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A warning from the generals of the former GDR: “Haven’t the recent US/NATO wars brought enough grief ?”

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Die Junge Welt May 6, 2015
May 7, 2015
Translated from German by Tom Winter
Translator’s note: News of this warning from the generals of the former DDR has been all over the European press. Here is the actual document.
Documented: The leadership of the former East German Forces warns of war and calls for cooperation rather than confrontation with Russia

As military personnel who held responsible positions in the DDR armed forces, we have turned to the German public in great concern over the maintenance of peace and the survival of civilization in Europe.
In the years of the Cold War, in which we lived through long stretches of confrontation and militarization right up to the edge of open conflict, we employed our military expertise for the maintenance of peace and the protection of our socialist German Democratic Republic. The National People’s Army was not involved for a single day in armed conflict, and in the events of 1989-90 it played a leading role in seeing to it that no arms came into use. Peace was always the number one maxim of our dealings. And that is why we firmly oppose using the military factor as an instrument of policy. Experience makes clear that the burning questions of our time are not to be solved by military means.
It is worth remembering that the Soviet Army bore the brunt of the demolition of fascism in the Second World War. Alone 27 million Soviet citizens gave their lives for this historic victory. We owe them, and the allies, our gratitude here on this 70th anniversary of the liberation.
Now we note that war has again become mankind’s constant companion. The new world order run by the US and her allies has in recent times led to wars in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen and Sudan, in Libya and Somalia. About two million people are victims of these wars, and millions have become refugees.

Now the vents of war have reached Europe. It is plain to see that the US strategy is to eliminate Russia as a competitor and to weaken the EU. In recent years NATO has crept ever closer to Russia’s borders. With the attempt to put Ukraine into NATO, the cordon sanitaire would be locked in from the Baltic States to the Black Sea, in order to isolate Russia from the rest of Europe. By the American planning, any German-Russian alliance would be difficult or impossible.
In order to influence the public in this direction, an unprecedented media campaign is in full swing, where the incorrigible pols and the corrupt journalists are beating the drums of war. The Federal Republic of Germany, in this heated-up atmosphere ought to be playing a role for the advancement of peace. Germany’s geopolitical placement and its historical experience and the objective interests of her people all demand this, just the contrary to the bundespresident’s calls towards greater military responsibility, and the war hysteria and russophobia stirred up by the media.
Putting the spurs to the militarization of eastern Europe is not playing with fire, it is playing with war!
With awareness of the destructive nature of modern war and in fulfillment of our responsibilities as citizens, we say in plain clarity: here, already, there begins a crime against humanity.
Are the many dead of the Second World War, the huge destruction throughout all Europe, the refugee streams and the endless sorrow of humanity forgotten already? Haven’t the newest wars of the US and NATO brought enough grief ? Haven’t they already demanded enough human life? 
Don’t we understand what a military conflict in the densely populated continent of Europe would mean? Here would come warplanes in their hundreds, armed drones laden with bombs and rockets, thousands of tanks and armored vehicles, artillery systems. In the North Sea, the Baltic Sea, the Black Sea the most modern warships would fight, and, waiting in the wings, atomic bombs.
There would be no distinction of front and not-front. Mothers, by the million would mourn their children and their husbands, their fathers, their brothers. The landscape of Europe would be that of a wasteland.
Should it come to this? No, a thousand times, NO!

Therefore we turn to the German public:

Any such scenario must get stopped.

We don’t need any rhetoric of war, we need instead polemics of peace.

We don’t need any missions abroad for the Bundeswehr, and we don’t need any EU Army.

We don’t need more funding for military goals; we need funding for social needs and humanitarian needs.

We don’t need any war fever against Russia; we need more mutual understanding, coexistence and neighborliness.

We don’t need any military dependence on the US; we need our own answerability for peace.

Instead of a “NATO Rapid Reaction Force” on the eastern borders, we need more tourism, youth exchanges, and steps toward peace with our neighbors to the east.

We need a peaceful Germany in a peaceful Europe.

May our children, our grandchildren, our great grandchildren, remember us this way.

Because we know all too well what war means, we raise our voice against the war; we raise our voice for peace.

Signed:
Armeegeneral a.D. Heinz Keßler
Admiral a.D. Theodor Hoffmann
Die Generaloberste a.D. Horst Stechbarth; Fritz Streletz; Fritz Peter
Die Generalleutnante a.D. Klaus Baarß; Ulrich Bethmann; Max Butzlaff; Manfred Gehmert; Manfred Grätz; Wolfgang Kaiser; Gerhard Kunze; Gerhard Link; Wolfgang Neidhardt; Walter Paduch; Werner Rothe; Artur Seefeldt; Horst Skerra; Wolfgang Steger; Horst Sylla; Ehrenfried Ullmann; Alfred Vogel; Manfred Volland; Horst Zander
http://www.fortruss.blogspot.com/2015/05/a-warning-from-generals-of-former-gdr.html

US State Department attacks the St. George ribbon in Kazakhstan and other former Soviet republics

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May 5, 2015

Regnum
Translated by Kristina Rus
Opponents and defenders of St. George ribbon clash in Kazakhstan

Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Karim Masimov will receive more than a thousand signatures of citizens who do not agree with the replacement of St. George ribbon for stripes with colors of the republican flag.

The campaign against the St. George ribbon was launched in the Republic in April, when a representative of the “Liberty” movement Botagoz Zarykhankyzy called the golden-black ribbon “a symbol of colonization of Kazakhstan in the period of Tsarist Russia” on air of the Kazakh edition of radio “Svoboda” (“Liberty” or “Freedom”). The “civil activists” sent a letter to the akim (mayor) of the city Almaty, Akhmetzhan Yesimov, calling to replace the unwanted symbol with blue and white stripes, and distribute them to the citizens on the streets on the eve of May 9 anniversary celebration.

The letter was signed by only 20 people, but the “gesture” of Kazakh opposition has made a lot of noise — the Russian media immediately found the main “masterminds”. Earlier REGNUM explicitly named the promoters of the idea – the U.S. Department, recalling the direct financing by the Americans of radio “Svoboda”. In the campaign for a ban on the traditional symbols the “civil activists” did not hesitate to involve school age children.

See also: The U.S. State Department promotes the ban of St. George ribbon in Kazakhstan http://www.regnum.ru/news/polit/1914351.html

The response of the defenders of St .George ribbon was a counter measure to collect signatures. A letter to the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Karim Massimov was signed by more than 1,000 people. Authors of the appeal recalled that “St. George ribbon is a symbol of remembrance of the price of Victory in the most terrible war of the last century”, and reminds the new generations, “whose beneficiaries we are, what and who we should be proud of and whom we should remember.”

Social activists emphasize that the more extensive use of this symbol in Kazakhstan is “a response to an increasingly powerful attempts to distort the history of the Great Patriotic War and to split the Kazakh society”. The patriots say that “the public is in a “St. George mood, but not everyone understands the real meaning of what is happening”. And draw parallels with the situation in neighboring Ukraine where it all began “with attempts to insult or distort the memory of the great Victory of the Soviet Union over the Nazi invaders”. In the end, the statement says, “such actions have led to the exile of the legally elected government, the murder by pro-fascist forces and the Nazi wing of peaceful citizens who attempted to express an alternative opinion, and plunging the country into the chaos of civil war and devastation”.

The authors of the letter asked Karim Massimov to “take measures to prevent the desecration of the memory of the Great Victory and a cultivation of division and antagonism in society.” Karim Masimov was reminded about the April incident with the beating of a 67-year-old granddaughter of the hero of Soviet Union, Ivan Panfilov — Aigul Baikadamova. In the media and in social networks there was a version about possible involvement in the beating of a woman of her opponents in the online discussion about the use of St. George ribbons. Baikadamova on her page on Facebook made a post calling the attempts to substitute the symbols of Victory and rewrite the pages of history of the Great Patriotic war – an “attack on the sacred” and the desire “for PR and cheap fame”.

Collected in defense of St. George ribbon signatures will be taken to Astana and passed to the Prime Minister.

Note, the anti-St. George initiative in Kazakhstan is not unique. Reports about the rejection of traditional symbols in post-Soviet republics poured from the horn of plenty long before the anniversary of May 9. In Belarus some used a red-green ribbon as a symbol of Victory Day last May 9, decorated with apple blossom. There was no official ban on the St. George ribbon by Belarussian authorities, but here the Belarussian opposition is also active in setting the tone. The activists are calling on the authorities to ban the symbol of “Russian aggression” in Southeast Ukraine, and proposed that Belarussians use other national symbols on Victory day.

Kyrgyzstan has also decided to abandon the ribbons. According to a statement by the vice-mayor of Bishkek, Aigul Ryskulova, “this year we want to use the colors of the Kyrgyz flag — red and yellow. We called it “the ribbon of Victory”. According to one authoritative Kyrgyz news agency, the order to abandon St. George ribbons came to the mayor’s office of Bishkek from office of the President of Kyrgyzstan, Almazbek Atambayev. The presidential press service denied this information, but it should be noted that the decision on red-yellow ribbons came not from the street, but was adopted by the authorities of Bishkek. A number of experts classify this as a “sabotage of the officially declared line of rapprochement with Russia,” paying attention to the presence of about 16 thousand Western NGOs, operating on the territory of the republic, 200 of which are “working at full capacity of their ability.” And at the same time, noting the lack of adequate control of activities of these organizations from the leadership of the country, and a general pro-Western attitude of a large part of the Kyrgyz elite.

Additionally, tensions around the symbolism of the celebration of the 70th anniversary of Victory Day in a Great Patriotic War on the eve of May 9 also began in Russia — the public protested online against the gradual displacement of traditional Soviet symbols by a “faded remake”. Especially controversial is the new logo with a white dove on a blue background and a small strip of St. George ribbon in the upper right corner, which apparently was developed by the office of the press service and information of the President of the Russian Federation. Many drew attention to the complete lack of similarity with the heroic Victory of the Soviet people over fascism, calling the logo “absolutely toothless and empty”, “ideological sabotage,” an attempt “to steal the country’s history, replacing the symbols of Victory.” Online users opened the electronic collection of signatures for a petition addressed to the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, urging him to keep the Red banner and a red star as immutable symbols of Victory in the Great Patriotic war.

KR: It looks like the St. George ribbon is gaining a new meaning – as a symbol against US imperialism

http://www.fortruss.blogspot.com/2015/05/us-state-department-attacks-st-george.html

The Victory banner is unfurled at the top of Mount Elbrus

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From Fort Russ

March 6th, 2015
– From RT Russia and Novorosinform – translated by Joaquin Flores –


In honor of the 70th anniversary of victory in great Patriotic war, members of the mountain survival training Center, ФАУ МО РФ ЦСКА, made an ascent to the top of mount Elbrus and deployed a copy of the Victory banner.

Mount Elbrus is a dormant volcano located in the western Caucasus mountains, in Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay–Cherkessia of Russia, near the border with Georgia. Mt. Elbrus’s peak is the highest in the Caucasus Mountains and in Europe, and it is the tenth most prominent in the world.

Elbrus stands 20 km (12 mi) north of the main range of the Greater Caucasus and 65 km (40 mi) south-southwest of the Russian town of Kislovodsk. Its permanent icecap feeds 22 glaciers, which in turn give rise to the Baksan, Kuban, and Malka Rivers.

http://www.fortruss.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-victory-banner-is-unfurled-at-top.html

 

Russian diaspora in Canada to celebrate Victory Day on May 9

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Posted on Sputnik News, May 9, 2015

Spokesman for the Russian embassy in Canada said that Canadian capital Ottawa and the most populous city of the country Toronto will hold events dedicated to the 70th anniversary of Nazi defeat in the World War II on May 9.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – Canadian capital Ottawa and the most populous city of the country Toronto will hold events dedicated to the 70th anniversary of Nazi defeat in the World War II on May 9, a spokesman for the Russian embassy in Canada said Friday.

“We will honor our veterans who live in Ottawa, at a ceremonial reception at the embassy on May 9, there are not so many of them, only 15 people,” Kirill Kalinin said.

Officials from the embassies of China, Germany and countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) will participate in the reception, according to the spokesman. Canadian officials have also been invited, although they have not confirmed their participation.

Russian embassy workers and Russian nationals plan to visit Canadian War Museum in Ottawa and lay flowers at the T-34 tank which is a part of museum’s exposition.

Toronto’s initiative group will hold a parade of World War II veterans from the former Soviet Union countries and from allied nations, workers of the rear, survivors of the siege of Leningrad (modern St. Petersburg) and the Holocaust. The group has also organized an event in a city park where everyone will be able to meet veterans. Representatives of the local authorities and organizations are expected to congratulate veterans.

Montreal’s initiative group plans to fly a plane with a 70-meter (229-foot) St. George ribbon that symbolizes the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany. The Montreal group said, they have already handed out 6,000 ribbons preparing for the Victory Day.

On May 9, extensive events are planned in Russia and other former Soviet states to celebrate the 70th anniversary of Nazi Germany’s capitulation.

http://sputniknews.com/us/20150509/1021906488.html

The role of Soviet soldiers is something we tend to forget – interview with Dutch researcher

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From Sputnik News, May 8, 2015
by Svetlana Ekimenko

Remco Reiding is a Dutch writer and a researcher who has covered the topic of Soviet graves abroad during his decades-long career. He’s the author of the book “Child in the Field of Honor”, which refers to a World War II-era Dutch concentration camp where 101 Soviet prisoners of war were sent to die.

The world is celebrating the 70th anniversary of the victory of the allied forces in World War II. And this means a lot especially for Russian people. This is a very special day…

Remco Reiding: Absolutely, and I has everything to do with more than 26 million of war victims in the former Soviet Union, something we tend to forget in the West, because we were liberated by Americans, Canadians, British, so the role of the Soviet Union is sometimes forgotten. But that is one of the reasons I think it’s very important that there is a book now about Soviet soldiers in this case Soviet soldiers buried in the Netherlands.

Why “Field of Honor”? Of course people don’t know what this refers to.

Remco Reiding: It’s a cemetery, where 865 Soviet war victims have been buried in the center of the Netherlands. And it was created because during the war in this town, my home town of Amersfoort there was a concentration camp where 101 soviet soldiers were sent to. These were mostly soldiers from Uzbekistan, so they had Asiatic look, they were very poorly dressed, they didn’t get any food during transport to this camp in the Netherlands and their fate in the camp was also terrible – all 101 died in Amersfoort. And the idea then was that we as Dutch people, as you could say brotherly, friendly people to the Germans, from the same branch of peoples. And they had that crazy idea that the Dutch would choose the German side, if we would see what kind of ‘Unter-menschen’ a kind of lower kind of people Soviet soldiers were. And this propaganda was actually meant to make us change sides and fight against Bolshevism.

Do we know at what stage of the war, what year concentration camp was set up there?

Remco Reiding: Yes, this story starts in 1941. Those soldiers arrived only a couple of month after the camp opens. And by then the population was only Dutch or mostly Dutch and most of the prisoners were actually Dutch communists, because they have been resisting the German occupation from the beginning, and they were arrested after the start of operation Barbarossa – the attack on the Soviet Union. And the idea is probably that the communists were meant to be shown what kind of bad people they were supporting. That was an unrepeatable propaganda campaign, because they brought prisoners all the way from Smolensk to a country in the West. So they were in cargo trains for two weeks before they arrived in Amersfoort.

It’s interesting that you mention this, because so many people I’ve been talking to here in Russia don’t understand how is it that there were concentration camps in such odd places? Now we understands why.

Remco Reiding: That is one of the reasons. Actually after the war Amersfoort was chosen as a meeting point a collection point for other Soviet soldiers buried in the Netherlands. And most of those soldiers actually also ended up in the West, in Germany, but still the west of Germany, where many Prisoner-Of-War camps were and a lot of forced labors were, because there were mines, there were factories – that is why they sent those Soviet soldiers, prisoners of war to the west of Germany, so they could work there. And unfortunately they died of illnesses and ended up in the Netherlands as well.

In that particular camp they all died towards the end of the war or else?

Remco Reiding: No, the first group, 24 of them died within half a year, because they were treated very badly and the other 77 they were hardly alive – but they decided to tell them that the climate was not right for them and they would be transported to France, but in fact they were transported 500 meters further – where they were executed in groups of four, which is a huge war crime, by the way, you cannot just shoot POW without any court decision. And it’s also the second biggest massacre in the Netherlands, and therefore it’s a group that should not be forgotten.

Was that something that became known immediately after the war or a whole period of time had to pass before it actually surfaced?

Remco Reiding: Yes, it was known right after the war. It was not covered up at all – they tried to prosecute everyone who was involved and they managed to for a big deal of them. Some were not alive or not caught right away. But the later commander, at that moment he was actually lowest in rank, and he did many things wrong during the next years – he was executed after the War, and mainly because of the execution of these 77 Soviet soldiers.

How did your interest and your involvement actually start, I believe you were journalist at that time?

Remco Reiding: You could say I was a student of Journalism; I was already working for a local newspaper, the one in my home town, and I got the opportunity in an exchange program with the possibility to go to New York. But I thought that New York is the place I will visit one day – so let’s go to Moscow. I had no connection to Moscow at that time, and as a student of Journalism I was very curious. And I can tell you now that it’s been 17 years, and I’ve never ever been in New York. I’ve lived in Moscow for 8 year.

What was your first impression of Moscow?

Remco Reiding: That first impression changed my life, I was very much impressed by Moscow and it seemed to be completely different world with positive and negative sides, but still I was impressed. That was 1998. It was a difficult time, but also a bit crazy time, wild time… I was a 21 year old student. And I fell in love with the city, but not only the city – that’s how it goes. And I came back in the Netherlands – and that’s how it started. They told me you are crazy about Moscow, about Russia, you have an interest, you’re curious, you’re young, you have all the time in the worlds, because you are a student, we don’t have to pay you – so maybe then go and investigate those Russian graves that we have. So the idea to investigate those graves came from the local newspaper. It was an old idea. The idea was also very vague, because they did not tell me it was a complete cemetery, they didn’t tell me how they ended up there, they didn’t tell me who they were. The only thing they told me – was: “We have Russian graves and they are kind of forgotten”.

What was the cemetery like at the time? Were there gravestones?

Remco Reiding: Yes. It’s absolutely amazing that those graves were forgotten, because it’s a complete cemetery, it’s next to the entrance of the general cemetery, there are individual graves and they are very well taken care of by the Dutch government. However none of the relatives of those 865 soldiers have ever been traced. So you can imagine the cemetery is already a place of death, and if no relatives come to put flowers, it’s even more and easier to become a place of death and of forgotten soldiers. My task was to give this forgotten cemetery a face, to trace relatives of those soldiers – that was the idea.

Did your heart ‘warmed’ to the project immediately?

Remco Reiding: Yes, but there was certain development and motivation, because my first motivation was curiosity, which is normal for anyone and certainly for a 21 year old student of journalism. And the second thing – it was a challenge, ambition. I had difficult years, my mother have died and I felt kind of lost in the world and here I saw a project that could help me also do something special, and mean something in life. Then of course I realized I was not looking at stones but I was looking at people, people of my age that fought in the war that they hoped never to fight, people who were buried thousands of kilometers from home. And their families didn’t know. I felt it was a moral obligation for all of us, and for me to investigate and try to inform the relatives.

How did you start, what was the first thing you were able to do?

Remco Reiding: It started with that first group and those Uzbek soldiers, but already pretty soon I found out that they have all been buried as unknown soldiers, because the Germans had destroyed the administration. I understood that this group is not the group with the biggest chance of success. So I started to find out where did the others come from, how did they ended up in Amersfoort and after about one and a half years of searching the archives finally I found out additional information that helped me to identify soldiers, because the name is not enough. With this information I was able to start tracing relatives.

What kind of response you got when you made the enquiries?

Remco Reiding: It’s hard to give an answer, because in the end archives are not archives, its human beings working there and most of them understand. And they find a way if it’s not within the rules directly to help. And sometimes there are human beings that don not understand, do not care and they don’t help, and you find those human beings in Germany. And then I try to explain that it’s not about me or about them – it’s about helping people who have been without news about their relatives for 50, 60 now already 70 years. This emotional appeal often helps, maybe it’s needed a bit more in the Netherlands and Germany than here, because here every family understands what the war has done to a regular family.

Did you ever think your project was an example for someone else to follow in other countries?

Remco Reiding: It’s a bit difficult to find similar situations; it’s a bit unusual that there are Soviet graves in the West, because the Soviet army was fighting in the east. However, Germany is full of such graves, and it would be great if the German society also takes part in tracing relatives. In Belgium there are certain people having similar situations. In Russia there are many people the so-called ‘searchers’, who are searching in the woods and fields for remains of soldiers.

Any particular story, any emotional part of it?

Remco Reiding: All 865 for me they all are evenly important, but the story I tell in my book is very important for me – it’s the first family I traced and it’s also the son of the soldier Vladimir Botenko – his son Dmitry, he was the first ever to visit the cemetery. I was lucky also to receive his photograph, so we now know how the family looks like. And I managed to get a lot of information about his life; I visited his place of birth, the house he was living in, the house he built himself just a year before he had to go to the front. It was very emotional for me. Now we have our own child of the ‘Field of Honor’ and we named him Dima, after Dmitry the first traced relative. My life will always be connected to this story.

Do you something to sum up for the people around the globe marking this great anniversary? What should they not forget?

Remco Reiding: Let me answer it for us… We have started a program called ‘Grave adoption’, we ask people to adopt a grave to adopt a soldier, and by doing this we try to find 865 people who want to do this. By doing this we want to preserve the memory of each soldier. I think such initiatives can take place everywhere. And if one person takes care of a soldier, then all of them will not be forgotten.

http://sputniknews.com/analysis/20150508/1021883103.html

Putin “all by himself in Red Square” — with the leaders of half the planet

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Posted on Fort Russ

“The insult to Russia… a denial of history”
Dominique Jamet
in Boulevard Voltaire, May 3, 2015
May 4, 2015
Translated from French by Tom Winter
So it is confirmed: No head of state, no chief of government from either North America nor from the EU (Greece being the sole exception) will honor with his presence the grandiose ceremonies that will mark, on the 9th of May in Moscow, the 70th anniversary of the surrender of the Third Reich, and therewith mark the victory of the nations, whatever their regimes and their legitimacy, that were united against nazism.
The reason is known. This slap is to punish the foreign policy of Vladimir Putin, and more precisely his intervention if the interior conflict of Ukraine. Yesterday’s ally is treated and punished like a rebellious brat by leaders whose policies of varying geometry nonetheless accommodate ententes, alliances, deals and conversations with countries and people who are no more commendable than the Russian president.
The promoters of this boycott and the ones responsible for it not only err in the most elementary courtesy by not returning the favor to Vladimir Putin, for attending the commemoration of the Normandy landings last June, where he crossed paths for the first time with his Ukrainian counterpart Poroshenko. They not only err at the foremost principle of diplomacy, as General DeGaulle professed it, to put reality in front of feelings, and states in front of friendships; their insult to Russia constitutes first off, an outrage to history, practically a denial of history. Is the present to erase the past, as with Big Brother in Orwell? Should politics be trumping the truth?
Mssrs Obama, Hollande, Cameron and other western leaders — whose names, if not already forgotten, soon will be — are too quick to hold cheap the frightening tribute of the twenty million lost that Russia and Stalin payed for the common cause at the time of world war. These people, all things considered, are seeing only the short term. Yesterday’s headline in Le Journal du dimanche: “Putin all alone in Red Square.”
Alone? Really?
This calls to mind the old and well-worn joke on the British point of view: “Fog in the Channel; the continent is isolated.” Beyond the presence of eleven African heads of state, a dozen heads of asiatic states, and the Venezuelan and Cuban presidents, Vladimir Putin will welcome under Kremlin walls these second-string players: the number one of China and the number one of India.
What does this mean? It means that half of the planet at the highest level will be represented one week from Sunday in Moscow. It will be, perchance, time to view the world not as it was, nor as one dreams that it will remain, but as it is.
http://www.fortruss.blogspot.com/2015/05/putin-all-by-himself-in-red-square-with.html

Korwin-Mikke: Maidan snipers were trained in Poland

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“Maidan was also our operation. The snipers were trained in Poland. These terrorists shot 40 demonstrators and 20 police officers on the Maidan in order to provoke riots,” – said the EU Parliament Deputy and presidential candidate Janusz Korwin-Mikke.

From Fort Russ

April 19, 2015
Korwin-Mikke: Maidan snipers were trained in Poland.
By Joanna Stanislawska
Translated from Polish by J.Hawk

JKM: Poland does not have a conflict of interests with Russia. We have no problems on the Polish-Russian border. Fostering a militaristic state of mind is not useful to us, only to the US. It’s hard to agree with people like Vladimir Zhirinovskiy, since he is crazy, but he is fair to call us as Washington’s stooges.

Wirtualna Polska: But such sentiments are only natural given Russia’s aggressive policies. It’s difficult to ignore Iskander missiles on our borders.

JKM: Just a second! The Iskanders appeared there only recently, after Poland launched a hundred brutal verbal assaults on Russia, and after US armored cavalry paraded on Polish territory. I am a poker player, and in poker one has to think like the opponent. From Russia’s perspective, the situation looks as follows: in the last twenty years NATO had swallowed up the German Democratic Republic, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Lithuania, Estonia, Romania, Bulgaria, and wants to lay its paws on Ukraine. Moreover, they tore Kosovo away from Serbia, attacked Muammar Qaddafi (may he rest in peace), and now are attacking the only defender of Christianity in the Middle East, His Excellency Bashar al-Assad, only because they are Russia’s allies. One can find an internet meme which says “Russians want war. Look how they placed their country close to NATO bases.” So I’m asking, who’s the aggressor?

Wirtualna Polska: The Ukrainians might have a different view on this matter.

JKM: Unfortunately they can thank the Americans for all that. Russia had a fairly friendly president in Ukraine in the person of Mr. Viktor Yanukovych. And Russia had no intention of taking anything away. It was also the ideal situation for us, because it is in Poland’s interest for Ukraine to exist as an independent state, but also a weak one. That’s what Maidan destroyed. US State Department official Victoria Nuland openly admitted that the US spent $5 billion to destabilize the situation in Ukraine. We are dealing with US aggression in Ukraine. Putin is only pulling chestnuts out of the fire.

Wirtualna Polska: But that’s the money that the US had spent since 1991 to democratize Ukraine. They were not spent to organize the Maidan. Do you believe that it was a CIA operation?

JKM: Yes—and it was also our operation. The snipers were also trained in Poland. Even Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung already wrote who was really shooting on the Maidan. The terrorists had shot 40 demonstrators and 20 police officers in order to provoke riots. The truth is finally coming out.

WP: Why would Poland want to train those, as you call them, “terrorists”?

JKM: Let me say this again: we are doing a favor to Washington [J.Hawk note: JKM here is making a play on words, because the word “favor” is only one letter away from “blow-job”, which was the word used, and also with reference to Washington, by the former Polish Foreign Minister Sikorski who complained Poland is not getting sufficient appreciation from the US.]

WP: Fine, but do you have any proof?

JKM: I sit in the EU Parliament next to Mr. Urmas Paetz, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Estonia who acknowledged in a telephone conversation with Baroness Catherine Ashton that it was “our people” who shot on the Maidan, and not Yanukovych’s people, or Putin’s people. Trained by us, in Western countries.

WP: I don’t know what Paetz and Ashton talked about, but Putin certainly said this. You are repeating Russian propaganda theses. It’s difficult to consider as consistent with Poland’s national interest.

JKM: His Excellency Vladimir Putin said it two months after Mr. Paetz. I believe in St. Augustine’s principle, “may the world perish, but justice must be done.” If the Russians, through the mouth of Sergey Lavrov, say that they did not violate the Budapest Memorandum, they are lying like dogs, but when they are right, we have to acknowledge it.

WP: NATO has a defensive doctrine, while Putin is arming on a massive scale, is sending tanks and heavy equipment to Ukraine, and you claim this is not an aggressive policy?

JKM: What NATO? The Americans! War is useful only from the American point of view. There are interest groups in the US which are pushing for armed conflict: defense industry, financiers, some politicians, generals, but also many people (some of whom I know personally) from among the neoconservatives. They are analyzing the situation with cold logic: we have built the mightiest army in the world, but we also have 14 trillion dollars in debt, and we can’t afford further development. China, which supports Russia, will soon overtake us, therefore if we are to preserve our global hegemony, we have to start a war, in a few years at the latest. Ukraine is a very convenient pretext. At present time Poland is in a position to prevent World War III.

WP: In what way?

JKM: By declaring neutrality when it comes to Ukraine. Like Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Belarus, which don’t take part in the anti-Russian frenzy. We might save the world if we deprive the US Army from access to Ukraine.

WP: The Kremlin occupied Crimea, and through the pro-Russian separatists it is lawlessly occupying the Eastern Ukraine, but we are supposed to say that nothing happened?

JKM: The Crimean situation is clear. Russia used the Kosovo precedent. Because why can one tear Kosovo away from Serbia, but can’t tear Crimea away from Ukraine? The Russians warned that whoever recognizes Kosovo’s independence gives assent to similar situations in the future. The Donbass is not as obvious, but here Ukraine made a mistake. It should have given up Crimea and placed its military on the border with Russia. Instead it began to scream, but the effect of screaming was that it lost Crimea regardless, while the inhabitants of the Donbass felt that they might succeed too.

WP: So we should have left Ukraine to its own devices?

JKM: It makes no difference to Poland whether Ukraine has Crimea and Donbass or not. We also have to remember that any help to Ukraine is help to people who, at least in Western Ukraine, hate us. Their heroes are Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevych who are responsible for the genocide of Polish civilian population in Podolia, Volhynya, and Eastern Little Poland, where up to 100 thousand were killed. Those are fascists.

WP: Once again you are repeating Russian propaganda.

JKM: You have to admit that the Russians have a point when using the term “fascists” to describe, for example, the Right Sector. His Excellency Vladimir Putin should be thanked for one thing: thanks to his actions, the Ukrainians had begun to hate Russians more than Poles.

<…>

WP: Why do you believe that Putin would be a great president of Poland?

JKM: Because he is strong and decisive. The more unhappy they are with him in Europe, the better president he is from Russia’s point of view. We also need a president whom our neighbors would fear.

<…>

WP: Might Warsaw be hit with nuclear weapons?

JKM: I doubt Putin would use nuclear weapons against a country that does not have them and which does not threaten Russia. There is no such risk, in this matter Putin is entirely rational.

J.Hawk’s Comment: This is part of a longer interview dealing with a whole range of issues—the translation above covers only parts relevant to Russia and Ukraine. I should also note that Janusz Korwin-Mikke was one of the first Polish politicians to openly state that the CIA was operating a torture site on Polish soil, something that the Polish government strenuously denied—until the US itself acknowledged it. Will the “Maidan sniper” story follow a similar path?

http://www.fortruss.blogspot.com/2015/04/korwin-mikke-maidan-snipers-were.html

Polish General Waldemar Skrzypczak: “I retract everything I said about Ukraine”

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Posted on Fort Russ

April 16. 2015
General Skrzypczak: “I retract everything I said about Ukraine”
By J.Hawk

Poland’s retired Land Forces commander and Deputy Defense Minister Waldemar Skrzypczak used to be in favor of arming and training the Ukrainian military. That was before the Rada passed the law glorifying the UPA–the same UPA that killed Skrzypczak’s uncle by pinning him to the door of a barn with a pitchfork. Now that Ukraine has shown its true colors, Skrzypczak has concluded that until Ukraine rids itself of its nationalism, it will be impossible for Poland to collaborate with that country in any meaningful fashion. I should note that Skrzypczak is an influential figure in Poland, a veteran military officer whose service included the command of an occupation zone in Iraq, and who has few peers when it comes to authoritativeness on national security matters.

http://www.fortruss.blogspot.com/2015/04/general-skrzypczak-i-retract-everything.html

U.S. and coalition warplanes strike and kill Iraqi Popular Forces near Baghdad; U.S. delivers military aid to ISIS terrorists

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From Farsi News, March 4, 2015
EXCLUSIVE: US Warplanes Strike Iraqi Popular Forces’ Position near Baghdad

The US-led coalition warplanes hit an arms production workshop of the popular forces near the Iraqi capital, destroying the workshop and its ammunition completely.

Two members of Iraq’s popular forces were killed in the attack.

The US has repeatedly struck the popular forces’ positions in different parts of Iraq.

On March 29, the US fighter jets struck the positions of Iraq’s popular forces during their fierce clashes with ISIL terrorists near Tikrit, injuring a number of fighters.

The US and coalition forces conducted eight airstrikes near Tikrit, but they hit the popular forces’ positions instead of ISIL.

In February, an Iraqi provincial official lashed out at the western countries and their regional allies for supporting Takfiri terrorists in Iraq, revealing that the US airplanes still continue to airdrop weapons and foodstuff for the ISIL terrorists.

“The US planes have dropped weapons for the ISIL terrorists in the areas under ISIL control and even in those areas that have been recently liberated from the ISIL control to encourage the terrorists to return to those places,” Coordinator of Iraqi popular forces Jafar al-Jaberi told FNA.

He noted that eyewitnesses in Al-Havijeh of Kirkuk province had witnessed the US airplanes dropping several suspicious parcels for ISIL terrorists in the province.

“Two coalition planes were also seen above the town of Al-Khas in Diyala and they carried the Takfiri terrorists to the region that has recently been liberated from the ISIL control,” Al-Jaberi said.

Meantime, Head of Iraqi Parliament’s National Security and Defense Committee Hakem al-Zameli also disclosed that the anti-ISIL coalition’s planes have dropped weapons and foodstuff for the ISIL in Salahuddin, Al-Anbar and Diyala provinces.

In January, al-Zameli underlined that  the coalition is the main cause of ISIL’s survival in Iraq.

“There are proofs and evidence for the US-led coalition’s military aid to ISIL terrorists through air (dropped cargoes),” he told FNA at the time.

http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13940214001224

http://www.globalresearch.ca/us-and-coalition-warplanes-strike-iraqi-popular-forces-us-delivers-military-aid-to-isis-terrorists/5447303

The assassination of Sen. Paul Wellstone — October 25, 2002

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By Stephen Lendman
Posted on War is a Crime, October 28, 2012

October 25 [2012] marked the 10th anniversary of Wellstone’s death. Was it accidental or an assassination to silence a sadly missed principled voice? Convincing evidence suggests foul play. More on that below.

On October 25, 2002, The New York Times headlined “Minnesota Senator Is Among 8 Dead in Crash,” saying:

Wellstone “was killed today when his campaign plane crashed approaching a small airport in a wooded region in the northern part of his state.”

Campaigning for a third term, he “perished along with seven other people when the chartered King Air A100 went down near Eveleth around 10:20 a.m. Central Time, the Federal Aviation Administration reported.”

Weather conditions weren’t abnormal. Light rain mixed with snow was reported. Flights without incident occur normally under these and harsher conditions. Wellstone perished with his wife, one child, three staff members, and two highly experienced pilots.

From the time the news broke, suspicions arose that perhaps what happened wasn’t accidental. Professors James Fetzer and Don “Four Arrows” Jacobs examined the tragedy. They concluded that Wellstone was assassinated.

In 2004, they published “American Assassination: The Strange Death of Senator Paul Wellstone.” More on what they said below.

Like former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, Wellstone was a rare exception that proves the rule. He was uncorrupted by money and power ambitions. He left academia to run for office. Explaining why, he said:

“I don’t represent the big oil companies, the big pharmaceuticals, or the big insurance industry. They already have great representation in Washington. It’s the rest of the people that need representation.”

His voting record explained why he was called “the conscience of the Senate.” He opposed the Gulf War and 2002 Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution.

He was also against NAFTA, oil drilling in Alaska’s National Wildlife Refuge, sending troops to Haiti in 1994 without congressional approval, and bankruptcy legislation benefitting financial giants at the expense of working people.

He supported labor rights, children’s and women’s rights, universal healthcare, public and higher education, good jobs with livable wages, small farmers, campaign finance and lobbying reforms, and retirement security.

He once told his students, “Never separate the lives you live from the words you speak.” He stood for saying what you believe and doing what you say. At a time destructive neoliberalism took hold, he was a living, breathing antidote. His voting record showed it.

He supported progressive activism. He believed in backing principles with action. He battled hardliners supporting anti-populist measures he opposed.

At a fall 1990 White House reception for newly elected congressional members, he urged GHW Bush to spend more time on education and other social issues.

He also advised him against attacking Iraq. Not at all pleased, Bush privately asked an aide, “Who is this chickenshit?” His activism and outspokenness cursed him with the mark of Cain. He’d learn later how hard it stings.

Project Vote Smart covered his voting record from April 1992 – October 2002. Many progressive ones included:

  • yea for family and medical leave;
  •  yea for homosexuals in the military;
  • yea for ending military operations in Somalia;
  • nay on the Comprehensive Terrorism Prevention Act;
  • nay on space-based lasers;
  • nay on the Telecommunications Bill letting media giants consolidate to greater size;
  • nay on harmful welfare reform hurting poor people when they most need help;
  • nay on Cuba sanctions;
  • yea on helpful immigration reform;
  • nay against reconfirming Alan Greenspan;
  • yea for campaign finance reform;
  • yea for increasing the minimum wage;
  • nay for the partial/birth abortion ban;
  • yea for the Chemical Weapons Convention; it prohibits development, production, stockpiling, and use of these weapons; it also mandates their destruction;
  • yea for family tax relief;
  • yea for aiding higher education programs;
  • nay for banning Cuban travel;
  • nay for confirming John Ashcroft;
  • yea for a patients’ bill of rights; and
  • nay for No Child Left Behind.

His book titled “The Conscience of a Liberal: Reclaiming the Compassionate Agenda” explained his passion for economic and social justice.

In 2002, he ran for a third term. Doing so reneged on a pledge to serve two and leave. He had unfinished business on his mind. He also faced long knives wanting him gone.

Big money was marshaled against him. An aide to his Republican opponent, Norm Coleman, said, “There are people in the (George W. Bush) White House who wake up in the morning thinking about how they will defeat Paul Wellstone. This one is political and personal for them.”

Polls showed him ahead. Reelection looked likely. Potentially controlling the Senate was at stake. Eleven days before November 5, he tragically died on route to a funeral and campaign event in rural Minnesota.

Fetzer and Jacobs say Wellstone’s death was no accident. It wasn’t weather, plane trouble, or pilot error connected. Evidence they uncovered explains otherwise.

Confirmation of the tragedy didn’t come from Wellstone’s office, state police, or Minnesota’s governor. It first came from GW Bush’s ranch. Why was it known there before anywhere else?

FBI agents arrived with suspicious speed. Perhaps they knew in advance and positioned themselves nearby. They prevented fire teams, journalists, and others at the crash site from taking photos.

An AP photographer said he was intimidated, delayed and monitored. Was vital evidence removed or destroyed? NTSB investigators didn’t show up for 10 hours. Why did FBI agents try having things both ways?

On the one hand, they declared the site a “crime scene.” They also said no crime took place. How could anyone know without careful forensic examination?

Fetzer and Jacobs believe Wellstone was killed for political reasons. Coverup followed his assassination. The official story is rife with inconsistencies and willful omissions of key facts. They explained how, why, and who was responsible.

Besides eliminating a powerful progressive voice, Wellstone’s enemies wanted Republican Coleman’s win to help Republicans gain Senate control.

Fetzer and Jacobs explained the following:

Former CIA official Carol Carmody handled NTSB’s crash investigation. She’s a damage-control expert. Coverup is her game. She was also in charge of investigating Missouri Governor Mel Carnahan’s suspicious aircraft crash during his senatorial race against John Ashcroft two years earlier.

NTSB is legally mandated to investigate transportation accidents. Yet it let FBI agents control things. Why it didn’t explain. Mention of the FBI’s involvement was excluded from their final report.

Ahead of the crash, neither Wellstone pilot signaled distress. Why not since they were going down in a remote area perhaps with no help nearby.

Some witnesses heard what sounded like the engines cutting out or stalling. Others reported odd cell phone and automatic garage door phenomena coincidental with the crash.

They included electronic interference and strange noises never before experienced. The auditory pattern appeared consistent with electromagnetic (EM) weapons use.

They were developed to knock out computer systems and harm human subjects. Most Americans know nothing about them. They can disable radio communications and warning systems.

They can alter an aircraft’s flight pattern and cause pilots to lose control. They can make them lose consciousness, incapacitate them in other ways, or kill them.

Fetzer says they can “literally fry the electronic components in an aircraft” the way microwaves heat meals or lightening bolts affect objects struck.

NTSB’s simulations replicated weather conditions, the flight pattern, and overall conditions at the time. Even at abnormally low speeds, they couldn’t down the plane.

NTSB member Richard Healing said he had no idea what caused the crash. Yet he signed the official report giving reasons that didn’t wash. They included pilot error, bad weather, and other preposterous claims. Instead of investigating responsibly, they made stuff up.

Fetzer and Jacobs established compelling prima facie and conclusive evidence to prove Wellstone’s death was no accident.

They called his Beech King-Air A100 the “Rolls-Royce” of small aircraft. Pilot Richard Conry had 5,200 hours of flight experience. His rating was the highest civilian one possible. Two days before the crash, he passed his FAA flight check. He was highly qualified to fly the Beech aircraft.

Co-pilot Michael Guess was also instrument qualified. He was very able to fly the plane on his own under adverse weather conditions. It’s inconceivable that either pilot alone or together fouled up.

According to NTSB’s report, the “airplane descended through the trees wings level and upright on about a 26 degree downward flight path angle on a ground track of about 180 degrees.”

Fetzer called this angle “too steep to suggest anything but a very serious dive, not likely to result from a low altitude stall but from a plane completely out of control very abruptly or all of a sudden.”

NTSB should have stressed this. It didn’t. Why was never explained. If electromagnetic weapons were used, evidence would have clearly showed it. For example, digital clocks would have failed immediately, not at impact.

FBI agents arriving quickly did nothing to stop the fuselage from burning. It continued for hours. By the time NTSB investigators arrived, bodies were charred beyond recognition. Other forensic evidence was destroyed or concealed.

According to Fetzer:

“Dennis Ciminio, a pilot and expert on devices of this kind, has confirmed that the technology to take out the plane has been around for decades and that the intense fire – which burned the fuselage but not the wings, in which the plane’s fuel was stored – was almost certainly intended to destroy the evidence of how it was done.”

“He has explained to me the most likely culprit here to put that kind of power directly onto the plane itself to cause such widespread mayhem would have been an electronically beam-steered-system, such as Raytheon’s BFL (Beam Forming Lens) equipped Army jamming system.”

“That is especially plausible, since Raytheon owns Beechcraft, which makes the Air King A-100 and would know exactly how it could be taken down.”

More than electromagnetic weapons may have been involved. At about the time the plane crashed, “a white van” was seen departing the area at high speed.

“The melted area at the altitude where ice forms, moreover, strongly suggests that the Wellstone plane was taken out using a satellite-mounted laser, which would have had the effect of melting the ice at that level.”

Dick Cheney was running “an executive assassination ring” out of the White House at that time. He did then what Obama is doing now. Wellstone was perhaps one of Cheney’s targets.

He, “Karl Rove, and Donald Rumsfeld may not have executed this hit personally, but they were in a position to make it happen.” Eventually perhaps the full truth will be known. Enough already is clear to say Wellstone’s death was no accident.

Anyone with a powerful public voice supporting principles he embraced could end up targeted for elimination and killed. That’s how rogue states operate. Bucking the system risks life and limb. Wellstone paid the ultimate price.

David Ray Griffin calls Fetzer and Jacob’s book compelling and vitally important. It’s hard not believing that Wellstone was assassinated. Bush administration officials likely ordered it.

Based on all relevant evidence, “we must conclude that the theory that Wellstone was assassinated is far more probable that the official story” that doesn’t wash.

Fetzer and Jacobs agree that “evidence shows beyond a reasonable doubt that Wellstone was assassinated. They have, in my view, made a convincing case.”

In November 2002, investigative journalist Michael Ruppert asked, “Was Paul Wellstone Murdered?” He wrote:

“The day after the crash I received a message from a former CIA operative who has proven extremely reliable in the past and who is personally familiar with these kinds of assassinations.”

“The message read, ‘As I said earlier, having played ball (and still playing in some respects) with this current crop of reinvigorated old white men, these clowns are nobody to screw around with. There will be a few more strategic accidents. You can be certain of that.’ ”

Everyone challenging the system is vulnerable. Wellstone paid with his life.
———————————-

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book is titled “How Wall Street Fleeces America: Privatized Banking, Government Collusion and Class War”

http://www.claritypress.com/Lendman.html

http://warisacrime.org/content/paul-wellstone-tenth-anniversary-his-assassination