Operation Protective Edge: Israel's latest war on Palestinians
Israel's war on the millions of Palestinian's in the West Bank and Gaza has been going on for nearly 50 years. Even in so called times of peace Israel wages constant low intensity warfare on the Palestinians. People are assassinated, people are dragged away to prison without charge where they will be tortured. Many of those they arrest are minors. In addition Israel wages a constant economic war, in Gaza they have been under a state of siege since 2007 when an economic blockade was imposed. The west bank is constantly being ethnically cleansed to make way for more and more jewish only settlements. The settlers invariably made up of the most extremist elements of Israeli society are given the freedom to constantly harass and attack their palestinian neighbors. The palestinians are also the target of a constant psychological war aimed at breaking their spirit. Israel hopes that if it can make conditions hellish enough that one day they will be able to eject the entire populace. After all this is how Israel was founded and they were quite successful in ethnically cleansing palestine to create the state of Israel as documented in the now classic "Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine" by Israeli historian Ilan Pappe. (He was forced to flee the country because of a stream of death threats against himself and his family) This period of ethnic cleansing is called by the Palestinians the Nakbah meaning the Catastrophe. However in the Hubris of the 1967 war Israel seized more Palestinian populated territory the West Bank was seized from Jordan while Gaza was seized from Egypt. With the whole world watching Israel didn't dare to force the entire populace to flee. So it began it's process of slow motion genocide which has continued to this day. Bit by bit they have devoured the west bank families are forced off of their homes and loose their land. Until the Israeli dream of a Nakbah part 2 can take place they have to content themselves with these periodic attempts to terrorize the entire population and engage in a genocidal targeting of their infrastructure very similar to the methods the US used in Iraq that led to a million dead from disease. Schools, hospitals, water treatment facilities, houses and Gaza's only power plant have been destroyed. 1.2 million are currently without access to clean water or working toilets. Afterwards the Palestinian's will be prevented from rebuilding as Israel restricts the import of building materials into Gaza. In fact even without this latest rampage the water and sewage situations were leading to a health emergency do to restrictions on building materials. In other words the populace was forced to drink sewage tainted water. Some have speculated that Israel is destroying vast swathes of Gaza to make way for settlements there. Israel withdrew it's settlers from densely populated Gaza in order to focus on stealing Palestinian lands in the West Bank. This is what earned convicted war criminal Ariel Sharon the Orwellian praise of being "a man of peace." However given the current public relations disaster where even the mainstream media, even the state department have begun to criticize the attack on Gaza these plans will probably be postponed for the present. It has also been pointed out that enormous natural gas reserves have been discovered off the coast another motive for all the bloody carnage. Whatever the motive the world is once again being subjected to the site of a largely defenseless people being slaughtered. Most of the world has always seen the conflict for what it is. It is instructive to read the long list of condemnations Israel has received at the hands of the UN general assembly. Often only the US and it's most servile and insignificant allies side with Israel. However in Some ignorant parts of the world that like to think of themselves as advanced like my native land the United States of America they have been under the delusion that Israel was defending itself. This illusion seemingly resistant for decades to any form of common sense, to any facts may finally be lifting from the US public. In return so as not to loose all credibility or often merely as a result of individually witnessing some new outrage the media is daring to criticize Israel.
Israel has one of the most powerful militaries in the world. They have massive stockpiles of Biological chemical and nuclear weapons. Israeli Nuclear submarines patrol the entire region. Still it is Israel's soft power that is truly dangerous. To do it justice would require a book or even a series of books. The Israel lobby is the elephant in the room that many are reluctant to discuss. It includes groups like AIPAC infamous for it's power over the US legislative branch. Recently the US Senate voted Unanimously in support of Israel's terror campaign against the civilian population of Gaza. This was not because they had all suddenly gone insane but rather because none dared to defy the lobby. Nor is the US the only country with a powerful Pro-Israel lobby Paris has CRIF and the Lobby is powerful in Britain and Germany among other countries. Still as I said there is far more then Aipac there are Pro Israel think tanks like the Institute for Defense of Democracies. Also groups aiming to prevent criticism in the Media like Canvas. When all else fails they send in the ADL. Israel's harshest critics are often Israelis so I'll recommend a hilarious Israeli documentary "Defamation" on the ADL where it's National Director Abe Foxman clearly states that there is no other conceivable reason other then anti-Semitism why anyone would ever criticize Israel. And as for all the Jewish Voices who criticize Israel? In any case Israel has used it's soft power to insure that certain western countries like the US have a completely false picture of Israel's endless Illegal occupation of palestinian territories. They believe that Israel is only defending itself. Fortunately a recent Gallup Poll revealed that 51% of American's consider Israel's actions during Operation Protective Edge were unjustified only 21% thought that Israel was justified. Thanks to the Internet people are finally beginning to wake up despite the disgraceful coverage of media outlets like the New York Times. By carrying out the attack on the Palestinians for too long the Israeli's may be loosing one of their most important assets US public opinion.
There is no telling how long Israel plans to continue it's latest bloodbath. As I write there is a supposed Ceasefire yesterday hours after it was declared Israel shelled a family home in a refugee camp injuring 30 people mostly women and children and killing a little girl. Just the latest in a long line of incidents that have horrified the world. Twitter is awash with photos of the mangled corpses of dead children. The tearstained faces of angry mourning parents. Devastated neighborhoods that have literally been flattened by bombs. Schools blown up in front of journalists. Playgrounds targeted. Hospitals bombed to prevent them from treating the wounded. 13 hospitals have been targeted so far and ten doctors have been killed. There is only so long all this can be spun as defense. The numbers don't lie as of August 4th 3 Israeli civilians had died. 64 Israeli soldiers have been killed mostly as a result of Netanyahu's foolish ground invasion of Gaza. 1,865 palestinians have been killed 429 were children 243 were women 79 were over 60. Many more have been "Injured" imagine loosing an arm or a leg or being scarred for life. Every day for the rest of your life is negatively impacted especially if these scars act as a constant reminder of a dead husband, wife, brother sister parent or child. So far 9,536 people have been "injured" 2,877 were children 1,853 were women 347 were over 60. Almost 3000 children have been scarred for life already. Then there are all those psychological scars. Over 40,000 homes have been destroyed. Imagine loosing everything you own in an instant. So many sentimental attachments destroyed so many memories gone forever. Psychological war is being waged in this case the deliberate attempt to instill feelings of terror, despair, Helplessness. But it's all very pointless certainly they succeed in spreading misery but after suffering nearly 50 years under Israel's ruthless occupation with old generations dying and new ones being born, the spirit of resistance will never fully die no matter how many times Israel wages one of it's almost yearly terror campaigns on the populace. If such a strategy truly worked it would have worked decades ago. Of course as I said the lunatic fringe at the helm secretly hope for the day when then world will be distracted by a big enough crisis that Israel will be able to get away with killing or expelling the Palestinians. Israeli politicians and Media seem oblivious to the fact that news can travel around the globe in an instant. They have engaged in some of the most shocking public statements imaginable. Rape has been openly advocated against the family members of members of various Palestinian resistance movements like Hamas. Israel played a prime role in the promotion of Hamas to it's current stature. The PLO was just too reasonable which was bad for Israel's public image so Israel promoted a muslim brotherhood splinter group to compete with PLO. Thus Israel claims to be defending itself against a monster that is largely of it's own creation. Sounds eerily familiar. Besides advocating rape there have been open calls for genocide from politicians and pundits. There have been calls to kill more mothers before they can give birth to more snakes which is what some Israelis are calling palestinian children.
At least in the US and Europe politicians at least feign humanitarian motives. Iraq had to be destroyed in order to be Freed. The Libyan people supposedly had to be bombed to smithereens in order to save them from Qadafi. Sure a moments critical analysis reveals it all to be utter madness but usually a steady stream of media disinformation manages to fool a certain amount of people for a time. The point is that they still pretend to be doing good despite the fact that they are doing evil. In Israel clearly that is no longer the case. Sure internationally their press guides tell them to feign concern for the palestinians but the domestic audience seems to have other ideas. The Israeli public has been manipulated for 70 years until it has come to this sorry state. Israel has been under attack, it has been under a psychological attack by extremist elements within Israeli society for so long that it is fast becoming a nation of virulent racists. Thus an Israeli newspaper published an op-ed openly calling for genocide. The current crisis actually began with a typical example of how the Israeli public are manipulated. Three Teenagers were kidnapped. The Israeli police received a call from one of the teenagers moments before they were shot. They were killed by machine gun fire during the call and the kidnappers could be heard saying we got three. Israeli intelligence put a gag order on the media forbidding them to reveal the teens fate and the Israeli public was lead to believe that they were still alive so that they could be whipped up into a frenzy behind the latest attack on the Gaza strip. In addition they falsely blamed Hamas for the attack when they knew the kidnappers were not connected to Hamas. These are the sorts of tactics that have over the decades turned Israel into a nation of bigots. Thus not only have the Israeli been killing palestinians angry mobs have been carrying out brutal murders that remind me of the sort of scenes once common in the American south. They are eerily similar to the Lynchings that once plagued America. Google Emmet till for one famous example. Palestinian Teenagers are being kidnapped beaten to death and set on fire. Even Israelis demonstrating for peace have been beaten by bands of racists. Think of it as a cautionary tale Media propaganda can turn people into racist beasts. The same sort of mindset is being instilled across the western world as a result of the War on Terror and the War on Drugs. Hollywood movies turn the people of the world into menacing faceless others who must be killed without a second thought. If we do not resist this effort to dehumanize others we ourselves become dehumanized.
The People of the world must remember this latest series of atrocities and war crimes. For far to long the plight of the Palestinians has been ignored. How many more decades are they going to alternate between economic warfare, and endless humiliating restrictions, punctuated with arrests and assassinations and these periods of brutal rampages by the Israel Military in which civilians are bombed, shelled, and shot. Imagine if every couple of years your home was turned into a war zone. The rest of the time you lived in a state of induced emergency. Caged behind walls and fences for the crime of being born Palestinian. To give just one example of economic war Unemployment has increased in the Palestinian territories to 40% since 2001 when it was 20%. The people of the world must find ways to bring this endless military occupation to an end. Join the boycott divestment and sanctions movement and try to boycott as many corporations as possible profiting from the Occupation. Even a quick survey of the corporations involved like Coca Cola or McDonalds reveals the tragedy of our consumer society nearly everything we buy is tainted with blood and oppression. If not Palestinian blood then African, Asian or Latin American blood. The system makes accomplices of us all. Help fight the information war by creating or at least spreading media revealing the truth of what is going on in Palestine. Society seems to be nearing the tipping point where more then a decade of attempts to provide independent news is finally bearing fruit. The Media is being forced to grudgingly admit the truth that it tries so hard to hide. Israel is engaged in a war on a defenseless civilian population. Firing rockets is largely a symbolic form of resistance they have no warheads and have killed all of 3 people. While the Palestinians are helpless against the Israeli military assault, we have the power to beat the Israeli propaganda assault. In fact perhaps we already have. We must continue the fight to end the brutal occupation of Palestine. Israel's latest outrages must not be forgotten.
Sources
I spent all morning reading various articles besides having paid attention for weeks. I don't feel like reproducing it all here nor could I if i did. I'll just mention that Syria 360 has had great coverage of the war on Gaza.
http://syria360.wordpress.com
And here is the infamous Max Blumenthal article on the three missing teenagers
http://electronicintifada.net/content/netanyahu-government-knew-teens-were-dead-it-whipped-racist-frenzy/13533
For a great history of Israel read David Hirst's "The Gun and the Olive Branch" he was the first westerner who dared write an honest account of the conflict and has an updated expanded edition that brings it into the 21st century. I also recommend his "Beware of Small States" a history of Lebanon the site of terrible massacres of palestinian refugees as well as the scene of israeli invasion and a civil war. Also I recommend the Works of Israeli Historian Ilan Pappe such as The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine. You can find some great lectures of his for free online. Edward Said is great to read for a Palestinian perspective. He also has some great lectures online. Jeffrey Blankfort is a great source on the Israel lobby. Watch the movie reel bad arabs available free online to begin to fight hollywoods attempts to turn you into a racist. My friend Pearse Redmond appeared on a recent Episode of Clandestime to discuss the movie. The podcast and a link to the film are here.
http://www.spyculture.com/clandestime-033-true-lies-and-reel-bad-arabs/
Check out his site for some great independent journalism
http://porkinspolicyreview.wordpress.com
Tuesday, August 5, 2014
Monday, July 28, 2014
Venezuela A People's Revolution
Understanding the Revolution in Venezuela: A People's History
The Western Media generally attempt to portray Venezuela as some type of dictatorship. In typical Orwellian fashion Venezuela is called Un-Democratic. The reality is that Venezuela is seeing the creation of the 21st centuries first Real Democracy. I use the term Real Democracy because democracy is supposed to mean rule by the People. In the west we have so called representative democracy where we get to choose between bought off and pre-selected candidates who generally ignore the wishes of those they claim to represent. In Venezuela on the other hand there has been an effort to create people's assemblies so that the people themselves will directly participate in decision making. George Ciccariello-Maher's book "We Created Chavez: A People's History of the Venezuelan Revolution" provides a brilliant account of the forces that truly brought the Bolivarian revolution about in Venezuela where we can see the troubled birth of a new sort of democracy a Real Democracy where the people's voices are finally heard and their demands met. He takes a unique approach to the problem that should have been obvious save for the mesmerizing now dead Hugo Chavez who became a lightning rod. Whether portrayed as a hero or villain the obsession with Chavez Obscured from view the roots of the revolution. These roots are the many people of Venezuela who have been fighting for decades in the battle for a more just world. Actually the book is as much a work of Political philosophy as a work of history so you'll have to actually read the book if you want to follow George Ciccariello-Maher brilliant and complex line of thought. I can offer here only a simplified account of the events and forces that would give birth to and shape the Venezuelan revolution.
In most ways the account begins with the overthrow of the dictator Marcos Perez Jimenez in 1958. Ironically the election of Romulo Betancourt the first "Democratic" president was greeted by riots in the capital. According to Betancourt "The People as an Abstract concept do not exist" this riot of discontent on the birth of representative democracy foreshadowed later popular uprising's like the one in 1989 that was a reaction to the treachery of Carlos Andres Perez who was elected on a based on his strong criticism of Neo-Liberal economics and the IMF Austerity policies that had impoverished Venezuelans. Upon being elected he immediately institutited the very policies he had campaigned against. If it had happened in Washington or London people would perhaps merely have shrugged but in Venezuela where radical opposition had permeated the society and the poorest were well organized a rebellion took place known as the Caracazo which the government suppressed by killing between 300 and 3000 people. (Throughout the 80's this "democracy" in a sea of dictatorships had begun murdering the opposition Caracazo saw this tendency reach a bloody climax) Chavez would come onto the scene as a sort of delayed response to the brutal suppression of the Caracazo in 1992 with his failed military coup. Chavez's brother was a member of the revolutionary party PRV. Chavez was a product of Venezuela's revolutionary heritage rather then it's originator. Since I've already jumped ahead to from one popular uprising to another let's jump to the third important popular uprising in the book before returning to 1958 to explain some of the history of Venezuela's radical groups. After being released from prison Chavez ran for office and became president. In 2002 the elite with the secret urging of the US and the CIA decided to overthrow Chavez in a coup. NED funded crowds flooded the streets made up of Venezuela's Privileged who despised Chavez for being poor and being part black and Indian. In fact the US ambassador got in trouble for putting on play in which Chavez was portrayed by a chimpanzee echoing racist caricatures common among the opposition then and now. Colin Powell was not amused and the ambassador was forced to apologize. In a situation eerily similar to the recent coup in Ukraine opposition snipers fired on their own protestors. The military used the shootings as an excuse to overthrow Chavez and he was dragged off to an undisclosed location where they tried and failed to get Chavez to resign. It was an echo of the many US backed coups in Latin America. However it was foiled when yet again the people flooded the streets to make their displeasure felt. This inspired members of the Military still loyal to Chavez or at least opposed to the Coup to launch a counter coup and restore Chavez to Office. It was after being returned to office by a radical and mobilized people that Chavez truly began his series of radical reforms. Faced with many enemies he sought to hand more and more power to the people since only they could truly be relied upon to safeguard the Venezuelan revolution. Actually the most Unique aspect to George Ciccariello-Maher's book is that Hugo Chavez himself only makes fleeting appearances. Thus I will wait till a future time to further discuss Chavez himself. Instead we must return to 1958 to understand the story of this people usually invisible and forgotten until it emerges onto the streets to make it's will felt.
The tensions surrounding the first democratically elected president since the overthrow of the dictator Marcos Perez Jimenez reflected the split in the forces seeking to overthrow the president between those older more higher placed opposition members who lived in exile and the increasingly radical grassroots movement that actually overthrew him. The new President had been greeted by an angry riot from the People of Caracas and he responded by launching a murderous campaign to suppress dissent. Inspired by the successful Cuban revolution that happened that same year and disgusted by their murderous new democracy many youthful idealists actually quit parliament and decided to instead head for the country and attempt to stage a violent revolution. Unfortunately unlike the Cuban revolutionaries they failed to build strong ties with the people who's behalf they were supposed to be fighting. They fell under the influence of a French Theorist Regis Debray who had misinterpreted the Cuban revolution by putting too much emphasis on the idea that the key was for armed revolution to provide a focal point for popular discontent. Basically put simply the idea was that if you lead they will follow. The Guerrillas managed to alienate the masses and were crushed. However in failing they began to rethink their whole strategy and sought to form strong bonds with the People. Former guerrillas would begin to play vital roles in many of Venezuela's social movements. One of the running themes of the book is that whatever social movement he studies whether it is focused on Afro-Venezuelan Issues, women's issues, landless peasants etc. Inevitably he finds that it is lead by a former guerrilla. Former Guerrillas also served in the Chavez government itself. Thus while the Violent revolution proved a failure the introspection and change in direction this failure produced would be incredibly fruitful for Venezuela.
One of the big mistakes of the Guerrillas was their failure to join pre-existing struggles they expected to inspire revolution wherever they went and so ignored the areas where peasant's were already fighting for economic justice. After they began to rethink their strategy in the late 60's this would change. They began to join and helped to organize Venezuela's social movements. It is the social movements that really are behind the success of the Venezuelan revolution. In fact most of the book is devoted to various social movements in Venezuela, students, women, indigenous peoples, afro-Venezuelan, Workers, peasants, soldiers and so called informal labor( temporary labor, street vendors, hustlers that make up a large portion of the world, the unemployed struggling to survive.) Perhaps the epitome of the relation between the social movements and the Bolivarian revolution is the La Piedrita a neighborhood in Caracas marked by a sign that says "Here we command and the Government obeys" the social movements do not offer servile support instead they constantly demand more radical change. In many cases they are so successful that for instance it was the women's social movement that actually rewrote the parts of the constitution dealing with women, and it was indigenous groups that wrote the parts dealing with the rights of indigenous groups. Workers are encouraged to try and run their own factories. Their is an effort to increasingly empower the people to vote in their own local assemblies and decide for themselves rather then relying on generally corrupt representatives. Of course this produces all sorts of tensions, Conflicts and complexities and Venezuela is far from some paradise at least not yet. Still while we in the US, Europe and almost the whole world seem powerless to influence our governments a problem only intensified by it's formalization in international treaties like NAFTA and the attempts to push through new ones like the TPP and the TAP Venezuela is one of the few countries where the people are gaining more say rather then less say in how their country is run. This is no accident but the result of the fact that Venezuela is one of the few countries in which the people have successfully organized themselves so as to make their demands heard. One of the excellent things about the book is that studying resistance in Venezuela is to study Venezuela itself. Meaning that studying the social movements one finds them active in every sector of Venezuela. Unfortunately the social movements provide to large a topic to do justice to them all in a short essay. Instead I'll briefly describe one example with which the book opens the neighborhood of La Piedrita literally the pebble. In the 70's and 80's Venezuela was the scene of a low intensity urban guerrilla war. Inspired by the urban guerrillas many poor neighborhoods began to form self defense squads to defend themselves first from the police then to fight crime in their neighborhoods. La Piedrita was a particularly effective example it managed to stamp out the drug trade and also to keep the police at bay. As in most countries this was hardly paradoxical as the police were actively involved in the drug trade. Piedrita did more then just stamp out it's crime it also organized it's whole community into an assembly and the whole community became an autonomous collective. Piedrita became an important center for organizing the Caracazo uprising and later was also a major center for organizing the the resistance to the attempted coup in 2002. They are both strongly supportive of and fiercely independent of the Maduro government. To quote one leader in Piedrita (While Chavez was still alive) "Here the government doesn't tell us anything, they ask." Yet the same man when asked his opinion of Chavez replied "He's our Maximum Leader" La Piedrita embodies the new Venezuela.
The Venezuelan example has proved infectious across Latin America. While much of the rest of the world subserviently applies the policies of the IMF and the so called Washington consensus in Latin America a new independent course is being charted. It is long past time that the rest of the world began to follow the Venezuelan example. It is time that the rest of the world had a taste of real democracy. It won't happen overnight the Venezuelan revolution is the result of 40 years of struggle. Perhaps the key to the social movement's success is that unlike their northern cousins they retained their vision of radical social change the woman's movement for example always focused first on the needs of poor women (who make up the majority of Venezuela's women )and was clear in it's demand that the problem's of women could not be solved without radically changing society as a whole. The same focus is present in all of Venezuela's social movements. Thus social movements fight for areas of special concern but do not loose track of the big picture. Instead all to often in the north social movements sacrifice the big picture in favor of their narrow interests. Or worse engage in nothing more then identity politics narcissism. War, poverty, racism, ecological destruction all have one major cause our current economic system. Hundreds of millions have starved to death in the past 20 years. In other words to do nothing constitutes a great crime.
Today Venezuela which one of the few beacons of hope in the world is under assault. It is the target of an NED backed color revolution. It is the target of a CIA covert war. It is the target of Columbia's drug trafficking death squads. It is the target of an international media disinformation campaign involving the press, social media, and Celebrity sell outs. It is the target of subversion from within. It is the target of Economic warfare. The people of the world must act to help defend the Venezuelan revolution. The people of the world must also embrace the Venezuelan example. It is long past time that we had a direct say in how our countries are run. Enough of politicians who talk of peace and make war who talk of wealth and bring poverty. Only by building real democratic structures will we begin to have any say in the future.
Sources
I definitely recommend George Ciccariello-Maher's "We Created Chavez: A People's History of The Venezuelan Revolution. I was only able to scratch the surface. You could also search for articles he has written online.
For a more in Depth Summary see this book review
http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/10068
Here is an excerpt from his book that describes La Piedrita
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/venezuela-archives-35/4303-inside-la-piedrita-venezuelas-popular-militias-and-the-revolution
And a great interview with George Ciccariello-Maher on the Bullet Points podcast a great Podcast I loyally follow
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/occupydclive/2014/03/06/bulletpoints-wnavid-nasr-3-5-14
The best source for news on Venezuela is Venezuelanalysis
http://venezuelanalysis.com
The Western Media generally attempt to portray Venezuela as some type of dictatorship. In typical Orwellian fashion Venezuela is called Un-Democratic. The reality is that Venezuela is seeing the creation of the 21st centuries first Real Democracy. I use the term Real Democracy because democracy is supposed to mean rule by the People. In the west we have so called representative democracy where we get to choose between bought off and pre-selected candidates who generally ignore the wishes of those they claim to represent. In Venezuela on the other hand there has been an effort to create people's assemblies so that the people themselves will directly participate in decision making. George Ciccariello-Maher's book "We Created Chavez: A People's History of the Venezuelan Revolution" provides a brilliant account of the forces that truly brought the Bolivarian revolution about in Venezuela where we can see the troubled birth of a new sort of democracy a Real Democracy where the people's voices are finally heard and their demands met. He takes a unique approach to the problem that should have been obvious save for the mesmerizing now dead Hugo Chavez who became a lightning rod. Whether portrayed as a hero or villain the obsession with Chavez Obscured from view the roots of the revolution. These roots are the many people of Venezuela who have been fighting for decades in the battle for a more just world. Actually the book is as much a work of Political philosophy as a work of history so you'll have to actually read the book if you want to follow George Ciccariello-Maher brilliant and complex line of thought. I can offer here only a simplified account of the events and forces that would give birth to and shape the Venezuelan revolution.
In most ways the account begins with the overthrow of the dictator Marcos Perez Jimenez in 1958. Ironically the election of Romulo Betancourt the first "Democratic" president was greeted by riots in the capital. According to Betancourt "The People as an Abstract concept do not exist" this riot of discontent on the birth of representative democracy foreshadowed later popular uprising's like the one in 1989 that was a reaction to the treachery of Carlos Andres Perez who was elected on a based on his strong criticism of Neo-Liberal economics and the IMF Austerity policies that had impoverished Venezuelans. Upon being elected he immediately institutited the very policies he had campaigned against. If it had happened in Washington or London people would perhaps merely have shrugged but in Venezuela where radical opposition had permeated the society and the poorest were well organized a rebellion took place known as the Caracazo which the government suppressed by killing between 300 and 3000 people. (Throughout the 80's this "democracy" in a sea of dictatorships had begun murdering the opposition Caracazo saw this tendency reach a bloody climax) Chavez would come onto the scene as a sort of delayed response to the brutal suppression of the Caracazo in 1992 with his failed military coup. Chavez's brother was a member of the revolutionary party PRV. Chavez was a product of Venezuela's revolutionary heritage rather then it's originator. Since I've already jumped ahead to from one popular uprising to another let's jump to the third important popular uprising in the book before returning to 1958 to explain some of the history of Venezuela's radical groups. After being released from prison Chavez ran for office and became president. In 2002 the elite with the secret urging of the US and the CIA decided to overthrow Chavez in a coup. NED funded crowds flooded the streets made up of Venezuela's Privileged who despised Chavez for being poor and being part black and Indian. In fact the US ambassador got in trouble for putting on play in which Chavez was portrayed by a chimpanzee echoing racist caricatures common among the opposition then and now. Colin Powell was not amused and the ambassador was forced to apologize. In a situation eerily similar to the recent coup in Ukraine opposition snipers fired on their own protestors. The military used the shootings as an excuse to overthrow Chavez and he was dragged off to an undisclosed location where they tried and failed to get Chavez to resign. It was an echo of the many US backed coups in Latin America. However it was foiled when yet again the people flooded the streets to make their displeasure felt. This inspired members of the Military still loyal to Chavez or at least opposed to the Coup to launch a counter coup and restore Chavez to Office. It was after being returned to office by a radical and mobilized people that Chavez truly began his series of radical reforms. Faced with many enemies he sought to hand more and more power to the people since only they could truly be relied upon to safeguard the Venezuelan revolution. Actually the most Unique aspect to George Ciccariello-Maher's book is that Hugo Chavez himself only makes fleeting appearances. Thus I will wait till a future time to further discuss Chavez himself. Instead we must return to 1958 to understand the story of this people usually invisible and forgotten until it emerges onto the streets to make it's will felt.
The tensions surrounding the first democratically elected president since the overthrow of the dictator Marcos Perez Jimenez reflected the split in the forces seeking to overthrow the president between those older more higher placed opposition members who lived in exile and the increasingly radical grassroots movement that actually overthrew him. The new President had been greeted by an angry riot from the People of Caracas and he responded by launching a murderous campaign to suppress dissent. Inspired by the successful Cuban revolution that happened that same year and disgusted by their murderous new democracy many youthful idealists actually quit parliament and decided to instead head for the country and attempt to stage a violent revolution. Unfortunately unlike the Cuban revolutionaries they failed to build strong ties with the people who's behalf they were supposed to be fighting. They fell under the influence of a French Theorist Regis Debray who had misinterpreted the Cuban revolution by putting too much emphasis on the idea that the key was for armed revolution to provide a focal point for popular discontent. Basically put simply the idea was that if you lead they will follow. The Guerrillas managed to alienate the masses and were crushed. However in failing they began to rethink their whole strategy and sought to form strong bonds with the People. Former guerrillas would begin to play vital roles in many of Venezuela's social movements. One of the running themes of the book is that whatever social movement he studies whether it is focused on Afro-Venezuelan Issues, women's issues, landless peasants etc. Inevitably he finds that it is lead by a former guerrilla. Former Guerrillas also served in the Chavez government itself. Thus while the Violent revolution proved a failure the introspection and change in direction this failure produced would be incredibly fruitful for Venezuela.
One of the big mistakes of the Guerrillas was their failure to join pre-existing struggles they expected to inspire revolution wherever they went and so ignored the areas where peasant's were already fighting for economic justice. After they began to rethink their strategy in the late 60's this would change. They began to join and helped to organize Venezuela's social movements. It is the social movements that really are behind the success of the Venezuelan revolution. In fact most of the book is devoted to various social movements in Venezuela, students, women, indigenous peoples, afro-Venezuelan, Workers, peasants, soldiers and so called informal labor( temporary labor, street vendors, hustlers that make up a large portion of the world, the unemployed struggling to survive.) Perhaps the epitome of the relation between the social movements and the Bolivarian revolution is the La Piedrita a neighborhood in Caracas marked by a sign that says "Here we command and the Government obeys" the social movements do not offer servile support instead they constantly demand more radical change. In many cases they are so successful that for instance it was the women's social movement that actually rewrote the parts of the constitution dealing with women, and it was indigenous groups that wrote the parts dealing with the rights of indigenous groups. Workers are encouraged to try and run their own factories. Their is an effort to increasingly empower the people to vote in their own local assemblies and decide for themselves rather then relying on generally corrupt representatives. Of course this produces all sorts of tensions, Conflicts and complexities and Venezuela is far from some paradise at least not yet. Still while we in the US, Europe and almost the whole world seem powerless to influence our governments a problem only intensified by it's formalization in international treaties like NAFTA and the attempts to push through new ones like the TPP and the TAP Venezuela is one of the few countries where the people are gaining more say rather then less say in how their country is run. This is no accident but the result of the fact that Venezuela is one of the few countries in which the people have successfully organized themselves so as to make their demands heard. One of the excellent things about the book is that studying resistance in Venezuela is to study Venezuela itself. Meaning that studying the social movements one finds them active in every sector of Venezuela. Unfortunately the social movements provide to large a topic to do justice to them all in a short essay. Instead I'll briefly describe one example with which the book opens the neighborhood of La Piedrita literally the pebble. In the 70's and 80's Venezuela was the scene of a low intensity urban guerrilla war. Inspired by the urban guerrillas many poor neighborhoods began to form self defense squads to defend themselves first from the police then to fight crime in their neighborhoods. La Piedrita was a particularly effective example it managed to stamp out the drug trade and also to keep the police at bay. As in most countries this was hardly paradoxical as the police were actively involved in the drug trade. Piedrita did more then just stamp out it's crime it also organized it's whole community into an assembly and the whole community became an autonomous collective. Piedrita became an important center for organizing the Caracazo uprising and later was also a major center for organizing the the resistance to the attempted coup in 2002. They are both strongly supportive of and fiercely independent of the Maduro government. To quote one leader in Piedrita (While Chavez was still alive) "Here the government doesn't tell us anything, they ask." Yet the same man when asked his opinion of Chavez replied "He's our Maximum Leader" La Piedrita embodies the new Venezuela.
The Venezuelan example has proved infectious across Latin America. While much of the rest of the world subserviently applies the policies of the IMF and the so called Washington consensus in Latin America a new independent course is being charted. It is long past time that the rest of the world began to follow the Venezuelan example. It is time that the rest of the world had a taste of real democracy. It won't happen overnight the Venezuelan revolution is the result of 40 years of struggle. Perhaps the key to the social movement's success is that unlike their northern cousins they retained their vision of radical social change the woman's movement for example always focused first on the needs of poor women (who make up the majority of Venezuela's women )and was clear in it's demand that the problem's of women could not be solved without radically changing society as a whole. The same focus is present in all of Venezuela's social movements. Thus social movements fight for areas of special concern but do not loose track of the big picture. Instead all to often in the north social movements sacrifice the big picture in favor of their narrow interests. Or worse engage in nothing more then identity politics narcissism. War, poverty, racism, ecological destruction all have one major cause our current economic system. Hundreds of millions have starved to death in the past 20 years. In other words to do nothing constitutes a great crime.
Today Venezuela which one of the few beacons of hope in the world is under assault. It is the target of an NED backed color revolution. It is the target of a CIA covert war. It is the target of Columbia's drug trafficking death squads. It is the target of an international media disinformation campaign involving the press, social media, and Celebrity sell outs. It is the target of subversion from within. It is the target of Economic warfare. The people of the world must act to help defend the Venezuelan revolution. The people of the world must also embrace the Venezuelan example. It is long past time that we had a direct say in how our countries are run. Enough of politicians who talk of peace and make war who talk of wealth and bring poverty. Only by building real democratic structures will we begin to have any say in the future.
Sources
I definitely recommend George Ciccariello-Maher's "We Created Chavez: A People's History of The Venezuelan Revolution. I was only able to scratch the surface. You could also search for articles he has written online.
For a more in Depth Summary see this book review
http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/10068
Here is an excerpt from his book that describes La Piedrita
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/venezuela-archives-35/4303-inside-la-piedrita-venezuelas-popular-militias-and-the-revolution
And a great interview with George Ciccariello-Maher on the Bullet Points podcast a great Podcast I loyally follow
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/occupydclive/2014/03/06/bulletpoints-wnavid-nasr-3-5-14
The best source for news on Venezuela is Venezuelanalysis
http://venezuelanalysis.com
Monday, July 21, 2014
MH17 FalseFlag in Ukraine ?
Ukraine: Victory in the Southern Cauldron Followed by Attack on MH17
Last week saw an enormous turn in the fortunes of the anti-Fascist resistance of Novorossiya (the area under assault in South East Ukraine). The Ukrainian army met a crushing defeat in the so called Southern Cauldron. Ukrainian Army and national guard units were forced to flee with some of the Fascist National Guards even retreating into Russia where they received medical treatment. It's ironic that the National Guard famous for butchering civilians should receive humane treatment at the hands of the Russians they so despise. This was followed by what appears to be a massive psychological operation the downing of Malaysian Airliner MH 17. This was immediately seized upon by the Media to demonize Putin Russia, and the Anti-Fascist resistance movement in Novorossiya. Details could emerge later that definitively prove exactly who shot down the Plane. However the evidence seems to point towards the Kiev regime as the guilty party at this point. Of course the media has shown it's usual determination to turn truth on it's head. You can call it the Syria syndrome. In Syria both of the big false flag chemical weapon terror attacks launched by the death squads the media dubs "rebels" occurred after they suffered decisive defeats. Apparently the same thing has occurred in Ukraine. The shooting down of the plane is clearly a response to the defeat suffered by the Fascist forces in The southern corridor.
First I'll deal with the defeat. Once again the Vineyard of the Saker and Slavyangard sites proved themselves indispensable reading for anyone following the civil war in Ukraine. They broke the story of the massive defeat suffered by the Fascist forces in Ukraine to the english speaking world. Not a word about this important event was said in the mainstream media. What an embarrassment usually unconventional forces stand little chance in a head to head confrontation with a better armed conventional force. The Iraqi resistance learned that lesson when the Americans almost completely destroyed Fallujah. The so called "rebels" in Libya (ie terrorist death squads as in Syria) would never have been able to win if NATO hadn't been bombing the Nation to smithereens. In Syria the US-NATO-Israel-GCC backed death squads have suffered year after year of defeat. However the Ukraine forces suffered a massive defeat at the hands of a smaller and less well armed force. This was achieved through sheer incompetence and corruption at the top; combined with ill paid hungry troops many who secretly have no desire to carry out this immoral war at the bottom. According to the Saker Russia may have upped it's covert support for Novorossiya after the retreat from Slavyansk.
Actually I'll turn my attention to Slavyansk the "heroic City?" first since it's emerged that there may have been a whole political dimension to the decision to retreat from the city. At the same time as the news of victory it was announced that Khodakovsky former minister for state security of the Donetsk People's Republic had resigned from the government. He remains in control of the Vostok Battalion. According to an excellent analysis by the Saker (See sources below) Khodakovsky was connected to a scheme by Oligarch Rinat Akhmetov and Donetsk Mayor Alexander Lukianenko to surrender the Donbass. This scheme was disrupted when Strelkov staged his surprise retreat from Slavyansk. Lukianenko fled to Kiev upon Strelkov's Arrival. Now Khodakovsky has resigned from the government. Thus it would appear the retreat from Slavyansk was undertaken just as much to prevent the surrender of the Donbass region as to avoid eventual defeat in Slavyansk. The people of Slavyansk are unfortunately currently living in terror. The national guard continue to murder anyone they suspect of having aided the Self Defense Forces. The streets are deserted and many stores are closed. With their talent for staging memorable atrocities the the national Guard once again shocked the civilized world when according to one eye witness interviewed on Russian television they Crucified a 3 year old child and then shot his mother after deliberately gathering the neighbors to witness this horror show. Clearly we will need to keep a close eye on the future plight of the Slavyansk the Heroic City now under Occupation by Fascist butchers. In addition Leaked documents revealed that Kiev plans to either intern in camps or draft all the refugees in areas under their occupation depending on age and gender. The Kiev regime claimed it was time for the people of south eastern Ukraine make the same sacrifices as the rest of the country. What insane logic when the rest of the country is attacking the people of South Eastern Ukraine.
However the Kiev regime suffered a major setback in it's efforts to wage war on it's own people. No longer encircled in the Slavyansk with more men and equipment at their disposal Strelkov's forces not only resisted Poroshenko's new offensive against Lugansk and Donetsk they also managed to surround and crush the forces meant to be encircling them in the Southern Cauldron. This refers to the narrow strip of land between the area controlled by the self defense forces Novorossiya and the Russian border. However instead of catching NovoRossiya in a stranglehold as was intended they found themselves surrounded and in some cases through the incompetence of their commanders were caught in the open and destroyed by Grad Rocket trucks and artillery fire. There are at least 2 separate survivor accounts translated by and posted on Slavyangard which tell the same story they set up camp out in the open and were completely wiped out by NovoRossiyan forces from afar. Actually it was a bit heartrending to read despite the Ukrainian militaries months long campaign of attacking civilians with planes artillery and rockets, I couldn't help but sympathize with the Survivors who describe living through pure hell watching their fellow soldiers be blown to bits in a matter of Moments. The 3000 Ukrainian troops of the southern corridor were either killed captured or forced to flee. Many changed into civilian clothes. The fascist national guards terrified of reprisal stripped down to their underwear to avoid being identified as fascist butchers. Some were so desperate they fled to Russia. Hopefully Russia will do a full investigation on the national guard units in their custody and if guilty will try them for their crimes, but that may be wishful thinking. Further reports on the situation have been scarce since the crash of MH 17.
It should be mentioned that not only was Novorossiya victorious but the recent BRICS summit Provided a victory for Russia on the world stage. Putin had been touring Latin America. Perhaps his greatest public relations coup was canceling 37 billion in Cuban debt. This plays extremely well in Latin America where the Endless US bullying of Cuba for such crimes as providing free health care, or stamping out once rampant illiteracy is strongly opposed. Cuba stands as a symbol of resistance to American Empire in much of the world. For over 50 years Cuba has survived embargoes and covert war at the hands of their Giant neighbor. Putin also strengthened ties with nations like Venezuela and Nicaragua. The BRICS summit saw a further challenge to empire as they set up a development bank meant to challenge such tools of soft imperialism like the IMF or the World Bank. Basically he further emphasized that Russia was far from the international Pariah the US wished it to be. Not only had Russia strengthened ties with China but with the Global south in general through Russia's role in BRICS. Meanwhile Europe was resisting US efforts to force them to enact sanctions. Thus not only was the Ukraine Regime desperate after their defeat the US was extremely frustrated before the attack as well after Putin's triumphant tour of Latin America and the Successful BRICS summit.
The strangest element of the crash of MH 17 is the fact that this was the second mysterious crash of a Malaysian flight this year. Actually call it revenge of coincidence while looking up a little information on MH 370 the first mysterious crash i discovered that Twa 800 crashed on July 17 just like MH 17 and that July 17 was the date that the Tsar and his family were killed during the Russian revolution. Don't get carried away I'm sure it is just one of those strange coincidences. The fact that two Malaysian airliners were lost this year is more suspicious however. Actually the first is interesting because at the time at least the coverage of it was definitely used to distract from the Ukraine crisis which was in a fairly scary state with the west engaging in all sorts of chest pounding over the secession of the Crimea. Many were openly wondering about the possibility of Nuclear War. Suddenly the mainstream media focused instead for a week on the search for MH 370. Regardless of whether the plane merely crashed or was the victim of a cyberhijacking or some other Unknown attack the tragedy was used in the media as a major distraction. This latest crash not only changes the narrative about Ukraine but served to distract from Israel's ongoing attack on Gaza just before the crash the israelis killed 4 Palestinian children on a beach in front of a bunch of reporters. In fact mainstream reporters famous in general for their subservience to Israel were starting to grumble. Two were fired for daring to criticize the latest one sided barbarous assault by Israel. I only mention it to show how the mainstream media will not only use the tragedy to demonize Russia and Novorossiya but also to distract from other events like the war crimes in Gaza or the Ethnic cleansing of Iraqi Christians the same week. Most of the west will remain ignorant of the slaughter of christians in places like Syria, Iraq, and yes Palestine. It is better that the west where christianity is the majority religion not get confused and start to identify with the people of the middle east so instead we are taught that it is the "muslim world." Sorry for the tangent but all over the world we see these divisions and oversimplifications of identity which are then weaponized Iraq, Gaza, Ukraine, It's all part of the same empire of chaos people committing terrible crimes because they have been made to forget their common humanity. On a final note I learned recently that Omar al-Baghdadi the Leader of IS formerly ISIL was trained for over a year by the Mossad Israel's intelligence agency.
To return to MH 17 Malaysia has a connection to both Iraq and Gaza. Kuala Lumpur Malaysia was the sight of war crimes trials aimed both at condemning the war in Iraq and the Israeli occupation. It also hosted international Conferences aimed at Questioning what actually happened during the September 11th attacks. Plus it defied the advice of the technocrats at the IMF during the Asian Financial crisis leading to early economic recovery and providing a "bad example" for other countries. On the other hand it's current Government is much more Pro-US and signed on to the US scheme to encircle China. Again it could all be coincidence. While we'll probably never know what happened to MH 370 the evidence in MH 17 points to an attack by Kiev. In both cases secretly the truth was already known. The US definitely has the entire world under surveillance and so MH 370 was no mystery for them. However they refused to reveal what happened. In Ukraine both Russia and the US know what happened. Unfortunately the Russian Military doesn't want to reveal it's exact capabilities. They did however release their civilian radar records showing that MH 17 was indeed being followed by two Ukrainian fighter jets as eyewitnesses reported. There were reports that the NAF captured a BUK but the kiev regime claimed at the time they had been disabled in addition they require a trained operator which it is unlikely they posses. In addition Kiev provided photo's claiming to show that the self Defense forces had Buk anti-Aircraft vehicles. They claimed they showed them returning to Russia. However a blog called Human rights international proved that one of the BUKs (no 112) supposedly belonging to the NAF (Novorossyan armed forces) was actually Ukraine's. In addition Moscow Provided satellite photo's showing that the Ukrainian army had a number of BUKs in the area. In addition Alexander Borodai who heads the Donetsk People Rebublic pointed out that if Novorossiya had a working BUK it would have used it to attack the Ukraine air force which regularly conducts high altitude bombing raids against Novorossiya. Although the NAF have shot down a number of aircraft they were all flying at low altitude and were shot down using handheld missile launchers called Manpads. There was also a controversial leak by a spanish air traffic controller stationed in Ukraine which claimed that the Ukrainian army was responsible. In addition it has emerged that the flight was ordered to fly over the war zone when all other civilian flights avoid the war zone.
The key question however is motive why would the NAF which hasn't even launched attacks on pro-Kiev areas would suddenly bring down the wrath of the International community upon themselves by launching an attack on a Malaysian airliner. This would be the act of a desperate group not one that had recently won a major victory. Especially when if they actually possessed a working BUK they would have many more pressing targets Namely the Ukrainian Air force which has been killing civilians and self defense forces for months. The Kiev regime on the other hand came to power because of a false flag attack. As I discussed in my earlier article "Leaks False Flag Destabilization in Ukraine and Turkey" it was revealed months ago that the sniper shootings were carried out by pro maidan forces which shot both police and protestors. The killings were used the Delegitimize Yanukovich but were quickly forgotten once it became time for Ukraine to wage war on it's own people. After all the Kiev regime has already killed far more civilians in their anti-terror campaign then ever died during the Maidan Protests. Thus there is no question of whether the Kiev regime would carry out a false Flag attack or murder hundreds of innocent civilians they have already done both. Actually the Ukrainian government also accidentally shot down a civilian airliner siberian air 1812 back in 2001. Thus the Kiev Regime is the prime suspect. Unlike the NAF they had just suffered a major defeat and were desperate. By destroying the plane they managed to demonize both the NAF and Russia. In addition they had the means it has been proven that they had both Fighter aircraft and BUKs in the area where the crash took place. They have also been caught lying first by denying their jets presence in the area then by providing faulty photo evidence. I'm reminded of their earlier attempts to use photos to falsely show that Novorossiya was being occupied by Russian troops. Despite being backed by the state Department and the New York Times it was shown to be a massive fraud within days. In other words I am no expert on air defense systems or plane crashes but the Kiev Regime's historical record of False Flag attacks and it's murder of hundreds of civilians make it in my view the prime suspect. It had the means motive and opportunity. The US also has a history of being involved in the destruction of Civilian airliners. In october 1976 US trained cuban Exile terrorists CORU blew up a cuban Passenger jet. Despite publicly bragging about it the US allowed them to live unmolested in Miami. Once Terrorist Louis Posada who was also responsible for the famous assassination of former Chilean ambassador Orlando Letelier in Washington DC bribed his way out of Venezuelan prison he was allowed to settle in Florida, after he did more dirty work involving arming death squads and smuggling Drugs. A tiny piece in the Iran Contra Affair. In 1988 the US shot down an Iranian passenger jet. The US has also Killed millions of civilians and been involved in thousands of false flag attacks. Thus when it comes to whose history makes it likely they would be involved the US and the Kiev regime have the criminal rap sheet that makes them prime suspects. At the very least the US is covering for the kiev junta. It may actually have known about the attack in advance. It may have ordered the whole thing. We'll probably never know the details but just as in Syria where the rebels were eventually exposed at the very least the Kiev regime will probably eventually be exposed as the guilty party. You can bet that once again the US government and the Mainstream media will one day be exposed for telling yet another war mongering big lie on behalf of their mad quest to conquer the planet. MH 17 is destined to join the long list of US war provocations that were eventually exposed from sinking of the maine that started the Spanish American War to the gulf of Tonkin which escalated the Vietnam War, to incubator babies before the first gulf war, and weapons of mass destruction before the second US attack on Iraq, to the Ghouta story last year in Syria. These lies are exposed much quicker these days thanks to the internet. Malaysia has reached an agreement with Novorossiya to investigate the crash and hopefully the truth will be revealed. But if Malaysia bows to US Pressure and conducts a biased investigation we can at least rely on the Alternative media to expose the truth.
Sources
The militia briefings describing the victory of the Anti-Fascist forces
https://slavyangrad.wordpress.com/2014/07/17/briefings-july-16-2014/
An excellent analysis by the Saker
http://vineyardsaker.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/ukraine-sitrep-july-17th-1555-utczulu.html
Slavyangrad's great coverage of the MH 17 story
http://slavyangrad.wordpress.com/2014/07/18/emerging-evidence-points-to-mh17-being-a-ukrainian-false-flag/
http://slavyangrad.wordpress.com/2014/07/18/breaking-part-ii-evidence-continues-to-emerge-mh17-is-a-false-flag-operation/
http://slavyangrad.wordpress.com/2014/07/18/spanish-air-controller-kiev-borispol-airport-ukraine-military-shot-down-boeing-mh17/
An account from the survivor of a disastrous battle
http://slavyangrad.wordpress.com/2014/07/20/ukrainian-soldiers-abandoned-in-zelenopillia-corpses-all-around-them/
The Saker explains air defense
http://vineyardsaker.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/memories-recollection-guesses-and.html
As for the rest just search through The Vineyard of the Saker or Slavyangard for most of it they've done too many great stories to post them all here unfortunately. But thanks Saker and Gleb Bazov and the other translators for your tireless work giving us the real news on the situation in Ukraine.
Last week saw an enormous turn in the fortunes of the anti-Fascist resistance of Novorossiya (the area under assault in South East Ukraine). The Ukrainian army met a crushing defeat in the so called Southern Cauldron. Ukrainian Army and national guard units were forced to flee with some of the Fascist National Guards even retreating into Russia where they received medical treatment. It's ironic that the National Guard famous for butchering civilians should receive humane treatment at the hands of the Russians they so despise. This was followed by what appears to be a massive psychological operation the downing of Malaysian Airliner MH 17. This was immediately seized upon by the Media to demonize Putin Russia, and the Anti-Fascist resistance movement in Novorossiya. Details could emerge later that definitively prove exactly who shot down the Plane. However the evidence seems to point towards the Kiev regime as the guilty party at this point. Of course the media has shown it's usual determination to turn truth on it's head. You can call it the Syria syndrome. In Syria both of the big false flag chemical weapon terror attacks launched by the death squads the media dubs "rebels" occurred after they suffered decisive defeats. Apparently the same thing has occurred in Ukraine. The shooting down of the plane is clearly a response to the defeat suffered by the Fascist forces in The southern corridor.
First I'll deal with the defeat. Once again the Vineyard of the Saker and Slavyangard sites proved themselves indispensable reading for anyone following the civil war in Ukraine. They broke the story of the massive defeat suffered by the Fascist forces in Ukraine to the english speaking world. Not a word about this important event was said in the mainstream media. What an embarrassment usually unconventional forces stand little chance in a head to head confrontation with a better armed conventional force. The Iraqi resistance learned that lesson when the Americans almost completely destroyed Fallujah. The so called "rebels" in Libya (ie terrorist death squads as in Syria) would never have been able to win if NATO hadn't been bombing the Nation to smithereens. In Syria the US-NATO-Israel-GCC backed death squads have suffered year after year of defeat. However the Ukraine forces suffered a massive defeat at the hands of a smaller and less well armed force. This was achieved through sheer incompetence and corruption at the top; combined with ill paid hungry troops many who secretly have no desire to carry out this immoral war at the bottom. According to the Saker Russia may have upped it's covert support for Novorossiya after the retreat from Slavyansk.
Actually I'll turn my attention to Slavyansk the "heroic City?" first since it's emerged that there may have been a whole political dimension to the decision to retreat from the city. At the same time as the news of victory it was announced that Khodakovsky former minister for state security of the Donetsk People's Republic had resigned from the government. He remains in control of the Vostok Battalion. According to an excellent analysis by the Saker (See sources below) Khodakovsky was connected to a scheme by Oligarch Rinat Akhmetov and Donetsk Mayor Alexander Lukianenko to surrender the Donbass. This scheme was disrupted when Strelkov staged his surprise retreat from Slavyansk. Lukianenko fled to Kiev upon Strelkov's Arrival. Now Khodakovsky has resigned from the government. Thus it would appear the retreat from Slavyansk was undertaken just as much to prevent the surrender of the Donbass region as to avoid eventual defeat in Slavyansk. The people of Slavyansk are unfortunately currently living in terror. The national guard continue to murder anyone they suspect of having aided the Self Defense Forces. The streets are deserted and many stores are closed. With their talent for staging memorable atrocities the the national Guard once again shocked the civilized world when according to one eye witness interviewed on Russian television they Crucified a 3 year old child and then shot his mother after deliberately gathering the neighbors to witness this horror show. Clearly we will need to keep a close eye on the future plight of the Slavyansk the Heroic City now under Occupation by Fascist butchers. In addition Leaked documents revealed that Kiev plans to either intern in camps or draft all the refugees in areas under their occupation depending on age and gender. The Kiev regime claimed it was time for the people of south eastern Ukraine make the same sacrifices as the rest of the country. What insane logic when the rest of the country is attacking the people of South Eastern Ukraine.
However the Kiev regime suffered a major setback in it's efforts to wage war on it's own people. No longer encircled in the Slavyansk with more men and equipment at their disposal Strelkov's forces not only resisted Poroshenko's new offensive against Lugansk and Donetsk they also managed to surround and crush the forces meant to be encircling them in the Southern Cauldron. This refers to the narrow strip of land between the area controlled by the self defense forces Novorossiya and the Russian border. However instead of catching NovoRossiya in a stranglehold as was intended they found themselves surrounded and in some cases through the incompetence of their commanders were caught in the open and destroyed by Grad Rocket trucks and artillery fire. There are at least 2 separate survivor accounts translated by and posted on Slavyangard which tell the same story they set up camp out in the open and were completely wiped out by NovoRossiyan forces from afar. Actually it was a bit heartrending to read despite the Ukrainian militaries months long campaign of attacking civilians with planes artillery and rockets, I couldn't help but sympathize with the Survivors who describe living through pure hell watching their fellow soldiers be blown to bits in a matter of Moments. The 3000 Ukrainian troops of the southern corridor were either killed captured or forced to flee. Many changed into civilian clothes. The fascist national guards terrified of reprisal stripped down to their underwear to avoid being identified as fascist butchers. Some were so desperate they fled to Russia. Hopefully Russia will do a full investigation on the national guard units in their custody and if guilty will try them for their crimes, but that may be wishful thinking. Further reports on the situation have been scarce since the crash of MH 17.
It should be mentioned that not only was Novorossiya victorious but the recent BRICS summit Provided a victory for Russia on the world stage. Putin had been touring Latin America. Perhaps his greatest public relations coup was canceling 37 billion in Cuban debt. This plays extremely well in Latin America where the Endless US bullying of Cuba for such crimes as providing free health care, or stamping out once rampant illiteracy is strongly opposed. Cuba stands as a symbol of resistance to American Empire in much of the world. For over 50 years Cuba has survived embargoes and covert war at the hands of their Giant neighbor. Putin also strengthened ties with nations like Venezuela and Nicaragua. The BRICS summit saw a further challenge to empire as they set up a development bank meant to challenge such tools of soft imperialism like the IMF or the World Bank. Basically he further emphasized that Russia was far from the international Pariah the US wished it to be. Not only had Russia strengthened ties with China but with the Global south in general through Russia's role in BRICS. Meanwhile Europe was resisting US efforts to force them to enact sanctions. Thus not only was the Ukraine Regime desperate after their defeat the US was extremely frustrated before the attack as well after Putin's triumphant tour of Latin America and the Successful BRICS summit.
The strangest element of the crash of MH 17 is the fact that this was the second mysterious crash of a Malaysian flight this year. Actually call it revenge of coincidence while looking up a little information on MH 370 the first mysterious crash i discovered that Twa 800 crashed on July 17 just like MH 17 and that July 17 was the date that the Tsar and his family were killed during the Russian revolution. Don't get carried away I'm sure it is just one of those strange coincidences. The fact that two Malaysian airliners were lost this year is more suspicious however. Actually the first is interesting because at the time at least the coverage of it was definitely used to distract from the Ukraine crisis which was in a fairly scary state with the west engaging in all sorts of chest pounding over the secession of the Crimea. Many were openly wondering about the possibility of Nuclear War. Suddenly the mainstream media focused instead for a week on the search for MH 370. Regardless of whether the plane merely crashed or was the victim of a cyberhijacking or some other Unknown attack the tragedy was used in the media as a major distraction. This latest crash not only changes the narrative about Ukraine but served to distract from Israel's ongoing attack on Gaza just before the crash the israelis killed 4 Palestinian children on a beach in front of a bunch of reporters. In fact mainstream reporters famous in general for their subservience to Israel were starting to grumble. Two were fired for daring to criticize the latest one sided barbarous assault by Israel. I only mention it to show how the mainstream media will not only use the tragedy to demonize Russia and Novorossiya but also to distract from other events like the war crimes in Gaza or the Ethnic cleansing of Iraqi Christians the same week. Most of the west will remain ignorant of the slaughter of christians in places like Syria, Iraq, and yes Palestine. It is better that the west where christianity is the majority religion not get confused and start to identify with the people of the middle east so instead we are taught that it is the "muslim world." Sorry for the tangent but all over the world we see these divisions and oversimplifications of identity which are then weaponized Iraq, Gaza, Ukraine, It's all part of the same empire of chaos people committing terrible crimes because they have been made to forget their common humanity. On a final note I learned recently that Omar al-Baghdadi the Leader of IS formerly ISIL was trained for over a year by the Mossad Israel's intelligence agency.
To return to MH 17 Malaysia has a connection to both Iraq and Gaza. Kuala Lumpur Malaysia was the sight of war crimes trials aimed both at condemning the war in Iraq and the Israeli occupation. It also hosted international Conferences aimed at Questioning what actually happened during the September 11th attacks. Plus it defied the advice of the technocrats at the IMF during the Asian Financial crisis leading to early economic recovery and providing a "bad example" for other countries. On the other hand it's current Government is much more Pro-US and signed on to the US scheme to encircle China. Again it could all be coincidence. While we'll probably never know what happened to MH 370 the evidence in MH 17 points to an attack by Kiev. In both cases secretly the truth was already known. The US definitely has the entire world under surveillance and so MH 370 was no mystery for them. However they refused to reveal what happened. In Ukraine both Russia and the US know what happened. Unfortunately the Russian Military doesn't want to reveal it's exact capabilities. They did however release their civilian radar records showing that MH 17 was indeed being followed by two Ukrainian fighter jets as eyewitnesses reported. There were reports that the NAF captured a BUK but the kiev regime claimed at the time they had been disabled in addition they require a trained operator which it is unlikely they posses. In addition Kiev provided photo's claiming to show that the self Defense forces had Buk anti-Aircraft vehicles. They claimed they showed them returning to Russia. However a blog called Human rights international proved that one of the BUKs (no 112) supposedly belonging to the NAF (Novorossyan armed forces) was actually Ukraine's. In addition Moscow Provided satellite photo's showing that the Ukrainian army had a number of BUKs in the area. In addition Alexander Borodai who heads the Donetsk People Rebublic pointed out that if Novorossiya had a working BUK it would have used it to attack the Ukraine air force which regularly conducts high altitude bombing raids against Novorossiya. Although the NAF have shot down a number of aircraft they were all flying at low altitude and were shot down using handheld missile launchers called Manpads. There was also a controversial leak by a spanish air traffic controller stationed in Ukraine which claimed that the Ukrainian army was responsible. In addition it has emerged that the flight was ordered to fly over the war zone when all other civilian flights avoid the war zone.
The key question however is motive why would the NAF which hasn't even launched attacks on pro-Kiev areas would suddenly bring down the wrath of the International community upon themselves by launching an attack on a Malaysian airliner. This would be the act of a desperate group not one that had recently won a major victory. Especially when if they actually possessed a working BUK they would have many more pressing targets Namely the Ukrainian Air force which has been killing civilians and self defense forces for months. The Kiev regime on the other hand came to power because of a false flag attack. As I discussed in my earlier article "Leaks False Flag Destabilization in Ukraine and Turkey" it was revealed months ago that the sniper shootings were carried out by pro maidan forces which shot both police and protestors. The killings were used the Delegitimize Yanukovich but were quickly forgotten once it became time for Ukraine to wage war on it's own people. After all the Kiev regime has already killed far more civilians in their anti-terror campaign then ever died during the Maidan Protests. Thus there is no question of whether the Kiev regime would carry out a false Flag attack or murder hundreds of innocent civilians they have already done both. Actually the Ukrainian government also accidentally shot down a civilian airliner siberian air 1812 back in 2001. Thus the Kiev Regime is the prime suspect. Unlike the NAF they had just suffered a major defeat and were desperate. By destroying the plane they managed to demonize both the NAF and Russia. In addition they had the means it has been proven that they had both Fighter aircraft and BUKs in the area where the crash took place. They have also been caught lying first by denying their jets presence in the area then by providing faulty photo evidence. I'm reminded of their earlier attempts to use photos to falsely show that Novorossiya was being occupied by Russian troops. Despite being backed by the state Department and the New York Times it was shown to be a massive fraud within days. In other words I am no expert on air defense systems or plane crashes but the Kiev Regime's historical record of False Flag attacks and it's murder of hundreds of civilians make it in my view the prime suspect. It had the means motive and opportunity. The US also has a history of being involved in the destruction of Civilian airliners. In october 1976 US trained cuban Exile terrorists CORU blew up a cuban Passenger jet. Despite publicly bragging about it the US allowed them to live unmolested in Miami. Once Terrorist Louis Posada who was also responsible for the famous assassination of former Chilean ambassador Orlando Letelier in Washington DC bribed his way out of Venezuelan prison he was allowed to settle in Florida, after he did more dirty work involving arming death squads and smuggling Drugs. A tiny piece in the Iran Contra Affair. In 1988 the US shot down an Iranian passenger jet. The US has also Killed millions of civilians and been involved in thousands of false flag attacks. Thus when it comes to whose history makes it likely they would be involved the US and the Kiev regime have the criminal rap sheet that makes them prime suspects. At the very least the US is covering for the kiev junta. It may actually have known about the attack in advance. It may have ordered the whole thing. We'll probably never know the details but just as in Syria where the rebels were eventually exposed at the very least the Kiev regime will probably eventually be exposed as the guilty party. You can bet that once again the US government and the Mainstream media will one day be exposed for telling yet another war mongering big lie on behalf of their mad quest to conquer the planet. MH 17 is destined to join the long list of US war provocations that were eventually exposed from sinking of the maine that started the Spanish American War to the gulf of Tonkin which escalated the Vietnam War, to incubator babies before the first gulf war, and weapons of mass destruction before the second US attack on Iraq, to the Ghouta story last year in Syria. These lies are exposed much quicker these days thanks to the internet. Malaysia has reached an agreement with Novorossiya to investigate the crash and hopefully the truth will be revealed. But if Malaysia bows to US Pressure and conducts a biased investigation we can at least rely on the Alternative media to expose the truth.
Sources
The militia briefings describing the victory of the Anti-Fascist forces
https://slavyangrad.wordpress.com/2014/07/17/briefings-july-16-2014/
An excellent analysis by the Saker
http://vineyardsaker.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/ukraine-sitrep-july-17th-1555-utczulu.html
Slavyangrad's great coverage of the MH 17 story
http://slavyangrad.wordpress.com/2014/07/18/emerging-evidence-points-to-mh17-being-a-ukrainian-false-flag/
http://slavyangrad.wordpress.com/2014/07/18/breaking-part-ii-evidence-continues-to-emerge-mh17-is-a-false-flag-operation/
http://slavyangrad.wordpress.com/2014/07/18/spanish-air-controller-kiev-borispol-airport-ukraine-military-shot-down-boeing-mh17/
An account from the survivor of a disastrous battle
http://slavyangrad.wordpress.com/2014/07/20/ukrainian-soldiers-abandoned-in-zelenopillia-corpses-all-around-them/
The Saker explains air defense
http://vineyardsaker.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/memories-recollection-guesses-and.html
As for the rest just search through The Vineyard of the Saker or Slavyangard for most of it they've done too many great stories to post them all here unfortunately. But thanks Saker and Gleb Bazov and the other translators for your tireless work giving us the real news on the situation in Ukraine.
Monday, July 7, 2014
Fall of Slavyansk, End of Iraq ?
The Fall of Slavyansk, Balkanization in Iraq
The Ukrainian Civil war entered a new phase with the withdrawal of forces from Salvyansk. The Self Defense Forces were forced to abandon the Heroic city whose example in resisting the coup regime helped inspire the birth of Novorossiya, It was a massive Symbolic defeat despite representing a tactical victory as Colonel Strelkov managed to break out of encirclement and escape with his men. Unfortunately it also means that the brave citizens of Slavyansk now live under fascist occupation and the murder of known sympathizers has already begun. In fact the true horror of the kiev regime was recently revealed in a series of hacked face book messages showing That the regime have taken the idea of profiting from war to gruesome new levels. If genuine the Facebook messages show Failed Presidential candidate Yulia "Nuke Em" Timoshenko's lawyer Segey Vlasenko acting as a middleman between German Surgeon Olga Wieber and Ukrainian military who agreed (for a cut) to harvest and sell the organs of their fallen troops to Germany. There rich germans were willing to pay black market prices for black-market organs. Meanwhile in Iraq the attempt at balkanization became all too apparent as America offered no real assistance while calling for Maliki to step down as if he was the new Assad.
Slavyansk: now is the time to record the story of the brave resistance of what is known as the Heroic city. Arriving with only 20 light armed men Colonel Strelkov managed to wage an effective guerrilla campaign for months which saw his forces grow through volunteers who armed themselves through a series of battlefield victories. Thus they were able to hold this small town of 25,000 people with a few hundred volunteers agains a 15,000 strong Ukrainian army and the fascist national guard. Unfortunately the Ukrainian army was able to seize a nearby mountain position from which they could bombard the region targeting mainly the civilian population hoping to turn them against the Self defense forces. They waged a long campaign of destruction continuing to bombard the city despite a supposed cease Fire. The internet was awash in the images of carnage houses destroyed and a steady stream of dead men, women and children victims of Ukraine's supposed democratic regime. But what the west condemns in Syria it simply ignores in Ukraine even though it's on it's own doorstep. Syria is fighting for it's life against brutal western backed terrorists who hold the population hostage. Ukraine on the other hand is fighting a war against people whose only crime is not wishing to be second class citizens in a neo-liberal fascist laboratory of the future. The Self Defense forces are trying to protect not terrorize the populace. In Ukraine the government is out to terrorize it's own populace. Yet the west condemns the regime battling terrorists and applauds the terrorist regime in Kiev. The self defense forces managed to carry out a number of successful attacks eliminating fascist death squads and Capturing and killing hundreds of Ukrainian army troops. However the town was slowly encircled and the bombardment of civilians continually escalated. Colonel Strelkov decided to make a surprise withdrawal. An armored group gave their lives distracting the Ukrainian army while the towns defenders escaped with their families and many of their supporters. Unfortunately the town a symbol of freedom around the world has now fallen under occupation. The regime tried to stage a transparent propaganda stunt by bribing townspeople to pose with with the same troops that had been indiscriminately firing at them with Artillery, aircraft, and rocket trucks only the day before. Embarrassingly they were photographed handing out the cash and the images somehow made it out despite the communications blackout. More accurate are the reports of townspeople greeting their occupiers with shouts of "Fascists." Already there are reports of summary executions executions of people who aided the self defense forces. We can only hope that the city of Slavyansk does not go from being a symbol of resistance to the site of yet another fascist war crime like Odessa. The world is watching and waiting to see what will happen. Donetsk has become the new center of resistance and the resistance are bracing for yet another siege. The hope is that with the aid of the experienced veterans of the siege of Slavyansk they will be able to mount a more effective defense of Donetsk. Their only hope is to delay the fascists long enough for the regime to either collapse or be forced into a genuine negotiation. I should mention that hilariously CNN reported that Slavyansk was in Crimea and that the reconquest of Crimea had begun. Incompetence or transparent propaganda? At this point it seems that an attack on Crimea would be the only thing capable of bringing the Russians into this war. After all they've even turned a blind eye to Ukraine shelling of Russian boarder Station. But of course they unlike the geographers at CNN (who have made a string of strange mistakes like this) know that Slavyansk is not in Crimea.
Alternative media site Slavyangard run by Gleb Bazov known to Vineyard of the Saker readers like myself for his beautiful translations has broken two shocking stories recently. A hacked series of Facebook messages revealing that the oligarchs are profiting from the war by selling harvested organs on the black market. You'd think after all the embarrassing leaks earlier in the year they would learn to be careful what they said on the phone or in emails. After all Yulia Tymoshenko herself already was revealed to the world as a genocidal madwoman when her phone calls were hacked and released to the public. She was caught threatening to nuke ethnic Ukraine and Russia itself boasting she would use her international connections to start world war 3. Then she loudly wished she had a machine gun so she could assassinate Vladimir Putin. Despite that fact her lawyer decided to carry out Black Market Organ selling over FaceBook of all things. Ah the arrogance of sheer impunity since their imperial patrons in the US and the EU have clearly given them the green light to do whatever is necessary to crush all resistance and the Media have taken their cue and decided to pretend the whole thing isn't happening the Kiev regime have decided to use their impunity to make some bloodstained dollars. Sergey Vlasenko Yulia Tymoshenko's lawyer used his connections to find commanders willing to harvest the organs of the troops they lost in battle they may also have been harvesting organs of civilians or pows. After all the lawyer was under constant pressure to find the freshest possible organs and was constantly pressuring commandeers like Semyon Semenchencko who lead a fascist national guard force notorious for war crimes. At the very least they cynically profited from the often disastrous campaign. It's symptomatic of our whole sick world blood flows but so does the cash. I'm reminded of notorious Nicaraguan Dictator Somoza who for years made a fortune literally selling the blood of his people to America. Vampire capitalism at it's finest. For the Kiev regime every fallen soldier is a potential source of profit. Perhaps they were inspired by fellow NATO freedom fighters the KLA in Kosovo who also engaged in Black Market Organ selling as well as selling captured women into prostitution and dominating the flow of Heroin into Europe and the US. So long as a group serves western interest it can do whatever it wants on the side to make a buck which explains the long association of the CIA with the international drug trade. One day the CIA will change it's motto to "why choose the lesser evil." Their current one is absolutely hilarious "the truth will set you free."
While the Oligarchs are making money from the bodies of their fallen troops Kiev continues under the reign of fascists bands. Just as the west has granted the Kiev regime impunity the kiev regime has granted the fascists impunity. The result has been a long series of violent attacks on their critics, ethnic Russians, historical sites, Synagogues etc. Kiev is beginning to resemble the dystopian future of the clockwork orange where gangs of fascist youth go out looking for a bit of the old ultra-violence. In Their latest escapade caught on security cam they swarm an LGBT club perform a few random acts of violence after forcing their way in and then flee it all takes less then a minute. More terrifying still is the account of some refugees from kiev who have recently arrived in Moscow and claim
A: Kiev has become a scary place to live in, Sasha. For half a year now, people have been divided into two classes: those in masks are permitted to do anything they want, and, for that reason, they think themselves entitled to dictate their demands to everyone else. Moreover, they do not care who is in front of them; they dictate even to the elected president how and what to do.
These are youths, with sticks and guns, who are very well informed and they can find anything they want about their victim: where he lives, where he works, who his wife is, which kindergarten his kids attend. Since February, thousands of people have disappeared in our city. And everyone keeps silent about it; they are all intimidated and afraid. At any time, bandits in masks can show up at your door, and there is no control over them, not by police, not by the leadership of the city or the country. If you are in a mask – you are Über-Ukrainian; if you are without one – you are second class, regardless of whether you are Ukrainian or Russian.
A terrifying description of life under fascism. I can't help but think of the iconic image floating around twitter fascists wearing deaths heads masks and SS T-shirts. And since I'm cutting and Pasting read this heartbreaking account from the same article the words of an orphan of Slavyansk. Again credit goes to Slavyangard for this information (see sources below)
This message was sent by a girl from Slavyansk to a LifeNews journalist, Ermina Kotandzhyan (@JustErmina). They became acquainted in Slavyansk.
Hello, how are you? That’s it Ermina, you won’t believe, but we have surrendered Slavyansk, we no longer have this city, and we are now in Donetsk … This is hot it is, many of guys died, and there were many wounded. My area, where I lived, was almost completely destroyed, together with my parents. So now I am homeless. I am an orphan with my sister; I managed to get her out – she is 9 years old. I don’t even know what to tell the child, that she now has no father, no mother, no grandma, no uncle … It’s only me left …
Clearly the people of Ukraine are caught between two terrible fates. If they do not resist they will be terrorized by fascist mobs and if they do resist they will be terrorized by the army and fascist national guard units. Only time will tell whether the occupation of the city of Slavyansk will prove even worse then the brutal siege. There is no telling how long this war may last.
The Geopolitics of Iraq became even clearer as the US called for Maliki to step down. They showed their hand clearly since if they had any genuine concern over ISIL aka ISIS aka IS they would not be worried about Maliki's petty sins but would be demanding he centralize power and restore order. Here Ukraine provides the perfect contrast the west certainly isn't asking Poroshenko to step down or to negotiate. Instead it has demanded that he crack down even making the IMF loans contingent on his maintaining Ukraine's territorial integrity. In Iraq on the other hand the US is already playing out their regime change handbook demanding Maliki step down. The Central government must either choose a more suitably pliable ruler or say good bye to it's territorial integrity. The likely candidates show that the US has learned nothing. The names floating around even include the infamous conman Achmed Chalabi I call him that not because of his role in selling the idea that Iraqis would greet their invasion and occupation with shouts of joy, or that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction, after all he was just repeating the neo-con talking points. Instead I refer to the little mentioned fact that he was wanted for fraud. They've also tried to reinstall old favorite Iyad Allawi who Iraqis call Sadham Without the mustache throughout the war the US hoped to install him as a new dictator but he was always too unpopular. Other names for possible replacements include Abdel Abdul Mahdi famous for his efforts to sell off the nations oil on favorable terms to the west and Bayan Jaber former head of the Badr brigade death squads. Maliki however has refused to resign since whatever his failings he did get the most votes.
Meanwhile the mainstream press is entirely too gleeful Time magazine ran the Cover the end of Iraq? Wishful thinking, I'm sure they wish they could wipe the whole troublesome country off the map and out of the history books. But despite Thirty years of western scheming despite 3 wars and a genocidal sanctions program Iraq survives. While the US only pretended to offer help Russia and Iran both offered real support. Calls from powerful clerics like the reclusive Ayatollah Sistani and the fiery Moqtada Al Sadr have caused a rush of volunteers who have stabilized the situation and the government has slowly gone on the offensive. In time they may be able to reconquer the ISIL held territories especially as the local population is bound to increasingly turn against ISIL. They are already carrying out their trade mark war crimes attacking Shia and Sunni Holy sites and massacring civilians. They are also already battling some of their supposed allies. Meanwhile the government is already bombing the terrorists with Iranian supplied jets. Kurdistan is taking full advantage of the situation seizing the long coveted Kirkuk. Still the American's have supposedly told them that the time for independence has not yet come. If the Iraqi government succeeds in recapturing the ISIL territories or even before they finish we could see a war between the central government and the already practically defacto autonomous Kurdistan. Tensions have simmered for years between the two sides as the Kurds have attempted to grant oil concessions without the permission of the central government. The situation could further explode but for the moment Maliki still has a good chance of keeping Iraq's territorial integrity intact. Certainly he is fully aware of the treachery of the US and their longstanding plans adopted under Israeli influence to split Iraq into three separate parts. After all vice president Biden himself announced such a plan in 2008. Iranian president Rouhani decided not to play along with the American fiction that ISIL is acting independently pointing out that it was long supported in Syria by the US and it's NATO GCC, and Israeli allies. After all Iran was the original target of the redirection the year was 2006 and just as today the US blames Russia for destabilizing Ukraine rather then their color revolution installing Oligarchs and Fascist's who openly called for genocide against the Russian speaking minority. It was the same way Back in 2006 the US blamed the chaos in Iraq not on it's invasion occupation and covert dirty war aimed at starting a civil war. Instead they blamed the Iranians even going to the absurd length of blaming them for being behind the Sunni resistance in the Anbar province and even Al Qaeda itself. That was when the US began it's campaign to bribe the Sunni resistance and began to direct it towards destabilizing Lebanon and later Syria. These are the origins of ISIL. Of course being neighbors of Afghanistan and possessing a good intelligence service Iran has doubtless followed closely every step of the creation and evolution of so called al Qaeda from the start. Thus disgusted by this attempt to Balkanize Iraq and remove the democratically elected Maliki from power, Iran openly accused the US of being behind the whole thing and refused to go along with the polite fiction that the US is the enemy not the ally of groups like ISIL. Putin has also thrown his support behind Maliki and if he holds onto power Iraq could become even more a part of the Arc of resistance and may become a future ally of Russia China and Iran. How ironic it would be if this attempt to balkanize Iraq instead ended with Iraq and Iran more securely allied to Russia and China. This is what comes of having foreign policy directed by neo-cons whose specialty is creating mythology not doing analysis how wonderful it would be to see the realists howls of rage on the day Iraq and Iran join the CSTO or the SCO. These are the Collective Security treaty organization and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization respectively the first is a Russia security alliance the other a Chinese economic alliance. Thus this latest pivot in US foreign policy could be disastrous in terms of the Great game in the long term. Just as the Ukraine crisis only further cemented ties between Russia and China another of Zbigniew Brzezinki's nightmares along with Iran pushed permanently into an alliance with Russia. No wonder his book strategic vision is full of warnings about Neo-Conservative meddling in US Foreign policy. If Maliki manages to survive and win the civil war the attempt to balkanize Iraq could backfire, just like the failed color revolution in then ally Uzbekistan pushed them back into the arms of Russia.
While Slavyansk has fallen Donetsk has become the seat for the decisive phase of the Ukrainian civil war. Unfortunately they face overwhelming odds. Their only real hope is for the people of western Ukraine to rebel against this bloody and senseless war and the brutal Austerity measures that are about to go into effect. Russia seems determined not to intervene. Meanwhile Baghdad of course did not fall as even certain areas of the city could single handedly have wiped out ISIL had they been foolish enough to venture into say Sadr City. Maliki's Iraq may be able to survive intact. The US may end up pushing Iraq into the arms of Russia and China.
Sources
Slavyangard is a great site definitely recommended for those following the Ukraine crisis it's here
http://slavyangrad.wordpress.com
The black market organ sale story is here
http://slavyangrad.wordpress.com/2014/07/06/hacked-facebook-correspondence-indicates-a-burgeoning-trade-in-organs-of-ukrainian-soldiers/
The qoutes were from this great article three stories from the front
http://slavyangrad.wordpress.com/2014/07/07/three-stories-from-the-front-july-5-6-2014/
And on the fall of Slavyansk there is this
http://vineyardsaker.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/polkovnik-colonel-strelkov.html
And this instant classic from the resistance
http://vineyardsaker.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/forgive-us-for-not-dying-in-slavyansk.html
Eric Draitser did a great article on why the west doesn't like Maliki who is often presented superficially as an american puppet rather then someone trying to balance the interests of the US Iran and Iraq.
http://journal-neo.org/2014/07/03/the-strange-case-of-nouri-al-maliki/
He also made a great appearance on one of my favorite podcasts Bulletpoints
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/occupydclive/2014/07/03/bulletpoints-wnavid-nasr-7-2-14
And here is a great recent interview with Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya on the situation in Iraq
http://syria360.wordpress.com/2014/07/01/mahdi-darius-nazemroaya-deconstructs-us-false-picture-of-the-middle-east/
And the wit and wisdom of Pepe Escobar on Iraq
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MID-03-020714.html
Check MindFriedo's updates regularly for the daily news from Iraq they appear on Vineyard of the Saker which also provides great info on Ukraine.
http://vineyardsaker.blogspot.co.uk
The Ukrainian Civil war entered a new phase with the withdrawal of forces from Salvyansk. The Self Defense Forces were forced to abandon the Heroic city whose example in resisting the coup regime helped inspire the birth of Novorossiya, It was a massive Symbolic defeat despite representing a tactical victory as Colonel Strelkov managed to break out of encirclement and escape with his men. Unfortunately it also means that the brave citizens of Slavyansk now live under fascist occupation and the murder of known sympathizers has already begun. In fact the true horror of the kiev regime was recently revealed in a series of hacked face book messages showing That the regime have taken the idea of profiting from war to gruesome new levels. If genuine the Facebook messages show Failed Presidential candidate Yulia "Nuke Em" Timoshenko's lawyer Segey Vlasenko acting as a middleman between German Surgeon Olga Wieber and Ukrainian military who agreed (for a cut) to harvest and sell the organs of their fallen troops to Germany. There rich germans were willing to pay black market prices for black-market organs. Meanwhile in Iraq the attempt at balkanization became all too apparent as America offered no real assistance while calling for Maliki to step down as if he was the new Assad.
Slavyansk: now is the time to record the story of the brave resistance of what is known as the Heroic city. Arriving with only 20 light armed men Colonel Strelkov managed to wage an effective guerrilla campaign for months which saw his forces grow through volunteers who armed themselves through a series of battlefield victories. Thus they were able to hold this small town of 25,000 people with a few hundred volunteers agains a 15,000 strong Ukrainian army and the fascist national guard. Unfortunately the Ukrainian army was able to seize a nearby mountain position from which they could bombard the region targeting mainly the civilian population hoping to turn them against the Self defense forces. They waged a long campaign of destruction continuing to bombard the city despite a supposed cease Fire. The internet was awash in the images of carnage houses destroyed and a steady stream of dead men, women and children victims of Ukraine's supposed democratic regime. But what the west condemns in Syria it simply ignores in Ukraine even though it's on it's own doorstep. Syria is fighting for it's life against brutal western backed terrorists who hold the population hostage. Ukraine on the other hand is fighting a war against people whose only crime is not wishing to be second class citizens in a neo-liberal fascist laboratory of the future. The Self Defense forces are trying to protect not terrorize the populace. In Ukraine the government is out to terrorize it's own populace. Yet the west condemns the regime battling terrorists and applauds the terrorist regime in Kiev. The self defense forces managed to carry out a number of successful attacks eliminating fascist death squads and Capturing and killing hundreds of Ukrainian army troops. However the town was slowly encircled and the bombardment of civilians continually escalated. Colonel Strelkov decided to make a surprise withdrawal. An armored group gave their lives distracting the Ukrainian army while the towns defenders escaped with their families and many of their supporters. Unfortunately the town a symbol of freedom around the world has now fallen under occupation. The regime tried to stage a transparent propaganda stunt by bribing townspeople to pose with with the same troops that had been indiscriminately firing at them with Artillery, aircraft, and rocket trucks only the day before. Embarrassingly they were photographed handing out the cash and the images somehow made it out despite the communications blackout. More accurate are the reports of townspeople greeting their occupiers with shouts of "Fascists." Already there are reports of summary executions executions of people who aided the self defense forces. We can only hope that the city of Slavyansk does not go from being a symbol of resistance to the site of yet another fascist war crime like Odessa. The world is watching and waiting to see what will happen. Donetsk has become the new center of resistance and the resistance are bracing for yet another siege. The hope is that with the aid of the experienced veterans of the siege of Slavyansk they will be able to mount a more effective defense of Donetsk. Their only hope is to delay the fascists long enough for the regime to either collapse or be forced into a genuine negotiation. I should mention that hilariously CNN reported that Slavyansk was in Crimea and that the reconquest of Crimea had begun. Incompetence or transparent propaganda? At this point it seems that an attack on Crimea would be the only thing capable of bringing the Russians into this war. After all they've even turned a blind eye to Ukraine shelling of Russian boarder Station. But of course they unlike the geographers at CNN (who have made a string of strange mistakes like this) know that Slavyansk is not in Crimea.
Alternative media site Slavyangard run by Gleb Bazov known to Vineyard of the Saker readers like myself for his beautiful translations has broken two shocking stories recently. A hacked series of Facebook messages revealing that the oligarchs are profiting from the war by selling harvested organs on the black market. You'd think after all the embarrassing leaks earlier in the year they would learn to be careful what they said on the phone or in emails. After all Yulia Tymoshenko herself already was revealed to the world as a genocidal madwoman when her phone calls were hacked and released to the public. She was caught threatening to nuke ethnic Ukraine and Russia itself boasting she would use her international connections to start world war 3. Then she loudly wished she had a machine gun so she could assassinate Vladimir Putin. Despite that fact her lawyer decided to carry out Black Market Organ selling over FaceBook of all things. Ah the arrogance of sheer impunity since their imperial patrons in the US and the EU have clearly given them the green light to do whatever is necessary to crush all resistance and the Media have taken their cue and decided to pretend the whole thing isn't happening the Kiev regime have decided to use their impunity to make some bloodstained dollars. Sergey Vlasenko Yulia Tymoshenko's lawyer used his connections to find commanders willing to harvest the organs of the troops they lost in battle they may also have been harvesting organs of civilians or pows. After all the lawyer was under constant pressure to find the freshest possible organs and was constantly pressuring commandeers like Semyon Semenchencko who lead a fascist national guard force notorious for war crimes. At the very least they cynically profited from the often disastrous campaign. It's symptomatic of our whole sick world blood flows but so does the cash. I'm reminded of notorious Nicaraguan Dictator Somoza who for years made a fortune literally selling the blood of his people to America. Vampire capitalism at it's finest. For the Kiev regime every fallen soldier is a potential source of profit. Perhaps they were inspired by fellow NATO freedom fighters the KLA in Kosovo who also engaged in Black Market Organ selling as well as selling captured women into prostitution and dominating the flow of Heroin into Europe and the US. So long as a group serves western interest it can do whatever it wants on the side to make a buck which explains the long association of the CIA with the international drug trade. One day the CIA will change it's motto to "why choose the lesser evil." Their current one is absolutely hilarious "the truth will set you free."
While the Oligarchs are making money from the bodies of their fallen troops Kiev continues under the reign of fascists bands. Just as the west has granted the Kiev regime impunity the kiev regime has granted the fascists impunity. The result has been a long series of violent attacks on their critics, ethnic Russians, historical sites, Synagogues etc. Kiev is beginning to resemble the dystopian future of the clockwork orange where gangs of fascist youth go out looking for a bit of the old ultra-violence. In Their latest escapade caught on security cam they swarm an LGBT club perform a few random acts of violence after forcing their way in and then flee it all takes less then a minute. More terrifying still is the account of some refugees from kiev who have recently arrived in Moscow and claim
A: Kiev has become a scary place to live in, Sasha. For half a year now, people have been divided into two classes: those in masks are permitted to do anything they want, and, for that reason, they think themselves entitled to dictate their demands to everyone else. Moreover, they do not care who is in front of them; they dictate even to the elected president how and what to do.
These are youths, with sticks and guns, who are very well informed and they can find anything they want about their victim: where he lives, where he works, who his wife is, which kindergarten his kids attend. Since February, thousands of people have disappeared in our city. And everyone keeps silent about it; they are all intimidated and afraid. At any time, bandits in masks can show up at your door, and there is no control over them, not by police, not by the leadership of the city or the country. If you are in a mask – you are Über-Ukrainian; if you are without one – you are second class, regardless of whether you are Ukrainian or Russian.
A terrifying description of life under fascism. I can't help but think of the iconic image floating around twitter fascists wearing deaths heads masks and SS T-shirts. And since I'm cutting and Pasting read this heartbreaking account from the same article the words of an orphan of Slavyansk. Again credit goes to Slavyangard for this information (see sources below)
This message was sent by a girl from Slavyansk to a LifeNews journalist, Ermina Kotandzhyan (@JustErmina). They became acquainted in Slavyansk.
Hello, how are you? That’s it Ermina, you won’t believe, but we have surrendered Slavyansk, we no longer have this city, and we are now in Donetsk … This is hot it is, many of guys died, and there were many wounded. My area, where I lived, was almost completely destroyed, together with my parents. So now I am homeless. I am an orphan with my sister; I managed to get her out – she is 9 years old. I don’t even know what to tell the child, that she now has no father, no mother, no grandma, no uncle … It’s only me left …
Clearly the people of Ukraine are caught between two terrible fates. If they do not resist they will be terrorized by fascist mobs and if they do resist they will be terrorized by the army and fascist national guard units. Only time will tell whether the occupation of the city of Slavyansk will prove even worse then the brutal siege. There is no telling how long this war may last.
The Geopolitics of Iraq became even clearer as the US called for Maliki to step down. They showed their hand clearly since if they had any genuine concern over ISIL aka ISIS aka IS they would not be worried about Maliki's petty sins but would be demanding he centralize power and restore order. Here Ukraine provides the perfect contrast the west certainly isn't asking Poroshenko to step down or to negotiate. Instead it has demanded that he crack down even making the IMF loans contingent on his maintaining Ukraine's territorial integrity. In Iraq on the other hand the US is already playing out their regime change handbook demanding Maliki step down. The Central government must either choose a more suitably pliable ruler or say good bye to it's territorial integrity. The likely candidates show that the US has learned nothing. The names floating around even include the infamous conman Achmed Chalabi I call him that not because of his role in selling the idea that Iraqis would greet their invasion and occupation with shouts of joy, or that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction, after all he was just repeating the neo-con talking points. Instead I refer to the little mentioned fact that he was wanted for fraud. They've also tried to reinstall old favorite Iyad Allawi who Iraqis call Sadham Without the mustache throughout the war the US hoped to install him as a new dictator but he was always too unpopular. Other names for possible replacements include Abdel Abdul Mahdi famous for his efforts to sell off the nations oil on favorable terms to the west and Bayan Jaber former head of the Badr brigade death squads. Maliki however has refused to resign since whatever his failings he did get the most votes.
Meanwhile the mainstream press is entirely too gleeful Time magazine ran the Cover the end of Iraq? Wishful thinking, I'm sure they wish they could wipe the whole troublesome country off the map and out of the history books. But despite Thirty years of western scheming despite 3 wars and a genocidal sanctions program Iraq survives. While the US only pretended to offer help Russia and Iran both offered real support. Calls from powerful clerics like the reclusive Ayatollah Sistani and the fiery Moqtada Al Sadr have caused a rush of volunteers who have stabilized the situation and the government has slowly gone on the offensive. In time they may be able to reconquer the ISIL held territories especially as the local population is bound to increasingly turn against ISIL. They are already carrying out their trade mark war crimes attacking Shia and Sunni Holy sites and massacring civilians. They are also already battling some of their supposed allies. Meanwhile the government is already bombing the terrorists with Iranian supplied jets. Kurdistan is taking full advantage of the situation seizing the long coveted Kirkuk. Still the American's have supposedly told them that the time for independence has not yet come. If the Iraqi government succeeds in recapturing the ISIL territories or even before they finish we could see a war between the central government and the already practically defacto autonomous Kurdistan. Tensions have simmered for years between the two sides as the Kurds have attempted to grant oil concessions without the permission of the central government. The situation could further explode but for the moment Maliki still has a good chance of keeping Iraq's territorial integrity intact. Certainly he is fully aware of the treachery of the US and their longstanding plans adopted under Israeli influence to split Iraq into three separate parts. After all vice president Biden himself announced such a plan in 2008. Iranian president Rouhani decided not to play along with the American fiction that ISIL is acting independently pointing out that it was long supported in Syria by the US and it's NATO GCC, and Israeli allies. After all Iran was the original target of the redirection the year was 2006 and just as today the US blames Russia for destabilizing Ukraine rather then their color revolution installing Oligarchs and Fascist's who openly called for genocide against the Russian speaking minority. It was the same way Back in 2006 the US blamed the chaos in Iraq not on it's invasion occupation and covert dirty war aimed at starting a civil war. Instead they blamed the Iranians even going to the absurd length of blaming them for being behind the Sunni resistance in the Anbar province and even Al Qaeda itself. That was when the US began it's campaign to bribe the Sunni resistance and began to direct it towards destabilizing Lebanon and later Syria. These are the origins of ISIL. Of course being neighbors of Afghanistan and possessing a good intelligence service Iran has doubtless followed closely every step of the creation and evolution of so called al Qaeda from the start. Thus disgusted by this attempt to Balkanize Iraq and remove the democratically elected Maliki from power, Iran openly accused the US of being behind the whole thing and refused to go along with the polite fiction that the US is the enemy not the ally of groups like ISIL. Putin has also thrown his support behind Maliki and if he holds onto power Iraq could become even more a part of the Arc of resistance and may become a future ally of Russia China and Iran. How ironic it would be if this attempt to balkanize Iraq instead ended with Iraq and Iran more securely allied to Russia and China. This is what comes of having foreign policy directed by neo-cons whose specialty is creating mythology not doing analysis how wonderful it would be to see the realists howls of rage on the day Iraq and Iran join the CSTO or the SCO. These are the Collective Security treaty organization and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization respectively the first is a Russia security alliance the other a Chinese economic alliance. Thus this latest pivot in US foreign policy could be disastrous in terms of the Great game in the long term. Just as the Ukraine crisis only further cemented ties between Russia and China another of Zbigniew Brzezinki's nightmares along with Iran pushed permanently into an alliance with Russia. No wonder his book strategic vision is full of warnings about Neo-Conservative meddling in US Foreign policy. If Maliki manages to survive and win the civil war the attempt to balkanize Iraq could backfire, just like the failed color revolution in then ally Uzbekistan pushed them back into the arms of Russia.
While Slavyansk has fallen Donetsk has become the seat for the decisive phase of the Ukrainian civil war. Unfortunately they face overwhelming odds. Their only real hope is for the people of western Ukraine to rebel against this bloody and senseless war and the brutal Austerity measures that are about to go into effect. Russia seems determined not to intervene. Meanwhile Baghdad of course did not fall as even certain areas of the city could single handedly have wiped out ISIL had they been foolish enough to venture into say Sadr City. Maliki's Iraq may be able to survive intact. The US may end up pushing Iraq into the arms of Russia and China.
Sources
Slavyangard is a great site definitely recommended for those following the Ukraine crisis it's here
http://slavyangrad.wordpress.com
The black market organ sale story is here
http://slavyangrad.wordpress.com/2014/07/06/hacked-facebook-correspondence-indicates-a-burgeoning-trade-in-organs-of-ukrainian-soldiers/
The qoutes were from this great article three stories from the front
http://slavyangrad.wordpress.com/2014/07/07/three-stories-from-the-front-july-5-6-2014/
And on the fall of Slavyansk there is this
http://vineyardsaker.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/polkovnik-colonel-strelkov.html
And this instant classic from the resistance
http://vineyardsaker.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/forgive-us-for-not-dying-in-slavyansk.html
Eric Draitser did a great article on why the west doesn't like Maliki who is often presented superficially as an american puppet rather then someone trying to balance the interests of the US Iran and Iraq.
http://journal-neo.org/2014/07/03/the-strange-case-of-nouri-al-maliki/
He also made a great appearance on one of my favorite podcasts Bulletpoints
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/occupydclive/2014/07/03/bulletpoints-wnavid-nasr-7-2-14
And here is a great recent interview with Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya on the situation in Iraq
http://syria360.wordpress.com/2014/07/01/mahdi-darius-nazemroaya-deconstructs-us-false-picture-of-the-middle-east/
And the wit and wisdom of Pepe Escobar on Iraq
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MID-03-020714.html
Check MindFriedo's updates regularly for the daily news from Iraq they appear on Vineyard of the Saker which also provides great info on Ukraine.
http://vineyardsaker.blogspot.co.uk
Monday, June 30, 2014
Alternative Media Spotlight 2
Alternative Media Spotlight #2 Summer Edition
We live in the Golden Age of independent media. While the Corporate media has seemingly lost all shame in regards to lies, distortions, omissions becoming transparently imperialist propaganda, ordinary people are fighting back by attempting to provide accurate news and analysis. Last time in Alternative Media spotlight I mentioned Global Research ( ,http://www.globalresearch.ca ) Pepe Escobar (Asia Times, RT Op Edge) Eric Draitser ( Stop imperialism.org ) and Andrew Gavin Marshall ( andrewgavinmarshall.com bolifingfrogspost.com) now here are some more great people and sites I rely on.
Libya 360 was founded during the Libyan counter revolution when NATO and it's Al Qaeda proxy force destroyed the independent government of Libya replacing it with a failed state combining rule by traitors, technocrats, and various fanatical death squads with the real on the ground power. Since the war however the Site has become international in focus with great articles on the situation in Ukraine, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America. Alexandra Valiente who runs the site is great at selecting the best articles and she does a great job of providing local perspectives, what are Venezuelans saying about Venezuela? What do the Russians think about the Ukraine Crisis. Thus I highly recommend her sites for a more radical perspective on world events and I salute her tireless efforts to resist Imperialism and support Resistance.
http://libya360.wordpress.com
And she also runs a great site focusing exclusively on Syria
http://syria360.wordpress.com
And one on Libya
http://vivalibya.wordpress.com
In truth every thing I know about geopolitics I learned from Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya. I first learned of his work when during the Libyan War he went to Libya to report on the war and might have died when he was stuck in the city after the fall of Tripoli to the rebel forces. Thankfully he survived because he is the best Geo-Strategic analysts in the Alternative Media. Recently with the Iraq civil war his work is finally getting the attention it deserves. Way back in 2006 he was explaining the plans to balkanize South Western Asia (the middle east) Africa, and Eastern Europe. He is not just brilliant on geostrategy but in the way Identity can be weaponized as we see in Iraq today and in Ukraine. The social construction of Identities aimed at creating division and war is vital to understanding our world today. He wrote a great book called the "The Globalization of NATO." It shows how the so called North Atlantic Treaty Organization has far exceeded it's original supposed mandate of protecting western Europe (Actually it was formed before the Warsaw pact so It's founding was an aggressive move not a defensive act) It is now expanding around the world forming various regional alliances around the Globe. All of it aimed at encircling Russia and China which has become rather obvious this year. Thus in my first blog post written well before the Ukraine Crisis had truly heated up I could prophetically declare that the cold war never ended thanks to Reading the Globalization of NATO by Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya. The book also acts as a sort of mini encyclopedia of recent history where he provides great accounts of say the War in Yugoslavia or the background to Events in Somalia or Sudan. Highly recommended. After reading the book I was inspired to go back and read all of his old articles using the archive of his Articles at Global Research. What an amazing education they provide. He combines first hand knowledge from his world travels, a brilliant sociological analysis with a brilliant insiders understanding of military affairs and geostrategic planning. He was in the Canadian military and it provided him with valuable insight into how the Empire thinks. He qoutes the plans made by men such as Halford J. Mackinder, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Oded Yinon and Richard Perle that are still shaping our world today. Thus when ISIS invaded Iraq suddenly everyone was qouting Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya who in 2006 before the Syrian war had Begun already was talking about the attempt to balkanize Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Turkey Iran and eventually no doubt all of eurasia. So if you want to get ahead of the curve you absolutely must do an in depth reading of Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya. Also watch his great interviews and lectures on Youtube. Here is a great recent interview that describes the process of the balkanization of the middle east.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-fragmentation-of-iraq-and-the-middle-east-muslim-civil-war/5389104
Mahdi's oldest articles
http://www.globalresearch.ca/author/mahdi-darius-nazemroaya/page/8
Mahdi's most recent articles
http://www.globalresearch.ca/author/mahdi-darius-nazemroaya
Check out this Forgotten gem an in depth interview he did for a podcast
http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-war-on-mali-an-illustration-of-the-fragmented-totality-that-characterizes-the-imperialist-system/5335680
And get an in depth introduction to geopolitics by watching this lecture he did
http://www.globalresearch.ca/redrawing-the-middle-east-syria-in-context-of-the-new-middle-east/5361806
And of course he has also started making documentaries here is a great one he did on Ukraine
http://www.globalresearch.ca/gtrv-full-length-documentarypropaganda-and-the-ukraine-crisis/5383677
Porkin's Policy review is a wonderful site I recently discovered. Pearse Redmond has done some great Podcast's and the show just get's better and better. For example he did one of the best Keith Harmon Snow interviews of all time providing a great in depth report on what really happened in Rwanda which far from being a simple tale of evil Hutus and their innocent tutsi victims involved a US backed covert invasion. It also went into the current war in the Congo where more people have died then in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria combined so far 10 million have died. That's just one example he did a great Interview with Danny Benavides on the Surreal drug War in Mexico which is even stranger in reality than it has been portrayed fictionally on say Breaking Bad. Not only does he do great interviews but he is a great interview subject as well. In recent interviews on the Corbett report he laid out some of the Complex events in Africa and also provided some great background on the war in Afghanistan. He's done great research on the Westgate attacks in Kenya. At the time I knew I wasn't getting the full story even in the Alternative media but I would have to wait until finding his site many months later to get some answers or rather more questions. He is one of the few in the Alternative media who pay proper attention to Africa which is like Central Asia one of those vitally important places that few pay enough attention to. He also does some great reports exposing figures like Mathew VanDyke or Samantha Lewthwaite. Plus he has some more light hearted shows discussing films which provide a welcome recreation from studying the Evils of western Imperialism. He's got great taste thanks to him I discovered such obscure gems as "Wrong is Right" "Four Lions" and "Computer Chess." So for some great Interviews with People like Eric Draitser, Christoph Germann, and James Corbett check out Porkin'sPolicy Review.
http://porkinspolicyreview.wordpress.com
Stop NATO is the best site on the machinations of the Sinister US dominated NATO alliance. Rick Rozoff keeps track of the secret war of Intimidation the US and it's allies engage in around the world the endless war games and military exercises. He Also tracks the endless expansion of NATO. In fact he is one of Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya's only rivals when it comes to understating Geo-Politics. His sites also provides some great pieces of anti-war literature from throughout time. Search for interviews with him online as he does some great appearances where he explains what is going on in the World. His site is an invaluable resource for understanding the tensions between the West and Russia and China. You should also sign up for his email list.
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com
Vineyard of the Saker is a great Blog providing a unique perspective currently concentrating on the Ukraine Crisis. He provides the best analysis of what is going on in the Ukraine Crisis. He is a paradoxical mix of cool analysis and passionate Outrage over what is going on in the Ukraine. He provides great insight into things from both a Russian nationalist perspective and from a military perspective. He also has managed to attract a great community of people who help translate materials and provide guest essays. For example there are the reports by Strelkov who commands a unit of anti-fascist forces and provides daily updates on the fighting and the growing humanitarian crisis which volunteers translate into english. In fact the whole site has a french version run by volunteers. Plus there are great reports by Juan an anti-fascist resistance fighter and, Mindfriedo who does great daily updates summarizing the civil war in Iraq. He also has reports by Auslander who is attempting to help people escape the war zone. Plus daily video Anna news updates subtitled into english. Vineyard of the Saker is definitely required reading for those interested in the wars in Ukraine and Iraq.
http://vineyardsaker.blogspot.co.uk
The New Great Game Roundup is Essential weekly reading. Christoph Germann keeps track of what no one else is paying proper attention to the covert war in Central Asia. It has long been part of Strategic doctrine that whoever controls central Asia can control Eurasia whoever controls Eurasia can control the world. When Brzezinski speaks of his arc of crisis across Eurasia he never mentions that this arc of crisis is the deliberate creation of western intelligence. Every week Christoph Germann tracks the events of this covert war aimed at destabilizing central asian countries most people have never even heard of like Uzbekistan, or Tajikistan as well as the Covert war carried out within China and Russia itself. Thus Christoph Germann provides an absolutely Vital resource every week he sums up the most important events that no one is paying attention too. The endless series of terror attacks carried out with western sponsorship as well as the attempts to use NGO's to destabilize the region through future color revolutions. Make sure you check out the Great Game Roundup every sunday.
http://www.christophgermann.blogspot.com
And you should probably check out these interviews with FBI Whistleblower Sibel Edmonds who began the great game Roundup as she provides the vital background needed to understand the destabilization of Eurasia and indeed the farce of both the war on terror and the war on drugs.
http://porkinspolicyreview.wordpress.com/2013/02/22/sibel-edmonds-on-operation-gladio/
As I mentioned people don't pay nearly enough attention to Africa. Thus I'll recommend two people who focus almost entirely on Africa. For the Latest news on Africa check out Abiyome Azikwe's site Pan African News Wire. Abiyome writes some great Articles on the current situation in Africa where there has been more and more US and European military action of late. He also provides articles on Africa from the African and international press. He also has a podcast Pan African Journal which has starts with some great music everything from classic jazz, reggae, r&b to latin american music and African Music. Then he has a news segment followed usually by a segment on Black history or culture everything from now mostly forgotten revolutionaries like Robert Williams, to speeches by the more famous Malcolm x or Kwame Nkrumah as well as biographies of great musicians. He also is active in battling the attempts in Michigan to rob people of their democratic rights in order to push through a pro-corporate agenda.
Check out his news site
http://panafricannews.blogspot.com
Check out his podcast
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/panafricanjournal
Keith Harmon Snow is one of the best investigative journalists I've read. His sites are full of information on the Corporate genocide in Central Africa. He names the names and has been threatened with lawsuits on numerous occasions. He has documented which corporations, media, NGO's and intelligence agencies are involved in profiting from the 10 million that have been killed in the Congo and other parts of Africa. Even hollywood celebrities like Ben Affleck and Angelina Jolie are involved and no one is safe from the wrath of Keith Harmon Snow. He paints a terrifying picture Environmentalists involved in genocide, humanitarian agencies involved in genocide. Your iPad or playstation involved in genocide. Canadian prime ministers, US presidents, journalists all involved. His reports could call your whole world into Question so beware. He documents everything he says. His detailed articles provide brilliant in depth documentation of everything he says. He is also an electrifying public speaker look for his talks on youtube I've rewatched his epic 3 1/2 hr Profiteering from Genocide in Central Africa 3 times already but the interview Pearse Redmond did on Porkins Policy Review is probably the best Introduction to his work where he gives a great background on the topic going back to colonial days.
The interview is
http://porkinspolicyreview.wordpress.com/2014/04/20/porkins-policy-radio-ep-20-the-falsification-of-genocide-with-keith-harmon-snow/
Keith Harmon Snow has two sites collecting his work
His new site
http://www.consciousbeingalliance.com
And his old one
http://allthingspass.com
There are many more great sites I could mention but you will have to wait for a future edition of alternative media spotlight.
We live in the Golden Age of independent media. While the Corporate media has seemingly lost all shame in regards to lies, distortions, omissions becoming transparently imperialist propaganda, ordinary people are fighting back by attempting to provide accurate news and analysis. Last time in Alternative Media spotlight I mentioned Global Research ( ,http://www.globalresearch.ca ) Pepe Escobar (Asia Times, RT Op Edge) Eric Draitser ( Stop imperialism.org ) and Andrew Gavin Marshall ( andrewgavinmarshall.com bolifingfrogspost.com) now here are some more great people and sites I rely on.
Libya 360 was founded during the Libyan counter revolution when NATO and it's Al Qaeda proxy force destroyed the independent government of Libya replacing it with a failed state combining rule by traitors, technocrats, and various fanatical death squads with the real on the ground power. Since the war however the Site has become international in focus with great articles on the situation in Ukraine, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America. Alexandra Valiente who runs the site is great at selecting the best articles and she does a great job of providing local perspectives, what are Venezuelans saying about Venezuela? What do the Russians think about the Ukraine Crisis. Thus I highly recommend her sites for a more radical perspective on world events and I salute her tireless efforts to resist Imperialism and support Resistance.
http://libya360.wordpress.com
And she also runs a great site focusing exclusively on Syria
http://syria360.wordpress.com
And one on Libya
http://vivalibya.wordpress.com
In truth every thing I know about geopolitics I learned from Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya. I first learned of his work when during the Libyan War he went to Libya to report on the war and might have died when he was stuck in the city after the fall of Tripoli to the rebel forces. Thankfully he survived because he is the best Geo-Strategic analysts in the Alternative Media. Recently with the Iraq civil war his work is finally getting the attention it deserves. Way back in 2006 he was explaining the plans to balkanize South Western Asia (the middle east) Africa, and Eastern Europe. He is not just brilliant on geostrategy but in the way Identity can be weaponized as we see in Iraq today and in Ukraine. The social construction of Identities aimed at creating division and war is vital to understanding our world today. He wrote a great book called the "The Globalization of NATO." It shows how the so called North Atlantic Treaty Organization has far exceeded it's original supposed mandate of protecting western Europe (Actually it was formed before the Warsaw pact so It's founding was an aggressive move not a defensive act) It is now expanding around the world forming various regional alliances around the Globe. All of it aimed at encircling Russia and China which has become rather obvious this year. Thus in my first blog post written well before the Ukraine Crisis had truly heated up I could prophetically declare that the cold war never ended thanks to Reading the Globalization of NATO by Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya. The book also acts as a sort of mini encyclopedia of recent history where he provides great accounts of say the War in Yugoslavia or the background to Events in Somalia or Sudan. Highly recommended. After reading the book I was inspired to go back and read all of his old articles using the archive of his Articles at Global Research. What an amazing education they provide. He combines first hand knowledge from his world travels, a brilliant sociological analysis with a brilliant insiders understanding of military affairs and geostrategic planning. He was in the Canadian military and it provided him with valuable insight into how the Empire thinks. He qoutes the plans made by men such as Halford J. Mackinder, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Oded Yinon and Richard Perle that are still shaping our world today. Thus when ISIS invaded Iraq suddenly everyone was qouting Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya who in 2006 before the Syrian war had Begun already was talking about the attempt to balkanize Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Turkey Iran and eventually no doubt all of eurasia. So if you want to get ahead of the curve you absolutely must do an in depth reading of Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya. Also watch his great interviews and lectures on Youtube. Here is a great recent interview that describes the process of the balkanization of the middle east.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-fragmentation-of-iraq-and-the-middle-east-muslim-civil-war/5389104
Mahdi's oldest articles
http://www.globalresearch.ca/author/mahdi-darius-nazemroaya/page/8
Mahdi's most recent articles
http://www.globalresearch.ca/author/mahdi-darius-nazemroaya
Check out this Forgotten gem an in depth interview he did for a podcast
http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-war-on-mali-an-illustration-of-the-fragmented-totality-that-characterizes-the-imperialist-system/5335680
And get an in depth introduction to geopolitics by watching this lecture he did
http://www.globalresearch.ca/redrawing-the-middle-east-syria-in-context-of-the-new-middle-east/5361806
And of course he has also started making documentaries here is a great one he did on Ukraine
http://www.globalresearch.ca/gtrv-full-length-documentarypropaganda-and-the-ukraine-crisis/5383677
Porkin's Policy review is a wonderful site I recently discovered. Pearse Redmond has done some great Podcast's and the show just get's better and better. For example he did one of the best Keith Harmon Snow interviews of all time providing a great in depth report on what really happened in Rwanda which far from being a simple tale of evil Hutus and their innocent tutsi victims involved a US backed covert invasion. It also went into the current war in the Congo where more people have died then in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria combined so far 10 million have died. That's just one example he did a great Interview with Danny Benavides on the Surreal drug War in Mexico which is even stranger in reality than it has been portrayed fictionally on say Breaking Bad. Not only does he do great interviews but he is a great interview subject as well. In recent interviews on the Corbett report he laid out some of the Complex events in Africa and also provided some great background on the war in Afghanistan. He's done great research on the Westgate attacks in Kenya. At the time I knew I wasn't getting the full story even in the Alternative media but I would have to wait until finding his site many months later to get some answers or rather more questions. He is one of the few in the Alternative media who pay proper attention to Africa which is like Central Asia one of those vitally important places that few pay enough attention to. He also does some great reports exposing figures like Mathew VanDyke or Samantha Lewthwaite. Plus he has some more light hearted shows discussing films which provide a welcome recreation from studying the Evils of western Imperialism. He's got great taste thanks to him I discovered such obscure gems as "Wrong is Right" "Four Lions" and "Computer Chess." So for some great Interviews with People like Eric Draitser, Christoph Germann, and James Corbett check out Porkin'sPolicy Review.
http://porkinspolicyreview.wordpress.com
Stop NATO is the best site on the machinations of the Sinister US dominated NATO alliance. Rick Rozoff keeps track of the secret war of Intimidation the US and it's allies engage in around the world the endless war games and military exercises. He Also tracks the endless expansion of NATO. In fact he is one of Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya's only rivals when it comes to understating Geo-Politics. His sites also provides some great pieces of anti-war literature from throughout time. Search for interviews with him online as he does some great appearances where he explains what is going on in the World. His site is an invaluable resource for understanding the tensions between the West and Russia and China. You should also sign up for his email list.
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com
Vineyard of the Saker is a great Blog providing a unique perspective currently concentrating on the Ukraine Crisis. He provides the best analysis of what is going on in the Ukraine Crisis. He is a paradoxical mix of cool analysis and passionate Outrage over what is going on in the Ukraine. He provides great insight into things from both a Russian nationalist perspective and from a military perspective. He also has managed to attract a great community of people who help translate materials and provide guest essays. For example there are the reports by Strelkov who commands a unit of anti-fascist forces and provides daily updates on the fighting and the growing humanitarian crisis which volunteers translate into english. In fact the whole site has a french version run by volunteers. Plus there are great reports by Juan an anti-fascist resistance fighter and, Mindfriedo who does great daily updates summarizing the civil war in Iraq. He also has reports by Auslander who is attempting to help people escape the war zone. Plus daily video Anna news updates subtitled into english. Vineyard of the Saker is definitely required reading for those interested in the wars in Ukraine and Iraq.
http://vineyardsaker.blogspot.co.uk
The New Great Game Roundup is Essential weekly reading. Christoph Germann keeps track of what no one else is paying proper attention to the covert war in Central Asia. It has long been part of Strategic doctrine that whoever controls central Asia can control Eurasia whoever controls Eurasia can control the world. When Brzezinski speaks of his arc of crisis across Eurasia he never mentions that this arc of crisis is the deliberate creation of western intelligence. Every week Christoph Germann tracks the events of this covert war aimed at destabilizing central asian countries most people have never even heard of like Uzbekistan, or Tajikistan as well as the Covert war carried out within China and Russia itself. Thus Christoph Germann provides an absolutely Vital resource every week he sums up the most important events that no one is paying attention too. The endless series of terror attacks carried out with western sponsorship as well as the attempts to use NGO's to destabilize the region through future color revolutions. Make sure you check out the Great Game Roundup every sunday.
http://www.christophgermann.blogspot.com
And you should probably check out these interviews with FBI Whistleblower Sibel Edmonds who began the great game Roundup as she provides the vital background needed to understand the destabilization of Eurasia and indeed the farce of both the war on terror and the war on drugs.
http://porkinspolicyreview.wordpress.com/2013/02/22/sibel-edmonds-on-operation-gladio/
As I mentioned people don't pay nearly enough attention to Africa. Thus I'll recommend two people who focus almost entirely on Africa. For the Latest news on Africa check out Abiyome Azikwe's site Pan African News Wire. Abiyome writes some great Articles on the current situation in Africa where there has been more and more US and European military action of late. He also provides articles on Africa from the African and international press. He also has a podcast Pan African Journal which has starts with some great music everything from classic jazz, reggae, r&b to latin american music and African Music. Then he has a news segment followed usually by a segment on Black history or culture everything from now mostly forgotten revolutionaries like Robert Williams, to speeches by the more famous Malcolm x or Kwame Nkrumah as well as biographies of great musicians. He also is active in battling the attempts in Michigan to rob people of their democratic rights in order to push through a pro-corporate agenda.
Check out his news site
http://panafricannews.blogspot.com
Check out his podcast
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/panafricanjournal
Keith Harmon Snow is one of the best investigative journalists I've read. His sites are full of information on the Corporate genocide in Central Africa. He names the names and has been threatened with lawsuits on numerous occasions. He has documented which corporations, media, NGO's and intelligence agencies are involved in profiting from the 10 million that have been killed in the Congo and other parts of Africa. Even hollywood celebrities like Ben Affleck and Angelina Jolie are involved and no one is safe from the wrath of Keith Harmon Snow. He paints a terrifying picture Environmentalists involved in genocide, humanitarian agencies involved in genocide. Your iPad or playstation involved in genocide. Canadian prime ministers, US presidents, journalists all involved. His reports could call your whole world into Question so beware. He documents everything he says. His detailed articles provide brilliant in depth documentation of everything he says. He is also an electrifying public speaker look for his talks on youtube I've rewatched his epic 3 1/2 hr Profiteering from Genocide in Central Africa 3 times already but the interview Pearse Redmond did on Porkins Policy Review is probably the best Introduction to his work where he gives a great background on the topic going back to colonial days.
The interview is
http://porkinspolicyreview.wordpress.com/2014/04/20/porkins-policy-radio-ep-20-the-falsification-of-genocide-with-keith-harmon-snow/
Keith Harmon Snow has two sites collecting his work
His new site
http://www.consciousbeingalliance.com
And his old one
http://allthingspass.com
There are many more great sites I could mention but you will have to wait for a future edition of alternative media spotlight.
Monday, June 23, 2014
Operation Gladio
Operation GLADIO and the Illusion of "Western Democracy"
There is a sickening spectacle unfolding in Ukraine so called "Western Democracies" are supporting a brutal regime made up of Billionaire Oligarchs and avowed Fascists while they wage war on their own people. In fact the IMF even made it's loans conditional on the successful prosecution of it's war. The CIA is advising the new regime on how to crush dissent by terrorizing the population. Of course it's an old story in the third world but what is seldom recognized is it is not such a rare occurrence in Europe itself. Whether they know it or not the citizens of NATO countries and even non-NATO countries have only the illusion of national sovereignty or democracy. As Daniele Ganser explains in his book "NATO's Secret Armies Operation GLADIO and Terrorism in Western Europe" after world war 2 western european counties signed secret bilateral agreements with the United States vowing that they would prevent any democratic movement that would threaten to either change the social order or adopt an independent foreign policy. As part of these secret agreements they agreed to found secret "stay behind armies" that would wage a secret war on the public to manipulate public opinion through so called psychological operations. Psychological operations can range from propaganda, to false flag terror attacks, up to official State terror against the populace. In many countries they recruited fascists and later they would found, train and fund new fascist groups. This is what they don't mention about the recent extreme right wing victories. For 70 years the CIA in cooperation with the intelligence agencies of every european country have kept fascism alive in Europe by funding and training them. Throughout the Cold War stay behind armies would be involved in all sorts of crimes and strange operations terrorism, assassinations, coups and operation Condor style state repression. The cover for these stay behind armies was that they existed to prepare for a Soviet Invasion. However they also had the dual role of keeping communists from coming to power peacefully. In Italy, France, and Greece stay behinds would be used from the beginning to subvert democracy. In countries not in danger of voting against the wishes of the US and UK the Stay Behind Networks might remain largely dormant. However in places where the communists and socialists enjoyed broad popular support the stay behind networks were quite active. Not only communists were targeted however. Even general De Gaulle a strong anti-communist became a target when he wisely decided to grant Algeria independence. In other countries such as Spain and Portugal which were openly fascist dictatorships the secret armies literally became the government and were used to kidnap torture and kill any who dared to dissent or often merely anyone who aroused their paranoid suspicions. This article is yet another continuation of my earlier article "America, the CIA, and Fascism", and like "Nazis and the CIA" it is an expansion on a paragraph of that article. I have relied mostly on Daniele Ganser's "NATO's Secret Armies" in it he describes what is known about GLADIO operations in all the NATO members countries.
Operation GLADIO is technically only the Italian branch of GADIO. Every country's secret army had their own name. However I'll call them GLADIO simply because it is shorter and catchier then "Stay Behind Network" also the term stay behind network reinforces the cover story that they were meant to defend against an invasion that never occurred.. GlADIO became famous in 1990 when the Italian Prime minister Giulio Andreotti was forced to publicly admit their existence. However their existence was periodically revealed and forgotten from the start. Actually the first scandal involving GLADIO occurred before the cold war even began at least if you were Greek. In Greece the British cynically changed sides during the war and began supporting the fascists against the communist dominated resistance way back in 1943. Churchill personally ordered the policy change against the pleas of the British spies and special forces that had been fighting alongside the resistance on the ground. Instead the british began to support Fascist Death squads called X bands and Later the Hellenic Mountain Force. Because of Continuing resistance and the decline of british Power the Americans would take over continuing to support fascists and invading the country and using Napalm to terrorize the population into submission in the aptly Named project Torch. Yet this was only the beginning of Greece's tragedy. Gladio had it's origin in the british SOE founded in 1940 to set up resistance forces all across Europe. The british would train secret armies to engage in espionage, sabotage, and Terrorism against the germans. Later the Germans as they were loosing would set up their own stay behind networks popularly called werewolves. However the most popular and effective resistance to fascism during the war was from the communist resistance movements. This is one reason why popular fronts composed of Socialists and Communists were on the verge of winning Elections in France and Italy postwar. The US decided to use it's old allies the british and it's new Fascist allies to establish secret armies all across Europe as mentioned in my article Nazis and the CIA they also established stay behind networks to attack eastern block countries where they engaged in a campaign of espionage, assassination, Terrorism and guerrilla war in which tens of thousands perished. Similar networks were established all over the world giving birth to death squads in latin america, operation phoenix in Vietnam, and support for drug financed guerrilla armies throughout Asia, in Africa as well there were brutal proxy armies created leading to millions dead. Thus these european networks should be seen in a global context which is why events in Greece, Spain, Portugal and Turkey so closely resembled events in Latin America. Every European countries thus had within it the secret embryo of a Fascist Counter revolution. Actually as Daniele Ganser reveals the situation was much worse in Norway and Italy documents were leaked which showed that should any democratic movement attempted to force America to close it's military bases in a given country the US was prepared to use it's own Military to suppress any potential rebellions should the native government prove unable to keep it's people in check. In fact the US nearly decided to launch a military crackdown in Italy to prevent the communists from winning the elections. So beware people of Europe of ever endangering America's strategic interests lest you be crushed like the people of Ukraine are being crushed.
GLADIO armies were all centrally controlled from NATO's SHAPE Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe. SHAPE is Nato's controlling body within SHAPE the ACC and CPC had direct control of GLADIO forces throughout Europe. In addition all heads of European Intelligence agencies met frequently to coordinate the Secret War. If ACC and CPC have not changed their name then researchers would do well to look into their coordination of networks of terrorists and drug and weapons dealers today. Sibel Edmonds has said that GLADIO B the islamist Gladio networks involved in the US NATO covert war for Eurasia were still coordinated from an office in NATO when she worked in the FBI around 2001. ACC stood for Allied Clandestine Committee. CPC was the Clandestine Planning Committee. In addition the Pentagon and the CIA were involved in all details of GLADIO operations. I mention it to debunk the version of events where the GLADIO networks merely got out of control. In reality they were all centrally coordinated with direct US supervision although the UK was almost as influential in controlling the networks. Actually the two would sometimes compete for sponsorship of the GLADIO networks. The British Training was more prestigious although expensive while the American's offered free supplies the british charged. Italian Gladio decided it wanted british training but still accepted the free American weapons angering MI-6. Often the country would have to beg the two countries to co-operate leading in many countries to trilateral committees made up of the host country plus US and British intelligence. The GlADIO forces would secretly expand by having each member recruit 10 more. The US had refusal over all candidates. In many countries Fascist groups were recruited, trained, and in some cases even begun by GLADIO groups. In addition every secret army had stockpiles of weapons explosives, gold, and communications gear hidden around the country.
Now onto the many crimes of Gladio secret armies in those countries where these networks did not remain dormant. The first major scandal occurred appropriately in Germany. Germany's secret army was initially the TD the armed wing of the BDJ both filled with notorious nazi's recruited by the US. In fact the Infamous Klaus Barbie himself was employed as Top recruiter, even though he was wanted by the french for a brutal massacre among many other crimes like torture and murder making him the perfect CIA agent. The TD with CIA knowledge was caught planning to assassinate around a hundred of Germany's top socialist and communist politicians and journalists. They assigned members to stalk their potential targets but fortunately one member came forward and a major scandal emerged followed by the inevitable coverup. Although Ganser does not discuss the topic given GlADIO tactics in Italy where they managed to infiltrate red Brigades and engineer attacks, it is likely that some of the German left wing terrorism may have been part of Germany's GLADIO. However we do know that the German stay behind network was involved in the Munich Bombing on Sept 26, 1980 which killed 13 and wounded 213. The explosive was supplied from a GLADIO stockpile. The GLADIO member who confessed to supplying explosives was found dead the next day.
In Belgium the GLADIO network was involved in mysterious mass shootings. In the 40's it is strongly suspected that they assassinated Julian Lahaut who had dared to shout long live the Republic while returning king Baudoin took his Oath. In the 70's The network smuggled in American special forces who engaged in a so called exercise in which they attacked a belgian army base and stole weapons, even shooting a guard. Eventually the stolen weapons were planted in a Left wing politicians home in an attempt to frame him. Next they launched an attack on a gendarmerie (a paramilitary police force) station even though many belgian GLADIO members were also gendarmerie members. When a member came forward he was told "we already know shut up". Then in the 80's the stay behind army would carry out a series of mass shootings in supermarkets going out of their way to kill people and even killing police who arrived on the scene.
The most famous GLADIO terror attacks occurred in Italy. There were over 14,591 political acts of violence between January, 1st 1969 and dec 31 1987 according to a Parliamentary study. 491 were killed and 1181 injured or maimed. GLADIO was responsible for the major incidents. Plus some of it's members talked explicitly spelling out the strategy of Tension taught by the CIA and special forces around the world. In fact because of the GLADIO scandal in Italy and Turkey a top secret army training manual FM 30-31 emerged which advised trainees to carry out false flag terror attacks and blame them on their opponents as well as infiltrating left wing groups to carry out attacks. In Italy GLADIO would carry out many such attacks. In 1969 shortly before christmas 4 bombs exploded in Rome and Milan 16 killed 80 wounded. The worst bomb was the one in Piazza Fontana in Milan. On May 31 1972 in Peteano 3 police were killed and one wounded in another false flag bomb attack. On May 28, 1974 in Brescia an antiFascist march was targeted in another bomb attack 8 dead 102 injured. Then on August 4 1974 the Rome to Munich Train known as Italicus was bombed 12 killed 48 wounded. The worst of all came August 2, 1980 in the Bologna railway Station where 85 were killed and 200 wounded. GLADIO was responsible for all of these attacks. In addition the state framed innocent people for all of them. Most shocking of all perhaps was the assassination of Italian prime minister Aldo Moro who was personally threatened with Death by none other the Henry Kissinger. Moro dared to include communists in his cabinet reflecting the endlessly ignored wishes of Italian voters. His body guard's were murdered and he was kidnapped before being found shot dead in the trunk of a car. Of course GLADIO was only one element in America's Secret war on Italy. The mafia, the vatican, and the infamous P2 Masonic lodge were all involved with the CIA's covert policies in Italy but the topic is to complex to go into here. This is why Italy tends to Overshadow all the other Gladio networks. Fascism was obviously a major element. At the end of the war the infamous future CIA counterintelligence chief James Jesus Angleton decided to save the life of fascist death squad lead Prince Junio Valerio Borghese aka The Black Prince from a partisan firing squad. During the war he had personally supervised the execution of thousands of partisans and their sympathizers. But where an ordinary person sees a monster the CIA see a valuable asset. Borghese would go on to stage an attempted coup in 1970 aborted last minute by a phone call from Richard Nixon himself. He was forced to flee to Franco's Spain where Fascists were always welcome and were quickly put to work torturing and killing the populace. Until then he was vital in recruiting fascists to subvert italian democracy on behalf of the CIA. Clearly Italy deserves it's own article as I am only able to discuss a few of the famous incidents in the US secret war there.
The secret War in France became a downright low level civil war within what Peter Dale Scott calls the Deep State. When French President Charles De Gaulle decided to end France's dirty War to prevent Algerian independence elements of french special forces the 11th Du choc paratrooper division veterans of brutal counterinsurgency campaigns in Vietnam and Algeria, along with parts of French intelligence, and France's stay behind network formed OAS with CIA support and launched a campaign of terror. They even attempted to Assassinate De Gaulle more then once along with launching terror bombings in France and Algeria. In the worst incident the Crypto Fascist mayor of Paris had between 200-300 pro-independence Protestors killed For years De Gaulle had to struggle to regain control of french intelligence and reign in the OAS. On one occasion he even launched a series of terror bombings against Cafes frequented by OAS in retaliation for an attack. The CIA also backed an attempted coup against him. These incidents were partly behind his decision to expel NATO from France. They moved to Belgium and it wasn't long before the already mentioned attacks began to occur there. Meanwhile De Gaulle also used elements of the secret army still loyal to him to repress the communists in a secret campaign of violence. Like in Italy a lot happened in France. I'll just mention that Jacques Foccart architect of France's Neo-Colonial African Empire also helped Found the Gaullist secret army SAC.
Greece was to suffer some of the worst crimes of the gladio network. First the US and UK supported and even participated in the brutal counterinsurgency against the Greek resistance. Then once it became nominally democratic again it was to suffer first a CIA engineered "silent coup" against the prime minister then in 1967 The secret army would stage a loud coup and installed a military juntas that waged a terror campaign of murder and torture. The GLADIO network was let loose to do what Fascists love to do, and what the CIA loves to have done on it's behalf. The whole populace feared that knock on the door that meant one would be taken away for months of torture and probable death. As observers noted at the time democracy had been destroyed in it's Ancient birthplace by the country that had hosted it's modern birthplace. Johnson had Early in his presidency engaged in the this Priceless Monologue Johnson thundered "Listen to me Mr Ambassador Fuck Your Parliament and Constitution. America is an Elephant. Cyprus is a flea. Greece is a flea. If those two fleas continue itching the elephant they may just get whacked by the elephants trunk, whacked good"
he continued "We pay a lot of good American dollars to the Greeks, Mr. ambassador If Your Prime Minister gives me talk about democracy, parliament and constitution, he his parliament and his constitution may not last long." (Ganser p. 219) he then told the Ambassador "tell papa what's his name what i told you."
Then when the ambassador reported the conversation to Prime Minister George Papapandreou Johnson informed by the NSA immediately called the ambassador and said "Are you trying to get yourself into my bad books mr ambassador? Do you want me to get really angry with you? That was a private conversation me and you had, you had no call putting in all them words I used on you. Watch Your Step."
This is what America truly thinks about it's so called European Allies. I included it because for once an American President is speaking the truth privately of course. Many fleas have been whacked by the american elephant with no end in sight. Greece yesterday Ukraine today.
In Portugal and Spain there was not even the illusion of democracy after the war. Somehow nobody ever seems to mention that while the Americans and British were loudly trumpeting their victory over fascism and proclaiming their bold defense of liberty, they were allying themselves with Fascist dictatorships in Spain and Portugal. For nearly 30 years both would live under dictatorships and many would declare after the discovery of gladio that in Spain and Portugal GLADIO was the government. The secret armies proliferated along with various CIA partnered secret police agencies. Portugal was ruled by General Salazar a secret client of the British who had seized power back in 1926. Franco seized power after the bloody spanish civil war. It was the usual story one finds in western backed military dictatorships. They waged a war on their populations using murder and torture. In Portugal the GLADIO branch Aginter Press was international in scope. It was responsible for Murdering famous African revolutionaries like Amilcar Cabral and Eduardo Mondlane the leader of Frelimo. They were also involved in the Piazza Fontana bombing in Italy. Franco's secret army ran an international assassination campaign and employed such infamous figures as Stefano Delle Chiaie who committed terror attacks in Italy, then was involved in assassinating Franco's critics before working for the Pinochet regime in Chile. Also employed by Franco were Hitler's favorite commando Otto Skorzeny and Yves Guerin Serac a notorious French Paratrooper and Fascist Ideologue.
Lastly there is GLADIO operations in Turkey. Turkey suffered two coups carried out by it's secret army and as in Greece, Spain, and Portugal the secret army was able to terrorize the populace with impunity. Even high ranking politicians were kidnapped and tortured. High ranking Gladio member Colonel Turks would found the Grey Wolves turkish Fascists intimately involved in false Flag terrorism, counterinsurgency, and the international drug trade. This confluence of forces was represented in an infamous "accident" on November 3 1996 at susurluk Husseyin Kocadaq A high ranking Police officer deeply involved in the counter insurgency war in Turkey, was killed along with Abdullah Catli who directed the grey wolves and was a fugitive wanted for murder and drug trafficking. Also killed was Catli's Girlfriend Gonca Us a former beauty queen turned mafia hit woman. The only survivor was right wing politician and warlord Sedat Bucak. This strange incident what is known as a deep event is obsessed over in Turkey the way the JFK assassination is in the US. To learn more watch the excellent interviews James Corbett did with Sibel Edmonds as the incident is part of a web involving the international drug trade, corruption of congress, nuclear spying, so called Al Qaeda referred to back in 90's by the FBI as Gladio B and 9/11 . Thus Turkey is the connecting link between the false flag attacks of the cold war period and the state sponsored terror of today whether directed against Syria, Russia, Iran or China. As Sibel Edmonds Observed Turkey was the most important gladio country. They engaged in false flag attacks, massacres, brutal counterinsurgencies against the left and the kurds, also two coups and continues to be important in destabilizing Eurasia.
Clearly Gladio remains an important part of european history the scope of which is rarely fully understood. Upon joining NATO countries signed secret agreements promising to keep their population in check. Secret armies were used to wage a false flag terror campaign in Italy and Belgium. In France and Italy they even launched failed coup attempts. In Greece and Turkey the coups proved successful and a Fascist regime of terror was instituted. In Portugal and Spain the secret armies were used to preserve fascist dictatorships and commit acts of assassination and terror on their behalf. Today in Ukraine we see a similar phenomena Fascists trained by NATO have overthrown the government now they are terrorizing the population using fascist paramilitaries. It is just the latest example of the Illusion of western Democracy. After conquering then loosing control of the world Europe has become little more then just another piece of the American Empire. It's proclamations about western democracy are revealed to be hollow lies by the secret agreements it has signed agreeing to wage secret wars on it's own people if necessary in order to maintain the status quo.
Sources
I relied Mainly on Daniele Ganser's excellent "NATO's Secret Armies Operation Gladio and terrorism in western Europe. It deals with all the NATO countries. It is packed with information and many chapters deserve their own book. Here is an article by him available online
http://libya360.wordpress.com/2014/05/23/gladio-the-strategy-of-tension-in-the-cold-war-period/
I also found Christopher Simpson's "Blowback" a Great source on the topic. There is also an excellent documentary on Gladio available online. do a search for Gladio BBC Timewatch it was directed by Alan Francovich and features interviews with many of the key players in the attacks plus infamous CIA figures.
Check out this interview with Tom Secker going over the basics
www.corbettreport.com/interview-582-tom-secker-on-operation-gladio/
Then delve into the world of Gladio B with James Corbett and Sibel Edmonds
http://porkinspolicyreview.wordpress.com/2013/02/22/sibel-edmonds-on-operation-gladio/
If you want more go to the Corbett report and so a search for Sibel Edmonds there were a whole string of mindblowing interviews in 2013.
Also if you want some great reporting on false flag terror go to Pearse Redmonds site Porkins Policy review. He has some great podcasts on the topic in Contemporary times. He was kind enough to mention my Site on a recent episode (episode 24 Who is Samantha Lewthwaite) so I'll return the favor, he has some great shows on Africa, the war on terror, the Drug war in Mexico as well as lighter topics like films.
http://porkinspolicyreview.wordpress.com
There is a sickening spectacle unfolding in Ukraine so called "Western Democracies" are supporting a brutal regime made up of Billionaire Oligarchs and avowed Fascists while they wage war on their own people. In fact the IMF even made it's loans conditional on the successful prosecution of it's war. The CIA is advising the new regime on how to crush dissent by terrorizing the population. Of course it's an old story in the third world but what is seldom recognized is it is not such a rare occurrence in Europe itself. Whether they know it or not the citizens of NATO countries and even non-NATO countries have only the illusion of national sovereignty or democracy. As Daniele Ganser explains in his book "NATO's Secret Armies Operation GLADIO and Terrorism in Western Europe" after world war 2 western european counties signed secret bilateral agreements with the United States vowing that they would prevent any democratic movement that would threaten to either change the social order or adopt an independent foreign policy. As part of these secret agreements they agreed to found secret "stay behind armies" that would wage a secret war on the public to manipulate public opinion through so called psychological operations. Psychological operations can range from propaganda, to false flag terror attacks, up to official State terror against the populace. In many countries they recruited fascists and later they would found, train and fund new fascist groups. This is what they don't mention about the recent extreme right wing victories. For 70 years the CIA in cooperation with the intelligence agencies of every european country have kept fascism alive in Europe by funding and training them. Throughout the Cold War stay behind armies would be involved in all sorts of crimes and strange operations terrorism, assassinations, coups and operation Condor style state repression. The cover for these stay behind armies was that they existed to prepare for a Soviet Invasion. However they also had the dual role of keeping communists from coming to power peacefully. In Italy, France, and Greece stay behinds would be used from the beginning to subvert democracy. In countries not in danger of voting against the wishes of the US and UK the Stay Behind Networks might remain largely dormant. However in places where the communists and socialists enjoyed broad popular support the stay behind networks were quite active. Not only communists were targeted however. Even general De Gaulle a strong anti-communist became a target when he wisely decided to grant Algeria independence. In other countries such as Spain and Portugal which were openly fascist dictatorships the secret armies literally became the government and were used to kidnap torture and kill any who dared to dissent or often merely anyone who aroused their paranoid suspicions. This article is yet another continuation of my earlier article "America, the CIA, and Fascism", and like "Nazis and the CIA" it is an expansion on a paragraph of that article. I have relied mostly on Daniele Ganser's "NATO's Secret Armies" in it he describes what is known about GLADIO operations in all the NATO members countries.
Operation GLADIO is technically only the Italian branch of GADIO. Every country's secret army had their own name. However I'll call them GLADIO simply because it is shorter and catchier then "Stay Behind Network" also the term stay behind network reinforces the cover story that they were meant to defend against an invasion that never occurred.. GlADIO became famous in 1990 when the Italian Prime minister Giulio Andreotti was forced to publicly admit their existence. However their existence was periodically revealed and forgotten from the start. Actually the first scandal involving GLADIO occurred before the cold war even began at least if you were Greek. In Greece the British cynically changed sides during the war and began supporting the fascists against the communist dominated resistance way back in 1943. Churchill personally ordered the policy change against the pleas of the British spies and special forces that had been fighting alongside the resistance on the ground. Instead the british began to support Fascist Death squads called X bands and Later the Hellenic Mountain Force. Because of Continuing resistance and the decline of british Power the Americans would take over continuing to support fascists and invading the country and using Napalm to terrorize the population into submission in the aptly Named project Torch. Yet this was only the beginning of Greece's tragedy. Gladio had it's origin in the british SOE founded in 1940 to set up resistance forces all across Europe. The british would train secret armies to engage in espionage, sabotage, and Terrorism against the germans. Later the Germans as they were loosing would set up their own stay behind networks popularly called werewolves. However the most popular and effective resistance to fascism during the war was from the communist resistance movements. This is one reason why popular fronts composed of Socialists and Communists were on the verge of winning Elections in France and Italy postwar. The US decided to use it's old allies the british and it's new Fascist allies to establish secret armies all across Europe as mentioned in my article Nazis and the CIA they also established stay behind networks to attack eastern block countries where they engaged in a campaign of espionage, assassination, Terrorism and guerrilla war in which tens of thousands perished. Similar networks were established all over the world giving birth to death squads in latin america, operation phoenix in Vietnam, and support for drug financed guerrilla armies throughout Asia, in Africa as well there were brutal proxy armies created leading to millions dead. Thus these european networks should be seen in a global context which is why events in Greece, Spain, Portugal and Turkey so closely resembled events in Latin America. Every European countries thus had within it the secret embryo of a Fascist Counter revolution. Actually as Daniele Ganser reveals the situation was much worse in Norway and Italy documents were leaked which showed that should any democratic movement attempted to force America to close it's military bases in a given country the US was prepared to use it's own Military to suppress any potential rebellions should the native government prove unable to keep it's people in check. In fact the US nearly decided to launch a military crackdown in Italy to prevent the communists from winning the elections. So beware people of Europe of ever endangering America's strategic interests lest you be crushed like the people of Ukraine are being crushed.
GLADIO armies were all centrally controlled from NATO's SHAPE Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe. SHAPE is Nato's controlling body within SHAPE the ACC and CPC had direct control of GLADIO forces throughout Europe. In addition all heads of European Intelligence agencies met frequently to coordinate the Secret War. If ACC and CPC have not changed their name then researchers would do well to look into their coordination of networks of terrorists and drug and weapons dealers today. Sibel Edmonds has said that GLADIO B the islamist Gladio networks involved in the US NATO covert war for Eurasia were still coordinated from an office in NATO when she worked in the FBI around 2001. ACC stood for Allied Clandestine Committee. CPC was the Clandestine Planning Committee. In addition the Pentagon and the CIA were involved in all details of GLADIO operations. I mention it to debunk the version of events where the GLADIO networks merely got out of control. In reality they were all centrally coordinated with direct US supervision although the UK was almost as influential in controlling the networks. Actually the two would sometimes compete for sponsorship of the GLADIO networks. The British Training was more prestigious although expensive while the American's offered free supplies the british charged. Italian Gladio decided it wanted british training but still accepted the free American weapons angering MI-6. Often the country would have to beg the two countries to co-operate leading in many countries to trilateral committees made up of the host country plus US and British intelligence. The GlADIO forces would secretly expand by having each member recruit 10 more. The US had refusal over all candidates. In many countries Fascist groups were recruited, trained, and in some cases even begun by GLADIO groups. In addition every secret army had stockpiles of weapons explosives, gold, and communications gear hidden around the country.
Now onto the many crimes of Gladio secret armies in those countries where these networks did not remain dormant. The first major scandal occurred appropriately in Germany. Germany's secret army was initially the TD the armed wing of the BDJ both filled with notorious nazi's recruited by the US. In fact the Infamous Klaus Barbie himself was employed as Top recruiter, even though he was wanted by the french for a brutal massacre among many other crimes like torture and murder making him the perfect CIA agent. The TD with CIA knowledge was caught planning to assassinate around a hundred of Germany's top socialist and communist politicians and journalists. They assigned members to stalk their potential targets but fortunately one member came forward and a major scandal emerged followed by the inevitable coverup. Although Ganser does not discuss the topic given GlADIO tactics in Italy where they managed to infiltrate red Brigades and engineer attacks, it is likely that some of the German left wing terrorism may have been part of Germany's GLADIO. However we do know that the German stay behind network was involved in the Munich Bombing on Sept 26, 1980 which killed 13 and wounded 213. The explosive was supplied from a GLADIO stockpile. The GLADIO member who confessed to supplying explosives was found dead the next day.
In Belgium the GLADIO network was involved in mysterious mass shootings. In the 40's it is strongly suspected that they assassinated Julian Lahaut who had dared to shout long live the Republic while returning king Baudoin took his Oath. In the 70's The network smuggled in American special forces who engaged in a so called exercise in which they attacked a belgian army base and stole weapons, even shooting a guard. Eventually the stolen weapons were planted in a Left wing politicians home in an attempt to frame him. Next they launched an attack on a gendarmerie (a paramilitary police force) station even though many belgian GLADIO members were also gendarmerie members. When a member came forward he was told "we already know shut up". Then in the 80's the stay behind army would carry out a series of mass shootings in supermarkets going out of their way to kill people and even killing police who arrived on the scene.
The most famous GLADIO terror attacks occurred in Italy. There were over 14,591 political acts of violence between January, 1st 1969 and dec 31 1987 according to a Parliamentary study. 491 were killed and 1181 injured or maimed. GLADIO was responsible for the major incidents. Plus some of it's members talked explicitly spelling out the strategy of Tension taught by the CIA and special forces around the world. In fact because of the GLADIO scandal in Italy and Turkey a top secret army training manual FM 30-31 emerged which advised trainees to carry out false flag terror attacks and blame them on their opponents as well as infiltrating left wing groups to carry out attacks. In Italy GLADIO would carry out many such attacks. In 1969 shortly before christmas 4 bombs exploded in Rome and Milan 16 killed 80 wounded. The worst bomb was the one in Piazza Fontana in Milan. On May 31 1972 in Peteano 3 police were killed and one wounded in another false flag bomb attack. On May 28, 1974 in Brescia an antiFascist march was targeted in another bomb attack 8 dead 102 injured. Then on August 4 1974 the Rome to Munich Train known as Italicus was bombed 12 killed 48 wounded. The worst of all came August 2, 1980 in the Bologna railway Station where 85 were killed and 200 wounded. GLADIO was responsible for all of these attacks. In addition the state framed innocent people for all of them. Most shocking of all perhaps was the assassination of Italian prime minister Aldo Moro who was personally threatened with Death by none other the Henry Kissinger. Moro dared to include communists in his cabinet reflecting the endlessly ignored wishes of Italian voters. His body guard's were murdered and he was kidnapped before being found shot dead in the trunk of a car. Of course GLADIO was only one element in America's Secret war on Italy. The mafia, the vatican, and the infamous P2 Masonic lodge were all involved with the CIA's covert policies in Italy but the topic is to complex to go into here. This is why Italy tends to Overshadow all the other Gladio networks. Fascism was obviously a major element. At the end of the war the infamous future CIA counterintelligence chief James Jesus Angleton decided to save the life of fascist death squad lead Prince Junio Valerio Borghese aka The Black Prince from a partisan firing squad. During the war he had personally supervised the execution of thousands of partisans and their sympathizers. But where an ordinary person sees a monster the CIA see a valuable asset. Borghese would go on to stage an attempted coup in 1970 aborted last minute by a phone call from Richard Nixon himself. He was forced to flee to Franco's Spain where Fascists were always welcome and were quickly put to work torturing and killing the populace. Until then he was vital in recruiting fascists to subvert italian democracy on behalf of the CIA. Clearly Italy deserves it's own article as I am only able to discuss a few of the famous incidents in the US secret war there.
The secret War in France became a downright low level civil war within what Peter Dale Scott calls the Deep State. When French President Charles De Gaulle decided to end France's dirty War to prevent Algerian independence elements of french special forces the 11th Du choc paratrooper division veterans of brutal counterinsurgency campaigns in Vietnam and Algeria, along with parts of French intelligence, and France's stay behind network formed OAS with CIA support and launched a campaign of terror. They even attempted to Assassinate De Gaulle more then once along with launching terror bombings in France and Algeria. In the worst incident the Crypto Fascist mayor of Paris had between 200-300 pro-independence Protestors killed For years De Gaulle had to struggle to regain control of french intelligence and reign in the OAS. On one occasion he even launched a series of terror bombings against Cafes frequented by OAS in retaliation for an attack. The CIA also backed an attempted coup against him. These incidents were partly behind his decision to expel NATO from France. They moved to Belgium and it wasn't long before the already mentioned attacks began to occur there. Meanwhile De Gaulle also used elements of the secret army still loyal to him to repress the communists in a secret campaign of violence. Like in Italy a lot happened in France. I'll just mention that Jacques Foccart architect of France's Neo-Colonial African Empire also helped Found the Gaullist secret army SAC.
Greece was to suffer some of the worst crimes of the gladio network. First the US and UK supported and even participated in the brutal counterinsurgency against the Greek resistance. Then once it became nominally democratic again it was to suffer first a CIA engineered "silent coup" against the prime minister then in 1967 The secret army would stage a loud coup and installed a military juntas that waged a terror campaign of murder and torture. The GLADIO network was let loose to do what Fascists love to do, and what the CIA loves to have done on it's behalf. The whole populace feared that knock on the door that meant one would be taken away for months of torture and probable death. As observers noted at the time democracy had been destroyed in it's Ancient birthplace by the country that had hosted it's modern birthplace. Johnson had Early in his presidency engaged in the this Priceless Monologue Johnson thundered "Listen to me Mr Ambassador Fuck Your Parliament and Constitution. America is an Elephant. Cyprus is a flea. Greece is a flea. If those two fleas continue itching the elephant they may just get whacked by the elephants trunk, whacked good"
he continued "We pay a lot of good American dollars to the Greeks, Mr. ambassador If Your Prime Minister gives me talk about democracy, parliament and constitution, he his parliament and his constitution may not last long." (Ganser p. 219) he then told the Ambassador "tell papa what's his name what i told you."
Then when the ambassador reported the conversation to Prime Minister George Papapandreou Johnson informed by the NSA immediately called the ambassador and said "Are you trying to get yourself into my bad books mr ambassador? Do you want me to get really angry with you? That was a private conversation me and you had, you had no call putting in all them words I used on you. Watch Your Step."
This is what America truly thinks about it's so called European Allies. I included it because for once an American President is speaking the truth privately of course. Many fleas have been whacked by the american elephant with no end in sight. Greece yesterday Ukraine today.
In Portugal and Spain there was not even the illusion of democracy after the war. Somehow nobody ever seems to mention that while the Americans and British were loudly trumpeting their victory over fascism and proclaiming their bold defense of liberty, they were allying themselves with Fascist dictatorships in Spain and Portugal. For nearly 30 years both would live under dictatorships and many would declare after the discovery of gladio that in Spain and Portugal GLADIO was the government. The secret armies proliferated along with various CIA partnered secret police agencies. Portugal was ruled by General Salazar a secret client of the British who had seized power back in 1926. Franco seized power after the bloody spanish civil war. It was the usual story one finds in western backed military dictatorships. They waged a war on their populations using murder and torture. In Portugal the GLADIO branch Aginter Press was international in scope. It was responsible for Murdering famous African revolutionaries like Amilcar Cabral and Eduardo Mondlane the leader of Frelimo. They were also involved in the Piazza Fontana bombing in Italy. Franco's secret army ran an international assassination campaign and employed such infamous figures as Stefano Delle Chiaie who committed terror attacks in Italy, then was involved in assassinating Franco's critics before working for the Pinochet regime in Chile. Also employed by Franco were Hitler's favorite commando Otto Skorzeny and Yves Guerin Serac a notorious French Paratrooper and Fascist Ideologue.
Lastly there is GLADIO operations in Turkey. Turkey suffered two coups carried out by it's secret army and as in Greece, Spain, and Portugal the secret army was able to terrorize the populace with impunity. Even high ranking politicians were kidnapped and tortured. High ranking Gladio member Colonel Turks would found the Grey Wolves turkish Fascists intimately involved in false Flag terrorism, counterinsurgency, and the international drug trade. This confluence of forces was represented in an infamous "accident" on November 3 1996 at susurluk Husseyin Kocadaq A high ranking Police officer deeply involved in the counter insurgency war in Turkey, was killed along with Abdullah Catli who directed the grey wolves and was a fugitive wanted for murder and drug trafficking. Also killed was Catli's Girlfriend Gonca Us a former beauty queen turned mafia hit woman. The only survivor was right wing politician and warlord Sedat Bucak. This strange incident what is known as a deep event is obsessed over in Turkey the way the JFK assassination is in the US. To learn more watch the excellent interviews James Corbett did with Sibel Edmonds as the incident is part of a web involving the international drug trade, corruption of congress, nuclear spying, so called Al Qaeda referred to back in 90's by the FBI as Gladio B and 9/11 . Thus Turkey is the connecting link between the false flag attacks of the cold war period and the state sponsored terror of today whether directed against Syria, Russia, Iran or China. As Sibel Edmonds Observed Turkey was the most important gladio country. They engaged in false flag attacks, massacres, brutal counterinsurgencies against the left and the kurds, also two coups and continues to be important in destabilizing Eurasia.
Clearly Gladio remains an important part of european history the scope of which is rarely fully understood. Upon joining NATO countries signed secret agreements promising to keep their population in check. Secret armies were used to wage a false flag terror campaign in Italy and Belgium. In France and Italy they even launched failed coup attempts. In Greece and Turkey the coups proved successful and a Fascist regime of terror was instituted. In Portugal and Spain the secret armies were used to preserve fascist dictatorships and commit acts of assassination and terror on their behalf. Today in Ukraine we see a similar phenomena Fascists trained by NATO have overthrown the government now they are terrorizing the population using fascist paramilitaries. It is just the latest example of the Illusion of western Democracy. After conquering then loosing control of the world Europe has become little more then just another piece of the American Empire. It's proclamations about western democracy are revealed to be hollow lies by the secret agreements it has signed agreeing to wage secret wars on it's own people if necessary in order to maintain the status quo.
Sources
I relied Mainly on Daniele Ganser's excellent "NATO's Secret Armies Operation Gladio and terrorism in western Europe. It deals with all the NATO countries. It is packed with information and many chapters deserve their own book. Here is an article by him available online
http://libya360.wordpress.com/2014/05/23/gladio-the-strategy-of-tension-in-the-cold-war-period/
I also found Christopher Simpson's "Blowback" a Great source on the topic. There is also an excellent documentary on Gladio available online. do a search for Gladio BBC Timewatch it was directed by Alan Francovich and features interviews with many of the key players in the attacks plus infamous CIA figures.
Check out this interview with Tom Secker going over the basics
www.corbettreport.com/interview-582-tom-secker-on-operation-gladio/
Then delve into the world of Gladio B with James Corbett and Sibel Edmonds
http://porkinspolicyreview.wordpress.com/2013/02/22/sibel-edmonds-on-operation-gladio/
If you want more go to the Corbett report and so a search for Sibel Edmonds there were a whole string of mindblowing interviews in 2013.
Also if you want some great reporting on false flag terror go to Pearse Redmonds site Porkins Policy review. He has some great podcasts on the topic in Contemporary times. He was kind enough to mention my Site on a recent episode (episode 24 Who is Samantha Lewthwaite) so I'll return the favor, he has some great shows on Africa, the war on terror, the Drug war in Mexico as well as lighter topics like films.
http://porkinspolicyreview.wordpress.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)