Category: Secrecy

The January 6th ‘Insurrection’

An insurrection , according to the (American) Merriam Webster dictionary, is a ‘usually violent attempt to take control of a government’.

The January 6th 2021 invasion of the U.S. Capitol definitely had elements of violence: property damaged, people assaulted, and as Wikipedia notes ‘Five people died either shortly before, during, or following the event: one was shot by Capitol Police, another died of a drug overdose, and three died of natural causes’.

The intent of the 2000 invaders of the Capitol was to disrupt the counting of the votes for the new President of the United States, because they believed that ‘their’ candidate, Donald Trump, had been wrongfully deprived of the Presidency through voter fraud. Few of the protesters had weapons and most of those were not guns.

In its attempt to portray the violence of the protesters, Wikipedia notes that ‘the large majority of people charged with crimes relating to the attack had no known affiliation with far-right or extremist groups’  and that Pipe bombs were found at each of the Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee headquarters, and Molotov cocktails were discovered in a vehicle near the Capitol’. Those statements from Wikipedia clearly demonstrate that neither pipe bombs or molotov cocktails or other weapons were held by the protesters on the Capitol site, nor was there a coordinated plot of ‘insurrection’.

To ‘take control’ of a government of 329 million people would clearly require considerably more weaponry than a few molotov cocktails in parked cars. The protesters therefore had no capacity to take control of the United States government, but were able to express their displeasure at what they considered to be a ‘stolen election’.

It is curious therefore that the vast majority of mainstream media- not just in the United States, but also in other Western countries, continues to portray those 2000 protesters as violent insurrectionists and a threat to democracy in the United States.

Leaving aside the fact that United States ‘democracy’ is a two part farce between largely identical factions ; the Republican and Democratic parties; both entirely corrupted by corporate money, it is more curious that the U.S. Democratic party and its mainstream media supporters continue to play up the threat of the violent overthrow of the U.S. government. The only agency able to actually violently overthrow the U.S. government is the U.S military, or possibly a foreign power.

Indeed President Biden’s recent speech on the anniversary of the January 6th protests continues to exaggerate the threat of a Trump supported insurrection with extraordinary hyperbole calling it the  “worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War.” .

Given that almost 50% of the American voting population supported Trump at the last election, this seems a very foolish strategy for a President to take. A stateperson-like approach would surely acknowledge the differences between the parties and the need for peace and reconciliation. However the skills of reconciliation and diplomacy do not appear to be something that American politicians have much mastery of.

Attacking the political beliefs of 50% of your population as violent and unacceptable is not a sensible approach for any politician wishing to achieve great things – and be re-elected. (not too dissimilar to Hilary Clinton’s foolish disparagement of Trump supporters as ‘deplorables’, in the previous Presidential election). To deliberately undermine the opposing party’s supporters ( however foolish and misguided their views are) in such a caustic manner, is to fracture a nation .

While many Americans legitimately fear what a new Trump-like presidency would mean for them, the risk of some other organisation (and they would need to be highly organised) attempting to truly subvert the government, becomes ever more real as both political parties insist that democracy has already been subverted by the other.

And we now see The U.S. Department of Justice and FBI hyping up the internal threat to U.S. ‘democracy’ and adding considerably more resources into internal surveillance of the U.S. population. In addition, some Democrat politicians are attempting to claim the Capitol attack was an internal terrorist event; “When a mob of armed rioters use force in an attempt to overthrow the United States government, that is domestic terrorism,” Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) said as she pressed the department’s National Security Division chief, Matthew Olsen, and senior FBI official Jill Sanborn about the approach to the prosecutions. “My understanding is prosecutors have not been pushing for the sentencing enhancements available for acts of domestic terrorism.”

The use of ‘terrorism’ terminology to describe those American citizens who oppose the U.S. government’ position on various issues, is again, a dangerous one. The United States has consistently used its foreign terrorism legislation and military mechanisms to murder, torture and ‘disappear’ people who thwart its ‘interests’ outside of its borders, at will, and without any regard for international norms or rights.

In addition, as the country with both the highest number and the highest rate per 100,000 of people incarcerated in prisons in the world , in often appalling conditions, United States’ authorities have no qualms about putting people in gaol, using them as slave labour and often killing them , on dubious grounds.

All of this hyperbole in an already violence fueled nation, is a recipe for disaster and disintegration. The United States desperately needs statesmen, not representatives of vested corporate interests in positions of power. Statesmen (and other genders) who understand that the United States is not , and never has been, that shining city on the hill that President Reagan once spoke about (“America is a shining city upon a hill whose beacon light guides freedom-loving people everywhere’), that the United States is not the ‘exceptional nation’ and can only marginally be called a democracy, and that its history is stained with more than 200 years of savagery, bloodshed, treachery and infamy.

Statesmen who understand there needs to be radical real change in the United States before it begins to respect and support its own citizens, let alone the citizens of other countries – statesmen and women who understand that mealy-mouthed slogans and threats are not enough!

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Links

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jan/11/capitol-attack-panel-trump-subpoenas

https://www.axios.com/justice-department-domestic-terrorism-unit-1a025d5e-09d1-46ca-ac77-cc60ca687d1b.html

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/01/11/senators-feds-jan-6-riot-probe-526899

 

Complicity

We are all in desperate need of real investigative journalism which is not paid, bullied or feel obliged to follow the current state propaganda line.

There is not much more one can say about Media Lens’ concise summary of the activities of Western countries- particularly the United States and its closest ally, the United Kingdom, in engaging in serial murder over many years, against countries and peoples more vulnerable than their own, whose misery and deaths can be exploited for profit.

While the barbarity of the U.S. and U.K is documented elsewhere in great detail, Media Lens’ great strength is to outline the consistent role Western mainstream media have played in actively supporting those wars and the lies they knowingly propagated ( or in a few cases simply failed to do their journalistic duty of investigation)

As the wheel turns, the U.S. will in a few short years, no longer have the preeminent global role it has acquired through military domination. As the U.S. global role declines, so the need for justice for those many millions victimised by that imperial power will steadily rise until those responsible are indeed facing the court at the Hague for their war crimes .

Alongside them in the dock will surely be those media propagandists who knowingly aided and abetted their crimes with media lies and encouraged the lust for war.

On a more absurd and light-hearted note, we note the allegations from an Australian TV channel, Channel 9, that Vladimir Putin hacked their TV broadcast because he didn’t like what they said about him . While the ridiculous allegations are unsurprising from such a news source, there will be any number of gullible xenophobic Australians ready to be whipped up into a frenzy about malign state actors ( any one of either China, Russia, North Korea or Iran-take your pick) interfering with their TV viewing !

We are all in desperate need of real investigative journalism which is not paid, bullied or feels obliged to follow the current state propaganda line.

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Links

Propaganda By Omission: Libya, Syria, Venezuela And The UK

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9411375/Did-Russian-hackers-force-Australian-TV-station-air-showing-Putin-investigation.html

Fact-Checking the Liars: the Record of U.S. Imperial War and Plunder

The Capitol Invasion

What  are we to  make, from  across the sea, of Trump  supporters   invading the U.S.  Capitol  building while Congress members  were voting to  install Joe Biden  as the next president of the United States?

Is this ‘insurrection’?-  a new civil  war?  a ‘revolution’?…

In the mind-numbing complexities and anomalies  that  is American ‘democracy’, this new episode  in the  rapidly foreclosing Trump era  appear as a comedy  of errors, by  all  parties.

A historic opportunity by  Joe Biden  and the Democrats to  bring together the nation after 4 years of Trumpism,  has been  completely given  away-  to  childish  bi-partisanship,  which has the potential  to  further divide a fractured declining nation.  Trump’s devotees-  many of whom  are frightened at  their loss of incomes, law and order,  their loss of status,  the confusing messages of the U.S.  ‘Woke’  culture and many more  pressures, are not going to  go  away. If they  are now  no longer able to  attach  themselves to  a political  forum that  supposedly supports their frustrations, as Trump  pretended to do,  they  will find other  routes  to  assert  their concerns-  perhaps in  more damaging ways.

The deletion of Trump’s historic postings  and the removal  of his capacity to  post in  the future, was a concerted effort by  the major social  media  outlets. Twitter CEO Jack  Dorsey commented that  the ‘ban is a failure of ours to promote healthy conversation’. While I am  very  clear that  I personally find Trump’s rants and raving  inappropriate,  often  judgmental, rascist  and dangerous,  and that  he is guilty of war crimes in Yemen  and Syria  among other places ( along with  numerous other American  presidents) ,  I don’t believe I (or anyone else) has the ability to  judge what  is ‘healthy conversation’  for all  others;  assuming that  such  a thing as a ‘healthy conversation’ could ever be defined. For a social  media tycoon to  make such  a global  statement is both  dangerous and indicative of the quality of intellect  in  such  ‘high  places’.

And it is unsurprising that  most Republican  voters feel  that  this  presidential  election was stolen  from them  given 1) the vast  capacity for manipulating the electoral  system in the United States;  2)four years of hype and paranoia from  mainstream media that  Trump  won  the last election because the Russians  somehow  manipulated  voters and the voting system; 3) the global  mainstream media’s consistent campaign to  deride and demean Trump  in  any possible way ( not hard to  do  of course). and 4) the bizarre second impeachment process, simply designed to  kick  Trump and his supporters while he is down.

What  the United States desperately needs now  is a government that  understands its  role is to support the  dispossessed,  the poor, the sick and  the unemployed, to  live a  fair and pleasant lifestyle. There is after all, more than  enough  to  go  round in  the United States-  even  now.  But instead we see   the remaining U.S.  health  and income support infrastructures steadily  being whittled away-  the rich  getting richer,   the poor without hope  and the U.S.  electoral  system  dominated by  what  are  euphemistically called ‘corporate donations’.. The dichotomy between  the  empty promises of those in  power   and those who  need a better life there,  are growing ever wider. That  widening chasm  leads to  social  destruction.

It is baffling why American  society is so  willing to  ascribe to  conspiracy  theories -whether it be Joseph  McCarthy  and the internal communist  threat, the Russians, the Chinese,  or some other nation Americans have been  taught to  fear, or now, ‘insurrection’  from  white supremacists.

Farcical , if it were not deeply disturbing,  are Nancy  Pelosi (Speaker of the House at  Congress) and Hilary  Clinton (ex Secretary  of State)  stating publicly their view that  Vladimir Putin  orchestrated the Capitol  invasion. Either  (hopefully)  they  are simply attempting to  manipulate public opinion to  think  that  somehow Putin is behind all  of this,  or more disturbingly ,  they  actually believe their nonsensical  and delusional statements.

While the invasion of the Capital  building is certainly to  be deplored,  the response  from  Democrat congresspeople and lawyers has been  extraordinary and hugely counterproductive to  building truth  and reconciliation in the United States. It is hoped that  the parallels noted by  Eric Rasmussen in  his article about  the Reichstag Fire of 1933  and the Capital  building riot will  turn  out to  be simply coincidence, but they  are disturbing.

Is it their lack  of  education about the wider world and American history?; the efficacy  of American mainstream media  to  lie  with advertising and political  brainwashing?; their centuries long addiction to  violence? the insistence on show and appearance as more important than  truth and justice?- or perhaps a mix of all  those issues….Whatever the  primary  causes,  Americans are  in  for a rough  ride until  they come to  terms with their country’s contradictions, and learn the truth  about what  their  country  really has stood for.

Links

9/11 Was the Prelude. 1/6 Is the Holy Grail

Trump Impeached Amid Efforts to Silence Him

America’s Battle Over the Nature and Direction of Change Itself

Stop the Steal takeover exposes fragility of U.S. empire

Lee Camp: America Condemns One Violent Mob While Celebrating Another

No One Is Listening: A Country Divided Against Itself

https://www.unz.com/article/are-we-all-domestic-terrorists/

No matter Impeachment 2.0, Trumpism haunts America

DOJ Now Says There Was No Plot to Kill Elected Officials

How Billionaires Transfer Blame to Others

Assange’s Show Trial

As the  tragi- comedy trial of Julian Assange in London wends its way  to its inevitable conclusion: (extradition to  the United States); the day  to  day  accounts of those few people (noted below in  the links)  permitted by  the Court to  view ‘proceedings’,  shows a client British  state determined to  kowtow to  the United States,  regardless of the cost to its intended credibility as an upholder of international  human rights.

We are reminded of  Gilbert & Sullivan’s  comic-opera, ‘Trial  by Jury’ of Victorian times in its absurdities: from  the bombastic prosecutor, to  the Judge  who  chooses to pretend the terrors inflicted by her government simply do  not exist,

The contrast  between  Assange’s courage and morals  in the face of the “Exceptional  Empire”, and the duplicity  of  the mainstream media in either not reporting about the trial or continuing to  excuse the depravity of the U.K and U.S.  court systems,  could not be more complete.

And once Assange is extradited  and sent to  the   Eastern District of Virginia, where thousands of  CIA staff  are based at  Langley,   where traditionally “whistleblowers’  are tried and prosecuted and sent to  jail , we will  once again be reminded of those great  freedoms we posses in  the West- (provided we toe the line).

The longer Assange languishes (and perhaps dies) in  some American  prison for ‘terrorists” ( perhaps he can be sent to Guantanamo Bay so any actions against  can  be ‘extra-judicial’?)  the more the United States “Shining City of the Hill  will be exposed as the house of horrors it truly is.

And one last thought. How is it that the  great  ‘democratic’ institutions of the  U.S.  and U.K. government have spent millions on  hunting down  and imprisoning Assange for reporting the truth  about their crimes,  and not one dollar or pound has been spent in  tracking down,  trying and imprisoning those ‘patriots’  who  have engaged in  these war  crimes by either  those governments or their mainstream  media?

The current actions of the U.K.  and U.S.  governments, in trying to  suppress and punish  Assange and Wikileaks, have demonstrated very  clearly that  those governments and state apparatus continue to  fully support the  very genocide,  mass murder and  torture that Wikileaks has exposed to  the world.

Links

Waiting for the Old Bailey: Julian Assange and Britain’s Judicial Establishment

https://www.unz.com/pescobar/julian-assange-prometheus-bound/

As British judge made rulings against Julian Assange, her husband was involved with right-wing lobby group briefing against WikiLeaks founder

Julian Assange Show Trial Resumes: Why the U.S. Government Wants Him Silenced

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-09-04-as-british-judge-made-rulings-against-julian-assange-her-husband-was-involved-with-right-wing-lobby-group-briefing-against-wikileaks-founder/

https://www.rt.com/op-ed/500083-assange-pilger-court-trial/

As Assange extradition hearing resumes, the future of a free press is on trial

Media Freedom? Show me the MSM Journalist Opposing the Torture of Assange

 

 

Navalny’s Novichok

The recent suspected poisoning  by  Novichok of Alexei  Navalny , politician & anti-corruption campaigner  in Russia, apparently  demonstrates remarkable levels of incompetence by the  Russian Federation & Vladimir Putin.

It should be noted that while Navalny is certainly a thorn in the side of Vladimir Putin  and his United Russia party from  an  anti-corruption point of view, and attains mythical  status  in Western  mainstream  media as Putin’s   potential  nemesis leading his  ‘Russia of the Future’ political  party , Nalvany’s  has 3 to  5% support amongst  Russian voters nationally and  by whom he is often perceived as an extremist, means that he is  currently little  of a political  threat to Putin.  However Nalvany’s   supporters in Russia and West allege, “state-run” media ignore him  and the ballot boxes are always stuffed in  Putin’s candiates’ favour. He may however have many enemies in both  government and private corporate Russian circles.

Craig Murray,  ex U.K.  ambassador, whistleblower on U.K  complicity in torture, supporter of Assange and other unpopular human rights issues,  and  now conveniently  likely soon  to  be imprisoned by  the U.K.  government on  some highly questionable charges , outlines below just  some of the  ‘peculiarities’ of the poisoning.

Let us first take the weapon of attack. One thing we know about a “Novichok” for sure is that it appears not to be very good at assassination. Poor Dawn Sturgess is the only person ever to have allegedly died from “Novichok”, accidentally according to the official narrative. “Novichok” did not kill the Skripals, the actual target. If Putin wanted Navalny dead, he would try something that works. Like a bullet to the head, or an actually deadly poison.

“Novichok” is not a specific chemical. It is a class of chemical weapon designed to be improvised in the field from common domestic or industrial precursors. It makes some sense to use on foreign soil as you are not carrying around the actual nerve agent, and may be able to buy the ingredients locally. But it makes no sense at all in your own country, where the FSB or GRU can swan around with any deadly weapon they wish, to be making homemade nerve agents in the sink. Why would you do that?

Further we are expected to believe that, the Russian state having poisoned Navalny, the Russian state then allowed the airplane he was traveling in, on a domestic flight, to divert to another airport, and make an emergency landing, so he could be rushed to hospital. If the Russian secret services had poisoned Navalny at the airport before takeoff as alleged, why would they not insist the plane stick to its original flight plan and let him die on the plane? They would have foreseen what would happen to the plane he was on.

Next, we are supposed to believe that the Russian state, having poisoned Navalny, was not able to contrive his death in the intensive care unit of a Russian state hospital. We are supposed to believe that the evil Russian state was able to falsify all his toxicology tests and prevent doctors telling the truth about his poisoning, but the evil Russian state lacked the power to switch off the ventilator for a few minutes or slip something into his drip. In a Russian state hospital.

Next we are supposed to believe that Putin, having poisoned Navalny with novichok, allowed him to be flown to Germany to be saved, making it certain the novichok would be discovered. And that Putin did this because he was worried Merkel was angry, not realising she might be still more angry when she discovered Putin had poisoned him with novichok- Craig Murray

Curiously again, Navalny’s poisoning just happened to coincide with an  intense level  of blackmail  and lobbying from  the United States for Germany to  renege on its agreement with Russia to  provide  Germany with cheap  natural  gas via Nordstream 2 pipeline ( to  ensure Germany buys vastly more expensive U.S. gas) and  the current political  debacle occurring in  Belorussia,  where Poland,   the Ukraine and the Nordic states are putting intense pressure on  the Belorussian state to  not sign  up  to the previously agreed political  and military  merging of Belorussia with Russia.

As Southfront notes, it would appear that  the Navalny case and the colour revolution style demonstrations   supported from  those states, has prompted the Belorussian  President Lukashenko; just  recently re-elected on  somewhat dubious grounds after obtaining 80% of the vote!- to  once again  change direction and support the merger with the Russian Federation.

It also  appears somewhat  strange that  Germany has decided that  a Russian national ,  supposedly poisoned on Russian soil,  is the political  business of the German  state. Should Germany wish  to pursue that line of political  enquiry, then  Germany should have  rightly long ago  sanctioned and demanded explanations from the United States, United Kingdom, France and other Western  states for their appalling record of genocidal wars  they they have engaged in.

And one more speculative narrative  explores whether the Novichok accusations are part of a campaign  by  the U.S.  to  ensure the  newly developed  (and rather rushed) Russian COVID19  vaccine, does not  undercut U.S.  attempts (and particularly Bill Gates’) initiatives to  market a vaccine to the world.

All  this  alongside the ongoing attempt by  Western intelligence  agencies  and their mainstream  media “associates” to ‘fit up’  Russia and China  with every possible charge of criminal  activity and human rights violations, so  that  Western  populations can  accept and applaud the loss of access to Russian and Chinese goods, the need for more weapons and even the justification for war. It is important to recognise too, that the linkages between Western  intelligence agencies are very  strong,  and often can be at  odds with  the positions of those in  government, to the benefit of those who  can make money  out of death  and destruction.

The U.S.  and the U.K.  are very much aware that  their economic influence on the rest of the world is rapidly waning, and their historical  methods of violence intimidation and corruption no longer have the power they use to,  with the rise of China as an economic counterweight.

Thus we see  a long term pattern of accusations of the use of “Weapons of Mass Destruction” or other mass human rights violations  against  states the U.S.  and the U.K wish  to  first destabilise and  then  extract   the profits from  that destruction. The list  includes   Iraq,  Syria,  Libya, Iran,  Russia, Venezuela,  China…   Those countries that  continue to  violate human  rights on  a massive scale like Israel, Saudi Arabia, Colombia and many others  are exempt from  that pressure because they are already  within  the US/UK economic sphere . And of course the  genocidal  activities of the U.S. and U.K.  in their endless colonial  wars are simply brushed under the carpet.

Both the U.S.  and the U.K.  know that once China ,  in collaboration with its Belt and Road partners, achieves overwhelming economic ( and military) superiority,  there will be many many British and American  leaders  confronting the International  Court of Justice in the Hague for their crimes and the need for just  compensation for those states they have destroyed over the past  100  years.

Follow the money….

Postscript

Southfront posits some alternative reasons for Navalny being ‘poisoned’ here 

Links

Homo Homini Lupus Est: Did Navalny’s Allies Poison The Oppositionist For Flying Too Close To The Sun?

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2020/09/navalny-gets-skripaled.html#comments

https://www.unz.com/ishamir/navalny-poison/

https://www.thelocal.de/20200822/whos-behind-the-berlin-ngo-which-rescued-russias-opposition-leader

The Navalny case: Poisoning or another occasion to heighten Russo-European tensions?

https://www.unz.com/ishamir/navalny-poison/

Novichok, Navalny, Nordstream, Nonsense

https://www.sott.net/article/440822-German-Novichok-poisoning-claims-over-Navalny-will-prompt-familiar-circus-of-sanctions-Russia-demonisation-But-who-benefits

https://www.thenation.com/article/world/alexei-navalny-poisoning/

 

Belarus Chooses Integration With Russia Against Navalny Poisoning

Novichok and Nonsense: From a Post-Factual to a Post-Logic World

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/09/05/pers-s05.html

Germany, Not Russia, Should Answer Questions Over Navalny Case

 

Democracy & the Power of Persuasion

Patient dummy
The dummy in the hospital bed

That  racist old warmonger, Winston Churchill,  has often been  quoted as saying,  “Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.”…

Is it true now?-  and was it ever true?

The capacity of taxpayer funded government institutions to  manipulate public opinion has grown over the past 100  years as the theories of propaganda and  the power to  influence  individuals’  beliefs with  media, particularly electronic media, has grown   exponentially.

Modern  government bureaucracies  have always constructed ‘stories’  for their publics about how the world is:  who  is our ‘enemy’ – what  is ‘safe’ and what  is  ‘appropriate’ etc;  and the major medium  in  the past has been  via  status quo  newspapers ( the vast majority of modern newspaper and visual  media publishers are  active mouthpieces of  state propaganda  ( as in  the U.K.  with the BBC and The Guardian)  perhaps because of the enormous  costs of printing and distribution which  requires substantial  funding from  status quo funders.

Solely online social  media however;  blogs and online newspapers require far less input and resources, and their legitimacy  and media sources can  be easily hidden. They are easily accessible at minimum  cost  to  every  member of society, and the public can be ‘fed’  the official line-subtly and invisibly through  advertising   and other online  preference algorithms. The one small  downside of the electronic medium  world for  governments however,  is that  ‘rogue’  alternative media outlets also have access to  this cheap  media distribution process  (hence the desperate measures by  ‘respectable’  news outlets and governments to  promote the ‘fake news’  narrative and the need for  major  search  engine algorithms  to  be tightly controlled by  ‘respectable governments.

To  foster  and maintain the government narrative therefore requires more and more input to  feed the official  media line. As Craig Murray  notes, in the U.K. there are very large amounts of tax payer money  going into   manipulating public opinion for the benefit of those currently in  power.  The 77th Brigade of the British Army, the Integrity Initiative, MI5 and MI6 and GCHQ all run major programmes of covert online propaganda. These information warriors operate on twitter, facebook, and in comments sections across the internet. 

We can  be sure that  those U.K. manipulation agencies also exist everywhere across the world where there is sufficient taxpayer money, and sufficient need to  maintain  the status quo.

We could accurately call  these individuals and agencies,  the ‘Secret  Thought Police’.

Perhaps, if those agencies had some access to  a higher truth;  a global  need for a better life for all, saving the planet  or simply creating a more equitable world,  we might be able to  possibly argue that  those secret agencies are to  our mutual  benefit. But the reality is far from  that. Those agencies are designed to  entrench  those in  power with more power,  and with more money,  and to  negate,   satirize  and destroy by  whatever means available, alternative arguments, alternative strategies  that  might benefit and save ourselves and the planet. They  are in  consequence,  administered by  humans with limited understanding of their world,  with vast  prejudices  and with limited ethics and morality.

With  those huge resources  of thought engineering at  their disposal,  ‘governments’ which   across the world,  have  demonstrated their blindness and  total incapacity to  respond to  the catastrophes of global   heating and species loss facing us now, have instead steadfastly maintained their incestuous linkages with  the very corporations and  industries which  have created the nightmare unfolding day  by  day  in front of us.

When  many Western  governments,  but especially the U.K.  and U.S.,  have  knowingly and actively collaborated with states,  individuals and agencies over many years in  many countries   that   create  public fear  through  violence (the anatomy of terrorism), then  we have a sick  and debauched set of governments who  have no  moral right to  govern. Certainly  the current  leaders of Britain  and United States will,  in  the future, be key defendants  in  the dock  for war  crimes in Yemen  and other countries.

The Colour revolutions of the  past  10  years , (harnessing local  discontents with   resources from  foreign  governments and NGOs  and businesses such  as Soros) which have destabilized both  authoritarian  and socialist  governments alike across the globe,  have also, perhaps inadvertently , cast into question the authority of ‘democratic’ governments. Election results  are  more easily able to be questioned and invalidated in  their eyes of their voting publics.  Even  those  governments who  have destabilised   other foreign  governments with  such  tools for many years;  particularly the U.K.  and the U.S. , now find  themselves the victims of such  anti-establishment processes.

We have the somewhat  unique situation of the U.K.s Brexit poll  being questioned by  many in  the U.K.;  not because  the voting was flawed,  but  simply because it was not the result that  the powers that  be ,  wanted. The U.K.   may therefore  hold further Brexit votes until  they  get  the answer they  want;  a process which naturally underlines the key premises of the democratic system-  that  you vote for a party or issue  at  a certain  moment in  time  to  make longer term changes which  you may  or may  not disagree with later.

The recent Hong Kong riots  are an  example of the complexity of the issues where governments are actively destabilised by internal groups. The fears that  the proposed new extradition laws from  semi-autonomous Hong Kong to  mainland authoritarian  China will  create opportunities for Hong Kong dissidents to be controlled or  imprisoned in  China are  likely correct. As a former British  colony , ceded by  the  Qing dynasty of China  to  the British after the  First Opium War,  a brutal  and ethically bankrupt  war raged by  the British  to  ensure  a good supply of Chinese opium addicts, British  Hong Kong was  governed by  a British  Governor appointed by  the British “Crown”  and who  had  significant powers of authority up  to  1997 . The current dissidents therefore hancor for a non existent time when  there was in  fact a democratic Hong Kong not controlled by  ‘foreigners”. It is very  likely that , in the current anti-Chinese climate being rapidly developed by  U/S.  intelligence agencies,  that  their British  underlings are supporting the dissidents in  Hong Kong to put further pressure on Communist China,  along with  the  National  Endowment for “Democracy”,  an  NGO front for the U.S.  government destabilization agenda.

We are in  desperate need of change. Our ‘democratic’  system  is deeply flawed,  easily manipulated by  the powerful, and does not benefit in  the  longer term or even,  in  many cases,  the short term ,  its constituent publics.

 

Links

https://www.army.mod.uk/who-we-are/formations-divisions-brigades/force-troops-command/77-brigade/ 

How To Spot A Twitter Troll

https://williamblum.org/chapters/rogue-state/trojan-horse-the-national-endowment-for-democracy

 

 

 

 

Links

http://www.twainquotes.com/19100424b.html

From Cold to Hot War..

“On the Beach”

The recent very  fake news from  the White Helmets about Assad’s government gassing civilians in Douma in Ghouta province of Syria has clearly been orchestrated by  Western intelligence agencies ( who  largely control  the White Helmet’s agenda   and their Al Qaeda affiliates on  the ground in  Syria). As has been noted elsewhere,  Syrian government forces have no  need to  gas anyone;  they  are on  a roll  and likely to  overrun  all  Al Qaeda rebels in  the Ghouta area in  the next week..And in fact  Syrian  government forces and Russian  advisers now control the area where the gassing supposedly occurred. An unfortunate fact  for the U.S.  now gunning for war…

The appointment of John Bolton as Secretary of State for the U.S., who  along with  U.S.’s U.N.  representative, Nikki Haley,  know  no other response to   perceived threats to  U.S. global  omnipotence than  war  and more war,  is a solid indication that  the U.S.  intelligence community and State Dept  is indeed preparing for war  with  Russia.

If we combine those changes to  U.S.  administration, with  the farcical  attempts by  the U.K.  government to  blame Russia for the Skripal’s near death  experiences in Salisbury, and advance  agreement by  the French  sock-puppet Macron to obey the U.S.’s every  command in fighting the Assad  government if a gas attack  just happens to  occur in  Syria ;  we are left with no  option other than war.

Russia has given  categorical  statements at  the U.N. , and to  the U.S. , that  missile attacks  against  the Syrian  government will  be responded to “at source”  ie by attacking   U.S.  French or U.K.  aircraft ,  airbases  or aircraft  carriers that  carry  out such  attacks.

As noted in  a previous post on  this site;  the argument in NATO command and the Western  “think tanks”, is that by destroying once and for all, the  threat of Russia as an state entity capable of having an independent  foreign policy  and  economic pathway,  all  the other dominos;  China,  Iran,  North Korea who  currently oppose Western global  control,  will  inevitably  ‘fall  into line”

We know from previous experience,  that  Western  countries;  particularly those who have signed up  to  NATO,  will indeed  fall   into line with their masters, and  both  acquiesce and actively participate in  whatever horrific actions the Americans and their British  allies  have decided upon.

The blatantly  absurd arguments about Saddams’  little trucks full  of WMD,  or the  viagra given  to  Libyan soldiers so  that they could rape Libyan  civilians, or any of the  ridiculous other  casus belli formulated in  the rather small  brains of the military strategists  in  London  and Washington  over the past 60  years since the second world war, have been  promulgated by  a compliant (or perhaps ‘bought”)  Western  media without analysis, and accepted as fact by  the vast majority of the Western world’s population. We do  not need rational or factual  arguments,  any old rationale, however ridiculous,  will  do  to destroy another country  and its population.

We are after all,  as members of the Western world-  defenders of democracy  and freedom  and civilised  humanity-  are we not?…..

Except this time, making war with  Russia as  a major nuclear power, and with  very formidable weaponry,  will  not be the ‘cake-walk’  it was supposedly going to be in Iraq. In  addition it is unknown  at  this point,  but likely,  that China will  have to take a stand beside Russia  in the lead-up  to  war-knowing they will  be next  if Russia falls. The writing is on  the wall  for the Chinese with  Trump’s ‘trade war”,  and the Chinese have demonstrated they  will  not be bullied by  the U.S.

If  you think  that none of  this could  be possible , (we wouldn’t risk global  war-  would we?) it is well  to be reminded about  the last  Western  allies in  the pursuit of ….something….  invaded Russia.

Or to be reminded of the total barbarity of the Western invasions of North Korea  during the Korean War , the still ongoing excuses by  the U.S.  for its totally vicious devastation of Vietnam  and its population during the Vietnam  War. But right now in Yemen,  where millions of civilians are starving and dying  because of Saudi  bombing ( coordinated by  U.S.  and U.K.  ‘advisors’)  and  a naval  blockade of food  ably assisted by  the US  Fifth Fleet,  we see clear evidence of active complicity in  massive war crimes by  the U.K.  and U.S.

Why  should such barbaric partners therefore  need things like evidence or truth  when responding to  allegations  by  the jihadists they  support in  Syria, of gas attacks  by  the Syrian military ( and therefore Russia).

There is a higher goal  here-  the pursuit of more money  and power…

Links

The Rush to War

Trump’s Rush to Judgment on Syria Chemical Attack

Syrian War Report – April 9, 2018: Another ‘Chemical Attack’ Story Triggers Escalation In Region

Russia controls Douma, guarantees impartial investigation; that makes US attack MORE likely

The Rapidly Evolving Skripal Story: Evidence of the Destruction of an Anglo-American Plan

https://disobedientmedia.com/2017/01/us-supported-syrian-white-helmets-involved-with-war-crimes-committed-by-rebel-groups/

https://disobedientmedia.com/2018/04/all-russiagate-roads-lead-to-london-as-evidence-emerges-of-joseph-mifsuds-links-to-uk-intelligence/

http://www.syrianews.cc/last-terrorists-of-douma-jaish-helmets-sams-collaborate-in-massacre/

https://www.rt.com/op-ed/423846-syria-attack-trump-war-russia/

http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13970122001526

Control 101: Creating Consensus Reality

 

Lies, Damn Lies, and Propaganda

My apologies to Benjamin Disraeli for abusing his wonderful quote about statistics in my blog title.
In essence, any information, however factual, can be used to manipulate opinion; and is most frequently used in that manner. The recent barrage of U.S. media reports on ‘fake news’, of Facebook getting mainstream media to, laughably, monitor what is fake and is not fake in Facebook posts, the accusations of Russian (sorry Putin) manipulation of the US media for his  own nefarious ends…. the list of ‘factual’ reports goes on and on.

What we do know as fact is that the media has frequently and knowingly, lied to their respective publics about news; particularly news about ‘foreign’ wars.
For instance, we know the media lied on behalf of the U.S. State Department about the reasons for war with North Korea in the 50s, the Gulf of Tonkin incident which was  supposedly the rationale for war with “North’ Vietnam, the war in Kosovo against Serbia, the war in Iraq, the war in Libya, the war in Syria….and so on..

And U.S. media is not alone in blindly reporting press releases from government agencies- the U.K. media is amazingly compliant for one which espouses a ‘free press’, in reporting as ‘fact’  what  is churned out from  government  reporting channels.
So , one might think that the world public would by now recognize that media tells lies and half-truths, or ‘selective truths’ – incessantly- for political ends. But for some reason; time after time; the public believes the next new set of ‘facts’.
And I am not for a minute suggesting that the Russian media is in any way free of the propaganda and lies that Western media indulge in daily; the difference for western publics, is that they are a new set of lies- or ‘half-truths’, or simply a different perspective. Hence they are extremely valuable in helping Westerners determine what the possible ‘real’ reality might be.

We have seen increasingly hysterical and far-fetched outbursts from Western politicians and their mainstream media (MSM) allies about ‘fake news ‘ because MSM is failing to deliver the goods to them. The public is slowly but increasingly becoming aware of other perspectives on international events;  the  open internet  plays a very  significant role in  this. ‘Brexit’ was a prime example where enormous resources were poured into convincing the UK public that exiting the EU would be the worst possible thing that could ever happen to them-and yes the majority of voters voted for Brexit! In the U.S., the presidential election saw an astonishingly powerful alignment of MSM , politicians, celebrities etc lined up against Trump- and yes- using the archaic electoral college system, he won! The constantly repeated refrain about evil Assad and Putin in Syria  and  Aleppo has become to fray at the edges as many westerners see the Aleppan public dancing in the streets as the rebels are ‘evacuated’ to other places, and the true savagery of the ‘moderate rebels’ unveiled.
There is panic in Western political circles. What if the public really could make up its own mind, using multiple and divergent sources of information?
Russia therefore becomes a convenient bogey-man- haven’t we always feared the barbaric, savage and primitive Russian Bear? The consequence of using ‘external’ bogey-men is that politicians and media therefore imply that if you dont agree with their version of events, you must have been subtly manipulated by Communist (whoops!) I mean Russian, propaganda. The dangerous next implication, is that we have a fifth column in our midst; people who are not ‘true patriots’ because they dont believe the ‘correct’ party line..

This fear-mongering by MSM and politicians is therefore , a deliberate and direct attack on our democratic freedoms and rights.

The other  hugely significant implication of the U.S Intelligence  fear-mongering, is that if a a  foreign  media outlet indicates any  support for one  side or other of a political  debate  or election it is somehow undermining that  country’s democracy. The implication being that  all  foreign media  should have slavishly endorsed the Hilary  campaign ( 99% of which  did so as ordered)

 

Postscript

The recent accusations by  President Obama , the Democrat  Party and others that  Russia (and specifically Vladimir Putin)   hacked   Democrat  emails to discredit  Hillary  Clinton in the presidential  election  are outlined in  the State Department media  release . The very  reputable US based WordPress  IT website ‘Wordfence’    concludes  that  the State Dept information  provided is implausible in its intent to  show that the hacking (if it occurred) , was Russian, and that the sources quoted in the State Dept memo  are in  fact outdated Ukrainian malware)
https://www.wordfence.com/blog/2016/12/russia-malware-ip-hack/

Overall Conclusion
The IP addresses that DHS provided may have been used for an attack by a state actor like Russia. But they don’t appear to provide any association with Russia. They are probably used by a wide range of other malicious actors, especially the 15% of IP addresses that are Tor exit nodes.

The malware sample is old, widely used and appears to be Ukrainian. It has no apparent relationship with Russian intelligence and it would be an indicator of compromise for any website.

Rinf.com argues that Cloudstrike–  the company  contracted by  the Democrat Party to investigate the ‘hacks” ,  and also  the sole source of the State Dept info on  the ‘hacks’,  is  strongly connected to  the Ukrainian regime in Kiev ,  which  is strongly  ant-Russian  for obvious reasons. We appear to  be seeing,  as we have time and time again,  the U.S.  ‘intelligence’  community  being easily or (willingly )  conned  by  hostile vested interests determined to  create hostilities where none are needed:  think   the Kuwaiti  scam  on  Saddam’s Iraqi soldiers bayoneting incubator  babies,  the Libyan  scam on  Ghadaffi’s forces using   viagra to  rape  civilians… the list  goes on  and on. Combine the lack  of inteligence and  analytical  skills of the U.S. intelligence community with  a deeply ingrained  psyche that  considers violence and war as the solution to  everything,  we have a problem….The  current massing of hundreds of American  tanks and other weaponry  in  the Baltic states is signalling that the U.S.  war  machine intends to  strike soon .

The latest   surreal  reports of Trump  being  manipulated and blackmailed by  Putin  get even  more scary. This is now evidence that  the current US administration  under Obama is trying to  subvert the results of the US Presidential  election so  that they  can continue in  the buildup  to  war with Russia ..There is now overwhelming feedback  from  a multitude of specialist  sources that  these accusations by a  ‘former’  MI6 agent are simply  porkies.

Craig Murray provides a very  clear insight into why  the ‘former’  MI6 agents ‘dossier’  is  rubbish.

Links

http://www.moonofalabama.org/2017/01/the-deep-state-versus-donald-trump-new-smears-and-a-ukrainian-connection.html#more

Trump Sex Blackmail, New Twist in Witch-Hunt  By Finian Cunningham

The Steele Dossier or the Hitler Diaries Mark II

Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections ( Office of the Director of U.S.  National  Intelligence)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/01/12/britain-dragged-donald-trump-dirty-dossier-row-amid-claims-whitehall/

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_real_purpose_of_the_us_governments_report_on_alleged_hacking_by_russi

http://www.moonofalabama.org/2017/01/deep-state-35-pages-attack-against-trump-fails-foreign-and-domestic-losses.html#more

http://www.unz.com/pcockburn/the-dodgy-trump-dossier-reminds-me-of-the-row-over-saddams-wmds/

https://theintercept.com/2017/01/11/the-deep-state-goes-to-war-with-president-elect-using-unverified-claims-as-dems-cheer/

Obama and the Baseball Cards

Obama’s legacy; and  this may  well be his prime legacy- and  one he may  remember in his  older years as he stands before the International War Crimes Tribunal, (once its decisions are no  longer controlled by  the U.S.  State Department), was his omnipotent capacity to  decide who shall  live and who  shall   die by  drone anywhere in  the world,  based on  limited pieces of information  provided on baseball  cards. (a kind of  Roman Emperor  type role: – thumbs- up  or down at  the Coliseum)

Baseball Card Kill List DEPICTION
Lawfareblog.com notes ‘This is a mock-up/depiction of what an actual kill-list baseball card looks like. It is not a real baseball card and is not based on any classified information.’

 

Taken together, the secret documents lead to the conclusion that Washington’s 14-year high-value targeting campaign suffers from an over-reliance on signals intelligence, an apparently incalculable civilian toll, and — due to a preference for assassination rather than capture — an inability to extract potentially valuable intelligence from terror suspects. They also highlight the futility of the war in Afghanistan by showing how the U.S. has poured vast resources into killing local insurgents, in the process exacerbating the very threat the U.S. is seeking to confront. The Intercept 

One might almost be forgiven therefore  for coming to  the conclusion that  the intent of the U.S. targeted killing process is  not to  eliminate the sources of terror, but to  exacerbate them.

drone operator
Drone operator cabin- Daily Mail Australia

As we have seen in many a colonial  war, those who  ‘hand in’ terrorists to  the colonial  power inevitably have their own  agendas;  feuding families and clans, or perhaps financial   or property interests, but rarely because they  are in  fact  ‘terrorists”.  In addition we  can be certain  that  US military  and State Dept claims of minimal   ‘collateral  damage’ (accidental  killing of civilians who  get in the way  of a  drone  missile’s large detonation area)  are complete fabrications. And we can be certain too  that drone operators have less than minimal  knowledge of foreign cultural  issues- e.g. the difference between a  wedding party celebrating by firing automatic weapons into  the air and a  terrorist  group in weapons training , let alone  their drone “eyes” having sufficient  definition to  pick  up  who  is who  on the ground.

So,  when  dear President Obama  gives the thumbs down  on that particular baseball  card, he really has no  idea what  he is agreeing  to; other than that  his decision will  kill  someone or more likely , quite a few  people, out there . But of course, if  that Hellfire  missile with  its 9kg warhead  just  happens to  kill a few other  ‘military-age males’  in the vicinity of the explosion,  all  to the good.  By  using  remote killing mechanisms  the US president can appear to  take a Herod-like hands-off approach  to  the art of murder, with  the added benefit of limited  capacity of verifying what  carnage has  actually occurred on the ground.

In addition the United States’  penchant for targeting  supposed ‘leaders’ of terrorist  groups, rather than  their supply lines, infrastructure or financial  backers, means that  drones can be used over and over to  kill  the next leader who  takes the deceased’s  place in  the leadership line; or as in  many cases , the United States simply ‘kills’ the same person  over and over again; such  is the usefulness of remote unverified killing.

United States government lawyers have in  the past contorted themselves in  all  sorts of unusual  positions to justify  remote murder by  executive order,  much as their  contracted psychiatrists  managed to  create a lofty argument that  putting  prisoners through  ‘stress positions’  was not in  fact  totally illegal,  inhumane  torture and contravened  international  human  rights on  a grand scale.

President Obama has even been known  to joke publicly about his life and death  decision-making powers, not too  dissimilar from his psychopathic Secretary  of State ,  Hilary Clinton.

I hope I will  be around to  see  them  stand before the International  tribunal.

Links

https://theintercept.com/drone-papers/the-assassination-complex/

http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-presidents-kill-list

https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/uploads/2013.05.23_fact_sheet_on_ppg.pdf

https://www.aclu.org/news/aclu-comment-presidents-national-security-speech

https://www.aclu.org/issues/national-security/targeted-killing

https://www.aclu.org/foia-collection/targeted-killing-foia-database

https://www.aclu.org/foia-document/joint-targeting-cycle-and-collateral-damage-estimation-methodology

https://theintercept.com/document/2015/10/14/geolocation-watchlist/

https://www.lawfareblog.com/kill-list-baseball-cards-and-targeting-paper-trail

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2249252/Brandon-Bryant-Drone-operator-followed-orders-shoot-child–decided-quit.html

The Farcical “War on Terror”

Reports are now  coming thick and fast  from  both the Middle East  and from the  United Stated sources of the  role the United States  and its key allies have played in  first  establishing and  then maintaining   ISIS, Al Qaeda and numerous other salafist  affiliates, under the  flimsy  guise of them being  “moderate” jihadists.

As one more instance of this support, the  recent  debacle of a defeat for Iraqi troops against  ISIS in Ramadi points to  the clear decision by United States  forces not to  conduct  airstrikes  against  ISIS  positions, when there was every   opportunity to  do  so., and the US recommendation to  the Iraqi government not to deploy Shi-ite militias in Ramadi The United States is now  aggrieved that Iranian military players are now directly involved in  the re-taking of Ramadi for the Iraqi government .

The consistent intent  for   United States policy  since the Iranian revolution in1979,  has been to  contain and eliminate any potential threat from Shi-ite groups that might negatively impact on the US supported Persian Gulf (Sunni) dictatorships. The Gulf State dictatorships have consistently demonstrated  their unconditional  support  and loyalty  for  US and Israeli  imperial  policies  in  the region; unlike the Shi-ite  states of Iran, Syria and now Iraq, who  foolishly prefer a path of self-determination for their peoples.

The usual   pack of neocon  psychopaths , with John Bolton  snarling in  the lead, has been  to  attempt to  ramp up the non-existent Iranian nuclear weapon threat, to provide unconditional  support for Israeli genocide in  Palestine and to support   anything , regardless of international law or the rights of humanity, that  will extend the United State’s power internationally. If that means  using delusional  Saudi  and Qatari “princes”  to  find and resource even more psychotic ISIS military leaders,who  believe that  all Shi-ites must  be exterminated;  then so be it.

There is clear evidence of an ongoing policy by  the neocons to destroy secular Middle East  governments ( ie not specifically Sunni  oriented governments) like Saddam’s  Iraq, Libya, Syria, which  can lead  on to the ultimate goal  for the US, Israel  and the Saudis; the destruction of Shi-ite  Iran. The  Saudi bombardment of Yemen’s Houthi movement and all  Yemeni  civilians , is  just  a minor diversion  in  the larger game plan.

The recent public announcement by the US that  it wil  be funding training  and arming  “moderate” Syrian opposition forces to  fight the Syrian Assad regime , is one more step  in this bizarre and farcical journey of creating  monsters to  kill them. As has  been clearly demonstrated; there is in fact no  “moderate” opposition fighters. It is possible that  at  the beginning of the fight against  Assad in the “spontaneous” Arab Spring uprising against  him , that  there were a few  secular   and moderate voices, but they have long gone.  As this Department of Defence report for 2012 clearly indicates,   the US knew well  (even 3 years ago) that  the Syrian opposition  fighters that it supported and continues to  support, were  almost entirely composed of extremist jihadists and salafist ( anti-Shiite and anti  any other non-Sunni sect)

Additional  little snippets of the tight connection between Western governments and Middle East  terrorist  groups can  be  found in Seamus Milne’s account here.  Or the recent post  in  the Levant Report documenting how  the ISIS Leader Omar al-Shishani Fought Under U.S. Umbrella as Late as 2013

But even  in these accounts, Western  reporters are  extremely cautious in ascribing  a direct  linkage between  terror and the West ; one  which  now undoubtedly exists. Note how key Western governments are now happy to pay ISIS good prices for their stolen Syrian and Iraqi oil.

Or note ex-President of  Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai’s view that  the U.S is actively taking a two  sided approach  to  creation and  destruction of jihadist  groups to  serve its power interests.

Time and time again  we are seeing reports in  the mainstream U.S. and U.K. media that  ISIS is here to  stay  for  the long term; how hard it will be  to eliminate them; and really, things are such  a lot better for those people in Iraq, Libya and Syria now that  ISIS and its Western  subsidised offshoots are there.  After all  we have “law and order”-never mind that this “law” is an obscene  psychopathic one  As a “delightful ” example of this  obscene  Western view on  that”Isis isn’t really that bad” -read this article in the U.K. Independent by   Richard Barrett (who) was head of counter-terrorism at MI6 before spending nine years as the co-ordinator of the UN’s Al-Qaeda and Taliban Monitoring Team.

What  you sow, so  shall  you reap……

 Postscript

A great  article on where all  that wonderful  hardware comes from  that ISIS  uses at  Antiwar.com http://original.antiwar.com/Dan_Sanchez/2015/06/15/where-does-isis-get-those-wonderful-toys/, which rather begs the question; who is training those little psychopaths in all  this new hi-tech  equipment?

And some additional information from  Andrew P Napolitano  at  antiwar. com brings to  the sunlight  at  least one war equipment  ratline managed by  Secretary  of State Clinton to  terrorists in Libya and Syria .

And from Sibel Edmonds, ex-American intelligence operative; a podcast  on  the role of the U.S. Black-ops community in  establishing and maintaining  various international   terrorist  groups

Links

http://journal-neo.org/2015/05/25/washington-confesses-to-backing-questionable-actors-in-syria/

http://original.antiwar.com/Dan_Sanchez/2015/06/08/the-us-governments-not-so-secret-support-for-al-qaeda-and-isis/

http://rt.com/op-edge/265474-isis-syria-iraq-rebels/