Poland seeks the nuclear option

 

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki

The ambitions of individual NATO members only bring the world closer to a nuclear catastrophe

By Scott Ritter 

RT

 

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has wrapped up its two-day summit in Vilnius, Lithuania. While issues of NATO expansion (Turkey’s unexpected about-face which opened the door to increased NATO membership) and the ongoing conflict in Ukraine dominated the headlines, when it came to the one topic with inherent existential consequences – the request by Poland that it enter a nuclear-arms-sharing arrangement with the US that would see Washington’s B61 nuclear bombs deployed on Polish soil – NATO remained silent.

According to the request from the government of Prime Minister Mateus Morawiecki, these weapons would be turned over to specially trained Polish air-force crews for use in any future NATO conflict with Russia. Left unsaid is the reality that any conflict which had Poland delivering nuclear weapons against a Russian target would almost immediately escalate into a general nuclear exchange between the United States and Russia, inevitably resulting in the destruction of most if not all of humanity. The Polish request was prompted by the recent Russian decision to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, where they will be married up with SU-25 aircraft and Iskander-M missiles operated by specially trained Belarusian crews. The Russia-Belarus nuclear sharing arrangement is part of an overall reassessment by Russia of its nuclear posture in the face of a strategy embarked-on by the United States and NATO that seeks a strategic defeat of Russia in Ukraine.

The Russia-Belarus nuclear sharing agreement closely parallels a similar arrangement between the US and NATO, where about a hundred B-61 nuclear bombs are stationed on the soil of four NATO nations, where they will be shared with the air forces of five NATO nations (Turkey, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, and Germany) in a time of war. The decision to deploy nuclear weapons on Belarusian soil, and to have Belarusian military assets prepared to employ them in a time a war, is indicative of the close relationship that has emerged between Moscow and Minsk in the aftermath of domestic unrest in Belarus following the 2020 Presidential election which saw the incumbent, Alexander Lukashenko, win a sixth term in office. The Russia-Ukraine conflict has only drawn the two nations closer.

 

During previous US-NATO war games in eastern Europe the Pentagon sends huge amounts of hardware for the military exercises on large ships from the U.S.

Morawiecki’s request isn’t the first time the issue of US nuclear weapons on Polish soil has arisen. In 2020 Richard Grenell, then-US ambassador to Germany, and Georgette Mosbacher, then-US ambassador to Poland, engaged in a Twitter exchange prompted by German hesitancy to continue its participation in the NATO nuclear sharing arrangement that saw 20 B-61 bombs deployed on German soil. Berlin’s aging fleet of Tornado fighter bombers was due to retire in the coming years, and German parliamentarians were balking at the projected expense of replacing them with new US-manufactured fighters. Ultimately Germany agreed to purchase 35 of the F-35A aircraft, at a cost of $8.4 billion. Germany will begin training on the aircraft in 2026 with an eye on having the first F-35A fighters operational by 2028.

The issue of Poland joining NATO’s nuclear sharing arrangement resurfaced in October 2022 when Polish President Andrzej Duda, alarmed by the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, publicly appealed for the US to station B-61 nuclear bombs on Polish soil. This request, however, failed to gain any traction in either the US or NATO. Duda’s request, however, was not beyond the pale. In April 2022 the director of the NATO nuclear policy directorate, Jessica Cox, announced that NATO military planners were updating the mechanics of NATO’s nuclear sharing program to take into account the acquisition by many NATO members of the F-35A fighter.

Four of the five nations involved in this nuclear sharing arrangement (Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, and Germany) had agreed to transition to the F-35A (Turkey was supposed to but ran afoul of US sanctions over its purchase of Russian S-400 surface-to-air missiles.) Cox indicated that NATO planners were looking at the possibility of integrating F-35A aircraft scheduled to be purchased by Poland, Denmark, and Norway into the nuclear sharing mission (it is assumed that Finland, which recently joined NATO and is purchasing F-35A aircraft, would be part of this integration as well.)

 

After the war games conclude the U.S. stores most of the weapons at hubs in Poland and Norway for later use.

Cox’s plans did not call for the deployment of nuclear weapons onto the soil of these nations, but rather the use of their aircraft in a nuclear role. Morawiecki’s request was linked to Poland’s future acquisition of F-35A aircraft, leading to the possibility that a compromise could be agreed-to that would see US nuclear bombs remain on German soil but turned over to Polish aircrews in time of war. Poland recently inked a $6.5 billion deal with the US for the purchase of 32 of its F-35A fighters, the delivery of which is scheduled to begin in 2024.

While the Polish request to enter the NATO nuclear sharing arrangement was not publicly addressed during the Vilnius Summit, the NATO communique issued at its conclusion hinted at what the future may look like for both Poland and the NATO nuclear deterrent. NATO, the communique noted, “will take all necessary steps to ensure the credibility, effectiveness, safety and security of the nuclear deterrent mission.  This includes continuing to modernize NATO’s nuclear capability and updating planning to increase flexibility and adaptability of the Alliance’s nuclear forces, while exercising strong political control at all times. The Alliance reaffirms the imperative to ensure the broadest possible participation by Allies concerned in NATO’s nuclear burden-sharing arrangements to demonstrate Alliance unity and resolve.”

While it is unlikely that either the US or NATO will, in the future, accede to the Polish Prime Minister’s request to station US B-61 bombs on Polish soil, the NATO communique appears to pave the way for Poland’s F-35A fleet to be integrated into the pool of aircraft available to NATO to deliver those bombs if a nuclear conflict were to ever break out between NATO and Russia. While the alliance may view such an outcome as contributing to the viability of the NATO nuclear deterrent, the reality is all it does is guarantee that Russia will be compelled to view every F-35A in the NATO arsenal as a potential nuclear threat going forward and to adjust its own response accordingly. This puts NATO and Russia closer to the possibility of nuclear conflict, an outcome no rational actor could ever view as contributing to the collective peace and security of Europe.  

~ Scott Ritter is a former US Marine Corps intelligence officer and author of 'Disarmament in the Time of Perestroika: Arms Control and the End of the Soviet Union.' He served in the Soviet Union as an inspector implementing the INF Treaty, in General Schwarzkopf’s staff during the Gulf War, and from 1991-1998 as a UN weapons inspector.

India's foreign policy dilemma: Counter or cooperate with China?

 

New Delhi's inclination towards the Atlanticist core contradicts its position as a self-reliant economic and military force, and hinders its aspirations for Eurasian integration through collaboration with China and Russia.

By F.M. Shakil

The Cradle

 

In an era marked by shifting geopolitical dynamics and strategic realignments, India's evolving role as a "supplying and maintenance agent" for the US naval force in the Indo-Pacific region raises questions about the country's cherished principle of "strategic autonomy."

As India deepens its alignment with the US, an agreement made late last month between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Joe Biden during the former’s state visit has garnered attention. This agreement entails providing base facilities, repairs, and maintenance services for US Navy vessels operating in the Indo-Pacific.

However, this new development is not without its implications, as it potentially conflicts with Chinese interests in the region and could strain India's relationships with its fellow BRICS members and those of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), whose latest fully-fledged member is Iran.

It has been reported that Modi and Biden reached the agreement in order to counter China’s naval influence in the Indo-Pacific region where Beijing boasts the world’s biggest numerical strength with about 355 ships and submarines. 

 

 

The US Navy’s Indian expansion
 

Insights into the agreement reveal that the US Navy plans to establish three maintenance and repair hubs in the Indian cities of Chennai, Mumbai, and Goa. In the past, the US has signed bilateral hub agreements in different regions, including West Asia, Western Pacific, Japan, and Singapore. 

Quoting a former commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, Nikkei reported that the US Navy currently conducts operations from Diego Garcia and Western Australia. However, the establishment of maintenance, repair, and logistics hubs in the Indian Ocean would significantly enhance the operational flexibility of the US Navy in the vast Indian Ocean region. 

Speaking to The Cradle, a source within Pakistan’s Foreign Office says: “The potential ramifications of establishing US military installations within the Indian Ocean region are such that they may engender a notable level of instability within the vicinity.” 

The source adds that the recent development gives rise to apprehensions regarding the SCO's capacity to effectively accomplish its core objectives, particularly the advancement of regional tranquility and the safeguarding of security.

Declining oil imports from Russia

The progressive shift in New Delhi’s partnership with Washington transcends its traditional focus on defense and technological hardware. Recent developments indicate a deepening camaraderie between the two countries, extending to the procurement of petroleum from the United States, which has displaced Russia as a key oil supplier to India. 

These oil purchases signify a significant upswing in the bilateral relationship, resulting in India's resurgence as a dominant player in the global market. Conversely, there are signs of a decline in crude oil imports from Russia. 

Energy intelligence company Vortexa reports an 6.5 percent decrease in India's crude oil imports from Russia in June compared to the previous month, primarily due to voluntary production restrictions implemented by Russia, the world's second-largest crude oil producer.  In June, India imported 1.8 million barrels per day (mb/d) of crude oil from Russia, down from the record high of 1.96 mb/d in May. 

In January 2023, India purchased 406,000 barrels per day (bpd) from the US, which subsequently declined to 244,000 bpd the following month, and further plummeted to 100,000 bpd in March. However, imports from the US saw a rebound, reaching 119,000 bpd in April and 138,000 bpd in May, with a notable 62 percent increase to 224,000 bpd in June.

India’s non-alignment posture 

To date, India has adeptly maintained a delicate balance in its relations with western countries and the SCO. As India strives to augment its global and regional influence and position itself as a leader within the Global South, it looks to establish a well-calibrated foreign policy that encompasses major global powers such as the US, China, and Russia, to optimize its national interests. 

Some analysts contend that India is now encountering difficulties in integrating into the SCO due to the significant foreign policy pivot [to] the US. The recent strategic defense agreements signed by Modi in Washington have arguably made New Delhi less enthusiastic about multi-polarity and regional integration.

It has been suggested that India harbors concerns regarding the dominance of countries such as China and Russia within the SCO, which are perceived as adversaries of the US. India understands that the policies of the SCO could potentially conflict with those of the western nations over the years, with whom New Delhi has recently revitalized its ties.

Delhi’s dilemma

However, Dr Sameer Patil, a senior fellow at Observer Research Foundation (ORF) in Mumbai and a researcher on India’s national and regional security priorities and counter-terrorism tells The Cradle that the recent visit of Prime Minister Modi has shed light on the nature of agreements signed by the US and India, highlighting their emphasis on emerging technologies and economic exchanges:

        “India's foreign policy is based on the idea of ‘strategic autonomy’ and includes diplomatic ties with both the US and the SCO. Hence, characterizing India as ‘sitting on the fence’ or in a state of indecision or neutrality would inaccurately portray its stance.  

Dr Patil further argues that it is imperative to analyze the parameters of Indian foreign policy from distinct perspectives, taking into consideration its regional and global responsibilities:

    “From my angle, it can be contended that the examination of India's diplomatic engagements with the US and the SCO should be approached using separate frameworks. India regards the SCO as highly significant in its endeavors to establish and sustain connections with the Central Asian Republics.”

He adds that it is reasonable for New Delhi to continue its involvement with Central Asian nations due to the convergence of interests and shared perceptions of threats concerning regional security.

Nevertheless, Patil emphasizes the significance of taking into account India's relationship with the US within a broader global framework, explaining to The Cradle that “The strategic partnership between India and the US holds great significance, as it not only contributes to regional stability but also plays a crucial role in ensuring global security.”

India’s gains from the SCO

India's accession to the SCO in 2017 has spurred its focus on enhancing cooperation with neighboring countries within the organization’s framework. As the world's fifth-largest economy, India is strongly motivated to strengthen its ties with the SCO to fuel long-term economic growth and address geopolitical and economic risks on a global scale.

Since joining the SCO since years ago, India has witnessed substantial growth in its economic and trade collaborations with Russia, China, and other member states. Trade between Russia and India saw a remarkable increase of approximately 120 percent in 2022 prior to the SCO summit in Shanghai.

Bilateral trade between China and India surpassed the $100 billion milestone in 2021 and continues to exhibit robust growth. Additionally, trade between India and Central Asian countries nearly doubled to reach $2.7 billion during the fiscal year 2019-20.

Following the end of the Cold War, India underwent a significant transformation in its diplomatic relations with the US while simultaneously strengthening ties with Beijing and Moscow to safeguard its strategic autonomy.

However, New Delhi could not optimize the SCO’s capabilities and effectively advance its objectives during its presidency of the organization. It also encountered obstacles in addressing historical frictions, building trust among member nations, and actively participating in nonviolent collaboration on security matters.

Regional hegemon or client state?

In the past 15 years, India has become a member of four multilateral organizations, with two distinct groups emerging: western organizations such as the G20 and the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad), comprising the US, Australia, Japan, and India; and non-western organizations like the SCO and BRICS, including Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.

This approach signifies New Delhi’s pursuit of an autonomous foreign policy, striking a delicate equilibrium in its relationships with major global powers while avoiding entanglement in bloc politics.

However, sustaining this equilibrium may become increasingly challenging as Great Power polarization intensifies. Geopolitical tensions between Atlanticists and Eurasianists are on the rise, potentially exerting pressure on India to realign its geopolitical stance in favor of the western powers.

India is anticipated to encounter difficulties in maintaining a fragile balance, given the expected rivalry between the US and China, historical tensions with China and Pakistan, and the robust alliance between the latter two.

These factors pose significant limitations to India's ability to effectively navigate its position. Moreover, the alignment of interests between China and Russia possesses the capacity to detrimentally affect Indian interests within the region.             

~ F.M. Shakil is a freelance journalist based in Peshawar, Pakistan.He contributes to the Pakistani newspapers The Frontier Post, Express Tribune, The News and The Statesman. He is also published in Asia Times and Cover Asia Press, UK.

Sunday song

 

Hard times for Macron in France

 

A nervous Macron arrives to load aboard the open-air military jeep in the Bastille Day Parade. (AFP is funded in whole or in part by the French government.)

 

The French Revolution officially began on May 5, 1789, when King Louis XVI called a meeting of the Estates General to raise more money after he had collected what he could in taxes. But the meeting quickly devolved into a debate over sharing political influence and the poor living conditions endured by the people of France, while the king lived an opulent lifestyle at the Versailles chateau outside Paris.

On July 14 of that year, a Paris mob – hungry from a poor harvest and angry at the king and government for their suffering – stormed the Bastille prison, which had become a symbol of the absolute power wielded by the monarch after he confined many of his opponents there. The mob freed a handful of prisoners and seized large stores of weapons in what was a first victory for the people over the “old regime” (l’Ancien Régime), the French monarchy dating from around the 16th century. 

Macron booed widely during the parade. 

 

The alien UFO mystery

 

 

Air Force veteran David Grusch claims the government is covering up evidence that UFOs really are extraterrestrial and that he has seen evidence of a secret crash retrieval program. 

He alleges the U.S. has even retrieved bodies from other species. 

Theoretical physicist Michio Kaku tells "Banfield" to "follow the evidence."

Annual Global Network report on space war

 

This report was presented today at the 31st annual meeting of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space (GN).

It was produced by GN leader Dave Webb.

Professor Em. Dave Webb (England) is the Convener of the GN board of directors. He is a retired university engineering professor who switched to Peace and Conflict Studies. He was also co-founder and Director of the Praxis Centre (for the study of Information and Technology for Peace, Conflict Resolution and Human Rights) at Leeds Beckett University. He retired from there in 2012 to focus on peace campaigning. 

He is also the webmaster of the GN website and at the 2001 GN international membership conference in Leeds, England, Dave was presented with the “Web Master of Space Award”. 

He was until recently chair of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) in the UK and a Vice-President of the International Peace Bureau, is now chair of the Yorkshire Region CND and a patron of the UK group Scientists for Global Responsibility. 

Ukraine war: Nuclear power plants in danger

 

Late at night on July 13 I saw a 'Breaking News' article on RT. The headline was the following:

Drone crashes in Russian ‘atomic city’

There were no injuries or damage to critical infrastructure resulting from the incident in Kurchatov, governor of Kursk Region says.

A drone went down and exploded early on Friday in the Russian city of Kurchatov, an industrial hub adjacent to the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant, the governor of Kursk Region has said.

“Fortunately, none of the residents were hurt. Critical facilities weren’t damaged,” Roman Starovoyt wrote on his Telegram channel.

The explosion caused minor damage to the facade of an apartment bloc, while shattering some windows, the official said, adding that his administration will help residents to carry out repairs.

Earlier, several Telegram channels reported a loud explosion in Kurchatov. Videos from the scene also captured locals finding what appear to be parts of a drone on the ground.

The city of Kurchatov is located in Kursk Region, which shares a border with Ukraine. It was founded in the late 1960s and named after physicist Sergey Kurchatov, dubbed the “father” of the Soviet atomic bomb.

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The Nazi-backed regime in Kiev gets its marching orders (sadly) from Washington and London. They know they are losing this war and can feel their supporters across the west steadily slipping away.

So like the pirates they are, the misleaders in the U.S.-UK--NATO are terrorizing (and in a sense threatening) the rest of the world. They are proclaiming....

'We must win this war against Russia and China' and will blow things sky high unless you keep giving us more $$$ for the war!'

They were spoiled children and maladjusted college kids who became dangerous psychopathic adults posing as great political leaders. Their God demands the Earth's golden riches.

And we are the ones who are truly nuts for allowing them to have their vengeful fingers on the big red button. Why do we just ignore reality?

Kiev has been using various nuclear power plants across Ukraine as pressure points on Russia and misinformation vehicles since the war began in 2014.

Zelensky has been instructed by the CIA to repeatedly blame Russia for trying to blow up nuclear plants. Horrify the world about the evil Ruskies! 

But Mr. Big is once again lying through rabid teeth.

Kiev's attack last night indicates that the recent NATO meeting decided to up the ante by attempting to hit nuclear power plants inside Russia. In their desperation NATO exposes itself as the offending party.

But we've known that about NATO for a long time. 

The US-NATO take down of Yugoslavia during the Bill Clinton years really woke me up about 'the alliance'. It's the global mafia's military arm.

It's offensive not defensive.

Bruce 

Political healing in Mexico

 

 

 

BreakThrough News

On July 1, Around 250,000 people gathered in Mexico City to celebrate the five-year anniversary of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's (AMLO) election. 

Independent journalist and researcher, Alina Duarte, discusses what AMLO’s presidency has meant for Mexico and the rest of Latin America, as well as his initiatives to address the root causes of migration.

Hungarian Community for Peace on the government’s anti-war policy

 

The Hungarian Community for Peace, an organization of peace-loving Hungarian people, provides additional support for the Hungarian government’s peace policy. With its anti-war stance and urging for a political settlement, the Hungarian government is also doing a good service to those who have not yet understood that they cannot defeat Russia, but must come to terms with it. 

We draw people’s attention to the fact that they must stand up in defense of the Hungarian peace policy, as it is unique in the Western federal system, in contrast to the commitment of NATO and the European Union to the continuation of the conflict in Ukraine. Hungary’s pacifism needs protection from its own allies.

The Western powers are not willing to acknowledge that we do not want to go to war for them, but want to live in peace with both the East and the West. They pump billions of euros and dollars into Ukraine, but refuse to account to their people for what they spent it on.

They don’t account for our money either, but demand that we give even more to the corrupt Kiev regime, which is getting rich on the blood of its people. They refuse to pay us the sums owed to us on the grounds that we do not support the continuation of the war in Ukraine, which is solely their financial and political interest.

They are not satisfied with the fact that we help hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees, heal Ukrainian soldiers, they also want us to deliver weapons to Kiev and allow the deployment of NATO forces on Hungarian soil.

All this while Zelensky plans to blow up the Friendship oil pipeline and sanctions Hungarian companies. Not a day goes by without the American ambassador in Budapest meddling in Hungarian internal affairs, threatening the Hungarian government that if it does not follow American instructions, trouble will ensue.

By mass resettling migrants accepted in the West to Hungary, they want to undermine the Hungarian government’s position and undermine social peace in order to bring to power a pro-war, anti-Russian government of their choice.

In this situation, the Hungarian Community for Peace recommends the government to underpin its peace policy by strengthening its social support: to improve people’s living conditions by modifying the distribution relationships, so that peace be not just a word for many millions of people living in poverty, but a lived good! Prevent domestic pro-war opposition circles from being able to provide a breeding ground for the livelihood crisis caused by runaway prices and to deceive the people with their pro-war intentions.

We know it is not easy to be a sovereign State in NATO and the EU. But if we want peace for this country, we have no choice but to pursue a peace policy towards our own allies as well! The Hungarian people want to live in peace!

We encourage the government to stand by the will of our people for peace, to pursue a more active peace policy than before! By uniting peace-loving people, we protect our most precious treasure, the lives of Hungarians here at home and beyond our borders.

Edited by Hungarian Community for Peace 

Someone who knows about cluster bombs

 

 

By Bob Anderson

The Koohan Paik-Mander (from Hawaii) talk here was well received and we had about 30 people in attendance.  She was the first guest speaker at our reclaimed Peace Center.  There was a mixture of old and young. She spoke about the theme of war ongoing now on marine life by all these militaries with their war games was powerful.  People responded well to it.  David Barsamian had a local fellow tape it and he is going to put it out on Alternative Radio, we hope.  

[Koohan will speak in Brunswick, Maine on Sunday, August 13 from 4:00-6:00 pm at the public library.]

Zelinsky does not fully realize he is just a pawn on the superpower chessboard.  The world must be laughing at him tonight.

The activists here get enraged over cluster bombs but not nukes in NATO countries.  

 

As a side, when I was in the Air Force at Nellis AFB, Las Vegas, NV, the war profiteers were just developing cluster bombs and I was assigned to part of the testing program, as an Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Specialist.  What I learned was that we were rushing them into use in Vietnam so fast that the military did not know the dispersal pattern of these bomb-lets from various altitudes and speeds, etc.  

So we were on the desert range doing the tests to see when they would land.  In Vietnam they were hitting our own troops with them, not knowing the parameters.  

 

Bob Anderson shopping for cluster bombs in the Nevada desert

And there are many types of cluster bombs.  It was one of the things that made me wonder about all of what we were doing.  The cluster bombs were not designed originally to destroy tanks or anything but to create a large number of casualties of “walking wounded” to fill up the NVA hospital system.  The official message was that they were intended to be used on radar sites.  Later ones were more destructive, intended for tanks, etc.  Now there are many horrible models. 

 

The new feature on the old 750 iron bomb was a folding fin arrangement to allow the bomb to fall slowly and directly down from plane, the fin opens like an unbrella to slow the bomb allowing the pilot to pull up fast to get away from blast area.  For low level high speed bombing runs.  We are looking at drop patterns here again.  This is the area of Creech AFB where the drones were flown in recent years.  The live nuclear tests were done in the 50s-60s just over the mountain range in background.

 

Just a technical point on the testing too, dropping them on hard dry lake beds in the Nevada desert is not like the soft jungles and terrain of Indochina.  That means the ones that don’t explode immediately can lay around and if hit with a hard impact then detonate.  Some of them were designed with fuses to deliberately sit around for different lengths of time before detonating.  Really sinister thinking went into these weapons.

There is a great 2013 movie made in Laos about some of this called The Rocket.  Is is about 2 hrs and well done.

I will conclude that the peace movement is rightly concerned about Biden and the U.S. sending cluster bombs to Ukraine but not worried about the cluster of nuclear weapons we have placed around Russia and China.

~ Bob Anderson helps coordinate Stop the War Machine in Albuquerque, New Mexico

The NATO lies - Global South is over it

 

US-EU promised Russia at the time of the collapse of the former Soviet Union that NATO would not expand one inch toward Russia....now its on steroids. This promise was part of the deal offered to Gorbachev in order to get Russia to agree to the reunification of East and West Germany.

The US recently has built missile launch bases (Aegis Ashore) in Poland and Romania that can fire first-strike attack nuclear capable Tomahawk cruise missiles into Russia in minutes. A Cuban-missile crisis in reverse. 

The American people have no clue.

NATO expansion has been slow-rolled out since the early 1990's. It was always intended for what is happening today. A full-blown war against Russia using Ukrainian 'cannon fodder troops' along with US-NATO weapons, funding (including paying for Ukraine's Social Security system with funds from US Social Security program), intelligence & targeting, and ultimately directed by the CIA and its European partners (Operation Gladio).

The info is all out there to be found if a person truly wishes to know what is going on. But sadly many Americans spend enormous amounts of time shadow dancing with corporate media and Neo-con lies.

Those who use Russia-demonization as their shield are trying to hide their complicity. Many of these folks didn't have much to say about Ukraine since 2014 when some of us were trying to get the public to pay attention to the Ukrainian Nazi slaughter of  Russian-ethnics in the Donbass (more than 34,000 dead, 15,000 wounded). The US-NATO was content to facilitate this genocide and many people across the west were far too busy to pay any real attention.

   

Groundbreaking for the US missile base in Poland

The US missile base in Romania during construction.

There can be no doubt that the US fully controls all operations and decision making at the new missile bases in Poland and Romania. Just like in South Korea, Japan, Germany, England, Australia, Guam and hundreds of other US military bases around the globe.

The US runs the show and has absolute control over the 'allies'. That is how colonial exploitative powers work. 

But this US-UK empire is on its way out. Most of the world population is opposed to the US-NATO global expansion and domination agenda. They are fed up with NATO's endless war$.

Today we find rapidly declining numbers of the collective US-UK-NATO populations who support this insane program for war with Russia and China. It's a last ditch effort - a Hail Mary pass late in the game - the walls are crumbling. 

Look at the once-heralded city of San Francisco. Just like with so many of other towns and cities across our nation we witness free-fall collapse there due to disinvestment by federal, state and local governments. Staggering percentages of our national budgets have been moved to fund the coming WW3 rather than repairing our disintegrating communities. The western elites are rolling the dice, abandoning their own people and nations, gambling their money on war.

These people are like drunks at the bar.

California's Governor Gavin Newsom is being programmed to take Biden's place for the Dems.  He is fairly young, handsome and from 'good stock' as they say in the cattle business. Biden will be eased out at some point - with 'sincere apologies' designed to build sympathy for a pathetic human being who proved long ago that he worked for Mr. Big. 

 

All war$ these days are resource war$. Western oligarchs have decided that left alone Russia would prosper and share their resources with friendly nations at good prices. That has been Moscow's MO for many years. 

Vladimir Putin announced in March that Russia has written off debts of African states worth more than $20 billion dollars. Would the IMF and World bank do the same. Very doubtful.

So war is necessary - even if it lasts 20 years like Afghanistan. The US-NATO's goal is the destroy as much of Russia as possible (forcing them to spend on rebuilding) and to kill as many Russians as they can. 

Last week I watched several Ukrainian POW testimonies on video where they said that during their NATO training, psychiatrists told them to kill-kill Russians. It's clear Nazism but that discussion is verboten across the west.

 

 

How is Russia to respond? How can anyone who is intellectually honest not admit that Moscow has only one clear choice. Defend their people, defend their nation or surrender. After years of pleading and offering peaceful ways out of this morass - like the Minsk 1 & 2 agreements that the west intentionally ignored - Russia is left with its back against the wall. But Moscow still gets blamed by the west for starting this war.

Former Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) yesterday wrote: 

 The dissolution of NATO itself may be the only way to prevent wider war and to stop the United States and the world from being plunged into the abyss of a wider, cataclysmic war.

See his entire article entitled 'The Dissolution of NATO May Be the Only Way to Prevent WWIII:
10 reasons why NATO ought to be disbanded'

 Bruce

Turkey once again back tracks on promises made

 

  On July 8, five commanders of the notorious Ukrainian Azov battalion returned to Ukraine from Turkey. They were supposed to stay in Turkey until the end of hostilities “under the personal guarantees of the Turkish president”. However, it seems that the Turkish President changed his mind.

By Ahmed Adel (Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher)

SouthFront

 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged the European Union on July 9 to open the doors for his country to join the bloc if they want to secure support for Sweden’s accession to NATO. His blackmailing of the EU, which ultimately produced results, comes only days after he controversially broke an agreement with Moscow by releasing neo-Nazi Azov Battalion members under Turkey’s custody to Ukraine. 

    “Turkey has been waiting at the door of the European Union for over 50 years now, and almost all of the NATO member countries are now members of the European Union. I am making this call to these countries that have kept Turkey waiting at the gates of the European Union for more than 50 years,” Erdogan said. “First, open the way to Turkey’s membership of the European Union, and then we will open it for Sweden, just as we had opened it for Finland.”

Turkey has been an EU member candidate since 1999. Since 2016, negotiations on a visa-free regime between Turkey and the EU have been on hold. The country’s bid for EU membership has been stalled due to democratic backsliding and an unrelenting occupation of the northern portion of EU-member Cyprus since 1974.

Ultimately, Erdogan backflipped just mere hours after issuing his blackmail.

    “I’m glad to announce … that President Erdogan has agreed to forward the accession protocol for Sweden to the grand national assembly as soon as possible, and work closely with the assembly to ensure ratification,” said NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg on the eve of the alliance summit in Vilnius, which will be held on July 11-12.

Finland and Sweden applied to join the bloc in May 2022. Finland gained its membership on April 4, 2023, while the Swedes await approval from Hungary and Turkey. As Turkey will never surrender its occupation of northern Cyprus, its EU membership will be forever stalled, making Erdogan’s ultimatum either a desperate action or a calculated manoeuvre to advance other interests.

Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström told public broadcaster SVT that he expects Turkey will eventually signal that it will let Sweden join the alliance, though he could not say whether that would happen at the NATO summit in the Lithuanian capital. Sweden’s top diplomat said he expects Hungary, which also has not ratified Sweden’s accession, to do so before Turkey.

Turkey and Hungary remain the only NATO members still standing in the way of Sweden becoming the 32nd member of the US-led bloc, with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban strongly signalling he will follow Erdogan’s lead and approve Sweden’s membership only if Turkey does the same.

Now that Erdogan has reportedly unblocked Sweden’s path, the question is what was offered to appease the Turkish leader. Presumably, Erdogan would have only unblocked the accession process with the promise of receiving F-16 fighter jets, advancing EU membership talks without altering domestic oppression and ethnic cleansing abroad, or securing Western funding as the Turkish economy continues to tank with Gulf money all dried up.

The NATO summit will be dominated by how the alliance will see its future relationship with Kiev amid endless efforts by President Volodymyr Zelensky for Ukraine to become a member and a signatory to the mutual defence pact. Evidently, though, Sweden’s situation will also be discussed since Turkey is the main hindrance to their accession.

 

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, for his part, joined a chorus of other European leaders and officials who said Sweden’s NATO membership should not be tied to Ankara’s stalled EU membership bid.

    “Sweden meets all the requirements for NATO membership. The other question is one that is not connected with it. And that is why I do not think it should be seen as a connected issue,” the German chancellor said.

Stoltenberg also expressed before announcing Erdogan’s unblocking that the two issues have nothing to do with one another, reminding that while he supports Ankara’s bid for EU membership, it was not one of the conditions in the agreement signed by Turkey, Sweden, and Finland in 2022 at the NATO summit in Madrid.

Despite Erdogan initially adding another condition to Sweden’s accession, it is not a sign that Turkey has gone rogue within NATO, but rather it is the Turkish president blackmailing the alliance and EU to gain advantages for his country – what they are specifically since EU membership is not realistic, remains to be seen.

Erdogan broke a deal he had with Moscow by releasing on July 8, only days before the NATO summit, five Ukrainian Azov Battalion officers, who returned to Ukraine on a presidential plane. The Azov Battalion militants had been prisoners since the battle of Azovstal following the Russian liberation of the port city of Mariupol. Erdogan had no obvious reason for breaking the deal, meaning that he will now want something at the NATO summit for doing this.

Although it may appear that Erdogan has gone rogue by attaching an impossible condition for Sweden to become a NATO member, he is just leveraging to gain some advantage for Turkey. The release of the Azov Battalion members for seemingly no good reason demonstrates that Turkey is still firmly within the NATO bloc.

Covering all the key points so well....

 

Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom

Larry Johnson is a veteran of the CIA and the State Department’s Office of Counter Terrorism. He's questioned by Andrew Napolitano.

Napolitano (a Libertarian) gets right to the point when he interviews others. He is a former judge in New Jersey.

Speaking about the Ukraine war, the judge has become critical of the Biden administration and its controlling Neo-con cabal.  

This particular show touched on the failure of the Ukrainian 'offensive', Prigozhin's latest show biz act, Turkey's betrayal of Russia, and the current lack of real leadership in Washington. 

More people are talking openly about the coming fall of the USA. Those who are thinking and doing something about this imperial collapse are astonished that the majority of Americans are locked in fear. Americans have become immobilized by the overwhelming brainwashing BS that flows from the media and government.

All the while Rome is burning. 

What do the 1% want at this point? They see the writing on the wall. A revolt is eventually coming. 

The ruling oligarchs are maximizing profit (another period of capital re-accumulation) in every possible way - they are taking back any progressive gains that have been made across the nation since the early 1960s - they are loading up with AI robotic control plans to deal with the masses.

Welcome back to feudalism - this time is is called 'neo-tech fascism'.

What about our kids future?

Bruce

Register now for GN's 31st annual Zoom confab - July 15

 

Be sure to mark your calendar for this hugely important and informative event.
 
The panel will speak for the first hour (9:00 am EDT or 1:00 pm UTC).
 
During the second hour we will open the floor for questions/comments from the audience.
 
We are asking everyone to register in advance - this way you will get an automatic reminder before the event.
 
Zoom Registration at this link
 
We've got some great speakers on really timely topics. You won't be disappointed.

• Bruce Gagnon - Panel discussion moderator

• Tamara Lorincz - Subject: Censorship Industrial Complex - How NATO, national intelligence services and universities coordinate and weaponize information

• Ray McGovern - Subject: US Missile Bases in Poland & Romania – ‘Cuban Missile Crisis in Reverse’

• Juyeon Rhee - Subject: US-NATO expansion into the Asia-Pacific

• Lisa Savage - Subject: Declining Empire Chases Fading Dream Of Full Spectrum Dominance

• Christian Sorensen - Subject: How corporations form the backbone of space militarization?

• Professor Em. Dave Webb - Subject: The drive to militarise & weaponise space
 
Hope to see you on Saturday, July 15 to help celebrate 31 years of peace in space (and on the planet) work! 

NATO meeting: Scorched Earth in Ukraine

 

 

The forthcoming NATO Summit in Vilnius on July 11-12 seems already infected by a strange policy fatalism, writes Tony Kevin.

By Tony Kevin  
Special to Consortium News

Hope of a policy breakthrough in Vilnius, Lithuania towards peace in Ukraine, spearheaded by the war-weary East Europeans, seems to have drained away.

There is general acceptance in NATO that the Ukrainian summer offensives in Zaporizhie and again now in Bakhmut have failed to dent Russian defences, with horrific mortality in Ukrainian manpower and enormous destruction of Western-supplied equipment.

The West seems content to let Zelensky go on wasting Ukraine’s increasingly scarce military-age men in a process described by writer Raúl Ilargi Meijer as NATO’s assisted suicide of the Ukrainian nation.

The NATO unspoken strategy seems to be: we know Russia is inevitably winning in Ukraine, but we will make sure we and our Kiev proxies destroy as much as possible of Ukraine’s manpower and national wealth before Russia takes control of the country.

The Kakhovka dam is gone, and what is left of Zaporizhie Nuclear Power Plant seems increasingly at risk of West-assisted Ukrainian sabotage. These two huge assets were the pivots of Ukraine’s industrial and agricultural potential and wealth.

When Russia wins political control over the ruined land of Ukraine, and after it repudiates Western carpetbagging claims to asset ownership there, it will face a huge rebuilding job, comparable to the situation the Soviet Union faced in Ukraine after the 1944-45 vengeful scorched-earth actions by the retreating Nazi divisions.

Meanwhile, Germany under its supine Scholz leadership is de-industrialising, following the loss of cheap Russian gas after the U.S.-conducted sabotage of the Baltic pipelines. German industrialists are taking their capital, management skills and intellectual property elsewhere. France is riven by serious rioting. The EU is distracted and aimless. Western Europe is shrinking in global influence.

In the U.S., only the military-industrial-information complex is doing well. Infrastructure continues to decay. The middle class is eroding and confused. The Democrats are the party of liberal imperialism and the Republicans are still riven between warmongers and America-first nationalist Trumpians. Who knows who will be the next U.S. president, and if he or she can arrest America’s relative decline.

Russia steadily makes reputational headway in what it now describes as the Global Majority (what used to be the Global South). There is an increasingly long queue of governments seeking to join BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).

The Russia-China strategic alliance is the linchpin of this growing robust and intellectually confident ideology of multipolarity which is attracting the attention of serious governments around the world.

Russia’s task is to win in Ukraine, as it is doing, but without destroying its reputation with China and the Global Majority.

Russia is bringing down the curtain on 320 years since Peter the Great began trying to make Russia a member of European-Anglophone Club. Russia will never trust the West again.

The history of Western diplomatic treachery during the last 32 years since the 1991 end of Soviet Communism has shown Russians that the U.S.-U.K. agenda was always about much more than defeating Communism: it was about expanding American global hegemony and breaking up Russia as a competing world civilisational state.

There is enough evidence now to satisfy the Global Majority that U.S. regime change and controlling operations in Ukraine since 2013 have been above all cynically aimed at weakening and destabilising Russia. Remembering their own viciously exploited colonial history, the Global Majority are glad these Western efforts are failing.

The Vilnius NATO meeting will produce no new miracles of salvation for the doomed Kiev regime. There will be a lot of tired rhetoric about continuing to defend democratic Ukraine.

Nobody – speakers or listeners – will believe it .

~ Tony Kevin is a former Australian senior diplomat, having served as ambassador to Cambodia and Poland, as well as being posted to Australia’s embassy in Moscow. He is the author of six published books on public policy and international relations.

IAEA head gets huge 'unwelcome' in Seoul

 

 

Global News

Hundreds of people gathered to protest in Seoul, South Korea, on Saturday, as Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), arrived in the country in an effort to calm fears over Japan's plan to discharge treated radioactive water from its tsunami-hit Fukushima plant.

“They say there are only a few risks possible, but what if that really happens and who’s going to be responsible for that?” said Han Sang-Jin, Korean Confederation of Trade Unions spokesperson.

The IAEA, which serves as the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, said earlier in the week that a two-year review showed Japan's plans for the water release would have a negligible impact on the environment.

On Sunday, Grossi is set to meet with members of the opposition Democratic Party of Korea, which has been critical of the Japanese plan.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

During his visit to South Korea from July 8 to 9, the IAEA chief Grossi was greeted by people's fierce protests. People followed him wherever he goes and shouted slogans, "Go Out, Grossi!,"  as well as "Did you leak the draft for 1 million euros?" 

Grossi was supposed to enter Korea on July 7 but was stranded at the airport for hours thanks to protestors. He could barely leave the airport after midnight.  Today, July 9th, he visited the National assembly but protestors' shouts were loudly heard even inside the National assembly room where he met the opposition party members.  And there were many small and big protests in South Korea yesterday and today. 

He left for New Zealand this evening. Discharge of nuclear-contaminated water will be the end of Earth. We, the people in the Pacific and the world should not allow it. 

Thank you.

Sung-hee Choi

Jeju, South Korea  

 

Sunday song

 

 

Latest U.S. strategy: Syrian jihadists to fight Russians

 

 

Ukraine, U.S. Are Recruiting Syrians, Plotting Attacks Against Russian Forces From Iraq

SouthFront

The intelligence services of Ukraine and the United States are plotting attacks against Russian forces in Syria and recruiting militants from the war-torn country for Kiev forces, Sputnik reported on June 30, citing a Syrian diplomatic military official. 

The unnamed official told the Russian news agency that Ukrainian and American intelligence officials are operating from the Iraqi autonomous region of Kurdistan.

The recruitment of Syrian militants is being directed by the honorary consulate of Ukraine in Erbil, Farhad Ali Shakir, the official said, adding that the militants will be trained at bases in Iraq by Ukrainian officers who prepared for this task in U.S. institutions.

    “As the American administration’s planned path for the conflict in Ukraine is failing, the U.S. is taking additional steps to increase the recruitment of those willing to fight into the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” the source explained.

The source alleged that the CIA, the U.S. main intelligence agency, is now negotiating with the Kurdish People’s Defense Units (YPG) and the heads of several Arab tribes in Syria to recruit militants for Kiev forces, with a monthly salary for each militant of up to $2,000.

The YPG is the core faction of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which control a large part of Syria’s northeastern region including the border line with Iraq’s Kurdistan.

Attempts by Kiev forces to recruit military from Syria were first reported just a few days after the start of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine in February of last year.

Last April, a report by The Washington Post citing leaked U.S. intelligence documents revealed a plot by the Ukrainian intelligence and the SDF to launch attacks against Russian bases and key oil fields in Syria. The SDF has since denied any involvement in such a plot.

Ukraine launched its so-called spring counteroffensive early on in June. However, its forces are yet to make any meaningful gains on the ground, despite sustaining heavy losses. Ukraine and the U.S. are likely stepping up efforts to recruit Syrian militants in order to use them as cannon fodder on hot fronts.

Latest Space Alert newsletter now available

 

Our latest Global Network Space Alert newsletter is now at the printer.

Those of you on our mailing list should get it via postal mail very soon.

If you are not on our mailing list for a hard copy and would like to receive one (or multiple copies) please let us know by email at globalnet@mindspring.com

I think you will find many interesting articles in this edition #43.

You can see it online https://space4peace.org/newsletters/

Also don't forget to register for our 31st GN Annual meeting on July 15 (9-11 am EDT or 1-3 pm UTC) via Zoom. We have a great lineup of speakers. You must register in order to get the Zoom link.  https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/global-network-31st-annual-meeting-latest-developments-on-war-via-space-tickets-638565886757?fbclid=IwAR0AUtpcHLcpDyOjA2s7xBe5C1pX2_NLgyOtYbEtbItZPBL-o-bbwqCYLcA

Bruce

Jeju islanders protest Japan's radioactive water discharge

 

 

By Ko Dong-hwan

The Korea Times

Residents of Jeju Island protested, Thursday, the controversial discharge of radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear plant by likening themselves to Korea's 16th-century Admiral Yi Sun-sin. The admiral from the 1392-1910 Joseon Kingdom is famous for having defeated the Japanese fleet despite being outnumbered during the 1392-98 Imjin War.

Twelve fishing vessels helmed by members of local ship owners' associations, female divers ("haenyeo" in Korean) and young locals set out from Jocheon near the popular Hamdeok Beach on the northern coast of the island. The charging ships ploughed through waves while national flags and yellow banners fluttered in the wind. The banners contained messages like "If the sea dies, Jeju dies as well," "All Koreans disagree," "Let's protect Jeju's waters" and "Oceans aren't Japan's dumping grounds for radioactive waste."

The protesters referred to the day's rally as the "1597 Battle of Myeongnyang, 2023 Battle of Jeju," linking the rally's spirit to the battle between Yi's 13 ships and a Japanese fleet of around 130 ships. Taking place in the country's southern waters between the mainland and Jeju Island, the battle saw the Japanese fleet retreat against Yi's art-of-war gambits that cleverly took advantage of the local ocean currents.

During the rally, the protesters submerged a giant Rising Sun flag, a symbol of Japanese imperialism, and positioned their vessels around it.

The protesters said that if the Japanese government discharges the radioactive water as planned, all living creatures, including humans, will be endangered on Jeju Island, where they are surrounded by ocean waters. In a rally on land prior to embarking on their sea journey, they said they have decided to "bet their lives" on preventing the controversial discharge. The discharge is planned to begin later this year and will continue for 30 to 40 years.

The protesters called it "an act of terrorism" as it will drive people out of the island by destroying its local fishery and tourism businesses.

The protesters also raised a protest banner that read, "There are 700,000 Yi Sun-sins here on Jeju," with the figure referring to the island's approximate population.

The radioactive water discharge issue continues to intensify in Korea as many people across the country are criticizing the Japanese government's dumping plan following the plant's tsunami-induced destruction in 2011, and said they cannot trust the final assessment report from the International Atomic Energy Agency which approved the plan.

The issue has created thick divisions among Korean lawmakers, with those from the ruling People Power Party welcoming the discharge and opposition parties accusing them of kowtowing to the Japanese government.