HYBRID WARFARE

MAX BLUMENTHAL—Smith Parenti explains that Sharp worked for decades at Harvard University’s Center for International Affairs, nicknamed “the CIA at Harvard,” a “think tank that was theorizing, among other things, how the US could prosecute the cold war, and win. And Gene Sharp was very clear that he was anti-communist; he was very clear … as to his preferences for economic policy; he thought the government should get out of quote-unquote ‘intervening in markets.’”

Blumenthal notes that Sharp is a “figure who has influenced so many of the people we write about at The Grayzone,” and his work is frequently cited by “US assets in countries like Nicaragua or Venezuela, who are regime-change assets essentially.” 

ALEX RUBINSTEIN—Glorification of the conquests by Kurdish forces in Syria reached a fever pitch during the Raqqa campaign. One group was established, which now has its own Wikipedia page despite its actual existence being dubious, by foreign queer anarchists called the “The Queer Insurrection and Liberation Army.” While the historic city of Raqqa was being destroyed to the tune of 70 percent, these feel-good headlines about a supposedly revolutionary and inclusive alternative to statism that the Kurdish fighters and their allies represented dominated the narrative on the left.

Aaron Maté interviews his father, Dr Gabor Maté on the psychological dimensions of Russiagate and the Trump derangement syndrome phenomenon that fueled it to this day. 

ERIC ZUESSE—On February 12th, the New York Times headlined “On W.H.O. Trip, China Refused to Hand Over Important Data” and reported that,

Chinese scientists refused to share raw data that might bring the world closer to understanding the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, independent investigators for the W.H.O. said on Friday. … Chinese officials told the team that they did not have enough time to compile detailed patient data and only provided summaries. The W.H.O. scientists said they were continuing to press their counterparts in China for the raw data and other information. … The news that Chinese officials did not share raw data with the W.H.O. experts was reported earlier by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and The Wall Street Journal. … It is unclear how fully the Chinese government — which remains in firm control of research into the origins of the virus — will cooperate.

Facts that contradict those assertions were simply ignored by the NYT. 

DANNY HAIPHONG—The farcical myths of American exceptionalism such as “free speech” facilitate a mass ignorance of the deadly censorship that Assange’s case represents. Any real leftist movement in the United States would do well to reexamine the material conditions that create the need for censorship and let go of anti-communist and racist stereotypes which only serve to cloud political judgement. While China is certainly a leading economic power, the Communist Party-led state is by no means a military hegemon. That position rests with the United States. The United States possesses the biggest military apparatus in the world by several proportions, one that is used to destroy and plunder the planet with impunity.