Is the Western-backed Kiev regime burying the truth over atrocities?

Posted on Strategic Culture Foundation

By Finian Cunningham

September 26, 2014

The grim discovery of mass graves in southeastern Ukraine this week implicates the Kiev regime in further war crimes. At least three such burial sites have been uncovered in recent days since the withdrawal of Kiev’s military forces from the areas under its control, as part of a belated ceasefire deal.

Meanwhile, Kiev President Petro Poroshenko declared that «the worst of the violence is over» in Ukraine, with the latest ceasefire, he says, holding and Kiev’s forces withdrawing as latterly agreed. In the same speech, Poroshenko claimed that his country is on schedule to gain full membership of the European Union by the year 2020. Perhaps, Kiev’s EU ambitions are concentrating its efforts to end the violence – violence, it has to be said, that Kiev largely instigated in April this year.

But as peace makes a tentative return in eastern Ukraine, the restored calm is giving rise to some eerie discoveries of possible war crimes – the latest being the unearthing of mass graves in territory that was, up to a few days ago, under the control of Kiev’s military forces for the past several months.

Kiev’s military spokesmen have denied accusations from local people in the Donbass regions that its forces are responsible for the alleged atrocities. If that’s the case, then the Western-backed regime must heed Russian government demands to facilitate an immediate international crime investigation.

The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has confirmed the location of several graves and the retrieval of human remains. However, the OSCE said it could not give a forensic assessment at this stage about the cause or the perpetrators.

Two of the mass graves were found in a coal mine in Kommunar, near the village of Nzyhnia Krynka, some 35 kilometres northeast of Donetsk city. Another burial place was located in the village itself.

Officials of the breakaway Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and local residents who returned to the village have accused the Ukrainian National Guard and associated pro-Kiev militia of involvement in the crimes.

Disturbingly, the DPR Prime Minister Alexander Zakharchenko said that more graves are being discovered by self-defence militia with each passing day as local people move back into areas which up until recently had been occupied by Kiev’s military units.

Russia’s foreign ministry has called for an international probe into what appears to be gross human rights violations committed by Kiev’s military units against civilians. Moscow wants the United Nations and the European Council to send human rights representatives to assess the findings.

At least four corpses recovered so far have been identified as those belonging to women. One of the victims was reportedly decapitated, while others were shot in the head after their hands had been bound. There are also emerging reports of bodily remains belonging to several DPR self-defence militia members having been identified in other graves.

The OSCE reported a macabre makeshift plaque implanted near the corpses at one site, presumably left by the killers, which read: ‘Died for Putin’s lies’.

The Western-backed Kiev regime’s denials on this matter have little credibility. Blunt denial has become a routine response from Kiev to all accusations even when irrefutable evidence shows that Kiev’s forces have engaged in violations, such as indiscriminate shelling of civilian areas, sabotage of water and power utilities, or the deliberate lethal targeting of journalists working in the conflict zone. At least three Russian journalists have been killed in recent months.

Local residents have also reported abductions and killings of civilians by regime forces since Kiev launched its so-called «anti-terror operation» six months ago to suppress popular dissent in Donetsk and Luhansk against the Western-backed coup in Kiev. The regime dispatched not only regular army units, but also volunteer National Guard battalions, comprised of the neo-Nazi Pravy Sektor paramilitaries operating out of western Ukraine.

Another component of Kiev’s military are battalions such as Dneipr, Aidar and Azov, sponsored by Igor Kolomoisky and other oligarchs who are working hand-in-glove with the far-right Kiev regime. These battalions are motivated by a ruthless Nazi ideology, traced back to the Ukrainian collaborators of the Third Reich, which views the ethnic Russian population of Ukraine’s southeast as «sub-humans» to be exterminated.

These battalions have been filmed previously by international television crews openly wearing Nazi insignia on their uniforms. But Western governments and media have studiously ignored this Nazi component of their favoured regime in Kiev, headed up by President Poroshenko and his Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk. The latter has casually referred to the Russian people of eastern Ukraine as «sub-humans», yet just this week he was given a platform to address the 69th United Nations General Assembly.

In the latest incident of apparent civilian killings and mass burials the telling fact is that the graves have been located in the immediate aftermath of Kiev’s forces withdrawing from the reported vicinities. Until a few days ago, the areas were fully under the control of the National Guard and the so-called volunteer battalions.

Adding further suspicion was the stiff reluctance of the Kiev forces to pull back from the conflict lines when the ceasefire was first brokered on September 5. That deal was brought about under the aegis of Moscow and the personal intervention of President Vladimir Putin who proposed a seven-point peace plan, including withdrawal of Kiev’s forces from civilian centres.

However, since that truce was signed initially on September 5 in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, it has been hampered by continual breaches, and in particular the recalcitrance of Kiev’s forces to vacate the conflict zones around Donetsk and Luhansk.

Last weekend saw a possible breakthrough when negotiators from Kiev and the self-declared People’s Republics agreed on the implementation of a 30-kilometre buffer zone, which would remove artillery well back from the fighting lines.

The OSCE’s cursory report this week on the mass graves near Nyzhnia Krynka – located at the outer limit of the buffer zone – found from markings at the site that the bodies were buried at the end of August. The corpses were also said to be in an advanced state of decay. That date corresponds with the fact that the area was under the control of Kiev’s forces at that time.

Moreover, the OSCE also notes that its Special Monitoring Mission observed a destroyed bridge over the water reservoir at Nyzhnia Krynka, which connects the locality with Donetsk. «According to local residents the bridge was blown up by Ukrainian soldiers leaving the area around 18 September,» said the OSCE.

It would seem that whoever carried out these atrocities they did not want the evidence uncovered any time soon, or least until after the remains had decomposed sufficiently to obscure the exact circumstances of the killings.

That would explain the blowing up of the bridge access from Donetsk and also why Kiev commanders had shown such obduracy about vacating the areas of their operations under the terms of the September 5 ceasefire.

With more reports emerging of further mass-grave discoveries, the expectation is that there will be more evidence of systematic crimes having been carried out by the forces under the command of the Kiev regime in the Donbass over the past several months.

Vladimir Markin, Russia’s Investigative Committee spokesman, said of the latest findings: «Reports about killings of civilians whose bodies were found in a mass grave on the outskirts of Donetsk will be thoroughly investigated within the criminal case on use of banned methods and tactics of warfare against civilians in Ukraine’s southeast.»

This is but the latest episode in a litany of violations and crimes against humanity that the Kiev regime has been implicated in since it embarked on its scorched-earth campaign against the civilians of eastern Ukraine in April. That offensive campaign was fully endorsed by the regime’s sponsors in Washington and Brussels, who indulged the regime’s legal right to carry out such punitive operations, even though they were being conducted in mainly civilian areas.

Just last week, US President Barack Obama announced another $53 million in military aid to Kiev – in addition to the $200 million already disbursed since the Western-backed coup took place on February 22, when the elected President Victor Yanukovych was ousted. Yanukovych was not willing to sign up to an EU trade pact last November, which would have paved the way for full EU membership and eventually joining the US-led NATO military alliance. All those items are now squarely on the agenda since the Western-backed regime seized power in Kiev.

Recall, too, that CIA director John Brennan made a secret trip to Kiev on April 17 to meet Yatsenyuk and senior members of the regime only days before the regime’s crackdown in the east of Ukraine went into action.

Russian government reports have also identified American private military contractors being deployed with Kiev’s forces over recent months, and there are credible reports of US Special Forces engaged in training of the notorious volunteer battalions that have ravaged Donetsk and Luhansk.

No wonder then that Kiev appears keen to bury the evidence of atrocities in eastern Ukraine. Not only is its hallowed EU membership at stake. A real deal-breaker would be evidence pointing all the way back to Washington and Brussels and their complicity in what amounts to be gross crimes against humanity in eastern Ukraine.

http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2014/09/26/western-backed-kiev-regime-burying-the-truth-over-atrocities.html

Crimes committed by Ukraine’s military and chasteners: from illegal arms trafficking to human organs trade

From Strategic Culture Foundation

By Alexander Donetsky

September 26, 2014

Numerous reports on systematic destruction of populated areas in the Donbass and Luhansk regions by Ukrainian military have been becoming public domain. The evidence has been plentiful: photos, videos, international observers and journalists’ reports. Neither the United States nor Europe have paid attention on the information as they considered it to be part of the «Kremlin’s propaganda». Western media outlets have painted the use of internationally banned arms and warfare tactics as legal means of waging war against terror. Now the OSCE has to recognize the fact that the crimes have been committed by Ukrainian military and soldiers of chasteners’ battalions, for instance the use of non-conventional weapons, the elimination of civilians and torture of prisoners. According to the report by Amnesty International, the servicemen of Aydar battalion practiced kidnapping and tortures of civilians. Some time ago international observers discovered mass graves of tortured people.

Those who live in Donbass have many times reported «mysterious graves» findings. Two movable crematoriums have been bought in Germany to get rid of the bodies. The burnt soldiers were reported to be missing in action. Many corpses have been burnt without registration and leaving any trace whatsoever. On September 23, 332 Ukrainian military were put into grave near Dnepropetrovsk without making precise the names of the perished. Only 22 names were known. On September 22, in Zaporozhye 55 unrecognized corpses of Ukrainian soldiers were buried. In Dnepropetrovsk 11 more unrecognized servicemen, who had lost their lives in Ilovaisk, were put into grave.

The atrocities committed by Neo-Nazi militants need to be described more in detail. Alexander from Donetsk has spent a few weeks in prison. He says they beat him up the first two days without asking questions. Then they used force during interrogations passing him from one organization to another. He did not know anything to share and finally ended up in the hands of the Ukraine’s Security Service. «They put a sack on my head and started to beat me with legs. Still I was happy to be a prisoner of the Security Service because I knew they would not kill me while asking questions».

The OSCE observers discovered the mass grave near the 22-th Kommunarka mine in Lower Jug. Presumably, civilians were shot by the soldiers of the battalion Aydar. The victims were treated inhumanely, many bodies had hands tied behind his back, and they were shot in the back of the head at close range. One body belonged to a pregnant woman, the other female corpse was decapitated. The traces of torture are clearly visible, murder scheme is the same: hands tied behind, shot in the head. Self-defense militia forces managed to find four burial locals and six graves Ukrainian soldiers. Mass graves near Telmanovo, Yenakievo, Starobeshevo and other settlements, many more. Some graves were well hidden, some mined, as well as burial in Lower Jug. In general, the pattern is similar everywhere: signs of decapitated bodies, through bullet wounds, severed limbs.

Reports came from Ukrainian military hospitals that in some cases human organs were extracted and exported to the United States and Europe to be used for transplant… As Carla del Ponte, former Chief Prosecutor of the United Nations International Criminal Court, remembered in her book The Hunt: Me and the War Criminals, Albanian Kosovars did the same thing.

The evidence is plentiful – Ukraine has become a safe haven for human organs traffickers. Ukrainian doctors say there are foreigners working in the national hospitals and they discuss on the phone which human organs of wounded soldiers could be sold and used for transplant. Ukrainian hackers broke and circulated the correspondence between former lawyer of Yulia Timoshenko Sergey Vlasenko and German doctor Olga Weber. The main suppliers of the goods were referred to as the commanders of the National Guard. Allegedly donated organs are taken under the order of Western buyers. It’s not the only instance. In the first days of Maidan protests the Neo-Nazi from Svoboda political party headed by Oleh Tyahnybok seized the crematorium at Baykov Cemetery in Kiev. There were some doctors among them Tyahnybok had worked with before they were reported to be involved in human trafficking schemes. After that a number of mysterious disappearances of people occurred in Kiev.

The last prisoners’ exchanges between Novorossia self-defense units and Ukrainian military revealed the cases of fraud. The military tried to present local peasants as prisoners of war. It will take time to identify those were taken prisoner holding weapons in their hands – were they shot, dead as a result of torture or sold for organs? Europe can help by putting an end to the support it provides for military criminals in Kiev and the Neo-Nazi on their service.

Article with photos: http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2014/09/26/crimes-committed-ukraine-military-and-chasteners-from-illegal-arms-trafficking-to-human-organs-trade.html

Also posted at

http://www.globalresearch.ca/war-crimes-committed-by-ukraines-military-in-donbass-from-illegal-arms-trafficking-to-human-organs-trade/5404389

Another country, another overthrow in process: US bombs Syrian oil refineries to prevent Assad from retaking them

From Activist Post, September 27, 2014

Libya 2.0? US Says ‘No-Fly Zone’ Over Syria A Possibility

By Brendan Turbeville

In what is more proof that the NATO operation against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is merely Libya 2.0, the Obama administration is now stating that it is open to the possibility of establishing a “no-fly zone” over Syria.

The statements, made by both Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and General Martin E. Dempsey, are supposed to hinge upon an agreement with Turkey, that is itself calling for a “buffer zone,” one of the wishes of NATO since the very beginning of the Syrian crisis.

According to the New York Times, Hagel stated that “We’ve discussed all these possibilities and will continue to talk about what the Turks believe they will require.”

Dempsey added that “a buffer zone might at some point become a possibility” although he also stated that it should not be considered imminent.

A “buffer zone” and/or a “no-fly zone,” of course, is tantamount to war and an open military assault against the sovereign secular government of Syria since the implementation of such a zone would require airstrikes against Assad’s air defense systems.

Turkey is now whining and groaning over an influx of Syrian refugees as a result of a humanitarian crisis that it helped create with its support and facilitation of Islamic fundamentalist death squad forces funded by the West and allowed to travel into Syria through Turkey’s borders. The most recent influx of refugees came from the city of Kobani, where ISIS fighters were herded by American airstrikes for the purposes of reinforcing the fighters already battling Kurdish and Syrian forces there.

Keep in mind that with the terrorists evacuating Deir al-Zor, cities and towns such as Kobani (Ayn El Arab) have seen a dramatic rise in the presence of IS fighters. In short, IS may have reduced the amount of fighters in Deir al-Zor but it reinforced its positions at Ayn El Arab, a smaller town but one located on the Turkish border. Significantly, the Turkish border has facilitated tens of thousands of death squad fighters in their access to Syria over the last four years making it a main artery for the influx of Western-backed foreign jihadis into Syria.

The Huffington Post reported the situation in Ayn El Arab by recording the statement of a Syrian Kurd who had fled into Turkey with his family to escape IS. The report is revealing as to how the situation in Ayn El Arab disintegrated after the bombing of Deir al-Zor and the “escape” of terrorists from that city and region. The article reads,

“Because of the bombing in Raqqa, Islamic State has taken all of their weapons and brought them here. There are more and more Islamic State fighters in the last two days, they have brought all their forces here,” said Ahmed Hassan, 60, a Syrian Kurd who fled to Turkey with his family.

“They have heavy weapons. We are running away from them. YPG haven’t got heavy weapons. That’s why we need help,” he said, referring to the main Kurdish armed group.

Thus, the new assault on Ayn El Arab might very well be an attempt to re-secure and reopen the Turkish/Syrian border so as to allow even greater numbers of IS fighters and military equipment to flood into Syria.

In order for NATO forces to effectively remove Assad, who has proven a major hurdle for the Anglo-American establishment in its efforts to overthrow him and further their geopolitical goals ofweakening Russia’s strategic position and influence, NATO forces absolutely must eliminate his air defenses. However, even the United States has admitted that doing so is risky business.

For that reason, the West used its ISIS proxy forces to destroy the Taqba air base in eastern Syria so as to open up half of the country to US military assault.

For those who may not see the pattern – while the United States and NATO deliberated engaging in targeted airstrikes in Syria and the Syrian government subsequently states its opposition to those attacks and its intentions to shoot down the planes delivering those strikes if they did not coordinate with the Syrian government, death squad have effectively eliminated the air defense capability of the Syrian government in the east of the country.

After all, the Pentagon even stated that one of the biggest threatsto an airstrike operation in Syria is the Syrian government’s air defenses. Thanks to ISIS, those air defenses no longer exist in the east of Syria.

This was the end game of the ISIS battle to take over Taqba from the start – eliminate air defenses so that the NATO powers can launch airstrikes against the Syrian military and thus freeing up a launching pad for the terrorists to conduct attacks even deeper into Syria.

Even the airstrikes taking place currently under the guise of eliminating ISIS have a much darker motive. Although it is true that ISIS/ “moderate death squads” had seized control over the oil refineries in Eastern Syria and were using them for their own strategic purposes (with the help of NATO command), it is also true that, in a large portion of these areas, the SAA (Syrian Arab Army) was poised to retake control.

This is particularly the case in Dayr el Zor, where the SAA had recently launched a major offensiveagainst the death squads causing ISIS fighters trapped by aerial bombardment and escape routes cut off by the SAA. In other words, the death squads were trapped in Dayr el Zor, the city was weeks away from being liberated, and the surrounding areas were set to be reconquered by the SAA. This, of course, would have led directly to the retaking of the oil refineries by the Syrian government. Unfortunately, that opportunity has now been lost as a result of the U.S. airstrikes which destroyed the refinery infrastructure.

It should also be remembered that most of the death squads fled these areas after being given forewarning of a series of imminent American airstrikes, thus causing the civilian casualties to be higher in number than those of the ISIS fighters the strikes were allegedly targeting. Indeed, many of these fighters have appeared in Northern Syria on the Syria/Turkey border reinforcing other death squad battalions in efforts to reopen supply lines from Turkey.

Similar situations are found in the other locations mentioned as targets of U.S. airstrikes such as al-Hasakah where the SAA had made significant gains alongside Kurdish forces.

Thus, as SAA forces moved in to retake control of the oil refineries managed by terrorists funded by Western powers, the United States initiated airstrikes just in the nick of time to deprive SAA forces of the opportunity to seize some of the oil refinery infrastructure it desperately needs.

It is also important to note that virtually none of the infrastructure being destroyed by the United States airstrikes was built by ISIS. It was built by the Syrian government. The reality of the bombing campaign is that the United States and its allies are destroying important regions of Syria and leaving nothing of real value for the Syrian military to retake after its long-fought battles against ISIS.

Thus, headlines across the world should more accurately read “US Bombs Syrian Oil Refineries To Prevent Assad From Retaking Them.”

Still, one should keep in mind that it is not only the oil refineries which are being targeted but whole neighborhoods filled with civilians. One such neighborhood was the town of Kfar Daryan.

It also goes some distance in aiding the future creation of a “buffer zone,” in Northern Syria, a wish of NATO since the beginning of the Syrian crisis.With the establishment of this “buffer zone,” a new staging ground will be opened that allows terrorists such as ISIS and others the ability to conduct attacks even deeper inside Syria.

Working together with its NATO/GCC allies as well as the ever-present provocateur Israel, the United States is helping to create a buffer zone in the North and East of Syria while continuing to facilitate the opening of a “third front” on the Syrian border with Israel.

Such a strategy was discussed in 2012 by the Brookings Institution in its publication “Assessing Options For Regime Change,” where it stated

An alternative is for diplomatic efforts to focus first on how to end the violence and how to gain humanitarian access, as is being done under Annan’s leadership. This may lead to the creation of safe-havens and humanitarian corridors, which would have to be backed by limited military power. This would, of course, fall short of U.S. goals for Syria and could preserve Asad in power. From that starting point, however, it is possible that a broad coalition with the appropriate international mandate could add further coercive action to its efforts.

[…]

In addition, Israel’s intelligence services have a strong knowledge of Syria, as well as assets within the Syrian regime that could be used to subvert the regime’s power base and press for Asad’s removal. Israel could posture forces on or near the Golan Heights and, in so doing, might divert regime forces from suppressing the opposition. This posture may conjure fears in the Asad regime of a multi-front war, particularly if Turkey is willing to do the same on its border and if the Syrian opposition is being fed a steady diet of arms and training. Such a mobilization could perhaps persuade Syria’s military leadership to oust Asad in order to preserve itself. Advocates argue this additional pressure could tip the balance against Asad inside Syria, if other forces were aligned properly.

At the end of the day, it is important to remember that the U.S. airstrikes and its attempts to create a “buffer zone” inside Syria are nothing more than a farce. The death squads running amok in Syria are themselves entirely creatures of NATO and they remain under NATO’s command. The true enemy of ISIS, Khorasan, and the cannibals of the Levant has always been and continues to be Bashar al-Assad.

For those of us who have tried to warn of and prevent a direct military intervention in Syria, we must now continue to keep the Syrian people in our thoughts and prayers.

But we must also keep the United States in those thoughts and prayers. Like in Libya, for what is being done in our name, we are earning some terrible karmic consequences.

The United States has sown some very bitter seeds in recent years. Unfortunately, there will be a day when we all are forced to reap the bitter harvest.

http://www.activistpost.com/2014/09/libya-20-us-says-no-fly-zone-over-syria.html

Also at http://www.globalresearch.ca/us-bombs-syrian-oil-refineries-to-prevent-assad-from-retaking-them/5404808

Brandon Turbeville is an author out of Florence, South Carolina. He has a Bachelor’s Degree from Francis Marion University and is the author of six books, Codex Alimentarius — The End of Health Freedom7 Real ConspiraciesFive Sense Solutions and Dispatches From a Dissident, volume 1and volume 2, and The Road to Damascus: The Anglo-American Assault on Syria. Turbeville has published over 300 articles dealing on a wide variety of subjects including health, economics, government corruption, and civil liberties. Brandon Turbeville’s podcast Truth on The Tracks can be found every Monday night 9 pm EST at UCYTV. He is available for radio and TV interviews. Please contact activistpost (at) gmail.com.

The Real First World War

This article provides some historical perspective on European Union partners and the United States. The writings of George Kennan, the so-called architect of the Truman Doctrine, in 1948 [i] and events today show that Western international policies have not changed.

The United States celebrates Christopher Columbus Day. More and more Americans are calling for it to be abolished. A brief glimpse of Columbus is provided in this article. For a much more detailed report on what Columbus and his Catholic Spanish band of conquerors did in the Americas, read The People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn.

The Real First World War
By Bhaskar Menon
August 10, 2014

Europe’s “Great War” of 1914-1918 does not deserve to be called the “First World War.” That title should go to the first real global conflict, Europe’s genocidal invasion of other regions that began in the final decade of the 15th Century. European historians have sought to downplay the ferocity, extent and significance of that earlier conflict by treating it as a diffuse historical process, but if we who were victims accept that view it disables our understanding of everything that has happened since then.

As few Indians are likely to know much about what actually happened, let me recount some salient points.

A decade after Columbus landed on Hispaniola in 1492, its indigenous people were extinct. They had done nothing to deserve that fate; Columbus in a letter to his royal sponsors in Spain said they were “loving, uncovetous people,” with “good features and beautiful eyes,” who “neither carried weapons nor understood the use of such things.” Yet many were tortured to death in a vain attempt to get them to reveal non-existent hoards of gold and others worked to death or driven to suicide. Such gratuitous violence continued as Europeans extended their domains in the “New World.”

Many of the smaller tribes followed the Arawak of Hispaniola into extinction while the populations of larger groups fell by as much as 85 percent, victims not only of indiscriminate violence but of induced famines and new diseases to which they had no immunity. The spread of smallpox through blankets distributed free to Native Americans and the wanton slaughter of the great herds of bison on which the “Plains Indians” depended for food, clothing and shelter were the most outrageous cases of genocide. Estimates of the numbers killed range up to 100 million.

In South America, the Conquistadores engaged in a zestful mass murder that has no equivalent to this day. Bartolomeo de las Casas (1484-1566), a Spaniard who went to the New World for fortune but was driven by the atrocities he witnessed to enter the Church, left a vivid description in Brevissima Relacion de la Destruycion de la Indias (Short Report on the Destruction of the Indies):

“One time the Indians came to meet us, and to receive us with victuals and delicate cheer, and with all entertainment, ten leagues from a great city, and being come at the place they presented us with a great quantity of fish and of bread, and other meat, together with all they could do for us to the uttermost.” The Conquistadores put them all to the sword “without any cause whatsoever,” more than “three thousand souls, which were set before us, men, women and children,” committing “great cruelties that never any man living either have or shall see the like.” Continue reading

Ukraine – Truce or Trojan Horse? Retreat, Re-Arm, and Re-Launch

Global Research, September 14, 2014
By Prof. James Petras

The NATO proxy war in the Ukraine started with the violent US-EU-sponsored overthrow of the elected government via a mob putsch in February 2014.  This was well financed at $5 billion, according to President Obama’s Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, Victoria Nuland.

The result was a junta, composed of neo-liberal puppets, rightist nationalists and fascists, which immediately proceeded to purge the Ukrainian legislature of any politicians opposed to the coup and Kiev’s submission to the European Union and NATO.  The NATO-sponsored client regime then moved swiftly to extend its control by centralizing power and overturning the official policy of bilingualism (Russian and Ukrainian) in the southeastern regions.   It was preparing to break its long-standing agreement over the huge Russian naval base in Crimea and renege on its massive debts to Russia for gas and oil imports.

These extremist measures by a violent coup regime amounted to a radical break with existing economic, cultural and political institutions and, naturally, provoked a robust response from large sectors of the population.  The overwhelmingly Russian speaking majority in Crimea convoked a referendum with 90% voter participation:  89% voted to secede and rejoin Russia.  The ethnic Russian and bilingual, industrialized southeast regions of Ukraine organized their own referenda, formed popular militias and prepared for an armed response from what they viewed as an illegal junta in Kiev. Threatened by the new measures against their language and traditional and economic ties with Russia, the resistance drew its fighters from the vast reservoir of skilled industrial workers, miners and local business people who understood that they would lose thousands of jobs and access to the Russian markets as well as cultural and family links under the boot of the EU-NATO puppet in Kiev.

For critical sections of Ukraine, the Kiev junta was illegitimate, so the NATO overseers, cooked up an election with a pre-selected candidate, Petro Poroshenko, a millionaire oligarch, willing to serve as a ‘reliable’ proxy, despite his history of dubious ‘business’ deals, who would implement the Euro-US agenda.  Despite large sectors boycotting the sham elections, the ‘victorious President’ Poroshenko immediately joined the EU, shredding the heavily subsidized and generous gas and oil agreements with Russia as well as cutting Ukraine off from its main export markets.  He proposed to join NATO and convert Ukraine into a launching pad aimed at Russia.  He eagerly signed an IMF agreement ending critical subsidies for low income Ukrainians, privatizing public enterprises and raising the cost of basic public services and food.  He launched an all-out military campaign against the Donbass region, using missiles, air strikes, artillery and ground forces while assuring his masters in Washington and Brussels that he could easily smash all resistance to his dictatorial fiats and impose their radical retrograde agenda.

The scope and depth of the changes and the unilateral manner in which they were formulated and implemented provoked a widespread popular uprising in the southeast that cut across the entire social spectrum.  The popular democratic nature of the opposition in the east attracted support throughout the region, reaching beyond the borders of Ukraine.  The resistance easily captured Ukrainian military outposts while conscripted soldiers, ex-soldiers and local police units joined the resistance, bringing their arms with them. Continue reading

Partitioning Russia After World War III? Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty publishes redrawn map of the Russian Federation

Dmytro Sinchenko published an article on September 8, 2014 about dividing Russia. His article titled «Waiting for World War III: How the World Will Change». [3] Sinchenko was involved in EuroMaidan and his organization, the Ukrainian Initiative «Statesmen Movement» (Всеукраїнської ініціативи «Рух державотворців»), advocates for an ethnic nationalism, the territorial expansion of Ukraine at the expense of most the bordering countries, reinvigorating the pro-US Georgia-Ukraine-Azerbaijan-Moldova (GUAM) Organization for Democracy and Economic Development, joining NATO, and launching an offensive to defeat Russia as part of its foreign policy goals. [4]…This …is not something that has been reported in the US-aligned corporate networks, but is something that has been published directly by US government-owned media. The forecast was published by the Ukrainian service of Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, which has been a US propaganda tool in Europe and the Middle East that has helped topple governments.

WWIII aimed to redraw map of Russia?

By Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya
Strategic Culture Foundation 10 September 2014
Reposted on Global Research, September 10, 2014

The end goal of the US and NATO is to divide (balkanize) and pacify (finlandize) the world’s biggest country, the Russian Federation, and to even establish a blanket of perpetual disorder (somalization) over its vast territory or, at a minimum, over a portion of Russia and the post-Soviet space, similarly to what is being done to the Middle East and North Africa.

The future Russia or the many future Russias, a plurality of weakened and divided states, that Washington and its NATO allies see is/are demographically in decline, de-industrialized, poor, without any defensive capabilities, and hinterlands that will exploited for their resources.

The Plans of the Empire of Chaos for Russia

Breaking the Soviet Union has not been enough for Washington and NATO. The ultimate goal of the US is to prevent any alternatives from emerging in Europe and Eurasia to Euro-Atlantic integration. This is why the destruction of Russia is one of its strategic objectives. Continue reading

Overthrowing Other People’s Governments: The Master List of U.S. “Regime Changes”

By William Blum (www.williamblum.org), 1 February 2013
(Reposted on Global Research, September 10, 2014)

Instances of the United States overthrowing, or attempting to overthrow, a foreign government since the Second World War. (* indicates successful ouster of a government)

  • China 1949 to early 1960s
  • Albania 1949-53
  • East Germany 1950s
  • Iran 1953 *
  • Guatemala 1954 *
  • Costa Rica mid-1950s
  • Syria 1956-7
  • Egypt 1957
  • Indonesia 1957-8
  • British Guiana 1953-64 *
  • Iraq 1963 *
  • North Vietnam 1945-73
  • Cambodia 1955-70 *
  • Laos 1958 *, 1959 *, 1960 *
  • Ecuador 1960-63 *
  • Congo 1960 *
  • France 1965
  • Brazil 1962-64 *
  • Dominican Republic 1963 *
  • Cuba 1959 to present
  • Bolivia 1964 *
  • Indonesia 1965 *
  • Ghana 1966 *
  • Chile 1964-73 *
  • Greece 1967 *
  • Costa Rica 1970-71
  • Bolivia 1971 *
  • Australia 1973-75 *
  • Angola 1975, 1980s
  • Zaire 1975
  • Portugal 1974-76 *
  • Jamaica 1976-80 *
  • Seychelles 1979-81
  • Chad 1981-82 *
  • Grenada 1983 *
  • South Yemen 1982-84
  • Suriname 1982-84
  • Fiji 1987 *
  • Libya 1980s
  • Nicaragua 1981-90 *
  • Panama 1989 *
  • Bulgaria 1990 *
  • Albania 1991 *
  • Iraq 1991
  • Afghanistan 1980s *
  • Somalia 1993
  • Yugoslavia 1999-2000 *
  • Ecuador 2000 *
  • Afghanistan 2001 *
  • Venezuela 2002 *
  • Iraq 2003 *
  • Haiti 2004 *
  • Somalia 2007 to present
  • Libya 2011*
  • Syria 2012

Q: Why will there never be a coup d’état in Washington?

A: Because there’s no American embassy there.

http://williamblum.org/essays/read/overthrowing-other-peoples-governments-the-master-list

Global Research Editor’s note: To this list published in February 2013, we must add Ukraine, where Viktor Yanukovych was successfully ousted in February 2014. http://www.globalresearch.ca/overthrowing-other-peoples-governments-the-master-list-of-u-s-regime-changes/5400829

William Blum is the author of several books, including Killing Hope: US Military and CIA Interventions since World War II, America’s Deadliest Export: Democracy, and Freeing the World to Death.

Other books on this subject include Confessions of an Economic Hitman by John Perkins, and Empire’s Workshop by Greg Grandin.

Talk of nuclear war over Ukraine beginning to surface In mainstream media

By Brandon Turbeville
September 5, 2014
Activist Post

Until now, the talk of nuclear warfare between the United States and Russia has been confined to prescient and observant researchers[i] largely operating within the alternative media. Western media outlets, while attempting to Portray Putin as the new Hitler and Russia as a provocateur, still attempt to paint a picture of a winnable confrontation between the two superpowers. Indeed, Western media outlets along with opportunistic politicians are attempting to nurture anti-Russian sentiment amongst the American people who, unfortunately, have no real sense of the consequences of military action.

Thus, when researchers warn of the dangers of nuclear war, Americans are conditioned to ignore these warnings. Nuclear war would never happen, they think. The powers-that-be would never allow it. Only conspiracy theorists and paranoids would concern themselves with the possibility that major leaders might actually ignite the world in a nuclear holocaust.[ii]

Unfortunately, such an outlook on the current state of geopolitics is simply naïve.

Following the recent statements from Russian General Yury Yakubov regarding his desire to see Russian military nuclear policy restructured to allow for pre-emptive use of nuclear weapons against the U.S. and NATO, the former President of Poland, Lech Walesa, has also uttered the “N word,” in the mainstream press.

When asked whether or not he thought the European Union should send weapons to Western-backed fascists in Kiev,[iii] Walesa wisely stated that such a move was a bad idea. “It could lead to a nuclear war,” he said.

One of the few public figures to inject some level of sanity into the mainstream international discussion over Ukraine, Walesa also stated, “The EU is well aware that Russia has nuclear weapons. NATO has them too. Must we then destroy each other?”

Walesa’s fears are very real. As mentioned above, Russian General Yakubov recently stated his desire to see the Russian military doctrine revised so as to allow for the pre-emptive use [iv]of nuclear weapons. Yakubov stated,

First and foremost, the likely enemy of Russia should be clearly identified in this strategic document, something absent from the 2010 military doctrine. In my view, our primary enemy is the U.S. and the North Atlantic bloc.

[…]

In addition, it is necessary to hash out the conditions under which Russia could carry out a preemptive strike with the Russian Strategic Rocket Forces.

Of course, the truth is that the United States and NATO are the primary enemies of Russia. Indeed, the entire Ukrainian crisis is the handiwork of NATO and the US since the two are responsible for creating, sponsoring, [v]and directing the Euromaidan movement[vi] that overthrow the elected government of Ukraine and installed fascists, Nazis, puppets, and central bankers in its place.[vii]

Even as Vladmir Putin has managed to secure a fragile ceasefire in Ukraine, the United States and NATO have responded in a typical provocative fashion[viii] that reveals their true intentions regarding Ukraine.

Only hours after the ceasefire was announced, NATO and the United States announced that dynamic duo of destabilization was going ahead with planned military exercises in Western Ukraine that will see approximately 1,000 troops posted on Ukrainian soil.

Shortly ahead of the NATO meeting, Barack Obama stated from Estonia[ix] “that the U.S. and NATO would not allow a foreign country to encroach on its friends. He said this after blaming Moscow for the political turmoil in Ukraine. He was a hair away from saying that the U.S. would protect Ukraine from a Russian military attack.

If the NATO exercises were not enough to inflame tensions in the fragile country, four NATO warships are also set to enter the Black Sea this week. USS Ross, an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, French Commandant Birot, Canadian HMCS Toronto, a Halifax-class frigate, and Spanish frigate Almirante Juan de Borbon are all set to enter the Black Sea before September 7.

Regardless of the realities of the situation, however, the American people are falling prey to the propaganda of the mainstream media and Western oligarchs who present Russia as the new Nazi Germany and seek to stir up nationalistic fervor and synthetic patriotism for the purposes of motivating the general public into supporting a confrontation between two nuclear powers. Fueled by years of television and Hollywood production, Americans are entirely insulated in terms of the consequences of such a confrontation.

For far too long, Americans have envisaged war as something America does to other people far away.

The reality is that, if the American people do not wise up and see past the propaganda being fed to them on a daily basis,[x] they may soon find out that war is a two-way street.

Link to article:
http://www.activistpost.com/2014/09/talk-of-nuclear-war-over-ukraine.html

 

Brandon Turbeville is an author out of Florence, South Carolina. He has a Bachelor’s Degree from Francis Marion University and is the author of six books, Codex Alimentarius — The End of Health Freedom, 7 Real Conspiracies, Five Sense Solutions and Dispatches From a Dissident, volume 1 and volume 2, and The Road to Damascus: The Anglo-American Assault on Syria. Turbeville has published over 300 articles dealing on a wide variety of subjects including health, economics, government corruption, and civil liberties. Brandon Turbeville’s podcast Truth on The Tracks can be found every Monday night 9 pm EST at UCYTV. He is available for radio and TV interviews. Please contact activistpost (at) gmail.com.

 

[i] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVV3hcMa698

[ii] http://www.amazon.com/Nuclear-Survival-Skills-Upgraded-Edition/dp/098132181X?tag=permacultucom-20&linkCode=w13&linkID=FGBNVPA47LBE2NTM&ref_=assoc_res_sw_result_3

[iii] http://news.yahoo.com/arming-ukraine-could-lead-nuclear-war-lech-walesa-183453862.html

[iv] http://www.themoscowtimes.com/article/506370.html

[v] http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article37599.htm

[vi] http://journal-neo.org/2014/03/07/bbc-now-admits-armed-nazis-led/

[vii] http://www.activistpost.com/2014/03/ukraine-revolution-places-elites-back.html

[viii] http://www.activistpost.com/2014/09/russia-negotiates-ceasefire-in-ukraine.html

[ix] http://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2014/09/03/hours-after-russia-succeeds-with-cease-fire-u-s-military-heads-to-ukraine/

[x] http://www.amazon.com/Media-Control-Second-Edition-Achievements/dp/1583225366?tag=permacultucom-20&linkCode=w13&linkID=FGBNVPA47LBE2NTM&ref_=assoc_res_sw_result_7

Phantom tanks and the desperation of Kiev

By Caleb Maupin

Posted on Activist Post, September 6, 2014

How many times have we seen this before?

The President of the United States is on TV telling us horror stories. Some innocent people in some corner of the world are being crushed, he tells us. They face some monstrously evil oppressor, he says. While the United States doesn’t like war, what choice is there? Sacrifices must be made, cruise missiles must be unleashed, to protect the poor and innocent. The world is the set of an action movie, and the US is the tragic hero, forced to rescue the innocent.

This is the script we heard in former Yugoslavia. Bill Clinton claimed to be stopping “mass rapes” and “concentration camps.” After the smoke had cleared, and thousands had been killed, the truth came out. The United Nations admitted that no “genocide” had taken place. The talk of mass rapes and concentration camps had been hype.

While the alleged crimes used to justify destroying Serbia had been exaggerated, the crimes of the US-funded Kosovo Liberation Army were very real. The Balkans have never recovered from the bombing and destruction and the funding of ethnic hate groups. The “rescue mission” resulted in deeper misery than ever before.

We heard this script in Libya. Obama told horror stories about Gaddafi. As US-backed insurgents were defeated on the battlefield, the US and NATO unleashed a horrific bombing campaign. Now Libya, once the wealthiest country on the African continent, is in ruin. The country has been destroyed, and rival factions battle for power surrounded by poverty.

In Syria, propaganda about alleged crimes by President Bashar Assad have been used to justify Western support for an ugly civil war. Syria had been one of the more prosperous and peaceful countries of the region, but the US and its allies continue to funnel money to armed terrorists. A war that would have ended in a few months has dragged on for four years, with nearly 150,000 dead, and millions forced to become refugees.

Lies about “humanitarian crises” are a common justification for destructive wars from the United States. The result of US military attack is usually the worsening of conditions for the people.

The Unpopularity of US Allies

Forces aligned with the US also tend to be quite unpopular.

In Serbia, a very small percentage of the population supported the Kosovo Liberation Army. This was a group of armed religious extremists. The brutal tactics of the organization made it highly unpopular, even with the ethnic-Albanians it claimed to be fighting on behalf of. Because the group had no chance of winning on the battlefield, it called for NATO bombs to destroy its enemy.

The same can be said for the terrorist insurgents in Libya. Numerous times they were defeated. Supporters of Gaddafi staged rallies with millions of people in attendance. The regular Libyan army was accompanied by popular community militias. Libyans from all across the country fought in support of their government, which had provided them with a very high standard of living. As the Libyan insurgents were defeated, despite their stockpiles of US guns and money, the call for US and NATO support went up.

In Syria, the insurgents are similar in their character. They may have had a very small base of support among certain Sunni communities, but even this had completely eroded since the war began. The brutality and religious extremism of the terrorists does not help their popularity. The anti-Assad insurgency depends on money, guns, and fighters from other parts of the world because it has little support among the population. The Syrian government has arrested terrorists from as far off as Malaysia, shipped in to kill in Syria. Impoverished children from other parts of the world are being forcibly recruited and indoctrinated into these armed groups that come to Syria and use their US-supplied guns to slaughter civilians.

Now, in Ukraine, we once again see weak US-aligned terrorists begging for US/NATO support, in hopes that they can defeat their own people.

The Only Hope for the Fascists

In the early months of 2014, the elected Ukrainian government was removed by a violent mob of fascists. The new regime, imposed by the West, and backed with millions of dollars from Western banks and NGOs now faces an uprising of its people.

The regime’s brutal tactics, burning innocent people alive, employing Neo-Nazi terrorist groups, bombing civilians, and engaging in other cowardly acts of fascist violence, are not rendering victory.

Even many of the most bigoted, Russian-hating people in West Ukraine are unwilling to die for a regime that has cut the retirement pension by 50% and doubled the price of heating oil. The economic dominion of IMF and the European Union mean poverty for throughout Ukraine’s various regions and ethnic groups.

A number of Ukrainian soldiers have already laid down their guns, rather than kill women and children from their own country. What was presented at first an as “Anti-Terrorist” police operation, has stretched for months. Kiev has attempted to declare that those who have risen up against them are merely paid Russian agents, but it is now clear to all observers that they have a huge amount of support among the population.

Predictably, the Kiev Junta is doing what the Kosovo Liberation Army, the Libyan insurgents, and the terrorists in Syria have done. As they face defeat on the battlefield, and support for them even among their own base is crumbling, they turn to Washington to do the fighting for them.

Kiev seems to have pinned its hope for US/NATO intervention on creating a mythology about a “Russian Invasion.” Kiev is doing its best to convince the world that Russia is marching into their country. They have falsified stories of tanks crossing the border. They have tried to claim that the resistance fighters in Donbass are actually Russian special forces. They hope that they can create some kind of justification for further US/NATO intervention.

The only hope the Kiev Junta, with its Neo-Nazi thug militias, its banning of the Russian language, its destruction of WWII memorials, and vicious austerity measures has, is further US intervention. It cannot win a war against its own population.

Caleb Maupin is a political analyst and activist based in New York. He studied political science at Baldwin-Wallace College and was inspired and involved in the Occupy Wall Street movement, especially for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”, where this first appeared.

 

Source:

http://journal-neo.org/2014/09/06/phantom-tanks-and-the-desperation-of-kiev/

Posted in

http://www.activistpost.com/2014/09/phantom-tanks-and-desperation-of-kiev.html

US Vice President Biden’s son is director in Ukrainian gas company, involved in toxic hydrofracking

The Ukrainian crisis is very profitable for many.

Hunter Biden, the son of United States Vice President Joe Biden, was recently elected to the board of the largest natural gas company in Ukraine. Hunter is also on the Chairman’s Advisory Board for the National Democratic Institute, an organization connected with regime change and propping up questionable elections.[i] With Joe Biden himself at the Kiev regime’s inauguration of President Poroshenko on June 7 and very supportive of the Maidan coup, all of this is connected.

Given the years of planning and work that culminated in the coup and installation of the regime government, these are the profitable results for those in the know and with the power to control the system. This article is a shocking demonstration of how power can sweep away rules, procedures, and citizens’ rights, as well as any regard for the environment.

These are the new Huns. This is about rape and pillage. American citizens seem deaf and blind to their own government’s predatory and destructive actions, content to believe lies about Russian aggression instead of the truth.

Will people wake up before there is nothing left?

From Zero Hedge, 7/25/2014:

Company In Which Joe Biden’s Son Is Director Prepares To Drill Shale Gas In East Ukraine

Submitted by Tyler Durden

Recall what we said earlier today: the proxy Ukraine war just like that in Syria preceding it, “is all about energy.”

Recall also the following chart showing Ukraine’s shale gas deposits, keeping in mind that the Dnieper-Donets basin which lies in the hotly contested eastern part of the nation and where as everyone knows by now a bloody civil war is raging, is the major oil and gas producing region of Ukraine accounting for approximately 90 per cent of Ukrainian production and according to EIA may have 42 tcf of shale gas resources technically recoverable from 197 tcf of risked shale gas in place.

Finally, recall our story from May that Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, just joined the board of the largest Ukraine gas producer Burisma Holdings. From the press release:

R. Hunter Biden will be in charge of the Holdings’ legal unit and will provide support for the Company among international organizations. On his new appointment, he commented: “Burisma’s track record of innovations and industry leadership in the field of natural gas means that it can be a strong driver of a strong economy in Ukraine. As a new member of the Board, I believe that my assistance in consulting the Company on matters of transparency, corporate governance and responsibility, international expansion and other priorities will contribute to the economy and benefit the people of Ukraine.”

R. Hunter Biden is also a well-known public figure. He is chairman of the Board of the World Food Programme U.S.A., together with the world’s largest humanitarian organization, the United Nations World Food Programme. In this capacity he offers assistance to the poor in developing countries, fighting hunger and poverty, and helping to provide food and education to 300 million malnourished children around the world.

Company Background: 

Burisma Holdings is a privately owned oil and gas company with assets in Ukraine and operating in the energy market since 2002. To date, the company holds a portfolio with permits to develop fields in the Dnieper-Donets, the Carpathian and the Azov-Kuban basins. In 2013, the daily gas production grew steadily and at year-end amounted to 11.6 thousand BOE (barrels of oil equivalent – incl. gas, condensate and crude oil), or 1.8 million m3 of natural gas. The company sells these volumes in the domestic market through traders, as well as directly to final consumers.

Now put it all together and what happens next should be rather clear.

* * *

Still confused? It’s very simple, really.

In a nutshell Ukraine (or rather its puppetmasters) has decided to let no crisis (staged or otherwise) or rather civil war, go to waste, and while the fighting rages all around, Ukrainian troopers are helping to install shale gas production equipment near the east Ukrainian town of Slavyansk, which was bombed and shelled for the three preceding months, according to local residents cited by Itar Tass. The reason for the scramble? Under peacetime, the process was expected to take many years, during which Europe would be under the energy dictatorship of Putin. But throw in some civil war and few will notice let alone care that a process which was expected to take nearly a decade if not longer while dealing with broad popular objections to fracking, may instead be completed in months!

Civilians protected by Ukrainian army are getting ready to install drilling rigs. More equipment is being brought in,” they said, adding that the military are encircling the future extraction area.

The people of Slavyansk, which is located in the heart of the Yzovka shale gas field, staged numerous protest actions in the past against its development. They even wanted to call in a referendum on that subject. Environmentalists are particularly concerned with the consequences of hydrofracing, a method used for shale gas extraction, because it implies the use of extremely toxic chemical agents which can poison not only subsoil waters but also the atmosphere. Experts claim that not a single country in the world has invented a method of utilization of harmful toxic agents in the process of development of shale gas deposits.

Countries like the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and France have given up plans to develop shale gas deposits in their territories.

Not only them but also all-important Germany, which two weeks ago announced it would halt shale-gas drilling for the next seven years over groundwater pollution concerns.

Which clearly makes Ukraine, potentially the last place with massive shale gas deposits and no drilling ban, quite valuable to those who want to develop a major source of shale gas, one which reduces Europe’s reliance on Russian gas even more, yet one whose future depends on one simple question: who controls East Ukraine?

Because what better way to accelerate “next steps” than to start drilling for gas in the middle of the Donetsk republic as a civil war is waging in all directions, and where public mood has shifted decidedly against the local “separatists” in the aftermath of the MH-17 tragedy.

The punchline: who will develop the gas field in conjunction with Shell (jointly owned by the Netherlands and the UK: the two countries that loathe Putin the most in the aftermath of the MH-17 disaster) which in May 2012 announced a tender for the right to develop the Yuzovka shale gas deposit?

Burisma, Ukraine’s oil and gas production holdings, also has the right to develop the shale gas fields in the Dnieper-Donetsk basin of Eastern Ukraine. The same Burisma where R. Hunter Biden, Joseph’s son, was appointed a director two months ago.

Q.E.D.

Source:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-07-25/company-which-joe-bidens-son-director-prepares-drill-shale-gas-east-Ukraine

Posted under Fair Use Rules.

———————————————————————————————–

[i] http://www.globalresearch.ca/target-ukraine-how-foreign-intervention-is-tearing-the-country-apart/5371613
Target: Ukraine – How Foreign Intervention is Tearing the Country Apart

As The Guardian noted at the time of the protests:

“[…]the campaign [Orange Revolution] is an American creation, a sophisticated and brilliantly conceived exercise in western branding and mass marketing that, in four countries in four years, has been used to try to salvage rigged elections and topple unsavoury regimes.[…]The Democratic parrty’s National Democratic Institute, the Republican party’s International Republican Institute, the US state department and USAid are the main agencies involved in these grassroots campaigns as well as the Freedom House NGO and billionaire George Soros’s open society institute.”