John Kiriakou: CIA Should Get Out of the Laboratory

 

 

The C.I.A. has long had labs, whether overt or covert, where terrible things happened.


By John Kiriakou
Special to Consortium News

The Central Intelligence Agency announced in October 2020 — which was ignored until just the past few weeks, when it began circulating on social media — that it had launched something called C.I.A. Labs, “a federal laboratory and in-house research and development arm for C.I.A. to drive science and technology breakthroughs for tomorrow’s intelligence challenges.”

The Agency says that C.I.A. Labs will join with a network of more than 300 other federal laboratories and that it will serve as a “research partner for other labs, academia, and industry in disciplines spanning from artificial intelligence and biotechnology to quantum computing and advanced materials manufacturing.”

The C.I.A.’s Deputy Director for Science and Technology Dawn Meyerriecks said in a statement, “In an evolving threat landscape, C.I.A. Labs will help us maintain our competitive edge and protect our nation,” whatever that means.

When I was at the C.I.A. through the 1990s and into the middle of the next decade, the deputy director for whom I worked was fond of saying (over and over again) that the job of the C.I.A. was simple: “Recruit spies to steal secrets and then analyze those secrets so that policymakers could make the best-informed policy possible.”

That was fantasy at best and disingenuous propaganda at worst. The truth is that the C.I.A. for decades has been active in areas, including “labs” and experimentation, from which it should have stayed away.

On my very first day at the C.I.A., as my new boss was walking me to the cafeteria for lunch, I happened to look out the window, where I saw something moving along the ground. It looked like a flat, round robot. My boss mentioned casually that it was a new C.I.A. invention, and it was mowing the grass. He added that the C.I.A. had invented the machine, but didn’t know what to do with it. It was the precursor of the Roomba.

But it’s not Roombas that will come out of this new C.I.A. lab.

 

What CIA Labs Have Hatched

The new lab is actually not new. The C.I.A. has long had labs, whether overt or covert, where terrible things happened. Before we celebrate this new C.I.A. lab, let’s look at what its predecessors did.

• MKULTRA is probably the best-known example of something awful that came out of a C.I.A. lab. The official explanation to Congress of the purpose of MKULTRA was the development of drugs to aid in interrogations. But it wasn’t quite that simple. Under MKULTRA, the C.I.A. experimented on unwitting Americans, including their own employees. The Church Committee’s investigators concluded that MKULTRA “aimed to develop mind-controlling drugs for use against the Soviet bloc” and “to produce a perfect truth drug for interrogating suspected Soviet spies and to explore other possibilities of mind control.”

• MKCHICKWIT was a program whereby the C.I.A. would infiltrate foreign pharmaceutical companies to steal drug samples and information about the drugs’ development. It would then seek to duplicate or to modify those drugs in its own labs.

• A similar operation, dubbed MKOFTEN, started off as a study on dopamine before morphing into something far more sinister. By the end of the “study,” it had expanded to include the hallucinogen ibogaine and to LSD in the hopes of “creating a new pharmacologically active drug affecting the central nervous system to modify men’s behavior.” Thousands of active duty U.S. servicemen were unwittingly dosed during this operation.

• Operation Midnight Climax was a program in the 1960s and 1970s, carried out in C.I.A. safehouses in San Francisco, to dose non-consenting individuals —mostly homeless men and prostitutes — with LSD and other drugs, monitor them from behind one-way glass, and determine if they would voluntarily reveal secrets. The prostitutes eventually were also taught to dose their clients and were then debriefed as to whether or not the johns had revealed any personal secrets.

• The C.I.A.’s very first foray into drug experimentation was Project CHATTER, in which both animals and humans were dosed with the drugs anabasine (a product of the tobacco plant, it is chemically similar to nicotine,) scopolamine (a drug used to treat motion sickness and post-operative nausea,) and mescaline (a hallucinogen similar to LSD and psilocybin) to see what the effects might be. The operation ended in 1953.

 

As you can see, the C.I.A.’s track record when it comes to developing things in labs isn’t a good one. And we only know about the above programs thanks to the Church Committee and the Freedom of Information Act. Otherwise, the information likely would still be kept from the American people.

My bottom line is this: I don’t care how proud the C.I.A. is of its foray into U.S. Government labs. I don’t care if it considers itself to be a research partner for other labs, academia, and industry. I don’t care if its leaders believe that they have a place in artificial intelligence, biotech, or anything else.

The C.I.A. has proven time and time again that it can’t be trusted. It has proven that it will simply push the envelope into the realm of illegality if it thinks it can get away with it. And the Congressional oversight committees have proven that they will act as little more than cheerleaders for the C.I.A., rather than as overseers.

The C.I.A. has no business creating a new lab. It shouldn’t exist.

~ John Kiriakou is a former C.I.A. 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.

STOP U.S. Wars: MLK Week of Actions, Jan 13–22

 

“The greatest purveyor of violence in the world : My own Government, I can not be Silent.”
                ~ Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. April 4, 1967

 

As you know, after the October antiwar actions, more than 75 actions, we held a meeting to discuss next steps.  It was decided that we should have another week of actions and the week around Martin Luther King Day, Jan 14 – 22 was proposed.  So, we are moving forward organizing STOP U.S. Wars actions again during that week.  Many organizations endorsed the October week of actions and are anxious to continue.

As Martin Luther King, Jr. so correctly reminded us, the U.S. is the greatest purveyor of violence in the world.  Since WWII, the US has initiated more than 60 military interventions in foreign countries.  The US/NATO proxy war in Ukraine brings the US in direct confrontation with a major nuclear power as does the U.S. provocation against China over Taiwan.

It is extremely important that we build a strong, unified antiwar movement that can break through the media propaganda and censorship and end the US military aggression around the world.

Each of our actions are based on building local connections among various solidarity organizations. A variety of actions are encouraged from demonstrations, teach-Ins, banner drops, chalk-ins to street meetings.

Actions linking ALL the continuing US wars and sanctions is a unifying focus and helps break through the propaganda that saturates each war.

Stop US/NATO Wars and Sanctions 

Today working people face escalating costs of food and energy, recession, growing insecurity and attacks on efforts to unionize. The continuing wars and military provocations have brought us to the brink of nuclear war.

• Stop Washington’s war moves toward Russia and China!
• Stop endless wars: Iraq, Syria, Somalia, Palestine…. everywhere
• Money for Human Needs not War
• No to NATO!

Please fill out the form to endorse the January Days of Action.

Oliver North on Ukraine and China

Amazing candor from Iran-Contra felon Ollie North:

Ukraine is just like Reagan's dirty wars in Central America, Africa and Afghanistan

Most of the aid is a kickback to US weapons makers and Beltway contractors

The proxy war is preparation for a larger war w/ China over Taiwan pic.twitter.com/kmKW2JZCH4

— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) December 29, 2022

The position of the Hungarian Community for Peace

 

 

The key to peace

The key to peace is guaranteeing Russia's security. As long as Washington does not stop arming Ukraine, and even supplies Kiev with a medium-range Patriot missile, an immediate cease-fire and peace negotiations will remain empty words. We must realize that it is in vain that we want peace in our neighbors if our own allies do not want to end the war. 

The Western elite lulls themselves into the illusion that they can win the war and defeat Russia. The Hungarian Community for Peace constantly warns the government not to lose its sense of reality, as happens with many of its NATO partners. Anyone who talks about Russian aggression and turns a blind eye to the non-fulfillment of the Minsk agreement, the massacre of 15,000 Russians in the Donbass, and vetoes Ukraine's NATO membership only because Kyiv terrorizes the Transcarpathian Hungarians, is hardly a sincere supporter of peace! 

This is indicated by the fact that the Hungarian Parliament is preparing to ratify the expansion of NATO with Finland and Sweden. The Hungarian government, like its Western allies, is not serious about a political settlement with a mutual guarantee of security. At Christmas, Putin reached out again and said he was ready to negotiate an end to the war. The Western answer is no and no. Our government is reluctant to take the necessary step: to recognize the legitimacy of Russian security claims. In the absence of a compromise, Russia will enforce its will with a gun because it has the same right to be safe as anyone else.

It has been a year since Moscow asked Washington and Brussels in writing to conclude an agreement so that NATO does not threaten Russia along its borders, Ukraine ceases to be a battering ram of NATO, and a European security system is born in which no country can assert its security at the expense of the security of other countries. 

We all know the answer of the West: NATO was not willing to give up on the integration of Ukraine, nor on its further expansion to the east, but, on the contrary, took the direction of dismembering Russia and seizing its natural resources. US-EU had a nonsensical negotiation with Moscow, trying to buy more time to strengthen the Ukrainian army against the Russians, and Moscow decided that enough was enough. Since then, the Hungarian government has acknowledged that NATO does not want to compromise. 

Our government is afraid that if it takes the inevitable step, NATO itself will lose its meaning and our country will become neutral. We wouldn't see anything wrong with that! According to our position, it is in the interest of our country to live in good relations with both the East and the West. No one should impose sanctions on us, hinder our development, the free movement of people, goods, capital, or interfere in our internal affairs. Our national interest is cooperation instead of confrontation! 

What we are not interested in is the exact opposite. The Hungarian Community for Peace starts from the premise that Hungary's interest is equal, peaceful cooperation with everyone.

Budapest, 27 December 2022

Magyar Békekör/Facebook
Magyar Békekör/VK
Magyar Békekör/Wordpress 

Zelensky is another Churchill?

 

 

Zelensky is compared to Winston Churchill and Abe Lincoln.

Come on..... 

Tucker happens to be right about this one.

It's the perfect illustration of how the public is brainwashed by the neo-cons.

This is media corruption for certain.

No U.S. nukes in Europe - No WW 3

 

 

This short animated video reviews the new nuclear warheads the United States is deploying in Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and Turkey (and very likely UK too) without the people's knowledge or consent. 

Who are these nukes being aimed at?

Russia....   

Good luck if you happen to think that the US is truly 'liberating' Ukraine with its proxy war on Russia. And even more good luck to you if you believe that Washington won't use nukes to try to take out Moscow. You will need extraordinarily good luck if you think that a full-blown red-hot nuclear war would be survivable!

So what is left?

Stop NATO. Stop sending US taxpayer dollars down the rat hole in Ukraine. Stop buying the non-stop BS from the corporate media and so-called 'progressive media' like Democracy Now and other compromised sources. Check their donors if you doubt me.

Demand a halt to the absolutely massive trillion dollar annual appropriations for the Pentagon.

Stop voting for politicians (from either party) who are clearly corporate agents and have turned the national treasury over to the warmongers.

Stop spouting the neo-con endless lies.

Go hold a sign on a street corner saying 'No war with Russia' or 'Bring our war $$$$ Home'.

Maybe if we do these things we could rebuild the currently disabled and divided peace movement that has largely been corrupted by the oligarchic agenda.

Possibly then we could live thru the coming year that at this point looks to be 'full steam ahead' toward WW 3.

Best wishes to all of us.

Bruce

PS Moscow is not likely to ever agree to a 'ceasefire' as long as the US-NATO keep flooding Ukraine with more weapons systems that are used to attack the Russian-ethnic regions of eastern Ukraine (Donbass) and lately even hitting targets inside of Russia. 

U.S. planning 'first-strike' on Moscow?

 

 

RT

 US should think twice before contemplating ‘decapitation strike’

American officials essentially suggested the elimination of Russia’s leadership, the foreign minister has said

Reported comments by US officials about the possibility of a “decapitation strike” against Russia strongly suggest that Washington does not rule out the assassination of President Vladimir Putin, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with TASS news agency published on Tuesday.

The minister noted that some “‘unnamed officials from the Pentagon actually threatened to conduct a ‘decapitation strike’ on the Kremlin…What we are talking about is the threat of the physical elimination of the head of the Russian state,” he said.

The top diplomat went on to warn against such a line of thinking. “If such ideas are actually being nourished by someone, this someone should think very carefully about the possible consequences of such plans.”

Lavrov was apparently referring to a September article by Newsweek, which alleged that US defense officials are considering a number of options to respond against a potential Russian nuclear strike, including “a decapitation strike to kill Putin in the heart of the Kremlin.”

Fears of a possible nuclear conflict have been sparked in the West after Putin said in September that Moscow would use “all means” necessary to defend Russia and its people if its territorial integrity is threatened. However, Moscow has repeatedly stated that it has no plans to deploy atomic weapons, maintaining that a nuclear war should never be fought.

The foreign minister also accused some of America's partners of embracing a confrontational approach in the nuclear sphere. “They seem to have gone completely beyond the bounds of decency,” he said, recalling that former UK Prime Minister Liz Truss “without a shadow of a doubt declared during the election debates that she was quite ready to order a nuclear strike.”

Lavrov also recalled Ukraine’s statements on the matter, saying “I not even mentioning the Kiev regime’s provocations, that go off the chart. [Ukrainian President] Vladimir Zelensky went as far as to demand preventive nuclear strikes by NATO countries on Russia. This is also beyond the bounds of what is acceptable,” he noted.

Clare Daly on EU hypocrisy

 

 

Madam President, everybody knows, of course, that Qatar is one of the most repressive regimes in the world, where human rights simply don’t exist for the majority of the people. Of course, it’s not the only one, but the idea of improvements in minimum wage and labour conditions and so on really belies the reality for so many people – particularly the thousands who have lost their lives without any compensation. But for all the standing—up in here and crying about ‘sportswashing’ and giving out about football, the truth is that next week most people will come in here behind closed doors and agree to give Qatar the privilege of visa—free travel to the EU, a privilege that most countries – more than a hundred actually – in the world don’t have. 

You’ll sign off on Qatari progress on human rights, even as the families of the dead are still mourning their loved ones. You’ll do it for oil and gas, because the EU has cut itself off from Russian energy as it’s an authoritarian regime fighting an illegal war, but you will do business with an authoritarian regime that’s fighting an illegal war in Yemen. Nobody’s fooled. If there was a world cup for hypocrisy, the EU would walk away the victors without a match being played!

Latest update from those who know the real story in Ukraine

 

 

Judge Andrew Napolitano's latest interview with Col Doug Macgregor 

Sunday song

 

 

Priest from Donbass describes the hell In Ukrainian prison

 

Archpriest Andriy Pavlenko, a cleric of the Diocese of Severodonetsk of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, rector of St. Tikhvin Cathedral in Lisichansk, was arrested by the Ukrainian authorities in April 2022. Later he was taken to the territory controlled by the Ukrainian authorities. He was accused of allegedly transmitting information to the Russian armed forces about the number, deployment and armament of Ukrainian units. 

A few days ago, Andrei Pavlenko, who was sentenced by Kiev to 12 years in prison on suspicion of “treason”, was released from Ukrainian captivity. He was reportedly exchanged by the initiative of the Wagner Group. Together with him, the bodies of two Wagner pilots who died heroically near Bakhmut were returned to Russia. 

In one of his interviews, the cleric described the atrocities of Ukrainian Nazis that he faced in prison.

    “Disgusting is not the right word. Even the criminals are treated thousand times better than political prisoners there,” he said.

He claimed that political prisoners in Ukrainian prisons are treated terribly, because no one plans to release them and most of them are killed.

See a video interview with him (has English subtitles) here

Nobel, NED and CIA color revolutions - one big 'happy family'

 

 
A well-deserved prize!

by Hugo Dionísio for the Saker blog

A feeling of complete justice is what I felt when I attended the presentation of the Sakharov prize to comedian Zelinsky. Rarely does an award embody, so substantially, the deep connection between the institution that promotes it, the great European political families that approved it, and the recipient himself. I give a standing ovation! Yes, sir! I fully approve!

The bank account that inexplicably appeared in Switzerland, disclosed through the Pandora papers, stuffed with almost a billion Euros, in the name of the prize winner, explains more than one can imagine. It explains everything!

Take Eva Kaili, for example. A rising star in international politics, transformed into a runway that shows, on the outside, what she is not on the inside. To assume that Eva and her cronies are an exception, who, for the money, fame, and glamour it provides, have agreed to publicly defend what they previously claimed to despise…. It is not paying attention to 21st century European politics.

 

In the 21st century, being of the centrist political parties (mainly the social democrats and popular, liberal and moderate conservatives) means a lot…it means everything! It means not being an “extremist”, of course, “left-wing” or “right-wing”, reducing the whole spectrum to two camps – the acceptable, the “mainstream”, the “balanced”; and, the “unacceptable”, the “radical” and “sectarian”; belonging to an “extreme” is the same, whatever side you are on. Being in the middle, that’s all, and that’s not up for discussion anymore. It’s not even worth to throw any argument, because classification in these terms is mainly aimed at not discussing anything.

Not that one can generalize and run everything by the same measure; that is neither serious nor even advisable, and it is precisely what wants the ones that determines that any analysis should be done in the terms I have mentioned. But this is, above all, the story of the political mainstream. Saying one thing… and doing the other.

Take the Sakharov prize itself: awarding this prize to a guy whose government has outlawed more than a dozen political parties, confiscating their property; to the leader of a government that confiscates property of the Orthodox Church and persecutes its clerics for defending the “Holy Russ” composed of the three sister countries of the Slavic East, of which Kiev is the mother city; who has banned the use of the native language of nearly half of the country’s population, burning books, destroying statues and films depicting the culture in that language; persecutes journalists for reporting what he does not intend; detains political activists who oppose him, and lied in the elections he won, promising what he did not intend to do… Every attentive citizen was able to witness firsthand what the Sakharov prize actually means, what it was created for, and what goals it pursues. As with Eva Kaili, the prize is everything it says it is not!

And if Eva Kaili accepted, for 250,000.00 euros (which, being money, doesn’t make anyone rich), to defend everything that she told her voters she wasn’t defending, the question we must ask is the following: if Eva accepts such a thing coming from a country like Qatar, with the reservations that such an origin raises in the ordinary Europeans (and Americans), what won’t all the Evas of the European Parliament, Commission, Council and Governments accept, when the origins of such “support” come from a more, geographically speaking, reliable source? When, for example, they come from the other side of the Atlantic, from the USA?

What I mean is: if they are willing to sell themselves to Qatar, for a majority of reasons, their willingness to sell themselves to the Atlanticist axis is unlimited! Coming this request from any Atlantic Council, Clinton or Gates Foundation, and the whole interest of the peoples they claim to represent becomes instrumental to the interests of their perceivers, suddenly transformed into guardians. The truth is that, in the end, the imposed system works like a mafia: Once you get in, you’re not getting out… And if you get out, they decree your political, social and, even more important (for these people), economic death. You become “extreme” and then…

 

You don’t even need money! All it takes are invitations to teach, to write articles in top journals, to speak at international conferences, and to get into the political spin, which, sooner or later, will lead to an anticipated golden retirement, paid in kind, through a brutal retainer or a corporate position in any Golden Sachs board (let’s see Durão Barroso who was behaving as a cheerleader for the Iraq WMD’s war), in some Foundation or, at least, in some NGO funded by the National Endowment for Democracy, structure used by the owners of all this people to intervene in the most diverse areas of “civil society”, covertly molding and instrumentalizing the political, economic and social system, in order to respond exclusively to their needs.

The hundreds of millions of dollars that every year, the congress approves – which we don’t vote for, but which is very much in charge of all of us Europeans – for the purpose of producing “information campaigns” about countries that are adverse to American “ideals” and “values”, feed a whole web of interests that range from the corporate press of the North Atlantic, to NGOs such as the International Association of Cartoonists for Democracy (cartoonists! they know very well the power of humor!). Everyone who lives for this high interest wheel ends up directly or indirectly, being funded by this, or by one of the countless lines provided in the same budget for “democracy and human rights” campaigns.

These lines, which anyone can check on the respective website, devote billions of dollars paid by taxpayers for the state department to use one of its armies (soft: diplomacy, press and NGOs; hard: intelligence and armed forces) in the countries provided there (Venezuela, Cuba or Bolivia in LA; Malaysia, Thailand or China in Asia; Turkey, Moldova or Serbia in Europe; Algeria, Egypt or Angola in Africa).

Let’s look at an Ana Gomes, a Portuguese European parliament member, for example. Not because in 2014 she walked in Victoria Nuland’s company in Maidan Square handing out snacks to C14 youth (neo-Nazi youth, equivalent to Hitler Youth), although Nuland’s company says more than one might imagine about Ana Gomes’ real – but unacknowledged – role. Just a random search, for example on the Atlantic Council’s (NED-related) website, and we soon discover an article by this MEP (it was not by chance that I invoked her) on Libya. The same Libya that her Atlantic alliance has destroyed, taking it from being the country with the highest per capita income in Africa, straight into the middle ages.

Without losing a night’s sleep for having contributed to destroying the lives of tens of millions of people, we see the epilogue of this activity in her “collaboration” with the World Movement For Democracy (also NED related), in which Ana Gomes appears as “Steering Committee Member – Spearheads Nicaragua Advocacy in European Parliament”, on behalf of an organization… American, from Washington, Pennsylvania Avenue, like NED. Why do you think she appears so much on Tv screens?

The “defense of Nicaragua” that she promotes, is the same “defense” that “advocates” sanctions on the people because they elected who Washington didn’t want, for wanting to integrate the country into the new silk routes, and for having privileged relations with Moscow. After countless subversive campaigns and attempts at a color revolution that people resisted, accompanied by an international campaign of malicious slander and blatant lies, here are the usual famous sanctions, aimed at starving the people to overthrow the government. People like her call all this “defending Nicaragua”.

 

2022 Nobel Peace Prize recipients all have connections to the NED, a CIA offshoot.

But the farce would not be complete without the awarding of the 2022 Nobel peace prize, at least 1/3 of it, to the CCL (Center for Civil Liberties), formed in 2007 and according to them, very much focused on the establishment of democracy and the rule of law in Ukraine. This is another organization funded by Freedom House, the Freedom Fund (no need to say where it comes from, right?), by the French, Belgian and all Western European governments, and, of course, by the European Union. A gem of a national organization from Ukraine! Not a penny comes from that country. And there is no doubt that it has done a job worthy of a Nobel Peace Prize: the formation of a Nazi militia like the Azov and Haidar battalion, or the C14, a coup d’état in 2014, the formation of the second largest NATO army after that of the USA, the extinction of parties, persecution of opponents and, cherry on top of the cake, one of the most corrupt countries in the world. This is reason to say: Congratulations CCL. You really deserve the Nobel Peace Prize! The rest of the 2/3 of the prize is not even worth talking about, because it reveals to the full extent what the Nobel Peace Prize is. A political weapon in the service of the white house!

Everything works the other way around. If you want to know how the EU thinks you need look no further than, as an example, to CEPA (Center for European Policy Analyses), also funded by the NED, invariably located on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, which analyzes, studies and proposes policies for Europe ranging from energy to security. Reading the reports and communiqués and noting their close connection to the “democratic” and “transparent” European policies that decisively influence our countries and our living conditions is a brilliant exercise. 90% of European voters would eventually discover the original uselessness of their vote. They vote here, but it is decided there! I know it hurts… But just go and see!

This network made up of thousands of organizations that at a global level live from the central connection with the NED, the “social” arm of the CIA (also based in the same place) constitutes one of the most important pillars of the neo-liberal empire. It is through this intersection of organizations, where the words “freedom,” “democracy,” “transparency,” “human rights,” “humanitarian aid,” “environment,” and “sustainable” abound as their own identifying lexicon, that the political proposals that flow directly into the mainstream’s brain and find a home in the corporate press of the North Atlantic circulate. After being repeated on google, at school, at university or on TV, most of them even think that they were the ones who adopted them when, in fact, they are nothing more than mere recording and reproduction tools. Sorry to disappoint those of you belong to the mainstream parties, but your brains are no other than the CIA’s. You are mere terminals.

And this is another farce that should win you a big prize! Maybe give to the European peoples the prize for intelligence, political conscience and determination!

It would be in line with the previous ones!

~ Hugo Dionísio is a lawyer, policy adviser, analyst and researcher at the Portuguese workers trade union confederation (CGTP-IN).

What makes you keep doing this organizing work?

 

 

Regis Tremblay, who lives in Crimea, interviews Bruce Gagnon about his organizing career.

They discuss Gagnon's journey as a political organizer and talk about what drives him to keep doing this work.

Regis, who is from Maine, filmed many protests around Maine over the years and ends this video with footage from some of his past videos.

Watch the video here

Zelensky arrives in Washington

 

 

Demands more war $$$$$$$.

Demands more weapons.

The current Democrat controlled Congress is eager to meet his demands.

Military industrial complex (as well as Monsanto & Cargill who want all of Ukraine's rich soil for GMO production) are thrilled.

Zelensky receives orders to keep fighting to the last Ukrainian soldier and do everything possible to help drag NATO directly into the war (even though US-NATO troops are now inside Ukraine organizing the war effort).

Where does the security state end & social media begin?

 

The revolving door between the US security state and social media corporations has become larger every year. Former employees from the CIA, FBI, DoD, NATO and other agencies are being hired more and more by large social media corporations like Facebook, Google, Instagram, Twitter and others. What are the implications of such a strong connection? Why are social media giants hiring large numbers of security state agents?

Over 90 percent of all web searches are done through Google. Nearly 30 percent of the world get their news of the world through Facebook. Social media platforms have become such an influence on public opinion, it should be a place to obtain information about the world through an impartial process. Yet, with so many former security state employees, as well as understanding what these employees have done in their positions in government agencies (drone strikes, overthrowing democratic governments, etc), we should be alarmed by the positions they now hold within the corporate social media platforms.

Cyberspace is becoming more a domain of warfare between powerful nations, it is also becoming a significant domain of class struggle. The ruling classes disseminate their psychological operations onto the working classes of the world and they are doing it via social media.

This video (which includes interviews with former CIA operatives) examines the roles of agencies like the CIA and the implications of former agents and their impacts on social media.

Global Network links:
https://linktr.ee/space4peace
 

~ Video produced for the Global Network by Will Griffin

What's the deal in Bulgaria?

 

 

 

BORZZIKMAN

The sharp increase in pro-Russian sentiment in Bulgaria is of particular concern to the EU leadership. 

Bulgaria is literally divided into two camps. In the country, more and more people are expressing their dissatisfaction with the EU. Experts have already begun to say that the events in this small and unremarkable country may be a sign that the West is losing the confrontation with Russia. 

My friends, it looks like history is indeed repeating itself. Let me remind you that during the Second World War Bulgaria was initially an ally of Nazi Germany. However, when Bulgaria saw that the USSR began to win the war, it immediately went over to the side of Moscow. 

In 1944, when Soviet troops approached the borders of Bulgaria, a coup d'etat took place in the country and a pro-Soviet government came to power, which immediately declared war on Nazi Germany and subsequently brought its own contribution to the victory of the Soviet Union in World War II.

Four vigils in 4 days

 

The view outside our front door on Saturday morning

 

I was involved in four days of vigils in a row. On Thursday we had our weekly 'No war with Russia' vigil in downtown Brunswick that we've been doing since mid-February. Then on Friday (in the cold rain) we had our weekly peace vigil along the town green in Brunswick. On Saturday we did our last Advent season weekly vigil at Bath Iron Works shipyard (in the wet snow). This is where the Navy Aegis destroyers are built. Currently they are working on six of them. Then on Sunday friends Pat Taub and Lisa Savage organized a 'No war with Russia' vigil in the heart of Portland. 

Bruce

 

BIW on Saturday in the sleet & snow as the morning shift ended

 

 

Sunday in downtown Portland

Sunday in Portland

EU feeds war & corruption in Ukraine

 

By Manlio Dinucci (Associazione per un Mondo senza Guerre, Italy)


A huge flow of money is subtracted from our vital needs and is poured by the European Union into Ukraine, where it fuels war and corruption.

EU foreign ministers have allocated another 2 billion euros for military support to Ukraine. The "European Peace Fund", which has been used to arm and train Kyiv's army since 2021, is set to increase on an annual basis from the initial 400 million to over one billion euros. This adds more funds to the 30 billion euros that the EU spent from January to October to arm Ukraine.

In addition to these expenses, the European Union has decided to give the Ukrainian government 19 billion euros in a loan form, knowing full well that they will never be repaid. In a summit that President Macron convened in Paris to provide Kyiv with further financial aid, the President of the European Commission Ursula Von der Leyen announced that "the international community has decided for next year to inject at least 1.5 billion euros financial aid per month into Ukraine”.

In a country already characterized by widespread corruption at all levels, it is practically impossible in the current chaotic situation to control the actual destination of this enormous flow of money and weapons. A large part certainly ends up in the hands of power groups, which makes it disappear in the clandestine circuits of tax havens. 

What guarantees the European Union can give on anti-corruption controls is demonstrated by Qatar gate. The vice president of the European Parliament Eva Kaili, a Greek socialist exponent belonging to the Socialists and Democrats Group (the Italian Democratic Party is a member of it), was arrested together with others (including 4 Italians) for corruption, money laundering and participation in a criminal organization on a mandate of the Belgian Justice.

https://rumble.com/c/pangea   

Sunday song

 

 

Thanks to Reminiscence of the Future... for this French video

Act Now to Stop language that will Condemn North Atlantic Right Whales

 

 

As Congress works to finalize the Fiscal Year 2023 spending package, Sen. Collins (R-ME) is proposing concerning language related to the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan (ALWTRP). 

This rider would all but ensure the extinction of critically endangered North Atlantic right whales, nullify a federal court decision, and undermine the nation’s bedrock environmental laws, setting a terrible precedent for future Congresses. 

AWI, along with many other organizations, strongly opposes this language. 

Please use AWI’s Action Center to contact House and Senate Democratic Leadership IMMEDIATELY and urge them to stop this poison pill in its tracks. 

Send your letter from here

Unrest grows in Germany

 

 

What took them so long? https://t.co/FeBfibvqv6

— JD (@Dy321J) December 17, 2022

Covering the coup in Peru

 

 

Peru's elected left-wing President Pedro Castillo was overthrown in a coup by the right-wing-controlled congress.

Ben Norton speaks with Peruvian activist Daniela Ortiz about the protests demanding a new constitution and the freedom of Castillo, a humble teacher and union organizer from a rural, indigenous-descent community in a country whose political system has long been dominated by racist elites.

The F-35 boondoggle

 

Germany just bought 35 for $8.5 billion while heading into a recession. You literally can’t make this stuff up. https://t.co/JM5K657KgK

— ayden (@squatsons) December 15, 2022

 

An F-35 fighter jet costs anywhere between $100 million to $400 million to purchase.

The exact cost of buying an F-35 depends on the country purchasing the jet, their relationship with the United States, and the number of planes they’re buying.

Fighter jets don’t have fixed prices. Instead, fighter planes are sold in individually negotiated deals, with the number of planes and the presence of supporting equipment and spare parts all influencing the unit price.

There are currently four F-35 variants that all have a relatively similar cost.

With an estimated lifetime cost of $1.6 trillion (particularly because of expected maintenance costs), the F-35 Lightning II, conceived as a versatile, super stealthy next-generation fighter plane, is the most expensive weapon system ever built. When the program began way back in 1992, the F-35 was supposed to be an affordable one-size-fits-all solution for the Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy. It took until 2021 for the Air Force to publicly admit that the F-16 replacement failed the affordability test.

Living under Kiev's shelling (since 2014 coup)

 

 

Patrick Lancaster

For the last 8 years of the War in Ukraine, Ukraine's [US-NATO backed Nazi-led army] has been firing on civilian areas in the Russian-populated areas of Donbass in a territory [right along the Russian border] they do not control. This is a fact but you will never be told about it by the western mainstream media.

In this report I show you a village, near Donetsk, that had a population of about 2,200 people before the war but now only 18 residents remain. This is because of the attacks by Ukraine forces on the buildings and infrastructure of the village. Right now they have no Electric, Gas, or Running water.  Still, there are daily attacks by Ukraine forces on their village. 

Attacking civilian areas is wrong no matter who is doing it. The fact that the western media ignores these people is a horrible reflection on society as a whole. I am not and cannot be in the west of Ukraine - Kiev or Odessa - so I can not show you what happens there. I have been reporting from Donbass for the last 8 years and have been doing my best to show you the facts that I see about what is happening here. 

The western media will not show you the facts that are not positive for Ukraine. Don't think it is because they can't. They can. For example, Reuters has had local cameramen employed on this side of the contact line for 8 years but the agency refuses to report on the war crimes committed by Ukraine. 

Will the world correct this problem in the media or will be led like sheep forever?

~ I'd say this is one of Patrick's best videos that I've seen. Very brave people in this settlement who have lived thru 8 years of shelling by US-NATO proxies. Bruce

Biden flubs African summit speech

 

 

 "Invitations for a Seat at the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit Table Should Not Only Be Rejected, the Table Needs Turning Over!"

The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) recognizes the “U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit'' — scheduled to take place in Washington, D.C. December 13-15th — as nothing more than collusion between neo-colonial powers and U.S. attempts to advance and maintain dominance over the continent.

Liberal elements of U.S. civil society will preoccupy themselves with the issues they think should be addressed at the Summit, claiming to act in the best interest of Africa or, as with the Summit of the Americas held earlier this year, attack those who they say do not deserve to be invited. Such dispositions presume the U.S. has honest intentions for Africa and legitimizes/obscures its real interests and role.

Convened on the heels of Human Rights Day which is held every December 10, the Black Radical Human Rights and Peace Traditions must center the historical record of the U.S. in Africa and the geo-strategic interests it is committed to upholding. The carefully considered proceedings, side events, invitations, and public relations campaigns are designed to secure greater control of Africa’s abundant resources for U.S. “national interests” aligned with the interest of international finance capital.

Having assumed the racist mantle of the “White Man’s Burden” in the Global South in general and Africa in particular, the U.S. claims that this summit will “demonstrate the United States’ enduring commitment to Africa, and will underscore the importance of U.S.-Africa relations and increased cooperation on shared global priorities.” Such statements should be exposed as being disingenuous and an effort to cover up the United States' malign intent.

African independence movements since the 1950s have been destabilized by U.S. administrations of both parties. Democratically elected leaders such as Patrice Lumumba of Congo, who was assassinated by the CIA, and Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, who was overthrown in a CIA orchestrated coup, fell victim to U.S. government meddling, and they are only two among many. Contemporary U.S. interference has involved proxy wars in Congo with the assistance of Uganda and Rwanda, and in Somalia with Ethiopia (2006-2009) followed by a sustained drone war over Somalia under the guise of fighting extremists. In 2011 the U.S. led NATO in a regime change operation resulting in the total destruction of Libya. The U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) occupies 53 of the 54 countries on the continent in one form or another for U.S. neo-colonial hegemony.

A core goal of the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit is to challenge the inroads of the People’s Republic of China and to a lesser extent the Russian Federation vis-à-vis the continent. The political sectors of the U.S. oligarchy are concerned about regional cooperation initiated in the Horn of Africa since 2018, and anti-France and pro-Russia expressions among the people in countries like Mali, Guinea, and Burkina Faso, which is invoking the legacy of the revolutionary Thomas Sankara.

Most notably, the complicity and silence of the Congressional Black Caucus members over the role of the U.S. federal government in Africa and the dereliction of their professed purpose to represent the interests of Black and oppressed people will undoubtedly find political cover in the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit. CBC members will be key-note speakers, event conveners, and backdoor deal makers for the U.S. neo-colonial, white supremacist, patriarchal order.

In contrast, the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) is holding an anti-imperialist week of actions to raise public awareness related to the real issues that should be on the agenda for discussion at the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit.  BAP calls for the dismantling of NATO, AFRICOM and all imperialist structures. Africa and the rest of the world cannot be free until all peoples are able to realize the right of sovereignty and the right to live free of domination.

We demand:

•     The complete withdrawal of U.S. forces from Africa;

•     The closure of U.S. bases throughout the world; and

•     The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) to oppose the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) and conduct hearings on AFRICOM’s impact on the African continent, with the full participation of members of U.S. and African civil society.

Join BAP for an anti-imperialist week of actions!  

History lesson: 'NATO Warplanes Jolt Yugoslav Power Grid'

 

 

By Philip Bennett and Steve Coll
Washington Post
Tuesday, May 25, 1999

BELGRADE, May 24 – NATO airstrikes on Yugoslavia's power grid left millions of people without electricity or water service today, bringing the war over Kosovo more directly into the lives of civilians across the country.

Three consecutive nights of air attacks caused extensive blackouts in Belgrade, Novi Sad, and Nis, the three largest cities in Serbia, Yugoslavia's dominant republic. In contrast with previous attacks on the power supply – in which allied warplanes triggered temporary outages by dropping carbon-fiber filaments that shorted out electrical lines – NATO forces this time struck at Serbia's five major power-transmission stations with high-explosive munitions, causing damage that could take weeks to repair.

Officials at the Pentagon and at NATO headquarters in Belgium said allied jets deliberately attacked the power grid, aiming to shut it down more completely and for longer periods than at any time previously in the two-month-old air campaign. U.S. officials estimated the attacks had shut off power to about 80 percent of Serbia.

Allied officials said the attacks were intended to disrupt operations by the Serb-led Yugoslav military in Kosovo, the focus of the conflict, and not target civilians. But by increasing the hardship of ordinary citizens, alliance leaders also appeared to be seeking to encourage public disaffection with the government of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. 

Read the rest of this article here

 

Kiev's troops continue to rebel

 

🇺🇦🏴‍☠️☠️AFU appeal to the command:"We did not receive proper weapons and artillery support. As a result, 70% of the company was killed or wounded. We didn't even have equipment to evacuate the wounded, which is why several of the wounded did not survive." pic.twitter.com/Y9Mgg0AlTY

— AZ 🛰🌏🌍🌎 (@AZgeopolitics) December 12, 2022

What is happening in Peru?

 

  

Multipolarista 

 Peru rises up after coup against elected President Pedro Castillo

Peru's democratically elected left-wing President Pedro Castillo was overthrown and arrested in a coup on December 7 by the right-wing-controlled congress, which has an approval rating of between 7% and 11%.

Castillo is a humble teacher and union organizer from a rural, indigenous-descent community in a country whose political system has long been dominated by racist elites.

As soon as Castillo entered office at the end of July 2021, far-right elements in the congress, loyal to the US-backed former dictator Alberto Fujimori, constantly tried to overthrow him and destabilize his government.

 

teleSUR 

 
Over The Last 24 Hours, Strong Protests Have Been Registered In Andahuaylas, Lima, And In The Municipality Of Chala.

Some 2,000 People Have Blocked The Pan-American Highway.

In the early hours of Monday, Peru’s president Dina Boluarte decreed a state of emergency in “the areas of high social conflict” where thousands of citizens have taken to the streets to demand her resignation and the advancement of general elections.

“I have ordered that control of the internal order be recovered peacefully, without affecting the fundamental rights of the citizenry,” she said after a brutal police repression left two citizens dead in the city of Andahuaylas.

Boluarte assumed the presidency on Dec. 7, replacing Pedro Castillo, who was removed by the Peruvian lawmakers after he ordered the dissolution of Congress, announced the formation of an “Emergency Government,” and called a constituent assembly.

Initially, Boluarte said she would finish her term in July 2026. After the protests, however, she announced that she will send to Congress a bill to advance general elections to April 2024.

She explained that the approval of the bill implies constitutional reforms that should be approved for the most expeditious procedure.

“From now until the elections, my administration will promote a parliamentary agreement to reform the political system, which will allow for a more efficient, transparent and participatory democratic system of government,” Boluarte said, adding that this reform is expected to eliminate all corruption practices and legitimize political parties.

Since the former President Castillo was removed from office, citizen discontent has been increasing in quantity and intensity.

Over the last 24 hours, strong protests have also been registered in Lima and in the municipality of Chala, where some 2,000 people have blocked the Pan-American highway.

Take action: You can send a solidarity message with the people of Peru to the presidents of Peru and the US here 

 

First killing by the coup regime in Peru. This is in Apurimac, in the Andes. Outrageous. Sound the alarm. Defend the people of Peru against a racist ruling class that is backed fully by Washington. (Share widely). pic.twitter.com/KR6oLL2Rzn

— Vijay Prashad (@vijayprashad) December 11, 2022

Does corporate media tell the truth?

 

 

Rebel News

Rebel News' Jeremy Loffredo is in Moscow, Russia to show you what the mainstream media won't.

Assange will not be forgotten - free him now!

 

 

Roger Waters joined 300 people outside the British consulate in NYC to support Julian Assange. Also protests at Belmarsh prison in London and in Sydney, Australia.

On Human Rights Day, Dec. 10, 2022, about 300 people gathered outside the British consulate in New York to voice their support for imprisoned WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange. 

Speakers: Rock legend and activist Roger Waters (@ 31.30) , Assange Attorney and Author Margaret Kunstler, Environmental activist Steve Donziger, Consortium News Editor- in-Chief Joe Lauria, Grayzone Editor Max Blumenthal, Bundestag Member Sevin Dagdelen, Comedian and Activist Randy Credico, Co-founder of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream Ben Cohen, Broadcast Journalist Garland Nixon, National Director of Movement for a People’s Party Nick Brana, and union official and grass roots activist Chuck Zlatkin.  

Col. Macgregor on what comes next in Ukraine

 

 

Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom

Andrew Napolitano interviews Col. Macgregor about the latest twists in Ukraine - including Biden giving the A-OK for Kiev to escalate the war onto Russian soil.

They discuss what comes next and the US-NATO refusal to allow Ukraine to seriously negotiate.

First snow

 

 

We had our first snow last night here in Brunswick, Maine. A dusting as it is called. As I write this the temperature is 22 degrees Fahrenheit. The snow will not likely last long as the sun is shining. It's always quite special to see the snow - especially as we approach Christmas. I still get sentimental this time of year. 

My son Julian will be here for 10 days starting next week. He's in the states after being in Taiwan and Cambodia for the last seven years or so. He teaches and enjoys Asian cultures. It will be great to see him in person again.

One of my five sisters will also be with us during the same time so it will be a lovely family time for all of us. Another of my sisters has baked our mother's traditional holiday cookies and a box of them is now in the mail.

Bruce 

PS   The US-EU-NATO are edging up to creating a war between Kosovo and Serbia - likely as a 2nd front to force Russia to help Serbia. These western elites seem determined yet to start WW III. You can get an idea about what is going on here

A slipping & sliding dominant economic power

 

 

Richard David Wolff is an American Marxian economist, known for his work on economic methodology and class analysis. He is Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and currently a Visiting Professor in the Graduate Program in International Affairs of the New School in New York. Wolff has also taught economics at Yale University, City University of New York, University of Utah, University of Paris I (Sorbonne), and The Brecht Forum in New York City. 

Wolff hosts the weekly 30-minute-long program Economic Update, which is produced by the non-profit Democracy at Work, which he co-founded. Economic Update is on YouTube, FreeSpeech TV, WBAI-FM in New York City (Pacifica Radio), CUNY TV (WNYE-DT3), and available as a podcast. 

The New York Times Magazine has named him "America's most prominent Marxist economist". Wolff lives in Manhattan with his wife and frequent collaborator, Harriet Fraad, a practicing psychotherapist.

Latest news from Alex in Greece (with surprise ending)

 

 

Alex Christoforou

Twitter files targeting Trump. Putin, trust at ZERO with west. EU Greek MEP World Cup bribes and western racketeering in Ukraine.

Sunday song

 

 

The U.S. 'soul': Military men discuss Ukraine war

 

 

Michael Vlahos

Michael Vlahos (military professor & CIA) and Douglas Magcregor (retired Army Colonel) meet in the library of the Army-Navy Club, Washington, D.C., the Imperial City, to reflect on the war in Ukraine. 

Part 2 (of 3 parts) examines the strategic choices that have led to NATO failure in Ukraine, conflict with Russia, and lays bare how deliberate deceit and denial have misled the American people. 

Don't miss Pt. 1: Is the war in Ukraine entering its culminating phase? https://youtu.be/GhA1yofpkMg

What about Israel's nukes?

 

 

The United Nations General Assembly voted 149-6 on December 7 that Israel must give up its nuclear weapons.

The US, Canada, Israel, Micronesia, Liberia, and Palau opposed the resolution. 

The United Kingdom and most NATO members abstained.

How come the US-EU are not putting sanctions on Israel for their nukes, massive human rights abuses, bombing Syria and Palestine and much more? Talk about 'special treatment' from the west. 

Why is that?

Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel comes clean on Minsk

 

 

 German Chancellor Angela Merkel confesses in an interview with the German newspaper Die Zeit

 
Merkel in Die Zeit:
 
"The 2014 Minsk Agreement was an attempt to give Ukraine time. They used that time to get stronger, which you can see today. Ukraine of 2014/15 is not Ukraine of today.
If we could see fighting near Debaltsevo in 2015, Russia could easily have won then, and I very much doubt that NATO countries could have done as much for Ukraine then as they are doing now, we all knew that the conflict was frozen, that the problem was not resolved, but that is exactly what bought Ukraine valuable time."

 
 
RT

Moscow was hoping to find a solution via the Minsk agreements, 

the Russian president said

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he is “disappointed” by former German chancellor Angela Merkel’s recent comments regarding the Minsk agreements – the now defunct roadmap for peace in Ukraine – which she admitted was a ruse to buy Ukraine more time to build up its military.
 
“What can you say to that?” Putin said during a press conference on Friday, adding that he was shocked to hear such a confession from the former German leader, having believed that Russia’s partners in Berlin “treated us with sincerity.”
 
The Russian leader said Merkel’s remarks once again prove that launching a military operation in Ukraine was the correct decision.

 

“As it turns out, nobody intended to fulfil any part of the Minsk agreements,” Putin said, recalling that former Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko also recently admitted that he had no intention of adhering to the documents when he signed them in 2014 and 2015.
 
“I thought the other participants of this agreement were at least honest, but no, it turns out they were also lying to us and only wanted to pump Ukraine with weapons and get it prepared for a military conflict,” Putin said. Russia may have realized this little too late, and should have launched its operation earlier, the president concluded.
 
Vladimir Putin said Merkel’s admission raises an important question about trust. “Trust is already almost at zero, but after such statements, how can we possibly negotiate? About what? Can we make any agreements with anybody and where are the guarantees?”
 
Putin asked, while acknowledging that some sort of agreement will have to be reached eventually.
 
Putin’s comments follow Angela Merkel’s interview with the newspaper Die Zeit on Wednesday, in which she said the actual purpose of the 2014-2015 Minsk agreements was to stall for time and allow Kiev to build up its military potential for a future confrontation with Russia.
 
Moscow has expressed shock over the admission, with Russia’s Foreign Ministry claiming that Merkel’s words are legitimate grounds for a tribunal.
 
The Minsk agreements, brokered by Germany and France, were supposed to be a roadmap for peace in the war-torn country, giving the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk special status within the Ukrainian state, whose rule they rejected after the 2014 Maidan coup [orchestrated by the Obama-Biden administration in Kiev].
 
Russian has explained that its current military offensive in Ukraine was largely prompted by Kiev’s failure to implement the terms of the accords.