Why the US really accuses Russia & China of weaponizing space

By Finian Cunningham

Washington has made startling accusations that Russia & China “have already turned space into a war-fighting domain,” but what’s really going on is the US is attempting to distract from its own controversial space militarization.

There is also a sequence of events reflecting Washington’s increasingly hysterical hostility towards Russia and China in which all events are perceived through an obsessive American lens of “hybrid warfare.”

An additional factor is the intensified US demand to include China in arms control talks with Russia, which resumed this week.

The claim made against Russia and China by Christophe Ford, a State Department arms control envoy, comes against the backdrop of President Trump announcing the establishment of a new Space Force Command earlier this year. That move by the Trump administration flies in the face of decades-long advocacy at the United Nations by Russia and China to keep weapons out of space.

The 1967 UN Outer Space Treaty forbids weaponization in the outer atmosphere. Thus, America’s renewed efforts through its Space Force Command are arguably illegal. Allegations from Washington that Moscow and Beijing have turned space into a war-fighting domain appear to turn reality on its head.

Karl Grossman, a professor at the State University of New York who has written extensively on the subject, says that Russia and China have consistently advocated for the expansion of the existing UN treaty to ban not only the placement of weapons of mass destruction but also for a prohibition on any weaponization in outer space.

“The United States has repeatedly voted against this effort, essentially casting a veto at the UN,” Grossman said.

It would seem therefore that America’s claims are motivated by a need to obscure its own controversial militarization of the “final frontier.”

On July 15, the US and Britain accused Russia of testing an anti-satellite weapon in space. Moscow denied this, saying it was carrying out an in-orbit satellite “inspection” by another one of its own satellites. The US Space Force Command acknowledges it was a “non-destructive event” but nevertheless alleged it was an attempt by Russia to deploy a “bullet” in space.

“Inspection of satellites” could of course be a euphemism for gaining the capacity to spy on other nations’ space vehicles. The US is reportedly involved in developing the same kind of surveillance activity against foreign satellites. But for the Americans to accuse Russia of testing a space-based “anti-satellite weapon” seems to be a provocative stretch.

Notably, the report of the alleged Russian weapon test was followed immediately by sonorous statements hailing the establishment last year of the US Space Force “to deter aggression and defend the nation.”

Grossman says: “The new US Space Force is, I’d say desperately, trying to justify itself and thus its announcement that Russia conducted an anti-satellite weapons test needs to be considered in this context.”

But there is more to the sequence of events. Last week, on July 23, China launched its first rover to explore Mars. If the mission succeeds in landing on the Red Planet in seven months, it will be seen as a breakthrough achievement by China, putting the country on par with the US in space exploration. The Chinese launch came a week before NASA blasted off its new rover to Mars which is due to reach the planet in February around the same time as China’s.

It seems significant that Christophe Ford, the US arms control envoy, first made his announcement accusing Russia and China of weaponizing space the day after China’s historic Mars mission launch. Given the closely overlapping engineering shared by space rocketry and ballistic missiles, it could, therefore, be loosely argued that a Mars mission by China has military dimensions. (As would all American missions, if using the same tenuous reasoning.)

However, in the present context of rampant accusations against Russia and China of waging “hybrid war,” including everything from “meddling in elections to subvert US democracy” to “unleashing a virus pandemic to destroy American capitalism,” it is not hard to see how in Washington’s mindset events in space could be construed as yet more hybrid warfare. American paranoia is simply going extraterrestrial.

Another important factor in the sequence is the resumption of arms control talks this week in Vienna between the US and Russia. These negotiations are aimed at extending the New START accord limiting strategic weapons. Washington is pushing the Russian side to lever China into joining a new trilateral arms control agreement. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo admitted in a recent keynote speech that Washington was seeking Russia’s help in curbing China’s nuclear arsenal. Moscow has indicated that such a trilateral accord with China, considering its relatively smaller arsenal, is not relevant at this stage in bilateral negotiations between the US and Russia over New START.

The US warned it would bring up the issue of Russia’s alleged anti-satellite weapon at the arms control talks this week in Vienna.

It seems the US is using claims about space weaponization not only to distract from its own illicit program, but also to undermine Russia in arms talks as a way to pressure Moscow into accommodating Washington’s overbearing demands regarding China.

That does not augur well for a successful arms control agreement or for global security. A foreboding case, so to speak, of ‘watch this space’.

~ Finian Cunningham is an award-winning journalist. For over 25 years, he worked as a sub-editor and writer for The Mirror, Irish Times, Irish Independent and Britain's Independent, among others.

Hold the Halos

By John Kiriakou
Special to Consortium News

Last week I received an invitation to attend the annual whistleblowers luncheon hosted by the National Whistleblower Center (NWC).  The luncheon is always a big deal.  It’s held in Washington, D.C., in the Russell Senate Office Building’s Kennedy Caucus Room, the same room that hosted the Watergate hearings, the Army-McCarthy hearings, the Iran-Contra hearings and other momentous events in American political history.

It’s attended by hundreds of whistleblowers from all over government and the private sector, as well as more than a few politicians.  The NWC usually has one of those politicians as a guest speaker.  There is lots of applause, a lot of self-congratulations, and everybody goes away with a full belly, even if nothing of substance gets done.

This year, however, I’m boycotting the event.  So is Darin Jones.

Procurement Improprieties

You may recall me writing about my friend Darin Jones.  Darin is an FBI whistleblower and former supervisory contract specialist who in 2012 reported evidence of serious procurement improprieties.  Darin said that Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) had been awarded a $40 million contract improperly because a former FBI official with responsibility for granting the contract then was hired as a consultant at CSC.

Jones maintained that this was a violation of the Procurement Integrity Act.  He made seven other disclosures alleging financial improprieties at the FBI, and he was promptly fired for his whistleblowing.

What was done to Darin Jones was patently illegal.  I wrote at the time:

“Immediately upon his firing, Jones appealed. He was not reinstated, however, because he had made his revelation to his supervisor and not to one of the nine people on the FBI leadership-approved list of who could hear a whistleblower complaint. Jones appealed again, beginning a more than four-year odyssey.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is the champion of whistleblowers on Capitol Hill, whether you like his politics or not. Jones contacted Grassley and asked for help. His dismissal was clearly retaliation for his revelations and was illegal, according to the whistleblower protection law. Grassley agreed and wrote three separate letters to then-FBI Director James Comey and then-Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates. None were answered.

Grassley urged the Justice Department to reinstate Jones, saying that his dismissal was a violation of the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2016, which strengthened the original whistleblower protection law. He added that when Yates appeared before his Senate Judiciary Committee for her confirmation hearings earlier in the year, she promised ‘to improve the process for adjudicating claims of retaliation, including expanding the list of persons to whom a protected disclosure may be made.’

She never did that. In fact, Yates ordered the director of the Justice Department’s Professional Misconduct Review Unit to write to Jones and to tell him, ‘The Deputy Attorney General’s review is complete and her decision is final. Your case is no longer pending. You should not expect to receive any future communications that you or any other organization or individuals may submit with regard to your whistleblower reprisal case.’ In other words, the official policy of the Justice Department was to ignore the law and to give the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman and the whistleblower himself the middle finger.

The FBI’s response was equally bad, albeit predictable. The FBI’s Office of the General Counsel wrote to Jones, ‘The FBI has advised you that it will not conduct further investigation into your allegations that the FBI removed you from employment because you reported a compliance concern and retaliated against you in violation of applicable whistleblower retaliation protection regulations. The FBI has met its legal obligations and considers this matter closed without any basis for further review or reopening. Please be advised that the FBI will not respond to any additional correspondence or emails related to or arising from the termination of your employment.’

That’s another middle finger.

Note also that the FBI refers to ‘whistleblower regulations.’ It’s not a regulation. It’s a law. And the FBI, too, has to respect and follow the law even when they don’t want to.”

The Man Behind It

To make matters worse, it was the Justice Department’s Inspector General Michael Horowitz who was behind all of this.  It was Horowitz who said that Darin Jones’s information was not whistleblowing and was not worthy of investigation.  It was Horowitz who refused to respond to Grassley or to Jones’ attorneys to reinstate him.

This is the same Horowitz who has garnered wide press attention and acclaim for investigating the FBI’s handling of the Michael Flynn case, the FBI’s handling of the Larry Nassar sexual assault case and the federal response to the demonstrations in Portland all the while ignoring legitimate whistleblowers.

And who do you think the National Whistleblower Center has as its keynote speaker at its annual luncheon?  Michael Horowitz.  The press would have you believe that he’s a hero.  Even the National Whistleblower Center would have you believe that he’s a hero.  He’s not. Many of us think he’s a fraud.  Just ask Darin Jones.

~ 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.

Yemen: A Torrent of Suffering in a Time of Siege

By Kathy Kelly

“When evil-doing comes like falling rain, nobody calls out “stop!” When crimes begin to pile up they become invisible. When sufferings become unendurable, the cries are no longer heard. The cries, too, fall like rain in summer.” --  Bertolt Brecht

In war-torn Yemen, the crimes pile up. Children who bear no responsibility for governance or warfare endure the punishment. In 2018, UNICEF said the war made Yemen a living hell for children. By the year’s end, Save the Children reported 85,000 children under age five had already died from starvation since the war escalated in 2015. By the end of 2020, it is expected that 23,500 children with severe acute malnutrition will be at immediate risk of death.

Cataclysmic conditions afflict Yemen as people try to cope with rampant diseases, the spread of COVID-19, flooding, literal swarms of locusts, rising displacement, destroyed infrastructure and a collapsed economy. Yet war rages, bombs continue to fall, and desperation fuels more crimes.

The highest-paying jobs available to many Yemeni men and boys require a willingness to kill and maim one another, by joining militias or armed groups which seemingly never run out of weapons. Nor does the Saudi-Led Coalition  which kills and maims civilians; instead, it deters relief shipments and destroys crucial infrastructure with weapons it imports from Western countries.

The aerial attacks displace traumatized survivors into swelling, often lethal refugee camps. Amid the wreckage of factories, fisheries, roads, sewage and sanitation facilities, schools and hospitals, Yemenis search in vain for employment and, increasingly, for food and water. The Saudi-Led-Coalition’s blockade, also enabled by Western training and weapons, makes it impossible for Yemenis to restore a functioning economy.

Even foreign aid can become punitive. In March, 2020, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) decided to suspend most aid for Yemenis living in areas controlled by the Houthis.

Scott Paul, who leads Oxfam America’s humanitarian policy advocacy, strongly criticized this callous decision to compound the misery imposed on vulnerable people in Yemen. “In future years,” he wrote, “scholars will study USAID’s suspension as a paradigmatic example of a donor’s exploitation and misuse of humanitarian principles.”

As the evil-doing in Yemen comes “like falling rain,” so do the cries of “Stop!” from millions of people all over the world. Here’s some of what’s been happening:

·       U.S. legislators in both the House of Representatives and the Senate voted to block the sale of billions of dollars in weapons and maintenance to Saudi Arabia and its allies. But President Trump vetoed the bill in 2019.

·       Canada’s legislators declared a moratorium on weapon sales to the Saudis. But the Canadian government has resumed selling weapons to the Saudis, claiming the moratorium only pertained to the creation of new contracts, not existing ones.

·       The United Kingdom suspended military sales to Saudi Arabia because of human rights violations, but the UK’s international trade secretary  nevertheless resumed weapon sales saying the 516 charges of Saudi human rights violations are all isolated incidents and don’t present a pattern of abuse.

·       French NGOs and human rights advocates  urged their government to scale back on weapon sales to the Saudi-Led coalition, but reports on 2019 weapon sales revealedthe French government sold 1.4 billion Euros worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia.

·       British campaigners opposing weapon transfers to the Saudi-Led Coalition have exposed how the British Navy gave the Saudi Navy training in tactics essential to the devastating Yemen blockade.

·       In Canada, Spain, France and Italy, laborers opposed to the ongoing war refused to load weapons onto ships sailing to Saudi Arabia. Rights groups track the passage of trains and ships carrying these weapons.

On top of all this, reports produced by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Oxfam, the Norwegian Refugee Council, and the International Commission of the Red Cross repeatedly expose the Saudi-Led Coalition’s human rights violations.

Yet this international outcry clamoring for an end to the war is still being drowned out by the voices of military contractors with well-paid lobbyists plying powerful elites in Western governments. Their concern is simply for the profits to be reaped and the competitive sales to be scored.

In 2019 Lockheed Martin’s total sales reached nearly 60 billion dollars, the best year on record for the world’s largest "defense" contractor. Before stepping down as CEO, Marillyn Hewson predicted demand from the Pentagon and U.S. allies would generate an uptake between $6.2 billion and $6.4 billion in net earnings for the company in 2020 sales.

Hewson’s words, spoken calmly, drown out the cries of Yemeni children whose bodies were torn apart by just one of Lockheed Martin’s bombs.

In August of 2018, bombs manufactured by Raytheon, Boeing, General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin fell on Yemen like summer rain. On August 9, 2018, a missile blasted a school bus in Yemen, killing forty children and injuring many others.

Photos showed badly injured children still carrying UNICEF blue backpacks, given to them that morning as gifts. Other photos showed surviving children helping prepare gravesfor their schoolmates. One  photo showed a piece of the bomb protruding from the wreckage with the number MK82 clearly stamped on it. That number on the shrapnel helped identify Lockheed Martin as the manufacturer.

The psychological damage being inflicted on these children is incalculable. “My son is really hurt from the inside,” said a parent whose child was severely wounded by the bombing. “We try to talk to him to feel better and we can’t stop ourselves from crying.”

The cries against war in Yemen also fall like rain and whatever thunder accompanies the rain is distant, summer thunder. Yet, if we cooperate with war making elites, the most horrible storms will be unleashed. We must learn--and quickly--to make a torrent of our mingled cries and, as the prophet Amos demanded, ‘let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

 ~ Kathy Kelly (kathy@vcnv.org) co-coordinates Voices for Creative Nonviolence www.vcnv.org

Excellent webinar on Medicare4All - educational & inspiring

In "Improved Medicare for All: Universal Single-Payer Health Care", independent Green U.S. Senate candidate Lisa Savage hosts former Green congressional candidate and universal healthcare advocate Dr. Margaret Flowers, Maine AllCare’s Dr. Bill Clark, and recovery and harm reduction advocate Glenn Simpson for a wide-ranging discussion on the growing demand for a health care system that puts people over profit, and why both health care practitioners and the public increasingly agree that Improved Medicare for All is the solution we need. 

Lisa Savage is convening a series of policy-focused webinars this summer, “The Way Forward,” that will bring together policy and subject-matter experts from Maine and around the country to have substantive discussions about solving some of our country’s most difficult policy issues, with opportunity for questions and discussion.

Sunday song

Brought to you by.....

U.S. high-tech spy base in Australia

Pine Gap is one of Australia's most secret sites, and the Australian government doesn't even know about all of the operations on the base.

Pine Gap is mainly operated and controlled by various US military and intelligence agencies: CIA, NSA, DIA, Air Force, Army, Navy, etc. 

There is even a secret room in which Australian's aren't allowed to enter. 

Learn more from the Global Network's latest video by board member Will Griffin.

Message from German Left party leader

Sahra Wagenknecht is a German left-wing politician, economist, author and publicist. Along with Dietmar Bartsch, she was the parliamentary chairperson of Die Linke from 2010 to 2019. Since 2009, she has been a member of the Bundestag (Parliament).

She speaks about US proposals to pull troops out of Germany, US pressure on NATO members to pay more toward the alliance, and the real purpose of the so-called NATO 'alliance'.

She underscores the role US military forces in Germany play in its wars in the Middle East and Africa.

Wagenknecht also discusses Washington's efforts to sabotage the Russia to Germany natural gas pipeline.  Instead of watching this cooperation between those two nations, the US wants Germany (and the rest of Europe) to purchase more expensive 'fracked gas' from American shores that would be transported on ships to Europe.

In the end she calls for an independent and sovereign German foreign policy rather than one chained to the imperial insanity of the USA.

Bruce

Why does the U.S. keep demonizing Russia?

David Swanson, Alice Slater, and Bruce Gagnon discuss obstacles to nuclear abolition and the U.S.-Russia relationship.

David Swanson is an author, activist, journalist, and radio host. He is executive director of WorldBeyondWar.org and campaign coordinator for RootsAction.org.

Alice Slater is board member of WorldBeyondWar and the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space.

Bruce Gagnon is coordinator of the Global Network.

Dems deep dive into Wall Street's arms.....

It's platform crunching time for the national 'Democratic Party'.  Early indications are that you should not expect too much from them.

One big disappointment, reported by Truthout is:

The DNC Platform Committee rejected the Medicare for All amendment introduced by longtime single-payer advocate Michael Lighty by a vote of 36-125 during a virtual meeting Monday. The committee also voted down separate attempts to include support for expanding Medicare to children, dropping the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 55, and legalizing marijuana.

The Huffpost reported on the marijuana vote:

• Democratic National Committee delegates voted 105-60 against including marijuana legalization in the party platform on Monday. The draft version of the platform supports decriminalizing marijuana use and legalizing medical marijuana, adding that it should be left up to the states “to make their own decisions about recreational use.” 

In the case of Medicare4All it is obvious that the insurance industry said an emphatic NO to that one.  When it came to medical marijuana and legalization it was Big Pharma and the alcohol industries that likely blocked that proposal.

I expect that when it comes to foreign policy we'll see platform planks that further demonize the Chinese and the Russians, demand more sanctions, oppose any military base closings or troop withdrawals from Afghanistan or Germany and calls for more expensive high-tech weapons.  We know that the military industrial complex funds and controls both Republicans and Democrats.

In Maine's US Senate race the corporate $$$ is flowing into our state.  The leader in the funding game is Democrat Sara Gideon (former Speaker of the House in the state legislature) who has raised more than $24 million.  Incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins has raised about $17 million.  Much of their money comes from corporate sources (PACs or executives).

While claiming that she would not take corporate PAC (Political Action Committee) money, Gideon has a long track record of receiving corporate money for her leadership PAC while Maine House Speaker.

Required reporting to the state for the 'GIDEON LEADERSHIP PAC' reveals she took donations from many corporations, including Merck, Anthem Blue Cross & Blue Shield, Eli Lilly, AT&T and American Express, among others. Energy companies, such as natural gas suppliers (fracking), pharmaceutical corporations and telecom companies also gave to Gideon's PAC. Gideon’s leadership PAC took in nearly $300,000.

Like most political leadership in the current two-party system, Gideon used her corporate PAC to reward Maine House Democrats under her control who voted as she instructed.  That means she frequently enforced the will of the corporations that donated to her PAC.

During our 2018 statewide grassroots campaign to oppose the tax break for General Dynamics/Bath Iron Works I did a 34-day hunger strike.  I went to the BIW shipyard most days to speak with workers and also spent lots of time in the hallway between the Maine House and Senate chambers holding signs and handing out flyers along with others in our campaign.

We repeatedly asked for a meeting with Speaker Gideon but she refused to talk with us.  One of our supporters is also from Freeport, where Gideon lives, and knows her but was unable to get her to agree to meet.

Gideon was not interested in talking with us because she was essentially under the control of General Dynamics and other corporate forces in Maine and nationally.  She knew she planned to run for the Senate in 2020 and clearly wanted to show that she would be a faithful water carrier for their interests.  Her $24 million raised so far, for November's Ranked Choice Voting US Senate election in Maine, indicates that her sponsors are pleased.

In the end our campaign was successful in cutting $15 million off the original $60 million that GD/BIW requested.

So while much of Gideon's current campaign is about accusing Sen. Susan Collins of taking corporate PAC money - it is a disingenuous claim.  In this race both of the two major party candidates have long ago dirtied their hands by taking corporate dollars - either directly or indirectly.

This is how it works in America.  We see the evidence once again as the Democrats vote overwhelmingly to reject common sense platform proposals like Medicare4All.

In fact, Sara Gideon does not support Medicare4All, instead she supports 'access to affordable and quality health care' which translates to: 'Everyone should be allowed to have health coverage from insurance companies, no matter their age, medical condition, or pre-existing conditions.'  The corporate line.

But it is especially sickening when any politician, like Sara Gideon, claims the moral high ground but has a long history of playing in the mud.

Bruce

On my b-day - love and nature

Yesterday was my birthday - #68.

It was a good day - spent time with Maine VFP's Peter Morgan and Senate candidate Lisa Savage at BIW for two hours standing with the Local S6 Machinists Union as they strike against General Dynamics.  The greedy corporation is bringing in subcontractors from Alabama, Mississippi, and other states in order to kill the union. 

A private corporation that has done 'security work' for Obama and Trump was hired by BIW even before the strike began - putting retired military personnel and former cops into local hotels for two weeks before timing it all just right to have them on hand once the strike began.

While I was gone MB and housemate Leann pulled weeds in the garden as a birthday present for me.  It was deeply appreciated - especially in the heat we are having.  At the strike picket line today we kidded about planting peaches, pineapples and bananas.

While supporting the union workers at the shipyard, I still told one striker that I also would like to see the 'product' converted from destroyers to something that would help deal with climate crisis - like commuter rail, tidal power systems or offshore wind turbines.  He brought a chair and was sitting under a beautiful shade tree so I figured he was understanding my point about the record breaking heat and drought we are experiencing here in Maine.

MB and Leann made me a Boston Creme pie at my request and a cold pasta salad was put together by MB for supper.  Peppers and basil from the garden were included.  Since I got a late start (July 1) on planting my garden, things are just now beginning to show us some love.  Tomatoes are now popping out babies and pole beans continue to climb their trellis and have reached the top.

The garden is my church - the place I can go to slow down and just be quiet and feel the beautiful colorful life around us.  Most of the neighbors have some sort of gardens and the birds in this neighborhood are varied and plenty.  Some of them are always talking - starting around 5:00 am.

So it was a good day.  I thank all those who gave me birthday wishes on Fazebook.  (Including two of my former sports mates from my last year of high school in Wheatland, California.)  Means alot to me.

Love and peace to all,

Bruce

Bring Our War $$$ Home

In 'The Cost of War', U.S. Senate candidate Lisa Savage; Pulitzer-winning author, journalist, and minister Chris Hedges; and Bruce Gagnon, Coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons &  Nuclear Power in Space, examine U.S. policies that inflict pain and suffering around the world under the guise of protecting U.S. interests. 

This July 16 event was hosted by USM grad student, and Lisa campaign intern, Tamara Hunt. 

Lisa Savage is convening a series of policy-focused webinars this summer, “The Way Forward,” that will bring together policy and subject-matter experts from Maine and around the country to have substantive discussions about solving some of our country’s most difficult policy issues, with opportunity for questions and discussion. 

https://www.youtube.com/c/LisaforMaine/videos

My friend Mike Hastie

This JUST happened on @andrewkimmel live stream. Share this everywhere. #BlackLivesMatter #AndrewKimmel #PortlandProtest #peacefulvets #FedsOut pic.twitter.com/bCDofEr2uu

— noexcuseforignorance (@dntstAySiLeNT) July 26, 2020

Mike Hastie, fierce and honest to the bone, in Portland, Oregon.

Mike was a medic in Vietnam during that war against the people of that nation. He experienced much horror by US troops perpetrated upon the Vietnamese people.

Mike was on the first Veterans For Peace delegation years ago that tried to go to Jeju island, South Korea but got sent back to the US after they landed there.  They wanted to stand with the people of Gangjeong village in opposition to the construction of the Navy base that now serves as a port-of-call for US warships.

Watch how he takes a big hit of tear gas right in his face - and eyes.

Bless you Mike!

Bruce

Sunday song

Elon Musk: Oligarch, egotist, jerk!

Covid Saturday fun time.....

“Cohesive” Italian Parliament on neo-colonial missions

The Art of War

By Manlio Dinucci

Italian Defense Minister Lorenzo Guerini (Democratic Party) expressed great satisfaction with the "cohesive" vote of the Parliament on international missions. The majority and the opposition approved 40 Italian military missions in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia in compact form, there were no votes against and few abstentions except some dissent in support of the Tripoli Coast Guard.

The main "peacekeeping missions,” that have been underway for decades in the wake of the US / NATO wars (in which Italy participated) in the Balkans, Afghanistan and Libya, and the Israeli war in Lebanon that are part of the same strategy, have been extended.

New ones were added to these missions: the European Union military operation in the Mediterranean, formally to "prevent arms trafficking in Libya;” the European Union Mission to "support the security apparatus in Iraq;" the NATO Mission to strengthen support for countries located on the Alliance South Front.

The Italian military commitment in sub-Saharan Africa is greatly increased. Italian special forces participate in the Takuba Task Force, deployed in Mali under French command. They also operate in Niger, Chad and Burkina Faso, as part of the Barkhane operation involving 4,500 French soldiers, with armored vehicles and bombers, officially only against jihadist militias.

Italy is also participating in the European Union Mission, EUTM, which provides military training and "advice" to the armed forces of Mali, and other neighboring countries.

In Niger, Italy has its own bilateral mission to support the armed forces and, at the same time participates in the mission of the European Union, Eucap Sahel Niger, in a geographical area that also includes Nigeria, Mali, Mauritania, Chad, Burkina Faso and Benin.

The Italian Parliament also approved the use of "a national air and naval task force for presence, surveillance and security activities in the Guinea Gulf." The stated aim is "to protect national strategic interests in this area (read Eni's interests), by supporting the national merchant ship in transit."
It is no coincidence that the African areas, in which the "peacekeeping missions” are concentrated, are the richest in strategic raw materials - oil, natural gas, uranium, coltan, gold, diamonds, manganese, phosphates and others - exploited by American and European multinationals. However, their oligopoly is now endangered by China's growing economic presence.

The United States and the European powers, failing to counter it only through economic means, and at the same time seeing their influence diminish within African countries, resorted to the old but still effective colonial strategy: to guarantee their economic interests by military means, including support for local elites who base their power on the military.

The contrast to jihadist militias, the official motivation for operations such as that of the Task Force Takuba, is the smoke screen behind which the real strategic purposes are hidden.

The Italian government declared that international missions serve to "guarantee peace and security of these areas, for the protection and safeguarding of populations.” In reality, military interventions expose populations to further risks and, by strengthening the mechanisms of exploitation, they aggravate their impoverishment, with a consequent increase in migratory flows to Europe.

Italy directly spends over a billion euros a year, provided (with public money) not only by the Ministry of Defense, but also by the Ministries of Interior, Economy and Finance, and the Prime Minister to keep thousands of men and vehicles engaged in military missions. However, this sum is only the tip of the iceberg of the growing military expenditure (over 25 billion a year), due to the adjustment of entire Armed Forces to this strategy. Approved by the Parliament with unanimous bipartisan consent.

 ~ Reprinted from The manifesto, 21 July 2020 

Homeland insecurity.....in a 'democracy'?

A Trumpist federal 'policeman' in Portland, Oregon protecting who?  So Orwellian - war is peace.  Up is down.

The feds in Portland are dressed in more military gear than what Pentagon troops wear in combat overseas. They are dressed for war against US civilians. We are now the enemy.....

They are armed to the teeth and the protesters on the street might have on a mask, hold a sign or banner, and carry some medical equipment to help treat those being brutalized.

I've long asked the question - what makes the American people think Washington won't someday do to us here at home what they have been doing around the world since the US invaded the Philippines from 1899-1902?  The chickens have come home to roost.

While Filipino people viewed Washington's war on them as a continuation of the struggle for independence that began in 1896 with the Philippine Revolution, the US government regarded it as an insurrection. The conflict arose when the First Philippine Republic objected to the terms of the Treaty of Paris under which the US took possession of the Philippines from Spain, ending the Spanish–American War.

Humorist/author Mark Twain at the time has this to say about America's 'deep dive' into imperialism:

The funniest thing was when at the close of the Spanish-American War the United States paid poor decrepit old Spain $20,000,000 for the Philippines. It was just a case of this country buying its way into good society. Honestly, when I read in the papers that this deal had been made, I laughed until my sides ached. There were the Filipinos fighting like blazes for their liberty. Spain would not hear to it. The United States stepped in, and after they had licked the enemy to a standstill, instead of freeing the Filipinos they paid that enormous amount for an island which is of no earthly account to us; just wanted to be like the aristocratic countries of Europe which have possessions in foreign waters. The United States wanted to be in the swim, and it, too, had to branch out, like an American heiress buying a Duke or an Earl. Sounds well, but that's all.

~ Interview "Mark Twain in Clover / Joseph in the Land of Cornbread and Chicken." Baltimore Sun, 10 May 1907, p. 14

And Washington has been doing it ever since - double time - invading, occupying, destroying lives and land, polluting and most importantly of all - rejecting the sovereignty of nations.  All these years of warfare to build an empire has cost the American people an arm and a leg.  It's no wonder that our roads and bridges in Maine are falling apart.  As are our schools and local rural hospitals are closing.

But none of this should be a surprise to anyone - look at how the indigenous people were treated in this country by 'God's chosen people' who came to these shores looking for 'liberty' - and how slavery survived in the 'land of the free' where democracy was supposedly to reign.

We've never had real democracy here.  In fact as the two corporate parties control politics they are tightening the screws to make sure that alternative political voices are not heard.  Loyal Republicans and Democrats are just fine with that as long as 'their party' comes out on top.

Don't ask for real elections - real debate - real issue discussions.  The goal is to dumb down the public and keep them chained to the (good cop-bad cop) corporate political machine.

My last vote for a Democrat who ran for president was Walter Mondale in 1984.  I've not taken the bait since.  Might not have alot to show for my stubbornness but at least I can live with myself.

I just can't see spending my entire adult life working for peace and justice and then turn around and vote for one of the agents of the war machine.

Journalist Chris Hedges says:

James Baldwin explained why black people don't have midlife crises. Why? Because they do not buy into the myths of America. Black people know that the system in America is rigged. Black people know this when they are children. By comparison, white people buy into these illusions of meritocracy and individualism and American exceptionalism and similar beliefs. That is why the highest rates of suicide right now are among middle-aged white men, because they are finally starting to realize that the system does not care about them.

Bruce 

Russian perspective on a new arms race in space

Vladimir Kozin is one of Russia's leading scholars and advisors on nuclear treaties, nuclear disarmament, nuclear capabilities, and US-Russia relations on all things nuclear.

He is a member of the Russian Academy of Military Sciences and the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences and a special advisor to the Presidential Administration.

His words are of supreme importance to every American, European and citizen of the world. Our very existence hangs in the balance.

Kozin came to Kiruna, Sweden in 2013 to speak at one of the Global Network's annual space conferences.  (The event was co-sponsored by the Swedish Peace Council and Women for Peace.) See the report from that conference here.  He was an impressive and sincere speaker and when the GN held its Russia Study Tour in 2019 Kozin came and spoke to our group while we were in Moscow.

Thanks to Regis Tremblay (originally from Maine and now living in Crimea in the Russian Federation) for this interview.

Life is sooooo complicated.....

Plus this bonus song to go along with Ron Placone's comedy bit....