A Day in the Life: 5/1-2/14
Just a few brief comments, Keith. The following observations are just from me personally, not to reflect the views of Geoengineering Watch, the radio program, or anyone else.
Dear Richard, Thanks very very much for this. I don’t agree that the planet is ruled by a single cabal. Those you refer to indeed control much of it–but if “we” via small-scale crowd-funded experiments can identify a technique for quickly cooling the Arctic, there’s then some chance that the BRICS nations (now forming their own version of the IMF and World Bank) would provide funding for it to be applied on an adequate scale and some chance also that the gear could be located in the Russian Arctic.
What can I say? This ‘cloud’ doesn’t even look real on the satellite image. It is BIZARRE and MIGHTY STRANGE and seems to be HAARPED into extinction as it tries/ or is pushed towards shore. (animation:http://sat.wrh.noaa.gov/satellite/loopsat.php?wfo=mfr&area=west&type=vis&size=4) Look at all the chem trails all over the image! UNBELIEVABLE! (and it was unnaturally hot again today on the Oregon coast).
EPA Rep Has Loose Lips About Geoengineering
Dane Wigington
geoengineeringwatch.org
Geoengineering Programs Continue to Destroy Ozone Layer
Dane Wigington
GeoengineeringWatch.org
There is in fact now a massive Northern Hemisphere ozone hole that appears to be growing and worsening by the day. So why don’t we hear a thing about this dire issue? Because the science community is being threatened into complete silence and the main stream media is all too effective at sweeping the “lump” under the rug. No matter how big the lump is.
SAG (stratospheric aerosol geoengineering) and SRM (solar radiation management) AKA, “chemtrails”, are virtually shredding the ozone layer day in and day out. The harsh reality of these ongoing atmospheric spraying programs is evident for any that look up and bother to do the slightest bit of objective investigation. In addition to the ongoing ozone decimation the toxic particulates that are literally saturating our atmosphere are completely disrupting global weather and rainfall patterns, causing extreme drought in many places, and deluge in others.
Then of course there is the fact that what goes up must come down. All they spray settles in the air column where each and every one of us then inhales it in with every breath. NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adiminstration) recently did a study which admitted to the that the atmosphere was filled with particulates in recent decades and they had no idea where they were all coming from. Really? There are many studies which make clear the ozone destruction that “would” be caused IF geoengineering were to be carried out, but none admit to the ever larger elephant in the room which is the ongoing global geoengineering/chemtrail spraying.
If they continue the spring, the ozone destruction will get worse by the day. No ozone layer, no life on Earth, period.
Dane Wigington
GeoengineeringWatch.org
Ocean Acidification Dissolving Shells of Key Marine Creature
“Research on the progression and impacts of ocean acidification is vital
to understanding the consequences of our burning of fossil fuels.”
Scientists have documented how ocean acidification, sometimes referred to as climate change’s “evil twin,” is already taking a toll on an essential part of the marine food chain in an area off the U.S. northwest coast, and with runaway greenhouse gas emissions continuing, it looks like the problem is only set to worsen.
As oceans have absorbed increasing amounts of CO2, they’ve become more acid, and that means the shells of pteropods, small, free-swimming marine snails, are dissolving — a change the researchers hadn’t expected to see for years.
In samples they took from northern Washington to central California, 53 percent of the pteropods had severely dissolved shells.
“Our findings are the first evidence that a large fraction of the West Coast pteropod population is being affected by ocean acidification,” stated lead author Nina Bednarsek, Ph.D., of NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle. “Dissolving coastal pteropod shells point to the need to study how acidification may be affecting the larger marine ecosystem.”
The tiny snails, which are about one-eighth to one-half inch in length, are a food source for pink salmon, mackerel and herring, so a plummet in the pteropod population will have far-reaching effects.
The team of NOAA-led researchers warns that
the incidence of severe pteropod shell dissolution owing to anthropogenic OA has doubled in near shore habitats since pre-industrial conditions across this region and is on track to triple by 2050.
Study co-author William Peterson, Ph.D., an oceanographer at NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center, adds that the effect to the pteropds shells in the coastal region comes “several decades” ahead of when they expected.
Last year scientists presented their findings of the “unprecedented” rate of ocean acidification while at the UN climate talks in Warsaw, noting that pteropods in the Southern Ocean were already corroding, which would have a “cascading impact on the whole food chain.”
“Acidification of our oceans may impact marine ecosystems in a way that threatens the sustainability of the marine resources we depend on,” stated Libby Jewett, Director of the NOAA Ocean Acidification Program. “Research on the progression and impacts of ocean acidification is vital to understanding the consequences of our burning of fossil fuels.”
The findings were published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
Graphic from Australia’s now abolished Climate Commission:
BRICS creating parallel Monetary Fund disillusioned with IMF and World Bank – expert
Frustrated by the IMF and World Bank controversial policy, the BRICS nations go on creating the alternative financial supranational institutions for emerging economies. In recent years the IMF has discredited itself, becoming a completely politicized and “odd” structure, which supports interventionist “super state” ambitions of the EU and the US, stresses Patrick L Young, an expert in global financial markets, referring to the ongoing events in Ukraine.
Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa are fed up with the US failure to ratify a four-year-old agreement aimed at reforming the IMF system. Thus the post war consensus on financing bodies appears to be breaking down, writes the expert in his RT Op-Ed ‘BRICS building parallel IMF.’
“The US and Europe have maintained a stranglehold on the IMF/World Bank C-suite not only in the face of a massive eastern renaissance but also with a certain degree of abject hypocrisy given the abysmal financial management of spendthrift US governments for decades let alone the travesty of recent European economic governance,” he notes.
According to Patrick Young the IMF is gradually losing its significance as an international financial arbiter. First Dominique Strauss-Kahn and then Christine Lagarde have been entrapped by the “flawed policies of big debt and big government,” utterly ruinous for the European economy.
“During recent European bailout negotiations, IMF minutes suggest the political classes managed to ride roughshod over the IMF in order to maintain the flawed (and still crumbling) euro currency at all costs. In that sense, having a weak European with ambitions for higher political office makes a mockery of the idea that the International Monetary Fund is anything more than an overdraft facility to be rigged in favor of perceived western political interests,” Patrick L Young explains, adding, “No wonder the rising East is disillusioned.”
It should be noted that the BRICS bloc of emerging economies is expecting all preparatory work for setting up its Development Bank to be done by July, 2014, according to Reuters. Political neutrality of the BRICS-Monetary Fund appears to become its unquestionable “competitive advantage.” It will help the new structure to operate without fear or favor, deems the expert.
“What the IMF really needs,” he stresses, “are strong technocrats as opposed to the spineless politicians who generally operate with (at the very least!) one eye on their next political position.”
Spies R Us: The “Kidnapping” of Fake OSCE “Humanitarian Monitors” in Ukraine
The western presstitute media are relentlessly reporting about the kidnapped monitors of the
The truth is that the captured monitors are in fact NATO military intelligence officers, sent to the Ukraine under the guise of the OSCE.
Russia was not consulted on these NATO ‘observers’, although Russia is a member of the OSCE. In no case do the media distinguish between the 150 or so legitimate OSCE civilian observers, including Russians, and the illegal NATO spies. Global Research
Among the many reasons for Washington to justify a direct confrontation with Russia over Ukraine, is that Mr. Putin hasn’t done enough to free the NATO spies.
The ridiculous ‘sanctions’, as Obama knows very well, are of course not enough to keep the US economy (sic) going. On the other hand, a war or armed conflict – or a new Cold War– might sustain the US economy for a while.
Let’s face it, the US economy is as dependent on the military and security industrial complex – the War Machine – as a drug addict is on drugs. Without the drugs the addict collapses. American military expenditures are more than those of the rest of the world together and amount to about 50% of the US budget.
Without war and WMD the United States of America collapses – and along with its sick economy.
Poverty in the US is rampant.
60 million children go to bed hungry every night (Department of Agriculture);
The real level of unemployment is above 20%; people without health insurance and dependent on food stamps or other food assistance amount to about 40 million. The American empire is at a point of no return. Peace is America’s greatest enemy.
Therefore no lie and propaganda is brazen enough to brainwash the western public, especially the Europeans, into believing the only way to save the West, meaning Europe, is to involve Russia in an armed conflict, to basically annihilate their economy, to the level it was at the end of WWII, or even after Cold War I.
Let us not forget, the end game for the American Oligarchs is encircling Russia and China to obtain full control of the world and its resources. A weak Russia and an intimidated China would make the task towards a One World Order easier. As a reminder – today about 50% of the US Navy fleet is already stationed along China’s East and Southern Coast, to be increased to 60% within a year.
Europeans are awaking. If not they should. Germany would have most to lose from a war. They are not only virtually the go-between; they are also geographically and economically caught in the middle. Though when listening to the German Foreign Minister, one could believe that he is oblivious to the gravity of the situation for his country, as he is still aping the emperor about ‘sanctioning’ Russia.
Another argument for US intervention is the ceaselessly repeated lies about Russia’s special forces fighting alongside the pro-Russia Ukrainian faction, occupying public buildings and radio / TV station – conquering entire cities, like the city of Slavyansk. According to western propaganda, the new people’s mayor of Slavyansk, VyacheslavPonomarev,is nothing but a figure head put in place by Moscow; all lies to further denigrate Russia and its leader.
The United States will unlikely risk interfering again (remember the 5 billion dollar investment for obtaining ‘Regime Change’ in Kiev) in the Ukraine. The emerging confrontation with Russia could willy-nilly result in a nuclear war. Obama knows that a first preventive strike by the US would still leave Russia with enough nuclear fire power to hit back and destroy most of what the elite thrives for.
In the meantime, like a dying beast, the US destroys and divides as much as it can, creating chaos and suffering–the old mantra ‘dividing for reigning’. Even knowing that the end is near, the (military) corporate and banking elite behind the Obama Administration is adamant to postpone the demise as long as possible, annihilating what we call civilization and the globe’s resources, according to the motto, ‘after me the deluge’ — nobody should be allowed to live happily and peacefully, once the empire bites the dust.
There is still the possibility that before the last straw breaks, the US viathe IMF, declares a new gold standard. That could take any form possible suiting them most. It could even be a combination of gold and hydrocarbon; the latter based on oil and gas reserves throughout the world, controlled, or quasi-controlled by US hydrocarbon giants.
That’s why the Bricso– a fictitious name for the soon to be issued new currency by the BRICS – is more than welcome.
As the era of the US dollar plunges into its demise, the rest of the world needs an alternative to the dollar to be able to continue life with the least possible disruption, once the dollar is extinct.
Peter Koenig is an economist and former World Bank staff. He worked extensively around the world in the fields of environment and water resources. He writes regularly for Global Research, ICH, the Voice of Russia and other internet sites. He is the author of Implosion – An Economic Thriller about War, Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed – fiction based on facts and on 30 years of World Bank experience around the globe. Peter may be reached at leonis@bluewin.ch .
Wall Street and the Global Laundering of Drug Money
Big Banks Started Laundering Massive Sums of Drug Money in the 1980s… And Are Still Doing It Today
For More Than 30 Years, the Big Banks Have Been Key Players In the Drug Trade
Official statistics show that huge sums of drug money are laundered every year:
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) conducted astudy to determine the magnitude of illicit funds generated by drug trafficking and organised crimes and to investigate to what extent these funds are laundered. The report estimates that in 2009, criminal proceeds amounted to 3.6% of global GDP, with 2.7% (or USD 1.6 trillion) being laundered.
This falls within the widely quoted estimate by the International Monetary Fund, who stated in 1998 that the aggregate size of money laundering in the world could be somewhere between two and five percent of the world’s gross domestic product. Using 1998 statistics, these percentages would indicate that money laundering ranged between USD 590 billion and USD 1.5 trillion. At the time, the lower figure was roughly equivalent to the value of the total output of an economy the size of Spain.
Indeed, the head of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime says that drug dealers kept the banking system afloat during the depths of the 2008 financial crisis.
This started a long time ago. For example, Citibank was caught laundering drug money for Mexican cartels in 2001.
In the 1990s, earlier, Citibank apparently set up special client accounts for a big drug dealer:
One of the more infamous cases involving taxpayer bailed-out Citigroup’s ties to money laundering drug cartels emerged in the late 1990s when Raúl Salinas de Gortari, the brother of former Mexican President Carlos Salinas, was arrested after his wife, Paulina Castañón, attempted to withdraw $84 million from a Swiss account controlled by Raúl under an alias.
***
According to a 1995 Los Angeles Times report, Salinas “amassed at least $100 million in suspected drug money.”
Switzerland’s top prosecutor at the time, Carla del Ponte, “launched the investigation after the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration supplied information that led Swiss agents to the accounts in Geneva, where they arrested Raúl Salinas’ wife and her brother on Nov. 15 as the pair attempted to withdraw more than $83 million.”
Del Ponte told the Los Angeles Times that after observing Salinas’ interrogation by Mexican federal prosecutors the sums found in those accounts were “suspected to be from the laundering of money related to narcotics trafficking.”
In 1998, when Swiss prosecutors completed their Salinas investigation, The New York Times disclosed that “Swiss police investigators have concluded that a brother of former President Carlos Salinas de Gortari played a central role in Mexico’s cocaine trade, raking in huge bribes to protect the flow of drugs into the United States.”
***
A 1998 report by the General Accounting Office (GAO) pointed a finger directly at Citibank. Investigators revealed that “Mr. Salinas was able to transfer $90 million to $100 million between 1992 and 1994 by using a private banking relationship formed by Citibank New York in 1992. The funds were transferred through Citibank Mexico and Citibank New York to private banking investment accounts in Citibank London and Citibank Switzerland.”
With the connivance of bank officials, in 1992 Salinas was able to “effectively disguise” the source of those funds and their destination.
Indeed, with hefty fees secured from assisting their well-connected client Salinas, Citibank “set up an offshore private investment company named Trocca, to hold Mr. Salinas’s assets, through Cititrust (Cayman) and investment accounts in Citibank London and Citibank Switzerland.”
***
A 1999 Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations report on “Private Banking and Money Laundering” revealed that “a culture of secrecy pervades the private banking industry.”
“For example,” Senate investigators disclosed, “in the case of Raul Salinas . . . the private bank hid Mr. Salinas’ ownership of Trocca by omitting his name from the Trocca incorporation papers and naming still other shell companies as the shareholders, directors, and officers. Citibank consistently referred to Mr. Salinas in internal bank communications by the code name ‘Confidential Client Number 2′ or ‘CC-2.’ The private bank’s Swiss office opened a special name account for him under the name of ‘Bonaparte’.”
In the 1980s, the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) – apparently backed by top CIA officials – laundered drug money. Time Magazine reported in 1991:
Because the US wanted to supply the Mujahideen rebels in Afghanistan with stinger missiles and other military hardware it needed the full cooperation of Pakistan. By the mid-1980s, the CIA operation in Islamabad was one of the largest US intelligence stations in the World. `If BCCI is such an embarrassment to the US that forthright investigations are not being pursued it has a lot to do with the blind eye the US turned to the heroin trafficking in Pakistan’, said a US intelligence officer.
As Wikipedia notes, Alfred McCoy (Professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and one of the world’s top experts on drug trafficking)
[McCoy] uncovered money laundering activities by banks controlled by the CIA, first the Castle Bank which was then replaced by the Nugan Hand Bank, which had as legal counsel William Colby, retired head of the CIA. He also alludes to the BCCI, which seems to have played the same role as the Nugan Hand Bank after its collapse in the early 1980s, claiming that “the boom in the Pakistan drug trade was financed by BCCI.
Citibank was still laundering Mexican drug money in 2001.
And nothing has changed since then.
The big banks are still laundering staggering sums of drug money. See this, this, this, this, this, thisand and this.
An HSBC employee who blew the whistle on that banks’ money laundering for terrorists and drug cartels says: “America is losing the drug war because our banks are [still] financing the cartels“, and “Banks financing drug cartels … affects every single American“.
(And see this.)
If you can’t believe that the banks would launder drug money, just take a look at their other crimes.
The Feds are a big part of the problem. After all, they support some ruthless, criminal drug cartels, have repeatedly protected drug smugglers, supported drug producers (update).
Obviously the war on drugs is a total boondoggle.
Germany’s Secretive Drone Data Centers Responsible for Killing Thousands of Civilians
Recent revelations over German complicity in US drone strikes will tomorrow cast a shadow over Chancellor Angela Merkel’s talks with President Barack Obama in Washington.
Investigative journalists in Germany recently revealed Ramstein, a US base in the country, to be a major data centre for the secretive strikes, which have killed thousands of civilians in countries such as Yemen and Pakistan. Legal charity Reprieve this week revealed that a strike in Yemen over the Easter weekend killed four builders on their way to work, leaving at least 20 children fatherless.
The Ramstein findings contradict claims made by both leaders at their last meeting in June 2013, when Obama dismissed reports that US bases in Germany had been used for drone attacks. He told journalists:
“We do not use Germany as a launching point for unmanned drones […] as part of our counterterrorism activities. […] I know that there have been some reports here in Germany that that might be the case. That is not.”
During the same visit, Merkel spoke of Ramstein as filling “a very important function”, saying “our work is based […] on shared values.”
Recent questions in the German parliament have increased pressure on Merkel to reveal the true extent of Germany’s involvement in the strikes, but there is little evidence that the government plans to challenge the Obama administration over them.
Kat Craig, Legal Director at Reprieve, said:
“One year on from Chancellor Merkel’s assertions about shared US-German ‘values’, the extent of Washington’s use of German soil to perpetrate illegal killings is clear. Despite Obama’s promises to the German people last year, the number of civilian deaths from these secretive drone strikes is higher than ever, and the response of the German government has been to ignore the issue. It is high time that Merkel raised concerns with Obama about the launching of illegal drone strikes from Germany –
US State-Sponsored Terrorism
Washington notoriously points fingers the wrong way. It whitewashes its own crimes.
Its latest Country Reports on Terrorism 2013 omits the world’s leading sponsor. More on it below.
Terrorism is what they do, not us, it’s claimed. Reasons why imperial wars are waged are suppressed.
Might justifies right. Nations are destroyed to free them. Lives and freedoms lost don’t matter. They’re small prices to pay.
Mind manipulation turns truth on its head. People are convinced wrongs are right. Wars are glorified in the name of peace.
Peaceful countries become cauldrons of violence. Instability rocks them. Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Yemen and others are US imperial victims.
So is Ukraine. It’s a global flashpoint. Potentially it’s worst of all. It threatens to spin out-of-control. It risks regional conflict. Possible East/West confrontation looms.
Washington bears full responsibility for numerous world hot spots. Imperialism works this way. It instigates violence. It fosters instability.
It promotes state-sponsored terrorism. It’s what we do, not them. More on this below.
On April 30, the State Department issued its “annual assessment of trends and events in international terrorism…” It covers the period January 1 – December 31, 2013.
“It includes a strategic assessment, country-by-country breakdowns of counterterrorism efforts, and sections on state sponsors of terrorism, terrorist safe havens, and foreign terrorist organizations.”
It bears repeating. The world’s top sponsor by far is omitted. None in human history compare.
Washington uses Al Qaeda and similar groups strategically. They’re allies and enemies at the same time. They’re core elements of American imperial wars.
Tina Kaidanow is US ambassador-at-large and coordinator for counterterrorism. In 2013, terrorism evolved rapidly, she said.
“The international community’s successful efforts to degrade al-Qaida, or AQ, senior leadership in Pakistan, coupled with weak governance and instability in the Middle East and Northwest Africa have accelerated the decentralization of what we refer to as al-Qaida core,” she added.
“This has led to the affiliates in the AQ network becoming more operationally autonomous from AQ core and increasingly focused on local and regional objectives.”
“The past several years have seen the emergence of a more aggressive set of AQ affiliates and likeminded groups, most notably in Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Northwest Africa, and Somalia.”
“Iran’s state-sponsorship of terrorism and Hezbollah’s activities are also of significant concern,” she claimed.
“Interdictions in the past year have found Iran attempting to smuggle arms and Iranian explosives to Syria, to Yemen, and also to arm Shia opposition groups in Bahrain.”
“And the IRGC Qods Force, Hezbollah, and Iraqi Shia militant groups have all been providing a broad range of critical support to the Assad regime since the start of the conflict.”
Fake Washington-hyped terror threats persist. It’s done to generate fear. America’s only enemies are ones it invents. Demagogic duplicity claims otherwise. It turns truth on its head.
Inconvenient truths are buried. Michael Parenti exposed the terrorism trap. He did so post-9/11. Wars are waged “to keep the world safe for the Fortune 500,” he said.
“To make sure that the transnational corporations and international global finance capital continues to control the land, labor, resources, and markets of most of the world, and ultimately, all of the world on terms that are extremely favorable to them.”
“The goal is to destroy, to obliterate, to thwart any social movement or national leader who is trying for an alternative way of using the land, the labor, the natural resources, the markets, the capital of his or her country.”
To institute a homeland police state apparatus. To destroy freedom in the name of stability. To lose both at the same time. To continue waging war on humanity.
To claim it’s about spreading democracy. To tolerate it nowhere. To crush it wherever it emerges. To institute Washington rules. To enforce hardline rule.
To demand absolute obedience. To tolerate no outliers. To ravage humanity in the name of saving it. To make planet earth unfit to live on.
State-sponsored terrorism defines US policy. Demagogic duplicity conceals it.
US law calls “international terrorism” activities involving:
(A) “violent acts or acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State, or that would be a criminal violation if committed within the jurisdiction of the United States or of any State;”
(B) are intended to –
(i) “intimidate or coerce a civilian population;
(ii) influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or
(iii) affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and
(C) occur primarily outside the territorial jurisdiction of the United States….”
The US Army Operational Concept for Terrorism (TRADOC Pamphlet No. 525-37, 1984) called it “the calculated use of violence or threat of violence to attain goals that are political, religious, or ideological in nature….through intimidation, coercion, or instilling fear.”
Merriam-Webster calls it “the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion.”
The Oxford Dictionary calls it “the use of violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims.”
In his book “Terrorism, Theirs and Ours,” the late Eqbal Ahmad called state-sponsored terrorism most important of all.
It includes “torture, burning of villages, destruction of entire peoples, (and) genocide” on a massive scale.
It’s called “self-defense,” protecting “national security,” and/or “promoting democracy.” Doing so conceals America’s dark side. War on humanity follows.
“Who will define the parameters of terrorism, or decide where terrorists lurk,” asked Ahmad?
“Why none other than the United States, which can from the rooftops of the world set out its claim to be sheriff, judge and hangman, all at one and the same time.”
Martin Luther King called America “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today.” He did so for good reason.
It’s more menacing than ever. At stake is humanity’s survival. Aggression is called humanitarian intervention. Freedom is crushed for our own good.
Big Lies substitute for truth. They proliferate to advance America’s imperium. Mind manipulation convinces people to go along.
Eastern Ukrainian freedom fighters are called terrorists. US-led NATO takes full advantage.
Eastern European deployments continue. Doing so encroaches provocatively closer to Russia’s borders.
Georgia and Russia share a common one. Its Defense Minister Irakli Alasania wants more NATO troops deployed internally.
He calls them “defensive actions,” saying:
“(T)his is something we need to put in Georgia and Russians will understand that you are serious.”
Americans and Europeans must work together, he stressed. It’s “important for the United States to show leadership…to make sure (NATO’s) next steps will be an adequate response to what’s happening in Ukraine.”
“We are talking about the Membership Action Plan, but we don’t really know how these discussions will end up, while, honestly, in fact after (developments in) Ukraine we should be talking about accession talks of Georgia and other aspirants to NATO.”
According to NATO Deputy Secretary General Alexander Vershbow:
“We need to step up our support for defense reforms and military modernization of Russia’s neighbors, and not just of Ukraine, but also Moldova, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan.”
On April 27, Mossad-connected DEBKAfile (DF) headlined“Russian and Ukrainian armies shaping up for initial military clash over Slavyansk,” saying:
“The outcome will determine who controls the Donetsk region and possibly all of East of Ukraine…”
“(I)t might be the last straw that undermines (Kiev’s) shaky rule.” Ukraine’s military is no match against Russia’s.
“Its threat to blockade the more than a dozen towns where separatists are entrenched in official buildings is unconvincing.”
DF sees no broad international coalition for a “strong stand” against Russia forthcoming. Obama may be largely on his own.
On April 30, the Wall Street Journal headlined ”Americans Want to Pull Back From World Stage, Poll Finds.”
“Nearly Half Surveyed in WSJ/NBC Poll Back Anti-Interventionist Stance That Sweeps Across Party Lines.”
Only 38% of Americans approve how Obama handles foreign policy. It’s the low water mark of his presidency.
According to Democrat pollster Fred Yang:
“The juxtaposition of an America that wants to turn inward and away from world affairs, and a strong feeling of powerlessness domestically, is a powerful current that so far has eluded the grasp of Democrats and Republicans.”
“The message from the American public to their leaders in this poll seems to be: You need to take care of business here at home.”
Public support for Obama’s handling Ukrainian crisis conditions dropped to 37%. In March it was 43%.
On April 30, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Washington isn’t “concerned (about) the fate of Ukraine…but (has) a strong desire to prove (it) decides how things should be – always and everywhere.”
Lavrov wants US officials to “discipline” putschists it elevated to power. Do it instead of sanctioning Russia, he stressed.
Moscow urges constructive dialogue, he added. “US and EU representatives have blocked this initiative,” he said.
“We’ll continue to call for the full implementation of the Geneva Declaration, which our partners are trying to distance themselves from.”
“But we cannot decide for the self-defense forces. Those people live under a constant threat coming from Kiev that the military and armored vehicles will be used against them; under constant threat from the extremists.”
At the same time, Russia bashing persists. Eight Republican senators introduced hostile legislation.
If enacted, it’ll strengthen NATO, enhance missile defense for offense, provide military aide to Ukraine, and sanction Russia’s banking and energy sectors.
On Wednesday, coup-appointed president Oleksandr Turchynov said Ukraine’s military went on full alert.
“Special tactical exercises” were held. Military forces were deployed on Kiev streets.
On Tuesday, Moscow’s UN envoy Vitaly Churkin said Kiev, “encouraged by Western ‘friends,’ is persistently pushing the country towards a catastrophe.”
US imperialism bears full responsibility. State terrorism defines it. War on humanity persists.
Ukraine is in the eye of the storm. Flashpoint conditions risk spreading things out-of-control.
Obama’s latest imperial adventurism risks global war. He’s mindless about what’s potentially unfolding.
Agrarian Uprising Against Free Trade and ‘Government Lies’ Sweeps Colombia
Second agrarian uprising in less than a year met with tanks, soldiers, and riot police
Agrarian strikes, protests, and road blockades are sweeping Colombia this week as peasants voice outrage at the “free trade” policies, backed by the Colombian government, that they say are exacerbating the country’s crisis of rural poverty.
“The countryside has been abandoned by the state in favor of big companies,” Jimmy Torres of Conciencia Campesina in Cajamarca told The Guardian. “That’s why we block the roads and protest.”
The second major mobilization of its kind in less than a year, the strike launched Monday and has so far been met with government tanks, troops, and riot police, The Guardianreports. Human rights organizations estimate that 200 participants have been “illegally arrested,” Neil Martin of the Colombia-based labor solidarity organization Paso Internationaltold Common Dreams.
The strikes and protests are organized by dignity movements for potato, rice, and coffee growers and other rural workers, said Martin.
Peasants have levied a range of demands for greater social protections and relief from debt, mining projects, and “free trade” agreements that have bankrupted and displaced Colombia’s peasants, workers, indigenous, and Afro-Colombian communities.
The “U.S.-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement,” passed by U.S. Congress in 2011,slashed tariffs on U.S. exports to the country while prohibiting protections for Colombian farmers, forcing peasants and farmers to compete with an influx of subsidized U.S. products.
“The government would have to provide massive subsidies to these farmers for them to make ends meet, but the free trade agreement with the U.S., for example, prohibits this type of policy,” said Martin. “Meanwhile the U.S. government provide massive subsidies to its agricultural industry. The globalization of the agricultural market, in general, also makes for a very volatile situation for small farmers everywhere who fall victim to unpredictable booms and busts.”
In Colombia today, the overall poverty rate hovers at 30.6 percent, and in rural areas this figure runs 11 percentage points higher.
Cesar Pachon, representative for the Potato Farmers Dignity Movement, told newspaper El Colombiano that the protesters “are searching for a price control [or subsidy] because the potato is selling for less than its [production] cost, soft loans, debt refinancing and support for inputs because they are expensive,” according to a translation from Colombia Report.
Colombia’s ongoing mobilization follows a larger rural uprising and strike of hundreds of thousands this August that was met with severe repression from Colombia’s feared police, resulting in approximately 20 deaths. While the mobilization forced President Juan Manuel Santos to promise compliance with the protesters’ key demands, peasants say he has failed to follow through on his commitments.
“We have no faith in the central government,” said Walter Benavides, who is identified as a spokesperson for the striking farmers by the Miami Herald. “They’ve lied to us repeatedly… We don’t want words, we want actions.”
Numerous media reports state that the fresh protests less than a month ahead of the May 25th vote have the potential to upset Santos’ re-election bid.
Meanwhile, the rural protests are expected to spread Thursday, May 1st—recognized around the world as International Workers’ Day—with more organizations and supporters slated to take to the streets.
USA: Bad Jobs Country
Researchers confirm what desperate workers have sensed: most of the good jobs lost in the Great Recession have been replaced with bad jobs. That’s fine with Wall Street, since “capital’s global plan is to reduce all workers to a state of absolute insecurity, so that they will accept those bad jobs without complaint.”
A new study shows that the U.S. economy has finally produced more jobs than there were before the Great Recession of 2008. The problem is, they’re mostly bad jobs in fast-food restaurants and low-wage retail. The National Employment Law Project found that there are almost two million fewer good paying jobs than there were back in 2008, but also close to two million more jobs in the low-wage sector of the economy – meaning, most of the new jobs have been bad jobs.
Actually, the change in the jobs picture during the Great Recession was just a speeded up version of what capitalism has been producing in the United States for more than 30 years. It is by design. Every time employers have turned the screws on labor, in terms of wages, benefits and jobs security, Wall Street has rewarded those companies. The Lords of Capital have also richly rewarded the politicians from both parties for removing the remaining obstacles to the direct rule of the rich.
Capital’s global plan is to reduce all workers to a state of absolute insecurity, so that they will accept those bad jobs without complaint. That requires the destruction of what we used to call the social safety net – a term that sounds increasingly quaint in the dog-eat-dog environment engineered into the system by Wall Street.
Make no mistake about it: austerity is the common program of both the business parties. That’s why you will hear no countervailing vision from the Democrats, whose message differs from Republicans only in tone, not in substance. Both answer to the Lords of Capital.
Barack Obama, the great actor and political chameleon, pretends to commiserate with his Democratic minority and working class constituents. Like his mentor, Bill Clinton, Obama claims to feel their pain. Yet, he is feverishly working to pass trade treaties that will further establish the legal structures of the global race to the bottom – treaties so blatantly biased towards corporations and against every principle of democracy and national sovereignty, that the language must be kept secret.
However, the main problem for American workers isn’t that Wall Street’s economic and social plans are secret – because, for the most part, they’re not. Big Capital’s intentions have been quite clear for decades. The NAFTA trade treaty has been savaging U.S. factory workers and Mexican peasants for 20 years. The Democrats were in power when the banks were set free to loot and plunder 15 years ago. Every employment study has tracked the steady decline of union membership, which the Democrats have done virtually nothing to reverse. That’s quite understandable since finance capital has steadily increased its campaign contributions to Democrats. None of this has been a secret, and no one should be surprised that, as a result, most new jobs are bad jobs. As far as Wall Street is concerned, that’s good news.
What makes the current era different from the past, is that neither of the business parties even bothers to pretend that it has a plan for a good jobs society. That means the people must put forward their own plan, through their own organizations – and learn to avoid the Democrats, whose job is to nip genuine people’s movements in the bud, so as not to disturb the corporate order.
BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted atGlen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.
By justifying and integrating all these potentials into a single scalable, modular approach, various capabilities can emerge naturally in various markets, rather than trying to compete directly in areas that may be highly resistant to change. Portable food production does not appear to pose an immediate threat to the energy or transportation industry for example. Separately justifying and funding dozens of technologies with as many business plans would be complex, both financial and logistically. Since global recovery is synergistic, integration of technologies is as important as individual capabilities.
What You Need to Know About May Day
For more than 100 years, May Day has symbolized the common struggles of workers around the globe. Why is it largely ignored in North America? The answer lies in part in American labour’s long repression of its own radical past, out of which international May Day was actually born a century ago.
The seeds were sown in the campaign for the eight-hour work day. On May 1, 1886, hundreds of thousands of North American workers mobilized to strike. In Chicago, the demonstration spilled over into support for workers at a major farm-implements factory who’d been locked out for union activities. On May 3, during a pitched battle between picketers and scabs, police shot two workers. At a protest rally in Haymarket Square the next day, a bomb was tossed into the police ranks and police directed their fire indiscriminately at the crowd. Eight anarchist leaders were arrested, tried and sentenced to death (three were later pardoned).
These events triggered international protests, and in 1889, the first congress of the new socialist parties associated with the Second International (the successor to the First International organized by Karl Marx in the 1860s) called on workers everywhere to join in an annual one-day strike on May 1 – not so much to demand specific reforms as an annual demonstration of labour solidarity and working-class power. May Day was both a product of, and an element in, the rapid growth of new mass working-class parties of Europe – which soon forced official recognition by employers and governments of this “workers’ holiday.”
But the American Federation of Labor (AFL), chastened by the “red scare” that followed the Haymarket events, went along with those who opposed May Day observances. Instead, in 1894, the AFL embraced president Grover Cleveland’s decree that the first Monday of September would be the annual Labor Day. The Canadian government of Sir Robert Thompson enacted identical Labour Day legislation a month later.
Ever since, May Day and Labour Day have represented in North America the two faces of working-class political tradition, one symbolizing its revolutionary potential, the other its long search for reform and respectability. With the support of the state and business, the latter has predominated – but the more radical tradition has never been entirely suppressed.
This radical May Day tradition is nowhere better captured than in Bryan Palmer’s monumental book, Cultures of Darkness: Night Travels in the Histories of Transgression [From Medieval to Modern] (Monthly Review Press, 2000). Palmer, one of Canada’s foremost Marxist labour historians, has done more than anyone to recover and analyze the cultures of resistancethat working people developed in practising class struggle from below. He’s strongly critical of labour-movement leaders who’ve appealed to those elements of working-class culture that crave ersatz bourgeois respectability.
Set amid chapters on peasants and witches in late feudalism, on pirates and slaves during the rise of mercantile imperialism, on fraternal lodge members and anarchists in the new cities of industrial capitalism, on lesbians, homosexuals and communists under fascism, and on the mafia, youth gangs and race riots, jazz, beats and bohemians in modern U.S. capitalism, are two chapters that brilliantly tell the story of May Day. One locates Haymarket in the context of the Victorian bourgeoisie’s fears of what they called the “dangerous classes.” This account confirms the central role of the “anarcho-communist movement in Chicago [which] was blessed with talented leaders, dedicated ranks and the most active left-wing press in the country. The dangerous classes were becoming truly dangerous.”
The other chapter, a survey of “Festivals of Revolution,” locates “the celebratory May Day, a festive seizure of working-class initiative that encompassed demands for shorter hours, improvement in conditions, and socialist agitation and organization” against the backdrop of the traditional spring calendar of class confrontation.
Over the past century communist revolutions were made in the name of the working class, and social democratic parties were often elected into government. In their different ways, both turned May Day to the purposes of the state. Before the 20th century was out the communist regimes imploded in internal contradictions between authoritarianism and the democratic purpose of socialism, while most social democratic ones, trapped in the internal contradictions between the welfare state and increasingly powerful capital markets, accommodated to neoliberalism and become openly disdainful of “old labour.”
As for the United States, the tragic legacy of the repression of its radical labour past is an increasingly de-unionized working class mobilized by fundamentalist Christian churches. Canada, with its NDP and 30-per-cent unionized labour force, looks good by comparison.
Working classes have suffered defeat after defeat in this era of capitalist globalization. But they’re also in the process of being transformed: The decimated industrial proletariat of the global North is being replaced by a bigger industrial proletariat in the global South. In both regions, a new working class is still being formed in the new service and communication sectors spawned by global capitalism (where the eight-hour day is often unknown). Union movements and workers’ parties from Poland to Korea to South Africa to Brazil have been spawned in the past 20 years. Two more books out of Monthly Review Press – Ursula Huws’ The Making of a Cybertariat (2003) and the late Daniel Singer’s Whose Millennium? Theirs or Ours?(1999) – don’t deal with May Day per se, but capture particularly well this global economic and political transformation. They tell much that is sober yet inspiring about why May Day still symbolizes the struggle for a future beyond capitalism rather than just a homage to the struggles of the past.
Kerry Warns Of “Hot Confrontation” With Russia
By Barry Grey
In an extraordinary interview, US Secretary of State John Kerry made clear that the Obama administration are fully aware that they are risking the outbreak of nuclear war by pursuing a reckless and provocative policy towards Russia. Continue
The Fool, the Demagogue, and the Former KGB Colonel
By Edward S. Herman
John Kerry’s statement that “You just don’t in the 21st century behave in 19th century fashion by invading another country on a completely trumped-up pretext,” has to be regarded as an Orwellian classic and may be his signifier in future history books. Continue
By John V. Whitbeck
Netanyahu’s assertion that Hamas “calls for the destruction of Israel” requires rational analysis.Continue
47% Say U.S. Should Reduce Role in World Affairs
By Carrie Dann
That represents a major flip in how Americans view world affairs since the aftermath of the September 11, 2001. Continue
Left-Right Alliances Can Make Major Changes for the People
By Ralph Nader
Called crony capitalism by the right and corporate welfare by the left, there is a rising tide of revulsion against the rich and powerful freeloading on the backs of ordinary taxpayers.Continue
State-Sanctioned Murder
Prisoner Writhes on Gurney in Botched Execution
By Katie Fretland
Clayton Lockett Death Witness Speaks. Continue
By David Cole
“The Senate has quietly stripped a provision from an intelligence bill that would have required President Obama to make public each year the number of people killed or injured in targeted killing operations.” Continue
US Economy Is A House Of Cards
By Paul Craig Roberts
Americans are an amazingly insouciant people. By now any other people would have burnt Wall Street to the ground. Continue
Some Basics of State Domination and Public Submission
By Robert Higgs
The state has existed as an ever-present predator and all-around abuser of human rights, its power to dominate and plunder propped up by its adroit exploitation of people’s fears.Continue
The Lessons of Cliven Bundy and Donald Sterling
By Margaret Kimberley
It is not a coincidence that gun and slavery lovers so often find common cause. Continue
2 Killed – Gunfire and Explosions Outside Pro-federalist Town of Slavyansk:
By AFP
Ukraine has launched a military assault on the flashpoint town of Slavyansk, raising the stakes in the showdown with Russia, which has promised “catastrophic consequences” if Kiev stepped up operations. Continue
===
It’s not Russia that’s pushed Ukraine to the brink of war
By Seumas Milne
The attempt to lever Kiev into the western camp by ousting an elected leader made conflict certain. It could be a threat to us all. Continue
Kerry’s Propaganda War on Russia’s RT
By Ray McGovern
Kerry, decries Russia’s RT network as a “propaganda bullhorn” that Americans should ignore – just trust what the U.S. government tells you. Continue
By Robert Fantina
Mr. Netanyahu refuses to deal with anyone who wishes the destruction of Israel, yet he is actively pursuing the complete annihilation of Palestine. Continue
Israel vs Palestine: Norman Finkelstein
Must Watch Short Video
We investigate the key arguments, counter-arguments and ad-hominems from both sides.Continue
The Coward Rusbridger
The Guardian, Just Another Neo-con Mouthpiece.
By Craig Murray
I was threatened with the Official Secrets Act if I insisted on exposing the use of intelligence from torture. I considered and decided it was worth going to jail for. Continue
“A shocking miscarriage of justice”
Dr. Rafil Dhafir’s Crime Of Compassion
Audio – Steve Lendman
Dr. Rafil Dhafir should be celebrated as the outstanding humanitarian he is, not turned into convenient props in the War on Terror. Continue
By David Swanson
We have to stop trying to defeat the Military Industrial Complex (how’s that been working out?) and start working to replace it and to convert the people who make up its parts to new behaviors. Continue
By Robert Fantina
Loyalty to mankind is superior to loyalty to a nation. Continue
This Land Isn’t Your Land, This Land Is Their Land
An Empire in Decline (City by City, Town by Town)
By Peter Van Buren
What’s happening is both easy enough for a traveler to see and for an economist to measure. Median household income in 2012 was no higher than it had been a quarter-century earlier.Continue
Why the Minimum Wage Vote Failed
By Heather McGhee
Hard-working Americans deserve more than $7.25 worth of influence in Washington. Continue
What About Racism in Government Programs?
By Jacob G. Hornberger
I’m referring in particular to three such programs: the drug war, minimum-wage laws, and occupational-licensure laws. Continue
May 1, 2014
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Psychological Warfare and the “False Flag” Meme
False flag operations and assassinations are a central component of the elaborate psychological warfare campaign waged on the American public to justify the so-called “global war on terrorism,” and the events of September 11, 2001 are this project’s cornerstone.
Major US news outlets turn a blind eye to a wide array of evidence “that Western covert operators were behind” events such as “Bali, Madrid, London 7/7, mosque bombings in Iraq and elsewhere and, of course, 9/11. Because the mainstream media are integral to the Industrial Military Academic Intelligence Media complex,” journalist Barrie Zwicker observes, “the cold-blooded technicians of death face no journalistic scrutiny. Without moral, legal, technical or financial constraints, the black operators range freely, executing the orders of the global oligarchies.”[1]
An undeniable effect of the Boston Marathon bombing was that the term “false flag”—meaning a typically illegal act carried out by a government against itself that is often blamed on another entity to justify its own policies—became a recognizable expression among a broader swath of the American public. For example, web-based searches for the phrase spiked in the wake of the April 15 event after a correspondent for the alternative news site Infowars questioned Massachusetts Governor Duval Patrick on the suspicious circumstances surrounding the bombing.[2] Some news outlets predictably moved to condemn any cogitation along these lines as “conspiracy theorizing.”[3]
In the United States the citizenry is especially well-indoctrinated through an overwhelming dependence on such corporate media. Yet for the peoples of many countries “false flag” has become a commonplace term. This is particularly so in the Middle East, where journalists and the broader public routinely witness inexplicable terror attacks on civilian populations. Placed in a broader historical context there is a concurrent understanding of such tactics as emblematic of military and intelligence-related meddling from Western nations.
For example, in the early 2000s waves of car bombings throughout Iraq were rumored to have been carried out by British or US intelligence. “The word on the street in Baghdad is that the cessation of suicide car bombings is proof that the CIA was behind them,” independent journalist Dahr Jamail wrote in 2004. “Why? Because as one man states, ‘[CIA agents are] too busy fighting now, and the unrest they wanted to cause by the bombings is now upon them.’ True or not, it doesn’t bode well for the occupiers’ image in Iraq.”[4]
Along these lines, in September 2005 Iraqi police arrested two British soldiers disguised in conventional Iraqi jallabahs [loose cloaks] and Arab headscarves after the costumed pair reportedly drove a car equipped with explosives while opening fire on Iraqi police. British armed forces then used several tanks and helicopters to liberate the masquerading combatants from the police barracks where they were detained.[5]
Similar to NATO’s Operation Gladio, or the FBI’s more recent efforts at generating newsworthy terrorist incidents in the US,[6] such black operations designed to cultivate terrorism were in fact authorized by the United States in 2002 to further perpetuate its “war on terror.” At that time military officials established the “Proactive, Preemptive Operations Group (P2OG).” P2OG’s overall strategy combined “CIA and military covert action, information warfare, intelligence and cover and deception” to execute terrorist acts on civilian populations in order to provoke and respond to such consequent indigenous terrorism.[7] In other words, this was an elaborate and deadly “make work” program by and for the military and intelligence communities.
With the above in mind, it is perhaps little wonder that “false flag” has become a standard term in the discourse of non-Western and especially Middle Eastern news outlets. Conversely, the expression is either absent from US-based news media, or carefully neutralized in editorial commentary and lighter entertainment or lifestyle-related coverage.
LexisNexis news searches for the dates April 15, 2004 to April 15, 2014 yields 1,012 newspaper items and more than 100 broadcast transcripts where “false flag” is used in the headline or text. An overwhelming majority of references appear in Pakistani and Iranian newspaper coverage and commentary, where the term is almost uniformly intended to denote instances of terrorist violence.
BBC Monitoring International Reports–52
Press TV (Iran)–51
Pakistan Observer–42
The Frontier Post (Pakistan)–28
The Nation (Thailand)–24
The Washington Post–20
Mail Online–19
The New York Times–18
McClatchey Tribune Syndicate–17
International New York Times–16
Mehr News Agency (Iran)–15
National Post (Canada)–15
The Washington Times–15
Daily News (Sri Lanka)–14
The Jerusalem Post–14
Daily Times (Pakistan)–13
Gold Coast Publications (Australia)–13
Sunday Times (Islamabad)–13
The Augusta Chronicle–12
FARS News Agency (Iran)–11
The Times (London)–10
The Guardian (London)–10
News Outlets and instances of “false flag” referenced in news and opinion articles or broadcast transcriptions, April 15, 2004 to April 15, 2014
“The Mumbai attacks indeed have been used to scuttle the composite dialogue bringing Pakistan under pressure, accusing it of abetting terror” an opinion piece in Thailand’s Nation reads. “Simultaneously, only days after a warning of an Israeli ‘false flag’ bombing against the US as being ‘in the works’, a car bomb is discovered in Time[s] Square!”[8]
Indeed, the false flag meme is routinely deployed in a wide swath of global news discourse, the top ones of which are listed above. A cross section of contextual usages from Middle Eastern-based publications is presented below.
“The way [Osama bin Laden] was hastily buried under mysterious circumstances gave rise to speculations that it was a false flag operation to undermine Pak[istan’s] Army, Air Force and ISI and to defame Pakistan,” states an analysis in Pakistan’sFrontier Post.[9]
False flag operations are covert operations designed to deceive the public at large. During Algeria[‘s] civil war and struggle for independence [the] French government had resorted to similar tactics to crush the freedom movement. Some investigating journalists and organizations had also described [the] 9/11 attacks as false flag operations conducted by the CIA, Mossad and the RAW to take on the Muslim world … Israel is known for such operations, as it deliberately attacked the USS Liberty with unmarked fighters and torpedo boats causing 174 American casualties in an attempt to blame Egypt and garner American support during [the] 1967 war.–Pakistan Observer[10]
The news claiming that Iran has launched a cyber attack on US banks is a sheer lie and an obvious false flag operation. With US President Barack Obama ready to sign an executive order to control the Internet in the name of cybersecurity, could it be more obvious that this ‘cyber attack’ is a total setup? … US news website Infowars reported.–FARS News Agency (Iran) [11]
Whenever and wherever a blood-dimmed tide is loosened in Pakistan, the government blames Al Qaeda or Taliban for it. What the people have witnessed at Rawalpindi is yet another false flag operation perpetrated by a group that has some ulterior motives for creating such turmoil. For their personal benefits they are sowing the wind without realising that they would ultimately harvest a hurricane.–The Nation (Thailand)[12]
On January 13th 2012, Mark Perry broke a story in Foreign Policy magazine, in which he laid bare a false flag operation that Israel’s Mossad ran for several years. It involved their agents posing as CIA operatives in London and contracting the new infamous Jundullah (Iran), to conduct cross-border terrorism from Pakistan into Iran.–Daily Times (Pakistan)[13]
However, Damascus categorically rejected the baseless claim, and announced later that the chemical attack had actually been carried out by the militants themselves as a false flag operation.–PressTV (Iran)[14]
On the other hand, the degree and nature of the idiom’s usage in US news outlets is telling. Indeed, to forthrightly discuss false flag operations as the above items do is to render them useless as psychological techniques. The term is thus almost entirely absent in US-based broadcast (ABC, CBS NBC, Fox, NPR) and cable news programming transcripts (CNN, MSNBC, Fox News). It is invoked a total five times over the past ten years on Fox News programs–three of which focus on University of Wisconsin Arabic Studies instructor Kevin Barrett, who was subjected to a relentless media frenzy for publicly questioning the US government’s explanation of September 11, 2001.[15]
MSNBC host Rachel Maddow references “false flag,” in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing, focusing on Infowars’ coverage of the event.[16] The phrase also appears in an ABC transcript of a 2011 George Stephanopoulos interview featuring former Minnesota Governor and author Jesse Ventura.[17]
As noted, the term’s appearance in major print news media is largely restricted to the editorial, entertainment, and lifestyle sections, with exceptional framing in news coverage generally proving the rule. For example, over the past decade the term appears in 20 items published in theWashington Post, yet only five such usages are in reference to primarily non-Western military or intelligence-related concerns, with the remainder involving editorial comment on politics and entertainment reviews or event listings, a few of which obliquely reference the Boston Marathon bombing aftermath. “But there are a few bold, determined [Republican congresspersons] who may rescue Obamacare,” Michael Gerson writes. “If I were prone to conspiracy theories, I’d suspect a false-flag operation. Since I’m not, there must be explanations that arise from within tea party ideology.”[18]
“[A] top [Iranian] Revolutionary Guard officer named Brig. Gen. Ali Reza Asgari vanished in Istanbul,” the Post reports. “The betting among spy buffs is that Asgari was recruited in what’s known as a “false flag” operation. His handlers may be Israelis posing as officers of another intelligence service, perhaps even during the debriefing.[19]
Another reference to “false flag” is used in describing the untimely demise of one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s former associates.
Before he died, [Alexander[ Litvinenko blamed his impending demise on Putin, whose enemies tend to meet untimely deaths. Litvinenko was said to be on the verge of obtaining documents — or maybe they were already in his possession; this part is unclear — proving that Putin had staged attacks on Russian civilians and made it look as if Chechen separatists were responsible so that Putin would then be free to wage a brutal war of suppression against the Chechens. In the secret world, this sort of gambit is called a “false flag” operation.[20]
As noted, only one deployment of the term in the Washington Post since 2004 is in relation to US, British or Israeli covert practices, and here the exception indeed proves the censorial rule, for it is referenced in reportage describing sanctioned interrogation practices for Guantanamo detainees.
“[US Defense Secretary Donald] Rumsfeld then asked a working group of lawyers, intelligence officials and representatives of the Office of Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict to come up with permanent interrogation guidelines for Guantanamo,” the Post reports.
They looked at 35 techniques, including covering a suspect with wet towels to simulate drowning, and stripping detainees. Only 24 techniques survived, the result of a rancorous debate. Seven of those approved techniques are not included in U.S. military doctrine, and are listed as: “change of scenery up; change of scenery down; dietary manipulation; environmental manipulation; sleep adjustment (reversal) ; isolation for 30 days”; and a technique known as “false flag,” or deceiving a detainee into believing he is being interrogated by someone from another country.[21]
Usage of the term in the even more influential New York Times follows a similar course. Four of the eighteen Times articles referencing “false flag” involve coverage of the episode in early 2010 when cyber-attacks against Google and other US-based corporations were traced to Chinese military and educational institutions. Times reporters cited speculations by western industry and government officials that Chinese “schools were cover for a ‘false flag’ intelligence operation being run by a third country.”[22] “Security experts caution that it is hard to trace online attacks and that the digital footprints may be a ‘false flag,’” the Times instructs in a follow-up story, “a kind of decoy intended to throw investigators off track.”[23]
Seven New York Times articles are found in the editorial, entertainment, or style sections and deal with the term in an expectedly playful and detached manner. For example, one writer addressing the topic of “conspiracy theories” remarks that “in recent years, it seems as if every tragedy comes with a round of yarn-spinning, as the Web fills with stories about ‘false flag’ attacks and crisis actors’ — not mere theorizing but arguments for the existence of a completely alternate version of reality.”[24]
Aside from the episode involving China’s would-be involvement in cyber-terrorism, only once does the Times employ the “false flag” phrase in the context of serious international news coverage—a somewhat depreciative story profiling Mother Agnes Mariam published in the wake of the 2013 chemical attacks on Syrian civilians. “When Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, wanted to bolster his argument that rebels had carried out the poison gas attacks near Damascus on Aug. 21,” the Times reports,
he pointed to the work of a 61-year-old Lebanese-born nun, [Mother Agnes Mariam of the Cross,] who had concluded that the horrifying videos showing hundreds of dead and choking victims, including many children, had been fabricated ahead of time to provide a pretext for foreign intervention … Through conversations with Syrians and clergy throughout the country, she said, she uncovered [sic] ”the false flag of the Arab Spring.” Instead of a popular uprising by citizens enraged by economic stagnation and political oppression, she said, she found a conspiracy cooked up by international powers to destroy Syria.[25]
The UK Guardian and Times of London each reference “false flag” ten times over the past decade, with articles equally apportioned between editorials (four), news stories (three), and entertainment or style pieces (three). Only a few of these relate the term to the methods of Anglo-American empire.
For instance, a Guardian article from 2006 sneeringly reviews a lecture on 9/11 by Professor David Ray Griffin who, alongside other “conspiracy theorists,” maintains “[t]he attacks … were not carried out by al-Qaida [sic] but were a ‘false flag’ event used to justify the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq.”[26]
The Times notably includes a report (buried on page 39 of the print edition) on Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s March 2014 censorship of YouTube after a recorded conversation between the NATO country’s top government officials was posted on the site. In the discussion “a false flag attack on Turkey” was considered as a pretext to move against “an al-Qaeda splinter group that controls sections of northern Syria bordering Turkey.”[27]
The above suggests how, much like the taboo topic of “conspiracy theories,” US news media broadly reject the subject of false flag terror as the stuff delusion or otherwise perceive it as being mainly restricted to fictional narratives. Indeed, within the acceptable parameters of public discourse such things are, quite literally, unspeakable. If one accepts the basis for reality established in corporate media outlets like the Washington Post, the New York Times, or their broadcast counterparts, the only strategies and policies deemed worthy of notice almost entirely take place in the clear light of day. This is because, the theory goes, we live in a democratic society where the public is adequately represented and its interests genuinely well-articulated.
Yet nations and peoples routinely impacted by false flag terror unequivocally recognize the phenomenon as a legitimate item of public knowledge and discussion. Here western doctrinal institutions entrusted to define acceptable discourse and opinion, not to mention forging the accepted historical record, do so to expressly mislead those who unwittingly pay for false flag terror and military aggression abroad— chiefly the American citizenry.
Despite a series of momentous political assassinations in the 1960s with proven government complicity alongside unmistakable “false flag” events such as the Tonkin Gulf incident, the USS Liberty, the 1995 Oklahoma City Murrah Federal Building bombing and the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, the above suggests the conscious and now-standard use of psychological warfare methods to contain most Americans’ political horizons and understandings, thereby perpetuating the broader geopolitical status quo.
Notes
[1] Barrie Zwicker, Towers of Deception: The Media Cover-up of 9/11, Gabriola Island, BC: New Society Publishers, 2006, 2, 3.
[2] Adan Salazar, “’What’s a “False Flag”?’ Google Trends Show Search Term Spike,” Infowars.com, April 18, 2013.
[3] Meghan Keneally, “Conspiracy Theorists Claim Boston Was ‘False Flag’ Attack Arranged by the Government,” Daily Mail, April 16, 2013; Rachel Maddow, “The Rachel Maddow Show for April 24, 2013,” MSNBC, April 24, 2013; “Infowars Confrontation: Boston Resident Blasts Dan Bidondi Over Marathon Bombing Conspiracy Theories,” Huffington Post, April 30, 2013.
[4] Dahr Jamail, “Dahr Jamail Blog From Baghdad,” The New Standard, April 20, 2004. Retrieved April 23, 2014 from http://www.countercurrents.org/iraq-jamail200404.htm
[5] Michel Chossudovsky, “British Undercover Soldiers Caught Driving Booby Trapped Car,” Global Research, September 20, 2005.
[6] Daniele Ganser, NATO’s Secret Armies: Operation Gladio and Terrorism in Western Europe, London and New York: Frank Cass, 2005; Trevor Aaronson, The Terror Factory: Inside the FBI’s Manufactured War on Terrorism, New York: Ig Publishing, 2013. The American press has afforded almost no news coverage or commentary to Gladio, even though the US has figured centrally in subverting the political process in European countries since 1948. See James F. Tracy, “False Flag Terror and Conspiracies of Silence,” Global Research,
August 10, 2012.
[7] David Isenberg, “’P2OG Allows Pentagon to Fight Dirty,” Asia Times, November 5, 2002.
[8] S. M. Hali, “Too Many Coincidences!” The Nation (Thailand), May 11, 2010.
[9] Asif Haroon Raja, “Uproar Over Leaked Abottabad Commission Report,” The Frontier Post, August 7, 2013.
[10] Mohammad Jamil, “False Flag Operation & Subterfuge,” Pakistan Observer, January 12, 2010.
[11] “US Website: Iran’s Cyber Attack on US Banks Obvious False Flag,” FARS News Agency, October 3, 2012.
[12] Ghulam Asghar Khan, “Rendezvous with Death,” The Nation (Thailand), January 1, 2008.
[13] Fundy Kasuri, “How Terrorists Fund Their Activities,” Daily Times, November 21. 2013.
[14] “Iran Warns Against Military Intervention in Syria,” PressTV, August 27, 2013.
[15] See, for example, Bill O’Reilly, “Impact: Update on UW Professor,” Fox News, October 11, 2006.
[16] Maddow, “The Rachel Maddow Show for April 24, 2013.”
[17] George Stephanopoulos, “Secret Government Documents; Former Governor Speaks Out,” ABC News Transcript, April 4, 2011.
[18] Michael Gerson, “A Custer for Our Time,” Washington Post, August 2, 2013, A15.
[19] Michael Ignatius, “15 Britons in a Sea of Intrigue,” Washington Post, March 30, 2007, A17.
[20] Eugene Robinson, “The Case of the Poisoned Spy,” Washington Post, November 28, 2006, A19.
[21] Dana Priest and Bradley Graham, “Guantanamo List Details Approved Interrogation Methods,” Washington Post, June 10, 2004, A13.
[22] John Markoff and David Barboza, “2 China Schools Said to Be Tied to Online Attacks,” New York Times, February 18, 2010.
[23] David Barboza, “Hacking Inquiry Puts China’s Elite in New Light,” New York Times, February 22, 2010, A1.
[24] Maggie Koerth-Baker, “Why Rational People Buy Into Conspiracy Theories,” New York Times Magazine, May 26, 2013, 15.
[25] Ben Hubbard, “A Nun Lends a Voice of Skepticism on the Use of Poison Gas by Syria,” New York Times, September 22, 2013, A11.
[26] Audrey Gillan, “Full House as Leading 9/11 Conspiracy Theorist Has His Say,” Guardian (London), September 9, 2006.
[27] Alexander Christie-Miller, “Erdogan Blocks YouTube Over Leaked War Plans,” Times (London), March 28, 2014, 39.
Miami Jury: CIA Involved in JFK Assassination
Not a single major newspaper nor any national news broadcast has ever reported that on Feb. 6, 1985, a jury in Miami concluded that the CIA was involved in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
This is remarkable, if only because the verdict came in a court case featuring two international celebrities: Water gate burglar E. Howard Hunt — perhaps the most infamous CIA operative in history — and his courtroom nemesis — attorney Mark Lane. Lane’s ground-break ing best-seller, Rush to Judgment, had convinced millions of readers there had been a conspiracy in the JFK assassination, the Warren Commission’s claims notwithstanding.
Scattered news reports did mention Hunt had lost a libel case against The SPOTLIGHT. However, no media reported what the jury forewoman had told the press:
Mr. Lane was asking us to do something very difficult. He was asking us to believe John Kennedy had been killed by our own government. Yet when we examined the evidence closely, we were compelled to conclude that the CIA had indeed killed President Kennedy.
Until 1992, when Lane recounted the trial in Plausible Denial and put forth additional compelling evidence of CIA complicity in the crime, the only substantive news reports about the trial appeared in The SPOTLIGHT. In issue No. 7 for 1985 (Feb. 18), The SPOTLIGHT announced its victory, detailing the remarkable events that led to the trial.
The affair was set in motion on Aug. 14, 1978, when The SPOTLIGHT published an article by former CIA official Victor Marchetti who revealed the CIA intended to publicly “admit” Hunt had been involved in the JFK assassination, acting as a “rogue” agent without CIA sanction.
A top CIA liaison to anti-Castro Cuban exiles in the early 1960s, Hunt was unknown to the public until the Watergate scandal that toppled President Nixon in 1974 brought Hunt ill fame. Then, after Watergate, when the Rockefeller Commission investigated CIA misdeeds, two eccentric writers alleged Hunt was one of three “tramps” photographed in Dallas minutes after the JFK assassination.
Subsequent investigation refuted the “Hunt as tramp” theory. However, scandal sheets had hyped the story and many came to believe Hunt had a hand in Dallas.
In 1976, growing skepticism about the Warren Commission’s claim that a “lone assassin” had killed JFK forced the House of Representatives to convene a new assassination inquiry.
In the midst of the House investigation, an unusual development occurred:
As Marchetti’s SPOTLIGHT article reported, an in-house CIA memo, ostensibly written in 1966 — some 12 years previously — was leaked to congressional investigators.
The memo stated Hunt had been in Dallas on the day of the JFK assassination, and that CIA officials were concerned the agency would one day have to explain Hunt’s presence there.
The SPOTLIGHT subsequently learned CIA Director Richard Helms and the CIA’s chief of counterintelligence, James Angleton, had signed off on the memo.
Marchetti suggested that because the CIA perceived Hunt to be a villain in the public’s eye as a consequence of Watergate, the CIA had decided to sacrifice Hunt and “admit” he had been involved in the assassination.
The CIA would claim Hunt was acting on his own and that the CIA, as an institution, had no part in the president’s murder. This would satisfy public demand for a resolution of the JFK controversy and the CIA itself would be absolved. Hunt would be left to fend for himself.
The SPOTLIGHT felt the article served as warning to Hunt about CIA intentions and Hunt himself admitted the story seemed plausible. Yet, Hunt still filed suit against The SPOTLIGHT.
When the case went to trial in federal court in Miami, the jury found in Hunt’s favor, ordering The SPOTLIGHT to pay Hunt $650,000 in damages. However, an error in the jury instructions resulted in the verdict being overturned. After the case was ordered for retrial, Lane stepped in for The SPOTLIGHT’s defense.
The highlight of the trial was when Lane presented the jury the testimony of Marita Lorenz, an ex-CIA operative who had worked with Hunt in plots against Fidel Castro.
Miss Lorenz testified that on Nov. 21, 1963 — the day prior to the JFK assassination — she arrived in Dallas in a two-car caravan from Miami. Accompanying her were several CIA operatives, armed with telescopic rifles, including Frank Sturgis who (years later) participated with Hunt in the Watergate burglary.
She didn’t know the purpose of the mission, but upon arrival, the travelers met with Hunt, who acted as their paymaster, and also Jack Ruby who, days later, killed the accused assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald.
Uncomfortable, sensing something “big, very big,” was impending, she left Dallas that same day. Later Sturgis told her how big the mission had been: the assassination of President Kennedy.
The jury listened carefully to her testimony, already suspicious of Hunt after his performance under Lane’s cross-examination. Lane pointed out inconsistencies in conflicting stories by Hunt over the years about where he had been on Nov. 22, 1963. However, Hunt insisted to the jury that he was in Washington, D.C. with his wife and three children that day.
Hunt’s case collapsed when he was unable to explain, when questioned by Lane, why his teenage children had asked him if the rumors he was involved in the events in Dallas were true.
Obviously, if Hunt were in Washington on Nov. 22 he couldn’t have been in Dallas.
Not surprisingly, the jury found in favor of The SPOTLIGHT. Yet, the major media said nothing about the stunning, historic revelations of this trial.
It was clearly the CIA’s counterintelligence chief, James Angleton, who leaked the CIA memo placing Hunt in Dallas. In fact, Angleton’s confidant, reporter Joe Trento (deposed by Lane in the Hunt case) has said — based upon what Angleton told him — that Hunt had been in Dallas and that it was Angleton who sent him there (Angleton’s own denials notwithstanding). Three conclusions can be reached:
• The CIA had planned to throw Hunt to the wolves but evidently he and the CIA reached an accord since Angleton’s loyal, longtime deputy, Newton Miler, was dispatched by the CIA to testify against The SPOTLIGHT in Hunt’s defense;
• Because The SPOTLIGHT ex posed the intended CIA scheme to “admit” Hunt’s complicity in the assassination, the operation was shelved; and,
• If there’s anybody who knows what really happened in Dallas, it’s Hunt.
Date: Wed, Apr 30, 2014 at 5:20 PM
Subject: Mass Global Arrest Website Now Live; Includes Arrest List
News Links, May 1-2, 2014
Standard & Poors downgrades 15 European banks, cites reforms
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German bank KfW issues first Renminbi bond in Frankfurt
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The slow death of purposeless walking
## Environment/health ##
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## Japan ##
Japanese utilities post losses, seek state support
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## UK ##
Energy bills ‘to rise twice as fast as expected’ due to inefficient products
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National Response Center shuts down website, transparency
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Cities, states to lose big if highway fund disappears
And finally…
Presenting The White House Decision-Making Machine
!DSPAM:57,5363d8e1205897903377022!
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