Month: May 2015

How to support the whistleblowers June 1-7

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By David Swanson
Posted on War is a Crime, May 26, 2015

Excerpt:

What’s needed is a global movement that tells whistleblowers and potential whistleblowers that we’ve got their backs, that we will spread awareness far and wide of what they have risked their necks to reveal, that we will celebrate and honor their courage, and that we will do everything in our power to defend them against government retribution and misguided public condemnation.

So, here’s the plan. During the week of June 1-7, all over the world, we stand up for truth by joining in the events and using the resources created at StandUpForTruth.org. The organizations and individuals behind this plan include ExposeFacts, Freedom of the Press Foundation, International Modern Media Institute, Networkers SouthNorth, RootsAction.org, and Daniel Ellsberg.

People around the world are being invited, individually or as a group, to participate in any of a series of public webcasts / phone calls with whistleblowers and their supporters. (Click the names for full biographies.)

  •  June 2 — Former State Dept. official Matthew Hoh and author and RootsAction campaigner David Swanson will be on a webcast / phone call at 9 pm ET (Eastern Time, GMT -5).
  • June 3 — Journalist, activist, and lawyer Trevor Timm and investigative journalist Tim Shorrock will answer your questions at 9 pm ET.
  • June 4 — Director of media for the Institute for Public Accuracy Sam Husseini and author and law professor Marjorie Cohn will speak at 9 pm ET.
  • June 5 — NSA whistleblower William Binney and NSA whistleblower Kirk Wiebe will take your questions and tell their stories at 8 pm ET.
  • June 5 — Media critic and RootsAction cofounder Jeff Cohen and author and communications professor Robert McChesney will be up at 9 pm ET for the second call of the night’s doubleheader.
  • June 6 — Journalist Kevin Gosztola and EPA whistleblower Marsha Coleman-Adebayo will be on the final webcast at 5 pm ET.

The webcasts will each last 60 minutes. To listen and type in questions, just point your web browser to http://cast.teletownhall.us/web_client/?id=roots_action_organd turn up your volume. Everyone is encouraged to use the webcast and to type in questions there. If you can’t use a web browser, you can phone in. Just call 1-844-472-8237 (toll-free in U.S.) You can also ask these whistleblowers and truth tellers questions beforehand or during the webcasts by tweeting them to @Roots_Action — You can even start asking questions right now.

You can also catch Bill Binney and Marcy Wheeler live in Chicago on June 2nd, and Binney in Minneapolis/St. Paul on June 3rd, or be part of this amazing artistic creation in Los Angeles on June 6th.

Also check out the events planned for Europe with Thomas Drake, Dan Ellsberg, Jesselyn Radack, Coleen Rowley, and Norman Solomon. They will deliver this petition in Berlin. If you sign it now your name and comment will be part of the presentation.

StandUpForTruth is encouraging everyone to plan your own events, during the first week of June or any other time. Here are some resources, some ideas for what to do:

Here are some ways to get started. Like this FaceBook page. Then add your photo to it holding a piece of paper reading “Stand Up For Truth.” Or retweet this tweet. It all helps to spread the word, which seems like the least we can do.

http://warisacrime.org/content/our-chance-aid-and-encourage-whistleblowers

Washington’s “Two Track policy” to Latin America: Marines to Central America and diplomats to Cuba

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By Prof. James Petras
Global Research, May 20, 2015

Everyone, from political pundits in Washington to the Pope in Rome, including most journalists in the mass media and in the alternative press, have focused on the US moves toward ending the economic blockade of Cuba and gradually opening diplomatic relations.  Talk is rife of a ‘major shift’ in US policy toward Latin America with the emphasis on diplomacy and reconciliation.  Even most progressive writers and journals have ceased writing about US imperialism.

However, there is mounting evidence that Washington’s negotiations with Cuba are merely one part of a two-track policy.  There is clearly a major US build-up in Latin America, with increasing reliance on ‘military platforms’, designed to launch direct military interventions in strategic countries.  

Moreover, US policymakers are actively involved in promoting ‘client’ opposition parties, movements and personalities to destabilize independent governments and are intent on re-imposing US domination.

In this essay we will start our discussion with the origins and unfolding of this ‘two track’ policy, its current manifestations, and projections into the future.  We will conclude by evaluating the possibilities of re-establishing US imperial domination in the region.

Origins of the Two Track Policy

Washington’s pursuit of a ‘two-track policy’, based on combining ‘reformist policies’ toward some political formations, while working to overthrow other regimes and movements by force and military intervention, was practiced by the early Kennedy Administration following the Cuban revolution.  Kennedy announced a vast new economic program of aid, loans and investments – dubbed the ‘Alliance for Progress’ – to promote development and social reform in Latin American countries willing to align with the US.  At the same time the Kennedy regime escalated US military aid and joint exercises in the region. Kennedy sponsored a large contingent of Special Forces – ‘Green Berets’ – to engage in counter-insurgency warfare.  The ‘Alliance for Progress’ was designed to counter the mass appeal of the social-revolutionary changes underway in Cuba with its own program of ‘social reform’.  While Kennedy promoted watered-down reforms in Latin America, he launched the ‘secret’ CIA (‘Bay of Pigs’) invasion of Cuba in 1961and naval blockade in 1962 (the so-called ‘missile crises’).  The two-track policy ended up sacrificing social reforms and strengthening military repression.  By the mid-1970’s the ‘two-tracks’ became one – force.  The US invaded the Dominican Republic in 1965. It backed a series of military coups throughout the region, effectively isolating Cuba.  As a result, Latin America’s labor force experienced nearly a quarter century of declining living standards.

By the 1980’s US client-dictators had lost their usefulness and Washington once again took up a dual strategy: On one track, the White House wholeheartedly backed their military-client rulers’ neo-liberal agenda and sponsored them as junior partners in Washington’s regional hegemony.  On the other track, they promoted a shift to highly controlled electoral politics, which they described as a ‘democratic transition’, in order to ‘decompress’ mass social pressures against its military clients.  Washington secured the introduction of elections and promoted client politicians willing to continue the neo-liberal socio-economic framework established by the military regimes.

By the turn of the new century, the cumulative grievances of thirty years of repressive rule, regressive neo-liberal socio-economic policies and the denationalization and privatization of the national patrimony had caused an explosion of mass social discontent.  This led to the overthrow and electoral defeat of Washington’s neo-liberal client regimes.

Throughout most of Latin America, mass movements were demanding a break with US-centered ‘integration’ programs.  Overt anti-imperialism grew and intensified.  The period saw the emergence of numerous center-left governments in Venezuela, Argentina, Ecuador, Bolivia, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Honduras and Nicaragua.  Beyond the regime changes , world economic forces had altered: growing Asian markets, their demand for Latin American raw materials and the global rise of commodity prices helped to stimulate the development of Latin American-centered regional organizations – outside of Washington’s control.

Washington was still embedded in  its 25 year ‘single-track’ policy of backing civil-military authoritarian and imposing neo-liberal policies and was unable to respond and present a reform alternative to the anti-imperialist, center-left challenge to its dominance.  Instead, Washington worked to reverse the new party- power configuration.  Its overseas agencies, the Agency for International Development (AID), the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and embassies worked to destabilize the new governments in Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Paraguay and Honduras.  The US ‘single-track’ of intervention and destabilization failed throughout the first decade of the new century (with the exception of Honduras and Paraguay.

In the end Washington remained politically isolated.  Its integration schemes were rejected.  Its market shares in Latin America declined. Washington not only lost its automatic majority in the Organization of American States (OAS), but it became a distinct minority.

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Leaked letter: Kiev wants 2015 Nobel Peace Prize for Poroshenko, U.S. is pressuring committee to get it

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By Eric Zuesse
Posted on Global Research, May 29, 2015

A leaked letter dated May 19th and sent by the Chairman of Ukraine’s parliament, Vladimir Groysman, to the chargé d’affaires of the U.S. Embassy in Oslo Norway, thanks her for “the efforts you have made to have Petro Oleksiyovych Poroshenko nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize,” but continues: “Still we consider your assurances of support by the two members of the Nobel Committee as insufficient,” because there are five members of the Committee, and the support of 3 of them is necessary. 

Thus,

“We expect further efforts aimed at shifting the position of Berit Reiss-Andersen, Inger-Marie Ytterhorn and especially that of the Chair of the Nobel Committee Kaci Kullman Five. Regarding the latter, we recommend that you take advantage of the information you are going to receive from Germany. Your colleagues in Berlin have assured us that the dossier will soon be delivered to the U.S. Embassy in Oslo. It is of utmost importance for Mr. Poroshenko to have firm guarantees that he will be awarded the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize, since it could highlight the unanimous support of Ukrainian integrity by the democratic community of the world. Assistant Secretary of State Viktoria Nuland has highly estimated your job during her visit to Kyiv.”

The three mentioned Nobel Peace Prize Committee members are a politically varied group. Ms. Reiss-Andersen is from the social democratic or “Labour” party; Ms. Ytterhorn is from the libertarian or “Progress” party; and Ms. Five is from the Conservative Party. The two unidentified members are Thorbjørn Jagland from the Labour Party, and Henrik Syse from the Conservative Party. If this letter is correct, those are the two who are referred to by the letter’s phrase, “your assurances of support by the two members.”

The letter also makes a vague reference to the poor reputation that the Committee has engendered on account of the Committee’s having granted the Prize to Barack Obama in 2009 (a decision that the Committee’s Chairperson, Ms. Five, concurred with and has been criticized for):

“We understand the difficulties you face when promoting the candidacy of the President of Ukraine, therefore we ask you to exert additional leverages by engaging those U.S. Senators who effectively cooperated with the Committee in 2009.”

Presumably, this means that whomever “those U.S. Senators” were, the Chairman of Ukraine’s parliament thinks that they were “effective.”

President Poroshenko entered office on 25 May 2014 after a U.S.-sponsored coup in Kiev that installed Arseniy Yatsenyuk as Ukraine’s Prime Minister on 26 February 2014, after the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Asian Affairs, Victoria Nuland, had instructed the U.S. Ambassador in Kiev on 4 February 2014 to get “Yats” appointed as the junta’s leader; she issued that instruction to him by phone on February 4th and the coup occurred on February 22nd; Yatsenyuk was then appointed on February 26th, and he remains in power today.

One pro-Russian part of Ukraine, Crimea, then seceded and joined Russia, and another, Donbass, seceded and was not accepted by Russia; it thus was bombed by the Ukrainian Government during May through December 2014, since Donbass’s repeated requests to be allowed to join Russia were spurned by Vladimir Putin. (Yet, Ukraine accuses Russia of providing the fighters who are actually the men of Donbass, who refuse to be ruled by the U.S.-coup regime.

Russia sends them guns, and volunteers have come from Russia and many other countries to help the Donbass defenders.) German intelligence estimates that “up to 50,000” people were killed in that bombing campaign, but U.S. and other official estimates are only around 5,000.

Even before Poroshenko took office, the new Ukrainian government of “Yats” Yatsenyuk invaded Donbass, using bombers, tanks, rocket-launchers, and everything it had; and, when Poroshenko gave his victory speech in the ceremonial Presidential election on May 25th, he promised, and it was very clear from him, that: “The anti-terrorist operation [he called the residents there ’terrorists’] cannot and should not last two or three months. It should and will last hours.” (Another translation of it was “Antiterrorist operation can not and will not continue for 2-3 months. It must and will last hours.”)

But it did last months — Poroshenko’s prediction was certainly false; and, moreover, he lost first one round of the war, and then another — his prediction of its outcome was likewise false. And recently, he said that the war must be resumed for yet a third round, in order that Ukraine win back both Crimea and Donbass. However, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry warned him on May 12th that he must not do that, and that if he did he’d be violating the Minsk II ceasefire accords which had been arranged by France’s Francois Hollande and Germany’s Angela Merkel. Then, three days later, his Assistant Secretary Victoria Nuland, who had arranged the February 2014 coup, told both Yatsenyuk and Poroshenko to ignore what Kerry had just said, and that, “We continue to stand shoulder to shoulder with the people of Ukraine and reiterate our deep commitment to a single Ukrainian nation, including Crimea, and all the other regions of Ukraine.”

Perhaps a reason why the Chairman of Ukraine’s parliament is boldly demanding the U.S. State Department to arrange for Poroshenko to get at least a nomination for the Peace Prize (and even goes so far as to assert that,

“It is of utmost importance for Mr. Poroshenko to have firm guarantees that he will be awarded the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize”) is that otherwise they will follow through on Nuland’s statement of U.S. commitment, and re-invade Donbass. However, any invasion by Ukraine of Crimea would be exceedingly unlikely, because that would give Russia a virtual carte blanche to attack Ukraine, and neither the U.S. nor any other power will go to war against Russia in such an instance; Ukraine isn’t yet a NATO member, and NATO would be exceedingly reluctant to go so far as a third world war, this time against Russia, in order to defend the Ukrainian Government from the consequences of that Government’s own then-blatant ceasefire violation — especially in the wake of what virtually everyone now recognizes to have been a U.S. coup that had installed the present Ukrainian regime (and even EU officials were shocked to find out that it had been a coup). And it was a very violent coup, which was followed shortly thereafter by the extremely violent ethnic-cleansing campaign to get rid of the residents in Donbass.

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of  They’re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010, and of  CHRIST’S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity, and of  Feudalism, Fascism, Libertarianism and Economics.

Comments:

What is in the dossier coming from Berlin? Is it information to blackmail Nobel Committee Chairman Kaci Kullmann?

Victoria Nuland seems involved in even this petty endeavor. At U.S. taxpayer expense.

Who are the U.S. Senators who backed Obama’s Nobel Prize bid?

All these emperors have no clothes. Yet they vainly parade with their enormous deluded egos, patting each others’ backs, as our countries fall apart and their special forces kill those who want freedom and real peace.

Spread the information.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/u-s-pressures-nobel-committee-to-declare-ukraines-president-a-peace-prize-nominee-leaked-letter/5452448

The Japanese pivot

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Posted on Fort Russ

 

May 23, 2015
The Japanese Pivot
By Fritzmorgen
Translated from Russian by J.Hawk

Will Japan agree to drop its claims on the South Kurile islands for the sake of signing a peace treaty with Russia? Even a couple of years ago I would have said with certainty that it’s not possible, and that the Japanese will continue to cover our islands to the last.

Let’s recall some history. Japan attacked Russia in 1904 in a not very nice way and after the 1905 peace received from us the southern half of the Sakhalin Island and a few other islands.  The Japanese did not celebrate for very long: upon the end of WW2 Russia took back its territory. Japan took the loss of what they stole rather calmly. During the Khrushchev era they even tried to reach a peace agreement in order to affirm their losses and turn a new leaf in its relations with Russia, the US however vetoed the proposed treaty.

http://ruxpert.ru/Территориальные_споры_России

I’ll add that we did not exactly twist Japan’s arms. The two southern islands, Kunashir and Iturup, are vital to us since they sit astride a never freezing waterway to Vladivostok. The small Kurile range, which are not as valuable to us, Khrushchev was willing to give up in order to end the conflict.

However, the status quo also satisfied both sides. We had our ice free passage to Vladivostok and de-facto controlled the islands, while the Japanese were not concerned by the absence of a peace treaty because they understood Russia was not about to attack them. The half-hearted negotiations of the “give us the islands–no we won’t” could have continued for decades…if it weren’t for the fact that the star-spangled collossus is now sporting cracks visible to the naked eye.

The bomb surfaced in the middle of the week. Japan suddenly said that it is inviting Vladimir Vladimirovich for a visit, and not just for the sake of small talk but…to conclude a peace treaty and resolve the territorial issue:

http://www.interfax.ru/world/442616

Russia’s position has not changed–we are not prepared to give the islands to the Japanese in exchange for a peace treaty: the signing of that document is not so important to us that we would make territorial concessions. Therefore we can carefully conclude that Japan’s position has changed. It may be that Japan decided to sign the peace treaty on Russia’s terms and finally part with the islands which were under its control for a few decades of the 20th century.

The gravity of what’s happening can be judged by the US reaction. Shortly after the unexpected Japanese announcement a relevant Assistant Secretary of State gathered journalist and told them that Japan should not deal with Russia, because Russia is guilty and should be punished:

http://www.vedomosti.ru/politics/news/2015/05/22/gosdep-ssha-yaponii-ne-stoit-vesti-dela-s-rossiei-kak-obichno

What is more, George Soros woke up and in so many words said that China is scheming to attack Japan, which is only being kept safe from the hordes of Chinese occupiers by the brave US Marines:

http://aftershock.su/?q=node/309880

How are we to interpret all this? What is happening, and why are the Japanese acting as if they intend to make, for no apparent reason, an unacceptably generous gesture toward Russia?

Let’s recall history again, this time of WW2. Japan bravely fought against the US on the Pacific front but in final account suffered a tremendous defeat which was underscored by the US atomic strikes on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I’ll note that the Japanese were not exactly playing nice either during the war. The Japanese military acted with such brutality that they eclipsed eve the most odious fascist criminals. Interested individuals should search the net for, for example, “Unit 731” or read the novel “Playing Go.” Samurai fearlessness was a double-edged sword: they were not only indifferent to their own suffering, but to the pain of others as well.

Therefore ultimately Japan fell to the US and…made a very bold move. They acknowledged themselves to be completely defeated and became the most faithful servants of the US. They fulfilled all of the US conditions, forgave them for nuclear bombardments, gave up on having a military and found a secure spot for themselves in the US world order on the terms of favorite colony, acting for a while as if it’s not the US and USSR who fought against Japan, but rather US and Japan who fought against USSR.

We know that the tactic worked. The tiny Japan made an economic leap forward and became the world’s second economy, allowing itself to fall to the fourth place due to the rise of Japan and India only recently. Granted, in the last couple of decades Japan’s economy has been barely ticking under the crushing US colonial ceiling, but the defeated Japan managed to extract far more benefits from its defeat than anyone could have predicted in the distant 1945.

We should also understand that the US were able to subordinate Japan with their nukes but not domesticate it. The Japanese are not savages from US comic books who are happy to kiss the hand of their white master. The Japanese elites remember well all of that “democracy” which the US inflicted on them before, during, and after WW2.

Now the US main enemy are China and Russia, but mainly China. Japan is conveniently located to serve as a sledgehammer against China: in other words, to start a war with China that give the US to use its nuclear club on China or at the very least seriously weaken it by a major war. At the same time, the US is not in the least concerned about what happens to the hammer, just as they are not concerned about what happens to their other combat implement, Ukraine.

Therefore, from the point of view of cold-blooded Japanese, now is the time to try to escape from the ill tyrant. Let me say again that there is no possibility of a genuine friendship between the US and Japan: the Japanese understand perfectly well they were defeated and they view the Americans as occupiers.

Cooperation with China is, from Japan’s perspective, more preferable to continuing as America’s colony. Japan has technologies and a highly developed industry. If the Japanese convincingly apologize before the Chinese for the Rape of Nanking and other crimes of that era, if they resolve their territorial disputes with China, the PRC will be happy to establish a strong partnership with Japa.

But what can protect Japan from jilted America’s anger? Obviously, only Russia. Which can extend its nuclear umbrella over Japan, should it feel the need. Therefore now is the time to make a bold move: acknowledge the islands to be part of Russia and join Russia as a junior partner.

The potential cooperation between Japan and Russia looks even more promising than possible cooperation between Japan and China. Apart from the nuclear umbrella, we can help Japan with hydrocarbons it so badly needs by building a Power of Siberia extension to Japan. Access to Russian gas would allow Japan to greatly reduce its production costs.

There’s still the question of the impossibly large national debt which is currently pulling Japan’s economy to the bottom. However, that problem can be solved Japanese-style. It would be enough for the government to address the nation: “Yamato is in danger, we need to unite in the face of adversity.” Then default, hyperinflation, debt nullification and…inevitable economic take-off.

Who’s afraid of default?

Default terrifies those who have a trade deficit. Those who buy more than sell. In the event of default, they have nothing with which to cover the difference between imports and exports, which means they have to sharply reduce imports which then leads to catastrophic economic consequences.

But countries with a trade surplus–and Japan has one even right now, in spite of temporary energy problems–don’t need credits nearly as much. Japan enjoys a continual influx of money from its foreign economic activity.

Right now Japan is half-bankrupt because the US is sucking out all of its financial juices, forcing them to buy their junk-status government bonds. If Japan manages to free itself from this honorable duty, it will quickly grow rich. What’s more, within a year of yen devaluation the country will undergo a devaluation euphoria: the cost of manufacturing will drop sharply and Japanese goods will become even more competitive.

If you add to this cheap Russian gas, we’ll see that after trading the status of US colony for that of Russian and Chinese junior partner, Japan will be able to repeat the economic miracle of the ’60s.

This scenario is beneficial to both Japan and Russia. And not only because of the peace treaty. There are more important reasons for us to help Japan free itself.

Already today Japan is trying to buy oil for yen–obtaining full independence would allow it to reject dollars altogether. The loss of a major colony and the subsequent narrowing of the dollar space would place the US in such a difficult situation that our US friends and partners would have far less eagerness to do stupid things close to Russia’s borders.

On the other hand, our army and our hydrocarbons will become so important to the defenseless Japan that we can count not only on a long-term relationship but also on Japanese help to expand domestic machine tool production.

What is more, we are nudging Japan in that direction. Sergey Naryshkin said a couple of days ago said that nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and I quote, “to this day did not receive appropriate evaluation on the international level.”

http://russian.rt.com/inotv/2015-05-21/Mainichi-V-YAponii-Narishkin-udaril

This way we are giving Japan yet another reason to opt for independence from the US–arrogant Americans still think they are the only superpower on the planet and don’t intend to apologize for anything.

It’s self evident that it would be too soon to write off Uncle Sam. Uncle Sam may be ill, but is still quite strong and clever. But there is one more reason which allows Japan to hope for a successful escape. The US is entering into its election cycle–the US elites are becoming absorbed by the upcoming elections and are paying less attention to external irritants.

US presidential elections will take place in November 2016–therefore Japan now has a window of opportunity of about a year. If Japan quickly establishes relations with Russia and China–or at least one of them–Washington, in all likelihood, will not be able to react adequately to the departure of the fattest pearl of its imperial crown.

http://www.fortruss.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-japanese-pivot.html

A comment:

The Pentagon and the intelligence community do not live by election cycles. There is no “off” season for them.

So, no country should be so naïve as to think it can “sneak” something by the ruling establishment in Washington. It can’t happen.

And it is a mistake to think that the Pentagon and the intelligence community are controlled by elected officials. The reality is that the military and intelligence community, plus the business community and Wall St., control American elected officials.

 

 

“Whom are they fighting against?” Kiev targets hospitals, schools, destroys infrastructure — why?

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From Fort Russ

“Whom are they fighting against?”
By Yevdokiya Sheremetyeva (littlehiroshima)
Translated from Russian by J.Hawk

In every town and city of the Donbass where we deliver aid, and we deliver it in a targeted manner, to specific houses, apartments, bomb shelters, cafeterias, we hear many stories. At first they are confused, but then something snaps. They start talking and talking. And the stories repeat themselves. I stopped becoming surprised by them. Only for many those are still “untruths” and “distortions,” propaganda.
So here are a few stories from the “civvies”, as the military calls them. And facts from village heads and city administrations.
This is everywhere, you hear? Every place we visited, we were told that when the National Guard and UAF arrived, they targeted the infrastructure for destruction. Please, try to convince me they were defending their land from Russian invaders.

Georgiyevka: The only two kindergartens, Kolosok and Beryozka, and two schools were bombed to bits. The village council was destroyed at point-blank range with incendiary shells. Experts later described munitions used to the head of the village council Yelena Nikolayevna Nikitina.
The former Georgiyevka village council building.

They bombed the cannery, they shot the metal-working shop to bits with rifle fire. The furniture factory was destroyed, all of its equipment was looted, and whatever could not be moved they burned. The metalloplastics plant was destroyed. They crushed gas lines with tanks. When they were asked “why?”, they replied, “you don’t need it.”
Nobody can understand why they crushed a children’s playground with a tank.
Various people told me that the National Guard told the locals “our sheds are nicer than your homes,” “why are you living so poorly?”. Yelena Nikolayevna: “They have no idea whatsoever where they are fighting.”
The Aidar Battalion looted family belongings by the truckload. One woman told me they took away everything from her home, down to spoons. It’s too horrible to even talk about the destruction in Khryashchevatoye and Novosvetlovka. Whole streets are in ruins. They gathered the people all in one place, then went off to loot.
I already wrote about Pervomaysk, but will repeat myself: Hospital No. 2 took five direct hits, including one to the children’s section. No Novorossia units were even in the district. The hospital was targeted on purpose.
Hospital No. 2 in Pervomaysk:

Hospital No. 1 no longer exists, it was totally demolished, only the bomb shelter exists which is now used to house people.
The obstetrics ward was struck by shells three times.
They shelled cafeterias. One shell fell short–it penetrated two top stories in an apartment building adjacent to the cafeteria, so the cafeteria survived.
The town’s best school, No. 6, was shelled four (!) times. It’s damaged beyond repair.
Schools No. 1 and No.2 were shelled three times, so they suffered less.
Pervomaysk School No. 1. The patched up howitzer shell whole where the blackboard used to hang.

The town council was shelled four times–8 direct hits. Technical College No. 31, Technical Schools No. 74 and No. 39, Alenkiy Tsvetochek kindergarten–all destroyed. Two hits to the medical school. Yunost sports complex–the roof penetrated in three places. The first hit was in September, and it was repaied by December. The next hit came right after the repairs were completed.
The kindergarten for handicapped children–destroyed.
The paramedics building was repaired for a long time, but as soon as the repairs were complete it was hit again.
The post office was shelled twice. Direct hits.
Four central heating boiler rooms are damaged, one beyond repair.
First aid clinic–destroyed.
The most important enterprise in the city, Burtsekh–destroyed.
The high pressure gas distribution station, out in the open field, burned out completely. There is nothing even remotely close that would qualify as a military target.
Nearly all the buildings in the city were damaged to some degree. Many were wiped off the face of the Earth.

No Novorossia units were near any of these buildings.
In other words, the buildings were targeted on purpose in order to destroy the city’s infrastructure. They specifically aimed at them. They shelled hospitals, schools, kindergartens, gas distribution centers.
Nearly all water wells in Chernukhino were poisoned. The locals described how the UAF “poured diesel fuel into them.”
–But why? What for?
–God only knows.
Somebody tell me why the Lugansk Geriatric Retirement Home for the Veterans of War and Labor, where there are 250 elderly people, 170 of whom are bedridden and thus can’t be evacuated, was shelled?
The home is in a forest, no Novorossia units even close, so you can’t say they were returning fire.
Why poison wells, crush playgrounds with tanks, shell hospitals and kindergartens?
WHY?
FOR WHAT?
Whom are they fighting against?

Raging special ops war in Novorossia despite official ceasefire

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From Fort Russ

Svpressa.ru

May 29, 2015
Sergey Ishchenko
Svpressa.ru (“Free Press”)
Translated by Kristina Rus

The outcome of the war in Ukraine will be decided by special operations forces. And not Ukrainian.
Wiki: Special operations (S.O.) are military operations that are considered “special” (that is, unconventional), usually carried out by dedicated special forces units.
Special operations are performed independently or in conjunction with conventional military operations. The primary goal is to achieve a political or military objective where a conventional force requirement does not exist or might adversely affect the overall strategic outcome. Special operations are usually conducted in a low-profile manner that aims to achieve the advantages of speed, surprise, and violence of action against an unsuspecting target. Special ops are typically carried out with limited numbers of highly trained personnel that are able to operate in all environments, utilize self-reliance, easily adapt to and overcome obstacles, and use unconventional combat skills and equipment to complete objectives. Special operations are usually implemented through specific, tailored intelligence.[1]
The decade 2003–2012 saw U.S. national security strategy rely on special operations to an unprecedented degree. Identifying, hunting, and killing terrorists became a central task in the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT). Linda Robinson, Adjunct Senior Fellow for U.S. National Security and Foreign Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations, argued that the organizational structure became flatter and cooperation with the intelligence community was stronger, allowing special operations to move at the “speed of war”.[2] Special Operations appropriations are costly: Its budget went from $2.3 billion in 2001 to $10.5 billion in 2012.[2] Some experts argued the investment was worthwhile, pointing to the raid in May 2011 that killed Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Others claimed that the emphasis on Special Operations precipitated a misconception that it was a substitute for prolonged conflict. “Raids and drone strikes are tactics that are rarely decisive and often incur significant political and diplomatic costs for the United States. Although raids and drone strikes are necessary to disrupt dire and imminent threats…special operations leaders readily admit that they should not be the central pillar of U.S. military strategy.”[2]Instead, Special Operations commanders stated that grand strategy should include their “indirect approach”, which meant working with non-U.S. partners to accomplish security objectives. “Special Operations forces forge relationships that can last for decades with a diverse collection of groups: training, advising, and operation alongside other countries’ militaries, police forces, tribes, militias or other information groups.”[2] 

[How about the Right Sector and volunteer battalions, whose resources are so envied by the Ukrainian military, in light of recent revelations that Kolomoisky is simply a front for US financing? – KR]

***
The recent events in Donbass deserve a closer look. The disturbing chronicle is as follows:

1. On May 22 at 13.00 from the Kambrod district of the city of Lugansk the police received a report from local residents that there was a suspicious group of armed men in camouflage calling themselves militias. Because the unknown were asking about the location of military bases, the townspeople became suspicious. To Kambrod went a rapid response team of the Ministry of Interior of LPR. It was fired on. During the ensuing fighting some of the strangers were killed, one detained. On his person was discovered a Western style camouflaged uniform, a mask and a list of unidentified phone numbers.

Lugansk is conducting passport checks to identify persons illegally residing on the territory of the city.

2. On May 23 at 17.40 on the territory of Donetsk region between checkpoints “Gorlovka” (under the control of DPR militia) and “Mayorsk” (held by the armed forces of Ukraine) the car of the Joint Center for Control and Coordination (SCCC) was fired on from automatic small arms. In the car was a head of the Russian office at SCCC, Colonel-General Alexander Lentsov, and the accompanying officers. The group was returning from the village of Shirokino, where there are continued clashes and shelling.

The attack on Lentsov’s car was not successful.

3. On the same day at 18.50 near the village of Mikhailovka on a land mine (according to other sources — an anti-personnel mine MON-50) a convoy of three cars was blown up and then shot at with machine guns. In one of them was the popular commander of the “Ghost” battalion of LPR army, Alexey Mozgovoy. The battalion commander was killed, along with six people accompanying him.

Let us leave aside bitter disputes immediately erupted about who actually killed Mozgovoy: his own (as argued by Kiev), “Ukrainian partisans” from the group “Shadows” (insists their leader Aleksandr Gladky) or someone very professional subversive group, specially sent to LPR for the elimination of Mozgovoy. Something else is more important. The sum of events of the last days, in my opinion, shows that a subversive war had sharply intensified in Novorossia. Intensified by whom is a separate issue. And more about it – below.

For now we will make another assumption. All winter military analysts on both sides of the front fed us with forecasts: the snow will melt, the thaw will be over, and the war for Donbass will ignite with a new force. And what? The snow is long gone, the land in those parts had dried up a month ago. But no one is going on the offensive, the parties are limited only to shooting weapons of all calibers.

The issue is that the nature of the civil war in Ukraine has changed dramatically.

Vladimir Putin already clearly stated that he will not allow anyone to destroy People’s Republics of Donbass. But Petro Poroshenko is not only unable to give his military the command “Stop!”, but even has no right to soften the hawkish rhetoric in Kiev. In this case, the President will simply choke on the smoke from burning tires. So all fall and winter both sides of the confrontation were digging trenches, building bunkers, mined fields, resupplied, trained and equipped combat units. This gigantic work produced a result.

At the front formed a kind of military parity, when any attempt to advance is fraught with high losses, but does not guarantee any reasonable result. What may be the goal of any offensive today? As for the militia, and for the Ukrainian military?

The militia decided not to go to Kiev last year. Did not take Mariupol, although they were just two steps away from it. In turn, the Ukrainian army and volunteer battalions unsuccessfully and incompetently fought all fall for a tiny (even at the scale of this war) Donetsk airport. How could this army seriously at least try to take control of the metropolis of one million people? Yeah, on the streets of a hostile Donetsk alone a 60 thousand-strong group that is involved on the part of Kiev in the so-called ATO will just dissolve, melt away and will be beaten by the enraged townspeople. And there are still Lugansk, Gorlovka, etc. Where can the Ukrainian military score so many garrisons?

So is it coming down to a so-called frozen conflict in Donbass? Like Transnistria? If there was no one standing behind Poroshenko’s regime, it would have most likely happened. But far beyond the borders of Ukraine there are many forces that need endless war in these parts.

Let’s skip the politicians and take the military — they are more frank and “militarily” straight forward. For example, U.S. Lieutenant General John Mulholland, from January 2015, the Deputy Director of CIA for military affairs. In a recent meeting with influential politicians in Washington, he declared that “everything must be done to draw Russia into a war with Ukraine”.

How can in such a difficult and risky business  General Mulholland help personally? Oh, he has skills. In recent past, the current deputy director of the CIA served as the deputy commander of special operations forces of the Armed forces of the United States. That is, Mulholland for four years supervised professional saboteurs and spies. Strangely after his joining the CIA it appeared that special operations forces today bear the brunt of the fighting in Donbass.

If so, than these are certainly not Ukrainian special ops. But if there are Ukrainian subversive groups in Donbass, then they are just a back up of the others. Because Kiev had only just begun to create their own special units of this type (“SP” wrote in detail in April about it).

However, the Ukrainian General staff for several months had a special ops directorate. There’s even a commander — Colonel Sergey Krivonos. But it is only in the beginning of the way. At least in April Krivonos said: “We have a deadline, so we have to start creation of special operations forces as soon as possible and not talk, but act concretely.”

Who, then, is fighting instead of Krivonos, who has a deadline? We will look through the old binders. For example, here is a report from July of last year. In an atmosphere of extreme secrecy 180 commando-instructors arrived in Kiev from the American special ops base in Fort Benning (GA). All speak Russian fluently. Foreign guests, without delay, were transferred to Mariupol, where they commenced the training of Ukrainian students. But we don’t know if the organized by Americans Mariupol special purpose courses are only about theory? Or is there supposed to be battle practice? And if Yes, then do the guests from the USA participate?

Second. There is a ton of information that the Georgian forces, already graduated from the Fort Benning school, are swarming in Donbass. For example, take the headline story of the capture on May 16 near the city of Schastje of the two wounded either former or current Russian special ops fighters from the 3rd brigade of GRU of the General staff of the Russian Armed forces, captain Evgeny Erofeev and Sergeant Alexander Alexandrov. In Ukraine a debate is raging: who had really captured our military? Who should receive the medals? Personnel of the 92nd mechanized brigade of the armed forces or the 24-th attack battalion “Aidar”? And maybe members of the military counterintelligence of SBU?

However, here is a comment of the deputy corps commander of the Ministry of Defence of DPR, Eduard Basurin: “There is a reason for all this confusion of Kiev, about who exactly participated in the capture of these fighters: soldiers of the 92nd brigade of the Ukrainian armed forces, or punishers from “Aidar”, or SBU. According to updated information of our intelligence, that day in the area there was a subversive group of Georgian spetsnaz“.

Basurin said that the base camp of Georgian spetsnaz operates under the cover of a training center of the Ukrainian national guard and is located in the district of Severodonetsk. So its existence was only known to the SBU. Neither 92nd brigade, nor “Aidar” knew about it. Therefore, having participated in the overall battle, they believe that when they shout in Kiev “Glory to the heroes!”, it is about them. And only them.

Note that reports about the participation of Georgian commandos broke through the veil of military secrecy even before. It was reported in the press that Alexander Grigolashvili who died in Donbass on December 18, 2014 served in the special forces of the Ministry of Defense of Georgia. Even earlier, in the battle for the Donetsk airport was killed either former or current Georgian commando Tamaz Sukhiashvili.

[Interestingly, one of the most famous Novorossia commanders Givi is Georgian, who grew up in Donbass, as many people of the Soviet Union moved freely and settled outside of their home Republics – KR]

There is even more evidence about the participation in the fighting in the South-East of Ukraine of special forces from Poland. So, on December 8 of last year, militia radio intelligence intercepted conversations of the enemy in Polish language. And after a few hours, on the night of December 9, 11 kilometers from the settlement of Nikishino there was a clash with a subversive group of eight people. All of them were killed. A detailed examination discovered stripes of the special forces regiment “Jednostka Wojskowa Komandosów” of the Armed forces of Poland.

On June 26, 2014 near the height of Saur-Grave a sniper from Poland was killed, the latest large-caliber American rifle was found by his side. Such weapons are used only by spetsnaz.

Earlier, on June 16, 2014, at the crash site of the downed by militia military transport aircraft Il-76 of the Ukrainian air force many charred documents in Polish were found. Although, whether it was a foreign spetsnaz or ordinary mercenaries, is impossible to conclude. However — it’s a possibility.

According to militia intelligence, there are nineteen subversive groups operating today on the side of the enemy, formed from commandos arrived from beyond the borders of Ukraine. It is obvious that in the coming months they will not let the war in Donbass fade away. No matter what the politicians say.

Senior CIA official says everything must be done to draw Russia into war with Ukraine

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From Pravosudija.net
ПРАВОСУДИЯ.НЕТ
May 21, 2015

Urgent news: meeting of the warmongers

Last weekend, one of the owners of Vanguard Eric G. Wintemute (Eric G WINTEMUTE), Chairman of the Board and CEO of American Vanguard Corporation (Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at American Vanguard Corp. http://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/people/person.asp?personId=250538&ticker=AVD), met with senior policy makers in Washington.

The meeting was attended by Lt. Gen. John F. Mulholland (Lieutenant General John F. Mulholland), a person can say with a heroic biography, who served four years until July 24, 2012 in the Special Operations Command of the US Army (SOCOM), where he even served as deputy commander. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Mulholland,_Jr.)

In the words of the other guests who were present at the meeting, it is known that Mulholland told Wintemute that everything should be done to involve Russia in the war with Ukraine. Mulholland said he had made it clear that the United States will install part of its missile defense system in Ukraine.

Mulholland said “this should make the case,” but Vanguard should help to “make the case” through its Russian mercenaries.

Mulholland from January 2015 is Deputy Director of the Office of Military Affairs at the CIA.

http://pravosudija.net/article/srochnaya-novost-vstrecha-podzhigateley-voyny

So here is a top CIA official reportedly saying, we’ve got to get Russia involved in Ukraine.

In other words,

  1. Russia isn’t involved in Ukraine right now — very, very important — and
  2. the U.S. wants to find a way to get Russia into the conflict.

And American Vanguard has Russian mercenaries????

American Vanguard is a chemical company.

…”through its subsidiaries, develops, manufactures, and markets specialty chemicals for agricultural, commercial, and consumer uses in the United States and internationally. The company manufactures and formulates chemicals, including insecticides, fungicides, herbicides, molluscicides, growth regulators, and soil fumigants in liquid, powder, and granular forms for crops, turf and ornamental plants, and human and animal health protection. It distributes its products through national distribution companies and buying groups or co-operatives in the United States; and through sales offices and sales force executives internationally. American Vanguard Corporation was founded in 1969 and is headquartered in Newport Beach, California.
http://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/snapshot/snapshot.asp?ticker=AVD

So, how can Eric Wintemute and his company get Russia embroiled in Ukraine? Does he do this in other countries? Does he work for the CIA? American Vanguard is a great name for a CIA front company.

Any question about the morality and sanity in Washington DC and the Pentagon? None appears to exist.

 

 

 

Fort Russ: What you should know about the major global developments of week 21, 2015

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Azerbaijan

May 29, 2015
Natalya Laval for “War and Peace”
Translated by Kristina Rus

We will begin this new weekly feature with a recap of weekly news as of May 22, 2015. Zooming out of daily news, at least to a scale of a week helps shape the contours of global trends just a little better. I am sure you will find something that escaped your attention, and isn’t it fun to compare to Western MSM headlines!

(please use Yandex translate to translate any of the links)

The latest one will follow shortly. 

Week 21: When economic arguments end, the arms race beginsThe week began with the Pentagon allocating $5 billion for the space wars. Although hotheads assume that these funds will be used for sabotage, but it seems to me that there was a reason why the fourth very secret satellite X37B was launched from Cape Canaveral. It didn’t receive much attention, but still let me remind you that Russia has long sought a moratorium on the placement of weapons in outer space. Our “partners” once again went for escalation, in particular, advancing towards the cessation of funding for the New START Treaty, as well as brushing off the dust from the missile defense project in Europe. It is not surprising that Moscow will not join the International Treaty on the arms trade.

A week ago, NATO solemnly declared that it has no plans to resume cooperation with Russia, however NATO Secretary General and Lavrov discussed something behind closed doors in Brussels. They had nothing to say to the press. In Latvia NATO began operating a new radar, presidential candidate of Poland proposed to establish a NATO base in the country, and Russia has indicated that it will continue to increase its military presence in Crimea, the construction of the bridge has already begun.

The process of deglobalization of the Russian economy is taking its course. Ignoring the advice of the IMF, Russia is preparing to become self-sufficient in rare earth metals, refuses Ukrainian components, halts the transit of weapons and military equipment to Afghanistan, stockpiles gold and accumulates gold reserves, files claims for unjust sanctions, tries to suppress the growth of the ruble and starts laying pipes for the “Turkish stream”. The budget is expecting the receipt of advance payment and penalties for “Mistral”.

Things are going so well that the Georgian Euro-lobby is nervous, and the official Tbilisi is committed to normalizing relations with Russia. In Moldova, Euro-integrators have organized a march in Chisinau, the World Bank gave Moldovan farmers $14 million for agribusiness. Belarus indulged in smuggling and took advantage of cheaper labor, to launch production of Opel in the country. What can I say, if specializing in Eastern Europe Raiffeisen Bank only made profit on its Russian subsidiary!

Although the weekly inflation in Russia remains at the level of 0.1%, from the point of view of modern economic science it is not so good, but the IMF is optimistic about the growth of the country’s GDP in the following years.

And the worst part: the Duma adopted the law on “undesirable” foreign organizations in Russian Federation. Well what can I say? Better late than never. Even the Indians have realized last year that “a significant number of Indian NGOs, funded by donors from USA, UK, Netherlands and Scandinavian countries use humanitarian issues to create an atmosphere conducive to inhibiting the development of the country.”

It seems that this insight is the basis of enthusiasm of Narendra Modi about the BRICS, SCO and Indian-Chinese relations. I already wrote in my previous review about a breakthrough in the settlement of the border conflict, this week it became known that the two countries signed economic agreements worth more than $22 billion (incidentally, India also saves gold).

The triangle Beijing-Delhi-Moscow strongly irritates the Big Brother. Analysts fell into despair and fear that Obama will not be able to “restrain” China with the help of TTP, that is to say, by economic means. Therefore he must resort to military tools. Secretary Kerry traveled to Beijing, where differences in the approaches to the relationship of China and America was revealed. China, of course, still  lends to the Big Brother, but I believe that according to the Eastern tradition, China is waiting for the American  economic corpse to float by.

Two unpleasant incidents occurred in the South China sea with the participation of warships and American reconnaissance aircraft, during which Washington lightly flexed its muscles. In response, information surfaced about nuclear modernization of China, and after the North Korea revealed a breakthrough in the miniaturization of nuclear weapons. Something tells me that XI Jinping will look at the  Russian soldiers marching in a parade in Beijingwith no less pleasure than at the Chinese marching on the Red Square. Soros summed up the situation well, predicting a new world war.

A quiet Japanese rebellion, highlighted by a high-profile visit to the country of Mr. Naryshkin also caused a sharp reaction of the State Department. It is unlikely to be just about Naryshkin, it’s just that Tokyo Gas had estimated the cost of a gas pipeline from Sakhalin to Japan, and this is much worse than the hypothetical visit of President Putin to Tokyo. Japanese authorities are getting deeper into the quagmire of contradictions: inoperative nuclear industry, a ban on economic interaction with Russia, the discontent of the citizens about the military presence of the USA and other “pleasures” of too deep dependence on the Big Brother.

Equally unenviable is the fate of the European Union, trying to honestly fulfill its vassal dependence, but stumbling on economic difficulties. The agony of Greece which no longer has the money for debt service, continues, there is no chance to leave the Eurozone, there are no means to dodge the pressure of the Pentagon. The situation in Macedonia, where protesters are pitching tents in the capital, painfully recalls the Ukrainian scenario. Albania with its Islamists and drug traffickers is getting closer to joining the EU. Portugal doesn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel after 4 years with tightened belts. Because of sanctions against Russia, container turnover of the port of Hamburg had decreased, and I mentioned above about a subsidiary of an Austrian Bank.

Negotiations on the Transatlantic treaty stalled not only because of GMOs, but also because of the ban on exporting American oil. The ECB continues to pump up the Eurozone with liquidity, the European Commission continues the attack on business by requiring countries to establish registries with data about the owners, Latvia unexpectedly found that Russian pipeline gas is cheaper than LNG.

Britain, where deflation was recorded for the first time, again demanded a “special status” as a condition of EU membership. Special status means, as always, the use of the privileges of being a member of the EU along with a waiver of obligations, in particular, the evasion of the sanctions regime.

The EU countries could not even agree on a new plan of returning the refugees to their homeland, not everyone is satisfied with the quotas for migrants. Some seriously proposed the EU to buy from France the abandoned “Mistral” to catch migrants in the Mediterranean sea. And really, the ship is roomy. Weekly shift, unloading somewhere in Benghazi right into the hands of Islamic State recruiters and a week’s rest, while the second carrier works. Beauty!

The apotheosis of European turmoil was the summit of “Eastern partnership”, which was ignored by Aliyev and Lukashenko, and Armenia along with Belarus criticized the final draft of Declaration of the summit. Dreams of Ukraine about a visa-free regime were qualitatively buried at the summit. As was noted by the observers, Europe has nothing to offer to the countries of the former USSR in exchange for breaking ties with Russia. Amen.

Mrs. Nuland has entered in the fiddling of the Ukrainian situation. According to her, in Moscow she had a very constructive conversation. In parallel with her Ukrainian Rada worked very constructively, cancelling military-technical cooperation with Russia and a number of other cooperation agreements with the Russian Federation. To add to the pile, Kiev cancelled its commitments to respect human rights in Donbass, and also allowed itself to freeze the repayment of external debt. And all this for some billion of credit guarantees from Washington. However, another 1.8 billion euros of EU aid was promised.

But it’s a drop in the bucket of Ukrainian debts. Foreign investors demanded $8.2 billion from Ukraine in courts. Those investors with whom Kiev is trying to negotiate the restructuring, refused concessions. Ex-Minister of Finance of the USA and just a serious financial shark Lawrence Summers threatened uncompromising investors that Ukraine may declare a default.

There is a “positive” — Russia ceased to insist on the postponement of the agreement between Ukraine and the EU, but does not forget to remind about the debt. “Naftogaz” still transfers to “Gazprom” $32 million pre-payment and cherishes dreams of European gas. Under the guise of Ukrainian sale campaign, foreign corporations took over Ukrainian land, but to write about this and many other things is more and more dangerous in Ukraine.

Such is the price of Imperial arrogance of Washington, which failed to properly estimate its resources and calculate its actions in Europe. There are rumors that bankers no longer believe in American economic growth, but most likely, they have already grown tired of the “cuts” in fines, conducted by the Obama administration. The American police acknowledged the decline of morale among employees, which also was aggravated after a ban on military weapons.

At once, Obama remembered the “backyard” of the USA, sarcastically commented by one observer: “in my memory, every American President announced the beginning of a new era in relations with Latin America”. And nothing has changed. Currency reserves of Venezuela are melting at a record pace, Washington made a decision on the target in Caracas, it is the head of the Parliament. Indeed, when Chavez chose a successor, he chose the unquestionable Bolivarian loyalty of Maduro over the prudent and profound mind of Diosdado Cabello. Colombia continues negotiations with FARC and carries out rotation, transferring the Defense Minister into the chair of Ambassador to the United States, and the Ambassador to the United States to the post of Defense Minister. An unexpected friendship with Havana has found a rational explanation: recently, Cuba refused to host the ships of the Chinese Navy, it appears earlier there was such an agreement. As a response courtesy the U.S. resumed banking cooperation with the old enemy. But the Chinese don’t sleep, biting the delicious pieces. Before the visit to Brazil of the Chinese Premier, Chinese ICBC and Brazilian Caixa created a Fund of $50 billion.

American lobbying firms are making money on the promotion of interests of the Kremlin, but in fact, lobbying for big oil corporations, which today cut expenses to $100 billion due to cheap oil and suspect the Obama administration in the unkind coincidence in timing of anti-Russian sanctions and low oil prices. Although the number of drilling rigs in the U.S. continues to fall, the export of cheap Saudi oil to the U.S. fell to the lowest level in 6 years, and the intermediaries from the petroleum industry cannot achieve high profits. High profits can only be found in speculation on the obscenely bloated equity markets. A new bubble is shaping.

The failed policy in the Middle East does not add Washington any love from oil companies. Pulling oil out of the hands of unsympathetic satraps, the strategists were unable to keep it in a growing chaos. Growing on the ruins of Iraq and Syria, the Islamic state has carried out a successful attack last week. After an intense battlePalmyra was captured, and thus the Syrian-Iraqi border was completely taken under control. In this situation the intrigues of the French secret service look like a possible assistance to the Islamists, in contrast to the actions of U.S. special forces which conducted the operation to eliminate the militant, who was responsible for smuggling oil.

Turkey whose air force shot down a Syrian fighter jet, strongly and consistently does not like Assad, but ISIS does not bring it much joy either. Accurate analysis of personnel of the troops of the Islamic state (“ISIS is no different from organized disciplined military force. In their ranks are former officers and strategists of the army of Saddam. They have modern weapons — from tanks to missiles. In addition, they are zealously committed to their cause. So much so that take the path of Shahid and commit suicidal attacks.”), reiterated, in particular, by the recent report of the death of a nephew of Saddam Hussein — Islamist (!), pushes Ankara to support the militarization of the Kurdish militia without regard to the position of Baghdad, which is insisted by the UN.

In a week of fighting in Iraq at the background of never coming reinforcements from Baghdad, ISIS militants captured the town of Ramadi, thereby burying hopes for the quick liberation of Mosul. Looks like the US will have to come to the aid of the infamous and poorly motivated Iraqi militia. The voyage of the Iraqi Prime Minister to Iran, and then to Russia clearly demonstrated the mood in Baghdad about the U.S. aid.

And finally – the mysterious details of an energy partnership of the USA and Azerbaijan. It turns out that Azerbaijani SOCAR sought easing of economic sanctions against Iran to implement the gas pipeline project in the Caspian sea. The origin and destination of a pipeline is unclear from the text,  but when you consider that Turkmenistan still has not finished construction of a gas pipeline to the Caspian sea and with evident pleasure every year discusses the TAPI gas pipeline, it is likely that Baku cherishes ambitions to become a transit country for Iranian gas.

Beyond my review remained: trading assets on the basis of bitcoin in Stockholm, all the events on the Black continent, the budget of the World Health Organization, the debates at the Conference on the NPT, the cancelled visit of Ban Ki-moon to North Korea, the bombing of Yemen and border conflicts on the Saudi-Yemeni border, SSJ-100 on Chinese market, the Taliban near the borders of Tajikistan, Kerry’s visit to South Korea, and a belated start of the economic dialogue between the EU and Turkey.

3 ½ weeks to solstice – powerful period for bringing justice, truth, peace

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This important day comes twice a year – in June and December. The period leading up to it and the day and time itself are still marked in some places as sacred and powerful times.

One of the functions of the astronomical calendars in ancient times was to chart special days appropriate for certain activities, and to engage in alignment-healing activities for self, community, and the earth. These activities could involve ceremony, singing, prayers, toning, chanting, dance, burning sage and other sacred medicinals, resolutions, reconciliation, physical and spiritual healing, making offerings, and having celebrations and feasts.

This is a very powerful resource at this very critical time to bring peace and healing to the Earth and all the people of the Earth.

The solstice occurs on June 21-22, depending on time zone. It is Sunday, June 21, 4:39 PM UTC/GMT.

To find your time zone, http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/june-solstice.html

Look under “Local times for June Solstice 2015 worldwide”

 

 

Senior NATO official claims we’ll be at war by summer

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By Joshua Krause
Global Research, May 28, 2015
The Daily Sheeple 25 May 2015

Last week, former NSA intelligence analyst John Schindler posted a rather disturbing tweet. With a statement that one could only assume to be a reference towards Russia, Schindler wrote “Said a senior NATO (non-US) GOFO to me today: “We’ll probably be at war this summer. If we’re lucky it won’t be nuclear.” Let that sink in.”

So who is John Schindler? As a ten-year veteran of the NSA, he was in the news a bit more when Snowden was making frequent headlines. He used to be a professor at the U.S. Naval War College, and is currently a frequent contributor to Business Insider. According to his biography on Business Insider, he used to teach classes on security, strategy, intelligence, and terrorism, and he has “collaborated closely with other government agencies who would probably prefer he didn’t mention them.” It’s safe to say that Schindler probably brushes shoulders with high-ranking officials from time to time, so his tweet should be taken seriously.

It’s frightening to think that members of NATO may actually be preparing for, and expecting a war with Russia this summer, but unfortunately it’s not all that surprising. Given some of the activity we’re seeing around the world, it’s safe to assume that superpowers like the US, Russia, and China, are preparing for something big.  Infowars also reported on Schindler’s tweet, and noted some of the provocative moves that have been going on around the world lately.

Earlier this month NATO launched its biggest ever wargame exercise on Russia’s doorstep. Moscow responded by conducting “provocative” wargames in the Mediterranean Sea in coordination with the Chinese PLA, the first ever naval drill involving both superpowers.

NATO powers are also taking part in one of Europe’s largest ever fighter jet drills from today, with the United States, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Finland, Norway and Sweden all involved in the 12 day exercise.

Tensions are also building between the U.S. and China, with The Global Times, a state media outlet owned by the ruling Communist Party, today warning that “war is inevitable” if Washington doesn’t halt its demands that Beijing stop building artificial islands in the South China Sea.

“If the United States’ bottom line is that China has to halt its activities, then a U.S.-China war is inevitable in the South China Sea,” the newspaper said. “The intensity of the conflict will be higher than what people usually think of as ‘friction’.”

Last week, CNN revealed how China’s Navy has repeatedly issued warnings to U.S. surveillance planes flying over the South China Sea.

While these sorts of warnings come and go all the time, that in and of itself is kind of scary. The fact that we now live in a world where high-ranking officials just assume nuclear war is right around the corner, means we should be very concerned. Wars rarely, if ever, happen out of the blue. There are always quiet rumors of wars before the real deal comes to pass.

Contributed by Joshua Krause of The Daily Sheeple.

Joshua Krause is a reporter, writer and researcher at The Daily Sheeple. He was born and raised in the Bay Area and is a freelance writer and author. You can follow Joshua’s reports at Facebook or on his personal Twitter. Joshua’s website is Strange Danger .

http://www.globalresearch.ca/senior-nato-official-claims-well-be-at-war-by-summer/5452220