*NEW*: The Dirty War on Syria: Washington, Regime Change and Resistance (PDF)
- ISBN Number:
- 978-0-9737147-7-7
- Year:
- 2016
- Product Type:
- PDF File
- Author:
- Tim Anderson
American boots on the ground. We hear this all too often throughout the world and now the war ravaged country of Yemen is the latest victim of US military troops. But why Yemen and why now and what are these troops trying to accomplish in a country that is facing a brutal war against it by Saudi Arabia, a war that Washington has given the green light to.
Above 23:30 minute video is from the PressTV YouTube Channel.
See also: Ansarullah Furious at US Military Build-up in Yemen (8/5/16) | FARS News Agency
Australian Politics Professor Tim Anderson recently wrote a book entitled, The Dirty war on Syria. In the embedded video, he describes the alarming ignorance of Australians generally about why the West is so down on Syria. This is a fascinating, humane and intelligent interview with Syrian TV. Among the many subjects covered are how the Australian media treats Anderson, how he became interested in the war in Syria, interpreting the propaganda war against Syria, and the future of Syria.
For people who follow French politics, France's entry into NATO was a frank change of politics. France had previously maintained an independent interest in the Middle East and tended to align away from Israel. France's involvement in recent NATO 'interventions' in Syria seemed uncharacteristically naive. In this stand-out interview, Yvan Blot, a former Gaullist parliamentarian, and closely associated with Sarkosy, when President, says that he did not agree with joining NATO. He says that French conservatives tend to be friends with Russia, in part because of business interests, and that socialist governments tend to have strained relations with Russia, since Mitterand. This interview is one of those where the person interviewed has a lot of experience and an unusually wide and historical perspective. This video transcript was first published on Sophie & Co on RT on 8 Mar, 2016 .
Russia's military pullout out of Syria came as a surprise to most Western nations. That, and a successful though fragile ceasefire inside Syria between Assad and the rebels, have shifted the balance on the global chessboard. Europe is struggling with the refugee flow, desperate enough to negotiate a blackmail-style deal with Turkey. As people are growing tired of the unpopular measures taken by Brussels, the upcoming elections in France, the EU's major player, may change the stakes in diplomacy as well. In this rapidly changing situation will the attitude towards Russia change? Does the West even need to carry out such a policy? And what role is NATO playing in the rift between Russia and the nations of Europe? We ask a prominent French politician, close friend of ex-President Nicolas Sarkozy. Yvan Blot is on Sophie&Co today.
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Sophie Shevarnadze: Yvan Blot, French scholar and politician, close to former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, author of “Putin’s Russia”, welcome to the show, it’s great to have you with us, sir.
Yvan Blot: Thank you for inviting me.
SS: So, from the latest, Russian troops are being pulled out of Syria, so we have the peace talks that are somewhat in progress right now. Truce is setting on the battlefield - do you think that Russian withdrawal, this move to pull out troops, will actually help the peace process, help de-escalate the situation, or will those who don’t want to find a compromise be emboldened by this move?
YB: It was a surprize in France to hear that Russian troops are leaving Syria, but I think it’s a good thing for the peace process, naturally.
SS: Why?
YB: It shows clearly that big powers want to seize the war and because Russia attacked the Islamist movement in Syria, some people would think that Russia wants to be in the East, and would invade, like America invaded Iraq.
SS: Make it it’s sphere of influence, basically.
YB: So we have a proof it’s not the case.
SS: How do you think the West will react to Russia’s move? Will West’s attitude towards Russia change after the withdrawal of the troops.
YB: I think, probably, Mr. Obama was informed about this decision, President Putin’s decision, so I think, normally, the West would have a good reaction, because if Washington agrees, the rest of the Western countries will agree, because America is the leader of the Western coalition in Syria.
SS: French economy minister, Emmanuel Macron, proclaimed that France is actually supporting the end of anti-Russian sanctions, but all of the EU members have to be OK with that. Except France we have Hungary, we have Greece, we have Italy who do not want to extend, to renew the sanctions. What do you think will happen? Will their voices be heard? Is it possible to actually go against the EU will and not renew the sanctions individually?
YB: It’s difficult to say. I know that business circles in France are against the sanctions, they want to get rid of the sanctions, and there’s a big discussion, private discussion, between the government and the business circles. I think, Mr. Hollande is not really in favor of sanctions, but he has to take into account the American position, naturally, and for that reason, it’s difficult to say what he will do, because if for him the American pressure is too strong, he will say: “We continue the sanctions”.
SS: So it’s really more the American pressure than the fact that all EU members have to be OK with not renewing the sanctions?
YB: It’s another reason, I would say. Nothing forbids France to get rid of the sanctions if France wanted to. I think, with somebody with character, as was General De Gaulle, we would stop the sanctions, whatever the consequences. Our President is an intelligent man, but I’m not sure he wants to have these difficult relations with Washington, so I’m not sure France will be very independent in that…
SS: You often talk about America’s influence over Europe, and you have mentioned that these are American sanctions more than European sanctions… I mean, you really believe that America’s influence over Europe is so big that it can actually pressure Europe into imposing sanctions on Russia?
YB: Yes, I have examples. For instance, we have a big bank, BNP Paribas, who had to pay enormous sums to the American Treasury because they made business with Iran, for instance. I know it was the same for Mistral, for instance. The American government told the French government, in private, naturally, that if we give Mistrals, these warships, to Russia, the sum that bank, BNP Paribas, must pay will be much higher and, at the same time, they say that American judges are completely independent. I don’t think this is the case. There are contacts between the judges and the American government. I have some experience with this. Western countries always say that their judges are completely independent, but it’s not the case if it is a question which touches national interests. For little private conflicts the judges are independent, but it’s linked with politics, the government says “I hope you will give good sanctions against this bank”, for instance.
SS: So you think if Europe, on a larger scale, was to reset relations with Russia, then America will actually torpedo it or sabotage it?
YB: The strategy of America was clearly explained in the book by Mr.Brzezinski, “The Big Chessboard”. In this book, Mr.Brzezinski says: “The problem of America is the competition with Eurasia.” Eurasia - that is to say Europe, Russia and China and India, perhaps - and he says: “If all these countries are against us, it’s going to be terrible for us, we are not the first power in the world, so we have to divide Eurasia, to colonize Western Europe, to survey China and Russia. For us it makes really a problem, and the best thing would be to have weaker Russia and to organize conflict with Ukraine”. It was written 10 years ago, and now you see the implementation of this strategy. I think it is an American strategy.
SS: But I want to talk about Europe’s position - why do you think it’s stuck in this choice between partnership with Russia and partnership with NATO. It seems like it’s one or the other - why? Why is it stuck in this position?
YB: First, NATO has no reason to survive, because NATO was created, in the beginning, to fight against communism and against Soviet Union. There’s no longer a Soviet Union. It would have been logical to destroy NATO and to create a new order for defence and security issues, new organisation, probably, and probably without the U.S.. It was not the case, naturally, and major part of our political leaders have strong personal links with American government, it’s a fact.
SS: You think there’s no reason for NATO to survive, you’ve also said that America’s influence on Europe is in large done through NATO - now, former French PM Dominique de Villepin.
has proposed, once again, pulling France out of the NATO military command structure. Do you think it’s a good idea, do you think France should pull out? Is it even possible?
YB: I think he’s right. I know him very personally, I think he’s right. It is technically completely possible, because we have a big industry of armaments, we have nuclear forces, so France can be independent.
SS: So why are you with NATO then? Is it just, like, symbolic, is it a question of French pride and prestige?
YB: It was a discussion between me and President Sarkozy about this, because I didn’t agree with him. It was Sarkozy who…
SS: Returned France to NATO.
YB: And he said: “We are in the same family”, his argument was “the same family, we have the same values”. Perhaps we have the same values, but since, perhaps, 10 years, all French presidents ask Americans to have one commander-in-chief of NATO. There are three staffs in NATO: for North of Europe, for Center of Europe and for South. France wanted to have the general-in-chief of the South, and the American said “No, no, no”. They said “No” to Mitterrand, they said “No” to Chirac, and they said “No” to Sarkozy. But, in spite of this Sarkozy said that it doesn’t matter, “we will integrate into it”, but I’m not sure it was a good idea.
SS: So, if France is part of the same family, as the NATO members, then why did the president Francois Hollande, after the horrible terrorist attacks, actually called on its fellow EU allies to help fight terrorism, help France, and not the NATO members?
YB: Politically, the EU is more important in France than the NATO. We don’t speak very much about NATO. But EU, yes, because it’s the same currency, it’s same economic policy, and so on. For that reason Mr. Hollande wants always to have good relations with the members of the EU, but in the future, I don’t know what we will have because it’s possible - it’s not sure, but it’s possible - that the UK leaves the EU.
SS: So, you have studied Russian for many years, you’ve wrote a book that’s called “Putin’s Russia”. It decries a lot of myths about Putin, it also argues against looking at Russia as if it was still a Soviet Union. Are there are lot of people in the French establishment who share your view on Russia?
YB: There are part of the establishment.
SS: What’s the ratio?
YB: Partly, it’s a question of generation. Older people in France very often think that Russia is always a Soviet Union, older people. But with younger people, it’s not the case at all. So, younger people in general are much more in favor of cooperation with Russia, even within the government, or within the Parliament, and this situation, I think, it’s improving for the future cooperation between France and Russia.
SS: But, French government mostly consists of young people, so you would think that they don’t really remember the Soviet Union, yet they are for the sanctions and they still decry Putin as a dictator…
YB: Yes, the French government is socialist, you know. It is a socialist tradition in France to have bad relations with Russia, I must say, because after the WWII, the Americans gave a lot of money to socialist party to fight against the Communist Party in France. For that reason, Socialist party had always very good links with America. Especially now, they have very good links with ms. Clinton, for instance. Ms. Clinton said once, I think she didn’t want to say this, but she said it to Juppe, “Mr. President Juppe” - but a journalist told her: “But he’s not President!” - he was PM, but he wasn’t a President - “Oh yes, I am sorry, I made a mistake” - but in fact, she would like to have Mr. Juppe as partner for future.
SS: We’ll talk about the Presidential elections that are coming up. So you have part of French establishment that is very anti-Russian, and you have part of it that’s very pro-Russian.
YB: Especially, business circles.
SS: So which side will prevail?
YB: In the short run, it’s, perhaps, the anti-Russians who are rather mainstream, especially in the media, but I think in the longer run, it would be completely different. You have only to look at the geography - it’s very difficult for Western Europe not to have a special links with Russia, because it’s the same continent, in fact. So, I think it’s artificial - this fight against Russia. In fact, the majority of people who come from France to Russia can see it’s not a dictatorship. I was, in the past, in the Soviet Union, and in my hotel, I could read some Russian papers in English - there was no criticism against Mr. Brezhnev, for instance, or of the Soviet government. But now you can read articles against Mr. Putin - so it’s very clear, there’s more freedom than before.
SS: So you have Presidential election coming up, right around the corner. Former President Nicolas Sarkozy was in Russia, you’re close to him, I believe you’re his friend. If his party wins the vote, do you think there will be a rapprochement between Russia and France?
YB: I’m sure.
SS: Really?
YB: Sarkozy always told me he wanted to have good relations with Mr. Putin. He has, I think personal good relations, and he thinks it’s very necessary, because Sarkozy is linked with business circles very much, much more than the socialists, and he wants to have better relations with Russia because they want to expand trade with Russia in every sectors of the economy. I think with Sarkozy the relations would be better, I’m sure, and even if we would have some tensions with the U.S.. We had tensions already in the past, with Sarkozy, when he went to mingle with Georgian war, for instance, Washington was not very happy about this. But he did it.
SS: Do you think he will run for Presidency again? What do you think? In your personal opinion?
YB: I think so, except, if he has such bad polls, he could perhaps say: “It’s over, it’s not possible”, but except in that extreme situation - we cannot know exactly the future so much early - I think he will be a candidate. He wants to be a candidate.
SS: But do you think the French are ready to choose again between Hollande and Sarkozy?
YB: Frankly, I’m not sure, because part of the French people would prefer to have new personalities, probably.
SS: It’s been 2 years since the Crimean referendum, pro-Russian referendum, and you have said that it’s impossible to reverse the Crimean situation. The EU however, is saying that the control over the peninsula needs to be given back to Ukraine. President Poroshenko is ordering Ukraine’s military to focus on Crimea, you have Kiev that is getting military aid from the U.S. - I mean, it does seem like the West cannot come to terms with that. Do you think that'll ever happen? When?
YB: I think Crimea will be Russian in the future. It’s not possible to change that. In France, we are not in a good place to think against it, because we made exactly the same with Mayotte in Africa, you know it’s some islands which form a Comorrean state and when they got their independence, one island said “We want to be French”, and this island is French. For that reason, France was condemned by the UNGA, we were condemned by the African Assembly of Nations, and it doesn’t change anything. We had no sanctions, because we are friends with the U.S.
SS: But we have sanctions, so if the Crimean situation is irreversible, and the sanctions are linked to the Crimean situation, does that mean that the sanctions against Russia are here to stay forever?
YB: It is a U.S. position now, with President Obama, but you cannot see future. I’m not sure, for instance, Mr. Trump, I think, perhaps, he would lift the sanctions, I’m not sure that he’s in favor of the sanctions. He’s like everybody, in general, in business circles - they don’t like sanctions. They think politicians mingling with economics is not a good thing, it’s better to be separated. With ms. Clinton, perhaps, we would have the same sanctions. So we have to wait for the American elections.
SS: Maybe, even harsher sanctions with ms. Clinton. So, let’s talk about the EU situation. The EU isn’t aligned in its relations with Russia, it has the migrant crisis, there’s the financial problem in the Eurozone, there’s terrorism problem - a serious problem. So, if countries weren’t obliged to follow one common EU policy, do you think they would be able to deal with these issues better, individually?
YB: I’m not sure. For instance a lot of people say because we are in the EU we could have more opportunity for economic growth, but it’s not in fact the case. Switzerland or Norway are not in the EU, and their economy is much better. I’m not sure the Euro, for instance, is a good thing for French economy. Probably, it’s a good thing for German economy, but we have not the same competitiveness to have the same money - I’m not sure it’s a good idea. A lot of economists, professors of economics - I am the professor of economics - we think the Euro is not a good idea, probably, a symbolic or a political idea, but from an economic point of view, it’s probably a mistake.
SS: So Britain is planning to have a referendum this summer on the EU exit, and according to the survey that’s been conducted by the university of Edinburgh, majority of France wants to have the same referendum. What do you think? Could the British experience set an example to follow for other members?
YB: Probably. It’s a reason for why a Commission in Brussels is a bit frightened of this situation, because if the UK leaves European Union, other countries could do the same and could be encouraged to make the same move. Perhaps, the Scandinavian countries who are very linked with the UK, perhaps, Czech Republic…
SS: Well, you have France, you have Sweden, Spain, Germany - they all want EU membership referendum. I’m not saying that they want to leave the EU, but they want to have the right to vote for it. Do you think they should be able?
YB: The people want to be consulted on this sort of issue, and one of the big problems with the EU is that it is not democratic at all. It was built not to be democratic. The power in Brussels is not in the hands of the Council of ministers and is not in the Parliament. I was for 10 years in the EU Parliament, I can tell you that all the power, in fact, is in the Commission. It’s a government of civil servants, who have no responsibility towards different countries, and they do what they want, and for that reason, more and more people are against this sort of technician government, which is not a democratic government. I think it was a mistake at the beginning of the European Union, to create this super-Comission above all. So, it doesn’t mean we have to get rid completely with the EU, but perhaps it is necessary to re-write the treaty to suppress this Commission in Brussels, it was a bad idea. It would be Europe, naturally, if we did that. Why not?
SS: So, you have said that you are worried about the massive flow of refugees into Europe, but do you feel like, maybe, Europe has a moral obligation or responsibility to accommodate these refugees from the Middle East. I mean, are European policies partly to blame for wars that are causing this mass exodus? I mean, intervention in Libya produced a failed state right on border of Europe, you know.
YB: You are right. I think there are some governments that have a responsibility because of the disorder they created in the MidEast, and it was one of the causes of the movement of refugees towards Europe. But the public opinion is really against it, and so, if you are in democracy, you have to take into account the opinion of the people. I think it’s necessary to have more peace, naturally, in the Middle East - that’s one of the questions, but otherwise, it’s necessary, really, to control our borders which is not the case, because we have created this Schengen area, and the Schengen area is not very well protected against illegal immigrants, and that’s really a problem. You must add to this problem the fact that among the refugees, it’s possible that you have some terrorists. Our Secret Service is persuaded it is the case, I must say.
SS: Yvan Blot, thank you very much for this interesting interview. We were talking to Yvan Blot, French politician, who used to sit in the French and the European Parliament's, past terrorism advisor to the French government, author of “Putin’s Russia”, talking about seemingly dead end of West’s relations with Russia and the future of Europe. That’s it for this edition of SophieCo, I will see you next time.
Inside are three videos warning about the dangers of signing the TransPacific Trade agreements that global organisations want to get many countries, including Australia, to sign. The first is a very quick overview. In the second video, at Democracy Now, "Secretive Deal Isn’t about Trade, but Corporate Control", Julian Assange speaks in some detail on the subject. Sophie Shevardnadze's interview on with Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor of the Nation Magazine follows as a partial transcript with a link to the actual interview. We have previously published Kelvin Thomson's Australian opinion on the dangers here, which is in agreement with the other sources.
Find out more, speak up and spread the word:
http://www.StopFastTrack.com; http://www.ExposeTheTPP.org; http://www.sumofus.org/tpp
As negotiations continue, WikiLeaks has published leaked chapters of the secret Trans-Pacific Partnership — a global trade deal between the United States and 11 other countries. The TPP would cover 40 percent of the global economy, but details have been concealed from the public.
The following is an extract from "TPP agreement will deal mortal blow to democracy in US - Nation magazine chief" from this video of Sophie Shevardnadze interviewing Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor of the Nation Magazine (United States).
SS: I want to talk about another deal that’s grabbing attention now in the U.S. and that’s the Trans-Pacific Partnership. However, the details of this agreement are unknown, Obama insists the TPP is not secret, but in reality, a deal that is supposed to affect millions of Americans is classified, and even members of Congress can’t just go and flip through the pages without minder hanging about. Why?
KVH: I don’t think it’s consistent with American principles, but I’ll tell you: it seems the trade agreements have been, for the last decades, negotiated this way. But, this time, because of a mobilization of labor groups, citizen groups, workers, people inside the Congress, business isn’t being done as usual. People are saying: “Enough! We don’t want this to be done in secrecy; we’ve learned enough from our history to see what these trade agreements have done to communities around the country and workers.” In fact, Sophie, one of the most controversial parts of the trade agreement is the investor dispute settlement provision – which is truly anti-American, allowing corporations to suit governments and countries if they try to institute health and safety measures. It was leaked by WikiLeaks, which is how people know about it. So we need a new way of doing business, we need a new way of doing trade. I’m not…progressives are not against trade, they are against the way banks and investment firms have dictated the terms of trade. In fact, the big fight over TPP is really about corporate power and who’s going to write the rules about the global game, so to speak. I think this is a wake-up moment, and I place it very clearly in this populous moment I described earlier.
SS: But the people who are most outspoken about being against this deal are trade unions and worker’s rights groups and environmentalists – those are the ones, the people who traditionally are on Obama’s side. Now, if the agreement is going to hurt them…
KVH: This is an interesting, very interesting new alignment, but it’s a very interesting new alignment that President Obama is essentially fighting the core elements of his own party. This is not fully new, because President Bill Clinton with NAFTA 20 years or so ago was also at war with his own party. But this coalition is far stronger, Sophie, far stronger, because… President Obama accuses his own coalition of peddling recycled arguments – no. This coalition has learned from history, workers have learned on their own backs, communities have died, jobs have gone, factories closed – but others are now standing up and saying: “enough! We want true enforcement mechanisms of labor and environmental protection; we want to know what’s in the agreement.” How is this truly American to have agreements, conceived in secret with private corporate courts overseeing and arbitrating agreements? No, enough!
SS: Now, you’re also saying that TPP means loss of jobs and sinking middle class, extreme inequality. But those who are in favor say that it would actually benefit the U.S. companies and create new jobs at home. Why are they wrong?
KVH: I think you need to look at history. Those were the same arguments, Sophie, peddled, 15-20 years ago, and we haven’t seen those benefits. Again, not against trade or globalization, but the way the rules have been written have shown that they don’t benefit workers, they don’t increase wages, and they don’t help environmental problems. So, I think, we need to step back – and there are, by the way, good proposals, the Congressional progressive caucus, the group of about 80 Representatives in the House, have put forward an alternative. I think we need to end this particular round, step back and think anew about what a fair trade deal would mean. Finally, President Obama now seems to be…you know, there are new arguments, the new arguments are now about how we need to really counter China in setting the rules of the global economy. This is very tricky, to use this trade agreement for that purpose.
SS: But just really quickly, in a nutshell, can you really undermine China in the region, economically? I mean, is that really possible?
KVH: No. In fact, China is already between the partnership with Russia, the Investment Bank it has set up, bringing in both the UK, I think, and Germany; what you want to do is engage, you don’t want to have a so-called “pivot”, which essentially is countering or jettisoning the relationships. So no, I don’t think so.
SS: Thank you so much for this wonderful interview, we were talking to Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor of the Nation Magazine, talking about what needs to change in U.S. foreign policy and if the 2016 president hopefuls will stand a chance of delivering this change. That’s it for this edition of Sophie&Co, I will see you next time.
Video inside: The Big Population Debate at the Deakin Edge in Federation Square, Melbourne, on October 13, 2014, between Kelvin Thomson and Lord Mayor Robert Doyle, was a fantastic success in terms of numbers and outcome. Given the utter inertia of political process in responding to this democratic emergency, Mary Drost's call for a Referendum on Australia's Population Growth was a great idea to go forward. With both Kelvin Thomson and Mayor Doyle agreeing that a referendum on population is a good idea, Victorians and other Australians have something concrete to go forward with. The film here is of the debate. The referendum is on the open mike section, which is the next film that will be published. The debate embedded here showed that Mayor Doyle really doesn't have a handle on the issue at all, except as a loyal servant to the business end of growth. Kelvin Thomson's ability to debate the subject would make him a world leader in this area. This is a very important and historic record. Congratulations to Mary Drost of Planning Backlash for making it happen. Sheila Newman produced the video.
Video and Transcript inside: Federal Labor Member for Wills, Kelvin Thomson, spoke in Parliament against the signing of contracts and the construction of the East West Link Road Tunnel, also known as the Royal Park Freeway. Before the election the Liberals were in favour of independent cost benefit analysis for major projects, yet now in government, they are avoiding undertaking one for the East-West Link in Melbourne, the freeway through Royal Park. Mr Thomson wrote to the Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development, and his Parliamentary Secretary on 27th August, to seek appropriate and publicly transparent economic modelling, environmental assessment and community consultation before tens of billions of dollars are spent on a tunnel that makes no economic sense, will damage our environment and which will hurt local communities. (23/9/14). Note that Kelvin will be publicly debating Victoria's population growth policy with Melbourne Mayor Robert Doyle on 13 October in Melbourne at Deakin Edge in Federation Square from 5.30-7pm.
[Candobetter.net editor is responsible for the insertion of all headings and emphases ]
It is deeply ironic in this debate on the Infrastructure Australia Amendment (Cost Benefit Analysis and Other Measures) Bill 2014 that we should get a lecture from government members opposite about the virtues of independent cost-benefit analysis for major projects when in my own area they are running a mile from undertaking one for the East West Link in Melbourne—that is, the freeway through Royal Park.
I wrote to the Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development and his parliamentary secretary on 27 August seeking appropriate and publicly transparent economic modelling, environmental assessment and community consultation before we get tens of billions of dollars spent on a tunnel that makes no economic sense, will damage our environment and will hurt local communities.
The coalition government has spent $1.5 billion for both stage 1 and stage 2 of the East West Link project to connect the Eastern Freeway to CityLink with the idea of connecting the link to Melbourne's western ring road and western suburbs. Both these stages are reported to cost between $8 billion and $10 billion.
These are huge sums of taxpayers' money that ought to be carefully considered in the context of the need for governments to live within their means. We often hear from those opposite about the need for government to live within its means. We constantly get lectured about fiscal responsibility. One would expect that a carefully thought out economic analysis would have been undertaken and released to verify the need for the East West tunnel project and the need for large sums of taxpayers' money; however, this is not the case.
Media reports based on FOI and leaked information have indicated that such economic modelling that has been carried out has been based on false assumptions regarding petrol prices, incomes, car running costs and inner-city parking. Against that background, I welcome and congratulate the Victorian Labor opposition leader, Daniel Andrews, for his leadership on infrastructure issues. Back on 11 September he stated that the forthcoming election in November in Victoria will be a choice of either better public transport and local roads or the $8 billion dud East West Link road tunnel.
Victorian Labor has obtained legal advice which states that any contract that is signed before an election for a project that is facing a Supreme Court challenge cannot be entered into safely. That legal advice was obtained by former Federal Court judge Ray Finkelstein, administrative law expert Richard Niall QC and contract law expert Siobhan Keating. Victorian Labor states that it will not be held responsible for a document that was recklessly devised in haste and error and that it does not believe that any contracts for the East West Link project can be validly entered into while a matter before the Supreme Court remains unresolved and there can be no certainty that any contracts for the East West Link are legally binding.
Victorian Labor has said if no legally binding contracts exist, then a Victorian Labor government will not proceed with the East West Link project.
It is a disgrace that the Victorian Liberal Treasurer, Michael O'Brien, says the government is determined to sign the East West contracts before the onset of the pre-election caretaker period. I need to bring to the attention of the House that we need to recall that the Liberal Party said before the election that it would not build the East West Link. It did not take this issue to the voters. Now it is shamelessly trying to lock Victorian taxpayers into billions and billions of dollars on a freeway through Royal Park. This project is so big that it will eat up both Victoria's road budget and public transport budget for years. It kills off the legitimate aspirations of communities from all parts of Melbourne for improvements to their local roads, railway crossings and the like.
This fraud on the voters—trying to lock taxpayers into this lemon before an election can be held—comes from the same political party that talked up such a storm and became positively apoplectic over Julia Gillard's 'no carbon tax' pre-election statement. You have to wonder: where is that 'convoy of no confidence' when you need it? The East West tunnel project will cripple Victoria's finances for many years to come. It will crowd out the state's other core responsibilities in public transport, education and health. A proper, thorough and publicly transparent economic modelling case should be undertaken for this project. If we examine what is known in terms of economic analysis of the tunnel, then we can come to some understanding as to why this government is ducking and weaving to avoid undertaking one.
The government's business case relies totally on the assumption of what economists call an agglomeration effect in which population and economic clusters in cities lead to efficiencies and add to business productivity. The Linking Melbourne Authority, which provides information on road infrastructure projects conducted on behalf of the Victorian government, has referred to a book by the American writer Edward L Glaeser called Triumph of the City. Its main thesis is the agglomeration benefits that create cities. The Linking Melbourne Authority does not appear to have read the book, because the book does not argue that freeways are the path to create these benefits. In fact, it argues quite the opposite. Mr Glaeser argues that 'driving creates negative externalities that hamper urban economies' and he warns against highway building, calling it 'anti-urban'. He said For decades we have tried to solve the problem of too many cars on too few lanes by building more roads, but each new highway or bridge then attracts more traffic.
The Age commentator Kenneth Davidson has accurately pointed out in relation to the Royal Park freeway It will cripple the state's fiscal position for many years through massive payments to the public-private partnership consortium that will finance it.
The financial burden on the Victorian taxpayer will be so big that it will ''crowd out'' the state's core responsibilities for funding schools, hospitals, rail transport and even other roads for at least a generation.
An email recently obtained through FOI illustrates that the Victorian government's own economic consultant, Chris Tehan of Evans and Peck, told the government that the business case 'had dramatically overestimated the wider economic benefits to get an artificial figure of a $1.40 return'. According to The Age … the methodology ''has not been used in any of [the Transport Department's] other public transport projects or program modelling to date''.
The financial case for the East West Link hinges on a prediction that toll road use will jump over the next 30 years because of rising wealth and shrinking petrol and CBD parking price rises. The business case makes the controversial assumption that: first, a driver's willingness to use toll roads will increase by 1.4 per cent per annum due to rising incomes; second, the rate of increase in the cost of running a car will fall from the current two per cent per annum in real terms to half a per cent per annum by 2041; and, third, that the rate of increase in the cost of inner city parking, which is currently increasing at four per cent per annum in real terms, will fall to 0.5 per cent by 2041. I personally regard this as a remarkably heroic assumption given that the state government has decided to extend its congestion levy up from the City of Melbourne into the City of Moreland, up into my electorate, in recent times. This will of course lead to significant increases to the cost of inner city parking.
The Victorian government has been caught out manipulating modelling to produce a favourable result.
The former Infrastructure Australia head Michael Deegan told a Senate committee that the government's unpublished business case provided an alternative estimate showing a cost-benefit ratio of just 0.8. Under this scenario, the project would return just 80c for every dollar spent, suggesting an economic loss if the stock standard analysis preferred by Infrastructure Australia is used. According to The Age, in a submission to a federal infrastructure inquiry, Infrastructure Australia outed Victoria for failing to submit a robust business case for the East West Link, singling out … the controversial $6 billion to $8 billion road as a key example of why the public are cynical about "bigticket"
infrastructure announcements.
Infrastructure Australia's 11-member council—which includes transport experts like Sir Rod Eddington and the former federal Treasury Secretary Martin Parkinson—is understood to broadly recommend only those projects with benefit-cost ratios of more than 1.5. And Michael Deegan warns that big-spending promises are being made without proper scrutiny. He said This is a particular problem during election periods where commitments are often made, although robust business cases have not been prepared, let alone independently reviewed … The freeway through Royal Park is a classic example of economic mutton dressed up as lamb.
According to traffic expert Stephen Pelosi, the traffic on the East West Link during the morning peak is expected to slow to 20 to 30 kilometres per hour by 2031 as worsening congestion pushes the road close to capacity just 12 years after it is due to open. The East West Link is forecast to carry 80,000 vehicles a day on opening in 2019, increasing to between 100,000 and 120,000 a day by 2031 according to this modelling.
Stephen Pelosi said If it's reaching 120,000 we're at a position where we're reaching capacity. Unless you intervene in some manner and manage the toll rate to influence demand, you get a situation where you're near capacity.
If it is good enough for the NBN, as the previous speaker suggested to the House, it should be good enough for this project too. Why is the government only too happy to undertake economic modelling on the NBN yet, when it comes to the largest infrastructure and transport project in Victoria's history—East West Link—it refuses to do so. If the age of entitlement is over, why isn't the private sector bankrolling East West Link? If we are in the midst of a budget emergency, why aren't the belts being tightened when it comes to major projects that do not make economic sense?
That is why the amendments to the bill which Labor has moved seek to assess projects first on their merits and fund them later, not the other way around. We also seek to strengthen transparency and public disclosure of project assessments. These are strong measures that will prevent money being wasted on potential white elephants like the East West Link. If this government were serious about fiscal responsibility, if it were serious about merit based infrastructure planning then the freeway through Royal Park in Melbourne would not proceed.
Concern with the lack of due diligence behind the decision to proceed with this freeway is growing. It is acknowledged in the transport industry that adding road capacity through the freeway will bring in more vehicles more quickly and actually worsen congestion on Haddle Street, Flemington Road, Tullamarine Freeway and other roads that are currently at capacity.
Industry assessments are that the freeway will not fix congestion, because, as the 2008 Eddington report identified, less than 20 per cent of all vehicles travel through from the east to the west. What actually goes on is that 80 per cent of all vehicles exit to inner Melbourne to access jobs and services. They will continue to do that despite the Royal Park freeway and, with more vehicles reaching exits more quickly, the risk is that congestion will actually be worse.
There is no strategic justification for this project. This is a proposal which fails critical productivity tests and runs the risk of being negative for state product and GDP. When a poor public project is selected, the community loses twice. It loses because scarce capital is misapplied and because taxes and funds raised to finance that project distort behaviour in ways which have a significant cost.
Tolls on the planned freeway would have to be three times the current cost of an average trip on Citylink for the project's investors to make a profit, according to an international study led by University College London which analysed numerous transport megaprojects, including Australian road and rail projects. It found that, for investors to get a return on the freeway, motorists would have to be charged a minimum $10.50
Source: Speech by Mr KELVIN THOMSON (Wills) (19:34): Tuesday, 23 September 2014 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 78 CHAMBER
Russia’s president has blamed the turmoil in Ukraine on the country’s newly-elected leader Petro Poroshenko. Vladimir Putin also criticized the West for its intention to turn the planet into a "global barracks."
Click here for top 10 takeaways from Putin's foreign policy speech
Russia’s president has laid the blame for the ongoing turmoil between Kiev and south-eastern regions squarely at the feet of Petro Poroshenko, after the Ukrainian leader terminated the ceasefire.
He has stressed that Russia and European partners could not convince Poroshenko to not take the path of violence, which can’t lead to peace.
“Unfortunately, President Poroshenko has made the decision to resume military actions, and we – meaning myself and my colleagues in Europe – could not convince him that the way to reliable, firm and long-term peace can’t lie through war,”
Putin said. “So far, Petro Poroshenko had no direct relation to orders to take military action. Now he has taken on this responsibility in full. Not only military, but also political, more importantly."
On Monday, the leaders of Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine held a phone call in which Putin stressed the need to prolong the ceasefire and the creation of “a reliable mechanism for monitoring compliance with it and the OSCE [Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe] should play an active role.”
Russia offered that checkpoints on the Russian side should be monitored by representatives of the Ukrainian Border service as well as OSCE observers for “the joint control of the border.”
As the violent conflict continues in the east of Ukraine and the number of refugees fleeing to Russia grows, Putin vowed to provide help to everyone who needs it.
“Everything that’s going on in Ukraine is of course the internal business of Ukrainian government, but we are painfully sorry that people die, civilians,” Putin said. He added that the killing of journalists was “absolutely unacceptable.”
“In my opinion, there is a deliberate attempt to eliminate representatives of the press going on. It concerns both Russian and foreign journalists,” the president said.
Speaking in front of ambassadors on Tuesday, Putin expressed hope that Western partners will stop imposing their principles on other countries.
"I hope pragmatism will still prevail. The West will get rid of ambitions, pursuits to establish a ‘world barracks’ – to arrange all according to ranks, to impose uniform rules of behavior and life of society,” Putin said.
"I hope the West will start building relations based on equal rights, mutual respect and mutual consideration of interests.”
Putin recalled the situation with France and the delivery of the Mistral-class ships that was agreed between Moscow and Paris, but was jeopardized in March.
“We know about the pressure that our American partners put on the French so that they would not deliver the Mistral [ships] to Russia,” Putin said. “And we know that [they] hinted
that if the French don't deliver Mistral, sanctions on banks will be gradually removed, or at least minimized. What is this, if not blackmail?"
Russia is ready to have dialogue with the US only bases of equality, Putin added.
“We are not going to stop our relations with the US. The bilateral relations are not in the best shape, that is true. But this - and I want to emphasize - is not Russia’s fault,” he told diplomats.
Speaking about international relations, Putin stressed that Russia always tried to be “predictable, to do business on an equal basis”, however, in return, its interests were quite often ignored.
Putin then touched upon a gas deal with Ukraine, saying that the country “devised some shady schemes with some of their partners” to get “the so-called reverse supplies.”
“It is artificial reverse traffic. There is no such thing in reality,” Putin said. “How is it possible to use the same pipe to pump gas both ways? You do not have to be a major specialist in the gas sector to understand that this is unrealistic," he said. “They have devised some shady schemes with some of their partners,” Putin added. “They are getting Russian gas and paying to some of their partners in Europe, who under-consume these amounts."
Original source was http://rt.com/news/169628-putin-ukraine-west-barracks/
"What's needed is a kind of "pit bull terrier" state, which would be prepared to start at least a local conflict, to show the weakened Russia how events could develop." (Andrei Fursov, speaking of Ukraine's purpose for the US.)
All-in-all a must-read for westerners needing to understand what is really happening in both the Ukraine and the wider Anglo-US-NATO globalisation drive which it brings into sharp focus.
Original source of document is https://wikispooks.com/wiki/Document:Battleground_Ukraine
Firstly, let me say that sometimes it's pleasant to be wrong. Well, I got it wrong. At the beginning of February my colleague, Elena Ponomarëva, and I discussed the question, could we take Crimea? I was a pessimist and said, 10% chance that we'll take Crimea. We won't get it because the West will react aggressively, and our authorities lack the courage. She said, on the contrary 90% chance that we take Crimea, and 10% chance that it doesn't happen. She was right. I was wrong.
Without doubt, the re-unification with Crimea is a very important landmark. In a recent TV interview I said that this is genuinely the end of the disgraceful era which began in Malta on the 2-3rd Dec 1989, when Gorbachev surrendered absolutely everything to Bush, even what wasn't asked for.
After that everything possible was given up. Rays of hope began to appear later, during the Putin administration. There was the war of 08.08.08. But later we failed to support Libya. Although we did put the foot down at Syria. But this is all far away from Russian lands. But Ukraine and Crimea - this is a completely new situation. We started to re-take our territory, little by little. Started doing as the Muscovite princes did in the 14th, 15th century, what the first Romanovs did, and the Stalin system in the 1930s, all of which was: leaving the historical zone of defeat.
But leaving the historical zone of defeat means not only external matters, we are now tearing up the global status quo, which took shape in 1991-94. Meaning: disintegration of the Soviet Union, the uranium deal, the shooting at the Moscow White House, the Budapest Memorandum.
But overcoming defeat has not only an external aspect but also a domestic aspect. Yeltsinism gave raise to a whole stratum of people, whom our president called national-traitors. That is, the fifth column - in the authorities, in business and in the media. In particular, they revealed themselves during the events in Crimea. That was a real moment of truth, moment of choice. People's true colors became apparent, in various spheres. And it was an very import experience for this reason: One could clearly observe the application of double-standards.
What do we mean by double-standards? For example: There was a time when the Brits annexed the Falkland Islands. They said: "Well, why not. There was a referendum in the Falkland Islands and the residents came out in favor of joining up with Britain, and that's sufficient."
"Crimea is a different matter altogether ..." -- although the situation is analogous.
Today we're talking about the Ukraine situation from a number of angles. It's a multi-faceted situation, like all big situations. Many different aspects have led to what happened. Concerning not only the clash between Russia and the West. There's a lot else going on too.
Firstly, it all began with a conflict within the Ukrainian oligarchic class. A great analyst is Vladimir Matveev. I very much recommend you look him up. A number of his analyses are out on the net. Moreover you don't need to be erudite to read his books. Anyone with higher education can read them. He's been very active on the subject of Mossad in Ukraine. He gets continuously threatened. Now he needs to get out of Ukraine and is having problems with that.
We are talking about the oligarchs.
Later we'll talk about the interests of the West - The Europeans and the Americans have different interests.
Next, the interests of Israel.
Then we'll run through the key events originating from the Banderite-American coup in Kiev, which continue to unfold.
Firstly - the Ukrainian business clans.
The next corporate group is Privat. This is the most interesting one. It's the group of Ihor Kolomoisky. Kolomoisky's worth is 3 billion dollars. His partner is Gennady Bogolubov. Kolomoisky is a very interesting figure. Not only because he called our president a schizophrenic. 'He is the engine behind what is currently happening in Ukraine.
In 2012 analysts such as Matveev warned that there would be a very brutal conflict in 2013 between the business clans, between the oligarchs. And that's what happened.
What do we mean by clans in Ukraine? First we need to understand the division of power at the end of 2013. There are four basic clans.
Firstly the Donetsk clan - Rinat Akhmetov, whose fortune is estimated at $16 billion. His main interests are mining and steel production. This clan includes Boris Kolesnikov, the Kluevs, Yury Ivanyuschenko.
The second clan is the Yanukovych family. They control principally the customs officials, farming and infrastructure. By comparison this clan is a bit poorer, but they have held very powerful administrative positions. Yanukovych's "achievement" is that during his presidency the welfare state of Ukraine was finished off. Or rather, what was left of it. Destruction of the welfare state began during the time of Kuchma. Yuschenko and Tymoshenko significantly reduced the welfare state. And Yanukovych finished it off.
It's very interesting to examine the growth of the billionaire class. In 2010 the number of billionaires in Ukraine was 8. By only 2011 there were 21.
The Yanukovych regime greatly favored the growth of the billionaire class. Yanukovych's main sponsors were Rinat Akhmetov and Dmitry Firtash. The division of labor was: Ahkmetov controlled the government and Firtash the presidential administration.
The next massive bloc is Firtash, which is RosUkrEnergo, energy production and chemicals. They are the main partner of Rothschild in Ukraine. One of Firtash's main advisers is Robert Shetler-Jones. I'll talk about him later. An entrepreneur from the Rothschild group. Moreover, he's from MI6.
By the way, in all British corporations, in order to occupy a senior position, it is mandatory to be vetted by MI6. Otherwise you don't get it.
The next corporate group is Privat. This is the most interesting one. It's the group of Ihor Kolomoisky. Kolomoisky's worth is 3 billion dollars. His partner is Gennady Bogolubov. Kolomoisky is a very interesting figure. Not only because he called our president a schizophrenic. He is the engine behind what is currently happening in Ukraine.
Born in 1963. Jewish. He very actively supports the Hasidic group Chabad, which is not a sect, it's a movement. He's the main sponsor of the Dnepropetrovsk Jewish community. An old friend of Berezovsky. He owns about 200 companies, controls 40% of Ukrnafta, the media. A big fan of soccer. He owns: FC Dnipro, of Dnepropetrovsk, Arsenal Kyiv, and Hapoel of Tel-Aviv. He's the vice president of the Football Federation of Ukraine. Its president, Surkis, is a millionaire too, albeit not as big as Kolomoisky. He owns Dynamo Kyiv. Information frequently appears in the media about Kolomoisky's connections with international organized crime. He really wanted to buy up the assets of Sevastopol. Indeed he was on the verge of buying. He is the sponsor of Yuschenko, Tymoshenko and Klitschko, and of, paradoxical though it is, the ultra-nationalist Tyaghnibok.
It might seem strange that Kolomoisky the Jew would support Tyaghnibok the ultra-nationalist. But the main goal of Tyaghnibok is to get Ukrainians and Russians fighting each other. His ultra-nationalism is not anti-semitic.
Then there's another group in Ukraine, which no-one wants to talk about. Victor Pinchuk's group. He's the son-in-law of Kuchma. Pinchuk's people are Tigipko and Yatsenuk. According to experts such as Matveev, whom I mentioned and strongly recommend you look up, because of his enormous expertise, Pinchuk is very closely linked with the United States and with British intelligence, MI6.
Finally, one more part of the Ukrainian economy, which experts prefer not to write about. Arms trade, military technology and narcotics. Experts name dozens of names here. The main ones are: Vadim Rabinovitch, citizen of Israel, Ukraine and Hungary, Sergei Maximov and the Derkatch family. The elder Derkatch is Leonid Derkatch. He was the head of the Ukrainian security service, SBU. Now he holds all the cards, as he's dealing in weapons. Rabinovitch is a very interesting figure. He supports the gay-lesbian party Raduga and the Kiev feminist group Femen. Often quarrels with other Jewish oligarchs.
In general what characterizes the situation in Ukraine is that there isn't a single political center, This propagates into Ukraine's Jewish community too. They don't have a unified center either. There are constant squabbles, to impose their point of view. There are angry clashes between the secular part and those who support the Hasids and Chabadists. For example, there was a very angry conflict over the construction of the memorial at Babi Yar. Kolomoisky insisted there be a synagogue and an iconic building. Vitaly Nakhmanovitch said no, the place should be absolutely secular. There are very severe clashes.
For example, In 2011 Kolomoisky established the European Jewish Parliament, which sits in the European Parliament. It has a leaning toward Hadism and Chabad. The secular group is, for example, Vyacheslav Kantor. They haven't accepted all of this. There is an on-going angry clash. There are humorous situations. For example, Kolomoisky supports Chabad. Chabad supported Yanukovych during the election. Kolomoisky has openly come out against Yanukovych. This whole tangle of clashes has flared up. In 2013 it got very nasty. Moreover, the greed and stupidity of Yanukovych's mafioso clan revealed itself when they imposed their fees not only on the medium-sized businesses, they even went into the small businesses. Basically, they had to pay 60% to this family.
So you can understand those who went to the Maidan. They had had enough of that clan.
A different matter is who exploited the situation. Marx and Engels wrote in 1848 about revolutions: We now know what role stupidity plays in revolutions, and how scumbags will exploit it. So that was the Ukrainian oligarchs.
The next players on the Ukrainian field are: the Rockefellers and the Rothschilds. The Rothschilds entered Ukraine immediately after Ukraine became free from the Soviet Union. The Rothschild group entered in 1991-95. Likewise MI6 entered with a free hand.
Basically all western intelligence agencies had a free hand in Ukraine. That's why some experts call Ukraine the sandpit of the intelligence agencies. The CIA has a whole floor dedicated to Ukraine. We got this information now. But those who worked under cover in Ukraine in the late '90s were already reporting that SBU is a subsidiary of the FBI and the CIA, who were actively working there. Likewise the BND (German intelligence) were very actively working with their Banderite underground. And MI6 was working more unnoticed.
I'm not even going to mention the Israeli agents. I'll come to that later. Basically they all had a completely free hand. Firtash soon became the main partner of the Rothschilds. His partner from the Rothschilds was Robert Shetler-Jones. He is considered by experts to be the instigator of the gas wars between Ukraine and Russia. He was the one getting Ukraine and Russia to fight over gas. Notice the Rothschild group is at work in the East of Ukraine. That's the area they want to get their hands on, in particular the Dnepropetrovsk region, where the bank "Rothschild Europe" and their "Royal Dutch Shell" are operating.
The interests of the Rothschilds strongly clash with the interests of Russia. Remember that when we talk about the interests of the USA and of Britain, there are different interest groups in these countries. Not for nothing the great French geopolitical analyst Alexandre Del Valle talks about not the foreign policy of the US, but the foreign politicians of the US. There are different clans. The clans behind Obama want one thing, and the clans behind the neo-cons want something completely different. So they really have different foreign policies. The Rothschilds busily exploit crises and chaos which can be manipulated by the world players in order to buy up assets in Ukraine, likewise in Central Asia, and where possible in Russia. It's about gaining control of resource economies. That's a very important aspect.
The Rockefellers have more modest interests. For example, Chevron Corporation, which is in the Rockefeller empire. The Ivano-Frankivsk region was basically handed to them by Yanukovych. It's hard to even say whether Ivano-Frankivsk belongs to Ukraine or belongs to Chevron Corporation. The Rockefellers are more interested in Western Ukraine than Eastern.
The next player in Ukraine is Israel, which is represented in Ukraine by Mossad and practically all of the Israeli intelligence services. Including the Komemiyut management, that's an administration within Mossad, whose business is the physical removal of Mossad's opponents. Komemiyut is Hebrew for "sovereignty". This Komemiyut administration, for example, they were the ones who killed the Iranian nuclear scientists. They are very effective, like Mossad generally. Aman is military intelligence service of the Prime Minister. Shabak is the internal security service. Shin Bet, Nativ - they are all present in Ukraine. Israel's current ambassador in Ukraine is Reuven Din El - formerly a Mossad resident in the CIS countries, he was thrown out of Moscow, and then received in Ukraine as ambassador.
Vlad Lerner of Nativ is the First Secretary of the Israeli embassy. In this respect you have to give them their dues, the Israeli intelligence services, for how they work in Ukraine. Also important to be clearly aware of - Mossad operates in close contact with CIA and MI6. It's a unified snake of intelligence agencies, which gets the job done.
All of the western intelligence agencies, including Israel's, are very active in the higher education establishments in Ukraine. This year I gave a lecture at the Seliger youth forum. Guys from Kiev told me that in almost all large institutes of higher education in Ukraine, especially in Kiev, there is a NATO room, a NATO department. If you want to make a career, you have to attend several of their programs. That's what's going on. The Anglo-american intelligence services are not falling behind Mossad.
What is Israeli intelligence doing? Under the guise of looking for students who are Jewish or have Jewish roots, they try to pick out all the talented students with good prospects, and send them to study in the West. Of all the universities in the West, where I have taught, Columbia, Yale, New York, the most powerful where I taught, was the Central European University of Soros, where only Jews are educated, moreover very well-prepared and carefully selected ones. On the course I lectured on there were three guys from Russia. Not from Moscow, but from Arkhangelsk, Ivanovo and Petersburg. These guys were really chosen ones, genuinely powerful. Central European University is the only university where I gave lectures. I was dealing with junior colleagues more than with students. The standard pace of study at the Central European University is 400 pages per day, as it was with comrade Stalin. Many can't endure it.
I know a student who came from the Russian State University for the Humanities, for example, who studied for a month, and said that she physically can't continue, and she went home. And of course the tuition is conducted in English, although they welcome people with more languages.
Let's look at the situation in and around Ukraine in a wider, global context, considering the role which the West collectively, by their various games, has assigned to Ukraine.
Firstly - the battle against Russia.
secondly - the clash with China, and
thirdly - concerning the unleashing of war in the Middle East.
Let me repeat, By no means is it all groups in the West, who want to unleash war in the Middle East. But quite a few of them are interested in it. Likewise Saudi Arabia and Israel are interested, for a whole series of reasons. And these three vectors converge in Ukraine - all three plans unite into one.
That is, the global geo-economic and geo-political re-distribution of assets in the course of the global economic crisis.
Of course, there is this Yellowstone threat - I mean the super-volcano. That could completely change the rules of play at any time. The super-volcano could solve for the Western elite the very problems which they've been trying to solve for the last 50-60 years and have been unable to. An eruption of the volcano could solve those problems. But that's another subject.
Wikispooks note: On its face this seems a bizarre diversion from the subject in hand - suggestions on Fursov's reasons for the diversion welcome on the discussion page.
Let's look at how the situation came about that preceded the current situation, namely: It's 1991. The USSR has collapsed. After 10 years of robbery the Americans are wondering "should we go for more?" Evidently they decided not to, as it would have fallen to the Chinese. Besides, Yeltsin's team seemed to be running the country into the ground. Then suddenly in 2001 came the attacks in New York. The Americans' political vector shifted to the Middle East. They became occupied with the Middle East. i.e. they got distracted from the goals.
Then we had Iraq, Afghanistan. During this time the Russian Federation got room to breathe, rise onto its feet again. Then there was the war of 08.08.08, which showed the West they had somewhat let go of Russia.
After that the Medvedev episode, when we didn't react on Libya. Evidently, 08.08.08, Putin's coming to power, and our position on Syria, in spite of the West's pressure, changed the approach toward Russia of those who brought Obama to power.
Two points to note:
In the new doctrine of 05 Jan 2012 is established that the US can wage one war and some other indirect actions in other parts of the world. Previously it said two wars - meaning they're not up to that any more. More interesting statements made by Obama in the Australian parliament 17 Nov 2011: This was said in Obama's vague style. But if we call a spade a spade, it means:
Firstly: in this doctrine: political-economic encirclement of China. Control over the flow of energy into China. That's why we have seen their naval power being moved to the straits between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific. This is why land-based energy supply routes are so important for China. Sea-based supply routes can be easily interrupted by the Americans.
Secondly: applying pressure on the Russian Federation, as a partner of China, and as a country beginning to rise up.
Really, Obama didn't say anything new here.
There's an organization Stratfor -(Strategic Forecasting Inc), a kind of private CIA. Their founder and chairman, George Friedman, said openly that the primary task of the United States is the destabilization of Eurasia, in order that there could never be a state or group of states able to challenge the US.
The key region for dealing with the problem of China and Russia is the Middle East, which is also important in and of itself: Oil, Iran, the Caspian, Azerbaijan in particular. Pay attention to Azerbaijan. Have no illusions. This is a faithful partner of Israel and the US. This country pumps oil to Israel and Ukraine, receives arms from USA, Ukraine and Israel, and has Israeli advisers busy working with its army. In the event of a conflict with the Armenians, who are good warriors, I don't think that the Azeribaijani Army would perform any better than they have up to now, but it's a fact that today they are more capable and better trained.
The Americans need controlled chaos and civil war in Ukraine.
The Europeans need Ukraine whole - a market where they can dump all kinds of junk. A market for cheap labor, on top of everything else. It is truly an unexploited consumer market to be opened up with 44 million people, now minus Crimea.
Obama. That is, the clans behind Obama ( By the way, my views about Obama haven't changed. General Ovchinsky and I wrote an article, when Obama had just become president, entitled "The Cardboard Box President". We haven't changed our view since then.) When I say "Obama", I mean the clan behind him. From the very beginning these clans wanted to improve relations with Iran to the detriment of relations with Israel, obviously. How is Iran useful for the United States? Imagine Iran as a partner of the US. Firstly, it's a much bigger country than Israel. It occupies a magnificent geopolitical position. Has magnificent resources. If Iran is a partner of the US, then you have an Iran-India axis against China, against Russia, while maintaining the tension. Israel has the tension of being a Jewish state with Arabs, while Iran is Shi-ite. The tension is primarily with the Sunni monarchs, with Saudi Arabia. Thus the tension will remain.
Obama has taken a whole series of steps intended to improve relations with Iran. A whole wave of publications appeared, claiming that the US was going to abandon Israel. But Obama found himself under the powerful influence of a variety of groups, including the pro-Israel lobby. Improvement of relations with Iran isn't happening so far. What's interesting is that whether relations with Iran improve or deteriorate, it forces the Americans to solve two problems.
One is to eliminate the regime of Assad. And with that eliminate the "fabulous" organization Hezbollah. We don't regard Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. It's a Lebanese Shi'ite organization, which is truly global. For example: one of the key centers of the Hezbollah is the region of Iguazu Falls. Anyone know where Iguazu Falls is? In South America. It's the border area of Paraguay, Uruguay and Brazil. There is a huge number of tourists there. Al-Qaeda, Hezbollah and Hamas have made themselves a little nest there. But the main thing is that the Lebanese diaspora is there. When we hear "diaspora" we think of the Jewish diaspora, the Armenian diaspora. But the Lebanese diaspora is no less sizable, it's just quieter. They don't make a lot of noise. 100 years ago the Lebanese began to establish themselves in Africa, South America. They moved into the part of Africa where diamonds are mined: Sierra Leone, Liberia, and a few in Angola. In this border area, where the Lebanese diaspora is, along with Hezbollah and other organizations, they buy cocaine and transfer it on submarines to Western Africa. Previously they used submarines sold by Ukrainians. Now those submarines are out of commission and others are used. The cocaine is transferred to Sierra Leone, where it is exchanged for diamonds. With the diamonds they purchase arms. This triangle - Hezbollah, Syria, Iran - gets in the way of the Americans. They take the view, correctly, that eliminating Syria as an Arab partner of Iran, whether relations with Iran are good or bad, Iran will be weaker, and it will be easier to get an agreement with them. The removal of the Assad regime therefore became objective No.1 for the Americans. Likewise for Saudi Arabia and Israel.
But it turned out that the template for the Arab Spring didn't work in Syria, so they had to intervene militarily. But the intervention was foiled, thanks to the position of Russia and China. The West's aggression against Syria was the first really serious military phase toward re-drawing the geopolitical map of the Middle East. Let me stress: the first serious military phase. Libya doesn't count here. That had to do with the fact that Libyan oil was very important for the Americans. The production cost of Libyan oil is $1. So that was very important. But Libya and Syria are different countries with different potential. In Syria it didn't work out for them, I repeat, primarily because of the position of Russia and China. The American offensive against the Russian Federation and China in the Syrian theater failed. That plus the presidency of Putin forced the Western elite to look for other maneuvers.
They started looking for where to attack - and Ukraine came up. Because in Ukraine an explosive situation had developed on all levels: amongst the oligarchs themselves, between the oligarchs and the population. It would have been a shame for the Americans and Europeans not to exploit that. Although, the Americans and Europeans do have completely different objectives in Ukraine.
The Americans need controlled chaos and civil war. The Europeans need Ukraine whole - a market where they can dump all kinds of junk. A market for cheap labor, on top of everything else. It is truly an unexploited consumer market to be opened up with 44 million people, now minus Crimea.
In principle, Ukraine is not currently a member of NATO. But that didn't stop Ukraine participating in all four of NATO´s military campaigns. Thus Veronika Krasheninnikova was right, when she said on TV that for us the current issue with Ukraine is where the NATO boundary will be located. Doesn't matter if Ukraine joins NATO de-jure or not. It's clear that it will become a NATO country.
Moreover, it is absolutely clear that this country is intended to be absolutely anti-Russian, nationalist, Banderite and neo-Nazi. So the dual goal of establishing this anti-Russian state is to apply pressure on the Russian Federation - constantly. The long term goal is to pull Russia into the Western camp and start a fight: We put pressure on Russia. Then Russia, in order to reach agreement with the West, to solve this problem of constant provocations, turns toward the West. Next, Russia becomes a tool for the West to pressurize China. If possible, even get China and Russia fighting with each other - that would be the ideal scenario for the West.
Like they perpetually have Russia fighting with Germany and France. It's the same pattern again and again. The current situation in Ukraine, which began in late 2013, has served this purpose. Hegel talked about "the insidiousness of history". Those 30 days, 15 Feb to 17 Mar, broke everything. And changed the world.
The era which began in the period 1989-94 in our eyes is coming to an end, or has ended. We often quote Brzezinski's words: "Without Ukraine, Russia ceases to be a Eurasian empire." But that's not true. Russia can be a great power even without Ukraine. A different matter is that it will be more difficult and will take longer.
And what is Ukraine? The Eastern part of Ukraine was never part of Ukraine. The Bolsheviks did that. They needed to increase the proletariat ratio in Ukraine. That was the only reason why they moved those regions into Ukraine. But never mind that. The main thing is that Brzezinski's words are not original. He is repeating the words of the German general Paul Rohrbach, who at the beginning of the 20th century foretold:
"To eliminate the danger that Europe, and above all Germany, faces from Russia, it is necessary to completely separate Ukrainian Russia from Muscovite Russia".
Notice that for the German general - Ukraine and Muscovy are both Russia. He is talking about the need to bring about an internal Russian split. That wasn't original from Rohrbach either. He is developing the idea of the German politicians from the end of the 19th century, including Bismarck, who proposed specific means to solve this problem. In particular he emphasized the need to pit Ukraine against Russia, to get their peoples fighting. But why? As he wrote:
,p>"We must cultivate among the Ukrainians a people whose consciousness is altered to such an extent, that they begin to hate everything Russian".
Thus we are talking about a historical psy-op, an information-psychological sabotage, whose purpose is to establish russophobic Slavs - Orcs at the service of the western Saruman. They are the means to separate Ukraine from Russia and to oppose Russia as a kind of anti-Russian 'Rus', as a free, democratic Ukraine of the totalitarian empire. This was all devised under the Galician Project, on which the intelligence services of Austro-Germany and Kaiser German worked, followed by the intelligence service of the Third Reich, later - CIA and BND.
Although I don't have direct proof, there is no doubt that the intelligence service of the Fourth Reich has been at work here, the "Fourth International", known as "Daisy". When D-day and H-hour came, the Galician project and the Banderite underground got the starting gun - figuratively and literally.
Fast forward to the Orange Revolution of 2004, which differs from the current situation. The Orange Revolution of 2004 was organized by neo-liberals. Those behind it in Ukraine and the West thought that this would be sufficient to create the anti-Russian Ukraine. But it wasn't. So during the current events a different approach was rolled out: an alliance of neo-liberals and ultra-nationalists, in effect neo-Nazis. The neo-liberals are the face of the West. And the neo-Nazi militants and storm-troopers were the ones to break the power of Yanukovych, and terrify Eastern Ukraine. Wise people did warn Yanukovych that he shouldn't play with fire with Tyaghnibok and allow him to develop his movement. Yanukovych's plan, as experts have shown, was: We'll pump up Tyaghnibok. Then, at election time, the East, terrified by Tyaghnibok, will vote for Yanukovych. He was playing a kind of chess game. But the West wasn't playing chess at all. They knocked over the pieces and used the chess board for a completely different game.
Firstly - Ukraine is an absolutely non-viable, artificial construction, which could only function normally within the framework of the Soviet Union. Despite being the only post-soviet state, apart from Russia and Belarus, which could have stood on its own feet, it didn't. The Ukrainian SSR was in ways very important in the Soviet Union. Who remembers where Ukraine was placed at the National Exhibition of Economic Achievements (????)? Right in the center! Now it has fallen into neglect, but they are at the center of that Exhibition. The importance of Ukraine was emphasized in every way. And Ukraine could only exist within the framework of the USSR. Outside the USSR Ukraine is not capable of developing. What has kept it afloat? The Soviet heritage, which they have been eating their way through for twenty years. One can marvel again at what a heritage it was, when the Ukrainian oligarchs have been stupidly eating through it more stupidly than the Russian oligarchs, and it lasted twenty years. But, as they said in ancient Rome, "Nihil dat fortuna mancipio" ("Fortune gives nothing forever.") and in 2013 that heritage was finally eaten up. Moreover, Yanukovych was very busy eating it up. Ukraine stood over the precipice. Russia could have saved them. But that was categorically undesirable for the US. That was the first part.
Secondly. After the 2004 Maidan, as I said, the Western puppet-master presumed that it was sorted: people like Yuschenko and Tymoshenko could solve all the problems. But it turned out they couldn't. Yanukovych came to power. He played almost all the same games. Played very inconsistently. Played with the Americans, with Russia. In the end he overplayed his hand.?
The scorecard from these twenty years is positive for the West. They have been very busy in Ukraine: with the help of various non-commercial, non-governmental organizations, they have done a quite fantastic job. Dozens of non-commercial Western organizations have been at work. As for us... do we have any non-governmental organizations busy at work in the sphere of foreign policy? "Russkiy Mir". When did they appear? Not long ago. Their effectiveness... Any other organizations? There is "Rossotrudnichestvo", who have little money. "Institute of CIS Countries" - that's an institution. "Gorchakov Fund" exists too. But all of this is recent initiatives and these organizations don't have the funds.
The Americans have been pumping massive amounts of money into the place. Besides, all these years there has been a Banderite underground operating in Ukraine, in cooperation with the American and West-German intelligence agencies. Moreover, geographically Ukraine is not a Baltic state. Incidentally, who knows when the last "Forest Brother" was killed in the Baltic states? 1960? - 1974. But, you know, there's nowhere to hide really in the Baltic states, but in Ukraine there is. And the Banderite underground has always been there. Of course, the West has always been working with them.
Obviously there were serious domestic reasons for the events of December, January, February (2014). Impoverishment of the population. Dissatisfaction with this miser-oligarch regime of Yanukovych. Now what do we see? The family of Yanukovych is gone. In their place has come the family of Tymoshenko. One family of oligarchs has been replaced by another. They've been putting oligarchs in charge of the cities of the East. Not by chance I quoted the words of Marx and Engels regarding the European revolution of 1848. "We now know what role stupidity plays in revolutions, and how scumbags will exploit it." Indeed, exploit they did.
As far as we can tell from the unfolding events, the greed of the ruling clan was exploited in general and in specific ways from the eventful situation. "D"-day and "H"-hour came on 21 Feb.
Since I am in science and not intelligence, my information is only indirect, but it is confirmed by another analysis too. Towards 18:00 on 21 Feb half of the Maidan was cleared. And it could have ended at that. But you know, between 18:00 and 20:00 ... There were about 15,000 Maidan protesters. There were being shifted by a group of about 3,000 some of whom gave me this information. Walking behind them was Berkut. They reported that all of a sudden Berkut stopped. "We were proceeding, but Berkut stopped." They had been given the order to stop. What happened between 18:00 and 20:00 ? Let us re-create the events. This is my version. I'm not forcing it upon anyone, by any means.
At that point Yanukovych decided that he had won and could start negotiations. Moreover, the Americans had told him they knew where his billion was stashed. Here Yanukovych decided to play a stupid country-boy trick. He decided to trick the Americans, not realizing that they would trick him, by not respecting the agreement. Any they wouldn't exactly forget his betrayal anyway. At this point, when the opportunity to clear out Maidan was lost, events turned in a different direction. I was saying on the 21st, 22nd, that this is a situational loss for Russia, because if the only pro-Russian force we could set up in 20 years was the one fronted by Yanukovych, then that is a poor performance by us.
What was Chernomyrdin up to? He was singing songs and playing the accordion with the Ukrainian oligarchs. Evidently that was his destiny - it turned out nicely for him. What Zubarov was doing we have no idea. But clearly he was making some nice gas deals, hanging out with the oligarchs. The western intelligence, and the non-governmental organizations, they worked with the oligarchs, the intelligentsia and the masses. And look at the result: although Kiev is not a Galician city, 90% of the Kiev intelligentsia are supporters of the Galician Project. That means the Western intelligence did a good job. Indeed, that was their job.
A different matter is that we didn't work like that. We were chatting with oligarchs instead of getting on with other things. Again, if our only pro-Russian force at a high political level was this person called Yanukovych, then that's our failure. Of course, losing one round doesn't mean you lost the match. Indeed, the actions of the Russian authorities in Crimea showed that having lost a round, you can still win the match. The match of the 17th-18th was won. But that match was only over Crimea. There is still Eastern, South-Eastern Ukraine.
Now let's look at what the West wanted, what their plan was. What did the West need out of this situation? Let's think like the Westerners. That is, those who planned this. This is really the right approach.
In the summer when I was in London, I read the English papers. There was a marvelous editorial in the Financial Times. This editorial was basically slamming tutors of economics at English universities. They were saying that if you want to train an economist, don't hammer into their heads what is written by economists. Teach them to think like economists. Incidentally, likewise we need to teach people to think the way the politicians do. Our political science is reduced to a model where people only know the theories of political science. But the theories of political science are very far from reality. Indeed, they exist to hide the thinking of politicians. It's a misdirection.
Plan "Minimum": the West establishes a Slavic, neo-Nazi, Banderite Reich. Constant pressure on Russia, provocations by various means. If Russia reacts - tell everyone that "the huge totalitarian Russia is harassing the free Ukraine" The same template was used on Yugoslavia: "Those poor Albanians - victims of the evil Serbs."
Plan "Maximum": same as when the German Nazi Reich was established in the 1930s. Set up the forces, which, if necessary for the West, will take on the decisive part of the war against Russia. Some will say: "What a nightmare! How are you supposed to go to war against Russia?" There are different situations. Who in Europe could wage war against Russia? Romanians, you think, could conduct a war? Poles - not themselves. What's needed is a kind of "pit bull terrier" state, which would be prepared to start at least a local conflict, to show the weakened Russia how events could develop.
If you think that's laying it on thick, refer to the history of relations between the West and Russia. Every aggression which Russia has endured in the last 200-300 years always came from the West. There was no aggression by Russia in the West. Only two points: the liberation campaign against Napoleon, which, by the way, as Kutuzov said, should have been ended in 1813. without going beyond our own borders. "Leave France and England there to love each other perversely and engage with each other". That was one campaign. The second was in 1849, Nikolai I. In my view this was a mistake, although he was a great Czar. It was assistance to suppress the Hungarian uprising in Austro-Hungary. That was unnecessary. Let the Hungarians beat up the Austrians. Let them have their own little theater of chaos in Central Europe. It will be easier for us. Apart from those, Russia never took any action in the West. That was the 19th century.
As for sending forces into Czechoslovakia, that was done in accordance with the rules, written in the Warsaw Pact. NATO has the same rules. In the statutes of NATO, in black and white, is stated:
"If any NATO state is in danger due to internal or external changes, forces are to be deployed immediately"
Yet when we sent in forces they called it the "Brezhnev Doctrine" ... It's just that our propagandists are poor. We should have explained that it was done as prescribed in the Warsaw Convention and the NATO statutes, as in all such organizations. But I was talking about the 19th century.
As for the 20th century, the Soviet leadership missed a unique opportunity in 1968. They were slow, only reacting to events. During the May unrest in Paris 1968, the Soviet leadership, by utilizing the French Communist Party, could well have gotten NATO forces to enter Paris in response to demonstrations by the communists and the unions. If NATO forces had entered Paris, we could have been shouting for 30 years about how NATO crushed the French students. Then they wouldn't be talking about any "Prague Spring". But the Soviet leader was only reacting to events. Because they were a reactive government. As Arnold Toynbee noted: "The West's policy toward Russia is one of aggression." By the way, Toynbee wasn't a russophile. "The Russian expansion is of a defensive nature", wrote Arnold Toynbee. The end goal of the North-Atlantic elite has always been the elimination of Russia. In this respect Leonid Shebarshin, one of the most visible leaders of Soviet intelligence, was of course right, when he wrote: "What the West needs from Russia is that it not exist." That was strategic.
Tactically... In 1991 the West could have begun the dismemberment of Russia. But with China already rising, it didn't seem like a good idea. Besides, they decided to harass Russia over the course of, say, 20 years. During which time Russia managed to get on its feet again. Banderastan, if that's what Ukraine is fated to become, as designed by the puppet-masters across the ocean, is to be an oligarchic, terroristic, russophobic state. Russophobic - it's clear why. Quasi-state - because even post-Soviet Ukraine was not a fully independent state.
We are already seeing external administration of the country. Kiselëv was absolutely right, when he mentioned yesterday: "The visit of the CIA director to Kiev, plus the directive of the IMF to fire 12,000 workers in the social sector." They are making brutal cuts. IMF money always comes with requirements to cut social programs. Which in turn provokes unrest among the population. The government then has to take further action and you're into a vicious cycle. This is very well described in "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" by John Perkins. He explains it all very well.
An oligarchic Banderite Ukraine is unavoidable for this simple reason: Because of their corruption, inability and unwillingness, oligarchy is the ideal vehicle for external control. Clearly, this will suit both the oligarchs and the West.
Finally: if the marionette junta in Kiev can hold out, then by logic they will conduct a policy of terror against the East and South-East. A different matter is that they don't appear to have the power to do that. They are always talking about "deadlines". But they can't do anything, because they don't have real power. Besides, it's clear that the "Right Sector" is a serious threat to the Ukrainian leadership.
What else will the banderization of Ukraine mean, if it comes to pass? Well, the East and South-East are industrially developed regions. These areas are modernized. The West is agricultural. It's clear, the EU doesn't need Ukraine's modern industries like Yuzhmash and Motor-Sich: They are competitors and they have to go. They don't need Ukraine's atomic energy either. What they need is a place to store atomic waste.
One theory about why Oleksandr Muzychko was eliminated, and I'm very convinced by it, you can read it on the Internet, was that Tymoshenko, in need of money, made a deal with the Europeans, that Ukraine would immediately begin disposing of nuclear waste. The thing is that Ukraine doesn't have facilities for that. Which means they are just going to bury it. They intend to bury it in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. "It's already polluted. We'll bury and hide it all there". If a person is decisive... Well, Yatsenuk and Turnychov wouldn't touch that. Tymoshenko agreed with Yarosh, and Yarosh instructed Muzychko. But Musychko, although he looks brutal, he wasn't a fool. He understood that whoever was organizing this was going to eliminate him. That's why he started acting differently than Tymoshenko expected. So there was no other way out than to eliminate him.
As far as I know, the train with nuclear waste is currently waiting at the Polish-Ukrainian border, not going anywhere. It's completely obvious - Europe needs Ukraine as a dumping ground. What surprises me about the Ukrainian leadership is this: Those who will die or become sterilized by radiation, it's not only the commoners. It will affect the elite's children too. That surprises me. Why on earth is she turning the country into a dump, a source of radio-activity, if she lives there herself? You're planning to become the president, no? You're going to live there for 4-5 years? 4-5 years is plenty then. The banderization of Ukraine will mean its de-modernization, its futurist-archaization. If this junta is completely victorious in Ukraine, which I have a lot of doubts about, then Ukraine will collapse into this futurist-archaistic zone, more extreme than that depicted in the fantasy battle novels by Alexei Kolentev.
An important lesson from the whole Ukraine crisis, which for me is a positive, concerns the Russian media. For the first time they weren't the losers in a conflict. During the 08.08.08 war quite a few of them adopt anti-Russian positions. This time only certain completely frenzied structures took an anti-Russian position, the likes of "Echo Moskvy", and even at that not everyone there. On the one hand they have hysterical menopausal women. Their boss adopted a more restrained position. A significant group was called "national-traitors" by the president, for coming out in opposition. Nevertheless, our media didn't lose the infowar over Ukraine, and acted very correctly. In Crimea everything was organized very correctly. From the point of view of international law, any attempts to discredit it simply don't have a leg to stand on. Everything was done correctly.?
Still, this crisis has highlighted a whole series of double standards. I looked through the press at the time and will highlight a few points for you.
In an editorial of the New Statesman it is claimed that "Putin violated Ukraine's sovereignty." Violated - how so? "by sending troops into Crimea". That didn't happen. Then what should we call the actions of American diplomats who organized the overthrow of the legitimate president? It is a direct lie.
Then let's take the respectable "Economist" of 8 Mar. They made the accusation that Putin "has become more autocratic". No arguments given. Unwillingness to join in the games thrust upon people by the West is interpreted as autocraticness. By the same logic 'democracy' means licking the boots of NATO.
The same deceitful pathos that we saw over Qaddafi is repeated toward Putin in the rhetoric of articles in March about the situation in Russia. such as in Time magazine of 17 Mar. Likewise in the Spectator of 8 Mar. A certain O'Sullivan writes: "Putin has broken the consensus which arose after the end of the Cold War". As if Putin considers that this particular consensus should even have existed.
This is the impudence and impunity of NATO, who bombed Yugoslavia, which, as if that wasn't enough, they covered the whole of Yugoslavia with bombs. You probably saw the films. I learned about it from Serbs long ago. Moreover, when they bombed the Serbian areas, they peppered the place with uranium. Now in Serbia there is so much cancer. The population is just dying. Additionally, they dropped spermicides everywhere, which is causing male infertility, so that the Serbs, being a pro-Russian force in Europe, will be eliminated.
Later in the same edition of "The Spectator" they reported a statement by Obama that "Russia is on the wrong side of history". Obama's logic means that the right side of history is those who nuked Hiroshima and Nagasaki, attacked Vietnam, Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya, killed hundreds of thousands of people - that's the right side of history.
But what made the biggest impression on me was an article by our own Garry Kasparov. In two respects:
'Firstly, how this guy (whom the West did accept) is presented, and his representation of history. Secondly, what he is offering to the West. The article is entitled "Cut off the oligarchs, they will bring down Putin". It was published in the very serious "Wall Street Journal", 10 Mar 2014. We can judge the author's intellect by the next statement. Kasparov writes: "For the second time in six years Putin ordered his troops to cross an internationally recognized border, and occupy foreign territory." The first time, he presumably means, was 08.08.08, and the second time - Crimea. When did Putin order the troops to enter Crimea? Where was there such a decision? We didn't send our troops into Crimea. Putin belongs to an exclusive club - along with Miloševi?, Saddam Hussein, - leaders who "invaded neighboring countries." Miloševi? didn't invade anywhere. Miloševi? was dealing with Kosovo, which was part of Yugoslavia. Saddam Hussein did invade Kuwait - that was a trap. And that wasn't at all the reason why they overthrew him. It wasn't in 1990-91 that they overthrew him.
Next, Kasparov writes: "In Yalta Stalin forced the weak Roosevelt and the powerless Churchill to accept his position on Poland, while Putin's policy on Crimea is the same as Hitler's annexation of Austria and Sudetenland". If a student were to write that in an exam, I would immediately give them a "two" and send them to re-sit. The point is not even that neither Churchill nor Roosevelt was weak. Churchill and Stalin, although this sounds cynical, they swapped Poland and Greece. They agreed that the USSR would get 90% domination in Poland and 10% in Greece, and Britain vice-versa: 90% in Greece, 10% in Poland. So the Soviet Union stopped actively supporting the Greek communists. And they got crushed by the English. On the other hand, we solved our Poland problem. For us Poland was more important than Greece. Evidently, Kasparov wasn't told about that. Kasparov continues: (Why I'm talking about Kasparov, who is very active in our opposition, is to demonstrate the intellectual level of these people.) "If Putin wins", writes Kasparov, "then the world which came out of 1945 will disintegrate". Kasparov from the mid-80s is like the hero of the American short story "Rip van Winkle", who fell asleep and later woke up to find that America is no longer part of the British empire but a free country. "Rip Van Winkle" means anyone who woke up to find themself in a different world. The thing is that the world order from 1945 collapsed in 1989 in Malta, when Gorbachev gave everything away. Journalists coined the term, although it didn't stick: the "Maltese System", to replace the Yalta system. So it makes no sense any more to talk about breaking the world order from Yalta.
Here's one thing that really deserves attention: What does Kasparov recommend the West do? He says they need to "put pressure on the oligarchs", not on Putin, but on the oligarchs. If pressure is put on them, then they will carry out a coup and overthrow Putin. This is a Russian citizen telling the US State dept what they need to do to effect regime change in Russia. Imagine if this were a US citizen sitting in Russia, for example, or, who knows, in China, talking about how to overthrow Obama, I think that person would have serious problems - very serious. Yet Kasparov is free to come and go in Russia as he pleases, and no-one is revoking is citizenship.
No more the kind of relations that existed under the Russian authorities of the 1990s, or even during Putin's first term, or the Medvedev period, those days are gone. Because: The West won't forgive what this leadership does. And this leadership, considering the behavior of the West... Well, if they were in any doubt before: "Look, we're not Miloševi?, we're not Saddam Hussein, or Qaddafi, they wouldn't do that to us".
Well, now there can be no doubt. The West has no brakes. In trying to solve their own problems, they'll keep going until they hit the wall.
What's the importance of these February-March events? Let's get to the heart of the matter. For the first time since 1991 the West, the United States of America, they set up, albeit covertly, an aggression against the Russian world. Because Ukraine is in the territory of the Russian world. They organized an aggression far away from their own shores. Ukraine cannot possibly be in the United States' zone of interest. Mexico perhaps, maybe even Cuba. They could declare Cuba to be in their zone of interest,
But Ukraine is very far away, like Iraq is. This was an aggression for the first time since 1991. They decided that they could do this. For the first time since 1991, we gave the aggressor a pasting - big time. Despite all the shouting and bawling in the West, we didn't give up, we re-united with Crimea, and, as the president said in Red Square: "Crimea has returned to its native harbor". In spite of all the shouting and everything else. With that, the song by the group "Nautilus Pompilius" - "Goodbye, America!" - takes on a certain symbolic meaning. Indeed: "Goodbye, America!" No more the kind of relations that existed under the Russian authorities of the 1990s, or even during Putin's first term, or the Medvedev period, those days are gone. Because: The West won't forgive what this leadership does. And this leadership, considering the behavior of the West... Well, if they were in any doubt before: "Look, we're not Miloševi?, we're not Saddam Hussein, or Qaddafi, they wouldn't do that to us".
Well, now there can be no doubt. The West has no brakes. In trying to solve their own problems, they'll keep going until they hit the wall. With this marvelous re-unification with Crimea, this whole Crimean Victory, which really puts an end to a distinct era, a few problems still remain. The first problem is the incompatibility between the direction of our foreign policy toward restoring our status as a great nation and the neo-liberal economic course of the government, nominally Medvedev's. Confrontation against the West is unsustainable on a foundation of neo-liberal economics. Enduring it is only possible on the basis of a mobilization economy. At the same time, a mobilization economy is only possible within a mobilized social system. In other words, the relations with the West which are now taking shape for the period ahead require very serious domestic changes.
Those, whom Putin called the national-traitors. Quantitatively, it's a smallish group, but it includes representatives of the authorities, business, media, intelligentsia, education. You just need to look for who was shouting the loudest that the re-unification with Crimea is the same as what Hitler did with Austria.
The first change is cosmetic: A policy of lawful suppression of the fifth column. That's the very first step which has to be taken. Next we need to strengthen a number of matters relating to economics and social structure. Because in half a year, the euphoria over the re-unification with Crimea will have passed, and in the Fall our economic problems will re-surface. Our most optimistic assessments of economic growth are 1%. As a minimum we need 5-6% Of course, the population's dissatisfaction with the economic situation will be exploited by those who organized the Bolotnaya mass protest. They will take advantage of people's dissatisfaction. Of course, there will arise an alliance of neo-liberals and ultra-nationalists. It will quickly become, "the oligarchs", and "the battle against corruption", and so on. Then, if they are successful, the next group of oligarchs will come along, who will... Revolution is something which changes the socio-economic structure. Not one of these "color revolutions" brought about any change in the socio-economic structure. The regimes were replaced with pro-Western ones. Nothing more. That needs to be well understood.
If Russia switches to a system of mobilization, the North-Atlantic elite, and their network of agents in the Russian Federation, will attempt to bring down the existing regime, and, I repeat, that will be done under the banner of "fighting corruption" and so on. This is why we need to pay attention to the February Maidan in Kiev and the heroes it revealed. Look. Tymoshenko went on the stage at the Maidan and said that the events in Kiev are a model for the peoples of all post-Soviet republics in their battle against dictators. The son of the war criminal Shukhevych, Yury Shukhevych, who served a prison sentence here, declared:
"The February Maidan is the continuation of the events of 1991, the beginning of the second anti-Soviet revolution, the first being 1991-1993, which should finally destroy the dream of resurrecting the Soviet Union".
For them, clearly, the Maidan was indeed a continuation of 1991-93. Russia's tough reaction to the Maidan - protecting Crimea - they didn't expect that.
The second problem is closely connected to the first and arises from it. The fifth column. Those, whom Putin called the national-traitors. Quantitatively, it's a smallish group, but it includes representatives of the authorities, business, media, intelligentsia, education. You just need to look for who was shouting the loudest that the re-unification with Crimea is the same as what Hitler did with Austria. Moreover, these people managed to avoid the issue that Austria was given to Hitler by Britain and France: without their approval he could never have annexed Austria. The reason they let Hitler annex Austria: Hitler didn't have currency reserves, Austria did. By giving him Austria, they gave him the currency reserves needed to re-arm. Next they let him have Czechoslovakia, because he needed their military-industrial potential, which the Reich didn't have. He needed to get across the border into the Soviet Union.
The Ukraine crisis has demonstrated the unity of the people and authorities of Russia when it comes to such an important issue as bringing together the Russian world. But this crisis makes it necessary and urgent to resolve a number of issues in this country. In my view, the following issues.
Firstly. Suppression of the fifth column by political-legal measures, cut them off from the media and sources of finance, principally from the West.
Secondly. Switch over to a mobilization economy, and switch to a mobilized social system, an element of which will be the mobilization economy.
Thirdly. Re-format the legal sphere. Eliminate the precedence of international law over national law.
Incidentally, they don't have such precedence in the UK or US. That's something they've successfully foisted upon others. Terminate participation in openly anti-Russian structures, and, moreover, financing them.
Fourthly. Strengthen the military alliance with Belarus, notwithstanding the objective and subjective complications of the process. Far from everything said by Lukashenko about the situation in Crimea impressed me. But he did say one very important thing. Belarus will never do anything detrimental to Russia. That's good. In my view he should have said more.
Fifthly. Counteract the opponent, the aggressor, not only around our own borders, but in any part of the world where we have the possibility: establish their degree of vulnerability. We need to conduct ourselves toward the West exactly as they have conducted themselves toward Russia since it came into existence in 1991.
Recently the film-maker Karen Shakhnazarov said something very true when he appeared on TV: The West never ended the Cold War against Russia. The Soviet Union disintegrated, everything continued. Brzezinski spoke very honestly in one of his interviews, this was after the Cold War had already ended. He said: "Don't fool yourself. We are not at war with communism, but with Russia, whatever it may be called." If he´d said war against "the Russian spirit", then he would have been practically repeating the words of Churchill, who said in 1940:
"We are not at war with Hitler, or even the National-Socialism. We are at war with the German spirit, the spirit of Schiler, so that it may never be revived."
The kind of spiritual castration that was imposed upon the Germans after 1945, that's what they wanted to do to Russia after 1991.
In one of his interviews Alexander Rahr, he's a kind of German fringe politician, said that many Western politicians and journalist are surprised as to why Russia doesn't repent. Meaning: Russia lost the Cold War, so they must repent. One more thing he said, for which he was criticized in the West: "For the West the victory over the Soviet Union was no less important, and possibly more important, that the victory over Hitler." Because Hitler belonged to them. Russia never did. This is why we have to counteract the opponent not only on our borders and not when he invades us. We need to make problems for the opponent wherever he is vulnerable.
Sixthly. We must roll out a powerful, massive, informational counter-attack against the North-Atlantic elite. Particularly aggressive wherever they have problems. Specifically, in the Muslim and Spanish-speaking worlds.
I am working closely with the Spanish- and Arabic-language services of Russia Today. They're doing a great job. What is meant by the Spanish-speaking audience? It's not only Latin-America and Spain. There is a huge Spanish-speaking audience in the United States itself. That has to be exploited.
Seventh and last. Re-configure the public awareness for defense. It doesn't mean protecting ourselves. Defense means understanding that we are living in war-time. Train the population, especially the younger generation, to be ready to repulse any aggression: military, informational, cultural, civilizational.
I am very pleased to see the resurrection of the military-patriotic education and the concept of "Ready for Labor and Defense" (???). I remember as a school pupil taking the junior, then senior, exams of "Ready for Labor and Defense" It involved running, which we liked, throwing grenades. It's a robust approach. The reason we won the war was we had the "Societies of Assistance to Defense and Aviation-Chemical Construction" (??????????), we had sports organizations in the 1930s. We were really getting prepared. You want peace - be prepared for war.
We are peaceful people, but our armored train is ready in the sidings. So the changes which happened in February-March was the end of the era of defeats. Leaving the era of defeats is necessary not only on the external front, but also domestically. There are still plenty of odious characters around from the time of Yeltsin. Some have gone to Ukraine. There's a journalist Kiselëv - Evgeny Kiselëv, who shares a surname with Dmitry Kiselëv. He's been in Ukraine since many years ago. He's a Berezovsky-Gussinsky person. Has been broadcasting in Ukraine for many years. Now he says he´s ashamed to be Russian. "Ashamed", for God's sake ...
Well, we shouldn't be ashamed to learn from the West how to operate in the informational domain. Their policies are of an offensive nature. If you are reacting, then you're one step behind and you're going to lose. In the Crimean Victory we won because our leadership, above all the president, he was always a step ahead of the opponent. He took a step. They reacted. He set the agenda.
Published 18 March 2014, this serious documentary details US support for the neo-Nazi, anti-Semitic, ultra-nationalist movement in Ukraine. The video examines the ongoing US support of these groups, including the Svoboda party and Right Sector and ultimately how the US and NATO have backed these groups all the way into government. It also shows how the Western newsmedia have cooperated or orchestrated the obfuscation of what is really happening.
'Defiant of the armed vehicles and sniper rifles pointed at them, residents were filmed approaching the troops to have their say.“Fascists! Fascists!” the locals chanted, casting insults on the troops and the Kiev government.
Kiev authorities are commonly referred to as the “fascist junta” in the east of the country, because of their takeover of power in February and the government's alliance with nationalists – including the notorious Right Sector radical group.
“What kind of law and order are you bringing here?! We are the f*****g residents of the Donetsk Region, not you!” one man shouted.
Many of the soldiers interviewed by RT stringer Graham Phillips revealed they had come from western Ukrainian
regions, including Lvov and Ivano-Frankovsk. Kiev has been apparently relying on regional and ethnic differences in Ukraine while launching the military action, as a large part of eastern Ukrainian armed forces and police have been unwilling “to fire at our own people.”The crowd in Kramatorsk grew even angrier as one of the Ukrainian APCs rammed a road sign, bringing it down.
“Get back to Kiev! You are not welcome here! Get out! It is our land!” residents shouted.
The troops could then be seen suddenly mounting the APCs and leaving the area. The crowd rushed to chase them, shouting “Donbass! Donbass! Glory to Donbass!”.
Source: http://rt.com/news/156628-kramatorsk-residents-ukrainian-military/
Monash University's Dr. Bob Birrell of Monash University Centre for Population and Urban Research spoke at the Sustainable Population Australia AGM on July 20, 2013 to a conference center packed to standing room only. The speaker was retained for questions until long after the end of the talk. "It was chilling the way Dr Birrell calmly and factually revealed the deep globalised shit we are in. It just doesn’t make sense at all. If only the public understood what is being done to them and their children...not to mention our environment." Videos by Steven Armstrong.
The meeting yesterday was well summed-up by one of those present as a “rip snorter”. The room was filled to capacity with standing room only. The mean age of the audience was substantially reduced on previous AGMs, an indication of how the effects of overpopulation are hitting more and more people in the form of unavailable, unaffordable housing, massive power bills, congestion and stress at every level ... and unemployment.
One gentleman slapped a wad of 10x $10 notes on the table at the beginning of the branch meeting and people seemed keen to give money to help SPA.
"It was chilling the way Dr Birrell calmly and factually revealed the deep globalised shit we are in. It just doesn’t make sense at all. If only the public understood what is being done to them and their children. ..not to mention our environment." (A new SPA member).
The notes below were taken by a member of the audience and are an impressionistic paraphrase of some highlights of Birrell's speech. You will need to watch the videos of the speech for detailed quotes.
Bob Birrel in calm measured tones revealed the treachery of our governments to Australians especially workers.
The latest population increase was 370,000 people, representing a growth rate of 1.7%. This increase was made up of 210,000-215,000 permanent entry including humanitarian. It included temporary entry e.g. 457 visas and working holiday visas. About 30,000 people moved here from New Zealand (but not all were born there; many migrated there from elsewhere.) Natural increase (births over deaths) made up 150,000. That makes a huge excess of immigrants over native born, to the tune of 150,000: 270,000.
Snapshot - In December 2012 the ABS calculated that there were 1.1 million temporaries here. Most temporary visa holders have work rights. Visitors don't have work rights but many work anyway. This is all on top of the permanent entry people, numbering about 210,000- 215,000.
May 2012-13: 108,000 new arrivals added to labour market. Total employed persons only increased by 127,000.
Rate of workforce growth has declined sharply. During the mining boom it grew by 200,000 but this has halved- leading to an increase in unemployment.
Our Youth disadvantaged by immigration levels:
50-60,00 young people seek entry level jobs each year. Immigrants competing with them for these. There has also been a drop in workforce participation.
This is the CFMEU billboard Dr Birrell refers to: "In the 12 months to February 2013, Australian construction industry employment grew by only 1.1%, but the number of 457 visa holders employers had working in the industry actually increased by 25% to 14,080. Between December 2012 and March 2013, trades apprenticeship numbers dropped from 67.500 to 53.400."
Labor elites now tend to see themselves as globalisers, harking back to the Hawke-Keating era of deregulation. By subjecting workers to enterprise bargaining and international migrant competition they are trying to overcome a bogey they perceive in "Protectionism".
Government has pushed the selection of migrants onto employers, failing to regulate to safeguard local job opportunities. The rules don't require the employer to test the local market. All this came to a head recently over the 457 visas. The CFMEU (mining and construction union) has led the ACTU in a comeback on behalf of workers (see picture of CFMEU Billboard: "More apprenticeships, fewer 457 visas.")
Globalisers In the 1980s the ALP opened the Australian economy to globalists- to “wake up” the sleeping economy. These policies overcame our protection heritage. 457s were good news for globalising forces. CFMEU (mining and construction) were very concerned. They saw 457s as breaking their control. Chris Bowen, the current Federal treasurer is not in favour of protecting local jobs and his book Hearts and minds is apparently very revealing of his preference for the globalist ideology.
The Howard government had given away our right to this Doha conference in 2000 in exchange for tariff concessions from other countries. Rudd confirmed this when he became prime minister.
There has been a split in ALP ranks over this- Craig Cameron and Kelvin Thomson are among those who support labour market testing.
Julia Gillard said, just before she was removed, that Australians should be at the head of the (Job) queue- stated this publicly. One of the last things her government did was to subject the 457 visas to labor market testing. The new law has not yet been proclaimed, but went through on the very last day of parliament. The protections for workers are weak, but they are an improvement on the naked 457. They protect workers in trades but leave professions pretty unprotected.
Dick Smith says he has been refused advertising space about his new magazine, Forbidden Ideas, by the Murdoch Press in Adelaide. Here is a film where he speaks his mind on what he perceives to be censorship. This is really a quite funny and very informative speech by an animated Dick Smith.
Thank you John Coulter for this video.
We were surprised to read an article in www.crikey.com attacking Dick Smith for "Vanity Publishing." This seemed such an odd thing for a supposedly alternative publication to be saying about a man whose efforts to air alternative views to the mass media have the necessary heroism of a David to Goliath - Goliath being Murdoch's news chains. The peculiarly snide article effectively defends Murdoch's hold over published opinion and attacks Smith on perceived personal faults.
Here is what one crikey.com reader has written about their strangely unaware article:
daveb
Posted Sunday, 19 August 2012 at 12:05 am | Permalink"This article sounded like sour grapes and tall poppy syndrome. Sure most of the magazine was obviously trying to sell his re-launched Dick Smith Foods. But Why state the obvious? Perhaps you should try attacking Dick’s arguments and ideas, rather than attacking the man himself. Here is one of Australia’s most philanthropic millionaires, who has noble intentions and is passionate about the long-term environmental sustainability of Australia. He cares deeply about the environment and the two biggest crises facing it - overpopulation and the related anthropogenic climate change - and here you are being snide about it all. Why not focus on those disgraces Gina, Twiggy and Clive, who put their own billions and self interest ahead of the environment."
Good on you, Dick, anyway, from Candobetter.net!
See also: 9/11 activist hands himself in to British police for "peddling lies" that 9/11 and 7/7 were staged (1/10/14).
I knew there had to an answer to the 9/11 conspiracy theorists that would make the facts clear to non-experts. This 5 minute video (Also at YouTube) demolishes the fantasies peddled by extreme right and looney left paranoids.
It is unfortunate that ABC Local Radio Melbourne 774 presenter Jon Faine neglected to make use of the evidence contained in the above video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tE3pMPObcGU) in his altercation with Kevin Bracken in October 2011.
Cynthia McKinney is an unusual black US former congresswoman who has risked her life to report on the situation in Libya from Libya on what she calls the "Truth Tour". The article below contains her most recent report, which contains parts of alternative journalists' articles and criticises mainstream journalism. The video where she speaks, included here, is an addition. It is quite rivetting stuff.
Thanks to all who have come out and participated in the Truth Tour. I have almost come to its end. Last night in Detroit, several of the women were moved to tears as I explained the situation in Libya right now as I know it to be. Every venue has had every seat occupied or was filled to capacity with standing room only.
Detroit's young singer and band, Sister Ziyah and Black Rain were phenomenal and their music set the tone for the event: first song, Kickstart the Revolution; second song, Good Morning, America; third song, Today, I'm a Better Me.
Detroit attendees were rapt in the August 26 Tripoli streetfight video that I showed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=rif7U5hRsNM#t=2s
This Truth Tour has been unique because the true peace people in this country have revealed themselves by their willingness to step forward and be counted against this war in the very midst of the worst deceit and demonization ever. NATO war crimes are being excused, discounted, or covered up by those who posed as supporters of justice and peace. It is never OK to bomb people. And it is never OK to ask the peace-loving people of this country to sacrifice Social Security and Medicare and education and housing--and I could go on and on--so that war profiteers can fatten their ill-gotten coffers.
I agree with Stephen Lendman and others who have written that the war propaganda against Libya reached heights higher than that for the war against the Iraqi people. The deceit continues to this day from the most respected "news" outlets. Now, we know them as what they really are, too.
Here are a few items that I had to wake up early to get to you before I board the plane for my next destination: it seems that the "Mighty Wurlitzer" could use a tune up because it has even ratcheted up a notch in its noise factor with this war. Watch the BBC descent from journalism to the absolute lowest depths with this:
http://www.brasschecktv.com/videos/news-media-corruption/jubilation-as-tripoli-fallsin-india-.html
For more information on the current deceptions and machinations regarding the US/NATO war against the people of Libya, listen to this conversation between Dedon Kamathi (who was a part of the DIGNITY Delegation of alternative journalists who traveled with me to wartime Libya) and Don Debar (who traveled with me to Libya in 2009 as a part of the DIGNITY Delegation to learn more about The Green Book:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrBgESw7bgs&feature=player_embedded
Here's what Glen Ford wrote that moved me to tears:
"The Libyan Soldier: The True Heroes of NATO’s War," Wed, 08/24/2011 - 13:02 — Glen Ford
"NATO has proven it has the capacity to kill thousands of Libyan soldiers from the skies, but it cannot “convey honor and legitimacy” to the rebels under its killer wings. “They are little more than extras for imperial theater, a mob that traveled under the protective umbrella of American full spectrum dominance of the air.” The incinerated bodies of her soldiers have secured Libya’s place in history.
“The Libyan armed forces maintained their unit integrity and personal honor, with a heroism reminiscent of the loyalist soldiers of the Spanish Republic, in the late 1930s.”
The story is not over – not by a long shot – but the saga of the Libyan resistance to the superpower might of the United States and its degenerate European neocolonial allies will surely occupy a very special place in history. For five months, beginning March 19, the armed forces of a small country of six million people dared to defy the most advanced weapons systems on the planet, on terrain with virtually no cover, against an enemy capable of killing whatever could be seen from the sky or electronically sensed. Night and day, the eyes of the Euro-American war machine looked down from space on the Libyan soldiers’ positions, with the aim of incinerating them. And yet, the Libyan armed forces maintained their unit integrity and personal honor, with a heroism reminiscent of the loyalist soldiers of the Spanish Republic under siege by German, Italian and homegrown fascists, in the late 1930s.
The Germans and Italians and Generalissimo Franco won that war, just as the Americans, British, French and Italians may ultimately overcome the Libyan army. But they cannot convey honor or national legitimacy to their flunkies from Benghazi, who have won nothing but a badge of servitude to foreign overseers. The so-called rebels won not a single battle, except as walk-ons to a Euro-American military production. They are little more than extras for imperial theater, a mob that traveled to battle under the protective umbrella of American full spectrum dominance of the air. They advanced along roads already littered with the charcoal-blackened bodies of far better men, who died challenging Empire.
“The so-called rebels won not a single battle, except as walk-ons to a Euro-American military production.”
One thing is sure: the Americans and Europeans have never respected their servants. The so-called rebels of Libya will be no different. Washington, Paris and London know perfectly well that is was their 18,000 aircraft sorties, their cruise missiles, their attack helicopters, their surveillance satellites and drones, their command and control systems, their weapons, and their money, that managed to kill or wound possibly half the Libyan army. Not the rabble from Benghazi.
The rebels should not take too seriously being fawned over by the ridiculous hordes of corporate media tourists that have come to Tripoli to record the five-month war's finale. They are highly paid cheerleaders. And, although it may appear that they are cheering for the rebels, don't be fooled – at the end of the day, the western corporate media only cheer for their own kind. They are celebrating what they believe is a victory over the Libyan demon they have helped to construct in their countrymen's minds. Next year, rebel, that demon might be you.
Or next year, it might be many Libyans, including those who were no friends of Col. Moammar Gaddafi. The Americans treat their native minions like children in need of supervision – and there is a certain logic to this, since whoever would entrust his nation's sovereignty and resources to the Americans is, surely, either exceedingly stupid, or hopelessly corrupt. But Libya's honor and her place in history has already been secured by a small African army that held out nearly half a year against the NATO barbarians.
For Black Agenda Radio, I'm Glen Ford. On the web, go to www.BlackAgendaReport.com
BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at [email protected].
And here is what Stephen Lendman wrote:
"Never Forgive, Never Forget," by Stephen Lendman
After covering Libya's rape since last winter in dozens of articles, no forgiving or forgetting is possible for one of history's great crimes. Nor is ignoring those responsible, condemning them forthrightly, and explaining why all wars are waged.
NATO outdid Orwell on this one, killing truth by calling war the responsibility to protect - by terrorizing, attacking, and slaughtering civilians like psychopathic assassins.
As a result, honest historians will redefine barbarism to explain NATO's savagery. It includes ongoing crimes of war and against humanity for the most malevolent reasons.
When is war not war? It's when committing cold-blooded murder is called the right thing. When major media scoundrels cheerlead it, and when most people believe it because they're too indifferent, uncaring or lazy to learn the truth.
NATO's rape of Libya is too ugly for proper words to describe. Only honest images can do it, and lots of them.
Instead, the Big Lie substitutes for honest journalism, especially on television where real (not fake) visuals can show mangled bodies, mass destruction, and other evidence of NATO crimes.
Where civilian deaths can be shown graphically in living color. Where responsibility can be placed where it belongs. Where right and wrong can best be explained. Where repetition can arouse public outrage. Where proper analysis in advance perhaps can prevent all wars.
None are liberating, lawful, or virtuous. All are shamelessly exploitive. Libya's one of the worst - unscrupulously benefitting powerful interests criminally, ruthlessly, and diabolically.
It doesn't get any worse than that. Ask Lybians. They'll explain.
The New York Times is America's lead propaganda instrument, its reports getting enough global coverage to make a difference.
From the start, it cheerled war with Libya. It played the same role in Afghanistan, Iraq, and all previous US wars, deceiving its readers by dishonest journalism, commentaries, and editorials.
August 26 was no different. Two articles among others stand out. David Kirkpatrick wrote one headlined, "As Qaddafi Forces Retreat, a Newly Freed Imam Encourages Forgiveness," saying:
Pro-NATO Sheik Abdul Ghani Aboughreis helped incite last winter's uprising "with a fiery Friday sermon at the Mourad Agha mosque. His words sent thousands of demonstrators pouring into the streets. (His) mosque and neighborhood became a center of revolt and resistance...."
After six months of shamelessly supporting death and destruction against his own people, he now encourages "forgiv(ing) each other, to make sure to leave it to the law and not take revenge on each other."
As in all his Libya war articles, Kirkpatrick left unexplained months of crimes of war and against humanity, committed by NATO and paramilitary killers.
Instead, he highlighted alleged evidence of ongoing Gaddafi loyalist crimes.
In times of war, both sides commit them, but whatever government forces did pale compared to NATO's savagery and its hired assassins. Kirkpatrick and other Times writers failed to notice.
Anthony Shadid and Kareem Hahim were no better headlining, "Grim Evidence of Fighting's Toll Becomes Clearer in Libya," saying:
"As the fighting died down in Tripoli on Friday, the scope and savagery of the violence during the nearly weeklong battle for control of the capital began to come into sharper focus."
Evidence he cites is a shameful Amnesty International report (based on freed Al Qaeda and other paramilitary prisoners), saying:
AI "uncovered evidence that forces loyal to (Gaddafi) have killed numerous detainees held at two military camps in Tripoli on 23 and 24 August."
Perhaps so if other insurgents freed them, attacked Gaddafi forces in the process, and they fought back.
Instead, AI said:
"Loyalist forces in Libya must immediately stop such killings of captives, and both sides must commit to ensuring no harm comes to prisoners in their custody."
Like UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, AI tries to have it both ways, ruining everything it gets right by reports like this - equating horrendous NATO crimes with lesser ones committed by Gaddafi forces, perhaps many less than imagined. The fog of war makes it hard to know precisely.
Instead, Shadid and Hahim's article was shamelessly one sided. While citing clear evidence of rebel-committed atrocities, their article claimed:
- Tripoli violence is now subsiding when, in fact, it rages;
- rebels say Gaddafi loyalists killed their own, an absurdity on its face;
- it's hard "to ascertain the fate of....dead men" in hospitals, as well as chaos committed inside; AP and Reuters reported it resulted from rebel-committed terror;
- Gaddafi's "cloak of secrecy (and) mercurial rule" are being revealed, leaving unexplained why Washington and its NATO partners wage all wars;
- slogans are being displayed, saying "Libya is free" and "Misurata is steadfast," though still Gaddafi controlled, it's believed, what Shadid and Hahim ignored, as well as not debunking claims of Libya's freedom; and
- documents in Gaddafi's compound "seemed to show that (his) adopted daughter Hana, who was supposedly killed at age 4 in (1986), was alive (and) working as a doctor." The key words "seemed to show" both Times writers implied were proof, adding that Tripoli Central Hospital workers claimed "a spacious and well-appointed office" there was hers.
Throughout the conflict, Times articles, op-eds and editorials backed it. Their unstated message is war is good, the more the better when America wages them.
Sadly, that's the state of managed Western news and opinion. It's a shocking indictment of its support for wealth and power, no matter how lawless and harmful to billions exploited ruthlessly, shameless, and repeatedly.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) reports continued fighting in Tripoli, inflicting many casualties. Moreover, many injured can't be treated because of ongoing violence, inadequate staff, and enough supplies and capacity at local hospitals.
In addition, "numerous arrests" were made, "including foreign nationals." Their welfare is very much at risk, especially those singled out for revenge.
Fierce fighting also continues around Misrata and elsewhere. The end of conflict is nowhere in sight. Brega "look(s) like a ghost town."
In different areas, people are endangered by unexploded ordinance, as well as shortages of food, clean water, drugs, other medical supplies, and spotty or no electricity.
Washington-led NATO turned Libya into a hellish inferno - step one before occupying and exploiting its resources and people. Months ago its wealth was stolen. Ahead will be its future if Libyans don't struggle and win their freedom.
On August 26 on Russia Today (RT.com), journalist Pepe Escobar said Abdelhakim Belhadj, a former Al-Qaeda insurgent/now CIA asset commands rebel forces in Tripoli. He explained that he was trained in Afghanistan by a "very hardcore Islamist Libyan group." Earlier he was captured in Malaysia, detained and tortured in Bangkok, then transferred back to Libya and imprisoned. In 2009, he made a deal for freedom, in return for serving Western interests, Escobar says: "I can say almost for sure with 95% certainty that this is the guy" heading insurgents in Tripoli. It shows how Washington both demonizes and uses Al Qaeda advantageously, including bin Laden. He was a longtime CIA asset until his death in December 2001 - not from Obama's staged raid. Notably, Al Qaeda was a 1980s CIA creation during the Soviet-Afghan war. Moreover, Washington both supports international terrorism covertly and battles it by imperial wars and persecuting Muslims for their faith. It's part of the fog to scare people enough to believe waging wars remove threats that, in fact, don't exist. So they have to be invented to enlist public support, unaware of the harm caused abroad and at home.
Only war profiteers benefit, not taxpayers they steal from or victims they attack. At the same time, corrosive militarism, financial wars, and other destructive policies destroyed America's soul. Its future as a free country is next.
So focused on bread and circus distractions, most people don't notice. How else can Washington get away with murder!
Finally, the fate of independent journalists trapped in Tripoli's Corinthia Hotel remains unclear. They're still in harm's way because a chartered ship for their safe passage out either hasn't arrived or it's too unsafe to reach it.
In conclusion, Law Professor Francis Boyle's morning email said the following:
"After Six Months of fighting by the most powerful military alliance in the history of the world, Ghadafy has now become the Greatest African Warrior since Hannibal against the Romans - predecessors to the Americans."
"Generations from now, people will sing songs, write poems, and compose odes to Ghadafy all over Africa, the Arab World, the Muslim World, and the Third World long after Obama is dead and disparaged and discredited."
Sic transit Gloria mundi (Thus passes the glory of the world)!"
Keep Libya's freedom flame alive no matter how imperial monsters try to destroy it! We're all Libyans now! Their struggle is ours!
It's high time we matched their courageous spirit against the world's most pernicious/destructive force. Bowed perhaps, they're not broken! Isn't that enough to raise our consciousness to support them!
Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.
http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/
For more information on the deceptions, please see:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tD6dEfuNhL0&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LtysFyO3lc&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5hz2UCR0RQ&feature=related
--
http://dignity.ning.com/
http://www.enduswars.org
http://www.livestream.com/dignity
http://www.twitter.com/dignityaction
http://www.myspace.com/dignityaction
http://www.myspace.com/runcynthiarun
http://www.twitter.com/cynthiamckinney
http://www.facebook.com/CynthiaMcKinney
http://www.youtube.com/runcynthiarun
Silence is the deadliest weapon of mass destruction.
Interesting perspective on the riots in Britain. Well commentated, with lots of useful statistics that reflect the British bias to produce a landless proletariat that gets discarded when it cannot be absorbed by industry. Says how the tax system encourages people to have children, but with fathers and mothers living separately. Final parts notes how civil war in the Middle East has coincided with very high food prices and how in Britain food prices have risen to three times the level in other parts of the EU. The video identifies itself as a "True News" service.
We have taken the promo video put on You Tube by the rally organisers and turned it into a more realistic rendition of what the rally really means for the Tweed Valley.
The reworked video is on You Tube. The link is www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_O1ekQNX6I
Update: The video has been removed by YouTube because the organisers of the World Rally races have claimed that it breaches their copyright. If it does breach copyright, they, nevertheless, could hardly complain that the removed video provides a less accurate depiction of how the rally will turn out than their own. - JS, 23 Apr 09.
The quality of the video is not great but thank You Tube for that. We have a DVD version and an mp4 version that will be used at the Tweed Shire Council meeting today. I am still trying to get a better version onto You Tube.
What you can do:
1. Watch the video on You Tube, leave a comment and rate the video
2. Attend the Tweed Shire Council meetings held on 26th May and especially 16 June (when the rally DA should be considered).
2. When the DA is lodged (approx. end April) make sure you make an objection.
3. Attend the planned protest march which will be held either on 26th May and/or 16 June to coincide with the Council meeting.
4. Get involved in the protest through No Rally Group [Tel: 0438 357 452 or (Email) no.rally[AT]yahoo.com]. Next meeting is at Uki on Sat 2 May at 12noon.
5. Sign our petitions to Tweed Shire Council and NSW Legislature (available at Caldera Environment Centre).
See also: Raceway through the Rainforest. Paradise lost! of 19 Apr 09.
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