BREAKING: UN Demands Poland Release Political Prisoner Mateusz Piskorski

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By JAFE ARNOLD, SENIOR EDITOR, FORT-RUSS
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This official UN opinion document, “WGAD/2018/POL/OPN No. 18/2018”, declares the imprisonment of the Polish activist and scholar turned political prisoner, Dr. Mateusz Piskorski, to be arbitrary and in violation of international law on human and civil rights. The document thus calls on the Polish government to immediately release Piskorski and afford him appropriate reparations.

Mateusz Piskorski was arrested and his political party Zmiana’s offices and members’ homes were raided by Poland’s Internal Security Agency (ABW) on May 18th, 2016, two days after Piskorski had publicly warned that the deployment of US troops to “NATO’s Eastern Flank”, i.e., Poland, would lead to waves of political repression against dissenting voices. Piskorski, the co-founder of the European Center for Geopolitical Analysis, the founding chairman of the “first non-American party in Poland”, Zmiana, scholar of international relations and experienced international election observer, was one of the most outspoken voices against Washington-dictated Polish policy, which in a series of letters from behind bars he described as degrading Poland into a helpless battlefield between the US and Russia.

Since 2016, Piskorski has been kept “temporarily” behind bars under suspicion of working for the intelligence services of the Russian Federation and People’s Republic of China, but no such official charge was presented until nearly two years later, on April 23rd, 2018. The evidence and key case files have been kept classified from not only the public, but from Piskorski himself, who was also not even “invited” to several of his own case hearings. [The whole thing has the signature stench and high-handedness of US/NATO false flags these days, whereby judicial procedures, even those based on Constitutional guarantees, are simply disregarded.—Ed]

Fort Russ has been the only English-language news service, and one of the only independent news resources in the world, that has provided constant coverage of the Piskorski case.

The UN document, which was set to be unveiled in Poland on May 11, on the day of yet another hearing to extend Piskorski’s detention, arrived at a number of conclusions which Fort Russ and critics of the Polish government’s actions have exposed since day one.

The Working Group determined that “Mr. Piskorski’s activities clearly fall within the boundaries of the freedom of opinion and expression, and the freedom of peaceful assembly and association, protected by articles 19 and 20 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights…” (point 45), and that “his deprivation of liberty is therefore arbitrary” (point 48).

Given this violation of Piskorski’s rights, the Working Group “wishes to emphasize that no trial of Mr. Piskorski should take place in the future” (point 49). However, the report noted that “there is no apparent end in sight to the constant renewal of Mr. Piskorski’s pre-trial detention and, although his detention is kept under regular review every three months, he is effectively being detained indefinitely” (point 50).

Concerning the nature of the “case” and the allegations against Piskorski, the document also recognized that the Polish government “has failed to allow Mr. Piskorski and his lawyers fair access to classified information” (point 53) and that “Mr. Piskorski’s right to present a defence was violated as he could only participate in some hearings on his pre-trial detention” (point 54).

In conclusion, the UN Human Rights Council’s Working Group on Arbitrary Detention assessed that “the appropriate remedy would be to release Mr. Piskorski immediately and accord him an enforceable right to compensation and other reparations in accordance with international law” (point 60), and calls on the Polish government “to ensure a full and independent investigation of the circumstances surrounding the arbitrary deprivation of liberty of Mr. Piskorski, and to take appropriate measures against those responsible for the violation of his rights” (point 61).

Of extreme significance is the fact that the document mentions in multiple places that the Polish government has not responded to any of the Working Group’s requests for clarification despite the fact that on “18 December 2017, the Working Group transmitted the allegations from the source to the Government under its regular communication procedure”, “requested the Government to provide detailed information by 19 February 2018 about Mr. Piskorski’s current situation” and, despite the fact that “the Government requested an extension of the deadline for response…the Government did not submit any information” (points 38 and 39).

The fact that the Working Group’s investigation, including attempted outreach to the Polish government, has evidently been underway since December 2017 demonstrates that the document’s conclusions have been meticulously deliberated over a significant span of time, and that the Polish government still has no valid justification, whether verbal or legal, to present on its imprisonment of Dr. Piskorski.

In turn, the document spells out clearly in section (d) of point 63 that Poland’s international obligations and the compatibility of its laws and practices in line with the present opinion founded on international law are hereby in question and necessitate follow-up investigation. This is no more nor less than a questioning of Poland’s adherence to international law as a UN member over its imprisonment of Dr. Piskorski. This bears serious implications for Poland’s reputation and poses a serious dilemma out of which it will be more than difficult to maneuver.

In short, the UN Human Rights Council’s working group has confirmed what many have been saying all along, namely, that Piskorski’s detention is politically motivated, a violation of international law on human rights and civil freedom, and therefore a symptom of unjust and unlawful practices by the Polish government in the present time.

In many respects, this breakthrough is thus a confirmation of Piskorski’s own warnings that Poland is sliding down the path of political repression, fostered by its instrumentalization as “NATO’s Eastern Flank” and seeking to silence dissent under the pretexts of “Russian information and hybrid war” and “espionage,” both of which terms the document found highly questionable. The UN document clearly reprimanded the Polish government to “refrain from imposing restrictions that are not consistent with international human rights law, including restrictions on discussion of government policies and political debate; reporting on human rights, government activities and corruption in government; peaceful demonstrations or political activities; and expression of opinion and dissent” (point 46).

This resolution is an enormously important development. With the presentation of this UN-backed document, Zmiana’s General Secretary, Tomasz Jankowski, believes “with full confidence” that “Mateusz Piskorski will win first – if not today then tomorrow, and if not tomorrow then the next day.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jafe Arnold is Special Editor of Fort Russ, research fellow and Special Projects Director of the Center for Syncretic Studies, and founding Editor-in-Chief of Eurasianist Internet Archive.

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

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Parting shot—a word from the editors
The Best Definition of Donald Trump We Have Found

In his zeal to prove to his antagonists in the War Party that he is as bloodthirsty as their champion, Hillary Clinton, and more manly than Barack Obama, Trump seems to have gone “play-crazy” — acting like an unpredictable maniac in order to terrorize the Russians into forcing some kind of dramatic concessions from their Syrian allies, or risk Armageddon.However, the “play-crazy” gambit can only work when the leader is, in real life, a disciplined and intelligent actor, who knows precisely what actual boundaries must not be crossed. That ain’t Donald Trump — a pitifully shallow and ill-disciplined man, emotionally handicapped by obscene privilege and cognitively crippled by white American chauvinism. By pushing Trump into a corner and demanding that he display his most bellicose self, or be ceaselessly mocked as a “puppet” and minion of Russia, a lesser power, the War Party and its media and clandestine services have created a perfect storm of mayhem that may consume us all.— Glen Ford, Editor in Chief, Black Agenda Report

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REFLECTIONS OF A LATVIAN NATO-SKEPTIC LEADER

MAKE SURE YOU CIRCULATE THESE MATERIALS! BREAKING THE EMPIRE'S PROPAGANDA MACHINE DEPENDS ON YOU.

Jānis-Urbanovičs: Begging to differ with the NATO-influenced hypernationalist Latvian politicos, coddling a resurgence of Nazi practices.

It would hardly be incorrect to say that practically nobody under the sway of Western media influence has ever heard of Jānis Urbanovičs, the man who heads the “Saskaņa” (Concord) party in the Latvian parliament. Urbanovičs’ odd absence from the Western media and political radar screen is all the stranger considering that the “Concord” party holds 24 of 100 seats in Latvia’s parliament. And it is utterly astonishing when due note is also taken of the fact that, given his anything but negligible support, Urbanovičs could soon become the Prime Minister of Latvia.

Urbanovičs’ out-of-the-box political views in a country doubly entrapped in NATO and EU are a giveaway clue to his “non-person” status in the official political space of newly “independent” and “democratic” Latvia. About that, a bit later. First, some background about this deliberately marginalized, but anything-but-marginal politician who just might upset the NATO applecart in the Baltics or come very close to it.

Jānis Urbanovičs was born in 1959 in the east Latvian town of Rezekne. Latvian is his native language, but he shares Russian heritage together with about 35% of the largely disenfranchised citizens of post-Soviet Latvia. Shamefully many of them are denied citizenship and voting rights in the country of their birth and residence only because of their failure to pass the Latvian language test, which is mandatory for those purposes. Urbanovičs, by contrast, could not be excluded politically on such contrived grounds, hence his successful political career. He received his university education in Latvia and holds an engineering degree.

If nothing else, Urbanovics is as brave man. Defying the international Washington-led mafia in a critical outpost for the empire is asking for trouble—from character assassination to the real deed.

The language issue, it should be noted, has played a disproprionately large role in Latvian politics, mainly as a crude tool for controlling the political process by banishing from meaningful participation over a third of the population. Their civic failing, as noted, is inability to express themselves in Latvian with the eloquence that is expected by the new, pro-Western establishment’s stern linguist authorities. After independence from the USSR in 1991, the new regime flatly refused to grant official status to the Russian language insisting, instead, that regardless of the huge number of its speakers it should be treated as a foreign tongue. The fact that in several cities, such as the capital Riga, Daugavpils, and Rezekne, Russian speakers happen to be the majority of the local population had no impact whatsoever on the discriminatory policy of the new “democratic” regime. As a result, 15% of the population, even though their roots are incontestably in Latvia, meaning Latvia’s Russian-speakers, are denied citizenship, a Latvian passport, and the opportunity to participate in the governance of their country and local communities. They are also excluded from practicing a number of professions, and if that harks back to 1930s Germany and the status of one of its minority populations, the obvious analogy definitely stands.

Urbanovičs believes that such status imposed on the Russian minority is harmful to the interests of Latvia. The government, he says, must demonstrate the intent to integrate all non-citizens, instead of treating them as “aliens, enemies, and fifth columnists.” The leader of the party which has garnered about a quarter of the seats in the Latvian parliament has strongly criticized politicians who exacerbate divisions instead of healing them. In that context, Urbanovičs vigorously opposed labelling the Soviet period as “occupation,” a favorite slogan of nationalist politicians, many of whom obviously take their cues from Ukranian pro-Nazi crazies.

In fact, official Riga has generally behaved with exemplary moderation by comparison to some of its NATO-zealot neighbors such as Poland or Lithuania. By all accounts, it has not completely burned its bridges with Russia and some sort of dialogue could yet be jump started. And that is one of Urbanovičs’ subversive ideas, precisely: “We should be looking for ways to cooperate with Russia,” he recently, by Baltic standards very eccentrically, opined.

It turns out that under Urbanovičs’ leadership the “Concord” party is advocating accelerating Latvia’s industrial development, setting up development banks under government control, and reinvigorating economic relations with Russia and Belorussia. All obviously repugnant and heretical positions for an Eastern European NATO and EU vassal. But the best (or worst) is yet to come. Inspired by South Korea’s disruptive peace initiatives, the uppity Urbanovičs envisions a potential role for Latvia not as a springboard for NATO’s drang nach osten, but as a mediator in the Baltics.

Commenting on the unexpected (and to some probably unwelcome) détente on the Korean peninsula, Urbanovičs publically dreams in Latvia that “our relations with Russia could also quickly be normalized. What is required is a change in the Latvian political class and a desire to change things. Willpower decides everything. South Korea demonstrated such a will. Latvia could learn from South Korea how to go about normalizing relations with its neighbour.” Hardly likely to win him brownie points in the West.

And then, to add insult to injury: “I do not expect any quality solutions from Western politicians. It is deplorable that Baltic countries are seeking protection half-way around the globe instead of seeking a peaceful compromise with their neighbour. Russia will not launch a war. Nobody will attack Latvia with nuclear weapons. It is the US ruling elite that cannot stand the idea of Europe and Russia finding a way to peaceful dialogue.”

Paradoxical as that may seem, the perhaps up-and-coming Latvian heretic goes on, during the Cold War the world was safer and more stable than it is today. There was mutual deterrence and mutual respect. Limits were clearly marked. The end of socialism was one of the most alarming moments of the last century, the dream of world peace was shattered.

“Now I see that it was a very naïve dream,” concludes the man who has a fair shot at becoming prime minister of a frontline NATO land.

What is Urbanovičs up to? Keep tuned. If he does not turn out to be quite the man who pulled the rug from under NATO in the Baltics, we can bet that at the very least he will give the Gladio people some unpleasant headaches. One way or the other, he is bound to get some media attention soon, and it may even be garnished with some grudging respect.

About the Author

Born in Belgrade, Serbia (1950), STEFAN KARGANOVIC is a U.S. citizen. Graduate of the University of Chicago and Indiana University School of Law. Member of several defense teams at the International Criminal Tribunal For the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). Founder and president of NGO “Srebrenica Historical Project,” registered in the Netherlands and in Serbia. Currently engaged in research on events that took place in Srebrenica in July 1995. Author and co-author of several books on Srebrenica and the technology of “color revolution.”

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The Syrian Crisis Escalates

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The murder of Syria seems to be a matter of indifference to the American public.

Syria, like most of the Middle East's nations targeted by Washington for "regime change" are scarred with wholesale destruction and death, the empire's sociopathic signature.

Dateline—April 30, 2018 |

As I wrote two weeks ago, the Syrian crisis is only in its beginning stages. https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2018/04/17/crisis-beginning-stages/ The assault on Syrian military positions last night, apparently a US/Israeli operation, is evidence that the crisis continues to develop. https://www.timesofisrael.com/resonant-syria-strike-suggests-coordinated-us-israel-message-to-russia-and-iran/

There are four mutually reinforcing causes of the crisis:

(1) Israel’s ability to use the US government to eliminate foes in the Middle East that are obstacles to Israel’s expansion. Israel has Syria and Iran targeted, because the two governments supply the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, which has twice driven Israel out of Israel’s attempted occupation of southern Lebanon, whose water resources Israel covets.

(2) The neoconservative ideology of US world hegemony, which fits well with Israel’s Middle East agenda, a fit made even stronger by the strong neoconservative alliance with Israel.

(3) The US military/security complex’s need for justification for its massive budget and power.

(4) The inability of the Russian government to understand the first three reasons.

From the way the Russian government speaks, the Russians believe that Washington’s military actions in the Middle East for the past 17 years dating from the US invasion of Afghanistan, a still unresolved war, have to do with fighting terrorism. The Russians keep expressing the view that Russia and the US should join in a common effort to fight terrorism. Apparently, the Russian government does not understand that terrorism is Washington’s creation. The long wars with unfavorable outcomes that were the results of Washington’s invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq led to Washington recruiting and supplying terrorists to overthrow Libya and Syria. Clearly, Washington is not going to fight against the weapon it created with which to achieve its agenda.

The Russian government’s confusion about Washington’s relationship to terrorism is the fourth cause of the ongoing Syrian crisis. Washington was caught completely offguard in 2015 by Russia’s surprise intervention in Syria on the side of the Syrian government against Washington’s jihadist “rebels.” Russia was in complete control and could have ended the war in 2016. Instead, apparently hoping to appease Washington and show a reasonable face to Europe, the Russian government announced in March 2016 a premature victory and withdrawal. This mistake was repeated, and each time Russia made this mistake gave Washington opportunity to introduce its own troops and aircraft, to resupply and train its jihadist mercenaries, and to organize Israeli, Saudi, French, and British participation in the military assaults on Syria. Now the problem is that US troops are mixed in with the jihadist mercenaries, making it difficult for the Syrian/Russian alliance to clear Syrian territory of foreign invaders without killing Americans, something the Russians and Syrians have so far avoided doing. The Russian Foreign Minister, Lavrov, now accuses Washington of trying to partition Syria, but it was Russian indecisiveness that led to Syria’s partition.

The inability of the Russian government to comprehend the US/Israeli/neoconservative alliance and what this means for the Middle East, together with the indecisiveness of the Russian government about supplying Syria with the S-300 air defense system, has enabled the crisis to escalate with last night’s as of yet unclaimed attack on Syrian military positions with what appears to have been “bunker buster” bombs, an escalation.

The attacks last night killed Iranians, and the next attack might kill Russian military personnel. At some point the Russian government might tire of its humiliation, in which case Israeli and US aircraft will begin falling from the sky and attacks on “rebel” positions will claim US lives.

The Russian government’s inability to comprehend that peace is not the Israeli/American agenda and that neither in the US nor Israel is there any good will on which Russia can build an agreement to bring peace to Syria and the Middle East means the crisis will continue to build until war is upon us.

About the Author

Paul Craig Roberts is a former Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury and Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal. Roberts’ How the Economy Was Lost is now available from CounterPunch in electronic format. His latest book is The Neoconservative Threat to World Order.

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

Parting shot—a word from the editors
The Best Definition of Donald Trump We Have Found

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Pentagon Denounces American Nazis While Arming Ukrainian Nazis

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By FINIAN CUNNINGHAM
First iteration Strategic- Culture—22.08.2017

SEE RELATED POST BY CORRESPONDENT MAX PARRY:
Nazis in the U.S. & Ukraine share symbols, why is the West still in denial?

The Azovs are among the most virulently fascistic of all ultras in the Ukraine. This has not stopped the Pentagon from favoring them with its usual largesse.

In the wake of violent protests involving white supremacists and Neo-Nazis in the US, the Pentagon’s top military brass issued unprecedented condemnations of «racists and extremists». One veterans spokesman said: «Anyone waving a Nazi flag must be rooted out of our society».

What makes the Pentagon’s response to Swastika-flag-waving American Nazis rather bizarre is that this week the US Defense Secretary, General James Mattis, is reportedly traveling to Ukraine where he is to sign over shipments of lethal weapons to the armed forces of the Kiev regime. That regime openly glorifies Ukrainian regiments that collaborated with the Nazi Third Reich during the World War Two.

Mattis, the top Pentagon official, is due to authorize the transfer of $50 million-worth of military gear to the Kiev regime. This will mark the first official delivery of lethal equipment from the US. Previous military aid to Ukraine was reportedly «non-lethal». Among the inventory Mattis is signing over are Javelin anti-tank missiles.

Modern-day regiments under the control of the Kiev regime, such as the Azov Battalion, publicly self-identify with Nazi-collaborating descendants and former pro-Nazi Ukrainian leaders like Stefan Bandera. This Neo-Nazi ideology of the Kiev-run military is a central impetus in why these forces have waged a three-year war on the ethnic Russian population of the breakaway Donbas region in Eastern Ukraine. The latter refuses to recognize the legitimacy of the Kiev regime which seized power in February 2014 in a coup d’état against an elected government. The American CIA backed that violent coup.

Political and financial support from Washington and the European Union has underpinned the Kiev regime led by the dubiously elected President Petro Poroshenko. This is in spite of the fact that the Kiev regime continues to wage a war on the people of Donbas in violation of a peace deal – the Minsk Accord – brokered by Russia and the EU in 2015. Western governments and media accuse Russia of sponsoring the breakaway Donbas republics and their militia, and of infiltrating its troops into the region. Russia denies direct military involvement, but is believed to be supporting the self-declared Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk.

The Pentagon’s supply of weaponry to Kiev forces will no doubt embolden their regiments to step up violations of the truce which was supposed to be implemented under the Minsk Accord. Hundreds of breaches are reported on a weekly basis in which towns and villages in Donestk and Lugansk come under fire from heavy artillery. Alexander Zakharchenko, the leader of the Donetsk People’s Republic, has recently remarked that his defense forces «are not fighting Ukrainians, but rather Banderites» – that is, Neo-Nazi militia who adulate their Third Reich hero Stefan Bandera for assisting the German SS exterminate thousands of fellow Ukrainians deemed to be «sub-human».

The American military support for the Kiev regime and its Neo-Nazi death squads attacking the people of Donbas is a monumental contradiction to what the US Joint Chiefs of Staff were declaring last week about extremists on American soil.

All five of the Joint Chiefs of Staff – the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and National Guard – issued public condemnations of the violence perpetrated by assorted white supremacists and Neo-Nazis in the state of Virginia. The latter groups were protesting the proposed removal of American Civil War statues commemorating Confederate military leaders like Robert E Lee. Counter-demonstrators claim the statues are icons of racial prejudice and white supremacy. Many of the pro-Confederate protesters were carrying Nazi flags and other fascist icons. In a deadly incident in Charlottesville, Virginia, a suspected Neo-Nazi man rammed his car into a crowd killing a woman.

US President Donald Trump came under intense public criticism for being slow to condemn the violence and for appearing to lay blame on both sides, thereby equating Neo-Nazis with anti-fascist protesters.

Prominent news media organizations, like the Washington Post, New York Times and CNN, ran editorial comments lambasting Trump for his equivocal position, which allegedly afforded the Neo-Nazi groups a degree of legitimacy. CNN ran the headline: «Trump is who we feared he was».

A New York Times oped piece declared: «The Test of Nazism That Trump Failed». Adding: «There can be no ‘two sides’. If the president is not against Hitlerism, he is for it».

The Washington Post editorial board said that Trump had «brought the international image of the US into disrepute».

Then there were numerous resignations by business CEOs from White House consultative panels, again in protest over Trump’s alleged association with racists and bigots. Even though to be fair to the president he did explicitly condemn such groups.

The national controversy appeared to be catharsis for politicians, media, business leaders and public alike in which it was proclaimed that «America is not like that» – meaning, not a supporter of Nazis and fascsim. In almost ritualistic fashion, the evils of racism, fascism, white supremacy and Nazism were exorcised from the body politic – or at least supposedly exorcised.

Joining in the catharsis were the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The New York Times reported: «In an unusually public move, the nation’s top military leaders, who typically try to steer clear of social controversy, have come out strongly against racism and extremism in the wake of violent protests over the weekend. Five of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, representing the Navy, the Marines, the Army, the Air Force and the National Guard, posted messages on social media condemning hatred and Neo-Nazis, saying that the extremist violence in Charlottesville, Va., on Saturday went against the military’s core values».

As the NY Times noted, the public condemnations by the Pentagon top brass were an extraordinary rebuke to President Trump who, as titular Commander-in-Chief, is their superior.

Its report also quoted Charles E Schmidt, the national commander of the American Legion, who said: «Americans fought fascism and crushed the Nazis in World War Two, and anyone who waves a Nazi flag on our soil is, by very definition, anti-American. The disgusting displays of hatred and bigotry on display in Charlottesville dishonor all veterans who fought and died to stamp out fascism».

The public outpouring is classic American cognitive dissonance. Condemning Nazis at home while at the same time arming Nazis abroad. How does Nazism at home offend «our core values» when «our core values» involve politically, financially and militarily supporting Nazis in Ukraine?

To be sure, there is a long history of such American support for Nazis in Ukraine going back to the end of World War Two, when the Pentagon and CIA covertly backed the Gehlen Organization of former Third Reich General Reinhard Gehlen and his Ukrainian Nazi partisans in their sabotage operations against the Soviet Union.

In explaining American cognitive dissonance there are at least two factors. One is the lack of US media reporting on what is actually going on in Ukraine. How can so many ordinary Americans be alarmed by Neo-Nazis at home while seemingly insouciant about the same kind of fascists in Ukraine? That disconnect is due to ignorance, owing to the lack of US media coverage about what is really happening in Ukraine. US media seem more concerned to report claims that Russia is the culprit for destabilizing Ukraine. Which is all part of the ongoing Russophobia in the US media distorting the reality of international relations.

A second factor for American cognitive dissonance is that the outpouring of condemnation of white supremacists and Neo-Nazis in the US by many public figures is simply a cynical PR exercise. Of course, the hate-filled mobs with Nazi regalia in Virginia and other US states are damaging the «American brand» of supposed liberal democracy in the eyes of the world. Therefore the imagery must be swiftly expunged from public view with vigorous condemnations. But the cynical disingenuousness is betrayed by the fact that the US is arming and bankrolling the same hate-filled Nazis in Ukraine.

The arms dealing trip by Pentagon boss James Mattis to the Neo-Nazis in Ukraine this week is the reality check on what the Washington establishment and the American military-industrial complex really think about Nazism and extremists.

We could also add to the list the American arms dealing to fundamentalist regimes like Saudi Arabia and the covert arming of head-chopping Wahhabi terrorists. All of them are welcome clients for American militarism, in the service of US hegemonic world dominance.

Official US condemnation of Nazis, fascists and extremists is just American public relations rhetoric. Evidently, the condemnation has no credibility in terms of objective reality.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Finian Cunningham is a former editor and writer for major news media organizations. He has written extensively on international affairs, with articles published in several languages.

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

Comment here or on our Facebook Group page.

Things to ponder

While our media prostitutes, many Hollywood celebs, and politicians and opinion shapers make so much noise about the still to be demonstrated damage done by the Russkies to our nonexistent democracy, this is what the sanctimonious US government has done overseas just since the close of World War 2. And this is what we know about. Many other misdeeds are yet to be revealed or documented.

Parting shot—a word from the editors
The Best Definition of Donald Trump We Have Found

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Russian Exodus from the West

HELP ENLIGHTEN YOUR FELLOWS. BE SURE TO PASS THIS ON. SURVIVAL DEPENDS ON IT.

  Dateline: 30 March 2018

The war-bells are ringing – for a lie, an abject farce, visible to a child. Only the blind, those puppets, because out of fear or out of stupidity, who do not want to see – are supporting this new US instigated, UK executed drive against Russia.

Former double agent S. Skripal and daughter in healthier moments: Unwitting (and disposable) pawns in an ugly and criminal false flag staged by the West. Who do they think they are fooling? Most of the disinformed public, of course. Meanwhile they remain sequestered, hidden from public observation of any kind, a virtual kidnapping of two individuals by the supposedly "lawful" regimes ruling Britain and the US.

By now the West – the US, Canada, Australia and the super-puppets of Europe, overall more than 25 countries – has expelled more than 130 Russian diplomats. All as punishment for Russia’s alleged nerve gas poisoning of a former Russian / MI6 double-agent, Sergei Skripal (66) and his daughter Yulia (33), who was visiting her father from Moscow. Sergei Skripal lived in the UK for the last seven years, ever since President Putin lifted his prison sentence in 2010 in a spy swap with the UK. The pair, father and daughter, was allegedly discovered on 4 March slumped on a park bench in Salisbury, England, not far from Sergei’s home. Apparently traces of the same nerve agent were found at the Skripal home’s door.

 Russia in the meantime has started a tit-for-tat move expelling western diplomats – in a first round 60, plus closing the US Consulate in St. Petersburg. According to Mr. Lavrov, more will most likely follow. – There will be an exodus and a counter-exodus of diplomats, west-east and east-west. It looks like a Kindergarten at play – but is of course a blatant provocation by the west on Russia and a continuation of the vilification of President Putin – especially after he has just been reelected with an overwhelming majority of over 76%. It’s a provocation with zero substance, to further justify an escalating NATO aggression against Russia. The war-bells are ringing – for a lie, an abject farce, visible to a child. Only the blind, those puppets, because out of fear or out of stupidity, who do not want to see – are supporting this new US instigated, UK executed drive against Russia.   The nerve gas, called Novichok, had been produced by the Soviet Union in the 1970s, but was subsequently banned and destroyed under international supervision. The ‘inventor’ of Novichok lives apparently in the US. Mr. Putin said, if the military-grade Novichok would have been used, the only form the USSR ever produced, there would have been no survivors.

What hardly anybody talks about is that the secretive UK Defense (War) Ministry’s laboratory of Porton Down, is but 13 km away from where father and daughter were allegedly found unconscious on a park bench. Porton Down is a highly sophisticated chemical and biological weapons lab that entertains contracts with the Pentagon of more than US$ 70 million for carrying out “experiments”, including on humans and animals. Porton Down has the capacity to produce Novichok. See the full story on Porton Down, by Bulgarian investigative journalist, Dilyana Gaytandzhieva - https://southfront.org/salisbury-nerve-agent-attack-reveals-70-million-pentagon-program-porton/ .

 At this point there is no proof – other than what the police reported – that Sergei and Yulia Skripal were found on that dubious park bench. There are no civil witnesses. The UK government does not disclose where the two are treated, what their current health status is. Only on the repeated insistence of Mr. Lavrov that according to an agreement between the UK and Russia (the USSR) in the 1960s, both countries have the right to inquire and investigate about the wellbeing of their respective citizens, an official statement on 29 March from the UK said that Yulia is doing better and is on her way to recovery, while her father is still in critical but stable condition (The Guardian, 29 March 2018). Is it true? – What if one or both recover and have enough memory of the events to go public?

What if the two have indeed been poisoned at Sergei’s home, or abducted and brought to the Porton Down laboratory to be infected with the nerve gas and then later dumped to the park bench? Why does the UK not disclose any ‘evidence’ they apparently have against Russia? – No details of where the two are being treated? – No visits allowed. Russia’s offer to collaborate in the investigation is laughed off and refused. Is this a well-orchestrated MI6 / CIA false flag, followed by outrageous lambasting by the UK’s highest leadership against Russia and her newly re-elected President Putin?

This criminal propaganda event is so full of lies, false accusations and deceit, pulling along more than 25 (so far) western nations to condemn and sanction Russia in unison for something Russia has with absolute certainty not committed. Just apply logic – a tough challenge, I know, these days for the dumb-folded west – but logic would tell a child that there is no sense, absolutely no sense, for Russia to carry out such an evil act. So, the usual question is: cui bono – who benefits? – And the answer is also crystal clear: Profiting from this sham are the war-mongering US / NATO and their miserable vassal-allies – spineless for years – following lies, their governments are fully aware of the lies, of the untruth Russia is accused of.

Ecuador's Moreno: As clear a traitor to his people and an abject puppet of the West as they come. Now applying the final checkmate move to silence Assange indefinitely, or hopefully force him into desperate measures justifying his expulsion from the embassy grounds. Meantime, the UN is helpless to compel the hypocritical UK government to honor elementary human rights laws and covenants.

Adding injury to insult is Ecuador’s new President, Lenin Moreno, who a few days ago has shut up Julian Assange, Wikileaks editor, who is in political asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since July 2012. Under Moreno’s gag-order, Assange is no longer allowed to communicate with anybody in any form and shape and cannot receive visitors. The official reason for Moreno – who has clearly become a traitor on his people – is that Assange tweeted a protest against the arrest in Germany of Catalonian ex-leader, Carles Puigdemont. Moreno has condemned Assange to a sort of isolation prison in the Ecuadorian Embassy. Who gave Moreno orders to do so? – Well, I leave the guessing up to you. In any case Moreno has become a prostitute as are most of the western world “leaders”.

The real reason is most likely Assange’s strong critique of the UK government, especially PM Theresa May and her Foreign and Defense Ministers, for their vitriolic and unjustified accusations and slandering of Russia and particularly of President Putin in the Skripal poison case. Assange cannot leave the embassy for fear of being arrested and extradited to the US, where he may face torture and worse, possibly the death penalty.

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[dropcap]L[/dropcap]et’s take this a step further. Diplomatic relations between the west and Russia have totally fallen apart. The doors are closed. Russia doesn’t need the west. But the west, especially Europe, badly needs and will every day need Russia more, a close ally and trading partner for hundreds of years. Western Europe, eventually abandoned and every day more enslaved by Washington with weaponized refugees, with false flag terror attacks, leading to increased militarization, to oppression and censorship, privatization of public goods and infrastructure – Greece is but an example – and strangulation by Wall Street private banking and troika (IMF, European Central Bank, European Commission) imposed debt, will beg Russia to open her doors and show them her kindness – the kindness and openness Russia has been demonstrating to the west over the past almost 20 years, despite flagrant western abuse and demonization no end.

The western Anglo-Zionist-led empire will collapse. It’s a mere question of time but collapse it will. Today, not only a few, but all western “leaders” (sic) know that they are committing suicide by teaming up with destructive Washington – and this against the will of the majority of the European people. Yet, they push along this path of auto-destruction. Why? – Have they been personally threatened, or else lavishly rewarded if they follow the dictates of deep state-led White House and Pentagon?

What if the current UK virulent and violent Russia slandering campaign is but a dry-run for much worse to come? – By now the mental state of western society is at the level of Hitler’s Propaganda Minister, Goebbels’, statement - “Let me control the media, and I will turn any Nation into a herd of Pigs”. Yes, that’s what the west has become, a herd of pigs.  

About the Author

Peter Koenig is an economist and geopolitical analyst. He is also a former World Bank staff and worked extensively around the world in the fields of environment and water resources. He lectures at universities in the US, Europe and South America. He writes regularly for Global Research, ICH, RT, Sputnik, PressTV, The 4th Media (China), TeleSUR, The Vineyard of The Saker Blog, 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. He is also a co-author of The World Order and Revolution! – Essays from the Resistance.

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