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Mahmoud S., 16, lost a leg to Israeli bullets

Defence for Children Palestine | February 4, 2021

Palestinian child Mahmoud S., 16, was playing football (soccer) in his home of Al-Khader, a town west of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, when Israeli forces shot him in the leg twice. Doctors were unable to salvage the leg and were forced to amputate it.

February 5, 2021 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Subjugation - Torture, Timeless or most popular, Video | , , , | 2 Comments

Will the proven Covid-fighting drug Hydroxychloroquine now be allowed to save lives?

By Joseph Berry | Conservative Woman | February 3, 2021

CIVIL society is at a standstill; with what John Milton called ‘the known rules of ancient liberty’ smothered, perhaps for ever.

Countless businesses have sunk beneath the waves and multitudes of workers have been laid off. Children have lost nearly a year of proper school.

The Covid nightmare continues; thousands still being hospitalised and still dying while lives and livelihoods are destroyed by the continuing lockdown.

All for a health emergency which experts and pundits have decided can be resolved only by the new experimental vaccines of the big drug companies.

But is this really the case? Was there never an effective prophylactic or early treatment alternative? Well, the evidence suggests there was, one that has been systematically and determinedly denied by the medical authorities and an anti-Trump ‘cancel culture’.

It was seven months ago that a highly-respected professor of epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health in the US told the world via the magazine Newsweek that ‘The Key to Defeating Covid-19 Already Exists. We Need to Start Using It.’

The key to which Professor Harvey Risch, author of more than 300 peer-reviewed publications, was referring was the cheap anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine (HCQ). It was a treatment that countries and doctors worldwide had begun to use to treat Covid patients with a great deal of apparent success, particularly in conjunction with the antibiotic azithromycin and zinc.

Professor Risch wrote: ‘I am fighting for a treatment that the data fully supports but which, for reasons having nothing to do with a correct understanding of the science, has been pushed to the sidelines. As a result, tens of thousands of patients with Covid-19 are dying unnecessarily.’

His call fell on deaf ears and the episode that followed is one that should really make us question human nature, and human sanity.

I had already written a series of pieces for TCW drawing attention to the neglect and demonisation of this drug in the US and the UK. One turned out to be TCW’s most-read blog of the year.

TCW continued through the summer to report on the growing political controversy surrounding the drug’s trials and the retraction by The Lancet medical journal of its now notorious but damning paper. ‘Hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine with or without a macrolide for treatment of Covid-19’

As I had already pointed out on TCW, the study published in The Lancet did not cover the use of hydroxychloroquine with zinc. Yet the media message was simple: hydroxychloroquine doesn’t work.

My previous articles had pointed to the many countries that have widely used HCQ to treat patients successfully, including Switzerland, Spain, India, Turkey, Algeria, Morocco, Bahrain, Malaysia, Indonesia, South Korea, Tunisia and Costa Rica.

In April 2020, Russian Prime minister Mikhail Mishustin authorised the distribution of 68,000 packs of hydroxychloroquine for Covid-19 treatment. 

I also reported on the many doctors who had treated people with HCQ with apparent success; or who said the potential benefits outweighed the risks, especially if used early or as a prophylactic.

As well as Professor Risch, specialists who expressed optimism included Dr Stephen Smith, an infectious disease specialist based in New Jersey; Dr Ramin Oskoui, CEO of Foxhall Cardiology in Washington DC; Dr Anthony Cardillo, CEO of Mend Urgent Care of Los Angeles; Dr Drew Pinsky, the globally-recognised California internist; Dr Joseph Raminian, an infectious disease specialist at NYU Langone Health.

Dr Vladimir Zelenko, a medical doctor based in New York; Dr Pier Luigi Bartoletti, of the Italian Federation of General Practitioners; Professor Didier Raoult, of the l’Institut Hospitalo-Universitaire Méditerranée Infection in Marseille; Dr William W O’Neill, medical director of the Center for Structural Heart Disease at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.

To take yet another example, Dr Peter McCullough, a consultant cardiologist and Vice-Chief of Medicine at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, Texas, told Sky News Australia in December: ‘There’s no controversy over whether or not (HCQ) works … the chances that it doesn’t work are calculated to be one in 17billion.’

He added: ‘The virus invades inside cells, so we have to use drugs that go inside the cell and work to reduce viral replication. The drugs that work within the cell and actually reduce viral replication are HCQ, ivermectin, doxycycline and azithromycin.

‘Sadly, in the United States and I know in Australia – this happens all the time – patients get no treatment whatsoever. They literally are told to stay at home until they are sick enough to go to the hospital. I think that honestly it’s atrocious. History will look back on that and think it was the worst way to handle a potentially fatal illness.’

In late May last year, the Swiss national government banned outpatient use of HCQ for Covid-19, perhaps because of the pressure it faced to do so in the midst of the negative media reaction to President Trump’s advocacy of the drug.

According to Professor Risch, Covid-19 deaths then increased fourfold and remained elevated. On June 11, he added, the Swiss government revoked the ban on HCQ, and on June 23 the death rate reverted to what it had been beforehand.

To take another global case. Taiwan has been using HCQ to treat mild cases of Covid, according to Dr Christina Lin. While there will be a range of factors at work, what is not in dispute is that this island nation of nearly 24million, which is much more crowded than the UK, has had one of lowest mortality burdens in the world, with less than ten recorded deaths as of yesterday.  

It was in early June that The Lancet apologised to readers after retracting the aforementioned study that said HCQ did not help to curb Covid-19 and might cause death in patients.

This episode led to significant changes in the declarations that The Lancet seeks from authors, in the data-sharing statements the journal requires for published research papers, and in the peer-review process for papers based on large datasets or real-world data.

Yet in late July, in the midst of a continuing political furore over the effectiveness of the treatment President Trump had endorsed and used, we were told by a smug Dr Anthony Fauci, a leading member of the White House coronavirus task force, that HCQ was ‘ineffective’. 

This was despite Professor Risch arguing in the world’s leading epidemiology journal, The American Journal of Epidemiology, that early outpatient treatment of symptomatic, high-risk Covid-19 patients with HCQ should be ramped up immediately; that five studies demonstrated clear-cut and significant benefits to patients given the treatment, plus other very large studies that showed the safety of the medication. 

In August 2020, a group of US doctors, including the Cameroonian-American physician Dr Stella Immanuel, took to the steps of the Capitol to speak up for HCQ, only to be branded as heretical and then censored on digital media for spreading ‘misinformation’ – the first of several times. 

One of the doctors, a top epidemiologist, said that perhaps 75,000 to 100,000 lives could be saved if the HCQ stockpile was released and it was given as a prophylactic to front line healthcare workers.

In October 2020, a study by researchers published in The Journal of Microbiology, Immunology and Infection found that treatment which included HCQ and azithromycin led to a  ‘favourable outcome’ for patients with Covid-19 pneumonia.

In November 2020, a study reported that countries adopting early widespread use of HCQ treatment experienced a nearly 70 per cent lower death rate, after adjustments, than those which had limited early HCQ use.

And in December, an article in the journal Ageing Medicine noted that HCQ was ‘increasingly used off‐label for patients with Covid‐19’ and that ‘clinical trials have revealed that HCQ is able to act as a potential drug in fighting against’ Covid-19. 

Finally, in January this year, an article co-authored by the same Harvey Risch and again published in The American Journal of Medicine recommended treating Covid with HCQ, presenting data showing that the drug interfered with the normal reproduction of the virus.

It confirms the original finding of last year that ‘when started earlier in the hospital course, for progressively longer durations and in outpatients, anti-malarials may reduce the progression of disease, prevent hospitalisation, and are associated with reduced mortality’ and when used with azithromycin ‘can serve as a safety net for patients with Covid-19 against clinical failure of the bacterial component of community-acquired pneumonia’. 

So the finding was that HCQ can reduce mortality rates in Covid-19 patients. There have been a huge number of studies of varying quality on the effectiveness of the drug. Here is a link you can use to keep track of them (the authors were recently banned from a social media platform apparently without warning).

The website summarises the findings of 239 studies, 172 of them peer-reviewed and 197 of them comparing treatment and control groups. At the top, it states: ‘HCQ is not effective when used very late with high dosages over a long period (RECOVERY/SOLIDARITY), effectiveness improves with earlier usage and improved dosing. Early treatment consistently shows positive effects. ’

Now Joseph S Alpert, editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Medicine, has acknowledged that the drug ‘may be useful as a preventative measure’.

Perhaps it’s not so surprising that Facebook has finally had to come round to acknowledging that it had been wrong to censor a post by someone in France about HCQ.

The question now is whether the rest of the Big Tech digital media companies will follow Facebook and retrack, and apologise for, their censorship of other posts.

These include those shared by President Trump, which pointed to HCQ as a possible treatment, including one which was taken down with huge publicity last summer as the presidential election heated up.

I won’t hold my breath. What is shocking is that the public have been denied honest reporting about the efficacy or otherwise of this treatment for what appear to be political (or even financial) motives.

As Professor Risch wrote movingly in his original Newsweek piece: ‘In the future, I believe this misbegotten episode regarding hydroxychloroquine will be studied by sociologists of medicine as a classic example of how extra-scientific factors overrode clear-cut medical evidence.

‘But for now, reality demands a clear, scientific eye on the evidence and where it points. For the sake of high-risk patients, for the sake of our parents and grandparents, for the sake of the unemployed, for our economy and for our polity, especially those disproportionately affected, we must start treating immediately.’

The purpose of this piece is to highlight specific aspects of a topic of major concern for readers in the hope that it might be more effectively addressed, in the interest of public information, by the UK authorities and by the media. It does not seek to offer expert opinion about medical treatment, nor is the author qualified to do so. Medical advice, and advice about treatment, should be sought only from a qualified professional.

February 5, 2021 Posted by | Science and Pseudo-Science, Timeless or most popular | , | Leave a comment

CDC: Over 500 Deaths Following mRNA Experimental Injections thru 1/29/21

By Brian Shilhavy – Health Impact News – February 7, 2021

The CDC has done another data dump into the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), a U.S. Government funded database that tracks injuries and deaths caused by vaccines.

The data goes through January 29, 2021, with 11,249 recorded adverse events, including 501 deaths following injections of the experimental COVID mRNA shots by Pfizer and Moderna.

Besides the recorded 501 deaths, there were 2443 visits to Emergency Room doctors, 156 permanent disabilities, and 1066 hospitalizations.

Almost 70% of the recorded deaths were among people over the age of 65.

As we have previously reported, because the VAERS reporting system is voluntary, studies show that less than 1% of all vaccine injuries and deaths are recorded.

A 2011 report by Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Inc. for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) stated that fewer than one percent of all vaccine adverse events are reported to the government:

Although 25% of ambulatory patients experience an adverse drug event, less than 0.3% of all adverse drug events and 1-13% of serious events are reported to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Likewise, fewer than 1% of vaccine adverse events are reported. Low reporting rates preclude or slow the identification of “problem” drugs and vaccines that endanger public health. New surveillance methods for drug and vaccine adverse effects are needed. (Source.)

When reading the accompanying notes from these cases that were reported to VAERS, it is clear that many healthcare professionals are reluctant to report these cases, probably fearing repercussions for doing so.

In some cases, family members filed the report because the healthcare facility refused to do so.

Some examples:

(VAERS ID # 913733) My grandmother died a few hours after receiving the moderna covid vaccine booster 1. While I don’t expect that the events are related, the treating hospital did not acknowledge this and I wanted to be sure a report was made.

(VAERS ID # 914621) Resident in our long term care facility who received first dose of Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine on 12/22/2020, only documented side effect was mild fatigue after receiving. She passed away on 12/27/2020 of natural causes per report. Has previously been in & out of hospice care, resided in nursing home for 9+ years, elderly with dementia. Due to proximity of vaccination we felt we should report the death, even though it is not believed to be related.

(VAERS ID # 914895) Injection given on 12/28/20 – no adverse events and no issues yesterday; Death today, 12/30/20, approx.. 2am today (unknown if related – Administrator marked as natural causes)

It is important to note that the official CDC’s position on these recorded injuries and deaths in the VAERS database is that NONE of them are related to the COVID mRNA injections.

The CDC does not even have a category for “vaccine deaths,” and hence, there has never been a recorded incident on a death certificate of a vaccine death. … Full article

February 5, 2021 Posted by | War Crimes | , | 1 Comment

Refuse A Vaccine? You’re Likely To Be Visited By A “Persuader”

By Richie Allen | February 5, 2021

Vaccine Minister Nadhim Zahawi said yesterday, that folks who haven’t taken up the offer of a vaccine, could get a knock on the door from council staff to “persuade” them to have it. He told MPs that he wanted to use local authority’s to find those who had refused the jab and determine what might then convince them. If that sounds sinister, it’s because it is. Very.

Zahawi went on to say that the NHS was already trying to “identify to individual level the people that we need to reach” to ensure that all over-70s had a chance to be vaccinated by February 15th. During a phone-in last Thursday, The Richie Allen Show spoke to 79 year old Ron, who said that he had received a phone call inviting him to come and be jabbed. When he politely said “no thanks”, he was told that he would be put on “the decline list.” Now that’s creepy. Why the need for a decline list unless you planned to use it to sanction those who have refused the vaccine? What might sanctions look like?

Zahawi’s comments came on the same day that Conservative MP Mark Harper, a member of The Covid Recovery Group, said that health care workers who refused the jab should not be allowed to work with vulnerable people. You are undoubtedly going to hear more of this in the days and weeks to come. “No Jab, No Job” is a catchphrase that rolls off the tongue. It’s everywhere now. And according to The Times this morning:

British officials have started work on a “vaccine passport” as Greece prepares to waive quarantine rules for tourists who can prove that they have been inoculated against coronavirus. A certification system is being planned, The Times has learnt. The Foreign Office, Department for Transport and Department of Health and Social Care are working on options for travellers to countries that may demand it as a condition of entry.

The gloves are off now and things are moving very quickly. We’re at peak lockdown fatigue. People have had enough and are beyond desperate to return to some semblance of a normal life. The government is dangling the vaccines and the health passports. It’s classic carrot and stick. No amount of money on earth could persuade me to have one of their vaccines. I’ll take my pleasure where I can find it and look forward to the knock on the door from “the persuaders.” That’ll be fun.

Richie Allen is the host of The Richie Allen Radio show, Europe’s most listened to independent radio show and is a passionate supporter of free speech.

February 5, 2021 Posted by | Civil Liberties | , , | 3 Comments

Russian Foreign Ministry Is Concerned About Political Persecution in the United States

The Saker | February 4, 2021

Moscow intends to hold a ‘serious conversation’ with Washington about the stars and stripes allegations of unauthorized actions in Russia.

The official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova spoke about this at a briefing.

The American authorities, according to their words, will not be able to “divert public views, public opinion from their own problems” with their unbridled attacks on the Russian Federation: “We mean to keep this topic in sight and have a serious conversation with Washington. I assure you, the news won’t keep you waiting.”

“I would like to appeal to Washington. I predict: their protest will not dissipate by itself. Discontent will not work under the carpet. the authorities and the media obedient to them declare, a direct quote: ‘domestic terrorists.’ Doubts about the objectivity of the US law enforcement agencies are also raised by the fact that they are essentially acting in accordance with the political order and guidelines of the current administration, which declared the events of January 6 as a mutiny, and all who were near the congress that day are almost depicted as marauders. However, most of them are ordinary US citizens who are worried about the situation in their own country. And you know how many there are? 74 million voters. They voted for their president, as they believed necessary, they defended their beliefs,” – Zakharova emphasized.

“The United States has already announced so much lately that I want to remind them of what is happening in their country … An endless, unceasing increase in the degree of violence. This is what our partners need to pay attention to, the situation in their own countries, and not try to help rock the situation in our country,” she added.

An official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry stated that human rights with the United States “are constantly and very hypocritically taken care of in relation to other countries, but they do not hesitate to ignore them at home.”

Zakharova is sure the United States will continue at attempts to interfere in the affairs of Russia. “But if the United States of America chooses the tactics of constant intervention in our internal affairs, which we are talking about and bringing facts, and these facts are not hard to find, they are on the surface, – we will be interested to see how they end up doing.”

Maria Zakharova – on the criminal prosecution of participants in the storming of the Capitol:

“It is of serious concern of the ongoing campaign in the United States of persecution of the participants in the so-called storming of the Capitol on January 6 and, in general, all those who disagree with the results of the last presidential elections, which the authorities and the media obedient to them, have declared ‘domestic terrorists.’

According to available informaiton, the FBI has opened over 400 criminal cases, requested more than 500 permits in the courts to search and summon suspects, and also brought charges and has already arrested about 200 people. Severe pressure is carried out, including the treatment of relatives, acquaintances, coercion to give the necessary testimony. Moreover, people who have not even been formally charged are fired from their jobs, expelled from social networks, blocked or harassed.”

February 5, 2021 Posted by | Civil Liberties | , , | Leave a comment

Kremlin Expresses Regret Over Biden’s Aggressive Statements on Russia

By Evgeny Mikhaylov – Sputnik – 05.02.2021

Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov has slammed [proclaimed] US President Joe Biden’s demand to free Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny, saying that some kind of ultimatums are unacceptable.

“This is very aggressive and unconstructive rhetoric, to our regret… We have already said that we will not heed such statements, which are some kind of mentoring lectures”, he said

The official also expressed hope that the US has enough “political willpower” to continue constructive interaction with Moscow.

The American president previously declared that the US “will not hesitate to raise the cost on Russia”, saying the days of “the United States rolling over in the face of Russia’s aggressive actions are over”.

After Biden’s inauguration, the new US president had a phone call with President Vladimir Putin. According to the White House, Biden raised problematic issues between the two countries, such as recent cyberattacks against American companies and government bodies (which Washington still blames on Russia despite a lack of evidence), Moscow’s purported election meddling, the arrest of Navalny, and many others.

At the same time, the presidents managed to find common ground on New START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) that resulted in the accord being extended.

February 5, 2021 Posted by | Aletho News | , | Leave a comment

Refuse bids from those ‘involved in Israeli war crimes’, legal groups tell UK rail construction company

MEMO | February 5, 2021

A new legal brief has deemed it legal for the company building the UK’s new high-speed railway, HS2 Ltd, to exclude firms “involved in Israeli war crimes” from its tender process.

Drafted by Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights and the European Legal Support Centre (ELSC), the legal brief states that the rail project is “legally entitled” to reject Spanish manufacturer Construcciones Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF)’s bid, on the grounds of “grave professional misconduct” and breaches of international law.

In 2019, CAF and the Israeli infrastructure company Saphir was chosen by Israel’s finance ministry to expand the settlement railway project, known as the Jerusalem Light Rail (JLR).

CAF and Saphir won the $2 billion contract to extend the railway to more illegal Israeli settlements, particularly in occupied East Jerusalem.

Under international law, the West Bank and East Jerusalem are occupied territories and all Jewish settlements there are illegal.

CAF is one of five companies which have issued bids to secure a £2.75 billion ($3.76 billion) contract to supply high-speed trains to the HS2 rail project.

ELSC, an NGO based in Amsterdam which defends and empowers the Palestine solidarity movement in Europe through legal means, said companies “involved in war crimes should have no standing in public tenders.”

“HS2 Ltd has the legal right and a moral obligation to exclude CAF from the tender procedure,” said the group’s Programme Director Giovanni Fassina.

The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) national committee’s Europe campaigns co-ordinator, Alys Samson Estape, added: “The JLR project is part of the ongoing process of entrenchment of Israel’s apartheid, illegal settlement enterprise and theft of Palestinian land in and around occupied East Jerusalem.”

JLR is so blatantly illegal that other multinationals which had participated in the initial stages of bidding for the project, including Alstom, Siemens, Systra, Bombardier and Macquarie, withdrew from the call for tenders, leaving just two consortiums bidding.

“Public institutions, including the UK government, should exclude CAF from its public tenders due to its violations of international law until it stops profiting from Israel’s illegal occupation.”

Palestine Solidarity Campaign Director, Ben Jamal, explained: “All public contract authorities must discharge their responsibilities to cease complicity in ongoing violations of international law.”

“This means HS2 Ltd must exclude CAF, and any other company violating Palestinian human rights, from the bid to provide rolling stock.”

February 5, 2021 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation | , , , , | Leave a comment

Bellingcat’s New Book ‘Whitewashes’ Manipulation of OPCW Report On Alleged Douma Attack

By Mohamed Elmaazi – Sputnik – 05.02.2021

A determination from the OPCW, that civilians in Douma, Syria were killed by chlorine gas canisters dropped from the sky, was undermined after internal documents revealed manipulation of the conclusions made by the expert team of inspectors who actually visited the site in question.

UK-based firm Bellingcat has come under heavy criticism for leaving out key information from it’s new book, regarding the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) whistleblower leaks in relation to the alleged chemical attack in Douma, Syria.

“The book [We Are Bellingcat: An Intelligence Agency for the People] excludes key evidence, shown in [my Twitter] thread, that has emerged from both OPCW sources and leaked documents regarding how attempts were made to manipulate the Douma investigation and the scientific flaws in the final report”, Dr Piers Robinson of the Organisation for Propaganda Studies explained in response to a request for comment.Robinson laid out a detailed twitter thread accusing Bellingcat, which is credibly suspected of being linked to Western intelligence agencies, of whitewashing “fraudulent conduct within the OPCW” and engaging in an exercise in “deception though omission”.

​The omissions from Bellingcat’s book mean that readers could be forgiven for never knowing that the controversy surrounding the OPCW report began when a member of the Fact Finding Mission to Douma discovered that their original interim report, agreed by the inspection team, was modified to make it look like chemical attack had occurred despite their conclusions to the contrary.

Bellingcat’s book also apparently omits reference to a panel discussion, with the former head of the OPCW, organised by the Courage Foundation, an organisation that supports whistleblowers.

Robinson outlines in his thread that the Courage Foundation panel “learned that an engineering study, sidelined by OPCW management, indicated that the damage seen [on a] chlorine cylinder and roof were not consistent with each other”.

Additionally, the panel learned that “a toxicology report by NATO chemical warfare experts had been suppressed come the final OPCW report”. This toxicology report “concluded that observed symptoms [of certain victims] were not consistent with chlorine gas poisoning them where they were found”

​The omissions in the book continued, with Bellingcat being accused of ignoring support for the OPCW whistleblowers from Jose Bustani, the organisation’s former chief.

​In doing so, Bellingcat “instead reinforces the attempt by OPCW senior management to smear some of its most experienced inspectors using a ‘leak investigation’ to spread lies and disinformation”, Robinson argues in his thread.

“The primary issue here is that Bellingcat are not properly independent of either western governments or indeed of elements within the OPCW itself”, Robinson told Sputnik. “They are clearly partial and yet Bloomsbury publishers has allowed this to be obscured and, predictably, for Bellingcat to present a manifestly partial description of the OPCW controversy”, he concluded.

In April 2018, allegations emerged of a chemical attack in the rebel-controlled area of Douma. The US, Britain and the EU accused the Syrian government of carrying out the attacks, and one week later launched strikes against the country, before any investigation was able to be completed. A team of experts from the OPCW ultimately conducted an onsite inspection of the site, 14 days after the alleged chemical attack, though the final report which concluded that chlorine canisters were likely dropped from the air, has since been marred in controversy.

The Syrian state and their Russian government supporters have always maintained that the alleged attack was staged by rebel forces in control of the region.

February 5, 2021 Posted by | Book Review, Deception, False Flag Terrorism | , | Leave a comment

Belgrade may postpone or end transfer of Serbian embassy to Jerusalem

By Paul Antonopoulos | February 5, 2021

After the Israeli recognition of the so-called independent state of Kosovo on Monday, Belgrade finds itself in a difficult position and will reconsider its decision to move the Serbian embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Serbia committed itself to this step by signing the September 2020 Washington Agreement suspecting that Kosovo and Israel would recognize each other eventually. Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić now says that his country will “build relations with the Jewish state in accordance to the new circumstances,” suggesting the embassy move might not occur at all.

The Washington Agreement was always tailored to the interests of Israel and Kosovo and not Serbia, yet Vučić still signed it to the dismay of Serbs. The agreement signed by Kosovo’s so-called Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti and then U.S. President Donald Trump states that Kosovo and Israel agree to mutual recognition. The agreement signed between Vučić and Trump specifies that Belgrade has an obligation to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem by July 1, 2021.

As much as the move between Israel and Kosovo was expected, it was probably not anticipated that the last item from the Washington Agreement would actually become the first. This is especially painful for Serbia as Vučić agreed with Kosovo’s authorities that the two would not engage in efforts for countries to recognize or stop recognizing Kosovo. This will likely bring new consequences to Serbia’s engagement with Israel.

As Serbian Foreign Minister Nikola Selaković noted, it will be interesting to observe whether there will now be Muslim and Arab countries that will recognize Kosovo or stop recognizing the illegal entity after its normalization with Israel.

So what will Muslim countries do?

Last year, thanks in large to Trump’s efforts, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco normalized their relations with Israel, while Saudi Arabia and the Jewish state have been cooperating for many years behind closed doors.

Turkey, despite being the first Muslim majority country to recognize Israel, has hypocritically reacted to the signing of the agreement between Pristina and Tel Aviv. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan claims that it does “not serve the Palestinian issue” and undermines the vision of a two-state solution. Erdoğan’s outrage is despite his country having multi-billion-dollar trade exchanges with Israel that was increasing year-on-year before the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs also stated that by signing the agreement, Kosovo, which it also recognizes, “undertook to open its embassy in Jerusalem, which is contrary to international law.” Again, Turkey made another contradiction considering it violated United Nations Resolution 550 and 789 by partially reopening the town of Varosha in occupied northern Cyprus last year, and by violating the United Nations Charter Law of the Sea by illegally entering Greece’s maritime space for much of 2020.

The question of relocating the Serbian embassy also entails the question of the status of Jerusalem – while the Israelis consider it their capital, the Palestinians say it is an occupied city. Palestinian Ambassador to Serbia, Mohammed Nabhan, said immediately after the signing of the Washington Agreement that 57 countries from the Arab League and the Islamic Organization for Cooperation could withdraw their recognition of Kosovo due to their agreement with Israel. There have been no such announcements from these Islamic organizations or their members.

This is an empty threat by Nabhan as the position of Muslim and Arab states regarding Israel are no longer united, something the Palestinian Authority appears to be oblivious to. Islamic countries are extremely divided over the issue of Israel and Kosovo. Several Muslim states like Iran, Syria, Iraq and Morocco do not recognize the independence of the breakaway Serbian province. Self-proclaimed Kosovo has been recognized by leading Arab countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Egypt. It is difficult to expect that there will be any changes, especially since the voice of the Palestinian Authority is no longer as important as it used to be. The Palestinian question, which was once a major global issue, is now reduced, especially in the Arab World as they are now mostly focused on containing Turkish expansionism and Iranian influence.

Immediately after the signing of the Washington Agreement, it was speculated that Serbia might not fulfill what it signed if Israel recognizes the self-proclaimed independence of Kosovo. The very act of recognition is only a consequence of what was already signed in Washington last year. The new American administration are most likely not against Trump’s September 2020 Agreement, meaning they will try and implement it, or at the minimum not stop it. Belgrade’s only trump card is that they can postpone or end the transfer of the Serbian embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Paul Antonopoulos is an independent geopolitical analyst.

February 5, 2021 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation | , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Bill Would Force Social Media Users To Secretly Report Suspicious People To Law Enforcement

MassPrivateI | February 4, 2021

Senator Joe Manchin wants to bring DHS’s spy on your neighbors “If You See, Something Say Something”  program to social media, blogs, websites, and much more. Manchin’s bill, the “See Something, Say Something Online Act” would essentially turn social media users into Federal spies by forcing them to report suspicious people to law enforcement.

Just how bad is this bill?

This bill would essentially force anyone on social media to report suspicious “transmissions” to law enforcement.

“Known Suspicious Transmission.—The term ‘‘known suspicious transmission’’ is any suspicious transmission that an interactive computer  service should have reasonably known to have occurred or have been notified of by a director, officer, employ, agent, interactive computer service user, or State or Federal law enforcement agency.”

Major Crime —The term ‘‘major crime’’ means a Federal criminal offense that is a crime of violence (as defined 13 in section 16 of title 18, United States Code); relating to domestic or international terrorism (as those terms are defined in section 16 2331 of title 18, United States Code)

What exactly is a known suspicious transmission or major crime?

“Suspicious Transmission is defined as any post, private message, comment, tag, transaction, or any other user-generated content or transmission that government officials later determine commits, facilitates, incites, promotes, or otherwise assists the commission of a major crime. Major crimes are defined as anything involving violence, domestic, or international terrorism, or a serious drug offense.”

How could social media users, bloggers, web forum moderators, web conferencing users etc., know that a comment left or uttered by someone would later lead to them committing a major crime?

The See Something, Say Something Online Act would force social media users into red flagging every person’s comments just in case someone commits a major crime in the future.

This bill would effectively destroy the First Amendment as we know it, dispelling any vestiges of America still being a free country.

Social media users would be forced to submit a Suspicious Transmission Activity Report (STAR) on suspicious individuals within 30 days.

“In General.—If a provider of an interactive computer service detects a suspicious transmission, the interactive computer service, including any director, officer, employee, agent, or representative of such provider, shall submit to the Department a STAR describing the suspicious transmission in accordance with this section.”

As Reason warned, the See Something, Say Something Online Act would put reporting on your fellow American on steroids. It would create a glut of frivolous reports, including many that are politically motivated, or otherwise disingenuous.

Social media users and law enforcement would keep detailed personal information, including metadata of suspicious people for five years.

“Each STAR submitted under this section shall contain, at a minimum—  (1) the name, location, and other such identification information as submitted by the user to the provider of the interactive computer service; (2) the date and nature of the post, message, comment, tag, transaction, or other user-generated content or transmission detected for suspicious activity such as time, origin, and destination; and (3) any relevant text, information, and metadata related to the suspicious transmission.”

“Retention Of Records —Each provider of an interactive computer service shall— (A) maintain a copy of any STAR submitted under this section and the original record equivalent of any supporting documentation for the 5-year period beginning on the date on which the STAR was submitted. (B) make all supporting documentation available to the Department and any appropriate law enforcement agencies upon request.”

No one can tell a person that they have been flagged as suspicious

“Non-Disclosure—Except as otherwise prescribed by the Attorney General, no provider of an interactive computer service, or officer, director, employee, or agent of such a provider, subject to an order under subsection (a) may disclose the existence of, or terms of, the order to any person.”

Social media users could face prosecution for not reporting suspicious people

Imagine someone leaving a comment on social media like the police suck or calling someone a bitch, twit or twat and then they go on to commit a crime in the future. Would anyone like to guess what might happen next?

Every social media user who refused to file a STAR report on a suspicious person would open themselves up to prosecution or a lawsuit.

“Compliance—Any provider of an interactive computer service that fails to report a known suspicious transmission shall not be immune from civil or criminal liability for such transmission under section 230(c) of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 230(c)).”

Where does one begin when it comes to describing just how bad this bill is?

Forcing social media users to essentially submit STAR reports on people they deem as suspicious opens up a Pandora’s box of problems.

Social media users who are forced into reporting on people could flag everyone’s comments to guard against being prosecuted or sued. This bill, if passed as it is written, would have a devastating effect on the civil rights and freedoms of every American.

February 5, 2021 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance | , | 1 Comment