Supporting Julian Assange

 

 

Consortium News

Rally for Julian Assange outside the Department of Justice, Washington DC, Aug 19 2022

The New Space Race is Going Nuclear

 

 

By Karl Grossman
 

“The New Space Race is Going Nuclear” was the title of a recent hour webinar presented by the American Nuclear Society. The U.S. government is pouring money into the development of space nuclear power—for commercial, exploratory and military purposes—as described in the panel discussion featuring five very enthusiastic advocates of using atomic energy in space.

“So, it’s really an exciting time,” said the moderator for the American Nuclear Society, Jeffrey King, a professor of nuclear engineering and director of the Nuclear Science and Engineering Center at the Colorado School of Mines, and also past chair of the society’s Aerospace Nuclear Science and Technology Division.

“It’s actually a time I didn’t expect that we’d end up seeing in my lifetime,” King said. “But we have now multiple companies—everything from government to the large contractors, small companies to start-up companies all interested in space nuclear power and different aspects of space nuclear power. It’s truly an exciting renaissance time for the field.”
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The panelists spoke of programs now proceeding or planned to place nuclear reactors on the Moon and Mars and the use of nuclear energy to power rockets.

As to the impacts of using nuclear power in space, comments made 44 minutes into the webinar were telling. King said “several people asked about,” in questions they sent in, “if anyone could comment on decommissioning plan or briefly what the plan is when we are done with these.”

Brad Rearden, director of the Government R&D Division of x-Energy, a company based in Rockville, Maryland and, previously, for 20 years, with the Reactor and Nuclear Systems

Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, said: “So, at this point, I mean, you’re going to have a reactor that’s potentially stationed on the moon and operating for a decade. You know there’s no [nuclear waste] repository in America. There’s also no repository on the moon. And, so, it’s certainly a policy that needs to be examined. There’s always the possibility of removing it from the Moon at some point for disposal and disposing of it or doing some sort of disposal in place. So, I think it’s a really relevant question and something that certainly needs to be decided on the policy level. We can provide technical answers for that.”

Moderator King followed declaring: “Certainly in lunar you don’t have water, you don’t have wind. You don’t have anything that drives the motion of material and you don’t have an ecosystem that we have to worry about protecting but it is going to be a long-term concern.”

Asked by me in a question about that statement, King wrote back: “Specifically, the moon does not have an ecosystem. While there are what we might consider concerns is terms of leaving things pristine and or long-term human habitat, the moon is sterile and the worry about damaging in ecosystem is largely non-existent.”

And, Sebastian Corbisiero, senior technical advisor in the Nuclear Science and Technology Directorate at Idaho National Laboratory and the leader of the laboratory’s “Fission Surface Power” program, added in the webinar: “I don’t think anything has been officially decided on that. However, I will say that having a reactor on the Moon is less risky than having spent fuel in the vicinity of large population.”

About the webinar, Bruce Gagnon, coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space, said: “I am reminded by the agents of nuclear power in space how the aerospace industry has viewed outer space during the 40 years I have been organizing on these issues. They've maintained that space is vast and limitless and has no real ecosystem or environment that we should be concerned about. So, their philosophy has essentially been 'full speed ahead'.”

“Now today,” Gagnon said, “NASA, the military, and some in the aerospace industry, are worriedly tracking the growing amount of space debris orbiting the Earth. They are beginning to talk about the 'Kessler syndrome' that predicts cascading collisions due to increasingly crowded orbits which could at some point make getting a rocket through the debris field encircling our planet nearly impossible.”

“So as the nuclear industry cavalierly undertakes their plan for nuclear-powered mining colonies on the Moon, Mars and other planetary bodies they easily brush off any concerns about impacts,” said Gagnon. “As they make plans to test nuclear reactor rocket engines just over our heads in Lower Earth Orbits (LEO) they discount any concerns of environmental impacts if the tests go wrong. They never talk about the Department of Energy laboratories where these nuclear devices are fabricated with a long history of radioactive contamination of workers, local water tables and air contamination.”

“The space nuclear industry is flying blind—blinded by its devotion to profit and power,” Gagnon declared. “Their hard hearts have no concern about the negative impacts they might create on Earth, to the people and environment, nor any long-term impacts their high-tech nuclear power 'visions' might have in space. Their vision is so myopic, so limited, so tunnel like, because their minds are closed to the idea that space is alive and is an environment that we humans who are on this tiny spinning orb called Earth live in. They are colonizers, much like the long-history of earth-bound colonizers, who have raped and pillaged our lovely planet home.”

 

The Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space (www.space4peace.org) founded 30 years ago, in 1992, at a conference in Washington, D.C. is the leading organization internationally challenging the weaponization and use of nuclear power in space. In its description of the August 4th webinar, the American Nuclear Society asserts: “For decades, nuclear energy has played a role, sometimes minor and sometimes major, in humanity's exploration and research of outer space. Many space experts, scientists, astronauts, and researchers believe that nuclear energy can fundamentally change how we live and work in extraterrestrial environments and that some missions, projects, and endeavors are nearly impossible without the involvement of nuclear technologies. As federal funding is being applied to nuclear projects for various space-based applications and opportunities, an expert panel will discuss how nuclear companies and researchers are poised to capitalize.”

A video recording of the webinar can also be viewed at https://www.ans.org/webinars/view-space2022/

Among the panelists was Michael Anness who, as biographies on the webinar website described, “leads the development new nuclear fuel products and services at Westinghouse Electric Company.” He has been a licensed nuclear reactor operator, it says. Anness spoke of space nuclear projects of Westinghouse Electric, based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, including “microreactors” that would provide “fission surface power.” Anness said: “I’m kind of a fuel guy so I believe fuel is an enabling platform for space nuclear.”

Also on the panel was Kate Kelly, director for Space and Emerging programs at Lynchburg, Virginia-based BWXT Advanced Technologies and, previously, at BWX was “the Advanced Nuclear Systems Program Manager focused on the development of nuclear project to promote the company’s R&D interests in advanced manufacturing and nuclear thermal propulsion technologies.” She spoke about an “inflection point” on the use of nuclear power in space having arrived. Said Kelly: “Over the last several years there’s been this re-emerging interest and investment by the government in fission systems for in-space power and propulsion.”

The sixth participant in the webinar was Alex Gilbert who has “expertise in space mining, nuclear innovation, energy markets and climate policy,” says his biography on the webinar website. “As Director of Space & Planetary Regulation at Zeno Power [based in Washington, D.C.], Alex oversees regulatory approvals for space launch, maritime, and terrestrial applications of radioisotope power systems…He was lead author of the U.S. Advanced Nuclear Energy Strategy, which outlined how government and industry can establish U.S. leadership in next generation nuclear reactor markets.”

Gilbert said “we are at a unique moment. I call it a space opportunity.” “He said “we could actually see exponential growth. Right now the space economy is around $400 billion globally. By the middle of the century it could be $4 trillion.” This expansion is a result of factors including a “resurgence in science and exploration and defense activities…and commerce. That is what is driving the interest in space nuclear technologies.” The American Nuclear Society describes itself as comprised of 10,000 members dedicated to “exploring possibilities within the realm of nuclear science and technology.”

King recounted that “I’ve been in and around the space nuclear community for quite a while, ever since 1997, for about 25 years. I remember it was space nuclear that got me into nuclear,” and being told by a nuclear engineer advisor that “space nuclear is going to be the future.” 

My letter to the Secretary General of United Nations

 

 

 

Dear Secretary General Antonio Guterres,

I am writing with grave concern about the situation at the Zaporozhye nuclear plant in Ukraine.

I have been following this dangerous situation for many weeks. It is abundantly obvious to me that the US-installed Kiev government is doing the shelling of the nuclear plant.

Why would Russia want to contaminate the very region of Russian-ethnic citizens it is attempting to save from this out-of-control Kiev regime?

The fact that the Ukrainian plant personnel remain on their posts, and that Russia is trying to protect the plant from a disaster, indicates its good intentions in this matter.

I urge your offices to get the IAEA to the plant ASAP and you must publicly pin the blame for the shelling on the appropriate source - the Kiev regime that is clearly taking their marching orders from Washington.

Has the United Nations begun to also take their orders from the Biden administration? At this point one must surely wonder if that is the case as we face the possibility of a massive global disaster.

If you cannot perform your job appropriately, and protect the global population, then maybe it would be time for you to step aside and leave the post to someone more willing to speak truth to power.

The fate of much of humanity is at stake here.

In peace, 

Bruce K. Gagnon

Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space

Update:

 

Russians have announced that they have arrested two employees of the Zaporozhiie nuclear plant (one guard and one engineer!) who were providing the Ukrainians with targeting coordinates and strike correction. 

WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!

 

 

Wake up world! How can we avert a nuclear disaster in Ukraine?

    
By Ariel Ky

Russians are warning the West that the Ukrainian Armed Forces are shelling the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), and are planning an offensive tomorrow (August 19) that could cause a nuclear catastrophe. They are planning to blame this disaster on the Russians.

What a wicked plot! Of course, the Western spin media is presenting the opposite scenario, of the evil Russians bombing the nuclear power plant that they control. It boggles the mind to follow this kind of illogic.

First, you must understand that the Russians have held this nuclear power plant since the special military operation in Ukraine started in February, defending it from attack by Kiev’s forces. Ukrainian technical staff have continued to operate its six nuclear reactors. The Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant is located near the city of Energodar in southern Ukraine.

A UN Security Council held on August 11, 2022, has failed to deter ongoing bombardment by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Vassily Nebenzia, Russia’s ambassador to the UNO, told the Security Council that Kiev’s “reckless” actions are pushing the world ever closer to a major nuclear disaster.

The site was shelled in early March, and before and after the meeting on July 20, with attacks intensifying this month, August 5, 7, 12, 14, 16 and 17, 2022. The attack on August 17 hit the cooling system and spent fuel storage at the Zaporozhe Power Plant. Ukrainian troops have also been shelling the adjacent city of Energodar in August, causing power outages and disruptions of water supply to the Zaporozhe Nuclear Power Plant.

“In the result of such attacks one reactor unit was disconnected from the electrical grid, triggering its emergency protection system and setting generators into operation to ensure power supply. There was also shelling in a nitrogen-oxygen station.”

IAEA director general Rafael Mariano Grossi said that he was aware of reports of missiles flying over nuclear power plants in Ukraine and was checking to be "100% sure", but if confirmed it would be "extremely serious … I have been saying from the first day of this crisis that the physical integrity of nuclear facilities is an absolute must".

The international community knows that any attack on any type of nuclear power plant could lead to a regional and global disaster caused by radioactive contamination, such as happened with Chernoybl. If Zaporozhe gets hit by multiple launch rocket systems, Vladimir Kuznetsov, a former chief inspector of the USSR’s nuclear authority told the press, nuclear radiation could spread to nine countries. Dr. Vladimir Kozin added that could be eleven countries, depending on the direction of the wind.

Kozin further wrote, “On August 16, local government administration member Vladimir Rogov told Russian media that Ukrainian forces had fired multiple rockets directly at the coolant systems and nuclear waste storage site inside the facility. Since the storage site is out in the open, any hit would result in the release of nuclear waste ranging from dozens to hundreds of kilograms and lead to contamination of the area, the official explained.”

In order to stop these attacks, Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, and IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi must unequivocally demand that Kiev stop shelling Zaporozhe. Thus far, they have failed to do so, deliberately avoiding any confrontation with Zelensky as being responsible.

Ukrainian Armed Forces have also attacked the Kakhovskaya Hydroelectic Power Station (KHPS) located on the Russian territory proper that supplies electricity to Kakhovka Nuclear Power Plant, clearly aiming to destroy it by cutting off electricity to it.

What are the motives of the Zelensky regime in attempting to destroy energy infrastructure, exposing millions of people on the European continent to the danger of a nuclear cataclysm? The Russian Foreign Ministry has been analyzing this question.

Perhaps Zelensky was wielding a kind of nuclear terrorism against Europe and Russia. Or he and his U.S. collaborators intend to create a DMZ around the ZNPP that will be solely controlled by Ukraine, dislodging the Russians.

Moscow actually supports a DMZ zone, but says that it should mean a total ban on shelling by any nation, and not just in Ukraine, but also a ban on shelling nuclear power plants everywhere on the globe.

Today, August 18, 2022, Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Igor Konashenkov made the following statement concerning Kiev’s plans to destroy Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP):

“On August 19, 2022 the Kiev regime is preparing another provocation at Zaporozhye NPP during the visit of UN Secretary-General António Guterres to Ukraine, as a result of which the Russian Federation will be blamed for creating a man-made disaster at the power plant. According to Russian intelligence, the 44th Artillery Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces are planning to launch military strikes on Zaporozhye from firing positions in Nikopol. 

South Korea protest - stop U.S. war games

 

 

Protesters participate in a rally to demand the peace on the Korean peninsula in Seoul, South Korea, Saturday, Aug. 13, 2022. 

Thousands of protesters demanded that government suspend military cooperation with the United States and Japan and mitigate conflicts on the Korean Peninsula. 

The signs read "Stop the joint military exercises between the U.S. and South Korea."

 

Facing reality - not the war she thought it was

 

 

By John Mark Dougan

 

This is my most powerful interview yet. I took Maria, a fierce liberal, anti-war protester to the FRONT LINES of the war in the Donbass to see things for herself, to speak to the people for herself. 

This woman, with balls of steel, even walked with me through the streets of Svyatogorsk, with Ukrainian snipers just 200 meters away, to speak to civilians trapped in their basements and bring them food. 

How much of what she believed was right? Or wrong? 

This is an interview you must see to believe.

Training Nazis in Canada

 

Cold War Canada: Ongoing state support for East European émigré groups 

with deep fascist roots

By Richard Sanders (COAT)

On February 27, 2022, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland proudly tweeted this image below of her holding a fascist red-and-black banner at a rally against Russia's invasion to deNazify/demilitarize Ukraine. This Blood and Soil banner, at a protest of the gov't-created, proNATO Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC) in Toronto, was the official battle flag of Stepan Bandera's Ukrainian Insurgent Army. 

Under this banner, and the "Slava Ukraini" slogan, Bandera's army aided the Holocaust with political- and ethnic-cleansing programs that killed countless Jews, Poles, Russians and Ukrainian communists. Bandera's Russophobic, antisemitic, white-power army assisted Nazi Germany for much of WWII. They even kept waging their terrorist campaigns against the Soviets until the early 1960s.

 

The Canadian government has funded and otherwise supported Banderite cult groups in this country since giving safe haven to many thousands of Nazi collaborators after WWII. Canada's Banderites are primarily represented by the League of Ukrainian Canadians (LUC), the Ukrainian Youth Assoc. and the UCC. The UCC, whose leadership has been dominated by LUC Banderites for decades, has groomed Freeland since at least 1990 when she was lionized by Ukrainian nationalists, the Canadian government, and corporate mass media after being identified as a "banderite enemy of the Soviet people" by the USSR government because she interfered in Soviet Ukraine's elections.

LUC, the UCC and other Canadian government-funded ethno-nationalist Ukrainian emigre groups still glorify Bandera and revere the veterans of his UPA, as well as the Nazi armed and led Waffen SS Galicia, as if they were "freedom fighters." Canadian government finances the right-wing Ukrainian diaspora's cultural centres, programs, parades and monuments which still shamelessly celebrate their fascist founders, leaders and war heroes.

See more here

30th anniversary of the Global Network

 

Comments from GN board members
 
The Global Network has a Board of Directors and Board of Advisers. Below are comments from some of them. 

• Who would think that 30 years of Keeping Space for Peace would go so fast? In that time I feel that the GN has created an international community of amazing people who have recognised the importance of the militarisation of space and the threats that it poses to us on Earth. Together, under the dedicated stewardship of Bruce Gagnon, we continue to educate, share information on the issues and speak truth to power. It is wonderful to work with so many people from around the world who share a vision of a space environment free from exploitation, corruption and war. ~ Dr. Dave Webb, Leeds, England

• Global Network has been an educational network about how space is used for the US´ military all around the world. It has also encouraged me to start to pay notice to how Sweden is deeply involved in the use of space. The satellite station - Esrange - in the North of Sweden is the world´s biggest downloading station from satellites. ~ Agneta Norberg, Stockholm, Sweden

• Congratulations on 30 years of work, and the struggle very much continues. Both the turning of space into a war zone in violation of the intent of the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 and the push to, overhead, use nuclear power in space remain being pushed aggressively. The Global Network has been the leading organization internationally challenging these twin horrors. La Lucha Continua. ~ Karl Grossman, New York
  

• It's hard to believe our Global Network is now 30 years old, and we are still confronting the need to keep space for peace and keep it nuke-free. Only this week, one of our founding Board Members, Karl Grossman wrote of a terrifying conference he attended where mad scientists and their corporate enablers are plotting and planning an accelerated drive to pollute our heavens with toxic nuclear radiation that lasts for eons. Our Global Network has heroically been the first and most reliable source of information about how space is being used for war, and future plans for even greater savagery as well. Everything I know about the relationship between between the ground based missiles desecrating our planet to war plans from space, and why space weapons and land missiles are so interrelated, I learned from the Global Network. Congratulations for spreading the word and warning the world over this past third of a century! Hope in the next third of a century the good work of our Network can bring some peace to our planet. ~ Alice Slater, New York 
  

• I learnt about the role of war fighting in Space - namely the illegal conflict in Iraq. I attended quite a few GN conferences in America and also round the world - all so informative and fun. We discovered the link with Menwith Hill and that this US base was connected to the launch of the Space Based Infra Red System. The three important radomes making Menwith Hill a very significant US base. And all the time Bruce Gagnon and Dave Webb were working away to build up GN to this impressive and unique campaign which I am so pleased to be connected to. I have learnt a lot, increasingly overwhelmed by the waste of resources, noise issues and encouragement of conflicts between nations. Thank you GN but particularly to Bruce and Dave for the tireless work you do to keep us all up to date and then we spread the word. GN is needed more than ever. ~ Lindis Percy, England, Co-Founder of the Campaign of the Campaign for the Accountability of American Bases

• When ex-President George Bush Jr. announced about the missile defense project as well as the Nuclear Posture Review which targeted seven countries including Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya, North Korea, Russia, China, in early 2000s, GN was one of a few organizations I could rely on spiritually, and mentally. I learned a lot from GN! I also found how GN peace activists are genuinely committed to peace and humanity. Jeju is one example. I can’t imagine how the struggle against the Jeju navy base could be so international without the friendship and solidarity by GN! I am really happy and grateful to to know about the GN and GN friends! The dedication by Bruce Gagnon and Dave Webb and all the GN friends to save the Earth and Space is really inspiring and touching! GN should be forever until the the day when the peace for space finally and truly comes! ~ Choi Sung-hee, Savejejunow.org, South Korea

• Three decades of standing for the Global Network in the era of militarization and commercialization of space is an achievement in itself. Though I am a recent addition to it, I could appreciate the noble cause of Global Network under the patronage of some highly motivated people. Much has been done over the years, but much more needs to be done, and the Global Network needs support of every right-minded person in this direction. Let this 75th year of Indian independence carry the message of freedom to all from the scourge of weapons and destruction. ~ Prof. (Dr.) Sandeepa Bhat B., West Bengal, India 

• I’m quite new to the GN community, but feel blessed to be connected with, and working alongside of a team of such caring and dedicated people, helping to steer civilization toward a saner and more viable future. ~ Kate Kheel, Maryland  

 

 

• Everything I learned about the weaponization of space I learned from the GN. I remember first meeting Bruce when someone invited him to speak here in Albuquerque as we were protesting a war profiteers meeting that involved space weapons. At the time the U.S. had gotten one of the Soviet space capsules and it was being used to promote future U.S. space activity. We suspected for war. Bruce put it all together for us and especially how our city was so important to the militarization of space. Thanks to the small GN we were able to see the larger picture of what was really going on. Thanks Bruce and all the folks who make up the GN today. Our work now has many opportunities to reach out and rally more and more people. It is so heartening to see members in way off places like South Korea and India. What a movement the GN has established. We will push on. ~ Bob Anderson, Albuquerque, NM 
  

• If Homo sapiens makes it another 100 years, a lot of credit will be due to groups like GN and people like Bruce Gagnon. They work tirelessly to keep the public informed. They keep cooperation and human decency alive while the military-industrial complex foments civil strife and animosity. ~ Christian Sorenson, Massachusetts 
  

• In 2002, Canadians learned that our national government was considering a request from the U.S. to partner on ballistic missile defence (BMD). Canadian peace activists were very wary of this request because we knew that the U.S. had recklessly withdrawn the year earlier from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. In early 2003, we began the Canadian Campaign to Oppose Missile Defence. I found the web site of the Global Network and sent an email. Bruce replied right away and said he would help. Bruce also offered to come to Canada to speak about the dangers of missile defence. Over the next two years, he spoke many times to audiences across the country. During our three-year national campaign, we held actions for Keep Space for Peace week and had many screenings of the film Arsenal of Hypocrisy: the Space Program & the Military Industrial Complex. In December 2004, President Bush came to Halifax, Nova Scotia and made a public appeal to Prime Minister Martin to join missile defence. Outside of the Bush event, we organized a massive protest against BMD and the U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. With the Global Network’s help, we succeeded in preventing Canada from formally joining BMD. Nevertheless, Canadian peace activists recognize that though the Liberal government formally declared that Canada would not join BMD in 2005, our country continues to partner with the U.S. on space military operations through NORAD and NATO. Last month, the Department of National Defence announced a new Space Division under the Royal Canadian Air Force. The Canadian Voice of Women for Peace continues to be a member of the Global Network and I remain on the board. I greatly value the friendships that I have made over the past two decades – it is like a family to me! ~Tamara Lorincz, Canada

• In the 1990s, the Global Network introduced me to the US Space Command and the document explaining its Vision for 2020. The Space Command would militarize space to “protect US interests and investment” through “full spectrum dominance.” I remember carrying that document to talk everywhere we could and discussing its horrifying implications. These were conversations few others were having. Thirty years later, as we have stood beside each other in protest at space military installations in so many diverse parts of the world, I sit in awe and deep gratitude for the Global Network community. May the education, the inspiration, the community, and the resistance to the space military machine continue for years to come. May we continue to support each other. May the light the GN community carries forward in the world overwhelm the darkness of full spectrum dominance -- if I look hard enough, I can see its foundation crumbling…! ~ Mary Beth Sullivan, Maine 
  

• The Global Network is a classic prophetic voice in resistance to the madness of the militarization and colonization of space, the moon and other planets in our solar system. It is one of those kinds of voices that work tirelessly to be heard and understood while the powers of greed and dominance, the idolatrous worshipers of Mammon, turn a blind eye to our very survival as a species and that of our beloved planet. As a board member I have been accepted into and mentored by a sisterhood/brotherhood of dedicated, intelligent, hard-working and eloquent defenders of humanity and the planet, voices of sanity in an insane age. From Jeju Island to Guantanamo Bay, some of my proudest moments as an activist have been associated with the Global Network. Happy 30th anniversary to my most revered prophets. ~ Dennis Apel, California
  

• As a relative latecomer to the work of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space, I continue to be impressed with the forward vision of this organization. Some claims about the militarization of space might have seemed farfetched in the past but are spot on in 2022. And other serious concerns such as space pollution and the contribution of space travel to climate change here on Earth have long been noted by members of GN. I'm grateful to be part of the organization and welcome the opportunities it offers to be in community with like-minded people around the planet. Thank you for your work and best wishes for the next 30 years! ~ Lisa Savage, Maine 
  

• It has been an honor to work with our boards and membership in the GN for these past 30 years. Our goal has always been to build an international constituency around space issues that could over time help the world grapple with the multi-dimensional realities of the 'space age'. We warmly thank all our members and leaders (living and passed on) for all they have done to build the GN. ~ Bruce Gagnon, Maine   
  

Resisting forced conscription in Ukraine

 

 

Videos like this are continuously coming out of Ukraine where Kiev's desperate attempts at forced conscription of men (18-60 years old) are being resisted by mothers and wives.

People know that the US-UK-NATO war project is failing and that Kiev troops are nothing but cannon fodder for the west. 

You don't have to understand the Ukrainian language to hear the outrage in the voices of the women as they try to chase away Kiev's 'recruiters' from their community.

One might say that the west's love affair with Zelensky just might not be universally shared by citizens inside of Ukraine.

But do we see any signs of the US-UK-NATO backing off this failed attempt to use Ukraine as a proxy to take down Russia? No, in fact the west keeps funneling money and weapons into the Kiev government's failing war.

I recently read that the US is now paying for Ukraine's health care system at the same time we in the US are repeatedly told that our nation can't afford 'Medicare for All'.

And we learned this week that Kiev forces used a British-made Brimstone missile in one of their recent attacks on the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, which is currently being guarded by the Russian military.

So yes the plan appears to be that the US-UK-NATO will continue the fight against Russia down to the last Ukrainian.  It also appears though that growing numbers of Ukrainian citizens have something to say about that.

Bruce

Sunday song

 

 

Odds & Ends

  

The US THAAD 'missile defense' system deployed in South Korea and aimed at China

• China has urged South Korea not to let its US-made missile defence shield become a “stumbling block” in relations, as the two sides again clash over the THAAD system. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi made the remarks late on Thursday after meetings with his South Korean and Nepalese counterparts in Qingdao, Shandong this week. Security differences over the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence system – installed in South Korea in 2017 – threaten to undermine efforts by Beijing and Seoul to improve bilateral ties, including during Wang’s meeting with South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin on Tuesday.

• Alaska Aerospace Corp., Anchorage, Alaska, is being awarded an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity hybrid contract (cost-plus-incentive-fee, firm-fixed-price, and cost) with a maximum amount of $110,864,000. Under this follow-on contract, the contractor will provide launch facility and range support services for Missile Defense Agency tests. The work will be performed at the Pacific Spaceport Complex Alaska, Kodiak Island, Alaska. The ordering period including options is from Aug. 12, 2022, through Jan. 11, 2029. One offer was solicited and one offer was received. Fiscal 2022 research and development funds in the amount of $369,784 will be obligated at time of award. The Missile Defense Agency, Huntsville, Alabama, is the contracting agency.

• Adult members of Generation Z are experiencing food insecurity at over twice the rate of the average American, according to our latest consumer food survey. In fact, about 1-in-3 Americans born from 1996-2004 have had trouble affording enough food in 2022. That compares with fewer than 1-in-5 millennials and members of Generation X, and fewer than 1-in-10 baby boomers. Food insecurity means having a lack of money or other resources for food. And when food insecurity surges, it can take a long time for affected populations to recover. After the Great Recession that ran from 2007 to 2009, food insecurity increased by 34 percent. It took a decade for food insecurity to drop to its pre-recession levels.

• A new imperialism stalks the Third World. It shares with the old an unquenchable thirst — for its labor, its land, its minerals, and its water. If colonization depended on the political strategies of divide and rule, the imperialists no longer have to rule today. Instead, they rely on local elites eager to aid their peoples’ exploitation in return for a share of the spoils — a process sanitized with the language of investments, trade deals and partnerships. That imperialism would find a way to become more efficient, not less, was not inevitable. At the 1945 Pan-African Congress in Manchester, England, the declaration was clear: “We welcome economic democracy as the only real democracy.” As pan-Africanism gained prominence, intellectuals like W.E.B. Du Bois, alongside political actors, workers, and peasants, endorsed the unity of the African people for the purpose of liberation from political oppression and emancipation from economic exploitation.

• The Swedish government announced Thursday that it has decided to extradite a man to Turkey who is wanted for fraud, a move that comes after Sweden and Finland signed a deal with Ankara to cooperate on extradition to join NATO. After signing the deal and lifting its objection to the Nordic nations joining NATO, Turkey submitted a list of dozens of suspected “terrorists” that it wants to be extradited, including suspected members of the Kurdish militant group PKK. But the man Sweden announced its extraditing does not appear to be linked to the PKK, although he was on the list of names Turkey handed to Stockholm, according to the Swedish broadcaster SVT. The man, a Turkish citizen, had been sentenced to 14 years in prison in Turkey for credit card fraud but has been detained in Sweden for the past year. 

Go for ride deep inside China....hear the Biden critics

 

 

Katherine's Journey to the East 阳离子东游记

Welcome to Tashkurgan! Today we are going on a bike tour and exploring what life is like in this tiny border town, and next time we will be meeting some locals, stay tuned 🚲 My Instagram: katherines_journey_to_the_east     

New evidence emerges about U.S. bio-weapons program

 

 

By Dr. Vladimir Kozin 

On August 4th, 2022 Russian MoD publicly announced at a special briefing the results of the analysis of documents related to illegal military biological activities of the USA in Ukraine

The Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation continues to analyse the military and biological activities of the USA and its allies in Ukraine and elsewhere in the world in the light of new information obtained in the liberated territories.

Work continues on the study of biological samples from Ukrainian soldiers who have voluntarily laid down their arms. As we noted earlier, high concentrations of antibiotics were found in their blood, as well as immunological markers indicative of exposure to the renal syndrome and West Nile pathogens, which were being studied by the Pentagon as part of the Ukrainian UP-4 and UP-8 projects.

Particular attention should be paid to the discovery of narcotic drugs, including opioids such as methadone, codepsin, codeterp, as well as ephedrine-type substances: t-phedrine and tri-phedrine, at positions abandoned by Ukrainian military personnel.

The synthetic drug methadone is used in the treatment of drug addiction as a substitute therapy.

As a reminder, in Nazi Germany during World War II, especially between 1943 and 1945, pervitin tablets, an amphetamine derivative, were given to soldiers in order to reduce the psycho-emotional burden, primarily to SS troops.

The drug was also used en masse by US troops in the Korean and Vietnam wars.

A side effect of such addictive drugs is primarily excessive aggression, which explains the extreme cruelty towards civilians displayed by some Ukrainian servicemen, as well as the shelling of towns in Donbass.

In view of the available information on the use of potent stimulants by AFU [Armed Forces of Ukraine] servicemen, we are studying incoming samples for the presence of this class of compounds. Their traces persist in human organs and tissues for a long time (e.g., in hair - up to six months).

The results will be handed over to the Investigative Committee and used as evidence in investigations into war crimes committed by the Kiev regime.

A few weeks ago, during the Special Military Operation, Rubezhnoye in Lugansk People's Republic was liberated. Documents have been found in the laboratory of the Pharmbiotest medical centre located at 9 Pochaivska Street, confirming that research had been carried out in Ukraine for several years on behalf of the so-called Big Pharma. Clinical trials of unregistered drugs with potentially serious side-effects have been carried out on local residents.

Russia examined the premises of the centre responsible for clinical trials of medicinal products on volunteers. Evidence was found in them that Western customers regularly visited Pharmbiotest and were allowed access to all stages of the research process. For the convenience of their work, the inscriptions on equipment, room names and working documentation have been duplicated in English.

To avoid reputational risks and legal costs in case of failed trials of new drugs, US and European companies conducted clinical trials on Ukrainian citizens. Volunteer pay was minimal and fatalities could easily be concealed. Neither have there been any serious inspections or oversight by the local authorities.

This is in line with the Western concept of delocalising the most internationally controversial research. 

In Ukraine, military personnel, low-income citizens and one of the most vulnerable categories of the population, patients in psychiatric hospitals, have been used for this purpose.

Russian MoD continues to analyse the documentary material uncovered in Rubezhnoye settlement laboratory.

Russian MoD has already informed that more than 16,000 biological samples, including blood and serum samples, were taken from Ukraine to the USA, Georgia and European countries

Against the background of the US administration's assurances that the genetic information obtained from Ukrainian citizens will be used "...exclusively for peaceful purposes...", I would like to quote a statement by Jason Crow of the US House Intelligence Committee at the North American Security Conference in July 2022.

Crow warned Americans about the dangers of giving their DNA to private companies for testing because: "...there is a possibility that test results will be sold to third parties... and the information obtained could be used to develop biological weapons targeting specific groups... or individuals."
Given the US administration's interest in the study of "narrowly targeted" biological agents, such statements force a fresh look at the causes of the new coronavirus pandemic and the role of US military biologists in the emergence and spread of the COVID-19 pathogen.

In May 2022, Jeffrey Sachs - a leading expert in the respected medical journal The Lancet and professor at Columbia University, the leading academic institution for global biosecurity, told a conference in Spain that "...the coronavirus was artificially created and is very likely to have been created using American advances in biotechnology...".

According to our experts, this is evidenced by the uncharacteristic variability of the genovariants that cause different peaks in the incidence of coronaviruses, significant differences in lethality and contagiousness, uneven geographical distribution, and the unpredictable nature of the epidemic process as a whole. It appears that despite efforts to contain and isolate the disease, the pandemic is being artificially fueled by the introduction of new variants of the virus in a particular region.

Russian MoD is considering the possibility that the US Agency for International Development (USAID) was involved in the emergence of the new coronavirus

Since 2009, the agency has funded the Predict programme, which has investigated new species of coronaviruses by capturing bats that carry the viruses. One of the contractors for the project was Metabiota, a company known for its military-biological activities in Ukraine.

Characteristically, in 2019 – before the first COVID-19 cases appeared – the US Johns Hopkins Institute hosted an exercise called 'Event-201', which practiced dealing with an epidemic of a previously unknown coronavirus, which, according to the legend of the exercise, was transmitted from bats to humans via an intermediate host, namely pigs. This is how the 'Spanish flu' virus, which has killed tens of millions of people, became pandemic.

The implementation of the COVID-19 scenario and US AID's emergency wind-down of the Predict programme in 2019 suggest the deliberate nature of the pandemic and US involvement in its emergence.

During the Special Military Operation, documents were seized indicating that USAID and its main contractor, Labyrinth Ukraine, have been participating in the US military bioweapons programme since 2019.

Note the letter from the head of the AFU Sanitary and Epidemiological Department to the director of Labyrinth Ukraine, Karen Saylors. In it, the Ukrainian Armed Forces command declares its readiness to cooperate with USAID on administering vaccines to military personnel and on collecting, processing and transmitting information of interest to the US side. 

The choice of the US Agency for International Development to coordinate the work may have been prompted by increasing Russian concern over the activities of Ukrainian bio-laboratories, an attempt to "take the US defence agency out of the loop" and avoid accusations of developing biological weapons. It has been established that Labyrinth Ukraine is a division of the US company Labyrinth Global Health, and its founders are former employees of Metabiota, a key Pentagon contractor in the military-biological field.

Labyrinth Ukraine took part in UP-9 and UP-10 projects, which studied the spread of African swine fever in Ukraine and Eastern Europe.

Russian MoD pointed out that as part of the US Department of Defense's biological threat reduction programme, one of Labyrinth Global Health's research areas has been the study of coronaviruses and monkeypox virus.

On July 23, 2022 the World Health Organisation declared the outbreak of monkeypox an international health emergency, and to date the disease has been reported in 76 countries, with over 26,000 cases.

Thus, it is a clear trend: infectious disease agents that reach the Pentagon's zone of interest are subsequently pandemic, with US pharmaceutical companies and their patrons, the leaders of the US Democratic Party, as the beneficiaries.

Russia MoD has previously documented the use of biological weapons by the United States in Cuba. It was about the deliberate spread of Dengue, African swine fever and diseases of economically important crops on the island. I would like to give another example from the US military biology dossier.

In 1997, the Cuban government brought to the attention of the world community the fact that the United States had violated the requirements of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention. The charge was based on the testimony of a Cuban pilot who recorded the spraying from a US aircraft of a quarantine biological agent, the palm thrips, which could damage one of Cuba's key agricultural industries.

Although it was possible to initiate an extraordinary meeting of BWC States Parties on this issue, the incident was not investigated due to the lack of a Convention verification mechanism, which the Russian Federation insists on establishing.

 

 

Such impunity has contributed to the continued use of bioweapons technology by Washington in Latin America, including the assassination of undesirable politicians.

On July 18, 2022, the President of the Republic of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, publicly declared the involvement of the United States in the assassination of former head of state Hugo Chávez.

According to information available to Venezuela, U.S. security services have been working since 2002 on possible ways to eliminate the Venezuelan leader, who has pursued an active anti-American policy. Numerous assassination attempts involving members of the US embassy in Caracas were uncovered and thwarted.

In violation of international law, the United States has been involved in the development of drugs that, when administered in the short term, cause chronic disease and develop various forms of cancer. 

According to the Venezuelan side, a similar drug was used to poison Chávez by Claudio Díaz, a member of the presidential entourage. She fled Venezuela with the assistance of US intelligence agencies and was subsequently removed to the US to avoid possible publicity about the details of her cooperation with US intelligence agencies.

A causal link between the Venezuelan leader's death and the development of biological weapons is confirmed by forensic evidence and the testimony of Cuban doctors who treated Chavez about the atypical course of the disease and its resistance to the use of medicines.

Due to the Special Military Operation, the threats posed by US bio-objects have come to the attention of many international and governmental organisations

Mass demonstrations against Pentagon-funded biolaboratories have taken place in a number of countries around the world. The Eurasian Economic Union's civil society organisations have passed a resolution to close such biosites.

In this context, Russian MoD is already seeing a change in the approach of the US military's work in the biological field in other countries. For example, states in which the US conducts dual-targeted research have been asked to sign a collective statement of cooperation with the US solely to "...enhance global health security and reduce the impact of infectious diseases on populations...". It is the word "global" and the rest of the text that draws attention: "led by the United States".

However, additional funding will be available through the Biohazard Reduction Programme for countries loyal to the US initiative.

The Russian Ministry of Defence will continue to analyse the documentary evidence of the US bioweapons programme in Ukraine and will keep you informed of the results.

The State Duma [Russian Parliament]  does not expect the truth from the United States about the appearance of the coronavirus, but Duma believes that it is high time for WHO to take care of the secrets and scale of American military biolabs, said Irina Yarovaya, Vice Speaker of the State Duma (“United Russia” faction), co-chair of the Parliamentary Commission investigating the activities of the U.S. biological laboratories in Ukraine. "The Ministry of Defense presented serious facts. It would be wrong to ignore them," she underscored publicly on August 4th, 2022.

~ Dr. Vladimir Kozin Member, Russian Academy of Military Sciences; Member, Russian Academy of Natural Sciences; Vice President, Russian National Institute for Global Security Research

Moscow to Kiev: 'You sent this to the wrong address'

 

 

SouthFront

On August 8, the authorities in the Zaporozhye region, which is partially controlled by Russian forces, officially confirmed their intention to hold a referendum. After a vote, the head of the Zaporozhye region Yevgeny Balitsky signed an order on holding a referendum on joining Russia.

The Russian military are currently in control of the Kherson region and part of the Zeporozhye region, including the cities of Melitopol and Energodar. Civil-military administrations were created in these regions. They both declared their intentions to join Russia and are currently preparing to hold referendums.

According to the Deputy Head of the civil-military administration of the Kherson region, referendums in both territories can take place on the same day and are scheduled for the first half of September.

In turn, the Kiev regime considers the lost territories as temporarily occupied areas. President Vladimir Zelensky warned that if referendums are held in the southern regions, Russia will lose “any possibility of negotiations” with Ukraine. 

The Kremlin responded, claiming that Zelensky had the “wrong address.”  The referendums are held by the residents of these regions and not by Moscow. Kremlin spokesman advised the President of Ukraine to turn to his citizens and ask why there are so many of them who do not want to live in his country.

Roger Waters: Are we just sheep?

 

 

Roger Waters Uncut. 

The full interview with Michael Smerconish was recorded in Philadelphia, PA at the Four Seasons Hotel Philadelphia on August 4th, 2022. 

The relationship between Africa & the west must change

 

 THE PRESIDENT OF GHANA'S AMAZING SPEECH ON AFRICA  

Sou AFRO

 

 

 

  

Pushback inside NATO

 

 

A Spanish lawmaker has condemned the NATO summit that was held in Madrid this June, denouncing the US-led military alliance for advocating for more war and pushing to enrich the weapons industry while Europeans suffer from inflation and an energy crisis.

On the floor of Spain’s parliament, leftist Deputy Gerardo Pisarello argued that “the NATO summit was not organized to strengthen the cause of peace,” but rather “was organized basically to reinforce the geostrategic priorities of the United States… above all to weaken China.” 

Nuclear Terrorism By Kiev’s Regime Remains Unpunished

 

SouthFront

 

The Kiev regime continues to commit acts of terrorism in areas over which it has lost control. In recent days, Ukrainian forces have shelled nuclear facilities in the Zaporozhye region several times.

On August 7, the Zelensky’s regime committed a new act of nuclear terrorism at the energy infrastructure facilities of the Zaporozhye NPP to create a humanitarian catastrophe in the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, the Russian Ministry of Defence claimed.

The attack was carried out at about midnight. The AFU used the Hurricane MLRS. Fragments and a rocket engine fell 400 meters from the operating power unit of the station. Striking elements damaged administrative buildings and the adjacent territory of the storage. A voltage surge at the plant caused smoke on the open switchgear of the station. The security system turned off the power supply. As a result of the Ukrainian shelling, the Kakhovskaya high-voltage line, which provided electricity to the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, was damaged.

Ukrainian units of the 44th Artillery Brigade fired at the Zaporozhye NPP from the area of Marganets on the opposite bank of the Kakhovsky reservoir.

The military-civil administration of Energodar noted that every day the artillery strikes of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are being applied closer to the power units on the territory of the Zaporozhye NPP.

 

The nuclear fuel storage is in the affected area. At the moment, about 156 containers with a total of 3,744 fuel elements are stored in the open air at the Zaporozhye NPP, at the storage site of spent fuel elements.

The attacks pose a threat to hundreds of thousands of civilians on the territory of Ukraine, as well as countries in Europe and Asia.

In order to prevent disruption of the operation of the nuclear power plant, the capacity of the 5th and 6th power units was reduced to 500 MW.

Earlier, on Friday the AFU fired three times at the area of the Zaporozhye NPP. A fire broke out, two power lines necessary for the operation of power units were cut off.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called the shelling of the Zaporozhye NPP by Ukraine a “suicidal act.” 

 “We hope that this will stop,” he added at a press conference in Tokyo.

The Zaporozhye NPP, the largest in Europe, is located in the steppe zone on the shore of the Kakhovsky reservoir in the Energodar of the Zaporozhye region, which is controlled by allied Russian and DPR forces. The station has six power units with a total capacity of 6,000 MW. Annually, the plant generates about 40 billion kWh of electricity – about 20% of its production in Ukraine. In total, four nuclear power plants are currently operating in Ukraine.

According to the head of the administration of the Zaporozhye region, the leadership of the IAEA is aware of the risks caused by the shelling of the Zaporozhye NPP by Ukrainian troops, but does not take real measures to prevent them. The local authorities addressed both the IAEA and the United Nations, but received no replies and no actions have been taken by the international organisations to secure the facility.

Here it comes - small business in trouble

 

 

The theft of Chinese antiquities by Taiwan

 

 

My son Julian lives and teaches in Taiwan. Mary Beth and I have visited there a few times in recent years. On one of our trips Julian took us to this large and quite amazing museum. We had never heard of it before, nor did we know that it was the repository of stolen art from China.

After the end of World War II, these dispersed collections were reassembled in Nanjing, but in 1948–49 they were taken by the retreating US-backed Nationalist army led by fascist Chiang Kai-shek to Taiwan, where they were stored at the Taipei suburb of Taichung until they were installed in the new museum in 1965.

National Palace Museum, is the major art museum of China, at Taipei, that holds many of the art treassures of the Chinese imperial collection. The museum houses more than 650,000 art objects and documents that were formerly held at Beijing.

The museum came into being when the collections of Taiwan’s National Palace Museum, the Central Museum, and other public Taiwanese cultural institutions were brought together in a new museum building in Taipei; the combined collections were called the National Palace Museum. The core of the museum’s art holdings once formed part of the imperial art collection in Beijing, which in turn derived primarily from the far-flung collecting activities of the Qing (Manchu) dynasty emperor Qianlong (reigned 1735–96). His art holdings and those of his successors remained in the Imperial Palace at Beijing as a private collection until 1925, when China’s republican government converted the palace into a public institution called the Palace Museum. In the 1930s the Japanese invasion of North China prompted the Chinese government to relocate part of the Palace Museum’s holdings to Nanjing and then to Shanghai and other locations. 

The National Palace Museum’s collection illustrates more than 4,000 years of Chinese art, from the Shang through the Qing dynasty. Its collection of Chinese painting is one of the finest in the world, with many important masterpieces from the Tang, Song, Ming, and Qing dynasties. The museum also has large collections of Chinese ritual bronzes, ceramics, jade, lacquer-ware, enamelware, decorative carvings, embroidery and tapestry, books, calligraphy, and archival documents. 

So as we learn more about Chinese and Taiwan fractured relations (and the dirty role the US has played in the entire episode) it is vital that we see the full context of what makes the Beijing government so angry about US-Taiwan policy.

The fact that people from China have to journey to Taipei to see these rare treasures just adds insult to injury. If we hope for peace between Taiwan and the Chinese mainland then Washington must stop playing its divide and conquer games.

Bruce