British Doctor Trying to Save Lives of Gazan Civilians Severely Injured by Israeli Bombs

Please make sure these dispatches reach as many readers as possible. Share with kin, friends and workmates and ask them to do likewise.

Felix Abt
COVERT ACTION MAGAZINE

Resize text-+=

British Doctor Trying to Save Lives of Gazan Civilians Severely Injured by Israeli Bombs
By Felix Abt

First run on March 12, 2024 

 

[Warning: This interview features graphic images.—Editors]

The Israeli tactic of hiding the ongoing genocide is to suppress the truth in the media. This includes pressuring mainstream media outlets like CNN to filter and/or distort reports to suit Israel’s interests, preventing journalists from reporting from Gaza, or simply killing them—a fate that has befallen dozens of journalists to date, “more than in any other conflict in over 30 years.”

Systematic Censorship

The greatest irony is that CNN, which supports Israeli censorship, is now criticizing the Chinese government for not suppressing the anger of Chinese citizens over the horrors in Gaza, and vilifying the Chinese as “anti-Semitic” for doing so.

A Summary of the Horror

We would like to remind our readers that every inhabitant in Gaza is hungry, that some 50,000 pregnant women receive neither medical care nor adequate nutrition, that infants are dying in droves, and that 100,000 people have died or been injured by military violence in the Gaza ghetto so far —that is one in twenty—and that many of the injured have no access to medical care.

Despite this frightening new high in violence, the majority of Israelis still believe that not enough force is being used, according to a recent poll. Given that “Israel’s use of disproportionate force is a long-established tactic — with a clear aim,” this might not come as a surprise. The indiscriminate killing by Israel does not stop at its own citizens. On October 7, 2023, Israeli attack helicopters and tanks killed numerous citizens in their homes.

After the news in which it was falsely claimed that Hamas had beheaded Israeli babies, this followed: “In a desperate bid for international sympathy, the Israeli government has sought to stir outrage over the killing of a 12-year-old girl during the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7,” according to this report.

Naftali Bennett, the former Israeli Prime Minister, chimed in to proclaim that “Liel Hetzroni of Kibbutz Beeri was murdered in her home by Hamas monsters… We’re fighting the most just war: to ensure this can never happen again.” That was a shameless lie. She was killed when an Israeli tank fired on her house.

Naftali Bennett

Naftali Bennett

And an Israeli soldier held hostage in Gaza was killed with poison gas, not by Hamas, but by Israel—a fact that led his mother to allude to the gas chambers in Hitler’s Germany.

Brian Mast (R-Fl) wearing IDF uniform in Congress. [Source: dailycaller.com]

We also watch in disbelief as the last vestiges of moral decency are turned upside down: Those of us who oppose genocide are accused of condoning it. Those who commit genocide are exercising their right to self-defense!

In September, before the paramilitary wing of Hamas overran the Israeli border on October 7, 2023 (a sober analysis can be found here), Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu showed a map of the so-called New Middle East at a session of the UN General Assembly. The Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem had all been incorporated into a Greater Israel. Ironically, he insisted that Israel should extend “from the river to the sea.” Palestine had ceased to exist. Palestinians are forced to choose between death by bombing, disease, exposure, starvation or expulsion from their homeland.

Nazism Is in Full Swing Again

Both prominent Israeli politicians and ordinary Israelis use the terminology of the German Reich to refer to the Palestinians as sub-human animals (and therefore acceptable prey to kill). They are forcing the Palestinians who have survived this far to leave, “benevolently” referring to this as “voluntary emigration from Gaza,” which is supported by 83% of Israelis—a term and tactic of ethnic cleansing also used by Nazi Germany.

Nazi ethnic clansing

Greater Israel’s Model: Greater Germany! [Source: Screenshot of Holocaust Encyclopedia, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum] Israel is doing the same in Gaza with German thoroughness. That is why the International Court of Justice (ICJ) recently ruled that “Gaza has become a place of death and despair” (ICJ Ruling, page 13, point 47).

The Necessary Counter-Statements

We provide a voice to those who witnessed the carnage but are usually left out of your papers and screens. Examples include the Palestinian intellectual who barely escaped with his life after Israeli bombs destroyed his entire neighborhood and the British doctor who worked through the chaos and carnage and agreed to an interview with us.

Masha Gessen, a Jewish relative of Holocaust survivors and a Hannah Arendt prize winner, explains that “the politics of memory in Europe obscures what we see in Israel and Gaza today.”  And as your media refuse to report on the unprecedented horror of our time, we have decided to show you graphic pictures of helpless citizens severely injured by Israeli bombs, kindly provided by our interviewee, Dr. Khan. However, we will not show you pictures from another source of dead women and children who have been torn to pieces.

The Most Cruel War Zone in the World

Conducted by Felix Abt, below is an interview with Dr. Suheal A. Khan, Senior Orthopaedic Consultant, Visiting Professor, Director and Founder, Mobile International Surgical Teams (MIST) Foundation.

Felix Abt: Dr. Khan, you have just returned from Gaza. It is the second time you have worked there. In 2010, you spent a year in the Gaza Strip as Head of Orthopaedics at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis where you taught and trained the local surgeons in the art of Ilizarov surgery and performed many cases of limb deformity, infection, and mal-unions of fractures. You wrote the book Nowhere to Run: A Surgeon’s Tale from the Gaza Strip about your experiences there. Since then, the situation has changed dramatically, and for the worse, as you discovered during your recent visit. What has become of this hospital and your former colleagues there?

Dr. S.A. Khan: I arrived at European Gaza Hospital [EGH] with the Red Cross [ICRC] team and was very surprised and pleased to see surgeons and nurses I had worked with more than a decade ago! The Head of Department of EGH was one of my Residents over a decade ago! So it was a sort of homecoming with many of the other EGH staff. I also met displaced colleagues from Al Shifa working now at EGH.

The problem was getting to and from work was now getting dangerous…so we started operating theaters at 10:30 a.m. and many of the staff would sleep in theaters till the next shift came in.

Some of my former colleagues were trapped with their families at the Al Muwasi camp…which is a strip of beach in the ‘safe zone.’ Many fear if they now return to Nasser Hospital, the IDF will arrest them as many of the Al Shifa medics are still missing, raising questions.

Felix Abt: Israel forced patients and medical staff to leave hospitals, condemning these patients and the new patients to death. Could at least some of these patients be saved, and if so, how?

Dr. S.A. Khan: Any patient can be saved if there are enough resources and specialists available. Forcibly removing patients from hospitals…[I] am sure that goes against Geneva Conventions… You may want to check?

Felix Abt: As a doctor working in developing countries and conflict zones, you’ve probably seen a lot of terrible things. What went through your mind when you saw missing limbs, deep infected wounds, women’s and children’s intestines spilled on the ground, and other horrific scenes, this time on an unprecedented scale in Gaza?

Dr. S.A. Khan: No words can describe it…the Foundation’s media team did not put up any horrific photos or videos on its Instagram…maybe we should?

Felix Abt: On January 5, the United Nations reported that there have been “600 attacks on health care in Gaza and the West Bank” since the beginning of the war in the Gaza Strip. Dozens of hospitals and other medical facilities have been rendered inoperable since October 7 by apparently direct and systematic attacks on medical personnel and facilities. The disruption of electricity and communication links by Israel was another barbaric act to prevent adequate medical care. In addition, the destruction of infrastructure led to severe hygiene problems due to a lack of water and sanitation facilities. How do you assess the extent of this obviously deliberate vandalism by the occupying forces and what impact will this have on the health and survival of the population?

Dr. S.A. Khan: There are many facets to your question….

  1. Attacks on health care workers…I was just emailed the UN figures for deaths till January 22, 2024, from October 7th:
    1. 63 doctors
    2. 111 nurses
    3. 23 paramedics
    4. 29 pharmacists
    5. 13 lab staff
    6. 337 additional health care workers (orderlies, caregivers, support staff)

Hospitals are supposed to be sanctuaries of healing and safety…This is the first time in 30 years of humanitarian work that I have seen such blatant killing of health care professionals…some with a white flag…others have been kidnapped and we do not know their whereabouts… what about these Israeli Human Shields and POWs who happen to be medics!

Israel attacks six British surgeons in their home with a thousand-pound GPS-guided bomb

On January 18th IDF bombed their residence on the beach! The facts I have just received and on MAP website…the UN did an investigation and the type of explosive used was a 1000-pound GPS-guided lump of metal and destruction…evidence gathered from the fragment analysis…only IDF or UK or USA have that type of bomb. MAP is asking the UK government why they are not doing something to protect their humanitarian workers in Gaza….The IDF have our coordinates! Every time we [ICRC] move, we have to coordinate with the IDF and Hamas.

  1. The health conditions are deteriorating and many people already had upper respiratory tract infections and we, meaning myself and teams from Norway, still have chest problems…The air was sometimes thick with dust…bombs did fall about 500 meters away…I mean big bombs!
  2.  
  3.  
  4.  
  5.  
  6.  
  7.  
  8.  
  9.  
  10.  
  11.  
  12.  
  13.  
  14.  
  15.  
  16. In terms of vandalism by IDF: I am attending an international meeting in Amman, Jordan, on February 7th, hosted by the King. “Rebuilding Gaza Healthcare” is the Conference and the MIST Foundation will provide input on orthopaedics and training. You can register for FREE with on line access. The Strip has been stripped…[much] of the infrastructure destroyed, but perhaps a blank canvas to erect beautiful hospitals for the Gazans…That’s what I hope to achieve as one of my aims at the conference.

Another British doctor, Dr. Andy Ferguson, who worked in the European hospital in Gaza over Christmas and New Year, described the situation there as follows: “Complete chaos reigns. There are about 22,000 people currently living in makeshift tents on the ground of the hospital or actually on the floors in hospital corridors themselves. (…) The situation within the emergency department particularly was chaotic. There were hundreds and hundreds of patients in there at any moment. Many of them because the primary healthcare system has broken down, looking for the management of their diabetes, high blood pressure, heart failure, kidney failure, and cancer, and on top of that you get groups of ten, twenty, thirty, newly injured patients, often with a number of dead bodies arriving within that chaos.” [Source: instagram.com]

Felix Abt: Some doctors in Gaza explained that they can’t even use a cold compress because of the lack of water, others explained that they clean wounds with vinegar and detergent and operate on people without anesthesia and even without painkillers. Let’s take a concrete example: How do you treat a child whose body is covered in shrapnel—with severely damaged limbs and perhaps dozens of open wounds from “head to toe”—given the extremely limited resources you have at your disposal and the extreme conditions (such as non-sterile areas, no anesthesiologist to assist you, etc.) in which you are working?

Felix Abt: When there is a shortage of almost everything—supplies, staff, hospital beds and facilities—the health workers in Gaza not only have to make inhumane sacrifices, but also have to make serious decisions and practically decide which patient can continue to live and which has to die, “playing God” so to speak. In addition, you can be in constant fear for your life, as you could be hit by an Israeli bomb at any time. In fact, journalists and medical personnel seem to be among the main targets of the Israeli “defense” forces. How do you cope with this incredible psychological strain on top of the extreme working conditions?

Dr. S.A. Khan: The last question is easy…and with humor. The Gazans have a very dry wit and are extremely generous people…That’s probably why I get on with Gazans…I have described them as the ”Pathans [Pashtuns] of the Middle East”….an Afghan tribe!

“Swimming with the fish” as my Norwegian colleague Eric from Norway would say….When you sit, and eat, and you work together and stop for a smoke…you become part of the team but you then direct the team, as there has been no senior doctor for weeks at the hospital.

Felix Abt: On January 5, UNICEF reported that “cases of diarrhea in children are up 50 percent in just one week, with 90 percent of children under two now subject to ‘severe food poverty.’” Now, with thousands of children already dead as a result of the violence, it looks like a tsunami of child deaths is on the horizon. And the trickle of aid [the amount and type of which is controlled by the occupying forces] is not making the situation any better. How do you assess this situation?

Dr. S.A. Khan: I had a WhatsApp message that one of the patients I treated had [contracted] hepatitis A…the living conditions will only get worse from an already bad situation.

Felix Abt: Hamas has been trying for years to persuade Israel to release the countless Palestinians, including children, many of whom have been imprisoned for years without trial. After failing to do so, it tried to take Israelis hostage on October 7 to force the release of the Palestinian prisoners. As a result of the hostage exchange, the returned Palestinians stated that many of them had been horribly mistreated [including torture and rape] in Israeli prisons. Did you or your colleagues have the opportunity to talk to the returnees and possibly have them medically examined?

Dr. S.A. Khan: NO COMMENT. As a humanitarian, I treat all injured irrespective of who they are…but we also do not disclose those we have treated, unless we have permission from the patient.

Felix Abt: Is there anything else readers should know?

Dr. S.A. Khan: Stop attacking hospitals…a BIG FULL STOP…Let the humanitarian agencies do their work.

Felix Abt: Is there anything readers can do, such as donate money to the Mobile International Surgical Teams (MIST)?

Dr. S.A. Khan: [Any] money donated goes to buying kits and consumables….All MIST members are volunteers and do not profit from any of their endeavors. Visit our website to donate: www.mistngo.co.uk

MIST builds capacity and supports surgical centers in developing countries to become self-sustaining and provide excellent health care to local populations, regardless of the race, religion, or nationality of patients, and without adverse discrimination of any kind.

Pictures

Patient lost his leg. [Source: easternangle.com]

Shrapnel wound. [Source: easternangle.com]

Shrapnel wounds. [Source: easternangle.com]

Damaged left foot. [Source: easternangle.com]

Shrapnel wounds. [Source: easternangle.com]

Shrapnel wounds—buttocks and perianal area. [Source: easternangle.com]
 

This article was first published in Eastern Angle.

CovertAction Magazine is made possible by subscriptions, ordersand donations from readers like you.

Blow the Whistle on U.S. Imperialism

News 2739
  • If you approve of this article, please share it with your friends and kin.
  • Help us expand our reach. Defeat appalling hypocrisy. Lies cost countless lives.
  • We must act together to smash the VILE Western disinformation machine.
  • This is the Lying Machine that protects the greatest evil humanity has ever seen.
  • YOU know what we are talking about.

Things to keep in mind...

Neo-Nazi ideology has become one of the main protagonists of political and social life in Ukraine since the 2014 coup d'état. Meanwhile, fascist ideology and blatant lies also permeate the consciousness of most people in the West. Those in the comfortable top 10%, the "PMCs" (Professional Managerial Class), are especially vulnerable. They support and disseminate such ideas. They are the executors of the actual ruling class' orders, those in the 0.001%, who remain largely invisible. The PMCs are the political class, the media whores, the top military brass, some people in academia, and the "national security/foreign policy" industry honchos. Push back against these unethical, contaminated people with the truth while you can.

AND...where the US Government is at: LYING 24/7

RSS
Follow by Email
Facebook
X (Twitter)
Telegram
WhatsApp
Reddit
window.addEventListener("sfsi_functions_loaded", function() { if (typeof sfsi_widget_set == "function") { sfsi_widget_set(); } });

Print this article
The views expressed herein are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of The Greanville Post. However, we do think they are important enough to be transmitted to a wider audience.

Since the overpaid media shills will never risk their careers to report the truth, the world must rely on citizen journalists to provide the facts that explain reality.

Unfortunately, most people take this site for granted.
DONATIONS HAVE ALMOST DRIED UP… 
PLEASE send what you can today!
JUST USE THE BUTTON BELOW

 

 

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

ALL CAPTIONS AND PULL QUOTES BY THE EDITORS NOT THE AUTHORS



IMPERIALISM: DECADENT PARASITIC AND DOOMED WITH JOTI BRAR EPISODE 11 – WHY IS THE EMPIRE CRASHING?

Please make sure these dispatches reach as many readers as possible. Share with kin, friends and workmates and ask them to do likewise.

Garland Nixon
with
JOTI BRAR
THE COMMUNISTS.ORG

Resize text-+=
This is Episode 11 of @joti2gaza  on Garland’s channel—an incredibly informative conversation about Capitalism/Marxism/Socialism origins & examples—how & why the US has intervened and what’s happening now. ENJOY! (And be sure to pass it on!)
Joti Brar
@joti2gaza
I was with

@GarlandNixon

today talking about the fundamental instability of the system. Why it can't solve the simplest of problems and why it could be entering its final period of disintegration and decay. The question for every one of us is: which side do we want to be on? The side that clings on to an illusory 'stability' by helping the imperialists survive at the expense of the poor and exploited, or the side that joins the mass of humanity in working to push the whole lot over the precipice and into the dustbin of history where it belongs?

Streamed live on Apr 26, 2024
Garland Nixon
IMPERIALISM: DECADENT PARASITIC AND DOOMED WITH JOTI BRAR EPISODE 11 - WHY IS THE EMPIRE CRASHING?
Garland and Joti analyse the current historical juncture, essentially but the latest and gravest global structural crisis of capitalism, arguing that helping to stabilise the system now is only to prolong the agony of 99% of humanity, and, equally important, increase the risk of seeing the entire planet go up in nuclear flames as a result of some desperate provocation by the hypocritical oligarchic capitalist elites concentrated in the "collective West". The "collective West values' paradigm"—grounded in unipolar supremacism and exploitation— is over. It has reached the end of its political, scientific and economic line. As heroic Russia has finally demonstrated, it lacks the capability to impose its will on other nations by military force. The US and its vassals—as the cases of Ukraine, Palestine, Taiwan and other theaters of manufactured conflict and horrendous crimes clearly show—are now completely devoid of moral legitimacy.

ABOUT JOTI BRAR

Joti is a leading British anti-imperialist, scientific socialist, and truth seeker. Workers of the world, unite; we have a world to win! She is a founding member of the Communist Party of Great Britain (M-L), where she fills important positions.
@CPGBML

. Find me on Telegram: t.me/JotiBrar. No DMs.

News 2739
  • If you approve of this article, please share it with your friends and kin.
  • Help us expand our reach. Defeat appalling hypocrisy. Lies cost countless lives.
  • We must act together to smash the VILE Western disinformation machine.
  • This is the Lying Machine that protects the greatest evil humanity has ever seen.
  • YOU know what we are talking about.

Things to keep in mind...

Neo-Nazi ideology has become one of the main protagonists of political and social life in Ukraine since the 2014 coup d'état. Meanwhile, fascist ideology and blatant lies also permeate the consciousness of most people in the West. Those in the comfortable top 10%, the "PMCs" (Professional Managerial Class), are especially vulnerable. They support and disseminate such ideas. They are the executors of the actual ruling class' orders, those in the 0.001%, who remain largely invisible. The PMCs are the political class, the media whores, the top military brass, some people in academia, and the "national security/foreign policy" industry honchos. Push back against these unethical, contaminated people with the truth while you can.

AND...where the US Government is at: LYING 24/7

RSS
Follow by Email
Facebook
X (Twitter)
Telegram
WhatsApp
Reddit
window.addEventListener("sfsi_functions_loaded", function() { if (typeof sfsi_widget_set == "function") { sfsi_widget_set(); } });

Print this article
The views expressed herein are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of The Greanville Post. However, we do think they are important enough to be transmitted to a wider audience.

Since the overpaid media shills will never risk their careers to report the truth, the world must rely on citizen journalists to provide the facts that explain reality.

Unfortunately, most people take this site for granted.
DONATIONS HAVE ALMOST DRIED UP… 
PLEASE send what you can today!
JUST USE THE BUTTON BELOW

 

 

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

ALL CAPTIONS AND PULL QUOTES BY THE EDITORS NOT THE AUTHORS



How America’s Military-Industrial Complex Wins All of Its Wars Against America’s Taxpayers

Please make sure these dispatches reach as many readers as possible. Share with kin, friends and workmates and ask them to do likewise.

ERIC ZUESSE
Resize text-+=
How America’s Military-Industrial Complex Wins All of Its Wars Against America’s Taxpayers

“The US National Security Budget for 2023/24 is approximately $1.5 Trillion”, as Wheeler headlined a year ago, on 1 May 2023. He detailed there how approximately $800 billion of that $1.5T was budgeted as being from the Veterans Affairs Department ($320.8 billion, all of that for the military), Homeland Security Department ($103.2B for the military), Treasury Department ($78.2B+$13.1B=$88.3B for the military), State Department ($46.4B for the military), Energy Department ($35.7B for the military), Justice Department & others ($12.1B for the military), plus $146.0B national security share of interest on the federal debt. All of that non-‘Defense’ Department U.S. Government military spending totaled to $752.5B. He also mentioned “Supplementals” as then being “To come”; and, now, as-of the 19 April 2024 House passage (“Roll Call 142 | Bill Number: H. Res. 1160”) of the procedural motion “On agreeing to the resolution Agreed to by the Yeas and Nays: 316 - 94 (Roll no. 142)” so innocuously titled as to hide the dirty deed that they had just done, it added $26.38B to support Israel’s annihilation and/or expulsion of the 2.3 million Gazans, plus $60.84B to extend Ukraine’s war at least until President Biden becomes re-elected, plus $8.12 billion to encourage and support the leaders of Taiwan to declare Taiwan’s independence from China (of which it currently is a Province) so that the U.S. Government will have won Taiwan and would then need to invade China in order to defend from China that new U.S. colony (‘ally’).

“DNI RELEASES FY 2025 BUDGET REQUEST FIGURE FOR THE NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE PROGRAM” and publicly revealed (in accord with a 2007 law) “the aggregate amount of $73.4 billion in requested appropriations for the Fiscal Year 2025 National Intelligence Program (NIP),” and on 20 April 2024 I shall request from the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community the IC’s latest Audit Report in order to determine how complete that $73.4B figure is. I start with the assumption that it is the bare minimum of what the complete number is, and that what the maximum might be, and what the reality is, have remained top secret in this dictatorship. A number of leading investigative historians have documented that ever since the first CIA coup, which was against Thailand in 1948 and which started the CIA’s heavy financial dependence upon skimming from the international narcotics cartels via protection money laundered into funding CIA operations, not all of at least that Agency’s funding is on the books. However, in any case: if current annual U.S. military spending isn’t above $2T, it is at least near $2T. And virtually all of it is wasted because America has no border disputes with either of its two bordering nations and is protected by over 3,000 miles of ocean from both Europe to its east and Japan to its west and has won both Japan and Europe as its colonies, and so for this country to have annual military expenses of over $100 billion is obscenely to be controlled by its armaments manufacturers (i.e., by the billionaires who control those), which it so obviously is (and which leaves virtually nothing except Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid to actually serve the non-billionaire U.S. public).

so, this military is a terror and a curse to virtually the entire world and needs to be enormously reduced.

 

Maybe not only for non-Americans but also for the American people ourselves, the sooner that this Government defaults on its $35T federal debt, the better, because that would definitely be lots better than WW3, toward which the current U.S. Government is now inexorably heading, unless the now-inevitable default will happen before it does. 

Any American who wishes to send this article to one’s members of the U.S. Senate and House is welcomed to do so, and I shall be happy to publicly distribute a copy of any letter from any of those responding officials so that perhaps others than yourself will have an opportunity to see and consider it. Even if that response is an excuse, it would be good for the public to know what that is.

Thanks for reading Eric’s Substack! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

News 2739
  • If you approve of this article, please share it with your friends and kin.
  • Help us expand our reach. Defeat appalling hypocrisy. Lies cost countless lives.
  • We must act together to smash the VILE Western disinformation machine.
  • This is the Lying Machine that protects the greatest evil humanity has ever seen.
  • YOU know what we are talking about.

Things to keep in mind...

Neo-Nazi ideology has become one of the main protagonists of political and social life in Ukraine since the 2014 coup d'état. Meanwhile, fascist ideology and blatant lies also permeate the consciousness of most people in the West. Those in the comfortable top 10%, the "PMCs" (Professional Managerial Class), are especially vulnerable. They support and disseminate such ideas. They are the executors of the actual ruling class' orders, those in the 0.001%, who remain largely invisible. The PMCs are the political class, the media whores, the top military brass, some people in academia, and the "national security/foreign policy" industry honchos. Push back against these unethical, contaminated people with the truth while you can.

AND...where the US Government is at:

RSS
Follow by Email
Facebook
X (Twitter)
Telegram
WhatsApp
Reddit
window.addEventListener("sfsi_functions_loaded", function() { if (typeof sfsi_widget_set == "function") { sfsi_widget_set(); } });

Print this article
The views expressed herein are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of The Greanville Post. However, we do think they are important enough to be transmitted to a wider audience.

Since the overpaid media shills will never risk their careers to report the truth, the world must rely on citizen journalists to provide the facts that explain reality.

Unfortunately, most people take this site for granted.
DONATIONS HAVE ALMOST DRIED UP… 
PLEASE send what you can today!
JUST USE THE BUTTON BELOW

 

 

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

ALL CAPTIONS AND PULL QUOTES BY THE EDITORS NOT THE AUTHORS



Exclusive: Pro-Palestine activists defy Israel with Gaza-bound aid flotilla

Please make sure these dispatches reach as many readers as possible. Share with kin, friends and workmates and ask them to do likewise.

Salwa Amor
A TNA (THE NEW ARAB) DISPATCH
Resize text-+=

MENA • 19 April, 2024

Palestine solidarity activists are preparing a flotilla to deliver urgently needed humanitarian aid to Gaza, vowing to break Israel's blockade of the Palestinian territory on board the Akdeniz, a seven-floor passenger ship.

Currently docked in Istanbul, the boat will carry 800 people from over 30 nations, from Indonesia to Hawaii, and is expected to transport 5500 tonnes of aid to Gaza once it sets sail from Turkey in the coming days.

On Friday, reports in Israel media suggested the Israeli authorities are preparing to intercept it. The activists joining the Akdeniz will be mindful of a previous fatal attempt by a vessel of comparable size to set sail from Turkey to Gaza.

The Mavi Marmara was a Turkish aid ship, part of a flotilla attempting to break the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip in May 2010. Israeli commandos intercepted the flotilla in international waters, boarded the Mavi Marmara, and killed nine Turkish activists, injuring several others. The incident sparked international condemnation and strainedrelations between Turkey and Israel.

The acquisition of the Akdeniz was made possible through the support of four million donors worldwide. Organised by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), a coalition of 12 countries including Turkey, in partnership with İnsani Yardım Vakfı (IHH), the mission aims to break the deadly siege that has severely impacted the lives of the people of Gaza for years amid Israel's genocidal war that has killed over 33,000 Palestinians since October 7.

Pro-Palestinian activist and human rights lawyer Huwaida Arraf, who was on the Mavi Marmara in 2010, announced she would join the flotilla nevertheless.

"While we recognize Israel's potential for intercepting the mission, we hope for a peaceful outcome. If they choose to attack, those on board are prepared to engage in nonviolent resistance," she told reporters on Thursday.

RELATED

As Gaza starves, Israeli protesters are blocking vital aid

In-depth
Jessica Buxbaum

Redemption and hope

Former US diplomat and retired US Army Colonel Ann Wright is one of the primary organisers of the FFC. In 2003 she resigned from the US Government in protest against the Iraq War. 

Speaking to TNA, Wright said the mission of the flotilla was to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza's starved population. 

"When you witness genocide, you can't stand back. I'm 77, but even if I were a hundred, I'd still be on this boat," said Wright.

Wright and her fellow activists are also determined to shine a spotlight on the dire humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza, bringing international human rights observers to the territory to witness the unfolding genocide.

“Our message to the people of Gaza is that we love you and are trying desperately to stop this genocide...To the Israeli people, I say you have a responsibility to stop your government's genocide of Palestinians. I know the propaganda that comes from governments at war, having been a former US diplomat. But what's happening in Gaza is genocide, and when you see what your government has done, you'll be horrified.” Wright added.

The New Arab also spoke to Michael, a 77-year-old former US veteran from Seattle, USA. He said his decision to participate in the flotilla was a way to atone for his involvement with the US army in Vietnam.

“This is a dangerous journey to undertake, and I do ask myself, why am I here? My wife asks me why I am here. I was drafted into the Vietnam War in 1965, I was just out of high school. At the time I understood what conscientious objection was, but I did not have the courage to fight against the US military and say, no!

"But now, I am older, and as I watch what is happening to the people of Gaza, I am appalled. It is not only the children, although that is what hits me the most. But now, it is the time to object to what my country, the US is doing. This is what conscientious objection is about. I am putting my body, my money, my time, my everything on the line to say, ‘I object to what my country is doing, we should not be doing this’. I want to stand up for those people in the US who agree with what I am doing and represent my country on this journey,” said Michael.

Michael said he draws courage from the people of Gaza. 

"The people of Palestine have lived under occupation for so long that it impresses me how a people like that can still have that courage and continue to stand for what they believe is right. I am guided by the bravery and courage of the people of Gaza in particular but all of Palestinians.”

Solidarity without borders

Doctors Without Borders, will also be on the boat.

“In all those places I saw a lot of pain but in no place I found such an amount of people killed and wounded and suffering like in Gaza when I worked in Al Shifa hospital in 2009," he told TNA.

“When people ask me why I am going, the answer is why not! We are health workers, so it is natural to want to be with those injured,” added Dr. Carlos.

Lee Patten, a 63-year-old former merchant navy officer from Liverpool, told TNA he feels compelled to join the voyage.

"When I see those poor children, I cannot simply turn away and leave them with no one to care for them," he said.

harrowing images emanating from Gaza have left an indelible mark on Lee. "The sight of defenceless, innocent children is deeply distressing. It's unfathomable to comprehend that such suffering is deliberate," Lee explained.

"There seems to be a prevailing notion that what is happening in Gaza is confined to Palestinians and could never happen to Europeans. It's astounding. Gaza serves as a stark warning to us all,” Lee added.

As the onslaught continues with Israeli strikes devastating Gaza's infrastructure, some participants on the boat say they are not going solely to help people but are determined to initiate the rebuilding process after the war. Among them are several architects who have joined the mission to help in rebuilding Gaza.

28-year-old Dilara Karasakiz, a Turkish architect among the almost 300 Turkish citizens participating, says she's taking this perilous journey for this very reason.

“I am going on this journey to help rebuild Gaza. We will rebuild everything Israel has destroyed. Gazans deserve a good standard of life, and we're asking for their suffering to end and for them to be free. I'm not afraid because this ship is just a symbol of humanity. Why would I be afraid? I hope we'll arrive in Gaza and bring some hope."

(All picture credits to the author)

News 2739
  • If you approve of this article, please share it with your friends and kin.
  • Help us expand our reach. Defeat appalling hypocrisy. Lies cost countless lives.
  • We must act together to smash the VILE Western disinformation machine.
  • This is the Lying Machine that protects the greatest evil humanity has ever seen.
  • YOU know what we are talking about.

Things to keep in mind...

Neo-Nazi ideology has become one of the main protagonists of political and social life in Ukraine since the 2014 coup d'état. Meanwhile, fascist ideology and blatant lies also permeate the consciousness of most people in the West. Those in the comfortable top 10%, the "PMCs" (Professional Managerial Class), are especially vulnerable. They support and disseminate such ideas. They are the executors of the actual ruling class' orders, those in the 0.001%, who remain largely invisible. The PMCs are the political class, the media whores, the top military brass, many influential people in academia, and the "national security/foreign policy" industry mob. Push back against these unethical, contaminated people with the truth while you can.

AND...LYING WITH TOTAL IMPUNITY, what the US Government constantly does. 

RSS
Follow by Email
Facebook
X (Twitter)
Telegram
WhatsApp
Reddit
window.addEventListener("sfsi_functions_loaded", function() { if (typeof sfsi_widget_set == "function") { sfsi_widget_set(); } });

Print this article
The views expressed herein are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of The Greanville Post. However, we do think they are important enough to be transmitted to a wider audience.

Since the overpaid media shills will never risk their careers to report the truth, the world must rely on citizen journalists to provide the facts that explain reality.

Unfortunately, most people take this site for granted.
DONATIONS HAVE ALMOST DRIED UP… 
PLEASE send what you can today!
JUST USE THE BUTTON BELOW

 

 

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

ALL CAPTIONS AND PULL QUOTES BY THE EDITORS NOT THE AUTHORS



Occupied Nation: How the CIA Created Modern Germany

Please make sure these dispatches reach as many readers as possible. Share with kin, friends and workmates and ask them to do likewise.

Kit Klarenberg
Covert Action Bulletin

Resize text-+=

Sprawling US embassy in Germany

The sprawling U.S. embassy in Berlin. [Source: spiegel.de]

On February 4th, The Economist published a devastating analysis—or perhaps, “pre-mortem”—on the collapse of the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) under Olaf Scholz’s stewardship. Elected in what the Western media contemporaneously branded a “shock” result in September 2021, hopes for his coalition government in many quarters were high. Today, he enjoys the worst approval ratings of any Chancellor in modern history, and national opinion polls place SPD approval at 15% or lower.

The Economist frames Scholz’s collapsed fortunes, and the prospects of his party’s imminent extinction as a serious force within German politics, as a microcosm of Berlin’s declining economic and political clout more widely. It notes that the nation’s finances have gone “limp” during his tenure, with business-sector confidence collapsing, and record inflation destroying citizens’ incomes and savings. Other sources have detailed the country’s “deindustrialization,” Politico coining the nickname, “Rust Belt on the Rhine.”

Newsweek admits “any realistic war game could have easily predicted” the sanctions would not only fail, but boomerang on the sanctioners.

Olof Schultz

Olaf Scholz in the Bundestag on January 31, 2024

Those few analysts who predicted the invasion of Ukraine well in advance universally failed to anticipate Berlin would support and facilitate any U.S. counterattack, particularly in the financial sphere. They believed Germany possessed the requisite autonomy and sense not to commit willful economic suicide in service of Empire. After all, the country’s stability, prosperity and power were heavily dependent on cheap, readily accessible Russian energy. Voluntarily ending that supply would be inescapably disastrous.

For this failure, they can be forgiven. Berlin, particularly in the wake of reunification, has successfully presented itself to the world as sovereign, led by sensible people acting in the best interests of their nation, and Europe. In truth, ever since 1945, Germany has been a heavily occupied nation, drowning under the weight of U.S. military installations, and its politics, society and culture aggressively shaped and influenced by the CIA.

This unacknowledged reality is amply spelled out in Agency whistleblower Philip Agee’s 1978 tell-all book, Dirty Work: The CIA in Western Europe. Comprehending who is truly in charge in Berlin, and what interests Germany’s elected representatives are actually serving, is fundamental to understanding why Scholz, et al., so eagerly embraced the self-destructive sanctions. And why the facts of Nord Stream 2’s criminal destruction can never emerge.

A book cover with map and blue text Description automatically generated
[Source: abebooks.co.uk]

“Enormous Presence”

Following World War II, the United States emerged as the world’s undisputed military and economic superpower. As Agee wrote, the overriding aim of U.S. foreign policy thereafter was to “guarantee the coherence of the Western world” under its exclusive leadership. CIA activities were accordingly “directed toward achieving this goal.” In service of the Empire’s global domination project, “left opposition movements had to be discredited and destroyed” everywhere.

After West Germany was forged from the respective occupation zones of Britain, France and the U.S., the fledgling country became a particularly “crucial area” in this regard, serving as “one of the most important operational areas for far-reaching CIA programs” in Europe and elsewhere. Domestic Agency operations in West Germany were explicitly concerned with ensuring the country was “pro-American,” and structured according to U.S. “commercial interests.”

In the process, the CIA covertly supported the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and SPD, and trade unions. The Agency “wanted the influence of the two major political parties to be strong enough to shut out and hold down any left opposition,” Agee explained. The SPD had a radical, Marxist tradition. It was the only party in the Reichstag to vote against the 1933 Enabling Act, which laid the foundations for Germany’s total Nazification, and led to its proscription. 

Newly reinstituted following the war, the SPD maintained its revolutionary roots until 1959. Then, under the Godesberg Program, it abandoned any commitment to challenging capitalism in a serious way. It stretches credibility to suggest the CIA was not expressly responsible for neutering the party’s radical tendencies. 

In any event, effective control of West German democracy ensured that Washington’s “enormous presence” there–which included hundreds of thousands of troops and almost 300 separate military and intelligence installations—was not challenged by those in power, irrespective of the party to which they belonged, despite a majority of the population consistently opposing U.S. military occupation.

This presence in turn granted the CIA “a number of different covers to work behind,” according to Agee. The majority of its operatives were embedded within the U.S. military, posing as mere soldiers. The Agency’s biggest station was an army base in Frankfurt, although it also boasted units in West Berlin and Munich. U.S. operatives were “highly qualified technicians who tap telephones, open mail, keep people under surveillance, and encode and decode intelligence transmissions,” working “all over the country.”

Dedicated divisions were charged with “making contact with organizations and people within the political establishment,” such as the SPD and its elected representatives. All the intelligence collected was “used to infiltrate and manipulate” the same organizations. The CIA, moreover, collaborated “very closely” with West German security services in many domestic spying efforts, the country’s assorted intelligence agencies conducting operations at the Agency’s direct behest, “often [to] protect CIA activities from any legal consequences.”

A map of germany with many red stars Description automatically generated
[Source: g2mil.com]

“Discredit and Destroy”

Intimate bedfellows as they were, there were nonetheless “difficulties” in the CIA’s relationship with its West German counterparts, per Agee. The Agency never fully trusted their protégés, and felt a pronounced need to “keep an eye” on them. Still, this lack of faith was no barrier to the CIA partnering with the BND, West Germany’s foreign intelligence service, to secretly purchase Swiss encryption firm Crypto AG in 1970. Perhaps this was done to “protect CIA activities from any legal consequences.”

Crypto AG produced high-tech machines through which foreign governments could transmit sensitive high-level communications around the world, safe from prying eyes. Or so they thought. In reality, the clandestine owners of Crypto AG, and by extension the NSA and GCHQ, could easily decipher any messages sent via the firm’s devices, as they themselves crafted the encryption codes. The connivance operated in total secrecy for decades thereafter, only being exposed in February 2020.

The full extent of the information collected via Crypto AG—along with key national competitor Omnisec AG, which the CIA also owned—and the nefarious purposes to which it was put is unknown. It would be entirely unsurprising though if the harvested data helped inform CIA operations to “discredit and destroy” left-wing opposition in West Germany and beyond, efforts that no doubt continue to this day.

Gerhard Schindler, the president of Germany’s Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), the country’s foreign intelligence agency, at the former NSA base in Bad Aibling. The NSA largely abandoned the base in 2004, but an NSA team stayed behind and continued to work closely with BND agents who took over the site. [Source: spiegel.de]

The Cold War may be over, but Germany remains heavily occupied. It hosts the largest number of U.S. troops of any European country, despite an overwhelming majority of the population supporting their partial or total withdrawal in the years following the Berlin Wall’s collapse. In July 2020, then-President Donald Trump announced the withdrawal of 12,000 soldiers of the 38,600-strong contingent still there.

The total number of US military personnel has risen to over 50,000 in 2024. (Image: DW.com)

While intended to punish Germany for greenlighting the now-destroyed Nord Stream 2, polls indicated most Germans were only too happy to say “auf wiedersehen.” In all, 47% were in favor of them leaving, while a quarter called for the permanent closure of all U.S. bases on their soil. Yet, just two weeks after entering the White House, Joe Biden reversed his predecessor’s policy, returning 500 soldiers who had departed.

The President also scrapped plans to relocate the Stuttgart-based U.S. Africa Command, which effectively embeds Washington in the armed forces of 53 countries across the continent, elsewhere in Europe. Research shows the Command’s training programs have precipitated a significant rise in the number of military coups in Africa. As Agee attested, U.S. military bases are a hotbed of CIA spies. Berlin therefore must remain “one of the most important operational areas for far-reaching CIA programs” within and without the country, whether Germans like it or not.

The training area at Grafenwöhr in Bavaria is one of the US Army's largest in Europe (Photo: picture-alliance/Zuma Press/U.S. Army)

CovertAction Magazine is made possible by subscriptions, orders and donations from readers like you.

Blow the Whistle on U.S. Imperialism

Click the whistle and donate
News 2739
  • If you approve of this article, please share it with your friends and kin.
  • Help us expand our reach. Defeat appalling hypocrisy. Lies cost countless lives.
  • We must act together to smash the VILE Western disinformation machine.
  • This is the Lying Machine that protects the greatest evil humanity has ever seen.
  • YOU know what we are talking about.
Things to keep in mind...

Neo-Nazi ideology has become one of the main protagonists of political and social life in Ukraine since the 2014 coup d'état. Meanwhile, fascist ideology and blatant lies also permeate the consciousness of most people in the West. Those in the comfortable top 10%, the "PMCs" (Professional Managerial Class), are especially vulnerable. They support and disseminate such ideas. They are the executors of the actual ruling class' orders, those in the 0.001%, who remain largely invisible. The PMCs are the political class, the media whores, the top military brass, some people in academia, and the "national security/foreign policy" industry honchos. Push back against these unethical, contaminated people with the truth while you can.

AND...where the US Government is at:

RSS
Follow by Email
Facebook
X (Twitter)
Telegram
WhatsApp
Reddit
window.addEventListener("sfsi_functions_loaded", function() { if (typeof sfsi_widget_set == "function") { sfsi_widget_set(); } });

Print this article
The views expressed herein are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of The Greanville Post. However, we do think they are important enough to be transmitted to a wider audience.

Since the overpaid media shills will never risk their careers to report the truth, the world must rely on citizen journalists to provide the facts that explain reality.

Unfortunately, most people take this site for granted.
DONATIONS HAVE ALMOST DRIED UP… 
PLEASE send what you can today!
JUST USE THE BUTTON BELOW

 

 

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

ALL CAPTIONS AND PULL QUOTES BY THE EDITORS NOT THE AUTHORS