Salafist shades of gray: US uses veto to protect proxies in Syria

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From Fort Russ

By Ollie Richardson for Fort Russ

12th May, 2016

On Tuesday, 10th May 2016, the UN held a vote on the inclusion of the extremist groups Ahrar Al-Sham and Jaish al-Islam on the list of “terrorist” groups.The United States, France, UK, and Ukraine all voted against this resolution. This vote was the result of a proposal made by Russia in April, where even then the US implied that it would opt to block such a move in the future.

As was explained in this Fort Russ article, Russia finds itself caught in an Atlanticist web, where one week Group X are ‘terrorists’, and 7 days later they magically become “moderate”. The US has the ability to do this of course because of their imposing influence not only at the UN, but also in the world of Non Governmental Organisations. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, for example, provides Pentagon-funded agencies like Reuters with falsified information, which then travels along the NGO spider’s web, ending in such information being the top search result in Google or Yahoo. This method of information spin relies on idle minds and habitual behaviour, something that the State Department’s own Vice News feasts on (Hipsters).

Assuming that the majority of people obtain their knowledge from the US-controlled Wikipedia, it can be said that it is common knowledge that Jahbat Al-Nusra are “Al Qaeda in Syria”, and that they represent the Salafist ideology.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Nusra_Front

It can also be said that Ahrar Al-Sham, besides being Qatar’s finger in the Syrian pie, are also widely known to be loyal to the Salafist ideology:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahrar_ash-Sham

And finally, it can also be presumed that Jaish Al-Islam are widely known to be loyal to the Salafist ideology:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaysh_al-Islam

So despite all 3 groups sharing the same ideology, only 1 has been placed on the UN list of terrorist organisations.

Taking into account what is known about the events on the ground in Syria, Al-Nusra have been able to capitalise on Russia’s postponement of the assault on Aleppo. In order to appease not only the Higher Negotiations Committee, but John Kerry also, Russia moved some toys out of Syria, and seemingly thought that the US, in return, would offer to rein-in the groups they have influence over in Aleppo.

Unfortunately, Putin was left feeling disappointed at the US’ semantic games, and now looks like a villain in the eyes of Iran and the Syrian Army, who are now lacking air support when they need it the most.

Robert Fisk’s excellent article entitled “After splitting with Al-Qaeda, Al-Nusra is being presented to the West as a moderate force. It’s nothing of the sort” highlights that the West uses an non-existent group (Cameron’s 70,000 for example) that are earmarked as ‘moderates’ who can behave as a Trojan Horse in the Levant. This role was initially played by “ISIS”, but Russia quickly removed them from the main equation, and now Al-Nusra are Obama’s go-to guys. They have inherited a magic shield that protects them from Russian KAB-500Kr and OFAB-500 bombs. Maybe soon they will give them MANPADs too – a throwback to the 80’s…

The US’ plan in Syria hinges now on Al Qaeda, who must somehow arrange themselves in Aleppo in a way where Samantha Power, US’ permanent representative at the UN, can help them to dissimulate their true objective – to create a Salafist Emirate in Syria.

On a separate note – Ukraine vetoing the resolution is a statement in itself, and really confirms that Kiev is acting as an auxiliary ammo depot for Takfiri Jihadists. US Gladio-B outposts outside Syria provide the IMF with fresh blood and Angela Merkel with more banana republics inside the now frail EU.

Russia can only counter this hybrid encircling by attacking the head of the snake – Jabhat Al-Nusra – and by offering the Syrian Army and the Iranian Al-Sabereen units the air support they need to liberate Aleppo district by district. This war still has a long way to go…

http://www.fort-russ.com/2016/05/salafist-shades-of-gray-us-uses-veto-to.html

The U.S. conspiracy against Syria

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Syria and “Conspiracy Theories”: It is a Conspiracy

Essential reading.

By Felicity Arbuthnot
Global Research, September 04, 2013
Global Research [originally published 3 March 2012]

“We have met the enemy and he is us.” (Walt Kelly, 1913-1973.)

It was political analyst Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya, in November 2006, who wrote in detail(1) of US plans for the Middle East:

“The term ‘New Middle East’, was introduced to the world in June 2006, in Tel Aviv, by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (who was credited by the Western media for coining the term) in replacement of the older and more imposing term, the “Greater Middle East’ “, he wrote.

Sanity dictated that this would be a U.S. fantasy rampage too far and vast – until realization hit that the author of the map of this New World, planned in the New World’s “New World Order”, was Lt. Colonel Ralph Peters, who, in one of the most terrifying articles ever published, wrote in 1997:

“There will be no peace. At any given moment for the rest of our lifetimes, there will be multiple conflicts in mutating forms around the globe. Violent conflict will dominate the headlines …The de facto role of the US armed forces will be to keep the world safe for our economy and open to our cultural assault. To those ends, we will do a fair amount of killing.”(2) (My emphasis.)

At the time, Peters was assigned to the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence, where he was responsible: “for future warfare.” His plans for Iraq worked out just fine – unless you are an Iraqi.

A month after Nazemroaya’s article was published, William Roebuck, Director for the Office of the State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, was composing an end of year strategy for Syria(3) from his study in the U.S. Embassy in Damascus, where he had been based between 2004-2007, rising to Deputy Chief of Mission.

The subject title was: “Influencing the SARG (Syrian Arab Regime Government) in the end of 2006.”

“The SARG ends 2006 in a much stronger position domestically and internationally (than in) 2005.” Talking of President Assad’s: “growing self-confidence”, he felt that this might lead to: “mistakes and ill-judged … decisions … providing us with new opportunities.” Whilst: “additional bilateral or multilateral pressure can impact on Syria”, clearly he had even more ambitious plans:

“This cable summarizes our assessment of … vulnerabilities, and suggests that there may be actions, statements and signals, that the USG (US Government) can send that will improve the likelihood of such opportunities arising .”

The proposals would need to be: “fleshed out and converted into real actions and we need to be ready to move quickly to take advantage of such opportunities.” (no, not a Le Carré, Forsyth, or Fleming, “diplomat” in Damascus.)

“As the end of 2006 approaches” wrote Roebuck, “Bashar appears … stronger than he has done in two years. The country is economically stable …regional issues seem to be going Syria’s way.”

However: “vulnerabilities and looming issues may provide opportunities to up the pressure on Bashar … some of these vulnerabilities “(including the complexities with Lebanon)”… “can be exploited to put pressure on the regime. Actions that cause Bashar to lose balance, and increase his insecurity, are in our interest.”

The President’s: “ mistakes are hard to predict and benefits may vary, if we are prepared to move quickly and take advantage of opportunities …”

A “vulnerability”, wrote Roebuck, was Bashar al Assad’s protection of: “Syria’s dignity and international reputation.” Pride and “protection”, clearly a shocking concept.

In the light of the proposed Tribunal in to the assassination of Lebanon’s former Prime Minister, Rafick Hariri (14th February 2005) killed with his friend, former Minister of Economy Bassel Fleihan and twenty colleagues and bodyguards, in a huge bomb, detonated under his motorcade, this “vulnerability” could be exploited.

Unproven allegations have pointed the finger at Israel, Syria, Hezbollah and myriad others, as behind another Middle East tragedy, but Roebuck regarded it as an: “opportunity to exploit this raw nerve, without waiting for the formation of the Tribunal.”

Another idea outlined under a further “vulnerability” heading, was the growing alliance between Syria and Iran. “Possible action”, was to: “play on Sunni fears of Iranian influence.” Although these were: “often exaggerated”, they were there to be exploited:

“Both the local Egyptian and Saudi missions here … are giving increasing attention to the matter and we should co-ordinate more closely with their governments on ways to better publicize and focus regional attention to the issue.” Concerned Sunni religious leaders should also be worked on. Iraq-style divide and rule model, writ large.

The “divide” strategy, of course, should also focus on the first family and legislating circle, with: “ targeted sanctions (which) must exploit fissures and render the inner circle weaker, rather the drive its members closer together.”

The public should also be subject to: “continual reminders of corruption … we should look for ways to remind …”

Another aspect to be exploited was: “The Khaddam factor.”

Abdul Halim Khaddam, was Vice President,1984-2005, and acting President in 2000, during the months beween Bashir al Assad’s accession and his father’s death.

Thought to have Presidential ambitions himself, there was a bitter split between Khaddam and al Assad after Hariri’s death. Allegations of treasonous betrayal by Khaddam have validity.

The ruling party, writes Roebuck: “…follow every news item involving Khaddam, with tremendous emotional interest. We should continue to encourage the Saudis and others to allow Khaddam access to their media … providing him with venues for airing the SARG’s dirty laundry.”

Morever, it was anticipated that: “an over reaction by the regime [would] add to its isolation and alienation from its Arab neighbours.”

On January 14th 2006, Khaddam had formed a government in exile, and had predicted the end of the al-Assad government by the year’s end.

He is currently regarded as an opposition leader, and has claimed, on Israel’s Channel 2 TV.(4) receiving money from the US and the EU to help overthrow the Syrian government.

The ever creative Mr Roebuck’s further plans included: “Encouraging rumours and signals of external plotting.” To this end: “Regional allies like Egypt and Saudi Arabia should be encouraged to meet with figures like Kaddam and Rifat (sic) al Assad, with appropriate leaking of the meetings afterwards. This … increases the possibility of a self-defeating over-reaction.”

Rifaat al Assad, Bashar’s uncle, was in charge of the Defence Brigade, who killed up to thirty thousand people in, and flattened much of, the city of Hama, in February 1982. So much for endlessly trumpeted concerns for: “human rights violations.” Rifaat al Assad lives in exile and safety, in London. Khaddam lives in Paris.(5)

Here is a serious cause for concern for the overthrow-bent: “Bashar keeps unveiling a steady stream of initiatives on reform and it is certainly possible he believes this is his legacy to Syria …. These steps have brought back Syrian expats to invest … (and) increasing openness.”

Solution? “Finding ways to publicly call into question Bashar’s reform efforts.” Indeed, moving heaven and earth to undercut them, is made clear.

Further: “Syria has enjoyed a considerable up-tick in foreign direct investment”; it follows: foreign investment is to be: “discouraged.”

In May of 2006, complains Roebuck, Syrian Military Intelligence protested: “what they believed were U.S. efforts to provide military training and equipment to Syria’s Kurds.” The Iraq model, yet again.

The answer was to: “Highlight Kurdish complaints.” This, however: “would need to be handled carefully, since giving the wrong kind of prominence to Kurdish issues in Syria, could be a liability for our efforts … given Syrian … civil society’s skepticism of Kurdish objectives.”

In “Conclusion”, this shaming, shoddy document states: “The bottom line is that Bashar is entering the New Year in a stronger position than he has been, in several years”, meaning “vulnerabilities” must be sought out. “If we are ready to capitalize, they will offer us opportunities to disrupt his decision-making, keep him off balance – and make him pay a premium for his mistakes.”

The cable is copied to: The White House, U.S. Secretary of State, U.S. Treasury, U.S. Mission at the UN, U.S. National Security Council, CENTCOM, all Arab League and EU countries.

The only U.S. Embassy which received a copy is that in Tel Aviv. William Roebuck worked at the Embassy in Tel Aviv (2000-2003) embracing the invasion of Iraq year.
In 2009, he was Deputy Political Consul In Baghdad: “leading efforts to support the critical 2009 Iraqi elections.” The “free and fair, democratic” ones, where people were threatened with the deaths of their children even, if they did not vote the “right” way.

The result was Nuri al Maliki’s premiership, complete with his murderous militias. The man under whose Ministry of the Interior, U.S. soldiers discovered tortured, starving prisoners.

The Damascus cable comes courtesy Wikileaks. Lt. Colonel Peters called, on Fox News, for founder, Julian Assange, to be assassinated. The forty second clip(6) is worth the listen.

The Colonel also writes fiction and thrillers under the name Owen Patterson. Perhaps he is living the dream.

Felicity Arbutnot is Global Research’s Human Rights Correspondent based in London
Notes

1. http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=3882

2. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3011.htm

3. http://wikileaks.cabledrum.net/cable/2006/12/06DAMASCUS5399.html

4. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COqBQYcrd9Q

5. http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=29501

6. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rS5h59iZg3o

The original source of this article is Global Research [originally published in March 2012]

http://www.globalresearch.ca/syria-and-conspiracy-theories-it-is-a-conspiracy/29596

William Roebuck was appointed ambassador to Bahrain in 2014.

A recent commentary by Ralph Peters on Russia and Syria is here:

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2015/09/30/ralph_peters_were_clinging_to_20th_century_platitudes_as_putin_is_changing_the_world_russia_is_back.html

Add to that a piece from John McCain http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2015/09/30/john_mccain_the_message_we_need_to_send_to_putin_is_get_out_of_our_way.html

These people are certifiably mad.

The balkanization of Russia – has it begun?

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From Fort Russ

October 10th, 2015 –
By Ilia Belous – iliabelous –
Translated for Fort Russ by Inessa Sinchougova –.

[In his address to PolitRussia Belous’s position is that by 2018, every federal region in Russia is going to need its own ‘Putin.’ Foreign NGOs such as the National Endowment for Democracy have recently been outlawed in Russia due to covert activities being undertaken through them. Such activities continue however, through official US embassies.- I. Sinchougova]

Some interesting details surrounding the new General Consul to Ekaterinburg have unfolded. Russia’s Ural region has recently received Mr. Marcus Micheli, as representative of the USA – a package deal with his unfavourable working experience in the Ukraine. His posting to the region does not seem to be accidental, once the details surrounding his prior activities are brought to light.

After my original publication about the new General Consul to Ekaterinburg, a number of my astute readers recognized the name as someone who used to be employed by the United States National Security Council, with Ukraine as his area of specialization. His duties included lobbying for sanctions against the Russian economy, as well as the arrangement of funding toward Poroshenko’s army.

Let me start at the beginning.

In August 2014, two political pranksters by the names of Vladimir Krasnov and Aleksei Stoliarov (most recently pranking Elton John in his conversation with ‘Putin’), were involved in a covert investigation over the imposition of Mikhail Saakashvili to the seat of Governor in Odessa, Ukraine. The pranksters, implanted into the existing administration, had asked Mr. Saakashvii to release the names of his contacts in the US Department of State.

The pranksters, through a number of clever moves and handshakes, managed to convince the runaway-Georgian ex-president in the genuine nature of their discussion with him. Mr. Saakashvilli gave the name of Senator John McCain as his advisor.

As part of this operation, and with Saakashvili’s exclusive contact details, Mr. Aleksei Stoliarov, posing as Mr. Arsen Avakov (Ukraine’s Minister of Internal Affairs and Poroshenko’s right hand man) spoke to Mr. Marcus Micheli. This took place at the end of 2014, but it is not until Mr. Micheli was on his way to be the General Consul to Ekaterinbrug, that the pranksters forwarded me the recording. (August 2015).

In his conversation with “Mr. Avakov”, Mr. Micheli speaks in his role as colleague of the esteemed professor of International Relations, Charles Kupchan (formerly at Georgetown University.) Mr. Kupchan is also Director of European Affairs at the US National Security Council.

The National Security Council is the department responsible for their detailed recommendations toward sanctions against the Russian economy. Through this use of sanctions, Kupchan had personally invited the world to isolate the Russian economy on the official Council website. He emphasized that the situation in Ukraine will provoke internal pressure on President Putin. The use of sanctions was, in his eyes, a suitable strategy to weaken the Russian state.

The commentary was dated 29 August 2014, from the office of National Security Council Press Secretary – Caitlin Hayden, just prior to President Obama’s visit to Estonia and Wales on the 2^nd and 4^th September 2014. It is known that Charles Kupchan oversees the events in Europe at large, while Micheli those in Ukraine.

Micheli is well versed with the region, his work experience dates back to his postings to Moscow between 1992 and 1994, as well as between 2002 and 2004. Between 1994-1996 he was located in Warsaw; 1996-1999 in Kiev; 2000-2001 in Sarajevo; 2007–2009 in Podgorica, 2009-2012 in Kishinev.

Team Kupchan is also well connected to Hillary Clinton. Mr. Saakashvilli was quoted as saying, that these people are the more influential of his advisors in Washington.

The conversation between prankster Stoliarov and Kupchan’s office took place one week after Petro Poroshenko’s address in the United States Congress.

Aleksei Stoliarov did not reach Kupchan in the office when he called, but instead landed in the hands of his accomplice Mr. Micheli, who without a doubt in his mind assumed Minister Avakov was on the other end. In the conversation, Mikeli openly discussed increased funding toward the armament of Petro Poroshenko’s army against the resistance movements in the country’s east – the Donbass. Micheli was well positioned to speak on this topic, as it was him who was lobbying the US State Department towards armament.

A little earlier than that, in May 2014, the US government had provided $1 billion dollars for the initial armament of Poroshenko’s army. The first allocation of weaponry did not go to plan – Kiev’s army had been surrounded by the DPR militia, formerly ordinary residents of the Donbass. They had no choice but to release much of the US funded weaponry to the self organised militias of the Donbass region. In this way, the new wave of mobilization required more funding. In September 2014, the Ukrainian authorities received another $320 million dollars.

Poroshenko then, was not lying in his address in the 70^th session of the General Assembly of the United Nations, where he said that “the war in Ukraine costs $5 million dollars a day.” With this calculation in mind, the $1 billion should have lasted 200 days, or around 6 months. This is as accurate as clockwork, with the first batch in May 2014 and second in November 2014.

Today, Marcus Micheli is a well-known lobbyist and an influential person in the White House. Why is he in Ekaterinburg? While I have no insight into the workings of the White House, I do have the following information for us to ponder over.

Ekaterinburg is known for being a target location of the US State Department for the preparation of a social movement
The State Department has been involved in Ekaterinburg for over 20 years in one way or another – creating an active network of agents that consist of local opposition, some of which are in the elite/ moneyed ranks.
An orchestrated and predetermined weakening of the region’s economy seems to provide sufficient reasoning toward the launch of an opposition movement here
Micheli has spent his entire working career in Europe, including a stint during a colour revolution, when he was part of the US diplomatic mission to Moldova 2009, “the twitter revolution.”
As part of his role in the National Council on Security, Micheli directly oversaw the allocation of funds for Poroshenko’s army, toward the war in the Donbass. A graphically – offensive video of fire against civilians — is available here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLvqPnWTBm0
Upon his arrival in Ekaterinbrug, it is known to me that Micheli began networking with those individuals that I would consider to be a part of the ‘5^th column.’ (Any group of people who undermine a larger group—such as a nation—from within, usually in favor of an enemy group or nation.)

The totality of this information together leads me to believe that the US State Department’s interest toward Russia’s regions, especially that of the Ural region, is growing by the day.

Be vigilant, my friends.

This information has been forwarded to the FSB, through their official channel.

http://www.fortruss.blogspot.com/2015/10/fsb-leak-balkanization-of-russia-has-it.html

The mystery of ISIS’ Toyota army solved

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By Tony Cartalucci

Global Research, October 09, 2015

The US Treasury has recently opened an inquiry about the so-called “Islamic State’s” (ISIS/ISIL) use of large numbers of brand-new Toyota trucks. The issue has arisen in the wake of Russia’s air operations over Syria and growing global suspicion that the US itself has played a key role in arming, funding, and intentionally perpetuating the terrorist army across Syria and Iraq.

ABC News in their article, “US Officials Ask How ISIS Got So Many Toyota Trucks,” reports:

U.S. counter-terror officials have asked Toyota, the world’s second largest auto maker, to help them determine how ISIS has managed to acquire the large number of Toyota pick-up trucks and SUVs seen prominently in the terror group’s propaganda videos in Iraq, Syria and Libya, ABC News has learned.

Toyota says it does not know how ISIS obtained the vehicles and is “supporting” the inquiry led by the Terror Financing unit of the Treasury Department — part of a broad U.S. effort to prevent Western-made goods from ending up in the hands of the terror group.

The report went on to cite Iraqi Ambassador to the US, Lukman Faily:

“This is a question we’ve been asking our neighbors,” Faily said. “How could these brand new trucks… these four wheel drives, hundreds of them — where are they coming from?”

Not surprisingly, it appears the US Treasury is asking the wrong party. Instead of Toyota, the US Treasury’s inquiry should have started next door at the US State Department.

Mystery Solved

Just last year it was reported that the US State Department had been sending in fleets of specifically Toyota-brand trucks into Syria to whom they claimed was the “Free Syrian Army.”

US foundation-funded Public Radio International (PRI) reported in a 2014 article titled, “This one Toyota pickup truck is at the top of the shopping list for the Free Syrian Army — and the Taliban,” that:

Recently, when the US State Department resumed sending non-lethal aid to Syrian rebels, the delivery list included 43 Toyota trucks.

Hiluxes were on the Free Syrian Army’s wish list. Oubai Shahbander, a Washington-based advisor to the Syrian National Coalition, is a fan of the truck.

“Specific equipment like the Toyota Hiluxes are what we refer to as force enablers for the moderate opposition forces on the ground,” he adds. Shahbander says the US-supplied pickups will be delivering troops and supplies into battle. Some of the fleet will even become battlefield weapons..

The British government has also admittedly supplied a number of vehicles to terrorists fighting inside of Syria. The British Independent’s 2013 article titled, “Revealed: What the West has given Syria’s rebels,” reported that (emphasis added):

So far the UK has sent around £8m of “non-lethal” aid, according to official papers seen by The Independent, comprising five 4×4 vehicles with ballistic protection; 20 sets of body armour; four trucks (three 25 tonne, one 20 tonne); six 4×4 SUVs; five non-armoured pick-ups; one recovery vehicle; four fork-lifts; three advanced “resilience kits” for region hubs, designed to rescue people in emergencies; 130 solar powered batteries; around 400 radios; water purification and rubbish collection kits; laptops; VSATs (small satellite systems for data communications) and printers.

It’s fair to say that whatever pipeline the US State Department and the British government used to supply terrorists in Syria with these trucks was likely used to send additional vehicles before and after these reports were made public.

The mystery of how hundreds of identical, brand-new ISIS-owned Toyota trucks have made it into Syria is solved. Not only has the US and British government admitted in the past to supplying them, their military forces and intelligence agencies ply the borders of Turkey, Jordan, and even Iraq where these fleets of trucks must have surely passed on their way to Syria – even if other regional actors supplied them. While previous admissions to supplying the vehicles implicates the West directly, that nothing resembling interdiction operations have been set up along any of these borders implicates the West as complicit with other parties also supplying vehicles to terrorists inside of Syria.

What Mystery?

Of course, much of this is not new information. So the question remains – why is the US Treasury just now carrying on with this transparent charade? Perhaps those in Washington believe that if the US government is the one asking this obvious question of how ISIS has managed to field such an impressive mechanized army in the middle of the Syrian desert, no one will suspect they had a role in it.

Of course, the trucks didn’t materialize in Syria. They originated outside of Syria and were brought in, and in great numbers, with the explicit knowledge and/or direct complicity of the US and its regional allies. Asking Toyota where the US State Department’s own trucks came from is another indication of just how lost US foreign policy, legitimacy, and credibility has become.

Russia’s intervention, and what should become a widely supported anti-terror coalition must keep in mind the criminality of the US and its partners when choosing its own partners in efforts to restore security and order across the Middle East and North Africa.

Tony Cartalucci, Bangkok-based geopolitical researcher and writer, especially for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-mystery-of-isis-toyota-army-solved/5480921

U.S. propaganda in Korea exposes American TV as social engineering tool

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“Convincing a population to be self-absorbed moral and social degenerates is “mind-altering,” however it has little or nothing to do with the pursuit of freedom. The weakness sown amongst populations encouraged to break up first their families, then their local communities, is tantamount to a domestic military campaign of sociopolitical “divide and conquer.” Local communities that are incapable of organizing themselves, because individuals themselves are incapable of building families, reduces the potential of competitors rising up and challenging the status quo established by Wall Street and Washington.

More importantly, it encourages servile dependency on a particular type of consumerist paradigm perfected and exclusively dominated by Western interests that best feeds the sort of self-absorbed behavior endlessly promoted across Western media.

I Love Lucy, Gunsmoke, Father Knows Best, Happy Days, Golden Girls, Friends, MTV, Gilligan’s Island, Cops, Cheers, Desperate Housewives, and the endless sitcoms and now “reality” shows, Dancing with the Stars and American Idol — there is so much to distract from real people, relationships, community, and issues. While “I Love Lucy” was popular, the U.S. was doing atomic weapons testing. “My Three Sons” played while the Vietnam War raged and the civil rights movement struggled. Millions of Americans, glued to their TV screens, watch “heart-warming” dramas or “cute” comedies, while critical issues are neglected and people die. Children grow up expecting all the things they see on TV, including the “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous”, as reality. TV advertisements say that happiness comes from buying the right things. American young people aim for “good-paying” jobs which will allow them to accumulate material luxuries and retire early.

It’s been very successful, this social engineering. Advertisements show happy families having quality time together…around a television set. A TV or screen in every room. People don’t talk to each other, even lose the ability to connect with each other. Children go outside to play less and less, don’t go camping with their families or on picnics, and don’t get together with neighborhood kids to play. Together with technology’s intrusion, what the industry itself calls “disruptive”, many American families are increasingly empty and fragmented. Decreasing satisfaction from family life and married life leads to greater consumerism — it’s a self-feeding cycle. The toll that online pornography has taken on young men is well known; that fewer and fewer are able to have a healthy relationship is a frightening societal trend. Finally, it seems that community focus and community life is diminishing rapidly.

TV doesn’t shatter illusions; it builds them. That is part of the allure.And while we are watching even the most noteworthy program, life is going by around us — real opportunities, real people, real recreation, real life.

On an old BBC series, “All Creatures Great and Small”, one of the characters remarked about the coming of television to England, “Think of it — millions of people are watching exactly the same thing at exactly the same time.” That fact has not escaped the attention of our respective governments.

The best thing for ourselves, our communities, and our countries would be for people to turn TVs and technology off.

From New Eastern Outlook, 3-20-15
By Tony Cartalucci

When Wired published its article, “The Plot to Free North Korea with Smuggled Episodes of ‘Friends,’” it probably hoped that its impressionable, politically ignorant audience would not pick up on the underlying facts and their implications, and simply see a “cute” anecdote poking fun at the besieged East Asian country while inflating their own sense of unwarranted cultural superiority.

What they missed, of course, is the fact that the program peddled by Wired as the work of “the North Korea Strategy Center and its 46-year-old founder, Kang Chol-hwan,” is in fact funded and organized instead by the US State Department.

Indeed, the North Korea Strategy Center is partnered directly with the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor of the US Department of State, the US State Department’s Radio Free Asia propaganda network, and the US State Department’s National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a defacto “department of regime change” backed by Wall Street’s Fortune 500, solely for the interests of Wall Street’s Fortune 500.

Readers of Wired’s latest, long-winded spin on US-backed sedition abroad also most likely missed the fact that if TV shows from America are considered a tool for social engineering in North Korea, they are most likely being used as a tool of social engineering in the United States as well. The degradation of American culture, the family, and weakening of local communities, versus the growing centralized dominance of corporate-financier monopolies and their increasingly draconian police and surveillance state is a direct result of this.

Wired would admit in their article that:

Kang likens the USB sticks to the red pill from The Matrix: a mind-altering treatment that has the power to shatter a world of illusions. “When North Koreans watch Desperate Housewives, they see that Americans aren’t all war-loving imperialists,” Kang says. “They’re just people having affairs or whatever. They see the leisure, the freedom. They realize that this isn’t the enemy; it’s what they want for themselves. It cancels out everything they’ve been told. And when that happens, it starts a revolution in their mind.”

Indeed, convincing a population to be self-absorbed moral and social degenerates is “mind-altering,” however it has little or nothing to do with the pursuit of freedom. The weakness sown amongst populations encouraged to break up first their families, then their local communities, is tantamount to a domestic military campaign of sociopolitical “divide and conquer.” Local communities that are incapable of organizing themselves, because individuals themselves are incapable of building families, reduces the potential of competitors rising up and challenging the status quo established by Wall Street and Washington.

More importantly, it encourages servile dependency on a particular type of consumerist paradigm perfected and exclusively dominated by Western interests that best feeds the sort of self-absorbed behavior endlessly promoted across Western media.

Essentially, NKSC is not working to “free” anyone. Instead, they are working to corral North Koreans out of one cage, and into another. Some might argue this “other cage” is more comfortable, but it is still a cage nonetheless. It is not done for any altruistic purpose, but simply to enroll millions more from yet another region of the planet into Wall Street’s global-spanning, unsustainable, exploitative consumerist paradigm – one which strangles the environment, society, and individuals.

How can NKSC Show People the “Truth” if it Can’t Even be Honest About Who is Behind its Work?It is also a consumerist paradigm admittedly being built up and sustained with US taxpayers’ money, through the US State Department whose mission is allegedly to represent the American people and their best interests, but which is instead demonstrably imposing US corporate-financier interests on other people, through tricks when possible, and through force when necessary.

Wired’s article, like many others it has written to spin what is essentially colonialism 2.0, is meant to give readers a sense of moral superiority over the West’s many perceived enemies.

That Wired never mentions the US State Department’s role in this particular propaganda campaign illustrates that not only are people being manipulated, they are being manipulated through an extraordinarily dishonest campaign. Would Kang’s sedition be as palatable to North Koreans if they knew it was in fact fully funded, supported, and even the creation of the US State Department? Would that bolster Kang’s allegations that North Korea is unreasonably paranoid regarding American designs to subvert, destroy, and overrun the nation? Or does the fact that his work is fully underwritten by the US State Department undermine entirely the lies he uses to defend it?

When offering “freedom” to others, truth and transparency is essential. The ill-informed or misinformed cannot make truly honest decisions about their future. If North Korea’s crime is deceiving its people about the state of the world beyond its borders, than Kang and the North Korea Strategy Center’s campaign to show them the “true world” with propaganda funded by the US State Department – a fact never mentioned by Kang and the NKSC – is just as deceptive.

As is often said, two wrongs don’t make a right – and that’s if one foolishly assumes the US State Department is seeking to make a right in the first place.

Tony Cartalucci, Bangkok-based geopolitical researcher and writer, especially for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.
First appeared: http://journal-neo.org/2015/03/20/us-propaganda-op-in-korea-exposes-american-tv-as-social-engineering-tool/

Hillary Clinton paid Amnesty International to prepare coup d’état in Eritrea

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Posted on Veterans Today, January 7, 2015

By Kevin Barrett, Veterans Today Editor, with a report from Thomas C. Mountain

Introduction:
As the American people slide deeper into bankruptcy, their government continues to spend billions to overthrow foreign governments and destabilize or destroy foreign nations. Victoria Nuland’s confession that US taxpayers had contributed 5 billion dollars to overthrow the democratically-elected Ukrainian government, and incite a civil war designed to destroy that country, was just the tip of the iceberg.

And it gets worse. We now have smoking-gun proof that the State Department under Hillary Clinton corrupted the world’s biggest human rights organization, Amnesty International, by paying it to conduct ultra-secret CIA-style destabilization operations to pave the way for a coup d’état in Eritrea.

That means Amnesty International (AI), a self-styled “human rights” organization, is actually a covert arm of the New World Order effort to enslave the world and put an end to anything remotely resembling human rights. These people won’t be satisfied until every human is microchipped at birth and subjected to remote-control torture every time their thoughts even begin to turn against Big Brother.

Memo to AI: If you really support human rights, you should be waging an all-out war against the New World Order and its Euro-American bankster puppets, using every weapon at your disposal. And you should be willing to give your life to defend the independence of countries like Eritrea.

From now on, anyone working for AI should be assumed to be a covert NWO intelligence agent aimed at destroying whatever nation they’re operating in. And they should be treated as such.

Many Americans would be hard-pressed to find Eritrea on a map. But the small African country occupies a critically-important geostrategic location: the spot where the Red Sea meets the Indian Ocean. Even more important, Eritrea has set an example for other African countries by insisting on independence from the US-bankster empire.

Listen to me interviewing journalist André Vltchek on why the banksters want to overthrow Eritrea and install yet another US-puppet regime

So far, the people of Eritrea have successfully resisted the bankster empire’s efforts to enslave them. Let’s hope and pray they continue to succeed in 2015!

-KB

Bombshell Linking Amnesty, HRW to US State Dept Regime Change in Africa

by Thomas C. Mountain

Secret internal correspondence from Amnesty International has been published detailing a plan to instigate regime change in the small east African country of Eritrea funded by a grant from the US State Department under then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

This is not a new charge, having first come to my attention in the fall of 2011 when a journalist in London called me one morning asking for my comments on a press conference by Amnesty International denying charges that the Eritrean government was supposed to have made that Amnesty and HRW had been involved in sending a secret mission to Eritrea in an attempt to destabilize the government.

The problem was the Eritrean government had not made any such charges, at least not that I had heard of. Operating on the maxim made immortal by Claude Cockburn, father of the Cockburn clan of intrepid journalists, that “Never believe anything until it has been officially denied” I set off in search for more on this story.

It wasn’t until that evening that Eritrean TV broke the story with excerpts from the Amnesty International document they claimed to have. The next night EriTV broadcast more highlights from the document and then the story just disappeared. It seemed that the curtain had dropped on another episode in the rancorous relations between the Eritrean government and the human rights corporations. Left with nothing hard to go on I could only file this one in the “hope to follow up on someday” file.

Now, three years later, the letter has been published and it really is a bombshell.

“Our intended goal is that by December of this year [2011] the regime of [Eritrean President] Issayas Aferwerki should be shaking and ready to fall”.

This was going to be done thanks to a “reasonable grant from the US State Department” to “bring about [regime] change…as has happened in other African and Arab countries”….

The letter is signed by one Catherine Price, Africa Special Programmes, Peter Benenson House, 1 Easton Street

Priority Status; Stricktly Confidential Resonance; Urgent To; Mr. Adams Subi Waitara Amnesty Tanzania Section.

The letter was to inform him that he had been “appointed to be part of a 4 man delegation to Eritrea beginning 6th to 16th September, 2011”. The letter lists the other members of this very secret group including an Amnesty staffer who was then working for HRW.

The letter goes on to say “Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch…have received a reasonable grant from the US State Department…” and that “the main aim therefore of this Mission to Eritrea is to provide funding and to help in setting up websites and computer centers…”

The letter warns about the need for absolute secrecy, “Do not operate, at any time in groups of more than two in the day time…” and “Do not take any photos with normal cameras, except the micro cameras that will be provided for you…”. It informs Mr. Adams that “Mr. Georges Gagnoy, Human Rights Watch Africa Director, will be monitoring the events and activities online from Nairobi, [Kenya] and will offer any emergency assistance should it be needed.”

Deja Vu? Cuba and Venezuela watchers will be reminded of similar programs funded by the US State Department to destabilize the governments of those countries with the goal of “regime change”. The bombshell this letter drops is that for the first time Amnesty International and HRW are caught in writing accepting “a reasonable grant” from the US State Department to do its dirty work.

What makes this letter all the more believable are the links between HRW and the Hillary Clinton mafia that have been the subject of a protest letter signed by several Nobel Peace Laureates. In particular, one Tom Malinowski who goes back and forth between being a speech writer for Hillary and a senior staff member at HRW.

Those of us in the Eritrean support community know Mr. Malinowski all to well for his history of vociferous slanders and other fabrications about Eritrea going back some 15 years or more. It would be all to easy for Malinowski to use his high level contacts in the Hillary Clinton State Department to arrange a “reasonable grant” for his cohorts in HRW and Amnesty International to carry out some undercover dirty work on behalf of Pax Americana.

Amnesty International and HRW are major corporations, with HRW being funded for several years now to the tune of $100 million a year by George Soros who has a long history of working with the US intel community in former Soviet Union republics ie the “Rose Revolution” in Georgia. Neither organization is “democratic” or transparent. The Board of Directors of both organizations elect themselves and answer only to the handful of 1%ers that fund their enormous budgets. No one can really tell you just how much and from where these human rights corporations get their funding from. Has anyone ever seen an in depth audit of either of these outfits multi million dollar operations budgets?

Hillary, Amnesty, HRW and regime change in Africa. Its about time such matters are being brought to the light of day.

Thomas C. Mountain has been living and reporting from Eritrea since 2006. He can be reached when he is somewhere that has access to the internet at thomascmountain at gmail dot com or more successfully by mobile at 2917175665.

http://www.veteranstoday.com/2015/01/07/ai-eritrea/

Report by Thomas Mountain:
http://wrongkindofgreen.org/category/organizations/amnesty-international/

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Hillary Clinton paid Amnesty International to prepare coup d’état in Eritrea

By Kevin Barrett, Veterans Today Editor, with a report from Thomas C. Mountain

Bombshell Linking Amnesty, HRW to US State Dept Regime Change in Africa