in economy, social policy. You can always blame things on an aggressor. ..."
"... "We care about Ukraine because Ukraine is our neighbor," ..."
Russia's President Vladimir Putin has branded the Ukrainian leadership a "party of war"
which would continue fueling conflicts while they stay in power, giving the recent Kerch Strait
incident as an example. "When I look at this latest incident in the Black Sea, all what's
happening in Donbass – everything indicates that the current Ukrainian leadership is not
interested in resolving this situation at all, especially in a peaceful way," Putin told
reporters during a media conference in the aftermath of the G20 summit in Buenos Aires,
Argentina.
This is a party of war and as long as they stay in power, all such tragedies, all this
war will go on.
The Kiev authorities are craving war primarily for two reasons – to rip profits from
it, and to blame all their own domestic failures on it and actions of some sort of
"aggressors."
"As they say, for one it's war, for other – it's mother. That's reason number one
why the Ukrainian government is not interested in a peaceful resolution of the conflict,"
Putin stated.
Second, you can always use war to justify your failures in economy, social policy. You
can always blame things on an aggressor.
This approach to statecraft by the Ukrainian authorities deeply concerns Russia's President.
"We care about Ukraine because Ukraine is our neighbor," Putin said.
Tensions between Russia and Ukraine have been soaring after the incident in the Kerch
Strait. Last weekend three Ukrainian Navy ships tried to break through the strait without
seeking the proper permission from Russia. Following a tense stand-off and altercation with
Russia's border guard, the vessels were seized and their crews detained over their violation of
the country's border.
While Kiev branded the incident an act of "aggression" on Moscow's part, Russia
believes the whole Kerch affair to be a deliberate "provocation" which allowed Kiev to
declare a so-called "partial" martial law ahead of Ukraine's presidential
election.
PRESIDENT: This is incredible! I never ordered such a thing!
SOVIET AMBASSADOR (scornfully): Our [intelligence] source was the New York Times.
-- "Dr. Strangelove"
REALITY:
US President Donald Trump is still unsure whether to meet with Vladimir Putin, pending a
'full report' about the Kerch Strait incident that by pure coincidence happened just days
before the upcoming G20 summit in Argentina.
A long as neocons dominate the USA foreign policy establishment Ukraine will get
unconditional support as long as it remain hostile to Russia. And from geopolitical perspective
Ukraine does deserve support as it seriously weaken Russia and the major (according to Trump
administration) geopolitical enemy of the USA (along with China).
The current event can be viewed as artificially sped up process which would occur anyway, but
with less economic losses. Baltic scenario was waiting for Ukraine sooner of later, as Western
Ukrainian nationalists automatically became the major political force after independence and were
nurtured by all Ukrainian governments, including the government of Yanukovich (who become kind of
Godfather of Svoboda party with the calculation that it will antagonize enough voters in the East
that he can win the reelection).
Notable quotes:
"... Poroshenko had to know that his attempt to send warships through a narrow passage between what the Kremlin insists are two portions of Russian territory was certain to cause an incident. Why did Kiev risk (if not avidly seek) such a confrontation? And why now? There are several likely motives. ..."
"... Kiev wants to increase pressure on NATO, and especially the United States, to take a harder stance against Moscow. Despite their official position that the Kremlin must disgorge Crimea and end support for pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, Western policy looks increasingly stale and ineffectual. Some European officials even muse that it may be time to reconsider (weaken) the economic sanctions that the West imposed on Russia. President Trump has stated that Russia should be re-admitted to the G-7 group of leading economic powers. ..."
"... Ukrainian leaders are especially determined to nurture greater bilateral strategic cooperation with the United States. The notion that the Trump administration has pursued a "soft" policy toward Russia, much less one that amounts to appeasement, has always been overstated. Trump's initiatives are actually more hardline than those Barack Obama's administration embraced. That is especially true regarding Washington's relationship with Kiev . Whereas Obama consistently refused to provide weapons to Ukraine, the Trump administration has approved two major arms sales, one of which included sophisticated anti-tank missiles. U.S. troops have participated in joint military exercises with Ukrainian forces, and Secretary of Defense James Mattis concedes that the United States is training Ukrainian units at a base in western Ukraine. ..."
"... Poroshenko thus has ample foreign policy reasons for taking the actions he did in the Kerch Strait. He also has significant political and ideological incentives. His government did not announce the official date for Ukraine's 2019 presidential election until two days following the naval clash; it is now set for March 31. To say that the timing of the announcement was suspicious is an understatement. ..."
"... In addition to creating a "rally around the flag" effect, thereby boosting Poroshenko's status, Russian seizure of the Ukrainian vessels gave the president a justification to impose outright martial law in 10 regions of eastern Ukraine -- areas likely to be especially hostile to his political prospects. It could also serve as a basis for tightening Ukraine's already worrisome restrictions on freedom of expression. ..."
"... The vagueness of the applicable laws (and the absence of any meaningful independent review or right of appeal) has been especially alarming. Indeed, it seems that anyone who disputes the government's account of the Maidan revolution (especially those who dare to mention the role of ultranationalist, neo-fascist elements) or the conflict in eastern Ukraine is likely to be silenced. ..."
The recent clash between Russian and Ukrainian naval vessels in the
Kerch Strait has generated a flurry of alarm. NATO was compelled to call
an emergency meeting with Ukraine and the UN Security Council convened an urgent session to
discuss the crisis. Exercising their usual tendency to oversimplify murky geopolitical
rivalries, Western officials and journalists embraced the knee-jerk narrative that the incident
is yet another case of Vladimir Putin's blatant aggression and "
outlaw behavior " against its peace-loving, democratic neighbor. Right on cue, CNN, MSNBC,
and other media outlets dispatched stridently anti-Russian
editorials masquerading as news stories .
In reality, the Kerch Strait incident involves a complex mixture of factors. They include
the tense Russian-Ukrainian bilateral relationship, Kiev's broader foreign policy objectives,
and Ukraine's volatile domestic politics.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko had to know that a decision to send three naval vessels
through the Kerch Strait would be disruptive. The strait, which connects the Black Sea and the
Sea of Azov, separates Russia's Taman Peninsula from the Crimea Peninsula. Despite Moscow's
annexation of the latter in 2014, Kiev still considers Crimea to be Ukrainian territory, a
position that the United States and its allies back emphatically. Moreover, passage through the
strait is the only oceanic link between Ukraine's Black Sea ports and those on the Azov. Kiev,
not surprisingly, views the strait as international waters. Russia, however, regards the
waterway as its own territorial waters and viewed the attempted transit by the three Ukrainian
ships as a violation.
Whatever the legal merits of the competing positions regarding sovereignty over Crimea and
the status of the Kerch Strait, the reality is that Russia controls that peninsula and is
unlikely to ever
restore it to Ukraine , despite Western demands. Poroshenko had to know that his attempt to
send warships through a narrow passage between what the Kremlin insists are two portions of
Russian territory was certain to cause an incident. Why did Kiev risk (if not avidly seek) such
a confrontation? And why now? There are several likely motives.
Kiev wants to increase pressure on NATO, and especially the United States, to take a
harder stance against Moscow. Despite their official position that the Kremlin must disgorge
Crimea and end support for pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, Western policy looks
increasingly stale and ineffectual. Some European officials even muse that it may be time to
reconsider (weaken) the economic sanctions that the West imposed on Russia. President Trump
has stated
that Russia should be re-admitted to the G-7 group of leading economic powers.
Such talk is potentially quite threatening to Ukraine's interests. Creating an incident that
reminds Kiev's Western supporters (and the rest of the world) of Moscow's aggressive tendencies
makes any prospect of even a limited rapprochement between Russia and either NATO or the
European Union less likely.
Ukrainian leaders are especially determined to nurture greater bilateral strategic
cooperation with the United States. The notion that the Trump administration has pursued a
"soft" policy toward Russia, much less one that amounts to appeasement, has always been
overstated. Trump's initiatives are actually more hardline than those Barack Obama's
administration embraced. That is especially true regarding
Washington's relationship with Kiev . Whereas Obama consistently refused to provide weapons
to Ukraine, the Trump administration has approved two major arms sales, one of which included
sophisticated anti-tank missiles. U.S. troops have participated in joint military exercises
with Ukrainian forces, and Secretary of Defense James Mattis concedes that the United States is
training Ukrainian units at a base in western Ukraine.
Poroshenko and his associates want to encourage and intensify those trends. They hope that
creating a new incident underscoring aggressive Russian conduct will lead the Trump
administration to boost arms sales and other forms of bilateral military cooperation. Even if
Trump proved reluctant to adopt that course, domestic and international pressure might leave
him little choice. Indeed, Western news media outlets excoriated
Trump for not immediately condemning Russia as an outright aggressor in the Kerch Strait
incident.
Poroshenko thus has ample foreign policy reasons for taking the actions he did in the
Kerch Strait. He also has significant political and ideological incentives. His government did
not announce
the official date for Ukraine's 2019 presidential election until two days following the
naval clash; it is now set for March 31. To say that the timing of the announcement was
suspicious is an understatement.
No candidate in the extremely crowded field is likely to exceed the 50 percent mark needed
to avoid a runoff, but recent surveys have indicated that Poroshenko is in surprisingly poor
political shape. Most
polls showed him receiving between 8 and 15 percent of the first-round vote. The leading
candidate is former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, with Poroshenko running in third.
Corruption scandals continue to bedevil his administration, making his re-election (or even his
ability to make the runoff) far from certain.
In addition to creating a "rally around the flag" effect, thereby boosting Poroshenko's
status, Russian seizure of the Ukrainian vessels gave the president a justification to impose
outright martial law in 10 regions of eastern Ukraine -- areas likely to be especially hostile
to his political prospects. It could also serve as a basis for tightening Ukraine's already
worrisome restrictions on freedom of expression.
That track record should trouble Kiev's backers in the West. To wage war against eastern
separatists, Kiev early on not only instituted military conscription, it arrested
critics of that action. Authorities jailed television journalist and blogger Ruslan Kotsaba
and
charged him with treason for making a video denouncing the conscription law. Kotsaba become
Amnesty International's first "prisoner of conscience" in Ukraine since the 2014 so-called
Maidan revolution.
The vagueness of the applicable laws (and the absence of any meaningful independent
review or right of appeal) has been especially alarming. Indeed, it seems that anyone who
disputes the government's account of the Maidan revolution (especially those who dare to
mention the role of ultranationalist, neo-fascist elements) or the conflict in eastern Ukraine
is likely to be silenced.
Bogdan Ovcharuk, a spokesperson for Amnesty International's Kiev office, expressed the
concerns of many proponents of freedom of expression when he told the BBC: "This is a very
slippery slope indeed. It's one thing to restrict access to texts advocating violence, but in
general banning books because their authors have views deemed unacceptable to politicians in
Kiev is deeply dangerous." The consequences of such a campaign, he warned , were certain to damage the
fabric of liberty.
Yet the Kiev government's restrictive policies continue unabated. In September 2015,
Ukrainian authorities issued an order
banning 34 journalists and seven bloggers from even entering the country. The Committee to
Protect Journalists reported that the newly publicized list was merely part of a larger
blacklist that contained the names of 388 individuals and more than a hundred organizations
that were barred from entry on the grounds of "national security" and allegedly posing a threat
to Ukraine's "territorial integrity."
Human Rights Watch criticized
the Kiev government in September 2017 for imposing yet more restrictions on journalists,
especially foreign correspondents. The Poroshenko government even pushed through
legislation barring criticism of Ukraine's past , including the role that ultra-nationalist
guerilla leader (and Nazi collaborator) Stepan Bandera and his followers
played in World War II. Censorship provisions and other media restrictions may become even
more widespread and arbitrary with Poroshenko's new declaration of martial law.
Ukraine's Western admirers typically ignore such evidence of authoritarian conduct, since it
does not fit with their portrayal of the country as an enlightened member of the democratic
community. The reality is that Ukraine epitomizes what CNN analyst Fareed Zakaria has aptly
described as an "illiberal democracy." The Poroshenko regime certainly does not warrant
unquestioned Western backing. Kiev is not above engaging in provocations to serve either its
political leadership's domestic agenda or its foreign policy objectives. The United States does
not have vital strategic or moral interests at stake in the overall Ukraine-Russia quarrel,
much less the latest parochial spat in the Kerch Strait. A cautious, restrained posture is
appropriate.
Ted Galen Carpenter, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and a contributing editor
at The American Conservative, is the author of 12 books and more than 700 articles on
international affairs. His latest book is Gullible Superpower: U.S. Support for Bogus Foreign
Democratic Movements (forthcoming, February 2019).
Crimea was a variation of Kosovo. As the USA destroyed post WWII order, as its position weakens, real chaos can occurs. because
Might is right can work not only for the USA anymore. And in this theater the USA has no advantages, other then their geopolitical weight.
It is too fat from US mainland.
The USA speed up events probably by 20 years or so and coursed considerable suffering of the Ukrainian population. Ukraine was gradually
detaching itself from Russia anyway (which is a natural process for any xUSSR republic after the independence.). Essentially the USA
raped the Ukraine using Ukrainian nationalist as a fifth column of neoliberal globalization.
The net result of the premature and by-and-large successful attempt to break Ukraine from Russia and play Baltic's scenario (which
was possible due to existence of Western Ukrainian nationalists) was drastic impoverishing (already very poor after chaos and
neoliberal economic plunder of 1990th) of the bottom 99% of Ukrainian population which now is the poorest population of Europe.
Ukrainian nationalists now are finding the hard way that bordering with Russia created some problems for their agenda... The
good analogy is Canada and the USA.
In a way, incorporation of Western Ukraine into the USSR looks now like Stalin's geopolitical mistake. Now attempts to colonize
Eastern Ukraine by Western Ukrainian nationalists will face resistance and it already led to civil war in Donbass.
Things became way too complex and unpredictable in this region. Of course, neocons still are pushing their usual might is
right policy, not they might face considerable setbacks in the future. Like they did in Iraq. Which still did not affect much
their paychecks.
Notable quotes:
"... Russian warships fired at the Ukrainian vessels and rammed the tug. Three Ukrainian sailors were wounded, and 24 crew taken into custody. Russia's refusal to release the sailors was given by President Trump as the reason for canceling his Putin meeting. Moscow contends that Ukraine deliberately violated the new rules of transit that Kiev had previously observed, to create an incident. ..."
"... For his part, Putin has sought to play the matter down, calling it a "border incident, nothing more." "The incident in the Black Sea was a provocation organized by the authorities and maybe the president himself. (Poroshenko's) rating is falling so he needed to do something." Maxim Eristavi, a fellow at the Atlantic Council, seems to concur: "Poroshenko wants to get a head start in his election campaign. He is playing the card of commander in chief, flying around in military uniform, trying to project that he is in control." ..."
"... Predictably, our interventionists decried Russian "aggression" and demanded we back up our Ukrainian "ally" and send military aid. Why was Poroshenko's ordering of gunboats into the Sea of Azov, while ignoring rules Russia set down for passage, provocative? Because Poroshenko, whose warships had previously transited the strait, had to know the risk that he was taking and that Russia might resist. ..."
"... Why would he provoke the Russians? Because, with his poll numbers sinking badly, Poroshenko realizes that unless he does something dramatic, his party stands little chance in next March's elections. ..."
"... Some Westerners want even more in the way of confronting Putin. Adrian Karatnycky of the Atlantic Council urges us to build up U.S. naval forces in the Black Sea, send anti-aircraft and anti-ship missiles to Ukraine, ratchet up sanctions on Russia, threaten to expel her from the SWIFT system of international bank transactions, and pressure Europe to cancel the Russians' Nord Stream 2 and South Stream oil pipelines into Europe. ..."
"... If Ukraine had a right to break free of Russia in 1991, why do not Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk have the right to break free of Kiev? ..."
On departure for the G-20 gathering in Buenos Aires, President Donald Trump canceled his planned weekend meeting with Vladimir
Putin, citing as his reason the Russian military's seizure and holding of three Ukrainian ships and 24 sailors.
But was Putin really the provocateur in Sunday's naval clash outside Kerch Strait, the Black Sea gateway to the Sea of Azov?
Or was the provocateur Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko?
First, a bit of history.
In 2014, after the pro-Russian regime in Kiev was ousted in a coup, and a pro-NATO regime installed with U.S. backing, Putin detached
and annexed Crimea, for centuries the homeport of Russia's Black Sea fleet.
With the return of Crimea, Russia now occupied both sides of Kerch Strait. And this year, Russia completed a 12-mile bridge over
the strait and Putin drove the first truck across.
The Sea of Azov became a virtual Russian lake, access to which was controlled by Russia, just as access to the Black Sea is controlled
by Turkey.
While the world refused to recognize the new reality, Russia began to impose rules for ships transiting the strait, including
48 hours notice to get permission.
Ukrainian vessels, including warships, would have to notify Russian authorities before passing beneath the Kerch Strait Bridge
into the Sea of Azov to reach their major port of Mariupol.
Sunday, two Ukrainian artillery ships and a tug, which had sailed out of Odessa in western Ukraine, passed through what Russia
now regards as its territorial waters off Crimea and the Kerch Peninsula. Destination: Mariupol.
The Ukrainian vessels refused to obey Russian directives to halt.
Russian warships fired at the Ukrainian vessels and rammed the tug. Three Ukrainian sailors were wounded, and 24 crew taken
into custody. Russia's refusal to release the sailors was given by President Trump as the reason for canceling his Putin meeting.
Moscow contends that Ukraine deliberately violated the new rules of transit that Kiev had previously observed, to create an incident.
For his part, Putin has sought to play the matter down, calling it a "border incident, nothing more." "The incident in the
Black Sea was a provocation organized by the authorities and maybe the president himself. (Poroshenko's) rating is falling so he
needed to do something." Maxim Eristavi, a fellow at the Atlantic Council, seems to concur: "Poroshenko wants to get a head start
in his election campaign. He is playing the card of commander in chief, flying around in military uniform, trying to project that
he is in control."
Our U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, however, accused Russia of "outlaw actions" against the Ukrainian vessels and "an arrogant act
the international community will never accept."
Predictably, our interventionists decried Russian "aggression" and demanded we back up our Ukrainian "ally" and send military
aid. Why was Poroshenko's ordering of gunboats into the Sea of Azov, while ignoring rules Russia set down for passage, provocative?
Because Poroshenko, whose warships had previously transited the strait, had to know the risk that he was taking and that Russia might
resist.
Why would he provoke the Russians? Because, with his poll numbers sinking badly, Poroshenko realizes that unless he does something
dramatic, his party stands little chance in next March's elections.
Immediately after the clash, Poroshenko imposed martial law in all provinces bordering Russia and the Black Sea, declared an invasion
might be imminent, demanded new Western sanctions on Moscow, called on the U.S. to stand with him, and began visiting army units
in battle fatigues.
Some Westerners want even more in the way of confronting Putin. Adrian Karatnycky of the Atlantic Council urges us to build
up U.S. naval forces in the Black Sea, send anti-aircraft and anti-ship missiles to Ukraine, ratchet up sanctions on Russia, threaten
to expel her from the SWIFT system of international bank transactions, and pressure Europe to cancel the Russians' Nord Stream 2
and South Stream oil pipelines into Europe.
But there is a larger issue here. Why is control of the Kerch Strait any of our business? Why is this our quarrel, to the point
that U.S. strategists want us to confront Russia over a Crimean Peninsula that houses the Livadia Palace that was the last summer
residence of Czar Nicholas II?
If Ukraine had a right to break free of Russia in 1991, why do not Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk have the right to break free
of Kiev?
Why are we letting ourselves be dragged into everyone's quarrels -- from who owns the islets in the South China Sea, to who owns
the Senkaku and Southern Kurils; and from whether Transnistria had a right to secede from Moldova, to whether South Ossetia and Abkhazia
had the right to break free of Georgia, when Georgia broke free of Russia?
Do the American people care a fig for these places? Are we really willing to risk war with Russia or China over who holds title
to them?
Patrick J. Buchanan is the author of "Nixon's White House Wars: The Battles That Made and Broke a President and Divided
America Forever."
"... 'Popping' recently over Russia have been key figures of the Western geopolitical and ideological firmament – people for whom the world is made of a Western bloc of nations divinely ordained to command, and the rest of the world condemned to obey. ..."
"... A prime example of what I mean concerns the Atlantic Council in Washington, one of the more notorious of an ever expanding network of neocon think tanks in our world, within whose Washington offices you will find gathered cranks of inordinate dimension. For such people Russia is not a country of 146 million people whose contribution to the world in the fields of art, science, culture and so on has been profound throughout its history and remains so today, but instead is a cancer that needs to be removed – preferably by force. ..."
"... react sharply before it is too late ..."
"... In losing his mind so, Mr Aslund reminds us that the Atlantic Council is an organization stacked with people for whom rationality is a vice and irrationality a virtue. Perhaps such a state of affairs might even be funny if not for the influence this particular think tank wields in Western foreign policy circles; influence that is on a par with an arsonist being taken seriously when it comes to fire prevention. ..."
"... The womb from that which crawled remains fertile ..."
"... Strange then – or indeed perhaps not so strange – that British Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson should recently declare with the bombast of a man who spends his days memorizing the wartime speeches of Winston Churchill: " As long as Ukraine faces Russian hostilities, it will find a steadfast partner in the United Kingdom. By continuing to work together, whether through training programmes or military exercises, we help Ukraine to stand up for our shared values. " ..."
"... Since the beginning of 2018, C14 and other far-right groups such as the Azov-affiliated National Militia, Right Sector, Karpatska Sich, and others have attacked Roma groups several times, as well as anti-fascist demonstrations, city council meetings, an event hosted by Amnesty International, art exhibitions, LGBT events, and environmental activists ..."
"... After the March 8 attacks, Amnesty International warned, 'Ukraine is sinking into a chaos of uncontrolled violence posed by radical groups and their total impunity. Practically no one in the country can feel safe under these conditions. ..."
"... Thinking about the victims of Stalin's famine of 1933 and the useful idiots – then and now – who blind their eyes to the truth that throughout too much recent history the Kremlin has been little more than a killing machine ..."
"... Russia today indisputably represents a far greater threat to our national security than Islamic extremist threats such as al-Qaida and Isil (ISIS). ..."
Progressive Journal, and Foreign Policy Journal. Published time: 29 Nov,
2018 13:09 Get short URL
A Western ideologue unravelling is no pretty
sight. It's like watching a lobster boiling in a pot. And like that lobster he or she
eventually pops. 'Popping' recently over Russia have been key figures of the Western
geopolitical and ideological firmament – people for whom the world is made of a Western
bloc of nations divinely ordained to command, and the rest of the world condemned to obey.
A prime example of what I mean concerns the Atlantic Council in Washington, one of the more
notorious of an ever expanding network of neocon think tanks in our world, within whose
Washington offices you will find gathered cranks of inordinate dimension. For such people Russia is not a country of 146 million people whose contribution to the
world in the fields of art, science, culture and so on has been profound throughout its history
and remains so today, but instead is a cancer that needs to be removed – preferably by
force.
Take Mr Anders Aslund – economist, author and senior crank/fellow at the Atlantic
Council. His
outpouring of vituperation in response to the Kerch Strait incident involving Russia and
Ukraine – calling for the West and NATO to " react sharply before it is too late
" – is redolent of a man suffering emotional and psychological meltdown.
Everything suggests that Russia slowly takes one step after the other to block the Azov
Sea off from Ukraine & international shipping. The West & NATO should react sharply
before it is too late. https://t.co/kZMn2XTEls
In losing his mind so, Mr Aslund reminds us that the Atlantic Council is an organization
stacked with people for whom rationality is a vice and irrationality a virtue. Perhaps such a
state of affairs might even be funny if not for the influence this particular think tank wields
in Western foreign policy circles; influence that is on a par with an arsonist being taken
seriously when it comes to fire prevention.
It also comes as no surprise that the Atlantic Council's financial sponsors amount to a
rogue's gallery of global corporations, oil companies, banks and financial institutions,
governments and various other entities of such nature. It confirms that the relationship
between global capitalism and Western imperialism is one forged in hell – or at least it
does for those nations and people forced to exist at the sharp end of its egregious role around
the world when it comes to fomenting conflict, crises, carnage and instability.
Ukraine is a prime example of what I mean. Lest anyone forget, the last democratically
elected government of Ukraine to enjoy a mandate covering the entire country was
unceremoniously toppled by a violent coup at the start of 2014. It was a coup supported by
Western ideologues such as Anders Aslund, and one in which neo-Nazis were in the vanguard on
the ground.
It is no coincidence that Western Ukraine, where the 2014 coup was centered and where the
government it hatched continues to enjoy the bulk of its support, is a part of the world where
fascism has deep historical and cultural roots. This is reflected in the recrudescence and
elevation of fascism as a legitimate and openly flaunted creed in this part of the world today,
calling to mind German playwright Bertolt Brecht's prescient warning at the end of the Second
World War: " The womb from that which crawled remains fertile ."
Strange then – or indeed perhaps not so strange – that British Defence Secretary
Gavin Williamson should recently declare with the bombast of a man who spends his days
memorizing the wartime speeches of Winston Churchill: " As long as Ukraine faces Russian
hostilities, it will find a steadfast partner in the United Kingdom. By continuing to work
together, whether through training programmes or military exercises, we help Ukraine to stand
up for our shared values. "
As long as Ukraine faces Russian hostilities, it will find a steadfast partner in the
United Kingdom. By continuing to work together, whether through training programmes or
military exercises, we help Ukraine to stand up for our shared values. #Defencepic.twitter.com/ofqyjl817N
Williamson's stentorian words of support for the coup government in Kiev should be weighed
in the balance against the analysis of US academic Stephen F. Cohen, set out in a May 2018
podcast for The
Nation magazine. In it Cohen reveals the extent to which neo-Nazis are now an integral part of
the Kiev government's armed forces, specifically the controversial Azov Battalion .
Even the previously mentioned Atlantic Council is
unable to place democratic lipstick on the far right pig of Western Ukraine in 2018. In a
June article for the think tank, Josh Cohen (no relation to Stephen F.) writes:
" Since the beginning of 2018, C14 and other far-right groups such as the
Azov-affiliated National Militia, Right Sector, Karpatska Sich, and others have attacked Roma
groups several times, as well as anti-fascist demonstrations, city council meetings, an event
hosted by Amnesty International, art exhibitions, LGBT events, and environmental activists
."
He continues:
" After the March 8 attacks, Amnesty International warned, 'Ukraine is sinking into a
chaos of uncontrolled violence posed by radical groups and their total impunity. Practically no
one in the country can feel safe under these conditions. '"
Given the 'actual' society hatched by Euromaidan in 2014, rather than the 'illusory' one
touted in the West, it is prudent to point that the while the likes of Gavin Williamson may
well harbor delusions of Churchillian grandeur in his capacity as Britain's defence secretary,
one important distinction cannot be overlooked.
It is that while Churchill – racist and imperialist though he was – sided with
Moscow against fascism, the current generation of aspiring Winstons within the British
establishment are siding with fascism against Moscow.
Speaking of which, the Second World War is always a sumptuous feast when it comes to
highlighting the bubble of unreality in which your average Western ideologue exists. Here,
allow me to introduce John Sweeney of the BBC.
Mr Sweeney recently saw fit to tweet the following: "
Thinking about the victims of Stalin's famine of 1933 and the useful idiots – then
and now – who blind their eyes to the truth that throughout too much recent history the
Kremlin has been little more than a killing machine ."
'Stalin's famine' of 1932-1933 was undeniably egregious, but any less so than Churchill's
Bengal famine of 1943? As for the Kremlin being a 'killing machine', it was certainly
Europe's good fortune that this was the case between 1941 and 1945, or else the entire
continent would have been enslaved by the Nazis; turned thereafter into a mass grave the like
of which would have made the Holocaust that Hitler and his hordes authored mere child's play in
comparison.
With a view to saving the worst till last, newly installed British army chief, General Mark
Carleton-Smith, is evidently not a man whom anyone could accuse of having a serious grasp on
reality – not when
according to him " Russia today indisputably represents a far greater threat to our
national security than Islamic extremist threats such as al-Qaida and Isil (ISIS). "
The lobsters, as you can see, are well and truly popping.
John Wight has written for a variety of newspapers and websites, including the Independent, Morning Star, Huffington
Post, Counterpunch, London
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author
and do not necessarily represent those of RT.
"... Predictably, Western media has been complaining again about "Russian aggression", a gift that keeps on giving. Or blaming Russia for its over-reaction, overlooking the fact that Ukraine's incursion was with military vessels, not fishing boats. Russian resolve was quite visible, as powerful Ka-52 "Alligator" assault helicopters were promptly on the scene. ..."
"... Still, Kiev – "encouraged" by Washington – insists on militarizing the Sea of Azov. Misinformed American hawks emerging from the US Army War College even advocate that NATO should enter the Sea of Azov – a provocative act as far as Moscow is concerned. The Atlantic Council , which is essentially a mouthpiece of the powerful US weapons industry, is also pro-militarization. ..."
"... Rostislav Ischchenko , arguably the sharpest observer of Russia-Ukraine relations, in a piece written before the Kerch incident, said: "Ukraine itself recognized the right of Russia to introduce restrictions on the passage of ships and vessels through the Kerch Strait, having obeyed these rules in the summer." ..."
"... Thus a Kerch Strait incident designed as a cheap provocation, bearing all the hallmarks of a US think-tank ploy, is automatically interpreted as "Russian aggression", regardless of the facts. Indeed, any such tactics are good when it comes to derailing the Trump-Putin meeting at the G20 in Buenos Aires this coming weekend. ..."
"... Poroshenko's approval rate barely touches 8% . His chances of being re-elected, assuming polls are credible, are virtually zero. ..."
"... But the US would lose no sleep if they had to throw Poroshenko under the (Soviet) bus ..."
"... Poroshenko, wallowing in despair, may still ratchet up provocations. But the best he can aim at is NATO attempting to modernize the collapsing Ukrainian navy – an endeavor that would last years, with no guarantee of success. ..."
"... Feel sorry for the Ukrainians being used as tools. Before Obama-Hillary-and Pedo Biden overthrew the Democratically elected leader, people were just doing their normal stuff. Now they hide in bomb shelters and search for food at night. ..."
"... But vainglorious folks are not paying attention, and this is dangerous especially for Europe, and the pretenders in the Middle East, if it goes down, they too will go down, it's that simple and why? Because of military and security imperatives. Russia will take down, and out, any US or European ally in the M.E. lest, they open themselves up to flanking maneuvers. ..."
"... Putin already intimated of the current Russian mindset thus: "If you like, let's all go explain ourselves to God!". Do the neocons feel confident of cogent explanation to God, or do they even wish to come before him? I doubt it, and very much so, seeing as their hands are stained with the blood of innocents, and their hearts,plot evil continuously. ..."
"... And this my friends, viscerally demonstrates the wisdom of the founding fathers, especially Washington, who warned of "entangling alliances", buttressed a few generations later, by John Q. Adams, who re-advised "Go not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy". Pay attention folks, pay attention to the architects of the Republic, who knew what they were building, better than the "war loving battle dodging" chickenhawks who love to sip exotic drinks, while instructing others to kill for their depraved egos. ..."
"... NATO delenda est!... ..."
"... Poroshenko & Allies have a team of experts who spend 24/7 searching for the next provocation. Reminds me of May on this Brexit fiasco. ..."
"... This US coup of the Ukraine is turning out to be more hassle than its worth, a bankrupt corrupt country, installing Neo Nazi's as the first government was a big mistake, it could have been handled with more finesse, instead it was like a bull in a China shop. ..."
"... Poroshenko decided to not let a good crisis go to waste. ..."
"... Geopolitics and realpolitik, bitches. So much happening in the gas domain in Eastern Europe. Nordstream, Turkish Stream, BP stream, US LNG facilities in Greece, Poland and Germany, Russia supplying LNG to Germany, Cyprus-Greece-Israel drilling in the East Med, Turkey drilling in Cyprus EEZ. In the meanwhile I see gas infrastructure being build allover Eastern Europe, connecting houses to the grid. Gas heating and energy production is coming to Eastern Europe in addition to supplying Western Europe. The stakes are enormous and that what this is all about and that is why we can see more of this. ..."
"... Most of the Ukraine people hate Poroshenko and he knows he can't win re-election. He threatens Trump with dirt on Manafort, and demands Trump start a war. Or what? is the left in the US going to impeach Trump with the supposed Poroshenko dirt on Manafort? ..."
"... He was installed by Soros during the "Purple Color Revolution" (agent provocateurs with tiki torches getting violent to force a coup against the prior sitting President, a tactic attempted in Charlottesville only a couple years later) ..."
"... " Poroshenko's approval rate barely touches 8% . His chances of being re-elected, assuming polls are credible, are virtually zero. Little wonder he used the Kerch to declare martial law, effective this Wednesday, lasting for 30 days and bound to be extended. Poroshenko will be able to control the media and increase his chances of rigging the election. ..."
The West is complaining about Russian 'aggression' but the incident looks more like a cheap ploy by a desperate Ukrainian president
and US conservatives keen to undermine Trump's next pow-wow with Putin...
When the Ukrainian navy sent a tugboat and two small gunboats on Sunday to force their way through the Kerch Strait into the Sea
of Azov, it knew in advance the Russian response would be swift and merciless.
After all, Kiev was entering waters claimed by Russia with military vessels without clarifying their intent.
The intent, though, was clear; to raise the stakes in the militarization of the Sea of Azov.
The Kerch Strait connects the Sea of Azov with the Black Sea. To reach Mariupol, a key city in the Sea of Azov very close to the
dangerous dividing line between Ukraine's army and the pro-Russian militias in Donbass, the Ukrainian navy needs to go through the
Kerch.
Yet since Russia retook control of Crimea via a 2014 referendum, the waters around Kerch are de facto Russian territorial waters.
Kiev announced this past summer it would build a naval base in the Sea of Azov by the end of 2018. That's an absolute red line
for Moscow. Kiev may have to trade access to Mariupol, which, incidentally, also trades closely with the People's Republic of Donetsk.
But forget about military access.
And most of all, forget about supplying a Ukrainian military fleet in the port of Berdyansk capable of sabotaging the immensely
successful, Russian-built Crimean bridge .
Predictably, Western media has been complaining again about "Russian aggression", a gift that keeps on giving. Or blaming
Russia for its over-reaction, overlooking the fact that Ukraine's incursion was with military vessels, not fishing boats. Russian
resolve was quite visible, as powerful Ka-52 "Alligator" assault helicopters were promptly on the scene.
Washington and Brussels uncritically bought Kiev's "Russian aggression" hysteria, as well as the UN Security Council, which, instead
of focusing on the facts in the Kerch Strait incident, preferring to accuse Moscow once again of annexing Crimea in 2014.
The key point, overlooked by the UNSC, is that the Kerch incident configures Kiev's flagrant violation of articles 7, 19 and 21
of the UN Convention on the
Law of the Sea .
I happened to be right in the middle of deep research in Istanbul over the geopolitics of the Black Sea when the Kerch incident
happened.
For the moment, it's crucial to stress what top Russian analysts have been pointing out in detail. My interlocutors in Istanbul
may disagree, but for all practical purposes, the Kerch Strait, the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea, in military terms, are de facto
Russian lakes.
At best, the Black Sea as a whole might evolve into a Russia-Turkey condominium, assuming President Erdogan plays his cards right.
Everyone else is as relevant, militarily, as a bunch of sardines.
Russia is able to handle anything – naval or aerial – intruding in the Kerch Strait, the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea in a matter
ranging from seconds to just a few minutes. Every vessel moving in every corner of the Black Sea is tracked 24/7. Moscow knows it.
Kiev knows it. NATO knows it. And crucially, the Pentagon knows it.
Still, Kiev – "encouraged" by Washington – insists on militarizing the Sea of Azov. Misinformed
American hawks emerging
from the US Army War College even advocate that NATO should enter the Sea of Azov – a provocative act as far as Moscow is concerned.
The Atlantic
Council , which is essentially a mouthpiece of the powerful US weapons industry, is also pro-militarization.
Any attempt to alter the current, already wobbly status quo could lead Moscow to install a naval blockade in a flash and see the
annexation of Mariupol to the People's Republic of Donetsk, to which it is industrially linked anyway.
This would be regarded by the Kremlin as a move of last resort. Moscow certainly does not want it. Yet it's wise not to provoke
the Bear.
Cheap provocation
Rostislav
Ischchenko , arguably the sharpest observer of Russia-Ukraine relations, in a piece written before the Kerch incident, said:
"Ukraine itself recognized the right of Russia to introduce restrictions on the passage of ships and vessels through the Kerch Strait,
having obeyed these rules in the summer."
Yet, after the US Deep State's massive investment even before the protests on the Maidan in Kiev in 2014 that wrested Ukraine
away from Russian influence a possible entente cordiale between the Trump administration and the Kremlin, with Russia in control
of Crimea and a pro-Russian Donbass, could only be seen as a red line for the Americans.
Thus a Kerch Strait incident designed as a cheap provocation, bearing all the hallmarks of a US think-tank ploy, is automatically
interpreted as "Russian aggression", regardless of the facts. Indeed, any such tactics are good when it comes to derailing the
Trump-Putin
meeting at the G20 in Buenos Aires this coming weekend.
Meanwhile, in Ukraine, chaos is the norm . President Petro Poroshenko is bleeding. The hryvnia is a hopeless currency. Kiev's
borrowing costs are at their highest level since a bond sale in 2018. This failed state has been under IMF "reform" since 2015 –
with no end in sight.
Poroshenko's approval rate barely touches 8% . His chances of being re-elected, assuming polls are credible, are virtually zero.
Little wonder he used the Kerch to declare martial law, effective this Wednesday, lasting for 30 days and bound to be extended. Poroshenko
will be able to control the media and increase his chances of rigging the election.
But the US would lose no sleep if they had to throw Poroshenko under the (Soviet) bus. Ukrainians will not die for his survival.
One of the captains at the Kerch incident surrendered his boat voluntarily to the Russians. When Russian Su-25s and Ka-52s started
to patrol the skies over the Kerch Strait, Ukrainian reinforcements instantly fled.
Poroshenko, wallowing in despair, may still ratchet up provocations. But the best he can aim at is NATO attempting to modernize
the collapsing Ukrainian navy – an endeavor that would last years, with no guarantee of success.
For the moment, forget all the rhetoric, and any suggestion of a NATO incursion into the Black Sea. Call it the calm before the
inevitable future storm
Feel sorry for the Ukrainians being used as tools. Before Obama-Hillary-and Pedo Biden overthrew the Democratically elected leader, people were just doing their normal stuff. Now they hide in bomb shelters and search for food at night.
The Bear has set the Trap, let NATO or whoever walk into it, but do so if they must, with the knowledge that it's a one way
ticket to hell. The Russians have been warning for years now, that one day, they'll have had enough and then..
But vainglorious folks are not paying attention, and this is dangerous especially for Europe, and the pretenders in the Middle
East, if it goes down, they too will go down, it's that simple and why? Because of military and security imperatives. Russia will
take down, and out, any US or European ally in the M.E. lest, they open themselves up to flanking maneuvers.
So someone, in this case, Europe, better tell, or force Poroshenko to tone it down, the Russians are not kidding around, this
is not a game, this is existential serious! Ukraine will go down, along with Poland, and the Baltics, if Russia feels, in any
way, shape, or manner, provoked beyond reason. Note the word "feels", some may play games, thinking it's just a game, Russia is
NOT playing games, not at all, not one bit.
Putin already intimated of the current Russian mindset thus: "If you like, let's all go explain ourselves to God!". Do the neocons feel confident of cogent explanation to God, or do they
even wish to come before him? I doubt it, and very much so, seeing as their hands are stained with the blood of innocents, and
their hearts,plot evil continuously.
Minsk was the best the Russians are willing to offer, from here on, the offer reduces exponentially, with every provocation
until there's no offer, just RAW discipline!
And this my friends, viscerally demonstrates the wisdom of the founding fathers, especially Washington, who warned of "entangling
alliances", buttressed a few generations later, by John Q. Adams, who re-advised "Go not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy".
Pay attention folks, pay attention to the architects of the Republic, who knew what they were building, better than the "war loving
battle dodging" chickenhawks who love to sip exotic drinks, while instructing others to kill for their depraved egos.
The biggest victims in all their failed adventures, are the US troops, folks who are deployed to fight wars which does nothing
to secure the Republic, but instead weakens the Republic, deprives the military of honor, capable recruits, and the economy, of
treasure, vigor, and vitality.
Poroshenko & Allies have a team of experts who spend 24/7 searching for the next provocation. Reminds me of May on this Brexit
fiasco.
When you're up ****-creek, Kerch, in this instance, you clutch at straws as the boat sinks.
With regard to NATO, they can't be involved as they're not imbeciles. Russia has provided the s300/Other upgraded Missile Defense
Systems to Syria, effectively nullifying Israeli's illegal incursions via Lebanon airspace, so what protections will Putin have
in place for one of his most strategic jurisdictions in his country? Rhetorical.
This US coup of the Ukraine is turning out to be more hassle than its worth, a bankrupt corrupt country, installing Neo Nazi's
as the first government was a big mistake, it could have been handled with more finesse, instead it was like a bull in a China
shop.
On the Crimea, let us all remember the following :
95% of Crimean's voted yes to joining Russia a result that western agencies, media etc have accepted as correct, This makes
it and the waters surrounding it Russian, I suspect the US would have a similar reaction if a couple of Russian gun boats cruised
unannounced into a US port and started doing donuts.
****** porkoshenko wont last until spring. ukraine is not a chocolate factory. a country too big for a chess piece. the best
move for trump is to stay out or invite willy wonka to pay a visit to us embassy and chop him off lol
Poroshenko decided to not let a good crisis go to waste.
Geopolitics and realpolitik, bitches. So much happening in the gas domain in Eastern Europe. Nordstream, Turkish Stream, BP
stream, US LNG facilities in Greece, Poland and Germany, Russia supplying LNG to Germany, Cyprus-Greece-Israel drilling in the
East Med, Turkey drilling in Cyprus EEZ. In the meanwhile I see gas infrastructure being build allover Eastern Europe, connecting
houses to the grid. Gas heating and energy production is coming to Eastern Europe in addition to supplying Western Europe. The
stakes are enormous and that what this is all about and that is why we can see more of this.
The cheap shot at Trump at the same time demanding action from Trump was Poroshenko's threat the Ukraine has dirt on Manafort.
How low can Poroshenko go?
Most of the Ukraine people hate Poroshenko and he knows he can't win re-election. He threatens Trump with dirt on Manafort,
and demands Trump start a war. Or what? is the left in the US going to impeach Trump with the supposed Poroshenko dirt on Manafort?
But asked if the Ukraine has any evidence that Manafort was getting paid directly by the Kremlin, Poroshenko said, "I am not
personally connected with the process.""
Not just undermine Trump/Putin meetings, but the big picture, Ukrainian "President" declaring martial law to suspend the election
he would no doubt lose.
He was installed by Soros during the "Purple Color Revolution" (agent provocateurs with tiki torches getting violent to force
a coup against the prior sitting President, a tactic attempted in Charlottesville only a couple years later)
" Poroshenko's approval rate barely touches 8% . His chances of being re-elected, assuming polls are credible, are virtually
zero. Little wonder he used the Kerch to declare martial law, effective this Wednesday, lasting for 30 days and bound to be extended.
Poroshenko will be able to control the media and increase his chances of rigging the election.
It is clear that Poroshenko wants to stay in power. And this is one of the ways to increase Poroshenko chances on forthcoming
elections. It is simultaneously increase chances for him to land in jail as Timoshenko does not looks kindly on such blatant
attempts to hijack elections.
Unwilling to simply accept Poroshenko's claims that he had heard reliable whispers about an
imminent Russian invasion, opposition figures pressed Poroshenko on his reasoning for the
emergency measures, and ultimately succeeded in forcing him to water down the proposal. But
even before Poroshenko's decree won the approval of lawmakers, the Ukrainian president had
already started deploying troops into the streets of his country.
Now in a state of martial law, Ukraine has called up its reservists and deployed all
available troops to join the mobilization. Initially expected to last for two months,
Poroshenko revised his degree to avoid accusations that he would try to interfere in the
upcoming Ukrainian election. The decree passed by the Rada will leave martial law in effect for
30 days. The country has also started restricting travel for Russian nationals. NATO Commander
Jens Stoltenberg told the Associated Press that
Poroshenko had given his word that the order wouldn't interfere with the upcoming vote. The
conflict between the Ukraine and Russia exploded into life on Sunday
when Russian ships fired on two Ukrainian artillery ships and rammed a tugboat as the ships
traveled toward the Kerch Strait, which connects the Sea of Azov to the Black Sea. Russia's
mighty Black Sea fleet has taken the three ships and their crew into custody, and has so far
ignored calls to release the soldiers by the UN, European leaders and Poroshenko himself.
US officials criticized Russia for its "aggressive" defense of the Kerch Strait, which
Ukraine has a right to use according to a bilateral treaty. After Nikki Haley said during an
emergency meeting of the UN Security Council that Russia was making it "impossible" to have
normal relations with the US, Mike Pompeo said Russia's "aggressive action" was a "dangerous
escalation" and also "violates international law." He also advocated for Poroshenko and Russian
President Vladimir Putin to engage in direct talks. Russia says the ships disobeyed orders to
halt, and that Ukraine had failed to notify Russia of the ships' advance. Ukraine claims that
it did notify Russia, and that the incident is the result of "growing Russian aggression." Six
Ukrainian crewmen were injured in the Russian attack, which was the first act of violence
between the two nations since the annexation of Crimea.
Chief diplomats from both countries traded accusations of provocations and "deliberate
hostility."
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin tweeted that the dispute was not an accident and
that Russia had engaged in "deliberately planned hostilities," while Russian Foreign Minister
Sergey Lavrov blamed Kiev for what he described as a "provocation," adding that "Ukraine had
undoubtedly hoped to get additional benefits from the situation, expecting the U.S. and
Europe to blindly take the provocateurs' side."
Poroshenko said the martial law was necessary because Ukraine was facing nothing short of a
all-out ground invasion.
Poroshenko said it was necessary because of intelligence about "a highly serious threat of
a ground operation against Ukraine." He did not elaborate.
"Martial law doesn't mean declaring a war," he said. "It is introduced with the sole
purpose of boosting Ukraine's defense in the light of a growing aggression from Russia."
But the president's plans to impose martial law throughout the country were rebuffed as the
opposition forced a compromise where troops will only be deployed in 10 border provinces. These
provinces share borders with Russia, Belarus and the Trans-Dniester, a pro-Moscow breakaway
region of Moldova.
Still, many remained skeptical. Opposition figures, including former President Yulia
Tymoshenko pointed out that the order would give soldiers broad latitude to do pretty much
whatever they want. Furthermore, Ukraine never called for martial law during the insurgency in
the east that erupted back in 2014, eventually leading to an armed conflict that killed more
than 10,000.
The approved measures included a partial mobilization and strengthening of air defenses.
It also contained vaguely worded steps such as "strengthening" anti-terrorism measures and
"information security" that could curtail certain rights and freedoms.
But Poroshenko also pledged to respect the rights of Ukrainian citizens.
[...]
Despite Poroshenko's vow to respect individual rights, opposition lawmaker and former
Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko warned before the vote that his proposal would lead to the
possible illegal searches, invasion of privacy and curtailing of free speech.
"This means they will be breaking into the houses of Ukrainians and not those of the
aggressor nation," noted Tymoshenko, who is leading in various opinion polls. "They will be
prying into personal mail, family affairs ... In fact, everything that is written here is a
destruction of the lives of Ukrainians."
Poroshenko's call also outraged far-right groups in Ukraine that have advocated severing
diplomatic ties with Russia. Hundreds of protesters from the National Corps party waved
flares in the snowy streets of Kiev outside parliament and accused the president of using
martial law to his own ends.
But Poroshenko insisted it was necessary because what happened in the Kerch Strait between
Crimea and the Russian mainland "was no accident," adding that "this was not the culmination
of it yet."
His critics reacted to his call for martial law with suspicion, wondering why Sunday's
incident merited such a response. With his approval ratings in free fall following a series of
corruption scandals, Poroshenko's enemies worry that the incident may have been stage-managed
to give the president an excuse to crack down on dissent and free movement ahead of the
vote.
And then there is Yulia Tymoshenko who is doing well in the polls. That crazy bitch said
that the separatists in the East should be nuked. Ukraine gave up on its nukes though.
Wise lesson for the West here: All politicians in Eastern Europe -whatever country and
whatever party- are sick psychopaths. Not that ours are any better. Yet, people keep voting
for them.
Perhaps but Putin has more interest to keep the situation as it is. Russian gas needs to
keep flowing into Europe. Russia needs that cash cow that the US is trying to disrupt .
One of my Russian mates sent me a link to a Russian news website and according to the
iskra-news.info last night ,Ukrainian gold reserves (40 sealed boxes) were loaded on an
unidentified transport aircraft in Kiev's Borispol airport. The plane took off
immediately.
So my guess is, that is if indeed this report is true it either means the new ruling elite
have stolen the gold bullion or perhaps their is a legitimate fear of the Russians taking
possession of this bullion, whatever the facts, it still looks very shady indeed.
Conclusion
Official narrative: gold bullion is going to USA (maybe to reassure the Germans their gold
is in safe hands, after all the despite numerous requests from the German Govt The Feds have
not given access for them to even view their Gold Bullion) . Real narrative: probably to
Switzerland where it is divided between Yulia Tymoshenko and her cronies.
Once again I simply implore one ACTUAL journalist to report on what's happening there.
Beside the mercenary sociopaths that took in millions off the first round of
"freedom".
Russia is a hurt and vulnerable nation.
The US has ginormous truth issues never to be resolved
Hence the Goths and Barbarians will agree that once more......Rome is burning
Btw, not defending Russia and as convoluted as it sounds my point is truth has been lost
even in this Instagram milli-second of info slop offering by those who are not standing in
the snow covered mud of unbiased reality
The last time Poroshenko, the US man in Ukraine (OU) as he was referred to in US
diplomatic cables from 2006 and exposed by Wkikleads, got the Ukes into a war with the
Eastern oblasts, a lot of Ukrainians got killed.
Poor buggers were crushed and they should never have been there. The US / McCain et al
used them as cannon fodder.
The Uke military had rotted after the breakup of the Soviet Union, and that was largely
because their corrupt leaders never gave any consideration to going to war against anyone,
other than political war against each other to determine who got the biggest slice from
plundering the state.
The plundering continues, only now there is scant left for the general population.
After the US putsch, income per capita dropped by approx a third, cost of living doubled
and tax collection was hampered even more than before because the average Uke had no money
left to pay taxes so they went underground. and paid off local officials just to let them
make a living doing whatever the could..
"Why would Russia want Ukraine in the first place?".
Lets see.....so they can fund an addition 50 million lazy ***** and pick up the tab for 25
million fat, diabetes ridden BROKE Ukrainian pensioners?
So Russia can sink tens of billions into Ukraine's bankrupt healthcare system?
Where is the upside for Russia?
Putin can add, he is not in the least bit interested in ruling Ukraine, he'd just as well
seal the ******* boarder and be done with it, in fact its what he is doing. Once those
alternate pipe lines are in there will be a 5,000 km fence and the Ukes can freeze in the
dark on their own.
Russia isn't interested in taking any country, the countries are warming up to Russia and
China. This is pissing off mushroom head and band of gypsies in DC. The failing empire
looking for a war.
"Please stop using incorrect US government propaganda language in your
articles."
US Intel cant remember everything remember they have an agenda to push. It might be a
truther website for the people posting but it is also a intel gathering site to keep abreast
of how some of the sheeple really feel. What better way to get the sheeple to open up?
Wishful thinking. "The Nuland experiment" is here to stay...
Notable quotes:
"... Turned over by whom? ..."
"... Most of the people Poroshenko fears, the ones not already in combat against his government, are ones who didn't get as much of the $5B in National Endowment for Democracy bribes as he did ..."
Well, theoretically by the Ukrainian people in the election that Poroshenko fears so
much. It has been pointed out that even if P. loses his job, another puppet will be
found.
Most of the people Poroshenko fears, the ones not already in combat against his
government, are ones who didn't get as much of the $5B in National Endowment for
Democracy bribes as he did. They'll turn over the rocks to make sure they never get any
more for what purpose?
The net effect of marital law for 30 days in those region might surprise Poroshenko and his
handlers
Notable quotes:
"... Russia's FSB says that among the Ukrainian crew members detained are two guys from Ukraine's domestic secret service SBU... ..."
"... I'd also guess that "f*ck the EU" is still the order of the day. These provocations will be used to put more pressure on EU to increase military spending and accept US natural gas. ..."
"... This provocation just seems to be straight out of the FUKUS playbook...i am not sure that poroshenko is smart enough to have laid all this out...he is just a motivated servant(election he is sure to lose) following the orders of his financiers... ..."
"... Well, good luck to Kiev in trying to maintain a police state apparatus in the eastern, southeastern and southern parts of Ukraine. If there's one thing that will break up Ukraine as a political entity, surely it's got to be actions on Kiev's part that punish people in those oblasts just for being next door to Russia or for not being Nazi enough. ..."
"... The current Ukie provocation may well be to take the Aleppo CW attack out of the news. Around 2014 2015 In noticed that when blocked on one front, the US et al (I have started to think in terms of a five-eyes permanent state) would move to another front - Ukraine, Syria, South China Sea. The last couple of years, their attention seems to have been mostly on Syria, Iran and the middle east. ..."
At the UN today, US Ambassador Nikki Haley denounced what she called Russia's "outrageous
violation of sovereign Ukrainian territory".
She didn't say which laws were violated or mention that the ships were Navy vessels:
"Let's be clear about what is known.
Ukrainian ships set sail from one Ukrainian port to another Ukrainian port. They attempted
to do so by the only possible way to go, through the Kerch Strait. Both Russia and Ukraine
use the strait routinely. But this time, Russia decided to prevent passage of the Ukrainian
ships, rammed them, and then opened fire on them.
This is no way for a law-abiding, civilized nation to act. Impeding Ukraine's lawful
transit through the Kerch Strait is a violation under international law." https://usun.state.gov/remarks/8784
This provocation was probably planned by the evil orange clown in the white house and his
handlers, for the express purpose of creating an excuse (look Ma, more "Russian aggression")
that the demonic orange poseur can use to avoid meeting with Vladimir Putin.
The amount of assets Russia put into this operation most likely means there is a lot more
going on than has been reported on.
From the reports I have read, this was an FSB operation. FSB duties according to wikipedia
"Its main responsibilities are within the country and include counter-intelligence, internal
and border security, counter-terrorism, and surveillance as well as investigating some other
types of grave crimes and federal law violations."
"Ukraine's parliament approved late on Nov. 26 the imposition of 30 days of martial law in
10 oblasts located on the Russian border, the border with the Russian-controlled Transnistria
region of Moldova and oblasts located by the Black and Azov seas.
The 276 lawmakers out of 330 present in parliament voted in favor of a bill by President
Petro Poroshenko who proposed it in response to Russian escalation in the Black Sea.Ukraine's
parliament approved late on Nov. 26 the imposition of 30 days of martial law in 10 oblasts
located on the Russian border, the border with the Russian-controlled Transnistria region of
Moldova and oblasts located by the Black and Azov seas.
The 276 lawmakers out of 330 present in parliament voted in favor of a bill by President
Petro Poroshenko who proposed it in response to Russian escalation in the Black Sea. ...
... In an address to the nation that preceded the vote, Poroshenko sad martial law will
take effect at 9 a.m. Kyiv time on Nov. 28. It will include Vinnytsia, Luhansk, Donetsk,
Zaporizhzhia, Mykolayiv, Odesa, Sumy, Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Kherson oblasts.
It will enable the military to take over control over these areas and restrict the civic
and political rights of their residents. The text of the bill is still now published and the
lawmakers voted for it based on the oral presentation of parliament speaker Andriy
Parubiy.
Parliament passed it after 10 hours of backroom discussions and disputes in the meeting
hall, amid swearing and insults.
Many found it odd to impose the martial law in the fifth year of Russia's war against
Ukraine and claimed Poroshenko offered the bill to postpone the presidential elections in
2019. According to recent polls, he has the highest negative rating among all the candidates
and low chances to win.
Under pressure, Poroshenko agreed to limit martial law to 30 days instead the earlier
planned 60 days and restrict its scope to 10 oblasts instead of the entire territory of
Ukraine.
Speaking in parliament, Poroshenko also assured the lawmakers he was going to implement
the martial law "explicitly in case of the Russian aggression on the ground." Otherwise,
there will be no limitations of the human rights in these areas, h said."
@103 https://youtu.be/fZGbkkOOuDA
- video of the questioning in Russian. No new revelations, just a few sailors saying more or
less the same thing - yes, we got the orders to cross into Azov sea and intentionally ignored
Russian commands.
There is also a timeline published by FSB in Russian at http://www.fsb.ru/fsb/press/message/single.htm%21id%3D10438315%40fsbMessage.html
that basically says
* Ukrainian ships approached, stated their intent to cross the straits and said they do not
recognize Russian authority
* Russia blocked the straits, standoff continued for some time
* Russia intercepted radio calls discussing leaving slow tug behind and charging the straits
with two gunboats
* The gunboats uncovered their autocannons; night approached
* at some point FSB decided it might end badly and ordered the ships to surrender. Faced with
overwhelming force, and not being suicidal, they more or less did
@105 laguerre.. i think the issue of some in the usa suggesting to blow up the bridge, not to
mention some loose cannons in the ukraine maybe saying something similar, has put russia in a
different position then otherwise... obviously they can monitor anything moving in the
vicinity via water, very easily.. the tactical nuke story was probably a pile of bs, or we
would have been told more by now, after russia ceased the tug...
however, perhaps the biggest issue is how the west under the leadership of the usa-uk -
have wanted to ramp up the hostility towards russia in all ways... this can't go unnoticed by
ordinary observers, including russia, here.. this is the type of environment that the west
has intentionally cultivated... this event is a byproduct of their indiscretion..
The rumored suitcase nuke likely activated the FSB besides the fact that some sort of
provocation's been expected since the Kerch Bridge construction began. The videos I've seen
show lots of commercial freighters--12-14, perhaps more--and other vessels on a lovely day to
be out on the water. The provocation also conveniently upstaged any mention of the terrorist
chemical attack in Aleppo and further Turkish Khashoggi drips. Although written before the
provocation,
Alastair Crooke's latest is of tangential import as the Il-20 shootdown's stiffening of
Russian resolve wasn't limited to Syria and has likely had ripple effects throughout Russia's
military and security services.
I re-read Point 9 in The Pessimist's comment @ 47 again: Martial law will also allow to cancel diplomatic agreements with the enemy and to seize
the property of the aggressor that is on the territory of Ukraine
In other words, martial law would not only allow Ukraine to continue ignoring Minsk I and
II agreements but also allow it to invade and claim Crimea and the city of Sevastopol.
The naval base in Sevastopol is more valuable to the Americans than Crimea and Ukraine
themselves. They also want to get rid of the Turkstream gas pipeline which opened
recently.
Ahhh, got the answer to The Pessimist's query @ 54! If the Ukrainians provoke an incident
with Russia, then Russia (according to their thinking) will retaliate with force, justifying
Poroshenko's call for martial law and the compulsory military draft and putting Ukraine on a
war footing that go with it. (This would "explain" the gas and water stoppages as well.)
Martial law would enable Ukraine (along with assistance from NATO "advisors") to seize Crimea
and Sevastopol. Sevastopol could be delivered to the Americans.
With the naval base transferred to the US military, the Black Sea effectively becomes a US
lake and the Turkstream gas pipeline from Russia to Turkey (which would supply gas to
southeast Europe and Italy) becomes a target for attack.
@ jen... that would be yet another way to start ww3... i am sure the neo cons running
usa-uk-west - foreign policy, are working full time to accomplish this...
'Coming to a blog near us ...... all Ukrainians being subjected to a compulsory military
draft'
Thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of young military age men have fled Ukraine....
much like young white men fled the US war of aggression on Viet Nam. Ukraine does not have
millions of young black children to fight their war using the draft. They will need to draft
housewives and broke down farmers.
Seems the best situation for Ukrainians in general who want peaceful relations with Russia
and an end to the UrkoNazi nightmare would be for the Rada to declare war against Russia
then, a la The Mouse That Roared , surrender and allow Russia to gain control so they
could thaw out, drink water and eat decent food again. The polling data presented shows no
one potential leader has anything near to a majority of people having confidence in her/him,
which is the real bankruptcy of Ukraine engineered by UK/US/EU, leading one to wonder what
numbers Putin would garner.
exiled off mainstreet , Nov 26, 2018 6:37:01 PM |
link
Perhaps now that the Poroshenko regime has ordered a general mobilisation, it is time for
Russia to liquidate this regime once and for all. I recognize that this threatens nuclear
war, but the mobilisation order seems to indicate that the Ukrainian regime attacked first
and makes it a bit less likely that nuclear war might ensue if this problem is liquidated
once and for all. Of course, the cost of redevelopment of this failed state will be
humongous.
I'd guess that Porky will try to extend and expand the martial law sometime before it
expires.
I'd also guess that "f*ck the EU" is still the order of the day. These provocations
will be used to put more pressure on EU to increase military spending and accept US natural
gas.
This provocation just seems to be straight out of the FUKUS playbook...i am not sure that
poroshenko is smart enough to have laid all this out...he is just a motivated
servant(election he is sure to lose) following the orders of his financiers... his
willingness to pay for a "full readiness" military operation, when his people are freezing to
death and have no money...seems more like a desperate servant than a leader of the
people...he is expendable as far as everyone is concerned...
The legal paperwork for the martial law was completed weeks before this provocation was
launched...the MSM had their stories all ready to go..
I am not certain where FUKUS is going to take this, but i think they will try to get NATO
embroiled in it...that could be a real problem...
Noticed that Poroshenko's martial law applies to those oblasts that border Russia to the
north and east, the southern oblasts that border Crimea or which have a seaboard, and
Vinnitsya and Odessa oblasts to the southwest because those two oblasts border the
self-proclaimed maverick Transnistria Republic. So there is pressure being applied as well to
Transnistria Republic to swallow its pride and return to Moldova with tail between its legs.
On top of that, the oblasts being subjected to martial law are dominated by Russian-language
speakers and these oblasts are also the oblasts that supported Viktor Yanukovych and his
party in Presidential elections in 2010.
No oblasts in the northwest part of the country bordering EU nations (that is, the
hardcore Banderite-Nazi strongholds) have been subjected to martial law.
Well, good luck to Kiev in trying to maintain a police state apparatus in the eastern,
southeastern and southern parts of Ukraine. If there's one thing that will break up Ukraine
as a political entity, surely it's got to be actions on Kiev's part that punish people in
those oblasts just for being next door to Russia or for not being Nazi enough.
"Looks like Poroshenko ran into some real problems in the Rada. Unsurprisingly, pretty
much all the political parties have immediately understood what this was all about and have
categorically rejected the text Poroshenko submitted. They only adopted a much watered-down
version in which the martial law is introduced only for one month, not two, and the fact that
the elections will take place as scheduled has been re-confirmed ." [Emphasis
mine]
Poroshenko's worse than a lame duck. That the Rada acted somewhat independently is a good
sign.
Thanks for the link to Crooke's article. The Khashoggi killing looks to have been a game
changer for the region and Crooke sums it up well. The current Ukie provocation may well
be to take the Aleppo CW attack out of the news. Around 2014 2015 In noticed that when
blocked on one front, the US et al (I have started to think in terms of a five-eyes permanent
state) would move to another front - Ukraine, Syria, South China Sea. The last couple of
years, their attention seems to have been mostly on Syria, Iran and the middle
east.
Jen@121 yes exactly. The monstrousnes of US foreign policy and its consequences still
staggers and shames me, despite my cynicism. Empowering such people, providing weapons and
encouragement even when they are not more directly involved.
"...Over the past four years over 1,000 Canadian troops (a rotation of 200 every six months)
has deployed to the Ukraine to train a force that includes the best-organized neo-Nazis in
the world. Far right militia members are part of the force fighting Russia-aligned groups in
eastern Ukraine.
Five months ago Canada's military attache in Kiev, Colonel Brian Irwin, met privately with
officers from the Azov battalion, who use the Nazi 'Wolfangal' symbol and praise officials
who helped slaughter Jews during WWII. According to Azov, the Canadian officials concluded
the June briefing by expressing 'their hopes for further fruitful cooperation.'
More generally, Canadians have fundraised for and joined rightist militias fighting inside
Ukraine. For their part, top politicians have spoken alongside and marched with members of
Ukraine's Right Sector, which said it was 'defending the values of White Christian Europe
against the loss of the Nation and deregionalisation.'
Didnt they try to sail a US ship near Crimea a few years back and it wound up having its
electronics quickly disabled and fighter jets flown at it to show it can easily be sunk?
There's provoking these guys with sanctions but if you're going to escalate it and threaten
so sail a fleet into its territory, I'd expect a war. Im sure they've already prepared for
this to potentially happen and that fleet would be hit with missiles from all angles.
Ridiculous
Not just Canada. The five eyes permanent state utilises nazis, wahhabi's and zionists -
zionist's it seems being deeply embedded in the permanent state.
Fernando Martinez , Nov 26, 2018 9:15:52 PM |
link
@121 jen.. thanks for the more detailed analysis on that...
@125 john gilberts.. thanks... have you contacted The Honourable Harjit Singh Sajjan MP
who is the dept. of defense minister on this? here is his e mail.. DND_MND@forces.gc.ca
Not much to see here. The empire's little gas monkeys got off their leash in Syria and did
something stupid and embarrassing, so a diversion was required to avoid all those
uncomfortable questions at the UN. Luckily the embarrassingly half-witted, submissive
Ukrainian leadership is only too happy to help out the empire and sacrifice its soldiers and
national interests. The alphabet agencies must ROFL at the clowns in Kyiv. Local population
not so much.
...
i) A vessel to starboard has right of way.
ii) A larger vessel has right of way over a smaller vessel.
The small Ukrainian tug had the larger Russian vessel to its starboard (rules i and ii
against it). The tug effectively cut across the bow of the larger Russian vessel and slowed
down in front of it. The Russian vessel was turning away to minimise the inevitable impact
arising from the deliberate actions of Ukranian captain of the tug.
So whilst the optics look bad, the rules obliged the tug to get out of the way. Nice.
It's an amplification of the routine pre-race jostling behind the START line before a
yacht race. If your timing is lousy then you'll cross the START line before the gun goes off
and be disqualified unless you go back and cross the START line AFTER the gun fired. A
majority of casual Sunday yacht racers are just there to have fun and are happy to sit well
back from the line with limp sails and yank them tight when the gun has fired, and leave the
jostling to the fanatics.
Apart from the ramming of the tug boat, it seems the Ukie navy vessels were fired on.
Whatever intel Russia had, they were there to stop the pricks rather than just a nice day on
the water.
"... Trump's memo on the Saudis begins with the headline "The world is a very dangerous place!" Indeed, it is and behavior by the three occupants of the White House since 2000 is largely to blame. ..."
"... Indeed, a national security policy that sees competitors and adversaries as enemies in a military sense has made nuclear war, unthinkable since the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991, thinkable once again. ..."
"... George Washington's dictum in his Farewell Address , counseling his countrymen to "observe good faith and justice towards all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all." And Washington might have somehow foreseen the poisonous relationships with Israel and the Saudis when he warned that " a passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest in cases where no real common interest exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter without adequate inducement or justification." ..."
"... Cautious optimism may be better than none, but futile nonetheless. Bullying, dispossession, slavery and genocide constitute the very bedrock, the essence and soul of the founding of our country. ..."
"... Truth be told we simply know of no other kinder, gentler alternatives to perpetual war and destruction as the cornerstone of our foreign policy. Normality? Not in my lifetime. ..."
"... Your CNI and 'If Americans Knew' informed me about Rand Paul's courageous move. I plan to call his office today to give him encouragement and call my Senators and Representative to urge them to support him (fat chance of that but I have to stick it in their face). ..."
"... America doesn't have a policy because America is no longer a real nation. It's an empire filled with diverse groups of peoples who all hate each other and want to use the power of the government for the benefit of their overseas co-ethnics. ..."
President Donald Trump's
recent statement on the Jamal Khashoggi killing by Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince might well be considered a metaphor for his foreign
policy. Several commentators have suggested that the text appears to be something that Trump wrote himself without any adult supervision,
similar to the poorly expressed random arguments presented in his tweeting only longer. That might be the case, but it would not
be wise to dismiss the document as merely frivolous or misguided as it does in reality express the kind of thinking that has produced
a foreign policy that seems to drift randomly to no real end, a kind of leaderless creative destruction of the United States as a
world power.
Lord Palmerston, Prime Minister of Britain in the mid nineteenth century, famously said that "Nations have no permanent friends
or allies, they only have permanent interests."The United States currently has neither real friends nor any clearly defined interests.
It is, however, infested with parasites that have convinced an at-drift America that their causes are identical to the interests
of the United States. Leading the charge to reduce the U.S. to "bitch" status, as Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard
has artfully put it , are Israel and Saudi
Arabia, but there are many other countries, alliances and advocacy groups that have learned how to subvert and direct the "leader
of the free world."
Trump's memo on the Saudis begins with the headline "The world is a very dangerous place!" Indeed, it is and behavior by the
three occupants of the White House since 2000 is largely to blame. It is difficult to find a part of the world where an actual
American interest is being served by Washington's foreign and global security policies. Indeed, a national security policy that
sees competitors and adversaries as enemies in a military sense has made nuclear war, unthinkable since the demise of the Soviet
Union in 1991, thinkable once again. The fact that no one is the media or in political circles is even talking about that terrible
danger suggests that war has again become mainstreamed, tacitly benefiting from bipartisan acceptance of it as a viable foreign policy
tool by the media, in the U.S. Congress and also in the White House.
The part of the world where American meddling coupled with ignorance has produced the worst result is inevitably the Middle East...
... ... ...
All of the White House's actions have one thing in common and that is that they do not benefit Americans in any way unless one
works for a weapons manufacturer, and that is not even taking into consideration the dead soldiers and civilians and the massive
debt that has been incurred to intervene all over the world. One might also add that most of America's interventions are built on
deliberate lies by the government and its associated media, intended to increase tension and create a casus belli where
none exists.
So what is to be done as it often seems that the best thing Trump has going for him is that he is not Hillary Clinton? First of
all, a comprehensive rethink of what the real interests of the United States are in the world arena is past due. America is less
safe now than it was in 2001 as it continues to make enemies with its blundering everywhere it goes. There are now
four times as many designated terrorists as there were in 2001, active in 70 countries. One would quite plausibly soon arrive
at George Washington's dictum in his Farewell Address
, counseling his countrymen to "observe good faith and justice towards all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all." And Washington
might have somehow foreseen the poisonous relationships with Israel and the Saudis when he warned that " a passionate attachment
of one nation for another produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary
common interest in cases where no real common interest exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other, betrays the former
into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter without adequate inducement or justification."
George Washington or any of the other Founders would be appalled to see an America with 800 military bases overseas, allegedly
for self-defense. The transfer of wealth from taxpayers to the military industrial complex and related entities like Wall Street
has been catastrophic. The United States does not need to protect Israel and Saudi Arabia, two countries that are armed to the teeth
and well able to defend themselves. Nor does it have to be in Syria and Afghanistan. And
If the United States were to withdraw its military from the Middle East and the rest of Asia tomorrow, it would be to nearly everyone's
benefit. If the armed forces were to be subsequently reduced to a level sufficient to defend the United States it would put money
back in the pockets of Americans and end the continuous fearmongering through surfacing of "threats" by career militarists justifying
the bloated budgets.
... ... ...
Philip M. Giraldi, Ph.D., is Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest, a 501(c)3 tax deductible educational
foundation that seeks a more interests inform@cnionline.org
.
but even small steps in the right direction could initiate a gradual process of turning the United States into a more normal
country in its relationships with the rest of the world rather than a universal predator and bully.
Cautious optimism may be better than none, but futile nonetheless. Bullying, dispossession, slavery and genocide constitute
the very bedrock, the essence and soul of the founding of our country.
To expect mutations -- no matter how slow or fast in a
trait that appears deeply embedded in our DNA is to be naive. Add to that the intractable stranglehold Zionists and organized
world Jewry has on our nuts and decision making. A more congruent convergence of histories and DNAs would be hard to come by among
other nations. Truth be told we simply know of no other kinder, gentler alternatives to perpetual war and destruction as the cornerstone
of our foreign policy. Normality? Not in my lifetime.
Your CNI and 'If Americans Knew' informed me about Rand Paul's courageous move. I plan to call his office today to give
him encouragement and call my Senators and Representative to urge them to support him (fat chance of that but I have to stick
it in their face).
Hey, how about a Rand Paul-Tulsi Gabbard fusion ticket in 2024, not a bad idea, IMHO.
Going back to the Administration you can see the slimy Zionist hands of Steven Miller on all of those foreign policy statements.
Trump is allowing this because he has to protect his flanks from Zionists, Christian or otherwise. He might be just giving Miller
just enough rope to jettison him (wishful thinking on my part). Or he doesn't care or is unaware of the texts, a possibility.
1. Because that defies human nature. See all of history if you disagree.
2. America doesn't have a policy because America is no longer a real nation. It's an empire filled with diverse groups of peoples
who all hate each other and want to use the power of the government for the benefit of their overseas co-ethnics.
The beginning of USA foreign policy for me is the 1820 or 1830 Monroe Declaration: south America is our backyard, keep out.
Few people know that at the time European countries considered war on the USA because of this beginning of world domination.
When I told this to a USA correspondent the reply was 'but this declaration still is taught here in glowing terms'.
What we saw then was the case until Obama, USA foreign policy was for internal political reasons.
As Hollings stated in 2004 'Bush promising AIPAC the war on Iraq, that is politics'.
No empire ever, as far as I know, ever was in the comfortable position to be able to let foreign policy to be decided (almost)
completely by internal politics.
This changed during the Obama reign, the two war standard had to be lowered to one and a half.
All of a sudden the USA had to develop a foreign policy, a policy that had to take into consideration the world outside the USA.
Not the whole USA understands this, the die hards of Deep State in the lead.
What a half war accomplishes we see, my opinion, in Syria, a half war does not bring victory on an enemy who wages a whole
war.
Assad is still there, Russia has airforce and naval bases in Syria.
Normally, as any history book explains, foreign policy of a country is decided on in secret by a few people.
British preparations for both WWI and WWII included detailed technical talks with both the USA and France, not even all cabinet
members knew about it.
One of Trump's difficulties is that Deep State does not at all has the intention of letting the president decide on foreign policy,
at the time of FDR he did what he liked, though, if one reads for example Baruch's memoirs, in close cooperation with the Deep
State that then existed.
The question 'why do we not leave the rest of the world alone', hardly ever asked.
The USA is nearly autarcic, foreign trade, from memory, some five percent of national income, a very luxurious position.
But of course, leaving the rest of the world alone, huge internal consequences, as Hinckley explains with an example, politically
impossible to stop the development of a bomber judged to be superfluous.
Barbara Hinckley Sheldon Goldman, American Politics and Government, Glenview Ill.,1990
Good luck. A fight over resources with the biggest consumer of resources, the People That Kill People and all their little buddies
in the Alphabet Soup of Law Enforcement and Intelligence Depravity..
That could get a fella hurt. Ask Jack and Bob Kennedy.
"The bilateral relationship between the U.S. and Russia is now worse than it was towards the end of the Cold War". Classic American
cold warrior mentality. The present-day Russian Federation is assimilated to the former Soviet Union.
Tragically for America, and the West in general, President Trump is unrecognizable from
candidate Trump :
'This is a crossroads in the history of our civilization that will determine whether or not we the people reclaim control over
our government. The political establishment that is trying to stop us is the same group responsible for our disastrous trade deals,
massive illegal immigration and economic and foreign policies that have bled our country dry Their financial resources are virtually
unlimited, their political resources are unlimited, their media resources are unmatched, and most importantly, the depths of their
immorality is absolutely unlimited.'
Dragon teeth sawed by Nuland gave offsting... In Greek myth , dragon's teeth,
once planted, would grow into fully armed warriors.
This classical legend has given rise to the phrase "to sow dragon's teeth." This is used as a
metaphor to refer to doing something that has the effect of fomenting disputes.
The martial law will formally begin on Wednesday, and last for 30 days. President Petro
Poroshenko said he intends to respect the rights of individual Ukrainian citizens during this
period.
Importantly, Ukrainian officials are emphasizing that this
move is short of a declaration of war on Russia. On Sunday, officials had said the
National Security and Defense Council was meeting and intended to declare a "state of war,"
though it does not appear any public declaration happened.
On Sunday, three Ukrainian ships crossed into Russian territorial waters, and were seized.
Russia said this area of the Sea of Azov was closed for security reasons. Ukraine is
demanding the return of the ships and the sailors. Russia says they are temporarily
impounded, and that the three sailors wounded in the incident have
already been treated and are in no medical danger .
Russian officials are downplaying the incident as a minor one, while Ukrainian officials
are already identifying a series of border areas that they expect ground troops to invade.
Ukraine has been predicting a Russian invasion for years.
As is often the case, the US and NATO are embracing the Ukrainian narrative, and
condemning Russia. Such condemnations come as a matter of course, but so far, are stopping
short of any threats to escalate this militarily into a global war.
Looks like a desperate attempt of Poroshenko to save his scalp. And pay of EU and the USA hostility toward Russia for
his own political ends. But Timoshenko is shrewd enough and politically powerful enough to block any attempt to postpone
Presidential elections.
Notable quotes:
"... I believe this was a preplanned Ukrainian provocation to garner international support in her effort to get unfettered passage through the Kerch Strait. Russia has been increasing her inspections of ships transiting the Strait this year. That is Russia's right under the 2003 agreement, international and maritime laws. ..."
"... With Poroshenko polling at 8% for the election in 2 months it is very convenient to use any excuse to declare martial law and postpone the election. ..."
"... In any case the "Russia, Russia evil" crowd in the west will find this another opportunity to create more hysteria and take actions to "punish" Russia. ..."
"... Eversince fall of USSR a bunch of crazy neocon warmongers our running US/western foreign policy. ..."
"... about the prospects for Ukraine electing a government willing to negotiate with Russia ..."
"... Probability of that is approaching zero. US will not allow this anyway even if to imagine that such prospects do exist. In fact, this latest provocation could be, as one of the commenters at Unz short time ago astutely observed, an attempt by Trump to avoid meeting with Putin at G-20. Realistically speaking, at this stage there is really nothing to talk about between the US and Russia. ..."
"... Madame Nuland and her erstwhile cabal of neo-cons might have given some thought to such unpredictable eventualities when we were pouring the big dough into the Ukraine to effect regime change in a country that we may be sure she knew next to nothing about in actuality. ..."
"... this was a political provocation to support the introduction of martial law in Ukraine - apparently to help Poroshenko stay in office ..."
"... the only casualty was a crew member on one of the Ukraine vessels shot by the captain when the crew member refused orders to open fire on a Russian vessel.. ..."
"... Here is the latest from The Saker, who thinks that it's also about Ukrainian politics and the upcoming election there. This is hardly news to anyone that has been following this. Poroshenko is in a very bad position and is forced by circumstances to act, even if rashly, since he faces probable prosecution for corruption if he loses, which is a foregone conclusion given the numbers. ..."
"... Oh, and Ukraine desperately, desperately needs to change the subject. The Nuland Experiment (a great movie title) has failed miserably and is about to be turned over like a rock and the slimy creatures are going to come pouring forth. Europe is very much coming around to the belief that they want nothing to do with Ukraine, but this "event" put NATO into the conversation, and NATO is the big one. "Ukraine needs to be part of NATO!" ..."
I don't know about that. The whole thing was about martial law--Poroshenko barely clings
to power--and he got it now. Any provocation in Azov Sea will be met fully within
appropriate protocols (namely Law on the State Border) and ROE of other forces, so
militarily speaking there was nothing extraordinary. I really doubt this version with
SADM--comes across as a complete baloney.
I agree the SADM story is more likely just a crazy conspiracy theory. The commenter could
even be a Russian or Russian supporter trying to muddy the waters on his own, painting
the Ukrainians as full on crazies.I believe this was a preplanned Ukrainian provocation
to garner international support in her effort to get unfettered passage through the Kerch
Strait. Russia has been increasing her inspections of ships transiting the Strait this
year. That is Russia's right under the 2003 agreement, international and maritime laws.
Actually, there is a case to be made (obviously without any conspiracy theories) of
mind-boggling stupidity of contemporary Ukraine's "elites". This is even apart from sheer
military incompetence.
Ukraine already has unfettered access through Kerch beyond usual protocol and procedures,
they have even admitted so before with their Ships making the transit... You are correct as per the Agreements, but one could not expect to ignore such
Procedures even with allied States, let alone one that supposedly is 'at war' with
With Poroshenko polling at 8% for the election in 2 months it is very convenient to use
any excuse to declare martial law and postpone the election. Would be interesting to see
how his political opponents respond. In any case the "Russia, Russia evil" crowd in the
west will find this another opportunity to create more hysteria and take actions to
"punish" Russia.
After the 2014 coup do you believe or do you consider Ukraine to be (politically) a
failed state.
Good of Russia for sake of world to stand up to westerners push and provocations. Eversince fall of USSR a bunch of crazy neocon warmongers our running
US/western foreign policy. Good to see Russia under Putin, has woke up to the reality
that she can't have a friend (partner) in the west, unless she agrees to become a
subservient to the interests of the US/West
If the Ukrainians (goaded on by some NATO nutjob) really wanted to destroy the bridge,
they would try their level best to make it look like some 'patriot' living under the yoke
of Russian oppression in Crimea damaged the bridge. The last thing they would do is
create a clear link to a Ukrainian military vessel.
Do you have anything to say about the prospects for Ukraine electing a government willing
to negotiate with Russia? I don't think the last few years have been all that good for
the average Ukrainian.
about the prospects for Ukraine electing a government willing to negotiate with
Russia
Probability of that is approaching zero. US will not allow this anyway even if to
imagine that such prospects do exist. In fact, this latest provocation could be, as one
of the commenters at Unz short time ago astutely observed, an attempt by Trump to avoid
meeting with Putin at G-20. Realistically speaking, at this stage there is really nothing
to talk about between the US and Russia.
One would have to be certifiable to believe that an attack on that bridge would not
trigger an overwhelming military attack by Russia on the Ukraine. This would not be
"brinkmanship." This would be insane. Maybe there is some insanity lurking in the halls
of power in the Ukraine, would anyone be surprised. Maybe there is some insanity lurking
closer to home. The temperament of John Brennan on recent display deoesn't exactly
inspire much confidence.
Madame Nuland and her erstwhile cabal of neo-cons might have given some thought to such
unpredictable eventualities when we were pouring the big dough into the Ukraine to effect
regime change in a country that we may be sure she knew next to nothing about in
actuality. No, Madame, we are not all Ukrainians now, nor, God willing, will we ever be.
These dingbats put one in mind of Charlie Chaplin blithly bouncing the globe about over
his head and doing his best to stay beneath it.
Did these so called area experts down there in la la land really think that Russia would
see Sevastopol made a port of call for NATO without so much as a whimper? I sometimes
wonder whether a single person sitting around the big table said, "you know, maybe
overthrowing the government of the Ukraine is not such a great idea, it being so close to
Russia, and all..."
You can't hide the radioactive residue of a nuclear detonation, no matter how small. They
also have a characteristic fingerprint that will be identifiable. Therefor using one
starts WWIII.
That's not to say someone didn't think it would be clever to provoke the Russians into
acting to make them look like an aggressor. Or perhaps to gauge their intelligence
penetration of NATO and or Ukrainian operations...
For some time now I've been of the opinion that there are great many fools who really
want a hot war with Russia.
I just finished watching the "The Unknown War", the Russian equivalent of the BBC's
"The World At War" series on WWII. Both were made in the 1970's while most of the
survivors were still alive to tell their tales. It would seem they have been ignored by
those who most need to see them...
Colonel Cassad's website suggests this was a political provocation to support the
introduction of martial law in Ukraine - apparently to help Poroshenko stay in office. It
also cites a report that the only casualty was a crew member on one of the Ukraine
vessels shot by the captain when the crew member refused orders to open fire on a Russian
vessel..
This seems to make more sense, without the drama of a small nuke.
The Vineyard of the Saker
Kerch Provocation – Causes and Consequences
http://thesaker.is/kerch-pr...
Rostislav Ishchenko
Translated by Ollie Richardson and Angelina Siard
Update:
Here is the latest from The Saker, who thinks that it's also about Ukrainian politics
and the upcoming election there. This is hardly news to anyone that has been following
this. Poroshenko is in a very bad position and is forced by circumstances to act, even if
rashly, since he faces probable prosecution for corruption if he loses, which is a
foregone conclusion given the numbers.
Baloney? In the first place, very economical. You're British Special Forces. You've
studied how to get the bridge down and stay down. This was the only choice that was
deliverable without fingerprints. A tugboat forsooth. And, btw, in the video that has
sound, someone is really screaming and yelling in panic mode, I suspect it is the captain
of the tug. Would you scream and yell if you were carrying a SADM and a Russian warship
was about to ram you? Oh, and who would they blame? Iran. Simple. Why? Because it's Iran.
Russia doesn't react hard unless there's something there. And they have really, really
good intelligence, I'm convinced of it. And who would plant this story, which, with the
exception of the nuclear dimension of the weapon, is trivially believable.
Oh, and Ukraine desperately, desperately needs to change the subject. The Nuland
Experiment (a great movie title) has failed miserably and is about to be turned over like
a rock and the slimy creatures are going to come pouring forth. Europe is very much
coming around to the belief that they want nothing to do with Ukraine, but this "event"
put NATO into the conversation, and NATO is the big one. "Ukraine needs to be part of
NATO!"
if the tug was captured, and a SADM is involved, has it fallen into Russian hands?
Off topic, TTG. If you have not read The Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers,
please read it now. It was published in 1903 and is considered to be the first spy novel.
It takes place in a sailboat. I have read it well over ten times. On any list of the five
best novels, it must appear.
I do not understand why we and others send enough to hearten the Ukrainians and the
surrounding NATO countries but not enough to make a difference should serious hostilities
break out. For PR or for real?
Germany played an important role in unleashing 2014 Maydan events, although at the end it was
overtaken by the USA... Germany was also the major pusher for the association agreement between
Ukraine and EU. Pro-Atlantism Merkel did a lot to damage German business interests in Russia,
although Russian so far resisted abrupt moves (I think only German luxury cars and agricultural
products are currently sanctioned by Russia).
Looks like Jonas J. Driedger expresses standard NATO propagandists position on t he subject
which is interesting in view of existence of UK financed "Integrity initiative" (documents about which were recently leaked by
Anonymous ) and, especially, late
Dr. Udo Ulfkotte revelations
... in 2014, Russia started to build a bridge over the
Kerch Strait to connect the Peninsula to the Russian mainland, as attempts to build a land
connection by conquering Ukraine's Sea of Azov coastline had previously failed. To try and stop
the trans-Kerch bridge and grant access for its vessels through the straits, Ukraine
sued Russia by invoking the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
The danger of military escalation between Russia and Ukraine, with all of its unforeseeable
consequences, is real and rising.
Russia is largely unaware of this, as it has moved its attention away from Ukraine and
towards operations in Syria, countering U.S. efforts to modernize its nuclear arsenal, and
improving Russian gas supply capabilities to the European Union and
Germany .
At the same time, mainly for domestic purposes, Russian state-controlled media continues to
trash the Ukrainian government while celebrating the finalization of the Kerch bridge and
supposed economic miracles in Crimea.
Such triumphalism fans the flames of revanchism in Ukraine. The list of grievances in
Ukraine is as long as it is understandable. Crimea remains occupied, and the West has quietly
acquiesced to this fact by making sure that existing sanctions are primarily tied to advances
in the Minsk process over Donbass, not Crimea. Ironically, no such advances in the Minsk
framework taken place, which suits Russian interests, but remains a thorn in Ukraine's side,
where the Minsk process is seen as illegitimate to begin with.
At the same time, Russian president Vladimir Putin has permitted the stationing of bombers
and Iskander missiles in Crimea, both of which are dual-capable missile delivery systems. Since
2014, Russian support for the Putin regime is less dependent on the country's economic
well-being, and more so on the continued performance of Russia as a great power. While the
effect is declining, the annexation of Crimea has long boosted Putin's popularity. Therefore,
Russia is unlikely to back down in a crisis with Ukraine.
Ukraine, simultaneously, has significantly beefed up its military forces and improved its
on-the-ground-control. The anti-tank Javelin launchers provided by the United States are only a
small part of these efforts. A replication of the confused and feeble Ukrainian response in
2014 is unlikely. The Ukrainian military is now even regarded by some in Kyiv as a possible
tool to establish some new facts on the ground.
However, Ukrainian domestic politics worsen the situation. The country will hold
presidential elections in March 2019. In the most recent polls, incumbent president Petro
Poroshenko trails his main competitor Yulia Tymoshenko, who has made Donbass, Crimea, and
Russia core topics in her attacks on Poroshenko.
Tymoshenko's strategy, the stalling Minsk process, Ukraine's ongoing economic woes, rampant
corruption, and allegations of Poroshenko being involved in shady business deals increasingly
narrow down the incumbent's options for holding on to power. His most promising option is to
present himself as a successful, or at least assertive, war president. Poroshenko's recent move
to impose martial law corroborates this view. Considering the traditionally cut-throat nature
of Ukraine's elite struggles and Yulia Tymoshenko's questionable record, there is little reason
to be optimistic.
The West, at the same time, looks inward and has shown little interest in effectively
ameliorating the danger of military escalation between Ukraine and Russia. This is likely to
continue, due to the ongoing twists and turns surrounding Trump and the continuing Brexit
process in Europe. Incidentally, the United Kingdom is likely to formally leave the European
Union two days before the Ukrainian presidential election.
War over Ukraine might not be very likely, but the danger is real.
Jonas J. Driedger is a German policy analyst at the European University Institute in
Florence, Italy. He is also currently a visiting scholar at the Higher School of Economics in
Moscow and partakes in the Alfa Fellowship Program. He specializes in foreign and security
policy with a focus on Germany, the European Union and Russia. His analyses were published in
The National Interest, Politico Europe, per Concordiam, EUObserver, and EurActiv. The views
expressed in this article are solely his own.
Mr.Parashenko has rating 0% in his land because Ukrainian economy is ruined by him.
And president elections are coming. He just needs marital law to prevent president
elections and stay on Ukrainian throne. Otherwise he has full chance to be imprisoned for
corruption. That's why yesterday he intervened Russian territorial waters. Expectedly
Russia prevented intervention and arrested the boats. And today Parashenko already
implemented marital law! Voi la! :-)
Hello Troll!
How's it going, how much money do you get for your comments in the National
interest???
I'm kidding, I'm not interested in your answers. DDD
As certified western toadies the Ukies will howl about anything. The Russians
therefore should deliver then a serious whacking. The west can't do a thing having shot
it wad long ago.
Col. Lawrence Wilkerson says that the latest Ukraine crisis, in which Russia is holding
Ukrainian navy boats, was foreseeable and likely, given NATO's constant encroachment on
Russia's border region
"... It lists Bellingcat and the Atlantic Council as "partner organisations" ..."
"... "The UK's Secret Intelligence Service, otherwise known as MI6, has been scrambling to prevent President Trump from publishing classified materials linked to the Russian election meddling investigation. ... much of the espionage performed on the Trump campaign was conducted on UK soil throughout 2016." ..."
"... "Gregory R. Copley, editor and publisher of Defense & Foreign Affairs, posited that Sergei Skripal is the unnamed Russian intelligence source in the Steele dossier. ... In Skripal's pseudo-country-gentleman retirement, the ex-GRU-MI6 double agent was selling custom-made "Russian intelligence"; he had fabricated "material" that went into the Steele dossier..." ..."
"... this movement in the west by gov'ts to pay for generating lies, hate and propaganda towards russia is really sick... it is perfect for the military industrial complex corporations though and they seem to be calling the shots in the west, much more so then the voice of the ordinary person who is not interested in war ..."
"... Seems to me that this shows the primacy of the City of London, with its offshore network of illicit capital accumulation, within Britain. It is a state within a state or even a financial empire within a state, which, for deep historical reasons isn't subject to the same laws as the rest of the UK. ..."
"... The UK's pathological obsession with Russia only makes sense to me as the city's insistence on continued 90s style appropriation of Russia's wealth ..."
"... British hypocrisy publicly called out. How this all unravels is one to watch. Extra large popcorn and soda for me ..."
"... It seems to me that the UK has far more to lose from doxxing than Russia does. The interference in sovereign allied states to 'manage' who the UK thinks they should appoint does not bode well for such relations ..."
"... A separate subcluster of so-called journalists names Deborah Haynes, David Aaronovitch of the London Times and Neil Buckley from the FT." Subcluster. Love it. Just how crap do you have to be to fail to make it to membership of a full cluster of smear merchants? ..."
"... I doubt very seriously that the British launched this operation without the CIA's implicit and explicit support. This has all the markings of a John Brennan operation that has been launched stealthily to prevent anyone from knowing its real origins. ..."
"... The Brits don't act alone, and a project of this magnitude did not begin without Langley's explicit approval. ..."
"... Now check out the wording in the above document: "Funding from institutional and national governmental sources in the US has been delayed by internal disputes within the US government, but w.e.f. March 2018 that deadlock seems to have been resolved and funding should now flow." Think about that. What would have blocked the flow of USG support for this project?? Why, the allegations of collusion against Trump, of course. Naturally, the Republicans are not going to provide money to an operation that threatens to destroy the head of their own party. So, there has been no bipartisan agreement on funding for anti-Russia propaganda ..."
"... This mob was created in the autumn of 2015, according to their site. That would have been about the time -- probably just after -- the Russians intervened in Syria. The Brits had plans for an invasion of Syria in 2009, according to their fave Guardian fish wrap. ..."
"... Pat Lang posted a report that strongly implies that charges of Russian influence on Trump are a deliberate falsification ..."
"... It seems quite possible that what is alleged as "Russian meddling" is actually CIA-MI6 meddling ..."
"... As I have said before, MAGA is a POLICY RESPONSE to the challenge from Russia and China. The election of a Republican faux populist was necessary and Trump, despite his many flaws, was the best candidate for the job. ..."
"... The Integrity Initiative's goal is to defend democracy against the truth about Russia. All this is so Orwellian. When will we get the Ministry of Love? ..."
"... They shot at an elephant and failed to kill it. So yes, out of the combo of frustration, resentment, and fear they hate the resurgent Russia and prefer Cold War II, and if necessary WWIII, to peaceful co-existence. Of course the usual corporate imperative (in this case weapons profiteering) reinforces the mass psychological pathology among the elites. ..."
"... The ironic thing is that Putin doesn't prefer to challenge the neoliberal globalist "order" at all, but would happily see Russia take a prominent place within it. It's the US and its UK poodle who are insisting on confrontation. ..."
"... Great article! It reminded me of what I read in George Orwell's novella "1984." He summed it all up brilliantly in nine words: "War is Peace"; "Freedom is Slavery"; "Ignorance is Strength." The three pillars of political power. ..."
"... Since UK has always blocked the "European Intelligence" initiative, on the basis of his pertenence to the "Five Eyes", and as UK is leaving the European Union, where it has always been the Troyan Horse of the US, one would think that all these people belonging to the so called "clusters" should register themselves as "foreign agents" working for UK government. ..."
British Government Runs Secret Anti-Russian Smear CampaignsSteveg , Nov 24,
2018 11:43:44 AM |
link
In 2015 the government of Britain launched a secret operation to insert anti-Russia
propaganda into the western media stream.
We have already seen
many consequences of this and similar programs which are designed to smear anyone who
does not follow the anti-Russian government lines. The 'Russian collusion' smear campaign
against Donald Trump based on the Steele dossier was also a largely British operation but
seems to be part of a different project.
The ' Integrity
Initiative ' builds 'cluster' or contact groups of trusted journalists, military
personal, academics and lobbyists within foreign countries. These people get alerts via
social media to take action when the British center perceives a need.
On June 7 it took the the Spanish cluster only a few hours to derail the appointment of
Perto Banos as the Director of the National Security Department in Spain. The cluster
determined that he had a too positive view of Russia and launched a coordinated social media
smear
campaign (pdf) against him.
The Initiative and its operations were unveiled when someone liberated some of its
documents, including its budget applications to the British Foreign Office, and
posted them under the 'Anonymous' label at cyberguerrilla.org .
The Integrity Initiative was set up in autumn 2015 by The Institute for Statecraft in
cooperation with the Free University of Brussels (VUB) to bring to the attention of
politicians, policy-makers, opinion leaders and other interested parties the threat posed
by Russia to democratic institutions in the United Kingdom, across Europe and North
America.
It lists Bellingcat and the Atlantic Council as "partner organisations" and
promises that:
Cluster members will be sent to educational sessions abroad to improve the technical
competence of the cluster to deal with disinformation and strengthen bonds in the cluster
community. [...] (Events with DFR Digital Sherlocks, Bellingcat, EuVsDisinfo, Buzzfeed,
Irex, Detector Media, Stopfake, LT MOD Stratcom – add more names and propose cluster
participants as you desire).
The Initiatives Orwellian slogan is 'Defending Democracy Against Disinformation'. It
covers European countries, the UK, the U.S. and Canada and seems to want to expand to the
Middle East.
On its About page
it claims: "We are not a government body but we do work with government departments and
agencies who share our aims." The now published budget plans show that more than 95% of the
Initiative's funding is coming directly from the British government, NATO and the U.S. State
Department. All the 'contact persons' for creating 'clusters' in foreign countries are
British embassy officers. It amounts to a foreign influence campaign by the British
government that hides behind a 'civil society' NGO.
The organisation is led by one Chris N. Donnelly who
receives (pdf) £8,100 per month for creating the smear campaign network.
To counter Russian disinformation and malign influence in Europe by: expanding the
knowledge base; harnessing existing expertise, and; establishing a network of networks of
experts, opinion formers and policy makers, to educate national audiences in the threat and
to help build national capacities to counter it .
The Initiative has a black and white view that is based on a "we are the good ones"
illusion. When "we" 'educate the public' it is legitimate work. When others do similar, it
its disinformation. That is of course not the reality. The Initiative's existence itself,
created to secretly manipulate the public, is proof that such a view is wrong.
If its work were as legit as it wants to be seen, why would the Foreign Office run it from
behind the curtain as an NGO? The Initiative is not the only such operation. It's
applications seek funding from a larger "Russian Language Strategic Communication Programme"
run by the Foreign Office.
The 2017/18 budget application sought FCO funding of £480,635. It received
£102,000 in co-funding from NATO and the Lithuanian Ministry of Defense. The 2018/19
budget application shows a
planned spending (pdf) of £1,961,000.00. The co-sponsors this year are again NATO
and the Lithuanian MoD, but
also include (pdf) the U.S. State Department with £250,000 and Facebook with
£100,000. The budget lays out a strong cooperation with the local military of each
country. It notes that NATO is also generous in financing the local clusters.
One of the liberated papers of the Initiative is a talking points memo labeled
Top 3 Deliverable for FCO (pdf):
Developing and proving the cluster concept and methodology, setting up clusters in a
range of countries with different circumstances
Making people (in Government, think tanks, military, journalists) see the big
picture, making people acknowledge that we are under concerted, deliberate hybrid attack
by Russia
Increasing the speed of response, mobilising the network to activism in pursuit of
the "golden minute"
Under top 1, setting up clusters, a subitem reads:
- Connects media with academia with policy makers with practitioners in a country to impact
on policy and society: ( Jelena Milic silencing pro-kremlin voices on Serbian TV )
Defending Democracy by silencing certain voices on public TV seems to be a
self-contradicting concept.
Another subitem notes how the Initiative secretly influences foreign governments:
We engage only very discreetly with governments, based entirely on trusted personal
contacts, specifically to ensure that they do not come to see our work as a problem, and to
try to influence them gently, as befits an independent NGO operation like ours, viz;
- Germany, via the Zentrum Liberale Moderne to the Chancellor's Office and MOD
- Netherlands, via the HCSS to the MOD
- Poland and Romania, at desk level into their MFAs via their NATO Reps
- Spain, via special advisers, into the MOD and PM's office (NB this may change very soon
with the new Government)
- Norway, via personal contacts into the MOD
- HQ NATO, via the Policy Planning Unit into the Sec Gen's office.
We have latent contacts into other governments which we will activate as needs be as the
clusters develop.
A look at the 'clusters' set up in U.S. and UK shows some prominent names.
Members of the Atlantic Council, which has a contract to
censor Facebook posts , appear on several cluster lists. The UK core cluster also
includes some prominent names like tax fraudster William Browder , the daft Atlantic Council
shill Ben Nimmo and the neo-conservative Washington Post columnist Anne Applebaum. One person
of interest is Andrew Wood who
handed the Steele 'dirty dossier' to Senator John McCain to smear Donald Trump over
alleged relations with Russia. A separate subcluster of so-called journalists names Deborah
Haynes, David Aaronovitch of the London Times, Neil Buckley from the FT and Jonathan Marcus
of the BBC.
A ' Cluster
Roundup ' (pdf) from July 2018 details its activities in at least 35 countries. Another
file reveals (pdf) the local
partnering institutions and individuals involved in the programs.
The Initiatives Guide
to Countering Russian Information (pdf) is a rather funny read. It lists the downing of
flight MH 17 by a Ukranian BUK missile, the fake chemical incident in Khan Sheikhoun and the
Skripal Affair as examples for "Russian disinformation". But at least two of these events,
Khan Sheikun via the UK run White Helmets and the Skripal affair, are evidently products of
British intelligence disinformation operations.
The probably most interesting papers of the whole stash is the 'Project Plan' laid out at
pages 7-40 of the
2018 budget application v2 (pdf). Under 'Sustainability' it notes:
The programme is proposed to run until at least March 2019, to ensure that the clusters
established in each country have sufficient time to take root, find funding, and
demonstrate their effectiveness. FCO funding for Phase 2 will enable the activities to be
expanded in scale, reach and scope. As clusters have established themselves, they have
begun to access local sources of funding. But this is a slow process and harder in some
countries than others. HQ NATO PDD [Public Diplomacy Division] has proved a reliable source
of funding for national clusters. The ATA [Atlantic Treaty Association] promises to be the
same, giving access to other pots of money within NATO and member nations. Funding from
institutional and national governmental sources in the US has been delayed by internal
disputes within the US government, but w.e.f. March 2018 that deadlock seems to have been
resolved and funding should now flow.
The programme has begun to create a critical mass of individuals from a cross society
(think tanks, academia, politics, the media, government and the military) whose work is
proving to be mutually reinforcing . Creating the network of networks has given each
national group local coherence, credibility and reach, as well as good international
access. Together, these conditions, plus the growing awareness within governments of the
need for this work, should guarantee the continuity of the work under various auspices and
in various forms.
The
third part of the budget application (pdf) list the various activities, their output and
outcome. The budget plan includes a section that describes 'Risks' to the initiative. These
include hacking of the Initiatives IT as well as:
Adverse publicity generated by Russia or by supporters of Russia in target countries, or by
political and interest groups affected by the work of the programme, aimed at discrediting
the programme or its participants, or to create political embarrassment.
We hope that this piece contributes to such embarrassment.
Posted by b on November 24, 2018 at 11:24 AM |
Permalink
"The UK's Secret Intelligence Service, otherwise known as MI6, has been scrambling to
prevent President Trump from publishing classified materials linked to the Russian election
meddling investigation. ... much of the espionage performed on the Trump campaign was conducted on UK soil
throughout 2016."
"Gregory R. Copley, editor and publisher of Defense & Foreign Affairs, posited that
Sergei Skripal is the unnamed Russian intelligence source in the Steele dossier. ... In
Skripal's pseudo-country-gentleman retirement, the ex-GRU-MI6 double agent was selling
custom-made "Russian intelligence"; he had fabricated "material" that went into the Steele
dossier..."
For M16 to expose this level of stupidity is stunning.
this movement in the west by gov'ts to pay for generating lies, hate and
propaganda towards russia is really sick... it is perfect for the military industrial complex
corporations though and they seem to be calling the shots in the west, much more so then the
voice of the ordinary person who is not interested in war.. i guess the idea is to get the
ordinary people to think in terms of hating another country based on lies and that this would
be a good thing... it is very sad what uk / usa leadership in the past century has come down
to here.... i can only hope that info releases like this will hasten it's demise...
Seems to me that this shows the primacy of the City of London, with its offshore network of
illicit capital accumulation, within Britain. It is a state within a state or even a
financial empire within a state, which, for deep historical reasons isn't subject to the same
laws as the rest of the UK.
The UK's pathological obsession with Russia only makes sense to
me as the city's insistence on continued 90s style appropriation of Russia's wealth
@6 ingrian... things didn't go as planned for the expropriation of Russia after the fall of
the Soviet Union.. it seems the west is still hurting from not being able to exploit Russia
fully, as they'd intended...
Let the Doxx wars begin! Sure, Anonymous is not Russian but it will surely now be targeted
and smeared as such which would show that it has hit a nerve. British hypocrisy publicly
called out. How this all unravels is one to watch. Extra large popcorn and soda for me.
I think we've all noticed the euro-asslantic press (and friends) on behalf of, willingly
and in cooperation with the British intelligence et al 'calling out' numerous Russians as
G(R)U/spies/whatever for a while now yet providing less than a shred of credible
evidence.
It seems to me that the UK has far more to lose from doxxing than Russia does. The
interference in sovereign allied states to 'manage' who the UK thinks they should appoint
does not bode well for such relations.
Meanwhile in Brussels they are having their cake and eating it, i.e. bemoaning Europe's
'weak response' to Russian propaganda:
"A separate subcluster of so-called journalists names Deborah Haynes, David Aaronovitch of
the London Times and Neil Buckley from the FT." Subcluster. Love it. Just how crap do you
have to be to fail to make it to membership of a full cluster of smear merchants?
Yet another example of the pot calling the kettle black when in fact the kettle may not be
black at all; it's just the pot making up things. "These Russian criminals are using
propaganda to show (truths) like the fact the DNC and Clinton campaigns colluded to prevent
Sanders from being nominated, so we need to establish a clandestine propaganda network to
establish that the Russians are running propaganda!"
"In 2015 the government of Britain launched a secret operation to insert anti-Russia
propaganda into the western media stream."
I doubt very seriously that the British launched this operation without the CIA's implicit
and explicit support. This has all the markings of a John Brennan operation that has been
launched stealthily to prevent anyone from knowing its real origins.
The Brits don't act alone, and a project of this magnitude did not begin without Langley's
explicit approval.
Now check out the wording in the above document: "Funding from institutional and national governmental sources in the US has been delayed
by internal disputes within the US government, but w.e.f. March 2018 that deadlock seems to
have been resolved and funding should now flow." Think about that. What would have blocked the flow of USG support for this project?? Why, the allegations of collusion against Trump, of course. Naturally, the Republicans are
not going to provide money to an operation that threatens to destroy the head of their own
party. So, there has been no bipartisan agreement on funding for anti-Russia propaganda
BUT...the author assures us that the "deadlock seems to have been resolved and funding
should now flow" Huh?? In other words, the fix is in. Mueller will pardon Trump on collusion charges but the
propaganda campaign against Russia will continue...with the full support of both parties. I could be wrong, but that's how I see it...
This mob was created in the autumn of 2015, according to their site. That would have been
about the time -- probably just after -- the Russians intervened in Syria. The Brits had
plans for an invasion of Syria in 2009, according to their fave Guardian fish wrap.
A lot of
sour grapes with this so-called 'integrity initiative', IMO. BP was behind a lot of this, I
would also think. When Assad pulled the plug on the pipeline through the Levant in 2009, the
Brits hacked up a fur ball. It's gone downhill for them ever since. Couldn't happen to a
nicer lot. If you can't invade or beat them with proxies, you can at least call them names.
If Trump was taking dirty money or engaged in criminal activity with Russians then he
was doing it with Felix Sater, who was under the control of the FBI... And who was in
charge of the FBI during all of the time that Sater was a signed up FBI snitch? You got it
-- Robert Mueller (2001 thru 2013) ...
It seems quite possible that what is alleged as "Russian meddling" is actually CIA-MI6
meddling, including:
Steele dossier: To create suspicion in government, media, and later the public
Leaking of DNC emails to Wikileaks (but calling it a "hack"):
To help with election of Trump and link Wikileaks (as agent) to Russian election
meddling
Cambridge Analytica: To provide necessary reasoning for Trump's (certain) win of the electoral college.
Note: We later found that dozens of firms had undue access to Facebook data. Why did the
campaign turn to a British firm instead of an American firm? Well, it had to be a British
firm if MI6 was running the (supposed) Facebook targeting for CIA.
As I have said before, MAGA is a POLICY RESPONSE to the challenge from Russia and China. The
election of a Republican faux populist was necessary and Trump, despite his many flaws, was
the best candidate for the job.
The Integrity Initiative's goal is to defend democracy against the truth about Russia. All this is so Orwellian. When will we get the Ministry of Love?
"things didn't go as planned for the expropriation of russia after the fall of the soviet
union.. it seems the west is still hurting from not being able to exploit russia fully, as
they'd intended..."
They shot at an elephant and failed to kill it. So yes, out of the combo of frustration, resentment, and fear they hate the resurgent
Russia and prefer Cold War II, and if necessary WWIII, to peaceful co-existence. Of course
the usual corporate imperative (in this case weapons profiteering) reinforces the mass
psychological pathology among the elites.
The ironic thing is that Putin doesn't prefer to challenge the neoliberal globalist
"order" at all, but would happily see Russia take a prominent place within it. It's the US
and its UK poodle who are insisting on confrontation.
Great article! It reminded me of what I read in George Orwell's novella "1984." He summed it
all up brilliantly in nine words: "War is Peace"; "Freedom is Slavery"; "Ignorance is
Strength." The three pillars of political power.
Since UK has always blocked the "European Intelligence" initiative, on the basis of his
pertenence to the "Five Eyes", and as UK is leaving the European Union, where it has always
been the Troyan Horse of the US, one would think that all these people belonging to the so
called "clusters" should register themselves as "foreign agents" working for UK
government...and in this context, new empowerished sovereign governemts into the EU should
consider the possibility expelling these traitors as spies of the UK....
Country list of agents of influence according to the leak:
Germany: Harold Elletson ,Klaus NaumannWolf-Ruediger Bengs, Ex Amb Killian, Gebhardt v Moltke, Roland
Freudenstein, Hubertus Hoffmann, Bertil Wenger, Beate Wedekind, Klaus Wittmann, Florian
Schmidt, Norris v Schirach
Sweden, Norway, Finland: Martin Kragh , Jardar Ostbo, Chris Prebensen, Kate Hansen Bundt, Tor Bukkvoll, Henning-Andre
Sogaard, Kristen Ven Bruusgard, Henrik O Breitenbauch, Niels Poulsen, Jeppe Plenge, Claus
Mathiesen, Katri Pynnoniemi, Ian Robertson, Pauli Jarvenpaa, Andras Racz
Netherlands: Dr Sijbren de Jong, Ida Eklund-Lindwall, Yevhen Fedchenko, Rianne Siebenga, Jerry Sullivan,
Hunter B Treseder, Chris Quick
Spain: Nico de Pedro, Ricardo Blanco Tarno, Eduardo Serra Rexach, Dionisio Urteaga Todo, Dimitri
Barua, Fernando Valenzuela Marzo, Marta Garcia, Abraham Sanz, Fernando Maura, Jose Ignacio
Sanchez Amor, Jesus Ramon-Laca Clausen, Frances Ghiles, Carmen Claudin, Nika Prislan, Luis
Simon, Charles Powell, Mira Milosevich, Daniel Iriarte, Anna Bosch, Mira Milosevich-Juaristi,
Tito, Frances Ghiles, Borja Lasheras, Jordi Bacaria, Alvaro Imbernon-Sainz, Nacho Samor
US, Canada:
Mary Ellen Connell, Anders Aslund, Elizabeth Braw, Paul Goble, David Ziegler
Evelyn Farkas, Glen Howard, Stephen Blank, Ian Brzezinski, Thomas Mahnken, John Nevado,
Robert Nurick, Jeff McCausland
Todd Leventhal
UK: Chris Donnelly
Amalyah Hart William Browder John Ardis
Roderick Collins, Patrick Mileham Deborah Haynes
Dan Lafayeedney Chris Hernon Mungo Melvin
Rob Dover Julian Moore Agnes Josa David Aaronovitch Stephen Dalziel Raheem Shapi Ben
Nimmo
Robert Hall Alexander Hoare Steve Jermy Dominic Kennedy
Victor Madeira Ed Lucas Dr David Ryall
Graham Geale Steve Tatham Natalie Nougayrede Alan Riley prof.alan.riley@btinternet.com Anne Applebaum Neil Logan Brown James Wilson
Primavera Quantrill
Bruce Jones David Clark Charles Dick
Ahmed Dassu Sir Adam Thompson Lorna Fitzsimons Neil Buckley Richard Titley Euan Grant
Alastair Aitken Yusuf Desai Bobo Lo Duncan Allen Chris Bell
Peter Mason John Lough Catherine Crozier
Robin Ashcroft Johanna Moehring Vadim Kleiner David Fields Alistair Wood Ben Robinson Drew
Foxall Alex Finnen
Orsyia Lutsevych Charlie Hatton Vladimir Ashurkov
Giles Harris Ben Bradshaw
Chris Scheurweghs James Nixey
Charlie Hornick Baiba Braze J Lindley-French
Craig Oliphant Paul Kitching Nick Childs Celia Szusterman
James Sherr Alan Parfitt Alzbeta Chmelarova Keir Giles
Andy Pryce Zach Harkenrider
Kadri Liik Arron Rahaman David Nicholas Igor Sutyagin Rob Sandford Maya Parmar Andrew Wood
Richard Slack Ellie Scarnell
Nick Smith Asta Skaigiryte Ian Bond Joanna Szostek Gintaras Stonys Nina Jancowicz
Nick Washer Ian Williams Joe Green Carl Miller Adrian Bradshaw
Clement Daudy Jeremy Blackham Gabriel Daudy Andrew Lucy Stafford Diane Allen Alexandros
Papaioannou
Paddy Nicoll
"The shooting down of an airplane that was over Peru, full of missionaries" "sent airforce to
shoot it down" Recall witnesses seeing jets ? 0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
Bellingcat (not Belingcat) is a [intelligence aenies] front, financed by amongst other
orgs, the Atlantic Council which in turn is financed by, well it's a long list!
The UK – and the wider world – is perfectly comfortable with far-right
nationalist groups in Ukraine which pursue a Nazi ideology. Ukraine, after all, is snuggled
right up against Russia, and such groups can be reliably expected to agitate against Russia.
Since Russia is the enemy, they can be said to be a sort of weapon of the west. But you start
to get less comfortable with the existence of such weapons when they are loose in your own
country, and might harm voters.
The odd and disturbing part of the BBC article is that the young fellow (Adam Thomas)
standing between the swastika flag and the woman in Picture 4 actually tried to convert to
Judaism, and went to Israel and studied at a yeshiva (Jewish theological college) to do so.
His objective was apparently to join a fundamentalist Jewish sect, of the type associated
with young born-again North American and British Jewish people who then migrate to Israel and
make up a considerable portion of the settler movement in that country. He was exposed to
neo-Nazi beliefs from his stepfather as a child and he seems clearly attracted to apocalyptic
cult belief systems. I think Thomas will always have that internal struggle of being drawn to
ideologies that advocate a clean sweep and purge of humanity through constant war, violence
and bloodshed so that humans can start all over again with a clean slate; yet he will be
dissatisfied when eventually he comes to realise that whatever extremist ideology he attaches
himself to, it will be full of contradictions and compromises. He may then conclude that
humanity itself is worthless and that'll be when he really becomes dangerous.
That complete misunderstanding the situation. The US officials might resent far right groups
but the goal of encircling of Russia is of paramount importance and outwight all other
considerations. In other word hostile to Russia Ukraine is the greatest US geopolitical victory
after dissolution of the USSR in 1991.
"Last weekend saw Ukraine's biggest Nazi march of modern times. Yet, the Western media and
its numerous correspondents in Kiev completely ignored the story, even on social networks.
On Saturday night, up to 20,000 far-right radicals honored the 75th anniversary of the
Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) – a paramilitary group led by Stepan Bandera, which
actively collaborated with Hitler's Germany. They brandished lit torches, smoke pellets, and
flares as they chanted fascist slogans. And some participants openly gave Nazi salutes during
the rally."
– Viva Kagans clan. Viva the ADL and Simon Wiesenthal Center; your efforts at
promoting the Nazi revival in Ukraine have been bringing great results, including the "biggest
Nazi march of modern times."
The State Dept. humanitarians, inspired by Clinton, and the totally zionized National
Endowment for Democracy (and other banderite Chalupas) are undoubtedly elated with the
"democracy on the march" in Ukraine (remember the $5 billion spent by the US in Ukraine
to spearhead the regime change in Kiev ) https://www.rt.com/news/444538-five-years-on-from-euromaidan/
"Ukraine is emerging as Europe's poorest country In fact, according to a recent Credit
Suisse report, Ukrainians rank among the world's poorest people , coming a dismal 123rd
out of 140 countries, with the net wealth of the country's citizens lagging behind Bangladesh
and Cameroon. Another recent study by the United Nations Development Program found that,
despite continuing economic growth, 60 percent of Ukrainians live below the poverty line."
"... Last month, an unsealed FBI indictment of four American white supremacists from the Rise Above Movement (RAM) declared that the defendants had trained with Ukraine's Azov Battalion, a neo-Nazi militia officially incorporated into the country's national guard. The training took place after the white supremacist gang participated in violent riots in Huntington Beach and Berkeley, California and Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017. ..."
"... Let's not forget that the illegal coup in Ukraine and ensuing civil war was pushed by Obama/Hillary. It was HRC who promoted Dick Cheney's chief foreign adviser, Victoria Nuland, to Secretary of European Affairs, and it was Nuland who was caught on tape discussing how to "midwife this thing" in Ukraine. ..."
US-Funded Neo-Nazis in Ukraine Mentor US White Supremacists November 17, 2018 •
43 Comments
Short-sighted U.S. foreign policy that backs jihadists in the Middle East and neo-Nazis in
Ukraine is once again blowing back on the United States, as Max Blumenthal explains.
FBI: Azov Battalion Trained Rise Above Movement
Last month, an unsealed
FBI indictment of four American white supremacists from the Rise Above Movement (RAM)
declared that the defendants had trained with Ukraine's Azov Battalion, a neo-Nazi militia
officially incorporated into the country's national guard. The training took place after the
white supremacist gang participated in violent riots in Huntington Beach and Berkeley,
California and Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017.
The indictment stated that the Azov Battalion "is believed to have participated in training
and radicalizing United States-based white supremacy organizations."
After a wave of racist violence across America that culminated in the massacre of twelve
Jewish worshippers at a Pittsburgh synagogue, the revelation that violent white supremacists
have been traveling abroad for training and ideological indoctrination with a well-armed
neo-Nazi militia should cause extreme alarm.
Not only are white supremacists from across the West flocking to Ukraine to learn from the
combat experience of their fascist brothers-in-arms, they are doing so openly -- chronicling
their experiences on social media before they bring their lessons back home. But U.S. law
enforcement has done nothing so far to restrict the flow of right-wing American extremists to
Azov's bases.
There is one likely explanation for the U.S. government's hands-off approach to Azov
recruitment: the extremist militia is fighting pro-Russian separatists as a front-line proxy of
Washington. In fact, the United States has directly armed the Azov Battalion, forking over
anti-tank rocket launchers and even sending a team of Army officers to meet in the field with
Azov commanders in 2017.
Though Congress
passed legislation this year forbidding military aid to Azov on the grounds of its white
supremacist ideology, the Trump administration's authorization of $200 million in offensive
weaponry and aid to the Ukrainian military makes it likely new stores of weapons will wind up
the extremist regiment's hands. When queried by
reporters about evidence of American military training of Azov personnel, multiple U.S. army
spokespersons admitted there was no mechanism in place to prevent that from
happening.
... ... ...
Hide Behind , November 18, 2018 at 6:55 pm
Strange people that live in US, those that live under belife of free speech and
expression, and yet there are literally thousands of examples where those of opposing view
points that try and present them in public are met with disruptive behaviors, banning from
presentations of opposing ideology from speaking at Colleges and University campus, and
removal and witholding of tenure to those who question edicts of correct speech and lets
admit it anything that questions support of Israel the State.
And condoling of violent behavior by groups in US , crosses religious, political Partys,
Anarchist, and now a liber storm trooper style ANTIFA that is beginning to better equip
themselve tha. just pipes, knives, and clubs into having numbers armed with the Leftist hate
most guns.
We have ultra right Trump supportive Militia that actively said they would revolt if Trump
was defeated and now if he is impeached.
The largest and most virulent part of the southern state militia are of Christian Zionist,
and some militias signature patches have Star of David upon them and the cross
You think that the October massacre marks a culmination? That is naive: it is undoubtedly
not an end point and part of a crescendo building for decades. Meanwhile, the professional
Right keeps denouncing the Democrats for anti-Semitism, which is frequently simply criticism
of Israel and has nothing whatever to do with attacks on persons or property. Your article
reminds us that these psychopathic attacks are coming from a particular branch of the "White
Right" which has been talking upon Satanic Judaism and killing Jews–and targeting
synagogues–for quite a while.
Zenobia van Dongen , November 18, 2018 at 5:21 pm
Fascinating article by Max Blumenthal.
Max Blumenthal rightly denounces Italy's fascist Casa Pound party but fails to report that
Casa Pound is on excellent terms with Hezbollah, as reported by the Italian daily Repubblica
in 2015.
According to Repubblica, the European Parliament declared Hezbollah a terrorist group on 10
March 2005.
On 26 September 2015 a convention called "Mediterranean Solidarity", "the first international
convention of solidarity [among] identities" was held in Rome attended by Rima Fakhri, member
of Hezbollah's politburo and Sayyed Ammar Al Moussaw, responsible for Hezbollah's
international relations, as well as by top Casa Pound leaders like Alberto Palladino, who was
seen in the Donbass during fighting between Russia and the Ukraine, Franco Nerozzi, who was
convicted of international terrorism in Verona after taking part in a failed coup detat on
the Comoros islands, Casa Pound leader Giovanni Feola, and Luca Bertoni, representing the
Lombardy-Russia Association, who always accompanies Matteo Salvini, leader of the far-right
Lega, on his trips to Moscow.
"Italian right-wingers have consolidated relations with the most fundamentalist and militant
Islamic groups. In 2013 the City of Rome refused permission to the Syrian Uodai Soso Ramadan,
also invited to the congress, to hold a pro-Assad demonstration. At the time he was staying
at CasaPound."
The article on the neo-Nazi presence in Ukraine is very interesting. I am a white
working-class white separatist with some longtime following. Even though this article had
both lies, truths and maybes. It was well done. However, when it says there is no other side
in the US with another view, you are wrong. I have experienced the attempted and sometimes
successful penetration of the right wing by CIA types for many years and gotten rid of 2
serious penetrations in years past.
I have warned those that listen not to involve themselves
in the Ukraine situation. In fact, don't travel to other countries. Where you do not really
know the score and may be fighting on the wrong side anyway.
I am aware that anything the
State Department involves itself in is totally suspect and probably criminal. Even if you
don't acknowledge it there are other factions that are pretty much out of the right wing, but
are still very strongly White separatists . In fact, my politics have moved to the left on
several important issues. It would appear to me that the powers that be are attempting to
design a right wing alleged neo-Nazi movement somewhat patterned some what after ISIS.It is
obvious Blumenthal's article has a lot of truth in it, but his mindset tends to get in the
way . When he uses the old dog whistles like Trump when labeling people. Tom Metzger
Geo , November 18, 2018 at 6:36 pm
Curious why you are a White Separatist? Is there any logical reason because the best I can
gather from the many separatist commenters that have littered threads like these over the
years is that they're too fragile to get by in an ethically equal society. It seems that
they're greatest problem is that others have rights now so it's harder for these White
Separatists to succeed seeing as how they must do so on merit instead of birthright.
Be curious to find out if there is any justification for ethnic separatism other than
petty whining because of some mythical birthright you feel you're being denied?
rosemerry , November 18, 2018 at 1:56 pm
Notice that they admit the connection goes back at least to 2014. We never hear much about
the overthrow of the new pro-Russian government in Ukraine after the Russians had worked for
four years with the pro-Western lot. Only when Nuland/Yats and co interfered did the new
"government" with its Nazi links become powerful with the help of the EU and of course USA.
The whole continuing insistence on Russia being an enemy has no basis in reason or sense. To
support Ukraine now just because it is fanatically against Russia after decades of
cooperation in the USSR is not justified by any possible link with "national security of the
USA" or of Europe.
See this video of Obama's ambassador to Ukraine Pyatt going to visit training base in
western Ukraine where Nazis brought into the then newly formed National Guard are still being
trained by US Army Special Forces from Fort Carson, Colorado . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxeZFS9hTUg
Patrick Lucius , November 18, 2018 at 12:01 pm
Let's not forget that the illegal coup in Ukraine and ensuing civil war was pushed by
Obama/Hillary. It was HRC who promoted Dick Cheney's chief foreign adviser, Victoria Nuland,
to Secretary of European Affairs, and it was Nuland who was caught on tape discussing how to
"midwife this thing" in Ukraine.
Nuland is wife of chief neocon Richard Kagan, founder of
PNAC. This essentially restarted the cold war between Russia and America. Obama tarnished his
presidency primarily by working with Clinton, including the destruction of Libya. Where were
the Democrats to object to such shenanigans? I don't know where they were, but I do know
where they are now–charging Trump with colluding with the Russians. I thought it was
fascinating that Trump, when he secured the Republican nomination, insisted that the
Republicans remove from their platform the promise of military aid to Western Ukraine, to
fight the pro-Russian eastern Ukrainians. Where were the Democrats to applaud this anti-war
mongering? I know where I, as a Democrat was–I was leaving the party and becoming a
Trump supporter.
Martin - Swedish citizen , November 18, 2018 at 2:30 pm
Thanks, these are important points, is about the neocons.
On our smaller Swedish scale ,
I was similarly disgusted with the support by the once much more ethical Social Democratic
Party for the US- and EU-supported coup in Kiev.
lucius , November 18, 2018 at 7:58 pm
Lots of room for disgust In America, the traditional Democrats and Republicans both are
backing the neocons' stance with just about no questioning or examination. It seems to be a
tribal thing, or some sort of group response, like geese in flight, or buffalo running off a
cliff
Thank you for providing a platform for Max Blumenthal's reporting.
Wayne Mclaughlin , November 18, 2018 at 10:35 am
Very good article except for the line " .. Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the
failure of the EU and NATO to prevent it ." I always take issue with that representation
because it implies an aggressive and forceful action by Russia when in fact Crimea seceded
from Ukraine after the western backed and illegal coup of the democratically elected
government.
Skip Scott , November 18, 2018 at 2:11 pm
One of the definitions of annexation is "the adding of new territory". I believe this is
the way the word is being used in this article. It has come to mean "forceful acquisition" to
many folks, and this leads to confusion. To those of us who know a little history, maybe a
better word would have "rejoining", since Crimea was part of Russia until the early 1950's.
When Khrushchev gave it to Ukraine it was still part of the USSR, so it was really no more
than a gesture. The Russian naval base in Sevastopol has been there since the 1700's.
Martin - Swedish citizen , November 18, 2018 at 2:25 pm
Very good point!
Wording is important, and accepting the word annexation without clarification may be a step
towards buying the lie.
It must be a terrible feeling to know you can't compete with people that you believe are
inferior. Nice to have some fellow losers to commiserate with, I suppose.
Is there anything you won't do in your rabid efforts to dominate the planet?
Of course, when you think about it, these Ukrainian thugs are no worse than other outfits
America heavily supports, from the mercenaries of Syria and the government of Saudi Arabia to
the King of Bahrain and the government of Israel.
A couple of these last – Israel, Saudi Arabia – kill more innocent civilians
than any terrorist organization could dream of doing.
And no one says a thing.
mike k , November 18, 2018 at 8:27 am
Max Blumenthal does a valuable service shining a light into the dark places of Nazi
Fascism in the US. Anyone who thinks these groups are too small to be important, should
recall how small the movement that gave us Hitler was in it's beginnings.
mike k , November 18, 2018 at 8:16 am
Pro Nazi sentiment has never died in the US Oligarchy. The CIA is essentially a fascist
organization pretending to be protectors of democracy. Worship of violence and
authoritarianism is endemic to the American Spirit. All the better for being the world's
greatest bully, pretending to be the guardians of the highest values. Those in high places
here are the evil scum of the universe.
(Thanks for the new font! So much better.)
John A , November 18, 2018 at 7:57 am
The US is now funding a schism in the Orthodox church between Ukraine and Russia. The evil
of the US knows no bounds.
rosemerry , November 18, 2018 at 2:01 pm
Of course, "good ole Americans" like Mike Pence claim to be Christians, and many other US
Christians blame the Russian Orthodox church for not being as modern as they are and ready to
accept LGBTQ..
Realist , November 18, 2018 at 4:14 am
Not surprising that some Americans think that racial bigotry is okie dokie when both
political parties in Washington, especially the one that bases its platform on membership in
certain favored identity groups, practice it routinely against anyone or anything Russian or
Iranian. They have a few other fall guys as well, but those are the two blamed for everything
these days.
No question but that Ukraine is one of the most ethnically prejudiced and fascist regimes
on the planet, though that doesn't seem to bother Washington, as long as they are
frenetically Russophobic. Neither does Israel's rampant anti-Arab, anti-Persian and
anti-Muslim Zionism bother the bigots in DC in the slightest.
Yet they get into a lather when the small nations of Eastern Europe, especially those in
the Visegrad countries (plus Austria, Slovenia and Croatia) constituting most of the
Intermarium that the author alluded to, which happen to have both small populations and low
birthrates, reasonably fear that their native populations will be swamped out within a couple
of generations if they are forced by the EU to take in significant numbers of Islamic
migrants from the lands thrown into turmoil by the U.S.-instigated wars throughout the Middle
East and North Africa. Hungary's Viktor Orban is vilified in the West as some sort of new
Hitler (must be Putin's twin brother) for implementing on a much smaller scale what Donald
Trump is trying to institutionalise in the enormously larger United States.
Rather than force all these sociological "side effects" to its catastrophic wars on its
putative "allies," perhaps Washington should finally see the light and do the right thing by
winding down the carnage and aiding the resettlement and rebuilding of the war-torn countries
by their displaced citizens. But they won't–they have overtly refused, at least until
none of America's debts can be paid with devalued petrodollars, because that would let Russia
off the hook, whom Washington wants to see crushed as badly as der Fuehrer did–I think
it's trying to complete his mission. Plus the glorious new war against Iran would have to be
cancelled. They used to say, "all roads lead to Rome." They oughta re-write that for the
modern world as, "all strife traces from Washington."
mike k , November 18, 2018 at 8:19 am
Excellent comments Realist.
Joe Tedesky , November 18, 2018 at 10:55 am
Like our 'Big Pharma Over Medicated Society' we in the West would rather beat the hell out
of the symptom rather than cure the cause, is our American hegemonic trademark. Similar to
tightening the screw so tight the fragile glass begins to crack so you fix it with a hammer.
It appears our leaders love spreading their chaos. None of this shows signs of ever ending
well, but yet we overdose the symptom to the extreme that the side affect is what finally
kills us. In the end it only matters how it shows on a profit and loss sheet.
rosemerry , November 18, 2018 at 2:05 pm
An excellent contribution-thanks realist.
The USA has steadfastly refused to rebuild their devastated victims' lands even when UN legal
demands clearly demanded it eg Nicaragua.
Excellent reporting, Max! I'm curious. Is there any connection with present or former Eric
Prince mercenary soldiers, or soldiers from other private mercenary organizations, with these
fascist movements?
Joe Tedesky , November 17, 2018 at 11:15 pm
This fascist trend should go well with Operation Timber Sycamore, where the U.S. armed the
terrorist jihadist. When will our American leaders learn, that if you play with fire you will
get burned. The rise of the Nazi is one more reason that we Americans should focus on this
type of news as Max Blumenthal reports. Furthermore the American Jewish who do not support
the Israeli apartheid state should join good thinking Americans to put down this disgusting
happening. So thank you Victoria Nuland, Geoffrey Pratt, and the rest of this sick and insane
DC bunch, because without you where would our Homeland Security budget be?
Think it can't happen here . the Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooter lived 4 blocks from me. Btw
these racist don't vote, they just hate. And 'no' I didn't know him, but I know of others
sick birds all of them.
And especially a warm thank you goes out to Max Blumenthal for his courageous reporting.
Bless you Max. Joe
Bob Van Noy , November 18, 2018 at 10:32 am
Thank you Joe. The larger picture and insanity of the "enemy of my enemy is my friend"
Philosophy, is and always has been totally without moral responsibility. Interestingly, it
seems to be a fundamental aspect of post WWII organizing by our own OSS, who became the CIA
in 1949. Alan Dulles was busy organizing this kind of activity before that war ended.
Thanks to you Joe and of course Max Blumenthal for addressing this subject. I'll include a
link to the early heritage of this bizarre and illegal concept here. Many thanks Consortium
News.
Thanks Bob reading John Mearsheimer well defined portrayal of what led up to the fall of
the Ukraine as we once knew it, is reminiscent of reading Robert Parry's many articles on
this subject. If you recall Parry was deeply into this U.S. led NATO aggression. Through the
MSM of the West the tables were turned to point the finger to instead Russian aggression.
Putin is never shown in light of his policy achievements nor are his speeches calling out to
the world for sensible detente where needed ever covered, but instead Putin is demonized to
no end.
Little is remembered, or even known by those in the West of another time where American
and British capitalism hugged the very nature of Nazism, while the Russians even back then
were too the target of this type of Western aggression. Who's needs history when dreams of
speculative profit should cloud their eyes?
The US instigated coup was in line with Brzezinski's "Grand Chessboard" delusions of the
US having to control Eurasia especially Ukraine in order to reduce Russia to the role of a
regional power. The EU piggybacked on that coup by having the Maidan regime sign on to the
European Neighborhood Policy thus reducing Ukraine to the role of a EU dependent non-member
state.
Here is how U.S. President Barack Obama proudly, even imperially, described it when
delivering the Commencement address to America's future generals, at West Point Military
Academy, on
28 May 2014 :
The United States is and remains the one indispensable nation . [Every other nation is
therefore 'dispensable'; we therefore now have "Amerika, Amerika über alles, über
alles in der Welt".] That has been true for the century passed and it will be true for the
century to come. America must always lead on the world stage. If we don't, no one else
will...
Russia's aggression toward former Soviet states unnerves capitals in Europe, while China's
economic rise and military reach worries its neighbors. From Brazil to India, rising middle
classes compete with us. [He was here telling these future U.S. military leaders that they
are to fight for the U.S. aristocracy, to help them defeat any nation that resists.] ...
In Ukraine, Russia's recent actions recall the days when Soviet tanks rolled into Eastern
Europe. But this isn't the Cold War. Our ability to shape world opinion helped isolate Russia
right away. [He was proud of the U.S. Government's effectiveness at
propaganda, just as Hitler was proud of the German Government's propaganda-effectiveness
under Joseph Goebbels.] Because of American leadership, the world immediately condemned
Russian actions; Europe and the G7 joined us to impose sanctions; NATO reinforced our
commitment to Eastern European allies; the IMF is helping to stabilize Ukraine's economy;
OSCE monitors brought the eyes of the world to unstable parts of Ukraine.
No other nation regularly invades other nations that never had invaded it. This is
international aggression. It is the international crime of "War of Aggression" ; and the only
nations which do it nowadays are America and its allies, such as the Sauds, Israel, France, and
UK, which often join in America's aggressions (or, in the case of the Sauds' invasion of Yemen,
the ally initiates an invasion, which the U.S. then joins). America's generals are taught this
aggression, and not only by Obama. Ever since at least George W. Bush, it has been solid U.S.
policy. (Bush even kicked out the U.N.'s weapons-inspectors, so as to bomb Iraq in 2003.)
In other words: a mono-polar world is a world in which one nation stands above international
law, and that nation's participation in an invasion immunizes also each of its allies who join
in the invasion, protecting it too from prosecution, so that a mono-polar world is one in which
the United Nations can't even possibly impose international law impartially, but can impose it
only against nations that aren't allied with the mono-polar power, which in this case is the
United States. Furthermore, because the U.S. regime reigns supreme over the entire world, as it
does, any nations -- such as Russia, China, Syria, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, Nicaragua,
Cuba, and Ecuador -- that the U.S. regime (which
has itself been scientifically proven to be a dictatorship ) chooses to treat as an enemy,
is especially disadvantaged internationally. Russia and China, however, are among the five
permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and therefore possess a degree of international
protection that America's other chosen enemies do not. And the people who choose which nations
to identify as America's 'enemies' are America's super-rich and not the entire American
population, because
the U.S. Government is controlled by the super-rich and not by the public .
If one of the five permanent members of the Security Council would table at the U.N. a
proposal to eliminate the immunity that the U.S. regime has, from investigation and prosecution
for any future War of Aggression that it might perpetrate, then, of course, the U.S. and any of
its allies on the Security Council would veto that, but if the proposing nation would then
constantly call to the international public's attention that the U.S. and its allies had
blocked passage of such a crucially needed "procedure to amend the UN
charter" , and that this fact means that the U.S. and its allies constitute fascist regimes
as was understood and applied against Germany's fascist regime, at the Nuremberg Tribunal in
1945, then possibly some members of the U.S.-led gang (the NATO portion of it, at least) would
quit that gang, and the U.S. global dictatorship might end, so that there would then become a
multi-polar world, in which democracy could actually thrive.
Democracy can only shrivel in a mono-polar world, because all other nations then are simply
vassal nations, which accept Obama's often-repeated dictum that all other nations are
"dispensable" and that only the U.S. is not. Even the UK would actually gain in freedom, and in
democracy, by breaking away from the U.S., because it would no longer be under the U.S. thumb
-- the thumb of the global aggressor-nation.
Only one global poll has ever been taken of the question "Which
country do you think is the greatest threat to peace in the world today?" and it found
that, overwhelmingly, by a three-to-one ratio above the second-most-often named country, the
United States was identified as being precisely that, the top threat to world-peace . But then,
a few years later, another (though less-comprehensive) poll was taken on a similar question,
and it produced
similar results . Apparently, despite the effectiveness of America's propagandists, people
in other lands recognize quite well that today's America is a more successful and
longer-reigning version of Hitler's Germany. Although modern America's propaganda-operation is
far more sophisticated than Nazi Germany's was, it's not entirely successful. America's
invasions are now too common, all based on lies, just like Hitler's were.
On November 9th, Russian Television headlined "'Very insulting': Trump bashes
Macron's idea of European army for protection from Russia, China & US" and reported
that "US President Donald Trump has unloaded on his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, calling
the French president's idea of a 'real European army,' independent from Washington, an insult."
On the one hand, Trump constantly criticizes France and other European nations for allegedly
not paying enough for America's NATO military alliance, but he now is denigrating France for
proposing to other NATO members a decreasing reliance upon NATO, and increasing reliance,
instead, upon the
Permanent Structured Cooperation (or PESCO) European military alliance , which was begun on
11 December 2017, and which currently has "25 EU Member States participating: Austria, Belgium,
Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary,
Italy, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania,
Slovenia, Slovakia, Spain and Sweden." Those are the European nations that are now on the path
to eventually quitting NATO.
Once NATO is ended, the U.S. regime will find far more difficult any invasions such as of
Iraq 2003, Libya 2011, Syria 2012-, Yemen 2016-, and maybe even such as America's bloody coup
that overthrew the democratically elected Government of Ukraine and installed a racist-fascist or
nazi anti-Russian regime there in 2014 . All of these U.S. invasions (and coup) brought to
Europe millions of refugees and enormously increased burdens upon European taxpayers. Plus,
America's economic sanctions against both Russia and Iran have hurt European companies (and the
U.S. does almost no business with either country, so is immune to that, also). Consequently,
today's America is clearly Europe's actual main enemy. The continuation of NATO is actually
toxic to the peoples of Europe. Communism and the Soviet Union and its NATO-mirroring Warsaw
Pact military alliance, all ended peacefully in 1991, but
the U.S. regime has secretly continued the Cold War, now against Russia , and is
increasingly focusing its "regime-change" propaganda against Russia's
popular democratic leader, Vladimir Putin, even though this U.S. aggression against Russia
could mean a world-annihilating nuclear war.
Europe's desire to create its own army and stop relying on Washington for defense is not
only understandable, but would be "positive" for the multipolar world, Vladimir Putin said
days after Donald Trump ripped into it.
" Europe is a powerful economic union and it is only natural that they want to be
independent and sovereign in the field of defense and security," Putin told RT in Paris where
world leader gathered to mark the centenary of the end of WWI.
He also described the potential creation of a European army "a positive process," adding
that it would "strengthen the multipolar world." The Russian leader even expressed his
support to French President Emmanuel Macron, who recently championed this idea by saying that
Russia's stance on the issue "is aligned with that of France" to some extent.
Macron recently revived the ambitious plans of creating a combined EU military force by
saying that it is essential for the security of Europe. He also said that the EU must become
independent from its key ally on the other side of the Atlantic, provoking an angry reaction
from Washington.
Once NATO has shrunk to include only the pro-aggression and outright nazi European nations, such as
Ukraine (after the U.S. gang accepts Ukraine into NATO, as it almost certainly then would
do), the EU will have a degree of freedom and of democracy that it can only dream of today, and
there will then be a multi-polar world, in which the leaders of the U.S. will no longer enjoy
the type of immunity from investigation and possible prosecution, for their invasions, that
they do today. The result of this will, however, be catastrophic for the top 100
U.S. 'defense' contractors , such as Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, and Raytheon,
because then all of those firms' foreign sales except to the Sauds, Israel and a few other
feudal and fascist regimes, will greatly decline. Donald Trump is doing everything he can to
keep the Sauds to the agreements he reached with them back in 2017 to buy
$404 billion of U.S. weaponry over the following 10 years . If, in addition, those firms
lose some of their European sales, then the U.S. economic boom thus far in Trump's Presidency
will be seriously endangered. So, the U.S. regime, which is run by the owners
of its 'defense'-contractors , will do all it can to prevent this from happening.
This critique is pretty superficial. The truth is that Ukraine drifted to Baltic model (not without help from Western Europe
and the USA) for a long time. And the process started in 2001 not in 2014. That means that February 2014 coup d'état by far right
nationalist forces was just quantity turned into quality. With the dissolution of the USSR, it is clear that the result of WWII
and Yalta conference will be revised.
While it is true that it was the greatest geopolitical victory of Barack Obama and the USA against Russia, it made
the world more dangerous. The fact that it saws the teeth of dragon escaped those great US neocon strategists, like
Victoria Nuland. She looks pretty medictre person to me, judging from her public appearances. Far below the level of
position she occupied. Out of depth. Kind of early variation of Nikki Haley theme.
The USA established itself as a world power at the end of WWI, and the No.1 nation after WWII. So apparance of the USA on
world scene happened a century ago and the period of the USA primacy started around 1945 or 72 year ago. But after
dissolution of the USSR the US elite lost the countervailing power that kept it in check (and Sober) and now neocons which came to
power after the crash fo the USSR are destroying the USA pretty fast. They are real national cancer. So sad...
Neocons policy of fighting and challenging the rest of the world essentially guarantee that its dominant position will not last
more one century.
In
March 23rd, Gallup headlined
"South Sudan, Haiti and Ukraine Lead World in Suffering" , and the Ukrainian part of that
can unquestionably be laid at the feet of U.S. President Barack Obama, who in February 2014
imposed upon Ukraine a very bloody coup (see above), which he and his press misrepresented (and
still misrepresent) as being (and still represent as having been) a 'democratic revolution',
but was nothing of the sort, and actually was instead the start of the Ukrainian dictatorship
and the hell that has since destroyed that country, and brought the people there into such
misery, it's now by far the worst in Europe, and nearly tied with the worst in the entire
world.
America's criminal 'news' media never even reported the coup, nor that in 2011 the Obama
regime began planning
for a coup in Ukraine . And that by 1 March 2013 they started organizing it inside
the U.S. Embassy there . And that they hired members of Ukraine's two racist-fascist, or
nazi, political parties, Right Sector and Svoboda (which latter had been called the Social
Nationalist Party of Ukraine until the CIA advised them to change it to Freedom Party, or
"Svoboda" instead). And that in February 2014 they did it (and here's the 4 February 2014 phone call instructing
the U.S. Ambassador whom to place in charge of the new regime when the coup will be completed),
under the cover of authentic anti-corruption demonstrations that the Embassy organized on the
Maidan Square in Kiev, demonstrations that the criminal U.S. 'news' media misrepresented as
'democracy demonstrations,' though Ukraine already had democracy (but still lots of corruption,
even more than today's U.S. does, and the pontificating Obama said he was trying to end
Ukraine's corruption -- which instead actually soared after his coup there).
The head of the 'private CIA' firm Stratfor said it was
"the most blatant coup in history" but he couldn't say that to Americans, because he knows
that our press is just a mouthpiece for the regime (just like it was during the lead-up to
George W. Bush's equally unprovoked invasion of
Iraq -- for which America's 'news' media suffered likewise no penalties).
When subsequently accused by neocons for his having said this, his response was "I told the
business journal Kommersant that if the US were behind a coup in Kiev, it would have been the
most blatant coup in history," but he was lying to say this, because, as I
pointed out when writing about that rejoinder of his, he had, in fact, made quite clear in
his Kommersant interview, that it was, in his view "the most blatant coup in history," no
conditionals on that.
Everybody knows what Obama, and Clinton , and Sarkozy, did to Libya -- in
their zeal to eliminate yet another nation's leader who was friendly toward Russia (Muammar
Gaddafi), they turned one of the highest-living-standard nations in Africa into a failed state
and huge source of refugees (as well as of weapons that the
Clinton State Department transferred to the jihadists in Syria to bring down Bashar
al-Assad, another ally of Russia) -- but the 'news' media have continued to hide what Obama
(assisted by America's European allies, especially Poland and Netherlands, and also by
America's apartheid Middle Eastern ally, Israel) did to Ukraine.
I voted for Obama, partly because the insane McCain ("bomb, bomb, bomb Iran") and the creepy
Romney ("Russia, this is, without question, our number one geopolitical foe") were denounced by
the (duplicitous) Obama for saying such evil things, their aggressive international positions,
which continued old Cold-War-era hostilities into the present, even after the Cold War had
ended long ago (in 1991) (
but only on the Russian side ). I since have learned that in today's American political
system, the same aristocracy controls both of our rotten political Parties, and American
democracy no longer exists. (And the
only scientific study of whether America between the years 1981 and 2002 was democratic
found that it was not, and it already confirmed what Jimmy
Carter later said on 28 July 2015 :
Now it's just an oligarchy with unlimited political bribery being the essence of getting
the nominations for president or being elected president. And the same thing applies to
governors, and U.S. Senators and congress members."
But yet our Presidents continue the line, now demonstrably become a myth, of 'American
democracy', and use it as a sledgehammer against other governments, to 'justify' invading (or,
in Ukraine's case, overthrowing via a 'democratic revolution') their lands (allies of Russia)
such as in Iraq, Libya, Syria, and maybe even soon, Iran.
Here are some of the events and important historical details along the way to Ukraine's
plunge into a worse condition than most African nations:
Please send this article to every friend who is part of the majority that, as a Quinnipiac
University poll published on March 22nd reported, "A total of 51 percent of voters say they
can trust U.S. intelligence agencies to do what is right 'almost all of the time' or 'most of
the time'" (and that level of trust was far higher than for the rotten press and for the rotten
politicians), even after the CIA's rubber-stamping Bush's lies to invade Iraq, and after the
FBI's shameless performance on Hillary Clinton's privatized State Department emails even after
her
smashing their cell-phones with hammers , etc., and all the other official cover-ups, with
no American officials even so much as being charged for their rampant crimes against the
American public. Besides: ever since the CIA's founding, it has had an "Operation Gladio" that specializes in
organizing terrorist acts so as for them to be blamed on, first, communist countries when they
existed; and, then, after the end of communism, on allies of Russia. Did the American
dictatorship begin right after FDR died in 1945? How much longer will these lies succeed?
For the people of
Iraq , and of Syria
, and of Ukraine, and many such countries, this dictatorship has destroyed their lives.
Trusting the 'intelligence' services of a dictatorship doesn't make any sense at all. They're
all working for the aristocracy, the billionaires -- not for any public, anywhere; not here,
not there, just nowhere. Should the cattle trust the feedlot-operator? Only ignorance can
produce trust, under the conditions that actually exist.
So, unless the idea is that ignorance is bliss, pass along the truth, when you find it,
because it is very rare -- and the system operates to keep it that way.
Overthrowing Ukraine was an attempt to end Russia being the major power on the Black Sea and
establish it as a NATO lake to stop Russia from using the sea to aid Syria or Iran. That was
ruined when Putin seized Crimea, keeping the Russian naval base.
In fact, the destabilization of the Ukraine occurred at the dawn of the new century in 2004.
The Presidential election of that year between Victor Yuschenko and Victor Yanukovich
resulted initially in the victory of Yanukovich. However serious allegations regarding
electoral fraud were raised. This resulted in mass demonstrations in Kiev and other cities
throughout Ukraine.
A re-run was ordered and the second time around Yushchenko took the Presidency with 52% of
the vote to Yanukovich's 44%. Suffice it to say that prior to the re-run a number of shadowy
foreign NGOs – including the National Endowment for Democracy – were active in
promoting civic disobedience in a number of Ukrainian cities in west and central Ukraine.
Independence Square in the middle of Kiev was occupied after the first election which was
declared invalid. These events became known as the 'Orange Revolution'.
It would be misleading to assume that significant numbers of the protestors did not have a
valid case against Yanukovich in terms of corruption and self-serving. However, it was
equally true that many of the demonstrators' motives were somewhat less noble. Prior to the
election Yushchenko had promised his running mate Yulia Tymoshenko the position of Prime
Minister should he win the election. Thus throughout, the disturbances were a struggle
between the eastern and western oligarchs.
On the crucial question of the nature of these events, 'Peoples power' or 'revolutionary
coup' the issue remains undecided.
This notwithstanding the British historian David Lane of Emmanuel College Cambridge argued
that
"The 'Orange Revolution' in Ukraine was widely considered to be an instance of the
'coloured revolutions' of 1989 engendered by democratic values and nascent civil societies in
the process of nation building. The extent to which the 'Orange Revolution' could be
considered a revolutionary event stimulated by civil society, or a different type of
political activity (a putsch, coup d'état), legitimated by elite-sponsored 'soft'
political power. Based on public opinion poll data and responses from focus groups, the
author contends that what began as an orchestrated protest election fraud developed into a
novel type of political activity -- a revolutionary coup d'état. It is contended that
the movement was divisive rather than integrative and did not enjoy widespread popular
support."
Which is about the nearest we will get to an authentic answer.
What followed, however, was a complete and corrupt shamble of opportunism, corruption and
self-serving misrule of Yuschenko and Tymoshenko who, after becoming involved in some dubious
energy deals was to become known as the 'Gas Princess'. These two paragons of democracy
eventually became bitter enemies and saw the return of Yanukovich after the Presidential
contest between her and Yanukovich in 2010 which Yanukovich narrowly won.
It's long been a truth that democracy in the US died a long time ago and the wealth and
power behind the POTUS, irrespective of who that might be, are mere puppets. Obama won his
presidency on outright lies and the crooked Clintons and Sarkozys of the US corrupt elite
serve no-one's interests but their own at the cost of the lives of Ukrainian Russian ethnics
and the Libyan, Iraqi and Syrian people. "Saving Syria's children" would require the removal
of the source of their suffering, which can be firmly laid at the door of murderous
Washington War Hawks, rent-a-gobs like Samantha Powers and Victoria Nuland(nee Kagan)and
corrupt MSM supporting the rogue state that is the USA.
"... The Dutch were not right about MH17, and neither are the Danes. Almost certainly another anti-Iranian false flag coming -- this on American soil -- with war soon to follow. https://southfront.org/summing-up-russian-military-briefing-on-mh17-incident-missiles-serial-numbers-fake-videos-and-intercepted-radio-communications/ ..."
'The Russian military traced the Buk missile [9M38 missile], which shot down the Malaysian
Airlines flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine in 2014, using serial numbers found on missile
fragments showcased by an international team of investigators led by the Netherlands.
'Using the serial number of the nozzle cluster 9D13105000 No. 8-30-113 and the engine of the
missile 9D131 with the serial number 8869032, the Russian military identified this missile as
one produced by the Dolgoprudny plant -- a Soviet/Russian designer and mass producer of
surface-to-air missiles located in the city of Dolgoprudny, Moscow Oblast.
'The military said that the documentation for the aforementioned missile is still stored at
the plant -- the missile with the aforementioned engine and nozzle cluster has the
manufacturing serial number of 8868720.
'According to the provided documents, the nozzle cluster was installed in the missile on
December 24, 1986. The engine was installed to the missile on the same day.'
The power of propaganda is such that it is able to create the artificial reality
in which Western citizen live. Right out of the Matrix ;-)
As jilles dykstra noted: "The MH17 show closely resembles the Sept 11 show."
Notable quotes:
"... Suspect Ukraine was part of those who investigated. This comedy, or tragedy, has reached its top in designating the Russian officer who did it, and the intention to ask him why he did it. Russia had no motive, the west and Ukraine had, the Netherlands most objected to more sanctions against Russia, we had a considerable export, the day after the disaster no more objections. ..."
"... The MH17 show closely resembles the Sept 11 show. Memorials, remembrances, etc. Nobody yet has dared to ask prime minister Rutte what was so secret in the afternoon of the disaster that he asked vice prime minister Asscher, then on vacation in the south of France, to call him back on a land line 'so that the Russians were unable to listen in'. My darkest suspicion, Rutte knew what was going to happen. ..."
Likewise, the Netherlands
story of Russian hacking connected with the Dutch commission investigating the tragedy of
Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 sounds realistic. The commission refused Russians access to its
findings; this unfair dealing would force any intelligence service in the world to try and
learn what had been found.
Not that it was of any use. The Dutch commission indeed found out the numbers of the missile
that destroyed the jet; the Russians went through their documents and proved that this
particular missile had been delivered to the Ukraine (when it was a Soviet republic) and
remained there. A scoop! Now we know what happened with the jet – it was destroyed by the
Ukrainians, presumably by mistake, like they downed another Russian airliner . However, the
Western media ignored this scoop altogether. They decided to blame the crash on the Russians,
and so they did to the end. Even if Russian intelligence were to find and deliver to the Hague
the Ukrainian soldiers who operated the missile launcher, the Dutch, as loyal NATO members,
would look other way.
This already happened regarding Syrian chemical attacks – the Russians and the Syrians
delivered the very kids who unwillingly participated in the White Helmets' staged and filmed
'attack, directly to the OPCW. It was of no use. These guys are not after truth, they are just
repeating the narrative they learned by rote.
Still, Russian intelligence worth of its name would be expected to try and obtain maximum
findings in order to help the government to clear Russia's name of unjust accusations. There
revelations of Russian activity weren't particularly dangerous or vicious. But while this
subject had been discussed, a very painful and distressing development had been revealed.
The Western intelligence services have achieved incredible knowledge of whatever happens in
Russia. They have obtained extensive databases of Russian everyday life from traffic violations
and fines to passport scans, from residence registration to taxi requests, from messenger chats
to emails, allowing them to trace persons and events in Russia with uncanny precision.
Many databases had been stolen and sold by small-time crooks; Western intelligences had made
a concentrated effort to buy whatever is available on the black market; some bases were stolen
and sold for crypto-currencies on the deep internet.
The most valuable databases had been sold by the crooks and/or traitors, while the
Information Security Centre of FSB (ЦИБ ФСБ) led by colonel
Sergei Mikhailov who is now being tried for the high treason, did nothing to stop the leak.
" Likewise, the Netherlands story of Russian hacking connected with the Dutch commission
investigating the tragedy of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 sounds realistic. "
How ?
Suspect Ukraine was part of those who investigated. This comedy, or tragedy, has reached its top in designating the Russian officer who did
it, and the intention to ask him why he did it.
Russia had no motive, the west and Ukraine had, the Netherlands most objected to more
sanctions against Russia, we had a considerable export, the day after the disaster no more
objections.
If it was an accident, a very lucky one, hitting a plane coming from Amsterdam.
The MH17 show closely resembles the Sept 11 show. Memorials, remembrances, etc. Nobody yet has dared to ask prime minister Rutte what was so secret in the afternoon of
the disaster that he asked vice prime minister Asscher, then on vacation in the south of
France, to call him back on a land line 'so that the Russians were unable to listen in'. My darkest suspicion, Rutte knew what was going to happen.
".......Russia's
foreign minister has accused the open-source Bellingcat investigative team of acting as a front
for Western intelligence services seeking to manipulate public opinion.
Bellingcat has played a leading role in identifying the alleged names of two men accused
of trying to poison ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Britain this year. It has
previously published investigations that reportedly link Russia to the downing of flight MH17
in eastern Ukraine and suspected chemical attacks in Syria.
"It's no secret to anyone, Western journalists write openly that Bellingcat is connected to
special services," Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with Euronews
on Tuesday.
"They leak information through it to have some effect on public opinion," he
said......."
"... its russia and chinas job to assist america to reach the acceptance stage as peacefully as possible while allowing as much face saving as possible for washington and their ruling class. at the end of the day everyone wants to go on living. the next 15 years ought to be quite exciting. ..."
SKRIPALMANIA. Has now been completely outsourced to Bellingcat. Which tells the discerning observer two things: 1) there is
no evidence 2) the truth is probably the opposite. (And for those of you who take Bellingcat seriously: become discerning.)
To those of you who are like myself deeply sceptical about this story can I recommend this article in the UK Independent newspaper.
We should be asking for answers about the Skripals and Bellingcat – and not just from Russia. Mary Dejevsky.
Higgins has entered the polite academic space both in the Uk and the US in lightening speed. And as a result of that got special
attention by media. Not only that, but in the US he additionally joined an important cog of the EU-US think thank world. The Atlantic
Council made him a non-resident "Senior Fellow". As expert in digital forensics, open source and the future of Europe.
When the huge open source "gold rush" caught my attention in the early post 9/11 years, all the excited members I witnessed
more close up were quite system conform. That was after the Iraq war intelligence expertise. That's why it made me wonder. Thus,the
story of Eliot Higgins seems no outlier from my rather limited perspective.
And yes, I am with Paul Robinson, who a while ago noticed the same contradictions as Mary Dejevsky. On one hand the Russians
seem to be omnipotent, on the other they have all these bungling secret service members that are so easy to out. But notice not
by a bunch of laymen, but by a crowd led by a serious senior expert and academic. ;)
Higgins has entered the polite academic space both in the Uk and the US in lightening speed. And as a result of that got special
attention by media. Not only that, but in the US he additionally joined an important cog of the EU-US think thank world. The Atlantic
Council made him a non-resident "Senior Fellow". As expert in digital forensics, open source and the future of Europe.
When the huge open source "gold rush" caught my attention in the early post 9/11 years, all the excited members I witnessed
more close up were quite system conform. That was after the Iraq war intelligence expertise. That's why it made me wonder. Thus,the
story of Eliot Higgins seems no outlier from my rather limited perspective.
And yes, I am with Paul Robinson, who a while ago noticed the same contradictions as Mary Dejevsky. On one hand the Russians
seem to be omnipotent, on the other they have all these bungling secret service members that are so easy to out. But notice not
by a bunch of laymen, but by a crowd led by a serious senior expert and academic. ;)
I think some people here are actually taking Eliott Higgins far too seriously...he is still an uneducated underwear salesman...and
acts like it...case in point his recent twitter outburst at Ted Postol, calling him an 'idiot'...that just shows what a substance
free clown this guy is...
I briefly looked at that blog article linked to by snowflake and it is basically verbal diarrhea...bottom line is that Higgins
and that Bellincat 'outfit' are best simply ignored...not worth the time or mental bandwidth to even think about...
Atlantic Council has a very great Ph.D consultant, and strategists' strategist and tacticians' tactician, Dr. Blank. He, of all
places, taught in US Army War College. He taught, of course, about Russia, since he has Ph.D in Soviet/Russian "history" or whatever
passes as such in US "Russian Studies" field.
His strategic concepts are so devoid of even basic high school level knowledge of Russia (and her geography, BTW) that one
is forced to ask how is it even possible to have this kind of "experts"? Among many outlandish ideas Dr. Blank proposed in his
academic career dedicated to fighting evil Russians was to send US Navy to the Azov Sea to demonstrate the US Naval might.
This was one of the most profound facepalm moments of my life--I mean it. Not only Dr. Blank has no clue about Russia, he also
has no clue about US Navy. Yet, he is an expert, alright.
You left the best part out of that State Department policy statement. He announced a new position, the Senior Advisor for Russian
Malign Activities and Trends or SARMAT for short. That's straight out of the axis of evil mindset. How can we have a sober and
productive policy towards Russia with crap like this?
I thought that was from Duffleblog but you're right:
https://www.state.gov/p/eur...
Third para from the bottom. Part of that $380 million must be Bellingcat's budget.
I can't wait to see what awful person is selected for this role. Also, Sarmat is also the name for Russia's newest ICBM, which
makes one wonder what was on the back of their minds when they came up with this one.
washingtons foreign policy visa vie russia and china is as yet unable to reach the psychological stage of sublimation. frustrated,
angry and demoralised that they can not militarily atttack russia once and for all putting paid ....to who is the biggest dog
in the yard...... american elites lash out ineffectually using various media, economic and financial games to assuage their inability
to get their way.
each iteration of this plan becomes weaker and less effective than the previous one leading to more rage at being thwarted.
where the current crop of american ruling elites are concerned we are talking about 2 factors.... a profound lack of a really
good cosmopolitan education and a near total lack of appreciation for how weak the american industrial base has become the past
30 years (you can not intimidate powerful nations if your military technology is 1 or more generations BEHIND)
an apt understanding of washingtons dilemma is best grasped reading the kubler-ross stages of grieving over a dying loved one.
in this case the dying loved one is american exceptionalism and the l godlike power that goes with it for the 1/100 or 1%.
its russia and chinas job to assist america to reach the acceptance stage as peacefully as possible while allowing as much
face saving as possible for washington and their ruling class. at the end of the day everyone wants to go on living. the next
15 years ought to be quite exciting.
Christ was crucified because of the Russians. GRU and Putin conspired to poison him at the
Last Supper. The actual death on the Cross was staged to cover the poisoning.
"Highly Likely" Iran had a hand in it also. Judas was a 'Persian', of course, and would
have been a Shiite if he hadn't been suicidal and lived another 800 years or so.
Bellingcat is due with the official report shortly. Stay tuned.
"Australia believes there is conclusive evidence," he said.
Mr Loke's remarks also caught the attention of Christo Grozev, an investigator with
Bellingcat, a London-based reporting website that has recently dragged several of Russia's
covert disruptions into the light.
It was a "surprising dissension", he said. Malaysia was the "only country that did not
fully endorse the findings of the joint investigation team".
In an interview with the ABC, Mr Grozev said Bellingcat was now actively probing whether
Russia had played a role in this public display of disunity.
The team's "working hypothesis", he said, was that the entire Malaysian contingent, or one
member of it, had been compromised by Russia's spies.
.......
not seen till now though is any questioning of Bellingcat's credentials in mainstream
media. So let me hand you over, without further ado and with hearty if surprised approval,
to Mary Dejevsky: not known as a Kremlin stooge or Putin troll. Yet here she is, in today's
Independent, asking in all sincerity and with admirable bluntness just WTF is Bellingcat?
Where would we be without solid, honest citizen journalism like this? Bellingcat has passed
the CIA, MI5, Scotland Yard and the FBI and never looked back. In fact, we have not heard
Peep One from any of them since Bellingcat burst on the scene, and the British press goes
straight to print from its reports, to hell with waiting for informed comment from the
intelligence services or law enforcement.
Come to think about it, what are their countries paying them for?
I'm looking forward to the first Bellingcat spin-offs.
Eliot Higgins – Special Invesigator featuring Tom Cruise and introducing Sparky his
lovable mongrel dog which miraculously survived the Salisbury Novichok Massacre and can sniff
out GRU agents a mile away.
And following temporary employment reviewing orders at a Leicester UK women's underwear
manufacturer, the unemployed Higgins then "dispensed with looking for another job so that he
could devote himself to blogging full-time" and has now pogressed to being a senior fellow in
the "Digital Forensic Research Laboratory" and the "Future Europe Initiative", projects run
by the Washington, D.C based "think tank" the "Atlantic Council".
Higgins hard at work researching
A "kept man"? His wife must bring home the bacon then.
Well, she would if she were not a Turk.
The then 32-year-old Higgins started blogging about the civil war in Syria from his home
as Brown Moses: "He had no formal intelligence training or security clearance that gave him
access to classified documents. He could not speak or read Arabic. He had never set foot in
the Middle East, unless you count the time he changed planes in Dubai en route to Manila, or
his trip to visit his in-laws in Turkey".
As far as I am aware, he still has no credentials for his chosen field, albeit he is now a
"fellow" of this and that. He has also since bursting into the bloggosphere considerably put
on weight:
Higgins belongs to an obsessive coterie of self-appointed military intelligence experts
who use social media to piece together critical details of faraway conflicts, often well
ahead of seasoned professionals. Frequently self-taught and operating far outside the
military-industrial complex, these amateur analysts have honed a novel set of sleuthing
skills that fuse old-fashioned detective work with new sources of intelligence generated by
cell phone cameras and spread by social networks. Syria's war, widely considered the most
documented conflict in history, has turned social media into a weapon of mass detection --
critical both for fighters on the ground and for faraway observers trying to make sense of
the conflict.
The mind boggles: he and his fellow "amateur analysts" are often well ahead of seasoned
professionals. Frequently self-taught and operating far outside the military-industrial
complex !!!
Once upon a time, nobody would dare to do what they are doing because of the danger of a
ruinous lawsuit. But so long as he continues accusing the right people, the west will
safeguard him from that as best it can. Maybe that's the way to go. They've left themselves
without a retreat, saying this and that are 'confirmed'. Sue the outfit.
Note how Bellingtwat states that it has "conclusively" established the real identity of
Petrov on evidence gleaned from "multiple open sources" and "testimony from people familiar
with the person" in question.
How do they do this?
First to the post again and well ahead of all the Western intelligence agencies, which are
obviously understaffed with incompetents and not in possession of state-of-the-art means of
gathering intelligence such as . errrr, Facebook?
A few days ago, that lying old slag May appeared on stage at the Conservative Party annual
conference with Abba's "Dancing Queen" playing in the bacground. May appeared to be trying to
dance to the Abba hit. What a cupid old stunt!
And yesterday at an EUSSR Brussels conference, EU chief-executive and piss-artist Juncker
appears to have been possibly trying to take the piss out of that old, lying bag May's
gyrations:
Yes, their resources really do beat all, don't they? Able to trawl through Russians' private
records at will, even those ominously marked, "Not for public release". But then, they have
lots of willing helpers inside Russia, which the western intelligence agencies officially
have not. Makes you wonder how Russia can miss catching them, innit, considering the
intertubes are strictly controlled in Russia and all their intelligence transactions are in
the public domain? I mean, with their troll farms and all their snoopy organizations?
Bellingcrap could have just mentioned its sources during the course of its article instead of
proclaiming that it's going to detail in another post to be supposedly published today (9
October 2018) the methodology it and The Insider Russia used and the information trail
established. Perhaps a sign that Bellingcrap is starting to feel some pressure to lift its
game to a level acceptable to its masters at The Atlantic Council?
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. BellEndCat can only manage the former.
Still, it's good enough for the BBC who this morning spoke to a (former?) Georgian minister
who was saying that if the West was united and stopped Russia from invading Georgia in 2008,
then Ukraine, Crimea, Skripals etc. wouldn't have happened, followed by BBC correspondent
Norton who said that 'was about right'.
I hope their nationalists get back control of their own government before too long.
Here is a typical piece of nonsense inspired by fear of democracy. There is definitely a
panic in the works.
"The New Dutch Disease Is White Nationalism:
An upstart far-right party in the Netherlands threatens to entrench xenophobia in one of
Europe's most progressive countries. "
I continue to believe that China has made it quite clear to the US that any nukes headed
to Russia will be presumed aimed at them and be retaliated against....so I don't see nuke war
but continued economic war and the less and less international mayhem as Russia/China
continue to hem in the dying empire beast
Before the end of this year the world will be tied up into gridlock between the factions
that in my mind continue to represent the culturally imbued concepts of public or private
money/finance.
consensus versus bullying styles of management. I am tired of bullying and think many
others are also....the example we just saw with the Supreme Court circus and John Cornyn
saying the the Senate wouldn't be bullied....
"... Personally, I remain to be convinced that a Buk brought it down: not enough "bowtie" fragments ..."
"... The individual emitter characteristics of the surveillance and tracking radars associated with every BUK is in a US EORBAT database. The chances that a BUK radar going into its CW terminal guidance mode was not intercepted and recorded are pretty slim. This was a hot war on NATO's borders, and it is likely US special forces were there, if only as observers. ..."
"... So, the US will know which BUK system was used, and its deployment history (at least every location in which its radars transmitted). Their silence about this suggests that the system was Ukrainian. ..."
How difficult would it be for the SBU to paint a Ukrainian BUK launcher to look exactly
like a Russian one and drive it round Ukraine for a while stopping long enough every now
and then for members of the public to take photos of it and post them on social media.
Unless the MH17 investigation can produce photos of the alleged BUK launcher crossing
into Russia, the authenticity of the photos can and should be questioned.
The really important question is still why were commercial airliners allowed to fly
over Ukrainian airspace in the east when it was clearly known that heavy SAM launchers
were active and at least one high-flying aircraft had already been shot down?
There was also a rumor going around that MH17's original route was over the Black Sea,
but that Kiev ATC had them alter their path in mid-flight to go over Donbass, supposedly
because of inclement weather. If so, very suspicious.
Qantas ceased flying those routes months before MH17 solely on the basis that medium
range SAMs were in the ORBAT of at least one of the combatants.
The airspace is owned by Ukraine who collects air navigation charges from overflying
aircraft, hence there would have been a financial incentive to keep accepting flight
plans for those routes.
Tech equipment like this usually has two types of logbook. One is the daily
serviceability log signed off after each functional test and inspection, and kept with
the equipment, and the other is a set of maintenance logs for each system within the
(eg.) missile. The latter would be held at the higher echelon maintenance facility
waiting for the thing to come home and get fixed or overhauled.
If the Russians gave the munition to the Ukrainians as a permanent allocation, they
would have kept basic details but would have given the maintenance books en masse to the
Ukrainians due to the weight and volume of these in paper format. They would still have
enough to ID what they actually sold or gave away.
The article by Pepe Escobar in Asia Times quotes the Russian MOD, which links the
manufacturing serial number of two engine components back to the site of manufacturing
and then tracks that forward into the final assembly - the missile. Then the Russians
track the missile to the unit it was assigned to in Ukraine.
"So now we know, via declassified files, that the engine of the missile 9D131
allegedly had the serial number 8869032. And a "passport" for the nozzle cluster
9D13105000 carried the number 8-30-113. The actual missile number was 886847349, they
said."
I guess I should add it wasn't exactly exactly excitement that made me comment twice. But
... technical ...
I did correct one of those two comments. ... Once the first showed up. Incidentally
after the second. I regret this now. Somewhat.
Had no sound initially. Interestingly the Russian version works even without it.
Somehow.
my initial question circled around this statement.
2. The videos are fake. The sightline evidence is, to my mind,
apodictic. I've seen other arguments that they are fake but these are
the most convincing. (I do like the backwards driving TEL).
.... That I surely didn't understand without sound. Or maybe not to the extend I would
have liked.
Check Patrick's linked video: "Russian MoD briefing". About 26 min in.
But I like the video's slowness. Did the JIT seriously use that type of open source
"evidence" too? Hard to believe. As hard to believe as the enormous success of its
founder? Who even made it into our news for a short time as British expert.
Concerning Pepe, I was pleased about this:
Meanwhile, Russian Investigative Committee spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko also
challenged video footage used by Bellingcat, a UK-based citizen journalist group,
allegedly proving that a self-propelled firing system of the Russian 53rd anti-aircraft
missile brigade was involved in the downing of MH17.
Meanwhile, Russian Investigative Committee spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko also
challenged video footage used by Bellingcat, a UK-based citizen journalist group ,
allegedly proving that a self-propelled firing system of the Russian 53rd anti-aircraft
missile brigade was involved in the downing of MH17.
I thought that's exactly what they do in Patrick's Russian visual evidence video link
above starting around 26 minutes into. Made me look up his site: its English, French,
Russian by now. ;)
Yes, that's the original manufacturer's data, and given the manufacture date's proximity
to the transfer date it looks like the munitions were made specifically for a Ukraine
order, which may indicate sequential serial numbers across the batch.
The actual maintenance document bundle would disclose if any internal serial numbered
systems were swapped out for newer Russian hardware after 1986 during the days of
Rus-Ukraine brotherly love. This would have a higher chance of occurring if the entire
SAM system was on a Russian maintenance contract, however .. I think not because the
Ukr's had plenty of rocket expertise and I suggest they kept the lot, maintenance
document and all.
It's up to the Ukr's to produce evidence of what they say the do not have.
The "cui bono" is the first thing to investigate.
Russia had none.
Ukrainian had plenty of obvious one at that.
In fact shortly after the tragedy I was contacted by The saker francophone to developp
some argument about this. Note that it was before this francophone site was
re-structured. My research focused on the Buck and their presence in Ukraine vast left-over of the
URSS echelon strategy storage... with scarcely any maintenance.
Then I focused on the proximity fuse system (a US invention from WWII, which in fact
started the first electronic industry), short wawes sent and received, complicated set-up
and involving springs to actually trigger the explosion.
Optimal distance was 15 to 50 meters , explosion from little above and missile coming
from front (not to be on pursuit mode).
My hypothesis still is that the Buck was pre-1991 era and not very well maintained,
that the explosion did occur a little prematurely, killing the crew, causing extensive
damages, but not actually destroying the plane capacity to fly
There enter the phantom Ukrainian hunter jet giving the "coup de grace". And this could explain the round entry holes, with on the same picture (left door of the
cockpit) exit holes.
Russian defense Ministry was not fully affirmative of the presence of this fighter
jet, but was fully positive on 3 buck systems with active radar (acquisition range 140
kilometers, that's 9 minutes to get ready).
The story of the pilot, there are some testimony at his landing, about a rather livid
and upset fellow, he did divorce and commit suicide. What this is worse, I don't
know.
note: for other reasons I did stop very fast collaborating wit the Saker
Francophone.
Well the Brits keep such detailed notes of their weaponry. About 30 years ago I had the
inner cocking lever of a Bofors 40/60 break, and within a few days we had all the
documentation of its manufacture in Britain during WWII - names of the factory, the
machinist, heat treating and quality inspection. All that for one small part of the
breech block. You can guarantee that the Soviets would be just as methodical about a
significant item like a missile.
"Personally, I remain to be convinced that a Buk brought it down: not enough "bowtie"
fragments."
You still ignore the fact that even now the Russian admit that a BUG brought down the
airplane. It was the Russian side which produced a lot of ridiculous statements (ground
attack plane with limited service height was launching platform), faked internet sites
(SU25) and then quite silently, when the official investigation of the debris of the
PLANE could not longer be ignored, admitted that it was a BUG.
BTW: Experts were already a few days after the incident able to conclude that a ground
based system must very likely be the culprit, simply by analyzing the many hundred photos
of the plan fragments. It was clear that a very high density of fragments were in the
front section, while missiles launched by airplanes would have caused damage in other
sections (esp. wings around engines).
The Buck system is composed of 3 vehicles
one is for the long range acquisition radar.
The missile does have an in-build acquisition radar but with a 35 miles range. The idea, and Bellingcat pictures supporting it, of a lonely lorry with a missing
missile, was ridiculous.
While typing i get confused and have edited: it was a picture of the left side
cockpit, and it did show round entrance holes and rugged exit. An ex German pilot was
positive it was gun amo marks.
Yes I did read your piece in Russia Insider the day it was published. Thanks for your
work.
ELINT, and what we have not been told about, it is the key here.
The individual emitter characteristics of the surveillance and tracking radars
associated with every BUK is in a US EORBAT database.
The chances that a BUK radar going into its CW terminal guidance mode was not intercepted
and recorded are pretty slim. This was a hot war on NATO's borders, and it is likely US
special forces were there, if only as observers.
So, the US will know which BUK system was used, and its deployment history (at least
every location in which its radars transmitted). Their silence about this suggests that
the system was Ukrainian.
Petri Krohn is unconvinced by the vanishing point argument pointing out that the Buk
TEL does not sit flat on the trailer.
Yes, there seems to be something beneath the Buk-Tel, whatever it is. There are other
trailer images that don't have this thing underneath. One can see it better in the video.
Who is Petri Krohn?
What puzzles me me more are the "the truck's (blue)" lines. Why would you take the
back of the cabin? Vs the sides as with the Buk-Tel on the trailer to make your point?
For special effect? Heighten the difference to earlier neatly converging vanishing
points?
Last but not least in that specific shot there is a slightly complicating camera
angle. The shot is a bit sideways from the driving car. Which does not quite fit into the
earlier continual straight ahead pattern.
But yes, the JIP did its best in impressive visualization too. See video below.
*******
Update in criminal investigation MH17 disaster/Narrative conference 24 May 2018. The
precise numbers are given here for the first time? Publicly? Pressure on the Russian.
After all one has a lot more evidence one does not show we are told. From that
perspective the response is not bad. See first video linked below.
So now we have new offer for the so far main suspect, the Russian 53rd Anti-Aircraft
Missile Brigade, we are offered to look into the Ukrainian 223 Tereboylya Anti-Aircraft
Brigade, now stationed in Stryi. The earlier Russian military unit 20152.
Here comes the more entertaining earlier version of the Public Prosecutors Service
collection. There is more. Anyway, I vaguely remember this one. A visually coherent
narrative for easy public consumption. It feels this was centrally
challenged.
Re my earlier comment, the JIT info request seemed a bit odd. You'd think they would
have access to Russians who could give them chapter and verse on what these numbers mean.
Any thoughts?
I haven't changed my position from this
https://patrickarmstrong.ca...
Leaving the port engine intake out is all I need to convince me that it's just part of
the anti-Russia war
Yes, I read your article at the time and again just now. It still makes sense to me.
Presumably the warhead on this missile identified by the MoD was of the older "non
bow-tie" type (as per AA)? If so, it's all starting to look a bit like a QED, is it
not?
Right from the beginning I wondered if Russia would have captured enough data to know
what happened. Is that how you see it and if so, how do you rate the odds that Russia has
been playing an incredibly long game on this one?
We'd all like to wish they were but my thinking is that only when the numbers appeared
were they able to have an actual FACT on which they could work. All the accusations
against Moscow are simple assertions with no facts you can get your teeth into. Finally
the Ukes were stupid enough to present a fact.
So are you also suggesting that whatever evidence the Russians collected at the time
of the incident wasn't incontrovertible enough to overcome what would be the automatic
Western presumption that it must be faked?
In other words, while the Russians may know what happened they were previously unable
to prove it to the satisfaction of a sceptical audience?
It's almost amusing. At the JIT May 24 update briefing,
Politie.nl reported that the following request for information was made:
"Jennifer Hurst, Commander of the Australian Federal Police, explained, on the basis
of an animation that the JIT urges the public to think about answering three specific
questions about both rocket components found on the crash site.
Do you recognize the handwriting of the number on the venturi?
Do you have information about the numbers on the venturi and the casing? Or do you know
anyone who knows about the meaning of those numbers?
Are you or do you know someone with information about the missile in which these parts
have been placed and to which unit this missile was delivered?
Hurst: "If you have an answer to one or more of these questions, then we urgently ask
you to contact the JIT.'"
So it's just the Russian MoD being a good citizen . . .
P.S. At the same briefing the JIT noted they couldn't be certain these missile
fragments belonged to the one that brought down MH 17. That caveat aside, however, this
does seem a rather comprehensive response from Russia.
Will we ever see the chain-of-custody record of these items ?
It would also be interesting to hear from (ex) tech intel exploitation people who have
been out and about scavenging up bits of expended rocket case in the past, if in their
experience the case displayed here should have been more deformed by it's terminal
velocity (80 meters/second ?) impact with the ground.
"... Kiev has become an accidental, burdensome ally to the West. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization only paid lip service to future Ukrainian membership, while the EU, which never had any intention of taking in Ukraine, pushed an association agreement out of bureaucratic habit more than strategic vision. ..."
"... The least charitably inclined claim that Poroshenko prosecuted the war in eastern Ukraine as a way of delaying reform. What's undeniable is that the shaky ceasefire leaves the Kiev government at the mercy of Putin and his proxies. Should anything start going right for Poroshenko, the fighting could flare back up at any moment. ..."
"... Everybody in Kiev understands that there's no way of reconquering lost territory by force. Ukrainian politicians publicly pledge to win back breakaway regions through reform and economic success. What they hope for is that sanctions will cause enough problems inside Russia that the Kremlin will run out of resources to sabotage Ukraine. Wishful thinking won't replace the painful reforms ahead. ..."
May 19, 2015 | http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2015/05/17/why-this-ukrainian-revolution-may-be-doomed-too/
At home, there is the possibility of more protests, a paralyzed government, and the rise of politicians seeking accommodation
with Putin. "Slow and unsuccessful reforms are a bigger existential threat than the Russian aggression," said Oleksiy Melnyk, a security
expert at Kiev's Razumkov Center. Even if Ukrainians don't return to the street, they'll get a chance to voice their discontent at
the ballot box. Local elections are due in the fall - and the governing coalition between Poroshenko and Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk
is so shaky that nobody can rule out an early parliamentary vote.
In its international relations, Ukraine is living on borrowed time - and money. A dispute over restructuring $23 billion in debt
broke into the open last week with the Finance Ministry accusing foreign creditors of not negotiating in good faith ahead of a June
deadline. An EU summit this week is likely to end in more disappointment, as Western European countries are reluctant to grant Ukrainians
visa-free travel.
Kiev has become an accidental, burdensome ally to the West. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization only paid lip service to future
Ukrainian membership, while the EU, which never had any intention of taking in Ukraine, pushed an association agreement out of bureaucratic
habit more than strategic vision.
... ... ...
The least charitably inclined claim that Poroshenko prosecuted the war in eastern Ukraine as a way of delaying reform. What's
undeniable is that the shaky ceasefire leaves the Kiev government at the mercy of Putin and his proxies. Should anything start going
right for Poroshenko, the fighting could flare back up at any moment.
Ukrainian security officials say that the enemy forces gathering in the separatist regions are at their highest capability yet.
The most alarming observation is that the once ragtag band of rebels - backed up by regular Russian troops in critical battles -
is increasingly looking like a real army thanks to weapons and training provided by Russia.
... ... ...
Everybody in Kiev understands that there's no way of reconquering lost territory by force. Ukrainian politicians publicly pledge
to win back breakaway regions through reform and economic success. What they hope for is that sanctions will cause enough problems
inside Russia that the Kremlin will run out of resources to sabotage Ukraine. Wishful thinking won't replace the painful reforms
ahead.
Official investigation looks more and more like 911 commission or JFK assassination
commission. Powerful state via their intelligence agencies now have tremendous capabilities to
hide even most egregious crimes and block any objective investigation for many years, if not
forever.
After so many years the discussion of MH17 still revolves about establishing the basic facts.
Especially facts that were ignored by official investigation. such as shelling the area by
Ukrainian forces after the crash, or too quick launch of "highly likely" campaign by Western MSM
(which now can be viewed as a strong suggestion that we deal with a false flag operation like was
the case with Litvinenko poisoning and Skripal poisoning ). Why the flight path of MH17 was
changes and differ from previous days also remain unclear (previous days they flue over Azov sea)
. Why Ukrainian air defense units was deployed in the area and were active that day is also
unclear. Rebels did not have any ir force. Visit of Brennan under fake name to Ukraine is another
interesting part of the story. And there are many questions like that.
The question of "que bono" is also an interesting one. As is the question why false flag
operation often happen when there are some maneuvers in the area like was the case with 811 and
Skripal cases (and there were NATO maneuvers in Ukrainian airspace). As one commenter aptly
observed " However, irrespective of the actual perpetrator, and whether it was an intentional
act or an accident, there is no doubt about the West's intent to exploit the event to the
maximum. "
Russia behaviour creates several questions as well: for example recent revelation of the
serial number of the Buk rocket (which so far did not leave any trace in the air that we can
refer too in pretty densely populated area). I saw horizontal trances of fragments that hit
airliner, which suggests air-to-air attack. There were phone of the part of the wing with
horizontal trace of the elements.
The stories about Ukraine Su-24 pilot who later committed suicide as well as about role
of oligarch Kolomoychenko also do not fit into official version. None of them testifies before
the commission, which signify the absence of the desire of the commission to gather facts that
might contradict predefined outcome.
As the USA refused to provide any evidence and Ukrainian authorities hide their evidence we
also have another "plausible" signs of a false flag operation directed on introduction of
sanctions against Russia.
In any case the following discussion is pretty educational as it rehashes many argument for
"Russian did not do it" point of view on this tragic accident.
Notable quotes:
"... The problem is that the convictions by the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunals are little known and were never reported by the mainstream media. ..."
"... " However, irrespective of the actual perpetrator, and whether it was an intentional act or an accident, there is no doubt about the West's intent to exploit the event to the maximum. " ..."
"... One might also say 'follows the Sept 11 propaganda'. As a USA politician said 'MH17 is the Dutch Sept 11′. ..."
"... I did not read the article carefully, so I do not know if it mentions that the key suspect -- Ukraine -- is part of the investigation organisation, or that Ukraine spied on the investigation. ..."
"... Then at 29:00 minutes in the video Van der Pijl states that Ukraine must be seen as main suspect of the downing of MH17 although he does not know if they indeed did it. They had the means he adds. ..."
"... At 31:34 Van der Pijl states Ukraine immediately had an statement about the shotdown. "only these were three different explanations". "Poroshenko stated it was an accident. Later he stated it was a terror attack". "A minister for foreign affairs stated it was a missile from Russia handed over to the separatists and the leader of military in Ukraine Andriy Parubiy stated it was a missile launched from Russia". ..."
"... At 43:36 a conversation starts about Ukraine aircraft using civil aircraft as human shield. Radar recordings of both sides are missing. ..."
"... Van der Pijl then states civil aircraft were used as a shield. Civil aircraft were flying at 10 km, military are flying much lower. But when they fly at the same speed as civil aircraft and under it, the military jets cannot be detected by radar. ..."
"... At 47:45 Van der Pijl states that according his feeling MH17 was not downed by a BUK. A BUK would cause the aircraft to explode in the air. He mentions "benzine"(petrol) lines. (not knowing an aircraft has kerosene as fuel). He thinks MH17 was shot down by an aircraft. ..."
"... "In February 2016 that assertion had still been dismissed as unfit for evidence by the
