Organizing Notes

Bruce Gagnon is coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space. He offers his own reflections on organizing and the state of America's declining empire....

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The collapsing US military & economic empire is making Washington & NATO even more dangerous. US could not beat the Taliban but thinks it can take on China-Russia-Iran...a sign of psychopathology for sure. @BruceKGagnon

Saturday, October 23, 2021

Washington always looking for another war

 


It didn't take long for the US to up the ante with China and Russia. So soon after the crushing defeat from 20 years of death and destruction in Afghanistan we find Washington stirring the fire pit and looking for more trouble.

It's really no surprise. Just take a close look at US history - one filthy war after the other.

Just this past week we've seen 'F the EU' Victoria Nuland go to Moscow hoping for an audience with Putin. She only got to meet with lower level, but competent Russian diplomats, and came away with nothing other than furthering the divide between our two nations. Actually, that might have been the US strategy. 

The word is that Nuland went in with a list of Washington's demands. Russia said 'nyet' and handed Nuland a list of their own. Of course Nuland said 'No' and was then sent packing back to the US.

Secretary of War Lloyd Austin (former Raytheon board member) just stopped in Georgia, Ukraine, and Romania before heading to Brussels for hand-wringing with the NATO clowns. 

Austin stated during a news conference in Bucharest that the purpose of these visits was to highlight “the importance of deepening cooperation among our Black Sea allies and partners to deter and defend against Russian malign activities in the region.” 

That's the political hype. His real purpose in Georgia, Ukraine, and Romania? Spur them to make trouble for Moscow in any way and every way they possibly can. And I'm sure Austin said the magic words, 'Of course the US will back you if you get into a fight with Russia. First, we'll supply you with more weapons and plant more of our troops in your nation to protect you from the Russian bear.' 

 

The NATO war council meets to plot more evil doings

 

 At the Brussels meeting NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the following:

  • Allies will kick off a $1.16 billion NATO Innovation Fund to develop dual-use emerging and disruptive technologies. NATO will also establish its first artificial intelligence strategy to incorporate data analysis, imagery, and cyber defense.
  • The allies are spending more on defense and they agreed to increase the readiness of forces.
  • Significant improvements are being made to alliance air and missile defenses. NATO calls for strengthening conventional capabilities with fifth-generation jets, adapting exercises and intelligence, and improving the readiness and effectiveness of the nuclear deterrent.
  • We exchanged views on how to preserve the gains and ensure Afghanistan never again becomes a safe haven for terrorists.
  • NATO’s new strategy ensures that the alliance will have “the right forces in the right place at the right time.”

They also characteristically took at shot at China from behind the safe walls of NATO HQ in Brussels with a stream of rhetoric.

Austin’s remarks followed the completion of a two-day NATO ministerial where he said officials offered “unique perspectives” on China, which he noted remains the Pentagon’s “primary pacing challenge.”

“Indeed, I applaud NATO’s work on China and I made it clear that the United States is committed to defending the international rules-based order which China has consistently undermined for its own interests,” Austin told reporters.

At an October 21 CNN town hall, Joe Biden was asked about China.

“I just want to make China understand that we are not going to step back, we are not going to change any of our views.” Biden said. Asked whether the US would come to Taiwan’s defense if it were attacked, he replied: “Yes, we have a commitment to do that.”

Now let's analyze this NATO meeting and the comments on China just a bit.

First, who has Russia invaded? Since the US orchestrated coup in Ukraine in 2014 (when the Russian-ethnic people in Crimea voted to ask Russia to take them back into the federation) there has been no invasion of anyone near its borders. At the same time US-NATO has been holding war games repeatedly all along Russian borders. When Moscow has responded by holding counter-war games inside its own country Washington and Brussels have howled in condemnation. Talk about a double-standard!

And please note the words above by Austin - "I applaud NATO’s work on China" - just what does that mean? 

NATO has gone global. The North Atlantic Treaty Alliance has now decided that it should be 'defending democracy in the Pacific'. Who is the aggressor in this case? What right does NATO have to decide it is the new global cop?

 


Can't lick Afghanistan so let's take on China & Russia

NATO has no legitimate reason to exist today - the Soviet Union and their Warsaw Pact Alliance are long gone. Russia just built an undersea natural gas pipeline called Nord Stream 2 to furnish fuel to Europe in order to help alleviate their current energy crisis. It's a big business deal for Moscow. Why would Russia want war with Europe?

The insanity of US-NATO is exposed for anyone willing to see the obvious. Washington and Brussels got their high-tech asses kicked by a ill-armed rag-tag but determined Taliban in Afghanistan. Now they somehow dream that they can take on both China and Russia who have formed a military alliance as they watch the NATO endless war machine heading their way.

I understand that all these moves by US-NATO absolutely benefit the military industrial complex which has installed one of their agents (Lloyd Austin) as secretary of war. But do these psychopaths actually believe they can start a war with China and Russia and possibly win? Don't they know that such a war would go nuclear in a hot flash?

It's obvious that the US-NATO war cabal are blinded by power and greed. There can be no other explanation that comes close to making sense.

It's a dangerous and dirty game these fat cats are playing - at the same time that climate crisis rages in our faces, legions of people face evictions from their homes, and the basic cost of living goes sky high.

Are we heading for a collapse in the US and around the globe? How could that not be happening under these present conditions? 

And the US-NATO response? 

How about another war?

Which party in Washington is leading this descent into hell?

Bruce 

Friday, October 22, 2021

The 'Master's Plan'

 

 

NATO’S new master plan dealing with Russia includes a strategy on how to defeat Russia in a nuclear war. 

While NATO officials say no such attack is imminent, Moscow says the move proves it was right to cut ties with the alliance. 

RT America’s John Huddy has more. Then former UK MP George Galloway and veteran war journalist and researcher Elijah Magnier join In Question to discuss.

Drone whistleblower thrown to the wolves

 

 

Is society safer with Daniel Hale, who exposed U.S. drone civilian killings, being housed with some of the most dangerous prisoners in America?

By John Kiriakou
Special to Consortium News

Drone whistleblower Daniel Hale was sent on Sunday to the notorious Communications Management Unit (CMU) at the maximum-security U.S. Penitentiary (USP) at Marion, Illinois to serve a 45-month sentence, rather than to the low-security prison at Butner, North Carolina, where federal Judge Liam O’Grady had recommended he go.

Butner is a prison hospital complex, and O’Grady was cognizant of Daniel’s need for psychological therapy to deal with post traumatic stress disorder from his time as a U.S. Air Force drone operator.

USP Marion, on the other hand, is a former “Supermax” prison that was built in the early 1960s as a replacement for Alcatraz. It was converted into a CMU to keep terrorists from being in contact with the media. The Bureau of Prisons, which apparently knows better than a federal judge, decided that the American public must be protected from Daniel Hale’s dangerous ideas, like the notion that we shouldn’t murder innocent civilians with drones.

Hale today should be sitting in the TV room of a low-security housing unit in a prison in North Carolina awaiting drug and alcohol counseling or speaking with a therapist. That’s what the judge’s order was. Hale is emotionally fragile. He’s occasionally suicidal. He needs some help and support through this experience. Instead, he’s on 24-hour-a-day lockdown. He will likely spend his entire nearly 4-year sentence in solitary confinement with almost no human contact at great risk to his mental health.

What is Daniel Hale’s day like? He is alone in a six-by-ten-foot concrete and steel cell. It has a steel bunk, a paper-thin mattress, a small steel sink, and a steel toilet. On the days that he’s allowed to exercise, which is two or three times per week, he is led into a six-by-ten-foot outdoor cage, where he can walk in circles for an hour.

He is permitted two showers per week and one phone call per month, but only to his attorney. Visitors are carefully screened (NSA whistleblower Tom Drake and I, for example, are banned from visiting him because we have criminal convictions for blowing the whistle on warrantless wiretapping and CIA torture, respectively.)

Even then, the few visitors he will have will be able to see him only through reinforced glass and with the use of an intercom. When Hale receives a letter, it will be scanned and then put on a monitor screen installed along the ceiling of his cell, where it will remain for five minutes while he reads it. At the end of five minutes, it will disappear permanently.

 

 

His Fellow Prisoners

Daniel Hale at a peace protest at the White House in undated photo. (DIY Roots Action website)

There are only two full-fledged CMUs in America. One is at USP Marion and the other at USP Terre Haute, Indiana. Again, the purpose of a CMU is to keep the closest possible watch on a dangerous prisoner’s communication with the outside world. So who are some of the other prisoners in Marion’s CMU along with Hale?

They include convicted al-Qaeda terrorist Muhammad Saleh, a follower of the late “blind sheikh” Omar Abdul Rahman; Muhammad Rashed al-Owhali, convicted of terrorism in the bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya; Omar Rezaq, a member of the notorious Abu Nidal Organization and the last surviving hijacker of Egypt Air flight 648 in which 58 people were killed in 1985; and Victor Bout, the Russian arms dealer convicted of selling surface-to-air missiles to terrorist groups.

Does Daniel Hale belong with these people? Is society safer with him being housed with some of the most dangerous prisoners in America? Is solitary confinement in one of the most restrictive maximum-security penitentiaries in America what Judge O’Grady believed was “justice?” Is solitary confinement supposed to somehow “rehabilitate” Hale?

The obvious answer is no.

This is what the BOP does, however. The bureau’s leaders don’t care one whit what judges say at sentencing. I was supposed to be sentenced to a minimum-security work camp and instead was sent to a low-security prison—not an impossible situation, but still an honest-to-God prison. When I filed an internal appeal, I was told that the judge’s order was a “recommendation” that the BOP had chosen to ignore.

The situation is more serious with Hale, though. This isn’t just a case of the BOP ignoring a recommendation. There’s a huge difference between a low-security prison and a Supermax CMU. There’s a huge difference between a low-security prison and solitary confinement. And there’s a huge difference between a low-security prison and a complete lack of the medical and psychological support necessary to keep a prisoner alive.

What happens if, God forbid, Daniel can’t make it through the sentence and he harms himself? A BOP apology isn’t going to cut it. A letter to Congress attributing the disaster to “human error” won’t help him. This issue has to be fixed right now. Daniel Hale must be transferred to Butner and he has to get the help he needs.


~ John Kiriakou is a former CIA counterterrorism officer and a former senior investigator with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. John became the sixth whistleblower indicted by the Obama administration under the Espionage Act—a law designed to punish spies. He served 23 months in prison as a result of his attempts to oppose the Bush administration’s torture program.

Thursday, October 21, 2021

Washington violates international law one more time.....

 

 

Statement by Alex Nain Saab Moran 

16 October 2021

My name is Alex Nain Saab Moran with Venezuelan diplomatic passport number 045778720. I am a special envoy with diplomatic immunity to the Russian Federation and the Islamic Republic of Iran since April 2018 and Venezuelan Ambassador Plenipotentiary Alternate to the African Union.

I was hijacked by Cape Verde on June 12, 2020, when my flight stopped to refuel on a special humanitarian mission to continue to the Islamic Republic of Iran by order of My President Nicolas Maduro Moros.

I was kidnapped without an arrest warrant as required by law in Cape Verde and without an Interpol warrant, in a country that has no extradition treaty with the US, and they disregarded my diplomatic immunity which was even claimed by Venezuela immediately.

I was tortured physically and psychologically by the US and Cape Verde, with the consent of the government of Donald Trump, and members of the government of Cape Verde as Minister Landim, Prime Minister Ulysess Correia da Silva, Carlos Reiss head of national security, Paulo Rocha Minister of Government and the director of the Sal prison Mr. Correia for 8 months with the economic support of USA, Juan Guaido and the former head of security of Narnia Ivan Simonivis, until the international pressure, of Your Government and the decision of Ecowas/Cedeao to move me to house arrest could not contain it anymore.

The house arrest was a farce since I always remained locked up as in prison and watched 24 hours a day by an average of 50 military men who were the ones who handled the keys to the house in which I had no privacy or access to telephone or letters. I had to do everything through only one lawyer, Dr. Pinto Monteiro who was the only one authorized to visit me, the whole team of international lawyers was deported several times as soon as they landed in Cape Verde.

In Cape Verde, a country that is a lackey of the empire, corrupt and cowardly.  All my human rights were violated, they violated their own laws, deadlines, terms, at the whim and orders of the United States. Now the constitutional court has decided to violate 12 constitutional points that were impossible to violate and have authorized my extradition.

I hold the U.S. government and the extremist opposition government of Narnia fully responsible for my integrity, for my life, in the prison to which they are taking me.

I will face the trial with total dignity and asserting my diplomatic immunity as a servant of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela since April 2018.

I wish to make it clear that I have nothing to collaborate with the United States, that I have not committed any crime in the U.S. or in any other country, that I will not lie to favor the U.S. against President Nicolás Maduro or his government; a government totally dedicated to the welfare of its people and which is going through an inhumane blockade by the United States that wants to take over the wealth of the country. Let us surround our president and our government with a human shield and let us not allow ourselves to be defeated. They will never come back!

I declare that I am of sound mind, that I am not suicidal, just in case they assassinate me and say commit suicide, which I would never do.

I love my wife Camilla and my children Shadi,Isham, Jad, Mariam Rose and Charlotte more than my own life.

I ask you to be strong and always stay united.

United We Shall Overcome! Always have faith in God.

Dave Chappelle on building a culture of love & peace

 


Dave Chappelle drops some real truth about the society we live in.

 


Wednesday, October 20, 2021

Vandina Shiva: 'We are at the cusp of an evolutionary moment'

 


Russell Brand spoke with Indian scholar, food sovereignty advocate and environmental activist Vandana Shiva on his podcast, Under The Skin.

In this clip they discuss colonization, how billionaires are the new Columbus and what needs to be done to take back power. 

She warns that if we don’t get it right, the human species will become extinct. 

Tuesday, October 19, 2021

American journalist to Putin: Does this mean we have an arms race?

 


Russian President Vladimir Putin replies to CNBC’s journalist Hadley Gamble on hypersonic systems. 

Let's next see Biden take questions from a Russian journalist - don't hold your breath. 

He reminds her that it was Washington that pulled about of the ABM Treaty....and more.

Be sure to turn on the CC for English captions.

Monday, October 18, 2021

Notes from national peace & justice unity meeting

 

 

On October 13 there was an important meeting via Zoom to build unity among key peace and justice movement organizations in the US.

The meeting was attended by leaders from the US Peace Council, Black Alliance for Peace, United National Antiwar Coalition, United for Peace & Justice, Veterans For Peace, Answer Coalition, Women's International League for Peace & Freedom, Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space, WorldBeyondWar, Code Pink, Popular Resistance, Task Force on the Americas, and International Action Center. 

The meeting was facilitated by Ajamu Baraka (BAP).

Here are some of the statements made by various leaders during the call.

  • We all need to work to build a movement which is more unified in messaging and campaigns. Groups should still do their work but where (and when) possible more unity is important.
  • The Afghanistan failure - who is responsible and why were we there? The Afghan withdrawal is part of a larger US military strategy.
  • The US is stationing troops in Taiwan to train the military there for a possible war with China. A new US global war strategy is being implemented towards China.
  • Two-thirds of the national US budget is for war.
  • Forty-two million Americans are on food stamps, facing evictions while climate crisis worsens.
  • We must find ways to work together.
  • Must focus on our local communities addiction to military spending. Got to talk about jobs and conversion of the war machine if we hope to stop endless war and deal with environmental issues.
  • There is unity among the US corporate ruling class on China and Africom.
  • The US has economic wars (sanctions, etc) and military wars and they are linked. We must show the links in our work more often.
  • A campaign is needed for re-nationalization of our economies rather than privatization and globalization.
  • Must link climate crisis.
  • Israel and Turkey are moving to take control of the Middle East as the US 'pivots' into the Asia-Pacific.
  • There can be no serious nuclear disarmament negotiations without dealing with the Pentagon encirclement of Russia and China with so-called 'missile defense' systems.
  • The US is desperate as it sees its economic/military empire collapse making it more dangerous than ever.

In the end it was agreed that this was an important meeting and that we should hold a similar one in the near future to build on it. No date was set but the urgency was evident.

Very important story - peace in the balance

 


  • Alexander Mercouris lays out the inside scoop from the ill-fated meeting of Biden's agent Victoria Nuland and Russian diplomats.

She went to lecture Russia and make demands on them to basically surrender to Washington's diktats. Those days are over - the multi-polar world has arrived and the US days of ruling the roost have flown away.

The bully-boy keeps kicking sand in Moscow and Beijing's faces while they steadily build international support for their policies. Other nations can see the US imperial collapse and they are slowly (but steadily) abandoning the US-NATO sinking war ship.

  • But, because of all these events Washington is more dangerous than ever before. Will the arrogant exceptionalists running the US government go to war with Russia and China? If they do we are all finished.

Democrats and Republican are knee-deep in this bullshit game they are playing these days.

Bruce

Sunday, October 17, 2021

More from an extraordinary Indian student

 

 

On October 7 Global Network board member Dr. Aruna Kammila organized a space week webinar for students and faculty at the law school where she teaches at Galgotias University near New Delhi - as well as students from around India. Several leaders from the GN spoke during the event.

I previously briefly mentioned here that after this webinar (which was attended by 103 people) one of the students contacted me and said she wanted to know more and do her school project on the space issue. So I made some suggestions including checking out the monthly Global Network space videos made by our board member Will Griffin. 

A couple days later the student (I'm withholding her name to protect her privacy) wrote to me again. I was brought to tears as I read the following:

Sir, I watched all the videos from Global Network's site and it was all very informative. I sat for 10 hours straight and took lots of notes not only for my project but also for the awareness.

Needless to say I was more inspired by all those videos and learnt so many things that have happened and are happening on our mother Earth.

I also learnt how the industrial corporations are liberally treated by violation of laws and how dangerous it is to establish 5G networks which again have connections with the Pentagon.

I could talk on and on about this issue now and I can't wait to break this information to my peers and I wanted to say I was never really interested in History of any kind of revolutions or any countries.

But the origin of this space warfare right from Hitler's appointment of Von Braun till Elon Musk's mission of hydrogen bombs [his plan to explode them over Mars] got me lots of thinking regarding our Earth.

I am an admirer of the sky. I go out of my home and watch the sky for hours and hours and admire how the clouds are moving and how the colors of the sky are painted with Sunsets and everything. But after learning everything, I do feel as a citizen of mother Earth, I do feel responsible to spread words around about what is going to happen in the next 5 to 10 years where we can't find any difference between satellites and stars in the sky.

I still have some of your blogs and Mr. Karl's blog and some of the documents like NATO's 2030 Plan that Tamara [Lorincz] mentioned to study and then I will start with my projects.

So far, this is the progress I made till now and I guess it's just a small amount and I will learn a lot in upcoming days for sure sir.

And I saw on the GN's website that you have a webinar coming on the 16th OCT I guess. Can I also participate if you allow me sir? It would be great to learn from all the speakers regarding the space issues and I would be happy to attend any of your webinars in forthcoming days.

And Sir, I am just a 19 year old third year college student studying law in Tamil Nadu, India. Probably I would be an advocate or magistrate after 4 years I guess. I would be happy to be part of your organisation and I am looking forward to meeting you if you come to India.

Now that I am not financially independent, I would surely donate funds for your organization once I am financially stable. Until then, I would spread words among my peers and my journey to talk about Space issues will never end till the weaponization and militarization ends.

This is what every organizer like me lives for - to hear from a young person that is responding and motivated, wants to learn more, and wishes to share with others. Fantastic!

It is quite difficult to get people to engage in political activity in today's world, with all the many problems facing the future generations. The level of despair and hopelessness is greater than I can ever recall.

So I thank this young woman for her courage to reach beyond all that and come to the conclusion that there is something important to admire and protect in the night sky. She is asking the profound questions of where does humanity come from, how do we protect our Mother Earth, and how can one person make a difference? 

These are all fundamental elements of what it means to be a human being.

Thank you for sharing with me this gift of your curiosity and determination.

Bruce

Sunday song