Bruce Gagnon is coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space.
He offers his own reflections on organizing and the state of America's declining empire....
Former NSA technical director and whistleblower William Binney says: "The media is totally infiltrated by the CIA and
various other agencies. When it comes to national security, the media
only talk about what the administration wants you to hear, and basically
suppress any other statements about what's going on that the
administration does not want get public. The media is basically the
lapdogs for the government.
"William Casey, who was the director of Central Intelligence Agency back
when Reagan was president, said at one point that you'll know how
effective we are once at least 70 percent of what’s publicly known is
false.
"In other words, they have been infiltrating the press for decades and
they're pushing their thinking and agenda to the media, so the media
will promulgate it to the public. The public won't even have any idea
what’s really going on.
"The objective is to keep everybody uninformed so that they can't make a
smart decision about anything. Everything is being done behind this
secret door that you are not supposed to know about. That is really destroying the fundamental essence of democracy.
"That was what our Constitution was all about, that the people were
supposed to know what the government was doing. Not the government
knowing what the people were doing at all times, they way it is turning
today.
"We are pretty much heading towards a totalitarian system. In this
country, democracy has been subverted, much I think by Dick Cheney. He
masterminded this because he would spend time in Congress, he knew about
the congressional operation, how it worked. He was assistant to
President Nixon, spying on everybody. He knew that he needed to know
things about people in the opposition. What better way to do it than
have a sister agency and the US government just open up and collect
everything, store it, so you can go in and look at it at any time
retroactively and examine anybody."
Ukranian President Volodymir Zelensky’s party is projected to win a majority of seats in the country’s 450-seat parliament. It would be the first time since Ukraine’s independence in 1991 that a party has won an outright majority. But what does that mean for foreign policy, especially toward NATO and Russia?
Brian and John speak with Bruce Gagnon, a contributor to Foreign Policy In Focus, and Jeremy Kuzmarov, a professor of American history whose latest book is “The Russians Are Coming, Again". The First Cold War as Tragedy, the Second as Farce”.
Last October I went to Moscow to do advance work for the Global Network's spring 2019 Russia Study Tour. While there I met Lugansk labor leader Andrey Kochetov at a conference. He recently asked me to start a petition opposing US-Canada weapons sales to the Ukrainian government which I have done. Andrey felt it important to get people in North America to know more about those on the receiving end of these weapons that are daily used to target the people living in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine (the Donesk and Lugansk areas). Following the recent landslide victory of new President Zelensky's party in the Rada (parliament) election I asked Andrey to give me his reaction to events in Ukraine. Here are his words. Bruce
On July 21st, 2019, extraordinary elections to the parliament – the Verkhovna Rada – took place in Ukraine. These elections were initiated by the president Vladimir Zelensky, who announced dissolution of the Verkhovna Rada of the VIII convocation right after his inauguration. At the time of the presidential elections, which took place on the 21st of April, the Verkhovna Rada’s popularity rating among Ukrainian people was at a record low level of 4%.
Before participating in the presidential election, Zelensky was a fairly popular comedian and actor, one of the organizers of a comedy show “95th quarter”. A TV serial “People`s Servant” with Zelensky as a main character had obtained a huge popularity. He plays a president of a country who declared war to oligarchs in power.
While conducting analysis of why Zelensky won the presidential elections, it is not quite clear whether Ukrainian voters were led by aversion to ex-president Poroshenko or by a desire to see in Zelensky the hero of the “People`s Servant” who radically fights against oligarchic clans. However it be, after elections Zelensky had been lightning fast in achieving the pinnacle of power in Ukraine. But from the very first days at the new office, Vladimir Zelensky faced clear resistance from the Verkhovna Rada, which had refused to dismiss the General Prosecutor of Ukraine Yuriy Lutsenko and the Minister of Foreign Affairs Pavel Klimkin despite Zelensky submission for that.
Somewhere about twenty political parties of Ukraine made an attempt to take part in the elections. But it was clear from the start that a list of those who had overcome a voting barrier of 5% would have consisted of only 4-5 parties. According to the data of the Ukrainian Central Electoral Commission as on the morning of 24th of July, an unconditional victory was gained by the presidential party “People`s Servant” – 43.16%. The second place, with a large lag, goes to the “Opposition Platform - For Life” (Victor Medvedchuk, Yuriy Boyko, Vadim Rabinovich) - 13.01%. Third place is taken by the party of a former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko “Batkivshchyna” with 8.18%, followed by the party of the former president Petro Poroshenko “European Solidarity” (8.12%). The last passing place is occupied by the “Voice” - the party of another political newcomer, singer Svyatoslav Vakarchuk with 5.84%. Despite one of the lowest turnout – 37-39% – and more than 40 criminal cases initiated for violations, the elections were recognized by the officials of the USA, European countries etc. and are supposed to have legal force.
It is still hard to predict how productive the Verkhovna Rada of the IX convocation will be. But it is worth noting that a political force of Vladimir Zelensky gained clear and doubtless victory what will obviously make his life as a head of the state much easier. Whether life of Ukrainian people will become easier – this is a question which can be answered after certain time and certain activities of the new Ukrainian authorities.
Unfortunately, residents of Donbass, who have been living under shelling of the Ukrainian army for five years, expect no particular changes. Just as the ex-president Poroshenko, president Zelensky had completely changed his “peaceful” electoral rhetoric in relation to the Republics of Donbass after the victory of his political party “People`s Servant”. The past few days after parliamentary elections had showed complete unwillingness of the new Ukrainian authorities for even a slight attempt to hear the voice of those Ukrainian citizens who are shelled by Ukrainian army. In his numerous media statements Zelensky consistently disappoints Donbass people by rejecting Minsk agreements which provide a peaceful scenario for regulating a conflict between Ukraine and Donbass Republics.
Zelensky is used to speak out readiness but not actually to carry out requirements of these agreements so for now nothing from Minsk peaceful treaties is done by Kiev – neither removal of heavy weapons nor full amnesty of the conflict parties etc.
During five years of armed confrontation in the east of Ukraine, the Kiev leadership has been shooting its own people justifying themselves by fairy tales about “terrible Russian aggression”. Ukrainian authorities are trying to convince the whole world that all their targets are only the Russian army, somehow ignoring thousands of victims among civilians. During five years the Ukrainian government has been persistently and methodically doing everything to push the Donetsk and Lugansk People`s Republics out of its state. It is true that at the beginning of the conflict many of Donbass people had experienced a grounded sense of nostalgia for life in Ukraine. But now, with each day of military conflict, there are less and less sentiments about possibility of “peaceful” life in the state where murderers of children proudly call themselves “heroes”.
~ Andrey Kochetov
Chairman, Trade Union of Small & Innovative Enterprises of Lugansk People's Republic (Donbass)
You can sign the petition suggested by Andrey here.
Activists at Beale AFB in northern California. They'd been getting arrested at this drone/spy operations base every month for several years.
My family lived at Beale AFB and I graduated from Wheatland high school in 1970. My dad worked on the spy plane (SR-71) cameras at the base in those days.
I had the great honor of being arrested with these folks at this very gate a couple of years ago. The charges were dropped.
From what I've seen and heard they get a pretty good response from the GI's when they block the morning drive time gate each month.
Elections for the Rada (parliament) in Ukraine were held on Sunday and it appears that the new party under President Zelensky will win a strong majority. The question remains as to whether Zelensky will end the war on his own Ukrainian citizens who are the Russian speaking population in the Donbass, near the Russian border?
In this video interview political scientist, Dimitriev shares his thoughts on what happens next in Ukraine:
”Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.”
Two men walk into a room and leave with the same anti-Russian policies.
Two men arrive under slogans of ”peacemaking” and rational politics but
with actions steadily keeping to the same program . . . but which
program? According to political scientist, Dimitriev, Ukraine’s senior
partners in Washington determine the brink of what is possible, huddling
in Ukrainian political characters into a special ”corridor of
possibility”. This makes it difficult, if not impossible, to stay in
line with the promised election slogans during their campaigns. Add the
Soros organizations and NGO’s that are active in influencing these
campaigns into the mix and you can understand why Dimitriev mentions
Ukraine as a playground for political experiments.
The
political field in Ukraine has reached a level of unison in its
actionable policies where a puny Opposition Platform remains just to
showcase the illusion of democracy. The perspective is one to consider
in line with Ukraine’s recent snap elections.
A good background piece for understanding the Ukraine story can be read here.
Also Russian President Vladimir Putin sat down on June 19, 2019, in the Kremlin, for an on the recorded interview with Oliver Stone. The Russian government has released a transcript of the interview. Putin’s discussion with Stone about the 2016 presidential election and more can be read here.
MB and I
have just returned from a weekend in Washington DC.I had some frequent flyer miles that I had to
use or lose.So, we decided to travel to
DC and visit our dear friend Herschel Sternlieb (I think of him as the
godfather – in the best sense) who now is in an assisted living facility near
his son.
After his
wife Selma, long-time peace stalwart in Maine, passed away last year Hersch was
moved to DC.We spent lots of time at
their home for meetings, parties, talks, and game playing over the years after
we moved to Brunswick in 2003.Selma is hugely
missed by all but at least we can still soak in the love and wisdom of Hersch
now and then.
As always
when we go to DC, we stayed at the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker House where we
have many good friends.The only thing is that DC was hotter than hell all weekend and their big
house stays quite warm even though we had three fans blowing in our room.Many years ago, the house was a Catholic
convent which was donated to the Catholic Worker community.
We arrived
mid-day on Friday not sure what we’d do that night – hoping there would be some
kind of political activity in the city but as it turned out nothing of interest
was happening.So that left us with just
one good choice – take the hour-long train ride to Camden Yards in Baltimore to
watch the Orioles play the Boston Red Sox in a baseball game.
MB was
agreeable to this plan since my birthday comes next week and she has pity
on me as the Orioles are the worst team in all of major league baseball.The Red Sox are the defending champs so we
were prepared for the worst.It turned
out that the O’s won by a score of 11-2 in a well-played game (including an inside the park home run) by the lowly O’s
and we caught an Amtrak train back to DC, arriving at the Catholic Worker House just
after midnight.
Up early
Saturday morning we grabbed a cab to get to Herschel in time for breakfast.He misses Maine so much (he ran a
textile mill for many years in his day) but it was a joy to once again spend
time probing his quick and gentle mind for his take on politics.He’s long maintained that our
nation’s massive debt, plus our cancerous military spending, were dooming us to a hard-economic collapse.
We’ve
learned so much from him over the years – such as Obama was ‘made’ by the
Crown family in Chicago who are the majority stockholders in General Dynamics
Corp. which owns Bath Iron Works.It was
Obama that forced the Navy to build the Zumwalt ‘stealth’ destroyer at more
than $7 billion per copy when the Navy didn’t even want them.Obama was paying the Crown family back for
greasing the skids (within the military industrial complex and the national
Jewish community) to get him elected.
We left
Hersch at noon and took a cab to the African-American Museum in DC.It’s damn hard to get into this place – even
though the tickets are free they are almost nearly impossible to get ahold of. Our cab driver though told us to get in line
and tell them we came all the way from Maine and maybe they’d take pity on us
and let us in. It worked and they told us to come back in an hour’s time and they’d
let us enter. So that is how it all turned out.
There were
legions of buses parked just outside the museum. Big groups of African-American
families with colorful T-shirts, designating one family reunion after another,
were also lined up waiting to get in the museum.It was like a pilgrimage – once we got inside
there was very little room to move around as the crowd was enormous but electric.
The museum
recommends you begin in the basement level and work your way up to the 4th
floor.But because of the crowds we did
the opposite.On the 4th
floor were the stories of the descendants of slaves who have contributed so
much to America and the world in music, politics, art, literature, sports and
more.
They
do a wonderful job of mixing standard museum artifacts and written
descriptions with multi-media imagery.My favorite thing was the Muhammad Ali section that much to my
delight showed his anti-Vietnam war statements that led to his being kicked out
of boxing for several years.Ali is one
of my greatest lifetime heroes.
Finally, we
moved down to the basement and got in the long line which had us waiting more
than 30 minutes before we reached the slavery section.The first thing we saw was some European
woman of ‘royalty’ quoted as saying that ‘Yes slavery was indeed horrible but
our economy needs the cheap labor and profits’ from this brutal and evil
system.This entire part of the museum
movingly shared the horrid story of the ‘passage’ from Africa to the Americas
and then the calamitous life of the slave in the US.
The next
level up was about the resistance to slavery – from the Nat Turner rebellion to
the Underground Railroad to revolution and liberation in Haiti.The story of black participation in the Civil
War was not neglected and emancipation brought a temporary ability of black
citizens to vote and participate in the government at long last.
But the next
level up brought us to the KKK, Jim Crow and the crackdown on liberation.The brutality of lynching, Emmet Till and
much more.But all along this journey,
over and over again we were given the often-little known stories of those who fought
for freedom and liberation from a hypocritical nation that declared ‘all men
were created equal’.
The civil
rights movement was on the next level and a most remarkable display was present
there – a long lunch counter with screens at each seat where one could order
from an interactive ‘Woolworth’s menu’ which had choices like protest, voting,
etc.Each different menu item took you
to another series of stories and questions – asking you what you would have
done at the time if you’d been sitting in the middle of these historic moments
of activism.
Probably the
best part of the museum for me was just watching this overwhelmingly black
jammed-packed crowd slowly making their way thru the museum.Old women in wheel chairs, young people,
folks singing and moving to the sounds of several generations of black music
and entertainers who brought such beautiful culture to a white bread
society.Watching the people learn and
share what they knew about this event or that one – the burning in 1921 of an entire
black section of Tulsa, Oklahoma because the white folks couldn’t handle the
fact that black people (left in peace) could in fact create a successful and happy life.
The museum
opened in 2016 and is still packed every day.It’s just so heartwarming to see how black
people have such a place where they can go to connect, or reconnect, with their
hard, sad, and joyful struggle in the ‘land of the free and home of the brave’.
I’m glad we
finally got inside this great place and I urge everyone to take this pilgrimage
as well. I’ve always believed in, and am
eternally grateful, for the loving, determined spirit that African-American
people have brought to this land.I also
am lovingly grateful for the rich culture they have created here to America – the
place where I learned to love the blues.
"I go to the neighbors, helping Kuzminishna with her garden etc, and
sometimes have to crawl back home! What can I do, if they shoot like
Hell?", tells Alexander who is living in the bomb shelter for more than 3
years already.
Kominternove residents can't relax even during rare
moments of silence: they are awaiting something to happen. Nowdays
shelling can start not only at night, but any time of the day. People
need to stay alert every minute.
Take action: If you've not yet signed the petition addressed to the US-Canada opposing their arms sales to Ukraine please do so here. People from any nation can sign.
During our spring Russia Study Tour, while in Moscow, we heard from former TV reporter, documentary film maker, and rock band leader Konstantin Syomin.
He had alot to say about Russia and I think you will like listening to his voice and thoughts.
When I made my first trip to Russia in October 2018 Konstantin interviewed me on his TV show that is quite popular on YouTube - see it here.
On day three of the scheduled start of construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT), police made their move to clear the Mauna Kea Access Road in Hawaii.
People gathered at Hawaii's tallest mountain to protest the construction of a massive telescope on land that Native Hawaiians consider sacred. A group of kupuna, or elders, tied themselves together with rope at the road to the summit of Mauna Kea.
A resolute group of kupuna, many of them well known Hawaiian cultural practitioners and dedicated aloha ʻāina, once again sat in the path of police, as they had on Monday and Tuesday. This time, however, police did not stand down. Officers from various law enforcement agencies took the kupuna into custody, one by one.
The Mauna Kea Kiaʻi and police agreed to conduct the arrests with respect. The hundreds of TMT opponents who lined the road sat, off-to-the-side on the lava rock, and quietly observed hamau kāleo, as the kupuna were respectfully guided to the police trucks for processing. Some of the elders were overcome with emotion as they were led away. Many onlookers cried at the sight. Officers were seen hugging kiaʻi.
“Our kupuna are being arrested,” wrote OHA Trustee Dan Ahuna in an urgent message. “Fellow OHA Trustee Hulu Lindsey was taken into custody. Our voices are being ignored. I implore the Office of Hawaiian Affairs to immediately file an injunction to halt any further efforts by the State of Hawaii, University of Hawaii and the Thirty Meter Telescope until the matters in our lawsuit are resolved.”
Nazi collaborators of 14th SS "Galizien" division march through the streets of Lvov, Ukraine under the watch of top ranking German officers during WW II.
Just a reminder that there are monuments to these collaborators in Canada in Oakville, ON and Edmonton, AB. How is it possible to erect monuments to Nazis in Canada which lost more than 40 thousands solders fighting the Nazis?
Lvov in western Ukraine today still remains a stronghold for the latest generation of Nazi sympathizers who worship Stephan Bandera, a Nazi collaborator who welcomed Nazi
Germany's invasion of Ukraine and whose forces murdered 60,0000 members
of the Polish minority in Ukraine. (See video just below for more details.) The current government in Kiev recently honored Bandera by declaring a national day in his honor.
Do you still wonder why the folks in the Donbass (eastern Ukraine near the Russian border) are critical of the US imposed regime in Kiev that has many Nazis inside the government?
Ukraine reached the headlines in Italy today. Deputy Prime Minister and
Minister of the Interior, Matteo Salvini, said that a group of Ukrainian terrorists was preparing an assassination attempt on him.
They were
detained with weapons from machine guns to missiles.
Salvini's nationalist party has close ties with Moscow and thus he was on the Nazi hit list.
CNN journalists
rushed to say that they're rebels from Donbass (eastern Ukraine near the Russian border). However, the police have
completely different data. They said that the Italian police detained
Ukrainian Neo-Nazis - fighters from punitive battalions.
This story is a clear indication how much of the western media works overtime to protect the truth from getting out to the public. The fascists (who worship the WW II Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera) in Ukraine are indeed the ones who have been leading the attacks on the peaceful people of eastern Ukraine since the successful Washington orchestrated coup d'etat in Kiev in 2014.
They don't want the public to understand this reality because it would blow a gigantic hole in the USA's public relations campaign about 'truth, freedom and democracy'. The ugly truth is that the US government is the world's leading terrorist. If you doubt that just ask anyone on the receiving end of western directed attacks in multiple countries.
Every now and then we get a video like this one that gives us some truth. But oh, that is a Russian TV station, some say.
Who cares if this station is from Mars. I want to know what is actually going on in the world and sometimes I find it on Russian media. I thank them - it's more than we are getting from CNN, MSNBC, NPR, Washington Post or the NY Times!
Bastille Day celebrations didn't go as planned for French President
Emmanuel Macron. He was met with boos and calls for him to resign.
Numerous arrests also took place as the 35th consecutive Yellow Vest
protests continued on Saturday in France.
Former UK MP George Galloway
weighs in on the chaos.
"Uncle Semen" from Zaitseve (Donbass in eastern Ukraine) in his very unique and straight forward way
tells what he thinks about ceasefire and makes unexpected comment about
Nadezhda Savchenko, running for people's deputy.
His house was shelled and burnt by incendiary munitions more than once.
After his home became unlivable, Semen had to move to another village.
However, every day he returns to Brusilova Street under the sniper's
fire to feed his dogs.
His only hope is that Ukrainian sniper will feel
pity for an old man and won't shoot...
If you are so moved please sign the petition opposing US-Canada weapons sales/gifts to the puppet government in Ukraine. Anyone can sign this petition, no matter where you live. The petition was initiated by a labor union leader in the Donbass.
MB and I have been following the story about the Epstein 'girl sex slave' operation he and other big wigs have been running for years. He was always protected by the legal system, politicians, the media and dirty money.
Now suddenly, miraculously, Epstein is caught in the net. Will the story go away like in the past or will it lead to other disclosures and finally, real justice for the many victims of these evil doers?
Some have speculated that Epstein works for the CIA and Mossad. Just resigned US Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta (formerly the federal prosecutor in southern Florida) went before a congressional committee in 2017 after Trump nominated him for Secretary of Labor. During questioning Acosta swore he was told from 'higher up' that Epstein was an intelligence asset and was to be left alone.
I'm a curious sort so I began reading other media outside the mainstream about this case. Allegations are made that Epstein's sex slave operation is global - particularly in Kosovo. Blackmail, money laundering, human trafficking, slavery, moral repugnance all come to mind.
These are the daily workings of the corporate mobsters that are international and evil. I call them Mr. Big just to shorten it up a bit. But we must also see the faces of these criminals - they must all be exposed. Epstein is one, a key operator, but I want to know those he is working for as well. They are the real Mr. Big and need to be taken down.
I've got a pretty good idea who they are: both mainstream political parties are loaded with their agents; Wall St. and Hollywood moguls; media stars and celebs; military industrial warmongers; corporate drug pushers; allied fascist operators in Israel, Saudi Arabia and beyond.
But who will expose the big story? In my lifetime we've watched the so-called hearings about the Red scare in the 1950's; Vietnam war hearings; Watergate hearings; Iran-Contra 'affair' in 1987; Anita Hill and Clarence Thomas Supreme Court hearings in 1991; Bill Clinton's impeachment hearings; and presently we have RussiaGate. None of them were chasing justice - they were public relations productions to distract and cover up existing criminal activities. Few were ever held accountable.
Philip Giraldi, former counter-terrorism specialist and military intelligence officer, in writing about the current Epstein story, wonders:
With an election year coming up, the Democrats would hardly want the public to be reminded of Bill’s [Clinton] exploits, but one has to wonder where and how deep the investigation might go. There is also a possible Donald Trump angle.....
Selective inquiries into wrongdoing to include intense finger pointing
are the name of the game in Washington, and the affaire Epstein also has
all the hallmarks of a major espionage case, possibly tied to Israel.
Unless Epstein is an extremely sick pedophile who enjoys watching films
of other men screwing twelve-year-old girls the whole filming procedure
smacks of a sophisticated intelligence service compiling material to
blackmail prominent politicians and other public figures. Those
blackmailed would undoubtedly in most cases cooperate with the foreign
government involved to avoid a major scandal. It is called recruiting
“agents of influence.” That is how intelligence agencies work and it is
what they do.
Investigators discovered a safe in Jeffrey Epstein’s Manhattan mansion
that held “piles of cash,” diamonds and an expired passport from a
foreign country which had Mr. Epstein’s photo but a fake name and said he lived in Saudi Arabia.
Prosecutors revealed the safe’s contents as they argued on Monday in
Federal District Court in Manhattan that Mr. Epstein should be denied
bail before his sex-trafficking and conspiracy trial because he was a
flight risk and a danger to the community.
Obviously Epstein is indeed a flight risk if the court allows him to post bail. This case has all the makings of a real summer blockbuster. One can imagine that behind the scenes big wheels are turning hard and fast in order to attempt to keep this story from blowing sky high.
It is up to the public to demand truth and justice for the young women who have long suffered at the ugly hands of fat cats like Epstein and the other names in his little black book.
A recent opinion poll shows the majority of American veterans think foreign wars were not worth fighting. RT spoke to one such person, who says his tours in Iraq and Afghanistan served weapons manufacturers and not people.
“These wars were unjust, illegal, immoral, should never have happened,” Will Griffin, who is now an anti-war activist and organizer, told RT. He said that would be true regardless of any poll.
America’s growing disillusionment with endless military deployments on foreign soil was highlighted in a Pew Research Center report on Wednesday. The polling agency said 64 percent of veterans in the US thought the war in Iraq was not worth fighting. The same answer was given about Afghanistan, the longest war in America’s history, by 58 percent of those polled.
Griffin said one didn’t need to look deep to see that engagements in the Middle East were reprehensible and senseless.
“More civilians have died than enemy combatants. Veteran suicides are at all-time high. There are no schools or hospitals being built in these countries. More bombs are being dropped. And terrorist organizations have risen exponentially since 2011. So every goal that we had going in to Iraq and Afghanistan have failed by every single measure,” he explained.
As a veteran, he knows well the feeling of guilt that one can bring back from a deployment.
“The things that we did were very bad and evil things. I spent two years in combat zones in Iraq and Afghanistan,” he said. “As a mechanic I most certainly worked on vehicles that killed people over there. Who they killed I do not know.”
He said after returning home and educating himself he realized that he was basically cheated into believing that his military service was justified.
“I never served or provided service to the American people or the people of Iraq or the people of Afghanistan. Who I did serve were the corporations, the weapons manufacturers and the politicians, who benefited their careers off of these wars and off of the lives of my fellow soldiers and innocent civilians,” he said.
~ Will Griffin is a Global Network board member and lives in Philadelphia, PA.
The office of a Ukrainian TV channel, which has been complaining about
threats coming from nationalists [fascists] over its editorial policy, was attacked
overnight with a grenade launcher.
Now just ask yourself, who is directing this operation to suppress Stone's film about the US-NATO orchestrated coup in Kiev in 2014?
Russiagate is the public relations answer to this desperate empire's disastrous chess move in Ukraine.
Sadly both parties in Washington have their dirty hands in the Kiev cookie jar. Getting them out will be a challenge and a huge necessity.
Bruce
PS Thanks to those signing the stop funding of weapons to Ukraine petition that was initiated by a Lugansk labor leader. The numbers are steadily climbing but most important is that people are seeing this issue (many for the first time) and deciding to give it some time and energy. Here is one example at Gar Smith's (former editor of Earth Island Journal) site called Environmentalists Against War.
Yesterday the Irish High Court denied U.S. Veterans For Peace (VFP) members Tarak Kauff and Ken Mayers appeal of their bail conditions requiring them to stay in Ireland until their trial. "As soon as the judge opened his mouth," said Tarak, "I could tell he was going to deny the appeal. It's clearly political."
This means that Tarak and Ken could be required to stay in Ireland for years, much longer than any possible penalty for their charges should they be found guilty.
The judge said that if their charges are moved from the Circuit Court in County Clare (where it's not possible to get a fair trial regarding Shannon Airport) to Dublin, he might reconsider the question, as the Dublin Circuit Court is backed up for years.
Seven members of VFP from the U.S. came to Ireland in March 2019 to show solidarity with Irish peace activists who have been campaigning for years with nonviolent direct actions at Shannon Airport since 2001. Kauff and Mayers entered Shannon Airport on St. Patrick's Day this year to search and investigate an Omni Air plane carrying up to 300 armed U.S. troops to the Middle East.
When brought before the court the day after they were arrested at Shannon, they were denied bail and held in prison for 12 days, until a high court appeal against their unjustified imprisonment could be arranged. Their passports were seized and they've been held in Ireland ever since.
During the intervening time they've been bannering, leafleting, doing media, and speaking to the public and parliament members about the U.S. military use of Shannon.
It is likely that the prime minister of neutral Ireland was coerced or
otherwise persuaded by President George W. Bush to allow Pentagon and
CIA aircraft to land and refuel at Shannon Airport in Ireland on their
way to Washington's wars of aggression in Afghanistan and Iraq.
It appears that Tarak and Ken are being used by Ireland and the U.S. to make a point to others. The message: don't bother coming to Ireland and trying to shut down Shannon. It's become a U.S. air base in spite of Ireland's professed 'neutrality'.
Parts written by Edward Horgan (VFP Ireland) and Ellen Davidson (VFP New York City)
I am like a man possessed when it comes to the Ukraine story. Not only do I suffer while watching the daily genocidal shelling by the US-backed government in Kiev of people living in the Donbass (eastern Ukraine near the Russian border) - but I've also put my ear to the railroad tracks and hear the train coming.
Take a look at this story about the US (since unable to grab Crimea in 2014 following the US orchestrated coup d'etat in Ukraine) presently building/expanding new Navy and Air Force installations in Ukraine. The US is preparing for war with Russia - poking them - prodding them - escalating war exercises near their border. The US-NATO are just itching for Moscow to make a move they can use as justification to start dropping the hammer on Russia. It would be a colossal mistake.
As tensions rise between Russia and Ukraine on the Black Sea, the US is upgrading several Ukrainian naval bases to give American and NATO warships the ability to dock just miles from Russia-controlled Crimea.
Centered at the Ochakiv Naval Base and the military facility at Mykolaiv — 40 miles east of Odessa and less than 100 northwest of Crimea — the American-funded effort includes reinforcing and upgrading existing piers and adding a new floating dock, security fencing around the bases, ship repair facilities, and a pair of brand-new Maritime Operations Centers from which Ukrainian and NATO forces can direct exercises and coordinate activities.
Romania, which sits just 150 miles
across the water from Crimea, is buying the Patriot air defense system
from the US, and Romanian and American forces recently held a series of air defense drills in the Black Sea that simulated shooting down drones.
This is the reverse of the 'Cuban missile crisis' from October of 1962 when the former Soviet Union and the US almost went to nuclear war over deployments of Soviet missiles in Cuba. As it turned out the Soviets were responding to the US having deployed missiles first in Turkey. President John Kennedy didn't even know about Pentagon missiles in Turkey. In the end the US 'quietly' removed the missiles in Turkey and the Soviets stepped-back in Cuba.
Hopefully there is a strong debate going on inside the Pentagon about the advisability of making such war mongering moves. I've seen a few, short on info, reports about conflict inside the war rooms but not enough. It's no surprise the Washington Post or the NY Times say nothing about this. They are owned by the same corporate forces who want western control of the planet. At the Pentagon they continually practice a new war between the 'red team' and the 'blue team'.
One should keep in mind that the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker community has been holding a weekly morning peace vigil for more than 20 years at one of the entrances to the Pentagon. I've been there several times while in Washington. It is fascinating to watch the reactions of the multi-ethnic Pentagon personnel who flow in each morning by the thousands. One of my favorite things to say when a high ranking officer walks by is: "Colonel, do you think we've killed enough people yet, sir?"
I was asked by a labor union leader in Lugansk, Ukraine (one of the larger cities in the Donbass) to start a petition to oppose US and Canadian arms sales/gifts to Kiev's puppet government. I met this man in October of 2018 at a conference I attended in Moscow while there doing advance work for the Global Network's 2019 Russia Study Tour. I was impressed by his gentle spirit and directness. When I got the request from him to do the petition I felt compelled to do so.
But there is a difficulty. The host of the petition is Roots Action but they are not willing to give it a 'helping push' because of the forthright language I put in it about the Kiev government being run by Nazis who the US is promoting, arming, training and directing.
This is the headquarters of the internal security bureau in Kiev, Ukraine. Who do you think really runs the place?
I know this because I've been studying the Ukraine story practically daily since 2014. All the evidence is there as to what is really going on. Just click on the links I provided above. Read it for yourself and make your own determination. Ukraine is a trigger for WW III.
The melting of the Arctic ice gives the RAND Corporation and Washington the hope they can move military operations into that once frozen zone and make it possible to balkanize Russia to ensure that western oil corporations take claim to the vast resources there.
Ukraine revealed its unique nature before European officials who arrived
in Kiev to hold the Ukraine-EU summit but came across multiple fits of
hatred by local politicians toward local journalists.
They became
indignant when they found out that journalists from the channel
NewsOne, in cooperation with journalists from VGTRK, are preparing the
Moscow-Kiev teleconference because "We Need to Talk."
To prevent that
conversation, fascist fighters, who went through the Maidan in 2014, used their bag of techniques, intimidation, and threats. Newly elected President Zelensky quickly got in line.
You can sign the petition to Trump and Canadian president Trudeau demanding that both nations stop supplying weapons to the Nazi infested government in Ukraine here.
MB, Tanya Bukharina (our guide from our recent trip to Crimea), Regis Tremblay and myself went to the Neighborhood Church in Bath on Sunday for the service. Rev. Bill Bliss (who went with us to Russia) spoke about forgiveness and letting go. The need to learn to love and show penance for our collective bad behavior.
That's a tall order for must of us - the line between sanity and psychopathy - how do we stay connected to nature and one another while inundated with the brutality and arrogance of Mr. Big and his lackeys on Wall Street and the Bank of London? Exceptionalism and empire are the works of the devil.
Following the Church service about 20 people stayed for the 'Afterglow' discussion time where MB, Tanya, Bill and I spoke about our recent trip to Moscow, Crimea and St. Petersburg. Bill put lots of pictures and maps on a big TV screen for everyone to get a better sense of what is going on there.
I told about how Bill Clinton signed the 'NATO Enlargement' program that broke the promise to Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the reunification of Germany, that the NATO war machine would not expand eastward 'one inch' toward Moscow.
Ever since then the NATO expansion plan has been on steroids with its goal to encircle Russia with military bases. Similar to the way Iran is currently surrounded by US military bases. And China is being surrounded with a NATO that has morphed into the Pacific region. NATO is the military arm of corporate capitalism.
It was magical to watch the church folks open their hearts to Tanya from Crimea. She speaks well and her warm smile touched them all. I was pleasantly surprised at how, in general terms, people seemed to intuitively understand the whole Russia story. People are not stupid - many of them have worked for corporations and they have seen the way Mr. Big throws his weight around.
People understand how evil our government is - they just don't want to get involved. The material world and 'success mythology' keeps their nose to the grindstone. Credit debt is another key tool to keep the masses in line and it works.
I pointed to the Arctic Sea map and said that drilling for fossil fuels in that once frozen zone will now be possible. The RAND Corporation has a plan to break Russia up into pieces so that the oil corporations can take control of the region. NATO is holding regular war games up in the Arctic zone in order to prepare to 'capture' the region.
One man approached me once we concluded the 'Afterglow' and I should say he was hot. He understands everything going on, his heart is breaking over it all, but he thinks there is no stopping Mr. Big. We talked about resignation, giving up, surrender.....just walking away.
I reminded him that I've heard him play drums at church musical events. I told him he was in touch with the heartbeat of the Earth. If we are alive we must hear the heartbeat that calls for struggle to survive - that is the essence of life.
I told him I can't quit. Mr. Big might win many battles but I'll never surrender. I am in line with those who understand that human dignity, sovereignty and solidarity requires us to stand up to the corporate oligarchies. I told him that each day I look for things to do to keep connected to the struggle for life and justice.
To do less would be submission to slavery - of the 21st century variety.
Executive producer and activist Jean-Louis Bourgeois and director Bob Cohen recently released their full-length film which covers the endless war in Afghanistan. The hour-long film features former commandant of the US Marine Corps, former state department officials-turned-activists like Matthew Hoh, Afghan-American activist Shukria Dellawar, well-known author and activist Phyllis Bennis and more. The film provides a narrative of how leaving Afghanistan is not only necessary but also the only way to end the war.
Nearly 18 years after US forces invaded Afghanistan in the wake of 9/11, the Afghan conflict has become America’s longest and costliest war. Yet today, the Taliban insurgents are stronger and control more territory than ever before.
Featuring former commanding officers of the US military, combat veterans, political analysts and American and Afghan peace activists, this documentary deconstructs the reasons why the the war has failed and has dragged on for so long, while also offering solutions on how the United States can exit Afghanistan and not make this an endless war.
"Something spiritual is happening here, I think. Right after we installed a cross in the center, exactly two weeks ago, [intense] shelling began. Right into the city center, right at this place! It feels like some sort of spiritual warfare" - tells Father Ioannes who came to Kominternove to help parishioners of recently burnt down church.
Saint Spyridon church is suffering through all years of war. It's shining dome is an easy target for Ukrainian army forces. Walls are wrecked by shrapnel, front door is pierced all the way through by bullets. Four mortar shells landed around the church just two days ago. Nevertheless, few but resilient parishioners of Kominternove continue to come to the church service. Faith is almost all they have left.
This settlement in the South of Donetsk Republic is often shelled by incendiary munitions. Houses are burning almost every night and on the 5th of July as a result of direct hit, the roof of the church caught on fire.
DPR military [self defense forces] and local residents had to put out the fire under the constant shooting from large-caliber machine-guns. It's a kind of a habit here, that as soon as a house catches on fire, Ukrainian shelling becomes more intense to hinder people from saving their homes. Luckily, all icons have been rescued and services will be held in St Spyridon's church again very soon.
To: U.S. President Trump and Canadian President Trudeau
Stop U.S. transfer of offensive weapons and military training for the puppet regime in Ukraine. Stop Canadian arms sales and funds for ammunition to Kiev.
Why is this important?
Since the U.S.-directed coup d'état in Kiev, Ukraine in 2014 more than 10,000 have been killed as the puppet government in Kiev has been attacking its own citizens in eastern Ukraine. Nazis (now part of various security departments in the Ukrainian government) have been trained, armed and directed to attack Russian ethnic citizens living in the Donbass region near Russia.
In a war, an attrition strategy “is a strategy in which the objective is to wear out the fighting forces and enemy reserves…"
During his meeting with the OSCE leader, the new [Ukrainian] President Zelensky said on June 13 about the conflict in Donbass: “For me, this is the main goal: stop the war, stop the shooting... ”
In fact, exactly the opposite has occurred; Since the inauguration of the new US puppet of Kiev, a new murderous military escalation has been launched by Ukrainian forces [armed, trained and directed by the US] on the entire Donbass [Russian ethnic eastern part of Ukraine] front, placing the clown-president on the same murderous path as his predecessors Turchinov and Poroshenko.
And during these early days of July, the Ukrainian forces continue their terrorism against the Donbass, with new deadly attacks against [the self-defense] soldiers of the Donetsk and Lugansk Republics, and also against the civilian population that they defend.
Of course, we are, fortunately, far from the butcheries experienced in the wars of the past, as for example during the Somme offensive of the first world war or the fire bombing of Dresden during the next world war.
However, it is now clear that Kiev, with a criminal genocidal intent, is trying to bleed the Donbass Russians, applying a strategy of slow hemorrhage all along the 470 kilometer front, and a policy of terror on the residential areas that are close to it.
Thus, north of Gorlovka, on Tuesday, July 2, 2019, the Ukrainians again bombed residential areas of the village of Zaitsevo, destroying new civilian homes.
According to the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in charge of the conflict in Donbass, between April 2014 and June 9, 2019 there have been 3,332 deaths among the civilian population of Donbass, with more than 7,000 injured. And since then, civilian casualties are experiencing another significant increase, about twenty civilians have been injured during this month of June.
On the military side, the Ukrainian forces continue to violate the Minsk agreements on a daily basis, causing significant losses in the ranks of the Republican defense forces. Thus during the month of June between 35 and 50 militiamen have been killed on the front and dozens of others wounded by a Ukrainian strategy that seeks: on the one hand to hit precisely targeted republican positions using their artillery or anti-tank missile systems; and on the other hand to maintain offensive pressure by multiplying the “contact zones” by a systematically occupying the neutral zone situated between the lines.
In addition to bombing residential areas and Republican defensive positions, Ukrainian forces are still seeking to occupy the “gray area” between the lines, making it shrink a little more each month for three years now.
Of course, this strategy is also not inconsequential for the Ukrainian “Combined Forces Operation”, which also regularly suffers significant losses in its operations against Republican defensive positions, either by our defense forces or by the minefields that dot this “gray area”.
On July 1, in the Mariupol sector, a unit of Ukrainian naval infantry carrying out an offensive reconnaissance had 4 killed and 6 wounded during the Republican response.
Elsewhere, on the northern front of the Donetsk People’s Republic, another Ukrainian unit had to abandon an advanced position near the Gorlovka defenses.
Although the Ukrainian losses are numerically larger than those of the Republican forces, it is necessary to put them however in perspective of the existing balance of power which is about 4 for 1 in favor of Kiev and the duration during which the Ukrainian army reinforces new modern equipment and procedures.
Kiev is therefore playing the clock and the numbers, continuing to cause a slow hemorrhage of Donbass, large enough to weaken in the medium term the defensive forces whose reserves are obliged to reinforce the contact zones created by the Ukrainians (to compensate for the reaction time that has become non-existent), but too weak to provoke Russian intervention and/or to revitalize military operations on the ground, which would lead to excessive Ukrainian losses and internal and international political protest.
In the 6th century BC, the Chinese general and strategist Sun Tsu already said that “the war needs victories but does not like the duration”. This theorem is still valid and we observe here and there, when a Blitzkrieg cannot bring victory, to develop battles or even wars of attrition to which are generally added other attributes, sanitary, economic, political and media, or more recently cybernetic for example.
Russia, faithful to its measured diplomacy and its sense of proportional response, reacts to this war of attrition suffered by the Donbass, and avoiding military intervention as much as possible, with increased and progressive support of the populations of Donetsk and Lugansk, which it accompanies, and assists the modernization and military standardization, the socio-economic project and their integration within the Russian Federation first administrative, as in the recent opportunity to access Russian citizenship.
GUEST: Hyun Lee. U.S. National Organizer of the group Women Cross DMZ.
BACKGROUND: President Donald Trump made history on Sunday when he
became the first sitting US president to step into North Korea,
accepting an invitation by leader Kim Jong Un. Meeting Mr. Kim in the
Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), he stayed on North Korean territory for only
about a minute before returning to the South Korean side.
After what had appeared last year to be major progress in US-North
Korean relations, ties between the two nations soured. But Trump and
Kim, who claim to have a personal affinity for one another, seem ready
to revive a detente.
It is not yet clear what the terms of the detente will be. Some are
speculating that rather than requiring North Korea to give up its
nuclear weapons technology, the Trump administration may only require a
nuclear freeze.
Nancy Randolph (from Topsham, Maine) and I finished the latest edition of Space Alert. It now goes to the printer and it will be in the mail around July 9. It's always a collaborative and fun process with Nancy as we put this newsletter together. I gather the articles, photos and cartoons and Nancy does the design and layout. We kick it back and forth a few times before it is finished.
Nancy told me today that she was somewhere over the weekend and some folks were talking about the recent arrests at Bath Iron Works just 10 miles up the road from Brunswick. Some were criticizing us daring to block traffic and disrupt the destroyer 'christening'. They felt some types of 'free speech' are just out of bounds. She told them basically that free speech is most needed when it goes against the prevailing mythologies. I thanked Nancy and said that alot of people say they support 'free speech' but actually they only want to 'allow it' when it agrees with them. When they don't agree with the issue at hand is when they think you've gone 'out of bounds'.
We had more articles than we could use this time. I want to thank Will Griffin (The Peace Report) for most of the photos from the Russia trip. It was also great that he could go from Russia to Finland to represent the Global Network at peace events there opposing US-NATO war games underway in the northern Nordic region. The war games were aimed at Russia. The US is pressuring the hell out of Finland and Sweden to join NATO and allow their military to be subordinated to the Pentagon - the tip of the spear.
This Space Alert has a triple-focus. Our Russia trip, Trump's Space Force proposal now before Congress, and the need to shut down the steroidal NATO war machine. NATO has been used by the US to circumvent the UN's authority in order to unilaterally pursue multiple wars around the world. There will be lots of anti-NATO organizing this fall at the time of the next big meeting of NATO in London on December 3-4. We also tried to weave in other key issues into the paper like conversion of the military industrial complex, climate change, and growing poverty as Washington shakes down the public to pay for endless war on behalf of corporate interests. Mr. Big always wants more.
If anyone would like to help us distribute some copies of the newsletter please let us know. We can mail them to you and all we ask in return is help covering the postage. Let us know how many you want and we will send them. Please share the link to the online version of Space Alert at the GN website here.
Just over fifty years ago, the first satellite was spun into orbit.
Space filled us with optimism and awe. But were we in fact just staking
out a new war zone? Space weapons feature prominently in science
fiction, but how close are we to seeing real weapons systems in space?
Today, 1000 active satellites are officially recorded as circling the
earth. Most countries use satellite technology. And 45 nations own their
own orbiting satellites. By shutting down a few satellites, the
infrastructure of an entire country or continent can be paralyzed.
Now, the United States is the Master of Space. It dominates as the owner
and user of space systems, both civilian and military. "Full spectrum
dominance" - control and dominance of land, sea, air and, more recently,
space, is still the goal of some within the U.S. Defense Department.
But what are the realities behind these aims? Trying to track down what
the Defense Department is spending on space weapons projects is a tricky
business.
When Hitler had the first V2 missile launched in 1944, the weapons race
in space officially began. Masters of Space is the saga of the emerging
competition between the major industrial nations to control space and
the fine line between space-faring and space warfare.
With unprecedented access to present and former US military personnel,
and insights from anti-weapons activists, as well as military analysts,
Masters of Space explores space as a "new arena for war".
Masters of Space is directed by Denis Delestrac for Lowik Media and
Coptor Productions.
