Covert War in the Ukraine behind the myth of the latest Russian Invasion
The Ukrainian Civil war saw yet another decisive turn of events this week as the NAF the Novorussiya Armed Forces went on the offensive for the first time in the war. The Response by Kiev and the west was to Hype up an imaginary Russian Invasion. Once again the US state department, NATO, and the western press made complete fools of themselves. The information war has also seen a decisive turn as well. To use the terminology of the civil war recent days have seen the mainstream media yet again trapped in a cauldron by their own stupidity. Now they will be hammered away at and discredited yet again by articles such as this one. Sites like Vineyard of the Saker and http://slavyangrad.org were vindicated in their Analysis while media Dinosaurs like the New York Times were exposed once again as liars and incompetents. A lone blogger in Crimea writing under the name Colonel Cassad provided better military analysis then Professionals like Janes Defense weekly.
In my last article I predicted based on reading the above mentioned sites that the mainstream media which was foolishly predicting the Imminent victory of the Ukrainian army was in for a major embarrassment. The Ukraine Junta's latest offensive had resulted in them being trapped yet again in what the NAF call Cauldrons (A trapped pocket of the UA army brought to boil by NAF rocket and artillery strikes). Basically the Strategy has been for the Ukraine Junta to launch an offensive the NAF allow them to enter and once they are deep into Novorussiyan Territory they are surrounded their supplies cut off and they are shelled day after day by distant artillery. The new offensive resulted in the Ukrainian army trapped yet again in a number of different pockets. After months of catastrophic losses the Ukrainian forces no longer had the troops to properly defend their territory. The NAF seized the opportunity to go on the offensive outflanking and surrounding the forces committed to the assault on Iloviask. Then it launched an attack south and west towards Mauripol which they have since surrounded. Kiev Forces Panicked and fled in abject terror. It was this dramatic turn of events which lead to the story of a Russian invasion. Since Kiev and western media had been busy turning truth on it's head how could they explain this sudden reversal. They had been promising victory and the collapse of Novorossiya. Now for the first time Novorossiya was recapturing territory lost months before, In paranoid fascist Kiev people believe that they are being actively betrayed and that their Generals are secretly paid by the Russians to intentionally send their troops to their deaths. Actually in the notoriously corrupt Ukraine this might be possible. After all the US and NATO frequently bribe generals into betraying their country many an Iraqi and Libyan general was rewarded with suitcases of cash and safe passage to western Europe or the US. To sort out what is truly going on behind the scenes will take years. War breeds chaos paranoia, madness. Wild rumors proliferate since no one can trust official information which is invariably mere war propaganda. Just as in Iraq Americans were told day after that victory was "Just around the corner" if we stayed the course. Ukrainians have been lied to in the same Orwellian manner. They are also paradoxically told that they are battling not the people of South Eastern Ukraine but the Russian Army. The two are completely contradictory Russia is undoubtedly the second greatest military power in the world. In the Georgia war they managed to beat the Georgian army in hours. Georgia had been receiving massive supplies and training from the US and NATO for years unlike Ukraine which is has been using mass mobilization to rebuild it's army which was in a sorry state since at the start of the war. My point is that if Russia launched an invasion of it's regular army it would preceded by a barrage of missiles and airstrikes and could conquer Ukraine in a day. It would not look like the modest offensive aimed at Liberating Mauripol which sparked the Hysteria of a Russian Invasion. If the Kiev forces were battling a Russian invasion rather then the local population the war would already be over.
It's becoming a familiar pattern in world affairs that I've already remarked upon several times before. Whenever one of America's enemies manages to achieve a decisive victory what is known as a "Psychological operation" is launched. In Syria for example decisive victories by the Syrian army were followed by chemical weapons attacks by the rebels and attempts to blame the Assad regime. Last month in Ukraine after a massive southern cauldron of trapped UA (Ukrainian army forces) was formed. MH17 was blown out of the sky by Kiev. One month later the lies advanced by the Obama administration, the media and Kiev about MH17 have been debunked while increasing evidence piles up against Kiev, the Question of who shot the plane down is now ignored. Now in Retaliation for the Latest NAF victories yet another Psychological operation was launched this time a mass media campaign Accusing Russia of invading. Poroshenko started it by claiming that a massive Russian force had crossed the Boarder. Embarrassingly the new York times published a Sensationalized account that they quickly retracted claiming a massive force of artillery, tanks, and anti aircraft vehicles had crossed the border. However they quickly issued a new version that used the same hyperbolic tone but instead alleged that a mere 5 APCs had crossed the border. Below I'll address the Issue of the border and Russian aid to the rebels. For now I'll just say that these APCs if they existed are hardly an invasion. Earlier in the week a lone Russian APC was captured under extremely mysterious circumstances. Then some extremely dubious satellite photos claiming to show Russian artillery and tanks in Ukraine were released. The photos failed to show the artillery crossing over the border and so are more likely merely NAF artillery which they have been using to great effect for months. Given that it was only the week before that the west was claiming the Russian aid convoy was secretly an invasion force made up of "military Vehicles" ie trucks Western credibility is at an all time low. The convoy returned to Russia without incident. Russia is already preparing another Aid convoy. Apparently none of them have heard the tale of the boy who cried wolf. Embarrassingly the OSCE observers refused to corroborate their claims of a Russian invasion they monitor the border and denied the whole tale.
The timing of this Russian Invasion media campaign was not only a response to the military disaster suffered by UA it was also meant to derail the Minsk peace talks which took place the same week and build Hype for the NATO wales Summit scheduled for the following week. Putin had been working on a diplomatic solution with Angela Merkel. Europe already in economic trouble thanks to it's austerity policies is now suffering from the economic war with Russia the US pushed them into. In addition the US is constantly trying to extort more money from it's European vassals for NATO. Year after year US officials complain that Europe does not live up to it's responsibilities and must increase their funding for America's wars. Thus the Russian invasion scare was a response not just to events in Ukraine but an attempt to manipulate Europe's leaders into obeying the US.
Is Russia providing covert support to the rebels? Probably however Russia knows how to keep it's mouth shut unlike the US which loudly announces that it is participating in a covert war ie Syria, passing bills in congress and sending senators to pose with terrorists then when convenient pretending to have nothing to do with it. Russia isn't going to admit anything. The only actual proof would have to be supplied by the US and NATO and for some reason they seem unable or unwilling to provide any. The question misses the real point however. The US and NATO have been quite openly involved at the beginning of the war CIA director Bremer himself showed up to advise the Junta as I discussed in "Ukraine, Lies and Death." It was massive US and NATO covert involvement that Overthrew Yanukovich and placed the Ultranationalists and Oligarchs in power who provoked the civil war in the first place. This was the second such coup. In other words western covert involvement in the Ukraine goes back decades and as I've discussed in "Nazi's and the CIA" the US has been using Fascists to destabilize Ukraine since the 1940's and Ukraine itself owed it's existence to decades of Prior german interference. Currently operating in Ukraine off the top of my head there have been reports of western mercenaries, Israelis, most Numerous are the numbers of Poles, Plus you have US and NATO member special forces. In fact while Jen Psaki was spouting false accusation at the UN security council against Russia the Pentagon was issuing a press release on the retirement of Admiral William Mcraven Commander of Joint Special Operation Command (JSOC) the pentagon couldn't resist bragging about having special operations forces heavily involved in Eastern Europe. (I only know cause I recently followed a bunch of NATO and Pentagon twitter accounts) No doubt they are involved in both training forces for the Ukrainian civil war plus the Secret armies sent by places like Poland and Latvia. In addition they are conducting covert ops in Ukraine. There have already been reports by the NAF that americans have died. It's all standard practice in americas endless dirty wars. Yes many countries are involved In the Ukraine. The point is that the US and it's allies are supporting a genocidal war against the Russian minority in the South Eastern Ukraine. More then a million have already been forced to flee their homes. Thousands have been killed. Officially around 2000 but these numbers are undoubtedly too low. In western Ukraine many people have been kidnapped and murdered for daring to criticize the regime. A haunting report appeared on Slavyangard from a refugee who returned to discover that the original inhabitants of Slavyansk had largely disappeared and the houses has been given to people from western Ukraine. Kiev won't even release accurate figures on the number of troops they lost let alone those murdered by the government or the fascist paramilitaries. Any Russian aid on the other hand is intended to help the NAF defend the People of Novorossiya against the Kiev regime. At the beginning of the war Putin promised to protect ethnic Russians in Ukraine. Russian aid is his way of keeping this promise without possibly starting world war 3 by direct intervention.
Now lets discuss the question of where the NAF get their arms. This is based on various assertions by Colonel Cassad. Most are looted from the defeated Ukrainian army. The NAF calls them Trophies and every victory has increased their supply of equipment like artillery, tanks, and APCs. In fact they have more then they know what to do with and many are idle while new people are trained to operate them. . Some are purchased from corrupt Ukrainian commanders. There is are also mysterious criminal arms dealers operating in the area that sell to both sides. Plus their are supplies donated by private citizens in Russia who understandably do not want to see their fellow Russians slaughtered in Ukraine and are also proud of the successes achieved by the NAF. Most of the donors are ordinary citizens but supposedly a few Russian Oligarchs send aid. In addition their is covert Russian aid. The border since the collapse of the UA attempt to encircle Novorossia from the south is a chaotic place with people crossing back and forth frequently. The NAF have claimed to have over 3000 Russian volunteers in their ranks. Some doubtless are covert military advisers many are simply Courageous people who have gone to help defend the People of Novorossiya. They have trickled in over the months of the war. Thus they hardly constitute an invasion. currently there are an estimated 15,000 people in the NAF the vast majority of them ordinary people from the region Miners workers, schoolteachers. Many of them are women. A small number of people from around the world have gone to Novorossiya to risk their lives in what they see as a fight against Fascism. Men and women from Spain, France, Germany and many other places have gone off to fight on behalf of Novorossiya. On the other hand neo-nazis from all over the world are enlisting to aid what they hope will be the rebirth of fascism. Even more shocking are the reports that the UA are charging rich tourists for the opportunity to murder people in what are dubbed Human Safaris.
Yes in in reality the Ukraine situation is already completely chaotic with all sorts of outside forces interfering in the conflict which was of course started from outside to serve US NATO strategic interests. There are also all sorts of shady criminal elements and crooked businessmen involved. There is covert military support flowing in both from Russia and the West. There are intelligence agencies advising both sides. If you want to sift through the strange world of rumor and scandal I'd suggest the Colonel Cassad blog even the Ukrainians themselves are confused about what is going on so it is impossible for an outside observer to really guess all that is going on behind the curtains in the Ukraine crisis. Paranoia has long ago set in on both sides of the conflict and their is endless speculation about plots and schemes behind the scenes. More important is what is right in front of our eyes. Namely the billions of dollars being loaned by the IMF to Ukraine are being used not to salvage it's rapidly collapsing economy but is instead being used to make war on it's own people. This surely dwarfs whatever covert support Russia may be supplying. NATO's Eastern European members are also funneling men and equipment into the conflict. Thus the NAF remain outgunned and outmanned. Russian aid alone does not explain their recent victories. Instead their is first the fact that they are motivated by the desire to defend their homes. Second because they are undermanned their commanders have been very careful with the lives of their men. Thus many have managed to gain valuable experience in the war. Kiev on the other hand has already sacrificed many of their most experienced units in their endless reckless offensives aimed at crushing Novorossiya before independence day August 24th. There is no avoiding a tangent here as I must discuss Ukraine's independence day Poroshenko claimed his troops would be marching in a victory parade on that date through the streets of Donetsk and so partly in mockery partly as emulation of the march held in Moscow of German prisoners of War before the final offensive that would crush Nazi Germany began, the NAF forced their UA prisoners to parade before the populace. As someone obsessed by classical history I can't help but point out that it was how the romans celebrated their victories this is where we get the word triumph. Although the march was a violation of international law which forbids the use of POW's for propaganda purposes at least they were still physically able to march. Given that they were all involved in a genocidal war on the locals they seemed in fairly good condition. Contrast this with the fate of captured NAF who are shot, hung, or at the very least so severely beaten that they wouldn't have been able to march anywhere. Thus while the march proved a public relations disaster in the west (the New York Times impudently claimed that they were holding an anti-independence march) It was a relatively minor crime compared with all the homes, schools, hospitals, factories etc bombed and shelled by the Kiev regime, killing thousands. Only weeks before the situation had seemed extremely perilous with Donetsk and Lugansk in danger of being cut off from each other and encircled. Thus they can be forgiven this celebration aimed at Humiliating Poroshenko. And perhaps I can be forgiven if it made me smile.
To return to my point Ukraine has lost many experienced men who are replaced with raw recruits who provide easy prey for the NAF. The NAF on the other hand are becoming battle hardened veterans and are clearly doing a good job of training their new volunteers. It's poetic justice the Kiev regimes total disregard for the lives of it's people has come back to haunt them. They face a well motivated and experienced enemy. This not a "Russian Invasion" is what explains their recent defeats. Meanwhile before the NAF counter offensive began Poroshenko dissolved his parliament and he faces mass protests both from those demanding a halt to the war and those demanding he do more to win. The Fascists national guard units are in open rebellion. Putin called upon the Novorossiyan's to open a humanitarian corridor for the surrounded troops to retreat. Poroshenko on the contrary called on them to fight to the death. The Western press is already being forced to back away from the Russian invasion narrative. In a month doubtless the whole episode will be forgotten and they'll be telling some new big lie probably yet another Russian invasion story but who knows. The louder they shout about a Russian invasion the less anyone will care about the covert aid Russia provides, and the more they'll damage their credibility. Meanwhile we will struggle against overwhelming odds to spread the truth, Just as the NAF will hopefully still be struggling against the odds for independence from the murderous Kiev regime installed by the US and NATO.
Sources
First let me Salute all the great people who provide analysis and translations for Vineyard of the Saker, Slavyangrad, and colonel Cassad in English for being right about the situation when all the Mainstream sources were wrong. The New York times offered not one word the day after the counteroffensive for example. Their work is invaluable. I'm a complete civilian so any insights into the war I get from them. Any mistakes are my own.
Here is A great post from Slavyangrad about the recent victory
http://slavyangrad.org/2014/08/27/the-southern-front-catastrophe-august-27-2014/
And a whole compilation of reports on the recent victories
http://vineyardsaker.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/overview-of-situation-in-donbass-region.html
Anyone wanting to keep track of events in Ukraine should visit these 3 sites
http://vineyardsaker.blogspot.co.uk
http://slavyangrad.org
http://cassad-eng.livejournal.com
And here is a great article on the "Russian Invasion" by Mike Whitney
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/08/29/obamas-catastrophic-defeat-in-ukraine/
And another from Stephen Lendman
http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-russians-are-coming-big-lies.html
More on decades of covert US involvement in Ukraine
http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2014/08/09/cia-intervention-in-ukraine-has-been-taking-place-for-decades/#.U-bIBQoRcuw.twitter
Colonel Cassad on Arms dealing
http://cassad-eng.livejournal.com/71481.html
Some Great Analysis from the Saker
http://vineyardsaker.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/august-30th-2143-utczulu-ukraine-sitrep.html
The Saker explains Cauldrons
http://vineyardsaker.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/what-is-deal-with-ukie-cauldrons.html
James Corbett did an Excellent Video report sifting though the evidence on MH17
http://www.corbettreport.com/episode-294-crashes-of-convenience-mh17/
Saturday, August 30, 2014
Friday, August 22, 2014
Ferguson Ukraine Iraq
World in Crisis: Ferguson, Ukraine, and Iraq
It is a dangerous sign when events begin to speed up to such an extent. Even for the empire of chaos it was an extremely eventful 2 weeks. In Ferguson, Missouri what can only be described as an american intifada took place. Novorossiya had a mysterious change in government but still managed to repel yet another major push by the Kiev army to conquer Lugansk and Donetsk. Meanwhile Gaza suffers under diplomacy as an instrument of war as they are kept in constant suspense as too when this latest butchery will end. Iraq saw the fall of Maliki and an escalation in American involvement in their civil war.
A little known fact of American history is that our police force evolved from the armed bands of slave catchers that patrolled the south. A fact I learned from watching a clip from Scott Noble's Film in progress "Plutocracy." Since forever the US police force has been waging a low intensity war on the black community. Mass incarceration has been used as a continuation of slavery with millions behind bars. The war on drugs and the Prison Military Industrial complex making Billions off Imprisoning millions. As if that isn't bad enough the police have seemingly been given a license to kill and do whatever else they Please. An unarmed black man dies every 28 Hours. Even ordinary citizens seem to be able to get away with murder provided they are white and the victims black. One would expect the uprising to occur in Michigan which seems to be the Laboratory of a Neo-Liberal Post-Democratic experiment in looting the populace while denying them their democratic and even Human Rights. Instead Ferguson, Missouri unexpectedly exploded in protest when a black Teenager Mike Brown was shot by police officer Darren Wilson while on the way to visit his grandmother. It was the latest in a long line of incidents that usually cause momentary outrage and are soon forgotten. Police Brutality and the Murder of unarmed civilians are daily facts of life in the US. This time however there was an unusually strong reaction as protestors faced down the Blatantly Militarized Police and their brutal attempted crackdown. Perhaps it was the fact that Mike Brown had his hands raised in surrender and was killed anyway that caught the public imagination. The gesture was transformed overnight from a sign of Surrender into a sign of resistance. Upon viewing the scenes coming out of Ferguson. Ordinary Americans were shocked to discover what the Alternative Media had long warned of. The police have been armed and trained to suppress the American public should it ever rise up and demand change. The police have long been trained to view the public as enemies. Every youth, every minority, every protestor knows this. Only by "programing" (What sinister terminology "television programs") the public with hour after hour of procedural crime dramas can they be made to forget that simple fact. Ferguson however revealed the police state on full display. The protestors were faced by police armed to the teeth only distinguishable from the military by the fact that their black uniforms were scarier. Even the subservient corporate media was targeted by out of control police and threatened with death if they continued to film the brutal crackdown. America got a mild taste of what it exports around the world but instead of the war being waged in some hapless third world country it was taking place in the US. Still even this was nothing new American cities rose frequently in open revolt most famously throughout the 60's but it's happened many times before and since. Thus the Government has launched many brutal crackdowns sending in the national guard. Doubtless you could write a whole series of books The History of Riots in America. Someone should. Except for the Boston massacre (the rioters got to name it) where Ironically the first person shot happened to be black Riots are suppressed from our history. It is not good for the masses to realize just how many times they have spontaneously risen up. Unfortunately until the population begins to organize itself these momentary clashes between the powers of resistance and oppression will not lead to any real lasting changes. Still the riots did reveal one thing the power of our interconnected world. In a heartbreaking show of Sympathy Palestinians in Gaza tweeted out advice to the People of Ferguson on how to stand up to a brutal occupying force. They explained how to treat yourself for exposure to tear gas and how to organize to provide food and medical care for the protestors. Despite having survived yet another round of shootings, shelling, and bombing they were feeling sorry for black America. All over the world people followed events in Ferguson. Increasingly there seems to be a growing international community of alt media savvy youth who see things on a global scale and understand that all the various crises of the world our part of one interconnected whole. Syria tied to Ukraine tied to the Israeli Occupation of Palestine tied to Venezuela tied to Ferguson. In Ferguson for example it was revealed that the police had trained in Israel as if American cops needed special training in treating blacks as second class citizens. This practice is disturbingly widespread.
Events in Ukraine were also extremely eventful. Novorossiya (The region of South Eastern Ukraine rebelling against the Kiev Regime) experienced a mysterious wave of Resignations. Alexander Borodai the Prime Minister of the Donetsk People's Republic Resigned. So did Valery Bolotov the Prime Minister of the Lugansk People's Republic. Even the now Legendary Igor Strelkov resigned. It's still unclear why this happened or what the implications will be. For now I'll resist the urge to speculate until I can learn more. There are a lot of Ugly rumors floating around. At least the more alarmist speculation that this signaled some sort of imminent surrender have proved groundless so far. Despite the change in leadership the Anti-Fascist forces have managed so far to repel a major offensive launched by Poroshenko who hoped to smash the NAF (Novorossiyan Armed Forces) and reoccupy Lugansk and Donetsk in time for Ukrainian independence day August 24th. Unfortunately for Poroshenko each new disastrous offensive supplies the NAF with more equipment. Although the NAF are still outnumbered and outgunned they are steadily growing in strength. The Ukrainian armed forces are only good at shelling unarmed civilians. They have suffered appalling casualties. Against all the odds the NAF continue to successfully resist the masses of troops sent against them. The mainstream media which is claiming imminent victory for Kiev is in store for yet another embarrassment.
Then there is the Russian aid convoy which is in typical Orwellian fashion is considered some sort of war crime. How dare Russia feed the unpeople of south eastern Ukraine many of whom are without food medicines and running water. I call them unpeople since for months it has been clear that for the Media and for western governments the people of south eastern Ukraine simply do not exist. Whether they are shelled to death in the thousands or forced to flee by Kiev's ethnic cleansing plan in the hundreds of thousands the people of Novorossiya receive not one word of sympathy. Meanwhile Kiev receives more cash more weapons more reinforcements from Poland, more CIA advisers and more western mercenaries. Simply sending one truck by Russia would have been one to many since it demonstrates to the world that Kiev has created a massive Humanitarian crisis by waging a months long war against their own people. The media has been driven into high gear selling the Idea that the humanitarian aid convoy is really some sort of covert invasion. Whether or not Russia actually supplies covert support to the rebels it's absurd to think they would use such a public occasion to ship in weapons.
However Absurdity is the order of the day. In a war full of absurd lies the media really topped itself in a recent incident. First two british Papers published an account of Russian armored vehicles crossing the border but since it was a figment of their imagination they were unable to capture the invasion on film. Then the Kiev regime announced that they had destroyed the nonexistent invasion with an artillery barrage. Astute observers were laughing all over the world but the media with zero regard for their credibility reported the story. So far the non-existent wreckage of the non-existent Russian invasion force has yet to be located. Forget George Orwell this is like something out of Lewis Carroll. Poroshenko at least was able to score his first glorious victory it is so much easier to defeat an enemy that doesn't exist.
After more then a week of delays the Russian's sent their aid convoy in without permission. The Red Cross refused to accompany them because one of the goals of Poroshenko's offensive is to block the route and they have been bombing the roads. The Red Cross pullout however was blamed by the west on the Russians. They are portraying the humanitarian aid convoy as a Russian invasion but since they constantly issue false reports of Russian invasions it will probably all be forgotten in a few weeks time and they'll be hyping some new imaginary threat. However along with the trucks Russia issued a warning that it will hold Kiev responsible if the convoy comes under attack. There are unconfirmed reports that the the a truck was targeted with a mortar but Russia will probably show it's usual restraint. Aid has already arrived in Lugansk. The west has warned that Russia will face further sanctions for the crime of supplying food water and medicine to the Unpeople of Novorossiya.
Yes feeding the hungry and treating the sick are considered crimes. Cuba and Nicaragua were also brought under sanctions for trying to feed their people. As William Blum reported the US is the only country that voted against the Idea that food was a human right at the UN. In Michigan the Obama administration does nothing to prevent the right wing governor's minions in places like Detroit and Benton Harbor from attempting to cut off large swathes of the population from water. A few minutes thought reveal why this is insane. Preventing people from bathing or having access to the sewage system would create enormous risks to public health. Medieval conditions would be created easily preventable diseases would spread. Just imagine the stench the death the misery. This insane scheme was only prevented by a well organized grass roots campaign of protest.
In Iraq meanwhile Maliki was ousted in a US backed coup. Of course the US wasn't the only one glad to see him go. Ayatollah Sistani greatly revered usually reclusive Shia religious figure called for him to step down as did Fiery Shia Cleric Muqtada al Sadr. Obviously he had even more enemies among the Sunnis and Kurds. Still despite the claims that the whole mess was Maliki's fault doubtless the civil war will continue. Haider Jawad Al Abadi Maliki's replacement is so far an unknown quantity the product of secret back room negotiations. The US waged a phony humanitarian bombing campaign to protect the Yezidi's who were according to Pepe Escobar actually saved by the PKK (a kurdish guerrilla group) a long time ally of US enemy Syria and enemy of US ally Turkey. Then a reporter who used to praise the "Syrian rebels" James Foley was supposedly killed on camera by three british ISIS members known as the Beatles. Of course many are calling the tape a fake since people generally bleed when their throats are slit which Foley failed to do. Foley was kidnapped back in 2012 and was probably already dead. That hasn't stopped the incident from being used to argue both for an expansion of the war into Syria and as a test case to try and censor social media. Twitter and YouTube banned the video even though both are filled with much gorier images. The british even declared that distributing it could be considered an act of terrorism. Thus this incident could be used to attempt to ban people from distributing other footage from war zones exposing the brutality of wars in Gaza or Ukraine for example. At the very least these new rules will be used to prevent people from exposing the probably phony nature of the James Foley execution footage. This will make it easier for them to use the incident to expand the war into Syria. We'll need a new nickname for the Syria Iraq war theatre like the current AF/Pak for Afghanistan and Pakistan. Another Triumph for the American attempt to create an arc of crisis across Eurasia. In fact the war has already expanded into Lebanon as well but Lebanon has been a target from the beginning. According to Seymour Hersh the failed Israeli invasion of Lebanon lead to the current strategy called the redirection aimed at using Wahabi extremists to further destabilize the region. Thus Lebanon has been a target of terror attacks by the same forces terrorizing Iraq and Syria for years. However the US has decided to use the Crisis to expand their influence with the Lebanese army.
The Ukraine war also could be on the verge of expansion. As if starting a war in Ukraine was not dangerous enough the west has been stoking tensions between Moldova and breakaway Transnistria and between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Armenia and Transnistria are both Russian allies. Transnistria is garrisoned with Russian troops. Thus both these situations could have dangerous future consequences. Just how many proxy wars with Russia does the west intend to launch? Syria could also lead to war with Russia. With events speeding up so fast it is easy for things to spiral out of control. Of course that is actually the game plan in the US empire of chaos. I didn't even have time to talk about Ebola or Gaza, the USAfrica summit, protests in Portugal tensions with china etc. Whether in Iraq, Ukraine or it's own cities, America and it's allies war on the planet continues to expand. So too must global awareness and resistance.
Sources
Heres are a couple of great articles on Ferguson Police Brutality and how to organize an effective resistance.
http://libya360.wordpress.com/2014/08/20/ferguson-unmasks-the-war-on-black-america/
Here is an article on the Russian Convoy by Steven Lendman he recently recovered from a health Crisis and is back to producing his great articles.
http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2014/08/russian-humanitarian-aid-reaches-lugansk.html
Another Lendman article on the cynical use of the negotiations to further oppress Gaza
http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2014/08/pro-israeli-security-council-gaza.html
And Pepe Escobar on Iraq
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MID-01-210814.html
Tony Cartalucci on Syria
http://syria360.wordpress.com/2014/08/22/us-begins-selling-syria-intervention-using-isis-pretext/
And that film clip About the origins of the american police
http://vimeo.com/97074965
Check out Metanoia films for great Documentaries donate and Help Scott Noble complete his new film Plutocracy. (my Favorite is Counter-Intelligence)
http://metanoia-films.org
It is a dangerous sign when events begin to speed up to such an extent. Even for the empire of chaos it was an extremely eventful 2 weeks. In Ferguson, Missouri what can only be described as an american intifada took place. Novorossiya had a mysterious change in government but still managed to repel yet another major push by the Kiev army to conquer Lugansk and Donetsk. Meanwhile Gaza suffers under diplomacy as an instrument of war as they are kept in constant suspense as too when this latest butchery will end. Iraq saw the fall of Maliki and an escalation in American involvement in their civil war.
A little known fact of American history is that our police force evolved from the armed bands of slave catchers that patrolled the south. A fact I learned from watching a clip from Scott Noble's Film in progress "Plutocracy." Since forever the US police force has been waging a low intensity war on the black community. Mass incarceration has been used as a continuation of slavery with millions behind bars. The war on drugs and the Prison Military Industrial complex making Billions off Imprisoning millions. As if that isn't bad enough the police have seemingly been given a license to kill and do whatever else they Please. An unarmed black man dies every 28 Hours. Even ordinary citizens seem to be able to get away with murder provided they are white and the victims black. One would expect the uprising to occur in Michigan which seems to be the Laboratory of a Neo-Liberal Post-Democratic experiment in looting the populace while denying them their democratic and even Human Rights. Instead Ferguson, Missouri unexpectedly exploded in protest when a black Teenager Mike Brown was shot by police officer Darren Wilson while on the way to visit his grandmother. It was the latest in a long line of incidents that usually cause momentary outrage and are soon forgotten. Police Brutality and the Murder of unarmed civilians are daily facts of life in the US. This time however there was an unusually strong reaction as protestors faced down the Blatantly Militarized Police and their brutal attempted crackdown. Perhaps it was the fact that Mike Brown had his hands raised in surrender and was killed anyway that caught the public imagination. The gesture was transformed overnight from a sign of Surrender into a sign of resistance. Upon viewing the scenes coming out of Ferguson. Ordinary Americans were shocked to discover what the Alternative Media had long warned of. The police have been armed and trained to suppress the American public should it ever rise up and demand change. The police have long been trained to view the public as enemies. Every youth, every minority, every protestor knows this. Only by "programing" (What sinister terminology "television programs") the public with hour after hour of procedural crime dramas can they be made to forget that simple fact. Ferguson however revealed the police state on full display. The protestors were faced by police armed to the teeth only distinguishable from the military by the fact that their black uniforms were scarier. Even the subservient corporate media was targeted by out of control police and threatened with death if they continued to film the brutal crackdown. America got a mild taste of what it exports around the world but instead of the war being waged in some hapless third world country it was taking place in the US. Still even this was nothing new American cities rose frequently in open revolt most famously throughout the 60's but it's happened many times before and since. Thus the Government has launched many brutal crackdowns sending in the national guard. Doubtless you could write a whole series of books The History of Riots in America. Someone should. Except for the Boston massacre (the rioters got to name it) where Ironically the first person shot happened to be black Riots are suppressed from our history. It is not good for the masses to realize just how many times they have spontaneously risen up. Unfortunately until the population begins to organize itself these momentary clashes between the powers of resistance and oppression will not lead to any real lasting changes. Still the riots did reveal one thing the power of our interconnected world. In a heartbreaking show of Sympathy Palestinians in Gaza tweeted out advice to the People of Ferguson on how to stand up to a brutal occupying force. They explained how to treat yourself for exposure to tear gas and how to organize to provide food and medical care for the protestors. Despite having survived yet another round of shootings, shelling, and bombing they were feeling sorry for black America. All over the world people followed events in Ferguson. Increasingly there seems to be a growing international community of alt media savvy youth who see things on a global scale and understand that all the various crises of the world our part of one interconnected whole. Syria tied to Ukraine tied to the Israeli Occupation of Palestine tied to Venezuela tied to Ferguson. In Ferguson for example it was revealed that the police had trained in Israel as if American cops needed special training in treating blacks as second class citizens. This practice is disturbingly widespread.
Events in Ukraine were also extremely eventful. Novorossiya (The region of South Eastern Ukraine rebelling against the Kiev Regime) experienced a mysterious wave of Resignations. Alexander Borodai the Prime Minister of the Donetsk People's Republic Resigned. So did Valery Bolotov the Prime Minister of the Lugansk People's Republic. Even the now Legendary Igor Strelkov resigned. It's still unclear why this happened or what the implications will be. For now I'll resist the urge to speculate until I can learn more. There are a lot of Ugly rumors floating around. At least the more alarmist speculation that this signaled some sort of imminent surrender have proved groundless so far. Despite the change in leadership the Anti-Fascist forces have managed so far to repel a major offensive launched by Poroshenko who hoped to smash the NAF (Novorossiyan Armed Forces) and reoccupy Lugansk and Donetsk in time for Ukrainian independence day August 24th. Unfortunately for Poroshenko each new disastrous offensive supplies the NAF with more equipment. Although the NAF are still outnumbered and outgunned they are steadily growing in strength. The Ukrainian armed forces are only good at shelling unarmed civilians. They have suffered appalling casualties. Against all the odds the NAF continue to successfully resist the masses of troops sent against them. The mainstream media which is claiming imminent victory for Kiev is in store for yet another embarrassment.
Then there is the Russian aid convoy which is in typical Orwellian fashion is considered some sort of war crime. How dare Russia feed the unpeople of south eastern Ukraine many of whom are without food medicines and running water. I call them unpeople since for months it has been clear that for the Media and for western governments the people of south eastern Ukraine simply do not exist. Whether they are shelled to death in the thousands or forced to flee by Kiev's ethnic cleansing plan in the hundreds of thousands the people of Novorossiya receive not one word of sympathy. Meanwhile Kiev receives more cash more weapons more reinforcements from Poland, more CIA advisers and more western mercenaries. Simply sending one truck by Russia would have been one to many since it demonstrates to the world that Kiev has created a massive Humanitarian crisis by waging a months long war against their own people. The media has been driven into high gear selling the Idea that the humanitarian aid convoy is really some sort of covert invasion. Whether or not Russia actually supplies covert support to the rebels it's absurd to think they would use such a public occasion to ship in weapons.
However Absurdity is the order of the day. In a war full of absurd lies the media really topped itself in a recent incident. First two british Papers published an account of Russian armored vehicles crossing the border but since it was a figment of their imagination they were unable to capture the invasion on film. Then the Kiev regime announced that they had destroyed the nonexistent invasion with an artillery barrage. Astute observers were laughing all over the world but the media with zero regard for their credibility reported the story. So far the non-existent wreckage of the non-existent Russian invasion force has yet to be located. Forget George Orwell this is like something out of Lewis Carroll. Poroshenko at least was able to score his first glorious victory it is so much easier to defeat an enemy that doesn't exist.
After more then a week of delays the Russian's sent their aid convoy in without permission. The Red Cross refused to accompany them because one of the goals of Poroshenko's offensive is to block the route and they have been bombing the roads. The Red Cross pullout however was blamed by the west on the Russians. They are portraying the humanitarian aid convoy as a Russian invasion but since they constantly issue false reports of Russian invasions it will probably all be forgotten in a few weeks time and they'll be hyping some new imaginary threat. However along with the trucks Russia issued a warning that it will hold Kiev responsible if the convoy comes under attack. There are unconfirmed reports that the the a truck was targeted with a mortar but Russia will probably show it's usual restraint. Aid has already arrived in Lugansk. The west has warned that Russia will face further sanctions for the crime of supplying food water and medicine to the Unpeople of Novorossiya.
Yes feeding the hungry and treating the sick are considered crimes. Cuba and Nicaragua were also brought under sanctions for trying to feed their people. As William Blum reported the US is the only country that voted against the Idea that food was a human right at the UN. In Michigan the Obama administration does nothing to prevent the right wing governor's minions in places like Detroit and Benton Harbor from attempting to cut off large swathes of the population from water. A few minutes thought reveal why this is insane. Preventing people from bathing or having access to the sewage system would create enormous risks to public health. Medieval conditions would be created easily preventable diseases would spread. Just imagine the stench the death the misery. This insane scheme was only prevented by a well organized grass roots campaign of protest.
In Iraq meanwhile Maliki was ousted in a US backed coup. Of course the US wasn't the only one glad to see him go. Ayatollah Sistani greatly revered usually reclusive Shia religious figure called for him to step down as did Fiery Shia Cleric Muqtada al Sadr. Obviously he had even more enemies among the Sunnis and Kurds. Still despite the claims that the whole mess was Maliki's fault doubtless the civil war will continue. Haider Jawad Al Abadi Maliki's replacement is so far an unknown quantity the product of secret back room negotiations. The US waged a phony humanitarian bombing campaign to protect the Yezidi's who were according to Pepe Escobar actually saved by the PKK (a kurdish guerrilla group) a long time ally of US enemy Syria and enemy of US ally Turkey. Then a reporter who used to praise the "Syrian rebels" James Foley was supposedly killed on camera by three british ISIS members known as the Beatles. Of course many are calling the tape a fake since people generally bleed when their throats are slit which Foley failed to do. Foley was kidnapped back in 2012 and was probably already dead. That hasn't stopped the incident from being used to argue both for an expansion of the war into Syria and as a test case to try and censor social media. Twitter and YouTube banned the video even though both are filled with much gorier images. The british even declared that distributing it could be considered an act of terrorism. Thus this incident could be used to attempt to ban people from distributing other footage from war zones exposing the brutality of wars in Gaza or Ukraine for example. At the very least these new rules will be used to prevent people from exposing the probably phony nature of the James Foley execution footage. This will make it easier for them to use the incident to expand the war into Syria. We'll need a new nickname for the Syria Iraq war theatre like the current AF/Pak for Afghanistan and Pakistan. Another Triumph for the American attempt to create an arc of crisis across Eurasia. In fact the war has already expanded into Lebanon as well but Lebanon has been a target from the beginning. According to Seymour Hersh the failed Israeli invasion of Lebanon lead to the current strategy called the redirection aimed at using Wahabi extremists to further destabilize the region. Thus Lebanon has been a target of terror attacks by the same forces terrorizing Iraq and Syria for years. However the US has decided to use the Crisis to expand their influence with the Lebanese army.
The Ukraine war also could be on the verge of expansion. As if starting a war in Ukraine was not dangerous enough the west has been stoking tensions between Moldova and breakaway Transnistria and between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Armenia and Transnistria are both Russian allies. Transnistria is garrisoned with Russian troops. Thus both these situations could have dangerous future consequences. Just how many proxy wars with Russia does the west intend to launch? Syria could also lead to war with Russia. With events speeding up so fast it is easy for things to spiral out of control. Of course that is actually the game plan in the US empire of chaos. I didn't even have time to talk about Ebola or Gaza, the USAfrica summit, protests in Portugal tensions with china etc. Whether in Iraq, Ukraine or it's own cities, America and it's allies war on the planet continues to expand. So too must global awareness and resistance.
Sources
Heres are a couple of great articles on Ferguson Police Brutality and how to organize an effective resistance.
http://libya360.wordpress.com/2014/08/20/ferguson-unmasks-the-war-on-black-america/
Here is an article on the Russian Convoy by Steven Lendman he recently recovered from a health Crisis and is back to producing his great articles.
http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2014/08/russian-humanitarian-aid-reaches-lugansk.html
Another Lendman article on the cynical use of the negotiations to further oppress Gaza
http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2014/08/pro-israeli-security-council-gaza.html
And Pepe Escobar on Iraq
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MID-01-210814.html
Tony Cartalucci on Syria
http://syria360.wordpress.com/2014/08/22/us-begins-selling-syria-intervention-using-isis-pretext/
And that film clip About the origins of the american police
http://vimeo.com/97074965
Check out Metanoia films for great Documentaries donate and Help Scott Noble complete his new film Plutocracy. (my Favorite is Counter-Intelligence)
http://metanoia-films.org
Tuesday, August 5, 2014
Gaza Under Attack
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
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
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
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