The truth about NATO

 

 

The original goal of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), according to its first Secretary General, was "to keep the Soviets out, the Americans in, and the Germans down.” 

Today, the Soviet Union is gone, the United States is dominant, and Germany is de-industrializing. Has NATO achieved its goals? If so, why does it still exist? And why did Fidel Castro call it “the most perfidious instrument of repression known to mankind”? 

 For Episode 6 of “The International,” a world-spanning video series brought to you by Jacobin and the @ProgIntl, journalist Abby Martin examines NATO’s global footprint and explains why this “defensive alliance” might end up causing World War III. 

Sunday song

 

 

How CIA Created Modern Germany

 

By Kit Klarenberg

    
On February 4th, The Economist published a devastating analysis - or perhaps, “pre-mortem” - of the collapse of the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) under Olaf Scholz’s stewardship. Elected in what the Western media contemporaneously branded a “shock” result in September 2021, hopes for his coalition government in many quarters were high. Today, he enjoys the worst approval ratings of any Chancellor in modern history, and national opinion polls place SPD approval at 15% or lower.

The Economist frames Scholz’s collapsed fortunes, and the prospects of his party’s imminent extinction as a serious force within German politics, as a microcosm of Berlin’s declining economic and political clout more widely. It notes that the nation’s finances have gone “limp” during his tenure, with business-sector confidence collapsing, and record inflation destroying citizens’ incomes and savings. Other sources have detailed the country’s “deindustrialization,” Politico coining the nickname, “Rust Belt on the Rhine.”

In keeping with those meditations on Germany’s ever-worsening woes, The Economist’s bleak diagnosis made no mention of how Western sanctions imposed on Russia in February 2022 created Berlin’s crisis. Scholz was a prominent cheerleader for the Biden administration’s push to “make the Ruble rubble.” Now that effort has so spectacularly backfired that it can no longer be ignored or spun otherwise; Newsweek admits “any realistic war game could have easily predicted” the sanctions would not only fail, but boomerang on the sanctioners.

Those few analysts who predicted the invasion of Ukraine well in advance universally failed to anticipate Berlin would support and facilitate any US counterattack, particularly in the financial sphere. They believed Germany possessed the requisite autonomy and sense not to commit willful economic suicide in service of Empire. After all, the country’s stability, prosperity and power were heavily dependent on cheap, readily accessible Russian energy. Voluntarily ending that supply would be inevitably disastrous.

For this shortcoming, they can be forgiven. Berlin, particularly in the wake of reunification, has successfully presented itself to the world as sovereign, led by sensible people acting in the best interests of their nation, and Europe. In truth, ever since 1945, Germany has been a heavily occupied nation, drowning under the weight of US military installations, and its politics, society and culture aggressively shaped and influenced by the CIA.        
This unacknowledged reality is amply spelled out in Agency whistleblower Philip Agee’s 1978 tell-all book, Dirty Work: The CIA in Western Europe. Comprehending who is truly in charge in Berlin, and what interests Germany’s elected representatives are actually serving, is fundamental to understanding why Scholz, et al., so eagerly embraced the self-destructive sanctions. And why the facts of Nord Stream 2’s criminal destruction can never emerge.

 

 

 

‘Enormous Presence’

 Following World War II, the United States emerged as the world’s undisputed military and economic superpower. As Agee wrote, the overriding aim of US foreign policy thereafter was to “guarantee the coherence of the Western world” under its exclusive leadership. CIA activities were accordingly “directed toward achieving this goal.” In service of the Empire’s global domination project, “left opposition movements had to be discredited and destroyed” everywhere.

After West Germany was forged from the respective occupation zones of Britain, France and the US, the fledgling country became a particularly “crucial area” in this regard, serving as “one of the most important operational areas for far-reaching CIA programs” in Europe and elsewhere. Domestic Agency operations in West Germany were explicitly concerned with ensuring the country was “pro-American,” and structured according to US “commercial interests.”

In the process, the CIA covertly supported the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and SPD, and trade unions. The Agency “wanted the influence of the two major political parties to be strong enough to shut out and hold down any left opposition,” Agee explained. The SPD had a radical, Marxist tradition. It was the only party in the Reichstag to vote against the 1933 Enabling Act, which laid the foundations for Germany’s total Nazification, and led to its proscription.

Newly reinstituted following the war, the SPD maintained its revolutionary roots until 1959. Then, under the Godesberg Program, it abandoned any commitment to seriously challenging capitalism. It stretches credibility to suggest the CIA was not expressly responsible for neutering the party’s radical tendencies.

In any event, effective control of West German democracy ensured that Washington’s “enormous presence” there - which included hundreds of thousands of troops and almost 300 separate military and intelligence installations - was not challenged by those in power, irrespective of the party to which they belonged, despite a majority of the population consistently opposing US military occupation.

This presence in turn granted the CIA “a number of different covers to work behind,” according to Agee. The majority of its operatives were embedded within the US military, posing as soldiers. The Agency’s biggest station was an army base in Frankfurt, although it also boasted units in West Berlin and Munich. US operatives were “highly qualified technicians who tap telephones, open mail, keep people under surveillance, and encode and decode intelligence transmissions,” working “all over the country.”

Dedicated divisions were charged with “making contact with organisations and people within the political establishment,” such as the SPD and its elected representatives. All the intelligence collected was “used to infiltrate and manipulate” the same entities. The CIA, moreover, collaborated “very closely” with West German security services in many domestic spying efforts, the country’s assorted intelligence agencies conducting operations at the Agency’s direct behest, “often [to] protect CIA activities from any legal consequences.”

 

‘Discredit and Destroy’

Intimate bedfellows as they were, there were nonetheless “difficulties” in the CIA’s relationship with its West German counterparts, per Agee. The Agency never fully trusted their protégés, and felt a pronounced need to “keep an eye” on them. Still, this lack of faith was no barrier to the CIA partnering with the BND, West Germany’s foreign intelligence service, to secretly purchase Swiss encryption firm Crypto AG in 1970. Perhaps this was done to “protect CIA activities from any legal consequences.”

Crypto AG produced high-tech machines through which foreign governments could transmit sensitive high-level communications around the world, safe from prying eyes. Or so they thought. In reality, the clandestine owners of Crypto AG, and by extension the NSA and GCHQ, could easily decipher any messages sent via the firm’s devices, as they themselves crafted the encryption codes. The connivance operated in total secrecy for decades thereafter, only being exposed in February 2020.

The full extent of the information collected via Crypto AG - along with key national competitor Omnisec AG, which the CIA also owned - and the nefarious purposes to which it was put is unknown. It would be entirely unsurprising though if the harvested data helped inform CIA operations to “discredit and destroy” left-wing opposition in West Germany and beyond, efforts that no doubt continue to this day.

The Cold War may be over, but Germany remains heavily occupied. It hosts the largest number of US troops of any European country, despite an overwhelming majority of the population supporting their partial or total withdrawal in the years following the Berlin Wall’s collapse. In July 2020, then-President Donald Trump announced the withdrawal of 12,000 soldiers of the 38,600-strong contingent still there.    

While intended to punish Germany for greenlighting the now-destroyed Nord Stream 2, polls indicated most Germans were only too happy to say “auf wiedersehen.” In all, 47% were in favor of them leaving, while a quarter called for the permanent closure of all US bases on their soil. Yet, just two weeks after entering the White House, Joe Biden reversed his predecessor’s policy, returning 500 soldiers who had departed.

The President also scrapped plans to relocate the Stuttgart-based US Africa Command, which effectively embeds Washington in the armed forces of 53 countries across the continent, elsewhere in Europe. Research shows the Command’s training programs have precipitated a significant rise in the number of military coups in Africa. As Agee attested, US military bases are a hotbed of CIA spies. Berlin therefore must remain “one of the most important operational areas for far-reaching CIA programs”, whether Germans like it or not.

~  Kit Klarenberg is an investigative journalist exploring the role of intelligence services in shaping politics and perceptions.

Kiriakou: 'NATO losing - expect false flags'

  

NATO is losing the proxy war against Russia, so expect surge in false-flag terrorism – John Kiriakou

By Finian Cunningham

A defeat for Washington and its NATO partners in Ukraine would be a political disaster for the Western powers. Hence they are getting desperate.

Last week the British media (Telegraph and Guardian) reported allegations that Russia was using chemical weapons against Ukrainian troops and, as if that was not bad enough, the Russian military was also endangering the biggest nuclear power plant in Europe.

Former CIA officer John Kiriakou discusses these reports and concludes that the incidents are false-flag operations orchestrated by Western sponsors of the Ukrainian regime. Kiriakou says it is the CIA that has a notorious track record of engaging in dirty tricks when its operations are going badly.

And, to be sure, the NATO proxy war in Ukraine against Russia is going very badly indeed. Russia has the military upper hand while the NATO-backed Kiev regime is facing collapse.

A defeat for Washington and its NATO partners in Ukraine would be a political disaster for the Western powers. Hence they are getting desperate. That would explain the upsurge in Western media reports that Russia has started to use chemical weapons and that Russia is endangering the nuclear power plant at Zaporozhye, Europe’s largest civilian nuclear power station. The latter insinuation by the Western media is particularly absurd. Russia took control of the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant in March 2022.

It should be obvious that the NATO-backed regime is the perpetrator of nuclear terrorism yet the Western governments, media and the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency all adopt a shameful ambiguity about the perpetrator. The Western sponsors are covering up for a nuclear terrorist regime in Kiev because the Western governments are fully complicit in the terrorism.

John Kiriakou points out that the same playbook was used in Syria. When the Syrian Arab Army was gaining the military upper hand against NATO-sponsored jihadi mercenaries trying to overthrow the Syrian government, the Western media then reported alleged chemical weapons attacks by the Syrian army. That resulted in the United States, Britain, and France launching air strikes against Syria. It turned out that the chemical weapon attacks were false flags conducted by the CIA and MI6-trained proxies.

Now that the NATO powers are losing the war in Ukraine against Russia – a war that they have invested in on an unprecedented colossal scale – the reaction is to repeat the false flag playbook as a desperate way to create a chemical or radiological disaster to justify an escalation of the war, perhaps by direct NATO intervention. It does not matter to the Western warmongering elite that the safety of the planet is being recklessly jeopardized. Of course, we should not be surprised. The same Western warmongering ruling establishments have fomented world wars and countless other wars costing tens of millions of lives. Their criminal recklessness knows no bounds.

John Kiriakou was jailed by the U.S. government for two years after he blew the whistle on the CIA’s torture program. He now works as an independent journalist and commentator and has gained worldwide respect for his integrity and truth-telling.

Israel is THE terrorist

 

 

News reports say that Israel has begun bombing Iran, Iraq and Syria.

The zionists have essentially declared war on the entire Middle East.

Earlier today at the United Nations Security Council meeting the Biden administration vetoed a resolution that called for Palestine to be a full member of the UN.

There can be no pretense any longer - the US is a full agent of the zionists. The US government has lost its sovereignty to the zionist AIPAC lobby. The US as a free government no longer exists.

At the rate Israel is going I would not be at all surprised that they soon enough use a nuclear weapon.

Every living, breathing, thinking human being with any inclinations toward a peaceful world needs to get off their ass and into the streets. Otherwise as we are now seeing at Columbia University today in New York City, where over 100 students were arrested for defending their Gaza solidarity encampment, our right to protest is being destroyed my our own internal zionist cabal in this country.

US corporate media will do their very best to promote the side of the zionists in this attack on Iran.  

The Europeans and NATO will take the side of the zionists because those nations have lost their sovereignty as well.

If I was Iran I'd immediately shut down the Straight of Hormuz where 20% of the oil the world uses passes through. Let the western world face no oil supply. Let the Americans and Europeans walk to work. Let them feel the pain for once.

Iran should tell the western nations that Hormuz will open when a permanent cease fire begins in Palestine. Israel must pull back all of its storm troopers. Humanitarian aid must be allowed to fully enter. Palestinians in zionist prisons must be released. Israel can forget about controlling Gaza in the future. Zionist settlers killing Palestinians in the West Bank must be jailed and land returned to the people. 

The entire Israeli war cabinet should be tried for genocidal war crimes. Likewise Biden, Blinken, Sullivan, Austin and the entire congressional leadership should be charged at the ICJ for war crimes complicity.

Let the entire Global South unite in total condemnation of the US, UK, and EU who are enabling the zionists in Israel. 

Israel has no more right to have an independent nation than white-run apartheid colonial settler South Africa did. The world forced a change in South Africa and must do the same with Israel.

We must show total solidarity with the Palestinian people - in Gaza and the West Bank.

The mainstream media talking heads on TV are saying that the US is not helping Israel in this attack on Iran. Nonsense. The US came to Israel's aid today at the UN when they vetoed the resolution calling for Palestine to be a full member. The US is up to its ears in Palestinian blood.

I am so fed up with America. It's been non-stop war my entire life - since the Korean war to this moment.

America is indeed in bed with the devil. Anyone who can't see that needs to open up their damn heart.

America needs to be kicked out of the United Nations. It is violating every legal and moral underpinning of a peaceful world.

Zionist controlled America is over.

The arrogance of zionists in the US and around the world is beyond compare. They believe they are supremely entitled and have the right to destroy anyone who gets in their self righteous way. 

It's time for them to learn their day in the sun is over.

Bruce

West losing infuence in Africa

 

Wongel Zelalem reports on US fears Russia's influence in Africa after Niger junta cancels security pact.

Coming soon in DC

 

We have a dream. Equal rights for everyone. 

Brilliant Galloway comments to UK prime minister about Israel-Iran

 

 

MP George Galloway addresses the British PM Rishi Sunak in the House of Commons on the Israeli destruction of the Iranian embassy consulate in Damascus, Syria. 

He makes the case that Israel's aggressive actions are creating counter-reactions and are thus the impetus for further escalation throughout the region. 

Gaza vulnerable to epidemic infectious diseases: IRC

 

Aljazeera

Gaza’s “once-vibrant health system” and aid efforts have been decimated by Israel, and the population faces “famine, malnutrition, and infectious disease outbreaks”, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and its partners warned in a statement.

Projections by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Johns Hopkins Center for Humanitarian Health indicate that even with an immediate ceasefire, up to nearly 12,000 people would die in Gaza as a result of disease, the statement also read.

“No hospitals in Gaza are fully functioning any longer. IRC staff and partners in Gaza continue to witness devastation in the health facilities that are left,” said Dr Seema Jilani, IRC’s senior health technical adviser for emergencies.

“While there have not been large-scale epidemics in Gaza for over a decade, the population has now been left vulnerable to infectious diseases such as flu, COVID, pneumonia, bacterial dysentery, cholera, polio, measles and meningitis,” she added.

The IRC reiterated its call for an immediate ceasefire and unfettered aid access to prevent the total collapse of public health in the besieged Gaza Strip.

This is a pivotal moment

Israel has been defeated - which makes them more dangerous than ever. 

Must hear this one.

Look at Israel's Iron Dome system

 

 

One of the Global Network's monthly videos on various aspects of space issues.

This one quite timely.

U.S. & South Korea: Fading warmonger prez poll numbers

 

Sputnik

Thirty-three percent of Americans approve of US President Joe Biden's handling of the conflict between Palestinian movement Hamas and Israel in the Gaza Strip, the lowest level recorded in a CBS News/YouGov survey since the start of the hostilities.

This is down from 44% of Americans who approved of Biden's approach to the conflict last October and 38% this February, according to the poll released on Sunday and conducted before Iran's drone and missile attack on Israel.

The survey also found that the share of those who believe the United States should send weapons to Israel dropped to 40% from 48% in October 2023.

Meanwhile, 66% of Americans who believe that things in the country are going badly point to the economy as the reason, more than wars and other developments abroad (47%). Moreover, 72% of those sampled said the state of domestic politics was to blame. 

The approval rating of South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol has dropped to the lowest level of 32.6% since October 2023 after the main opposition bloc won a landslide victory in the general elections last week, the Yonhap news agency reported on Monday, citing a poll conducted by Seoul-based company Realmeter.

The survey found that the positive assessment of Yoon's job performance declined by 4.7 percentage points week-on-week, while public disapproval rose by 4.1 percentage points and was expressed by 63.6% of those surveyed, Yonhap reported. 

Last week, the ruling People Power Party (PPP) and its satellite People Future Party won a total of 108 seats in the parliament, while the opposition Democratic Party and its satellite Democratic United Party won 175 of the 300 seats. 

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

These are all good signs for peace. Biden and South Korea's Yoon are working feverishly to ramp up military spending and war games aimed at China. That of course means more cuts in social spending and for clean energy. 

The more people become disillusioned with these two agents of doom, the better. 

Now we just hope these public expressions of doubt spread to other US puppets in the region - the Philippines, Japan, Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand and more.

Bruce 

An appeal: 

If you find this blog useful please share the address of it with friends and associates in your country. 

Our numbers of daily visits to the blog lately have been dramatically expanding - especially in France, Hong Kong, US, China, Brazil, Iran and Singapore. 

Thanks for your good support.

Why is Jordan cracking down on support for Gaza?

 

Support for the Palestinian cause, at an all-time high globally, is being actively suppressed by Jordanian authorities, under pressure to keep a lid on anti-Israel displays in the kingdom.

 

By Kit Klarenberg (The Cradle)


For the past fortnight, thousands of Jordanians have taken to the streets of Amman, besieging the Israeli embassy, condemning the Gaza genocide, demanding the Hashemite Kingdom sever all ties with Tel Aviv – and, in particular, tearing up the country’s 1994 peace treaty with Israel.

Jordanian security forces have met these protests with increasing severity, signaling the government’s unease with too much public criticism of Israel. Amidst the turmoil, Saudi Arabia – Jordan’s biggest Arab patron – watches warily, concerned that a surge in Palestinian solidarity might challenge its own regional dominance and sink all prospects of Riyadh’s normalization with Tel Aviv.

Banning ‘Palestine’

This includes banning Palestinian flags, keffiyehs, and banners from protests – a mirror of the restrictions imposed in several pro-US Arab states. Attendees are also subjected to invasive body searches and identification checks, and select individuals are barred from participating.

The crackdowns seem to change by the day – one day, protesters are seen with their keffiyehs, and the next, they are not. The same goes for Palestinian flags. At times, they are visible in the throngs; with the flip of a switch, protesters resort to flashing the flag only on their mobile phones.

The public demonstrations are mainly confined to the heavily barricaded courtyard of Kaluti Mosque, situated near Amman’s evacuated Israeli embassy, and restricted to a duration of only two hours.

During the month of Ramadan, protests commence at 10 PM, following the conclusion of mass Taraweeh prayers. As one protester relates to The Cradle:

Police insist it needs to be over by midnight, then break it off violently or through intimidation if people refuse to leave. Greater restrictions are a huge deterrent to attending, especially having to show your ID – people worry it’ll somehow be used against them later. Due to the barriers, some people often can’t even get in, and those who do can’t move. It’s meant to demoralize us, trapping us in a cage and preventing us from breaking out into the streets.

The banning of Palestine’s flag is an especially sensitive escalation by Jordanian authorities. A small majority of the Jordanian population is Palestinian by birth. They consist of refugees from Palestine and their descendants, as well as residents of the West Bank during the period of Amman’s administration from 1948 to 1967.

As there is no census in the country, the precise figure is unknown. This may be by design, in order to diminish Palestine’s societal and political influence in the British-created Hashemite Kingdom.

A symbolic struggle intensifies

In a hugely symbolic development, violence towards Palestine solidarity protesters in Amman reached its zenith on 30 March, Land Day, which commemorates a fateful date in 1976 when Zionist authorities first began formally confiscating Palestinian territory for settlement.

Six unarmed Palestinians – including three women – were murdered that day by Israeli occupation forces, with hundreds more injured during subsequent clashes. Ever since then, Jordanian officials have attempted to calm the situation and present themselves as committed anti-Zionists.

In their response to the past week of protests, authorities in Amman have tried to strike a quiet balance. Government Communications Minister Muhannad Mubaidin has claimed that condemning Israel is a core national ethos, affirming Amman’s solidarity with Palestine and the citizens’ right to protest despite “violations” committed by a minority of demonstrators.

 

Yet, as one anonymous Jordanian activist tells The Cradle, “many of us think this is just talk.” After all, many protesters arrested over the past two weeks remain in “administrative detention,” and formal restrictions on the protests have only ratcheted since 30 March.

The X account of the “Jordanian Youth Gathering for the Support of the Resistance” lists the names and photographs of 54 protesters they allege are currently being detained by Jordanian security forces. For supporting Palestine, they remain behind bars during the official Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday that marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

Jordan’s Palestinian identity crisis

In September 1970, in response to the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) using Jordan as a highly effective staging ground for strikes upon the occupation state, Jordanian forces began attacking cities, including Amman, with a substantial fedayeen presence.

Commonly known as Black September, events that month spiraled into what was effectively a civil war, with Palestinians and Jordanians on both sides of the divide. Several protesters who spoke to The Cradle note the obvious parallels between then and now, with one saying banning symbols of Palestine solidarity “seems insane,” given the historical context of such actions in Amman.

Activists also say that accusations against Palestine solidarity protesters in Jordan of serving “foreign agendas” and being directed by overseas actors have reached unprecedented levels.

Although blaming the ‘Other’ is an age-old tactic of authorities to dispel dissent among populations, several activists tell The Cradle it has reached “shocking” and unprecedented levels this time round. The cast of characters who stand accused include the Muslim Brotherhood, Iran, Hamas, and even the west.

Despite these accusations, the protests have a genuine international component, fostering a spirit of unity among Palestine solidarity activists across West Asia, including Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and Oman.

“People in Cairo were chanting against [Jordan’s King] Abdullah II a few days ago, while we chanted against [Egyptian President Abdel Fattah] al-Sisi. We call on each other to rise!” a Jordanian protester proudly tells The Cradle. Such scenes are absolute anathema to various governments within and outside West Asia.

Israel’s counterstrategy

This growing Arab solidarity with Palestine has not gone unnoticed by Israel, which is acutely aware of the horrendous reputational impact its Gaza genocide is having overseas. A leaked US State Department memo has revealed Tel Aviv is recruiting “influencers to help target social media users” in Europe and North America, and “Egypt, Jordan, and Gulf Arab countries” to highlight purported Hamas atrocities.

Accordingly, open-source investigation platform EekadFacts has exposed a number of X accounts, reportedly based in Jordan, posting relentless anti-Hamas messaging.

These cloak-and-dagger activities have done nothing to quell Palestine solidarity in any corner of the world and have thrown pro-US Arab allies, particularly Saudi Arabia, for a loop.

Riyadh’s role

As Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar forcefully noted on 4 April, Riyadh has “launched its press and electronic flies to defend the Hashemite throne” – ironic, given that in 2021, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) attempted to overthrow King Abdullah II and install his brother, Prince Hamzah, as regent. The coup plotters, it should be noted, remain on trial in Amman today.

A largely forgotten component of that failed putsch was Israel’s central involvement. As Al-Akhbar observed, Bin Salman is desperate to crush Palestine solidarity, for such activity interferes with his long-term “ambition to normalize relations with Israel, as a way to obtain American guarantees for the security and safety of the Saudi regime.”

This includes US acquiescence to the sale of F-35 fighter jets to Riyadh and US assistance in establishing nuclear infrastructure that includes a nuclear fuel circuit on Saudi territory – both longtime Saudi demands.

Riyadh and Tel Aviv were on the verge of normalizing relations when Operation Al-Aqsa Flood struck, followed by the brutal assault on Gaza.

Israel’s military blitzkrieg made normalization an untenable proposition. While initially, MbS suggested it was off the table, this was clearly an expedient fudge to uphold his claim that the kingdom “represents the heart of the Muslim world” and “senses the hopes and pains of Muslims everywhere, strives to achieve unity, cooperation and solidarity in our Muslim world.”

By January, he had reversed course, openly and repeatedly expressing “interest” in “recognition” of Tel Aviv – provided Israel agrees to advance the two-state solution and build a “renewed” Palestinian Authority that can, presumably, garner the support of actual Palestinians.

Concurrently, Riyadh has been meeting with representatives of Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, and UAE to hammer out a “joint plan” for Gaza, post-war. It would see the brutal, collaborationist, British-trained Palestinian Authority take over as the territory’s undisputed ruler, with Hamas frozen out of all official offices and agencies.

It is a proposition neither Palestinian freedom fighters nor Palestine solidarity activists the world over are likely to accept.

~  Kit Klarenberg is an investigative journalist exploring the role of intelligence services in shaping politics and perceptions.

Galloway & Ritter on Iran-Israel conflict

 

 

Iran has demonstrated that if you attack them the cost will be extraordinarily high, says Scott Ritter. 

In the case of Israel it could be terminally high.

An excellent discussion. 

Brunswick, Maine solidarity protest with Gaza

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had over 45 people from around Maine gather in Brunswick on Saturday afternoon for one of our regular monthly peace vigils. This event was held where the traffic from Hwy I-295 spills into the heart of the town.

Since February 2022 we've been moving these monthly events around the state to busy intersections in various communities. Our goal has been to reach as many Mainers as possible (state population 1.3 million) and give distant communities a chance to host some larger protests.

We spread ourselves out over four corners for 45 minutes and then walked single-file thru both sides of the busy shopping district of the town along the sidewalks. 

Then we gathered in a circle on the town green and invited everyone to introduce themselves to the group with the microphone and say what ever was in their heart. It was then we learned that some of those who joined us had been driving past, parked their car, and came to the protest.

Happening on the same day that the war in the Middle East took a major step toward dangerous further escalation was important for all of us. The the public could not miss noticing that the opposition to Israel-US-UK-EU genocide in Gaza and the West Bank is growing - even in our own community.

The schedule of statewide protests for the next three months will be:

• Waterville (College Ave & Main St) on May 25 at 1:30 pm
• Wells (Rt 1 & Rt 9) on June 8 at 1:30 pm
• Wiscasset (RT 1 across from Red's Eats at the bridge) on July 27 at 1:30 pm

The weekly Thursday protest will continue in Brunswick in front of the Tontine Mall from noon to 1:00 pm.

Our voices and public protests are needed now more than ever.

Bruce

~ Photos by MB Sullivan (click on them for a better view)

Sunday song

 

 

                                                      Be sure to hit CC for subtitles  

The war widens just as Israel planned

 

 

 

Prof. Mohammad Marandi joins The Grayzone from Tehran, Iran to discuss the likely Iranian response to a brazen Israeli attack on its embassy in Syria. 

Marandi delves into two decades of Iranian preparations for the current scenario, and analyzes the ongoing war in Gaza as well. 

Gulf monarchies are urging the US not to use American military bases on their territories to strike in response to any potential Iranian attack on Israel, sources told Middle East Eye.

 

The US’s Gulf allies are working overtime to shut down avenues that could link them to a US reprisal against Tehran or its proxies from bases inside their kingdoms, according to a senior US official who spoke with MEE on condition of anonymity.

 

As tensions flare, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Oman and Kuwait [and Turkey] have raised questions about the intricate details of basing agreements that permit tens of thousands of US troops to be stationed across the oil-rich peninsula.

 

 “The pressure is now on Israel and the US rather than Iran. And yes, there are a lot of threatening remarks directed at Iran in the hope that the Iranians don’t act. But the die was first cast by Israel,” said Vali Nasr, a professor of international affairs at John Hopkins University.

“And now people are trying to avoid what might be consequences.”

 

 

 

New NATO member Finland plans to cut pensions, increase military spending

 

The Finnish government eyes spending cuts and tax hikes to fill a hole in the 2025 budget

RT

The Finnish government has no choice but to cut pensions in order to improve public finances, Finance Minister Riikka Purra has said in an interview with Helsingin Sanomat, a local newspaper. The issue of pensions is a part of the political debate this month, as the government is looking to make €3 billion in additional cuts to the 2025 state budget.

According to the minister, cuts to occupational pensions are inevitable as part of the government austerity package. Purra said that the government could freeze the annual cost of living-based increases in pensions or raise taxes on some pensions.

“My understanding is that it’s impossible to reach the desired outcome without dealing with pensions,” the newspaper cited Purra as saying on Wednesday. The government will debate the measures at a framework session scheduled for next week, Purra added.

In an earlier interview with Iltalehti newspaper, the finance minister said that the lowest pensions are unlikely to be targeted.

“We have a large and very well-off pensioner population, with high life satisfaction and enough money for self-fulfillment and travel. At the same time, we have pensioners who can barely make ends meet and have to decide between medicine and food,” she explained.

“Small tweaks” will not improve the situation, and there is no chance of a return to the “good old days,” Purra warned.

The Finnish government earlier introduced cuts to basic social security benefits such as housing support and unemployment allowances for low-income groups. Several human rights groups sounded the alarm over the cuts, warning that they could lead to a rise in relative poverty among young adults, single parents and elderly.

The 2024 budget agreed upon by Finland's ruling center-right coalition last year saw the deficit widen by 35%, or €11.5 billion euros ($12.28 billion) compared to 2023. Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said at the time that Finland’s economic outlook had become increasingly gloomy. In 2023, the country’s GDP declined by 0.4% year-on-year, according to EU economic data.

Finland has seen a decrease in tax income, which has been attributed to the aging population and low birth rate. According to Iltalehti newspaper, Finland is getting into debt at an alarming rate. However, the government “is hardly cutting corners” on internal and external security, the publication notes. When defense expenditures are not counted, social security and education are the largest government expenditures, it adds.

Finland joined NATO a year ago. Before the accession, the country spent 1.7% of its GDP on defense, according to World Bank data. The country has since increased its defense budget, as NATO members are expected to spend 2% of their GDP on defense.

Germany aiding genocide in Gaza (Berlin should know better)

 

Germany has been accused of aiding and abetting genocide in Gaza, in a case before the UN's top court. 

It was brought by Nicaragua and calls for emergency measures to stop Germany from selling weapons to Israel. It also wants Berlin to restore funding to the UN's agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA. Nicaragua's lawyer had harsh words for the dual role Germany's playing in what the ICJ's already ruled to be a plausible case of genocide. 

Al Jazeera's senior political analyst, Marwan Bishara says that the Germans, specifically in this government, have really made it clear that their support for Israel is unconditional regardless of how many tens of thousands have died or been injured in Gaza. 

Germany is also on the wrong side on the Ukraine-Russia issue. See here 

Germany is once again on the wrong side of history. And so too are the United States and all its Western vassals. Eternal shame on them. 

 

The speech on Palestine by Yanis Varoufakis that German police banned today when they stormed the building where the Palestine Congress was being held in Berlin. Free Palestine!

Germany going full-bore Nazi again....

 

The West wants to create peace without Russia

 

Bern, Thursday, April 11, 2024 (MB)

An American-inspired summit on peace in Ukraine will be held in Switzerland on June 15-16. US President Joe Biden is also planning to attend, the Hungarian Peace Community correspondent reported, referring to the Bern government's announcement on Thursday.

The conference will be aimed at establishing "a forum for a high-level dialogue on ways to achieve a comprehensive, just and lasting peace for Ukraine in accordance with international law and the UN Charter," the government said. "It aims to create a common understanding of a framework favourable to this objective and a concrete roadmap for Russia's participation in the peace process."

The words referring to international law and lasting peace are in particular contradiction with the actual practice of the organizers of the conference: Russia was not invited to the conference, but Ukraine was. According to observers, this indicates that the purpose of the Bern meeting is not to recognize the legitimacy of Moscow's security demands put forward on December 15, 2021, and to seek a compromise based on the principle of equal and mutual security, but rather to try to force Russia to the so-called Zelensky formula: the withdrawal of Russian troops and the restoration of Ukraine's borders before February 24, 2022.

At the American-inspired "peace summit", by referring to international law and the UN Charter, they want to bypass Russia's demand to guarantee its security, which is in line with international law and the UN Charter.

 

Although the Swiss government, which [will host] the "peace summit", essentially identified with the Western position, and for this reason the Russians rejected its offer to mediate, it now shows some willingness to take into account the 18-point peace plan that Russia and Ukraine initialed in Istanbul in March 2022, but by Zelensky kicked it [away] at the West's behest. The western allies decided to defeat the Russian forces in Ukraine.

As this failed, although hope was still not given up, a Swiss official who did not want to be named told Le Temps that "the Swiss Foreign Ministry can use the peace plan developed under the auspices of Turkey in 2022 to reach a compromise".

According to the source quoted by Le Temps, "the fighting will not end if Russia's position is not taken into account", even if Russia will not be present at the conference. Therefore, according to the newspaper, the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs is "investigating various compromise-based options". For example, the ministry "does not rule out drawing inspiration from the peace plan that was developed under the auspices of Turkey at the very beginning of the war, in 2022." This proposal "stipulated that Russia would hold the front line in eastern Ukraine and the Crimean peninsula." He also called for Ukraine to "become neutral with security guarantees". The proposal included "partial demilitarization of Ukraine". 

 

The "awakening" of Swiss diplomacy seems a little late, taking into account the changes that have occurred on the battlefield and in world politics since 2022: the strengthening of Russia's position on both the military and diplomatic fronts, observers believe.

Moscow has repeatedly warned that as time goes by, there will be less and less room for maneuver for Kyiv, and it has indicated that after the war, "Ukraine will not remain the same." (See: https://bekekor.wordpress.com/2024/03/06/ukrajna-terulete-nem-marad-a-regi-orosz-allaspont/

Russia has not given up, and - according to the signs - it will not give up on its triple goal in relation to Ukraine, de-Nazification, demilitarization and neutralization of Ukraine, nor the creation of a new Eurasian security system based on cooperation rather than confrontation.

~  Edited by Magyar Békekör