Protest in Ukraine for peace that calls out US's warmongering.
Please note that this event was not reported in US media. No surprise of course.
US-NATO wish to wage war against Russia down to the last Ukrainian soldier.
This US-NATO fomenting war in Ukraine is pure evil.
My hope is that this attitude pictured above in Ukraine is growing quickly across their nation - and most importantly by Zelensky in Kiev.
Bruce
Official news appeared testifying that Ukraine will soon attack civilians in Donbas by heavy weapons : diplomatic and administrative staffers from foreign Embassies and Consulates located in Ukraine have been instructed to go back home. Such countries are: Canada, Latvia, Finland, Estonia, Japan, New Zealand, the USA, the UK, the Netherlands, plus Russia, etc. Usually, diplomatic personnel are recalled before the war is imminent.
The root cause of a potential war in Europe is Ukraine, openly backed by the USA, the UK, the EU and NATO who are supplying ultra-nazi regime in Kiev with heavy weapons and advisers, intending to regain Donbas, but not Russia.
Ukraine has massed 150,000 troops near Donbas. Its General Staff has already approved the Ukrainian Armed Forces' invasion into Donbas.
Kind regards,
Dr. Vladimir Kozin
Member, Russian Academy of Military Sciences
Member, Russian Academy of Natural Sciences
Thousands rallied in the Slovakian capital against a military defense treaty between Bratislava and Washington, which would enable the US military to use two Slovakian air force bases for 10 years, as well as to provide money to maintain them.
Biden went on to get testy with his interviewer, shooting down a question about the definition of “temporary” inflation by suggesting host Lester Holt was “being a wise guy with me a little bit,” but adding that he understands that “that’s your job.”
Who runs Washington? I believe it is the CIA and the top chiefs of the corporate oligarchy - those who serve on the inter-locking boards of directorates. Been that way for many years. Abraham Lincoln complained about too much corporate power. It is likely a key reason he got killed in 1865.
Mr. Big is the resource extractionists, pharma, MIC, banksters, big tech, big ag, aerospace, corporate media and the like.
All the presidents are selected to serve a particular function. Divide the people against one another, read the script from a teleprompter, never shirk when given 'war orders', and rob the public blind. Wear a flag pin, a WW II bomber jacket when visiting the troops and always salute when boarding Air Force One.
That is basically the job description. Leave the rest to Mr. Big.
Do a good enough job and you'll possibly get a second term.
Welcome to America, the land of the free and home of the brave.
Bruce
By Farrah Tomazin
Washington: Members of the US Congress are considering creating an “AUKUS caucus” to sharpen Washington’s focus on the strategic military pact announced last year to help Australia acquire nuclear-powered submarines.
As US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken prepares to travel to Australia this week, Democrats and Republicans are in talks to create a special group on Capitol Hill solely dedicated to AUKUS – the three-way alliance between America, Britain and Australia designed to deter China in the Indo-Pacific.
In an interview with The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald, Democratic congressman Joe Courtney – a co-chair of the bipartisan Friends of Australia Caucus – said he believed AUKUS would be one of the most important strategic moves the US undertakes in decades.
While it was going to take time for Americans to grasp its significance, he said there was high interest across both sides of politics in Washington to ensure that “support is there on the Hill to make sure it succeeds”.
“We were actually talking about forming a new caucus called the AUKUS caucus,” said Courtney, who is also the chairman of the Seapower and Projection Forces subcommittee in the House of Representatives.
“We’ve currently got separate caucuses that members belong to, but it makes sense to have a group of us focused on this particular arrangement.”
The AUKUS agreement was announced in September last year, controversially ending the contract given to France in 2016 to build 12 diesel electric-powered submarines to replace Australia’s Collins submarine fleet.
Instead, all three countries involved will work together to build a class of nuclear-propelled submarines and associated technologies, starting with an 18-month study to work out what is achievable.
In announcing the policy in September, US President Joe Biden spoke of the need to maintain a “free and open Indo-Pacific”. China and Russia, meanwhile, condemned the alliance in a statement over the weekend, saying it increased the danger of an arms race in the region.
The Friends of Australia Caucus that Courtney co-chairs – which also includes, among others, Republican representatives Mike Gallagher and Roy Blunt, and Democrat representative Dick Durbin – was launched in 2017 to bolster the alliance between the US and Australia, and is one of dozens of bipartisan caucus groups in Washington.
While much of the focus of AUKUS had been centred on the development of submarines, Courtney said, the Biden administration had made it clear it was part of a much larger strategy and would also result in a broader suite of technologies.
Therefore, he said, there was good reason to create a broader bipartisan group with links to other countries that could benefit, such as New Zealand and Japan. If created, the “AUKUS caucus” would be yet another sign of the growing importance of Australia’s alliance with America.
Another potent example emerged last month when a Washington think-tank, the Centre for International and Strategic Studies, launched an inaugural Australia Chair position to sharpen its focus on US-Australia relations.
Former US State Department policy planning staffer Dr Charles Edel, who was also an associate professor of Strategy and Policy at the US Naval War College was appointed to the role. He said that while the alliance was mostly positive, there was “some major work ahead of us if it’s going to achieve lift”.
“That’s especially true when it comes to sharing sensitive technology, accelerating force posture initiatives, building the necessary industrial and logistical capabilities to support these moves, and figuring out how to secure supply chains on everything from energy to critical minerals,” he said.
Edel added that “we are also now seeing something of a role-reversal between the US and Australia”. “It used to be that the US wanted Australia to be more involved in their own region. Now, we’re seeing Australia – after mounting pressure by China in multiple domains over the past half-decade – doubling-down on the United States.”
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken travels to Australia, Fiji and Hawaii this week for talks with America’s Indo-Pacific allies.
In Canberra, he will meet with Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Foreign Minister Marise Payne. Blinken will also attend the fourth foreign ministers meeting of the so-called “Quad” alliance, which also takes in the US, India and Japan.
The meeting is the first Quad get together since Biden hosted leaders at the White House in September. In a briefing to reporters, Daniel Kritenbrink, who is US assistant secretary of state of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, said “the key message that the secretary will take with him on this trip is that our partnerships deliver”.
“In this era of intense competition, changing strategic landscapes, economic coercion and, of course, this very difficult global pandemic, there is no greater partnership than what we are trying to accomplish through the Quad with Australia, India and Japan,” he said.
By Eduardo Galeano (Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone)
In the middle of 1960, the Congo, until then a Belgian colony, celebrated its independence.
Speech followed speech, and the audience was melting from heat and boredom. Belgium, a strict teacher, warned of the dangers of freedom. The Congo, grateful pupil, promised to behave.
Then Patrice Lumumba's speech exploded and ruined the party. He spoke out against the "empire of silence," and through him the silenced found a voice. He paid homage to the fathers of independence, the murdered, the imprisoned, the tortured, and the exiled, who throughout so many years had fought "to bring to an end the humiliating slavery imposed on us by force."
His words, received in icy silence by the Europeans present, were interrupted eight times by ovations from the Africans in the audience.
That speech sealed his fate.
Lumumba, recently released from prison, had won the first free election in the Congo's history, and headed up its first government. But the Belgian press called him a "delirious and illiterate thief." In Belgian intelligence cables, Lumumba was dubbed Satan. The director of the CIA, Alan Dulles, sent instruction to his agents: "The removal of Lumumba must be an urgent objective."
Dwight Eisenhower, president of the US, told British Foreign Secretary Lord Alec Douglas-Home: "I wish Lumumba would fall into a river full of crocodiles."
Lord Douglas-Home took a week to replay: "Now is the time to get rid of Lumumba."
And the minister for African affairs of the Belgian government, Harold d'Aspremont Lynden, offered his own opinion: "Lumumba must be eliminated once and for all."
At the beginning of 1961, a firing squad of eight soldiers and nine policemen commanded by Belgian officers shot him along with his two closed collaborators.
Fearing a popular uprising, the Belgian government and its Congolese tools, Mobuto Sese Seko and Moise Tshombe, covered up the crime.
Two weeks later, the new president of the US, John Kennedy, announced: "We will not allow Lumumba to return to the government."
And Lumumba, who by then had already been killed and dissolved in a barrel of sulfuric acid, did not return to the government.
Resurrection of Lumumba
The assassination of Lumumba was an act of colonial reconquest.
The Congo's mineral wealth, copper, cobalt, diamonds, gold, uranium, oil, gave the orders from the depths of the earth.
The sentence was carried out with the complicity of the United Nations. Lumumba had a good reason to mistrust the officers of troops that claimed to be international, and he denounced "the racism and paternalism of people whose only vision of Africa is lion hunting, slave markets, and colonial conquest. Naturally the would understand the Belgians. They have the same history, the same lust for our wealth."
Mobutu, the free-world hero who trapped Lumumba and had him crushed, held power for more than 30 years. The international financial institutions recognized his merits and showered him with generosity. [US President George H. W. Bush called Mobutu 'family'.] By the time he died, his personal fortune was nearly equal to the foreign debt of the country to which he had devoted his best energies.
But Lumumba had announced: "History will one day have its say. It will not be the history taught in the United Nations, Washington, Paris or Brussels. Africa will write its own history."
The tree where Lumumba was executed still stands in the wood of Mwadingusha. Riddled with bullets. Like him.
SpaceX says that the deorbiting satellites "pose zero collision risk with other satellites and by design demise upon atmospheric reentry [burn up] — meaning no orbital debris is created and no satellite parts hit the ground."
Because these satellites (no matter their size) are made with high-tech components, when they burn up they create a chemical stew that falls to Earth and is spread by the winds. The toxic elements get into the water, our air and our bodies.
Astronomers are distressed that these mega satellite constellations will ruin nighttime observations from Earth. The International Astronomical Union is forming a new center for the protection of dark skies.
I asked my long-time contact in Kodiak, Alaska to give me an update on the number of jobs being created there since the establishment of the spaceport 25 years ago. Kodiak is a pristine environment known for bears, eagles and salmon.
Maine legislative sponsor
of the bill to create 'Maine Space Authority' Sen. Daughtry (D-Brunswick) testified on February 8 at the state capital saying, 'Millions & millions & millions of
$$$ into states who have done this. 3.5 - 4.5 thousand jobs potentially,
maybe $1.5 billion impact on our state. And will improve our
infrastructure issues around internet'.
Bruce
Well, the Kodiak launch site has produced very few full-time jobs in over 20 years, other than janitorial person and site watchman/security. In between launches there is hardly any activity out at the site.
These working class people are holding remarkably peaceful protests in Ottawa, Canada - a nation that claims to be a democracy.
Their request is a national public discussion about vaccine mandates. In various countries around the world the governments are lifting mandates and forced isolation.
The truckers (I heard that a high percentage of them have been vaccinated) are primarily upset by the imposition of the QR code mandates that they see as violation of civil liberties.
These remarkable trucker and farmer protests are inspiring people all over the world.
The national government in Canada is now appearing to be forming a military-style plan to round up and arrest the truckers in order to break-up their movement. Instead of sitting down and talking with them - and forming policies that work for everyone - the federal government instead seems to be heading toward a hard-fisted approach. It reminds me of when Obama sent in the cops all over America to break up the Occupy movement in late 2011 and early 2012.
No matter where you stand on vaccines (I believe it is a personal medical issue) I must say that I am impressed with the love, the caring, the sharing, and the centered-ness I've witnessed while watching many of these videos from Ottawa and around Canada where the support for these working people is growing by the day.
That is what the Canadian government fears most - the public increasingly supports these non-violent, determined and respectful truckers/farmers and their families.
From what I've seen these folks don't appear to be goons, criminals, terrorists or any of the other names they have been called by the current government and media. They might be conservatives but that doesn't change the fact they have something important to say to all of us about growing surveillance society. I wish more people on the 'left' were talking about this.
I wish them all the best in the days ahead.
Bruce
PS: The ruling government in Canada and their police agents are sending in 'agent provocateurs' (as often happens at protests in the US, I've experience them myself) in order to create incidents that will then discredit the protests. The truckers are not taking the bait.
Biden just nominated a former Trump judicial nominee, GOP donor, and corporate lawyer as a federal judge. One more log on the fire to ensure Mr. Big runs everything.
Trump and Biden are corporate hacks, entertainers and bag men. They get paid and promoted for doing the work of ensuring the public are distracted and divided - all without conscience.
How any thinking person can fall for these games is way beyond me.
We are on the path into total totalitarianism.
Believing that either of these two political parties can offer us anything is dysfunctional thinking.
The vast majority of Americans do not vote for a good reason. The fact that legions of people are now registering to vote as an 'Independent' is a good and telling sign.
But don't sit back thinking that some magic-bullet politician is going to save us.
The only way we get out of this deal alive is if everyone stands up - shows leadership - because at the national level we have no real leaders. Sen. Bernie Sanders refuses to call for peace/respect toward Russia. Those Washington 'democracy' windows are slammed shut. Same for the 'squad' in the Congress. They are afraid to speak out.
To understand where Washington's elite are heading it helps to look at sports in the DC area. The former Washington 'Redskins' changed their racist name (after many years refusing to do so) to the Washington Football Club. But that didn't last long - they've now changed to the 'Washington Commanders'. Their logo looks like it came from the Pentagon.
To me this is a sign that the American people are being steadily brainwashed using every available mechanism to accept (and cheer for) continued military global aggression on behalf of corporate oligarchs. At the Pentagon (since the 2003 invasion of Iraq) they say that America's role in the world economy is 'security export'.
So we have to do the hard political work and I hope everyone will find some way that they can use their life skills to further this struggle for survival - we do it for the future generations.
Giving up (while tempting at times) is not an serious option.
Bruce
Opinion by Maria Zakharova (Russian Foreign Ministry's Spokesperson)
Josep Borrell’s [Spanish Argentine politician serving as High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy] recent deliberations (https://eeas.europa.eu/headquarters/headquarters-homepage/110293/tensions-rising-our-eastern-borders-unity-remains-our-strength_en) about the future of Europe, published in his blog on January 30 have confirmed my long-time suspicion that his blog has a life of its own and that the EU’s foreign policy chief may not even know what exotic texts are posted there on his behalf.
The new entry plays on the Western media’s psychedelic phobias about “Russia’s aggressive actions against Ukraine.”
However, time goes on, yet Russia has not invaded Ukraine. The plan of the United States and its British allies, who have ordered this tune, is clear: invent the “Russian threat,” announce their resolve to fight it heroically, stage a provocation and eventually declare victory over Russia.
Their goals are to divert public attention from domestic political crises, invest billions of dollars into arming “fragile democracies” and use the situation to reinforce their “invincible” image, which has been frayed by the debacle in Afghanistan.
As for the European Union, we never doubted its biased stand on the conflict in Ukraine. The EU is trying to protect its sphere of influence, which it outlined back in 2013 when Brussels was unscrupulously pushing for an association agreement with Ukraine despite the arguments of the legitimate government in Kiev.
Ultimately, Ukraine has not been admitted to the EU club and is unlikely to be admitted any time soon. In fact, the ongoing Western performance has killed any hope that Ukraine can be admitted to a respectable association: who needs a country that could be “invaded by Russia any day?” NATO has done Ukraine a very bad turn indeed.
President Vladimir Zelensky has announced that the “patriot games” waged over the past few months cost Ukraine $12.5 billion, or 8 percent of Ukraine’s GDP of $155.6 billion.
A new emergency macro-financial assistance (MFA) programme for Ukraine of up to €1.2 billion was ceremoniously announced on January 24. This is almost ten times less than Ukraine has lost from the latest round of anti-Russia hysteria and will only increase Ukraine’s debts. As the EU has admitted, nearly 90 percent of its assistance (€15.1 billion of the €17 billion it has provided since 2014) was issued in the form of loans, which Kiev will have to repay.
As they say, with friends like this, who needs enemies? But then, we have warned more than once that Ukrainians’ interests are the least of Western concerns.
https://t.me/MariaVladimirovnaZakharova/1833
The superpowers would therefore quickly be put on a path toward a never-ending offensive-defensive arms race, as each tried to balance its counterpart’s actions. Until Bush took office, the Treaty was referred to as a “cornerstone of strategic stability” as it facilitated later agreements, reducing U.S. and Russian strategic nuclear arsenals.
The US, assuming that a weakened Russia will never again be in a position to counter US hegemonic power, proceeded to encroach on Russia’s borders through the manipulation of international law and mythical NATO objectives.
Lisa Savage represents us well during TV coverage yesterday of our protest against war with Russia.
Thirty of us gathered in the snow and cold in Topsham, Maine at a busy intersection.
LD 1923, An Act To Establish the Maine Space Corporation
By Hillary Lister & Bruce Gagnon
This new Public Private Partnership would manage Federal government contracts, issue bonds, receive tax breaks, and distribute funds for acquiring land and property for a Maine Space Complex, including developing staging and launch sites for sending satellites and launch vehicles into polar orbit from Brunswick, Limestone, and near Jonesport.
LD 1923 is the result of work by the Maine Space Grant Consortium, a NASA funded organization that promotes aerospace industry interests.
The NASA-backed Consortium has been working to promote the bill in partnership with rocket developer bluShift Aerospace, the University of Maine System, the Loring Development Authority, which manages the former Air Force Base in Limestone, and the Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority, which manages the former Air Force Base in Brunswick. The former bases have the advantage of having FAA certified airports, making them usable for satellite and rocket launches.
During the February 1 public hearing in Augusta testimony in support of LD 1923 specifically highlighted weaponized uses of the spaceports by Karl Hoose of VALT.
VALT Enterprizes was recently awarded a $6.4 million contract from the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) due to VALT’s capacity to address a wide range of hypersonic mission tests. Hypersonics remain a top priority of the Department of Defense (DoD) with a budget of $3.8 billion in FY2022, and a total $29.3 billion investment by 2025.
VALT's DoD contract includes conducting multiple series of hypersonic flight tests to verify performance and capabilities.
Maine’s location and coastline make an ideal launch site location to reach polar orbits, which would make it the only launch location with direct polar orbital access on the east coast.
The sponsor of the bill, Rep Daughtry of Brunswick, has stated that, "The private sector can’t do this without support from public authorities. It will require coordination between federal, state, regional, local and private entities." This bill will set the process in motion for certain entities in the private sector, universities, and non-profit organizations to receive major financial support support through new federal and state tax-payer funded subsidies.
Perhaps to some this sounds like a benign effort to bring jobs and build Maine's economy. But we know that similar spaceport projects (see below) have belied the private sector promises and eventually became used for military operations. Not to mention the environmental impacts from fuels leaking into the local water supply and toxic rocket exhausts. This proposal requires citizen action.
The Innovation, Development, Economic Advancement, and Business (IDEA) Committee of the Maine Legislature will discuss and potentially vote on this bill at their Work Session on Tuesday, February 8, 2022, starting 9:30 AM. You can contact members of the committee with concerns about LD 1923 before Tuesday's work session.
The work session will stream live at:
https://legislature.maine.gov/committee/#Committees/IDEA
IDEA Committee Members
Senator Chip Curry - D
Committee Chair
13 Parkside Lane Belfast, ME 04915
Chip.Curry@Legislature.Maine.gov
Representative Tiffany Roberts - D
Committee Chair (cosponsor of LD 1923)
35 Buttonwood Road South Berwick, ME 03908
Tiffany.Roberts@Legislature.Maine.gov
Senator Scott Cyrway - R
(cosponsor of LD 1923)
463 Benton Road Albion, ME 04910
Scott.Cyrway@legislature.maine.gov
Senator Joseph Rafferty - D
49 Middle Road Kennebunk, ME 04043
Joseph.Rafferty@Legislature.Maine.gov
Representative John Andrews - R
P.O. Box 118 Paris, ME 04281
John.Andrews@Legislature.Maine.gov
Representative Susan Austin - R
136 Yarmouth Road Gray, ME 04039
Sue.Austin@legislature.maine.gov
Representative Sue Bernard - R
70 Grimes Road Caribou, ME 04736
Susan.Bernard@Legislature.Maine.gov
Representative Amanda Collamore - R
173 Library Street Pittsfield, ME 04967
Amanda.Collamore@Legislature.Maine.gov
Representative Jack Ducharme R
34 Heald Street Madison, ME 04950
John.Ducharme@Legislature.Maine.gov
Representative Valli Geiger - D
1 Green Way Rockland, ME 04841
Valli.Geiger@Legislature.Maine.gov
Representative Tavis Hasenfus - D
50 Nobis Point Readfield, ME 04355
Tavis.Hasenfus@Legislature.Maine.gov
Representative Raegan LaRochelle - D
102 Hemlock Terrace Augusta, ME 04330
Raegan.LaRochelle@Legislature.Maine.gov
Representative Sarah Pebworth - D
P.O. Box 347 Blue Hill, ME 04614
Sarah.Pebworth@Legislature.Maine.gov
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| The colored lines on the map indicate the 'line of contact' between the Russian-ethnic Ukrainians (the red line) who have 35,000 in their self-defense forces. The blue line is the US-UK-NATO backed Ukrainian army of 150,000 soldiers including mercenaries. The US is working hard to get Kiev to attack the Donbass which would force Russia to decide if they will fight to defend the Russian-ethnic population just across their border. |
By Manlio Dinucci (Italy)
The phone call between President Biden and Ukrainian President Zelensky “did not go well“, CNN headlines: while “Biden warned that the Russian invasion in February is practically certain when the frozen ground makes it possible for tanks to pass through”, Zelensky “asked Biden to tone down, arguing that the Russian threat is still ambiguous”.
While the Ukrainian president himself takes a more cautious stance, the Ukrainian armed forces are massing in Donbas close to the Donetsk and Lugansk area inhabited by Russian populations. According to reports from the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, units of the Ukrainian Army and National Guard amounting to about 150,000 men are positioned there, the news is overshadowed by our mainstream media which speaks only of the Russian deployment. They are armed and trained, and commanded by US-UK-NATO military advisers and instructors.
From 1991 to 2014, according to the US Congress Research Service, the United States provided Ukraine with $4 billion in military assistance, plus over $ 2.5 billion after 2014. The NATO Trust Fund provided over a billion dollars in which Italy also participated. This is only a part of the military investments made by the major NATO powers in Ukraine. Great Britain, for example, has concluded various military agreements with Kyiv investing, among other things, 1.7 billion pounds in upgrading Ukraine’s naval capabilities: this program provides for the arming of Ukrainian ships with British missiles, the production of joint 8 fast missile units, the construction of naval bases on the Black Sea and also on the Azov Sea between Ukraine, Crimea, and Russia. In this context, Ukrainian military spending, which was equivalent to 3% of GDP ( Gross Domestic Product) in 2014, rose to 6% in 2022 corresponding to over 11 billion dollars.
In addition to the US-NATO military investments in Ukraine, there is the $10 billion investment foreseen by the plan that is being carried out by Erik Prince, founder of the US private military company Blackwater – now it is renamed Academy – which has supplied mercenaries to the CIA, the Pentagon, and the State Department for covert operations (including torture and murder), gaining billions of dollars.
Erik Prince’s plan, revealed by an investigation of Time magazine, consists in creating a private army in Ukraine through a partnership between the Lancaster 6 Company, and the main CIA-controlled Ukrainian intelligence office. Through them, Prince has supplied mercenaries in the Middle East and Africa. It is not known, of course, what would be the task of the private army created in Ukraine by the founder of Blackwater certainly with CIA funding. However, it can be expected that it would conduct covert operations in Europe, Russia, and other regions from its Ukraine base.
Against this background, the exposure made by the Russian Defense Minister Shoigu that in the Donetsk region there are “US private military companies that are preparing a provocation with the use of unknown chemicals” is particularly alarming. It could be the spark causing the detonation of war in the heart of Europe: a chemical attack on Ukrainian civilians in Donbas would immediately be attributed to the Donetsk and Lugansk Russians, who would be attacked by the preponderant Ukrainian forces already deployed in the region to force Russia to militarily intervene in their defense.
At the forefront, ready to massacre the Russians of Donbas there is the Azov battalion, which trained and armed by the US and NATO has been promoted to a special forces regiment. It distinguished by its ferocity in its attacks on the Russian populations of Ukraine. The Azov battalion recruits neo-Nazis from all over Europe under its flag similar to that of the SS Das Reich, it is commanded by its founder Andrey Biletsky who was promoted to colonel. It is not just a military unit but an ideological and political movement, and Biletsky is the charismatic leader in particular for the youth organization that is educated to hate Russians by his book “The words of the white Führer“.
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| A news broadcast by German ZDF station showed soldiers of the Ukraine Azov Battalion with Nazi symbols on their helmets. Photo by Files /ZDF station |
Canadian officials who met with Ukrainian unit linked to neo-Nazis feared exposure by news media: documents
A year before the meeting, Canada’s Joint Task Force Ukraine produced a briefing on the Azov Battalion, acknowledging its links to Nazi ideology.
Ottawa Citizen
Canadian officials who met with members of a Ukrainian battalion linked to neo-Nazis didn’t denounce the unit, but were instead concerned the media would expose details of the get-together, according to newly released documents.
The Canadians met with and were briefed by leaders from the Azov Battalion in June 2018. The officers and diplomats did not object to the meeting and instead allowed themselves to be photographed with battalion officials despite previous warnings that the unit saw itself as pro-Nazi. The Azov Battalion then used those photos for its online propaganda, pointing out the Canadian delegation expressed “hopes for further fruitful co-operation.”
After a journalist asked the Canadian Forces about the Azov social media postings, officers scrambled to come up with a response, according to documents obtained by this newspaper through Access to Information law.
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| US-NATO training base for Ukrainian military and Nazi battalions. The base is in the Nazi strong-hold in the western part of Ukraine. US Special Forces troops from Ft. Carson, Colorado are brought to this base to train the Ukrainian army which is then sent to the Donbass region to attack their fellow citizens who live near the Russian border and are predominately Russian ethnic. The Canadian military is heavily involved in training Ukraine's military. (The link just above takes you to the video pictured here) |
Lt. Col. Fraser Auld, commander of Canada’s Joint Task Force Ukraine, warned that a news article might be soon published and could result in questions being asked inside the Canadian government about why such a meeting took place.
Bernie Farber, head of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, said the Canadians should have immediately walked out of the Azov Battalion briefing. “Canadian armed forces personnel do not meet with Nazis; period, full stop,” Farber said. “This a horrendous mistake that shouldn’t have been made.”
In 2019, the Soufan Center, created by former FBI agent Ali Soufan, who was involved in a number of counter-terrorism cases, warned about the connection between the Azov Battalion and white nationalists. “In Ukraine, the Azov Battalion has recruited foreign fighters motivated by white supremacy and neo-Nazi beliefs, including many from the West, to join its ranks and receive training, indoctrination and instruction in irregular warfare,” the report outlined.
The Azov Battalion has been formerly incorporated into the Ukrainian military, at least in theory, the Soufan Center report noted. But the battalion has cultivated a relationship with members of the Atomwaffen Division, a U.S.-based neo-Nazi terrorist network, it added.
US/NATO Aggression at the Russian Border
A conversation between US, Russian and Ukrainian Peace activists
Webinar, Sunday, February 6,
12 noon Eastern (US/Canada)
Click here to register: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_984zj4TsQ8er6Ja5z3F9vg
Speakers will include:
Corporate media in the US has been warning about a possible invasion of Ukraine by Russia. This, Russia denies. But this propaganda has been used by the Biden administration to whip up sentiment for war.
Billions of dollars of US arms have been sent to Ukraine, Ukraine has massed an estimated 145,000 troops on the Russian border with US-UK-NATO “advisors” supporting their effort.
For years the US and its Western allies have moved NATO into Eastern European and former Soviet States in violation of agreements made with Russia at the end of the Cold War. They have installed missiles in Romania and Poland and conducted “war games” at the Russian border.
Today’s threat is a threat against a major nuclear power that puts the entire world in danger. Join us for this important webinar with voices for peace from Russia, Ukraine and the US.
Click here for UNAC's statement on the situation on the Russian border
Update - January 16-22, 2022 in the Palestinian Occupied Territories
Dozens of armed Special Police Forces broke into the home of the Salehiya family in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in the middle of the night, at a temperature below zero degrees centigrade, arrested the family members and activists sleeping over with extreme violence, and razed the house to the ground – after they destroyed the nursery in the yard the previous day.
Thousands from all over the West Bank attended the funeral of Haj Suleiman Hadhalin who was run over to death by an Israeli police tow truck in his village of Umm Al Kheir.
Jewish terrorists attacked and clubbed activists helping to plant tree saplings near the Palestinian village of Bourin and burnt their car, seven of the activists are suffering head injuries and fractures.
Outpost terrorists were busy this week uprooting trees throughout the West Bank, invading fields, chasing out and running over flocks in the Palestinian Jordan Valley.
Soldiers broke into a school in Deir Nizam, vandalized a classroom and arrested pupils.
Protests against the occupation at junctions and bridges throughout Israel are being organized by the ‘Looking the Occupation in the Eye’ movement’.
Abby Martin speaks to Eugene Puryear to discuss the big picture of US imperialism in Africa: From the Berlin Conference to the subversion of liberation movements to neocolonial puppets and the current sprawl of AFRICOM "counterterrorism."
Lauren Steiner talks with Bruce Gagnon, who coordinates the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space, about what is really behind the beating of the war drums with Russia over Ukraine, the history of our involvement there, specifically our role in the coup of 2014, why Russia is massing troops in the border, why both parties and the corporate media present only one side of this story, and what we can do to stop a potential war.
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| Biden saying, 'Let me guess. Ukraine loves us. Everyone in NATO loves us. The whole world loves the USA!' |
Tensions in U.S.-Russia relations soared yet higher on Monday as the two powers voiced polar opposite positions on events surrounding Ukraine and European security at the U.N. Security Council.
The U.S. and its allies on the council painted a stark picture of an outlaw Russia threatening to invade Ukraine, while Russia sought to zoom out to the larger picture of Western threats to Russia’s security.
Russian Ambassador Nebenzia Vassily Alekseevich pointed out that even Ukraine’s president had asked the U.S. not to stir up panic. “Ukraine talked of the lack of a threat from Russia,” Alekseevich said. “We should not use the rostrum of the Security Council to push forward the propaganda of our colleague,” meaning the American ambassador.
U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield answered Alekseevich by saying the meeting was “not about antics and not about rhetoric,” and also “not about the U.S. and Russia, but peace and security about one of our member states.” She said the U.S. had spent $5 billion since 2014 so that Ukraine would be “prepared” for a Russian invasion.
Thomas-Greenfield told the council that “Russia’s actions strike at the very heart of the U.N. Charter. This is as clear and consequential a threat to peace and security as anyone can imagine.” She said, “Russia’s aggression today not only threatens Ukraine. It also threatens Europe. It threatens the international order.”
The U.S. ambassador said if the Security Council “stands for anything, [it] stands for the principle that one country cannot simply redraw another country’s borders by force, or make another country’s people live under a government they did not choose.”
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As any student of recent history or any astute newspaper reader understands, the United States, with its long history of coups, including by military invasions and occupations, has made many “country’s people live under a government they did not choose.”
Thomas-Greenfield portrayed Russia’s proposed treaties with the U.S. and NATO to create a new “security architecture” for Europe as being “extensive new demands and aggressive rhetoric” paired with “Russia’s military buildup.”
Thomas-Greenfield then accused Russia of shunning diplomacy, when it was Russia who asked for diplomatic meetings with the U.S. in Geneva and NATO in Brussels. “Russia could, of course, choose a different path: the path of diplomacy,” she said. “In recent weeks, the United States, along with our European allies and partners, and other nations around the globe concerned by Russia’s threat to Ukraine, have continued to do everything we can to resolve this crisis peacefully,” as Washington and its loyal media beat the drums of war.
The Russian Response
Alekseevich responded by saying that Russia is witness to a “very unusual situation” even in “these crazy times.”
“Relocation of troops within our own national territory, which happened many times before on a larger or smaller scale and was never regarded hysterically,” he said, “as well as the relocation of military personnel … stationed in their garrisons rather than at the Ukrainian-Russian border, is considered by our American and Western colleagues as a confirmation of [an] allegedly planned military campaign … of Russia against Ukraine that is about to start in the next couple of weeks if not days.”
Alekseevich added: “At the same time, they provide no proof to back such grave allegations.” The U.S. has released satellite photographs of Russian military installations on Russian soil, with no indication of how close to Ukraine they are. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told the press on Friday that Ukrainian intelligence interpreted the satellite images differently than the U.S. and saw no readiness for invasion.
Alekseevich said: “Our Western colleagues say that de-escalation is needed, but they are the first to build up tension, enhance rhetoric and escalate the situation. Talks about an imminent war are provocative per se. It might seem you call for it, want it and wait for it to come, as if you wanted your allegations to come true.”
He refuted Thomas-Greenfield’s assertion that Russia has threatened an invasion. “No Russian politician or public figure has uttered any threat about a planned invasion of Ukraine,” Alekseevich said.
He said Russia’s “Western colleagues” didn’t care about Ukrainians but only to divide Ukraine from Russia in order to weaken Russia. The U.S. had falsely linked cries about a Russian invasion to Russia’s treaty proposals to the U.S. and NATO, he said.
“As for our security-related demands, they are much broader,” Alekseevich went on. “Ukraine’s non-accession to NATO and non-deployment of foreign troops at Ukraine’s territory constitute only a small portion of much-needed arrangements that could considerably improve the military and political situation in Europe, and in the whole world.”
Turning the tables on the U.S., the Russian ambassador asked the council which country was the real threat to international peace and security:
“The maneuvers that the United States undertook to convene this meeting look especially inadequate and hypocritical against the fact that it is Americans who have record rates of military presence outside their national territory. American military officers, advisers, and weapons (including nuclear) are often located thousands of kilometers away from Washington. To say nothing of the fact that American military [ad]ventures claimed dozens and hundreds [of thousands] of lives of people in the countries to which they were bringing peace and democracy.
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| Russian Ambassador Nebenzia Vassily Alekseevich |
The United States repeatedly (i.a. in the recent years) used force against other states without Security Council consent. Their toolkit includes unilateral sanctions and coercive measures, as well as threats that they regard as a verdict of some sort of Supreme Court and try to make everyone deliver on them.
As reported by American experts, 84 out of 193 UN member states have been subjected to US occupation or aggression to some degree. In the course of 20th and 21st centuries, American troops have been deployed in one way or another in 191 states.
In a right of reply, Thomas-Greenfield said she was “disappointed” by Alekseevich’s “false equivalency” — the stock line from the Cold War, which says it is false to equate U.S. behavior with the aggression of others. “There are no plans to weaken Russia,” she said. “Welcome Russia as a responsible member of the international community,” which means, of course, following the Washington Consensus.
Alekseevich then replied that he had not heard one word from Thomas-Greenfield about the Minsk agreements “and that is very indicative.”
My take: US-NATO wants to expand into a global military alliance & replace United Nations
The US strategy is increasingly to divide the United Nations as a way to reject the UN. The US is tired of the Security Council. The US, and its war-mongering fascist allies, don't want to have to go to Security Council anymore to request approval for another regime change operation or war.
They can't get Chinese or Russian approval anyway, thus they have hit the road and are out scooping up the most reactionary governments to join this 'Global NATO'. The latest being Qatar.
NATO signs these nations up as NATO 'partners' and then begins transforming their military (by forcing them to buy US manufactured expensive high-tech weapons systems) but always the Pentagon controls the tip of the spear.
With this armed apparatus Mr. Big hopes to keep cracking the whip over the backs of China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, Cuba, Venezuela and many more.
The first job of this 'enhanced NATO' is to take down Russia and China - while they think they still can pull it off.
But after 77 years of the US ruling the roost, the debacle in Afghanistan has caused many to doubt that the western empire has the moral clarity, sanity, peaceful intentions, wisdom and sense of justice to be handed the right to rule over Mother Earth.
Those days are vanishing by the second.
Bruce
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| NATO HQ meeting of their endless war council in Brussels |
~ Parts reprinted from Consortium News
Thousands and thousand of truckers (many who took the jab) roared into Canada's capital in Ottawa protesting against the covid vaccine mandates.
Huge numbers of people around the globe oppose the mandates (Green pass it is called in many nations) and have been protesting for months. In most cases their government mocks them, calls them right-wingers, and then uses them to divide the public against itself. A very old tactic of the elites.
Despite Canadian politicians attempts to down-play this large and important protest, I can say I watched numerous videos and it was evident to me that this was a widespread movement.
One video stands out in my mind - a endless line of truckers heading toward Ottawa, blasting their horns - and standing alongside the road in the Canadian cold was an equally long line of people holding signs and cheering for the truckers.
That was a well organized event. These folks are serious and if the government of Canada was wise it would listen to then.
Unless that is, the goal is to divide the public and push them further into civil conflict. It's being done in virtually every western country.
I think it is the corporate 'masters' desperate attempt to direct us into high-tech-feudalism. But everyone gets a 5G phone....
Bruce
By Peggy Andrews (while commenting on Scott Ritter's excellent article at Consortium News)
I am Canadian watching what is going on between the Commonwealth countries (namely, UK, Australia, Canada, India) and the USA. The US has been doing its best to gather some allies. They bought off Australia. Kissed up to an inept UK. Now trying to challenge Canada into getting involved with Ukraine. We have been holding out but the US is putting the screws to us. Closing subsidiaries, threatening our security, infiltrating and using media to agitate right wing activists and enacting border closures. They want us to supply more military personnel and arms for Ukraine. Biden knows the only thing which will unite a divided country is war!
I’m of the same opinion as Scott Ritter’s article on Russia, USA and NATO. I also believe the responsibility for American unrest is mainstream media, but I’m not forgiving the tech algorithms. It became obvious during Trump campaign and continued through out his Presidency. Giving air time to a man who has a disorder and suffers from lack of any ethical standards. But when we look at history, once the pandemic is behind us and the economy sinks and then comes back… that is when fascism takes hold. I hope that is not in store for our us, our children and grandchildren.
While going thru my computer I ran across an article written by Robert Parry [founder of Consortium News] in 2017 concerning Russia and Ukraine as well as the Contra affair. I saved it because I finally found someone who writes the truth and is willing to speak out. Today I read his obituary and discovered Consortiumnews. I generally read 3 – 5 foreign newspapers a day, (Canada, USA, Germany, China and UK). Then listen to CNN, MSNBC, PBS, and FOX. This enables a well-rounded picture of what is happening. (Hey, we are in lockdown what else is there to do?)
The USA media is so slanted, no wonder America is in such a sad state. I’ll be cancelling my subscriptions to Washington Post and New York Times and sending you [Consortium News] my subscription costs so your organization can continue accurate and complete reporting. Thank you for speaking up.
