Armed Iraq groups threaten to strike US forces if no withdrawal date is set
MEMO | April 8, 2021
The Coordinating Body of the Iraqi Resistance Factions yesterday warned that it would direct large and accurate strikes against US forces in Iraq if no clear date is set for their final withdrawal from the country, Anadolu reported.
“Today, the resistance finds itself obliged (…) to direct large and precise blows if this dialogue does not include a clear and explicit declaration of the final withdrawal date for the occupation forces: by land, air, and completely,” the body, which includes Iran- backed militia groups such as the Iraqi Hezbollah Brigades, said in a statement.
Iraqi and US officials held the third round of strategic dialogue to discuss a number of issues including cooperation in combating terrorism yesterday.
In a joint statement after the talks, the two governments said the mission of US forces was now focused on training Iraqi troops to fight Daesh and as a result US combat troops wouldn’t be needed in the country.
They added that they had agreed on the eventual withdrawal of US combat troops from Iraq and that the two governments would hold further talks to work out the timing.
The Iraqi Resistance Factions said the meeting’s final statement was “vague.. and does not contain any indication of the implementation of the Parliament’s decision to expel American occupation forces from Iraq.”
In January 2020, the Iraqi parliament voted on a resolution to remove all foreign forces from the country after the US assassinated Iranian General Qasem Soleimani in a drone attack near Baghdad airport.
Some 2,500 American soldiers are stationed in Iraq as part of the anti- ISIS international coalition.
Ontario has had the longest lockdown in North America – which has been so successful it’s just gone into another one
By Eva Bartlett | RT | April 8, 2021
It’s April 2021 and we’re still being fed the same “stay home, save lives” line of 2020. But lockdowns are based on dodgy data and exaggerations, as well as causing more harm than they supposedly prevent.
As of today, Ontario is once again locked down. The last lockdown of two months was lifted only a month ago.
The province has endured the longest lockdowns in the country, thanks to politicians and medical officers pushing selective statistics.
The “Stay-at-Home” order (sounds so much nicer than lockdown!) requires people to imprison themselves again, except for “essential purposes” (exempt, of course, are Canadian politicians, who have repeatedly violated their own exhortations).
This latest draconian lockdown again impacts nearly every aspect of Ontarians’ ability to live their lives
It means: closed businesses; increasing poverty, loneliness, and depression; increased domestic abuse, a rise in suicides and self-harm; and utter media hysteria (actually, the media hysteria and fear mongering has not ceased since the announcement of a pandemic one year ago).
A petition to end Ontario’s lockdown of small businesses notes:
“There are over 440,000 small businesses in Ontario.
“Less than a week ago [state premier] Doug Ford told restaurants they would be allowed to operate outdoor dining even in grey zones; this caused restaurant owners to spend thousands of dollars on these spaces only to find out that this would not be the case in this current closure.
This level of carelessness and lack of foresight could be the demise of many locally owned restaurants.”
Alarmism and exaggerated ICU data
Premier Doug Ford, in his address yesterday, spoke of case rates, hospitalizations, and ICU occupancy “increasing rapidly, threatening to overwhelm the healthcare system.”
But, as I’ve written before, the whole concept of “cases rising” is meaningless: “Cases are determined by Covid-19 tests, which have proved to be unreliable and inaccurate, giving false positives and creating a false picture of reality. This faulty testing is exacerbating the media hype over ‘rising cases.’”
And according to a long-time employee at the Ottawa General hospital I corresponded with: “I work in a large hospital and I pass through the Covid-19 ICU unit every day. And it’s never been overflowing or too busy.”
Or, as a columnist for the Toronto Sun noted: “Toronto’s top doc said that data was showing younger people in ICUs. Asked about the data, she changed her tweet to say she was ‘hearing’ of younger Toronto ICU patients. Big difference between data showing and you hearing anecdotally.”
Or, as an Ontario MPP noted: “The @OntHospitalAssn keeps fear mongering about ICU capacity. But Critical Care Services Ontario ICU data for Apr 3 reveals: Toronto 375 of 496 beds taken (76%) Central: 398 of 513 (78%) Ontario: 1852 of 2418 (77%) The question to the OHA is why?”
In fact, every year in flu season, we’ve had reports of overcrowding in hospitals, hospitals bursting at seams. This never caused us to shut down our economy and lock down our citizens.
Finally, more and more journalists are asking for proof of the claims bandied about by the Fords and media.
Even Naomi Wolf, not your average “conspiracy theorist” or “right winger” (as those opposed to brutal lockdowns are often described by dinosaur media) tweeted, “How are Canadians still being told such gigantic lies? The whole ‘lockdown equals public safety’ mythology is fully deceased.”
Vested interests in vaccines?
While ordinary Canadians suffer tremendously under lockdowns, Canada’s unelected medical tyrants, the Medical Officers of Health (MOH) are doing quite well, earning $200,000 – $300,000, and more.
In addition to pushing for this latest lockdown, Ontario MOHs went the extra mile and called for “fewer businesses to be deemed essential and more operations shut down.”
Because a year-plus of lockdowns destroying small businesses’ ability to survive just wasn’t enough…
Some of these MOHs may even have financial links to the rollout of vaccines.
In his press conference yesterday, much of Premier Ford’s focus was on pushing jabs.
Ford promised, “better days are ahead of us,” followed by more calls for Ontarians to get jabbed with vaccines made faster than ever before which, technically, will not even be out of the clinical trials stage till next year at the earliest.
The AstraZeneca vaccine is being suspended by countries around the world for causing blood clotting, which could lead to death.
In spite of this, Ontario continues to push it. As of April first, Canada has bought around 24 million doses. In addition to its AstraZeneca purchases, Canada agreed to purchase at least 20 million doses of Pfizer’s hurried vaccine.
In March, the media reported that Toronto’s MOH, Eileen de Villa, is married to Dr Richard Choi, a cardiologist and lecturer at Unity Health Toronto, who lists Pfizer and AstraZeneca among his ‘Relationships with financial interests.’ Under de Villa’s leadership, “Toronto Public Health has been used as a tool to counter any ‘misinformation’ about vaccination,” and was allegedly “behind a call to ban vaccine exemptions because of religious or philosophical beliefs.”
Another article on the de Villa-Choi conflict of interest noted: “It’s not a good look when you lock down your city when you don’t have to and your husband has financial interests with AstraZeneca and Pfizer.”
In mid-March, Premier Ford said he isn’t making the decisions, the chief medical officers are. He also said it would essentially be political suicide to go against them.
“To be frank, there’s no politician in the country who’s going to disagree with their chief medical officer. They’re just not going to do it. They might as well throw a rope around their neck and jump off a bridge.”
Last December, Toronto’s Associate MOH, Dr. Barbara Yaffe, and Chief MOH, Dr. David Williams, admitted they are just reading a script, “I just say what they write down for me.” And laughed about it.
So, we have unelected medical officers running the show, essentially forcing government decisions on lockdowns and related issues. And as a Toronto lawyer opposed to lockdowns noted,“local Councils are legally powerless to stop” these unaccountable MOHs. How wonderfully democratic.
There is definitely a will and momentum to resist the brutal lockdown measures affecting all but the fat cats flouting them. With a new round of bullying by unelected medical officers, I hope the resistance to tyranny grows.
Eva Bartlett is a Canadian independent journalist and activist. She has spent years on the ground covering conflict zones in the Middle East, especially in Syria and Palestine (where she lived for nearly four years).
Mother of All Scams Planned Long in Advance
By Stephen Lendman | April 8, 2021
Diabolical events rolled out early last year took detailed long term planning.
Plans for the mother of all scams was hatched by US and complicit Western dark forces long before garden variety flu outbreaks were renamed covid.
Millions of unwitting Americans and others abroad were conned to believe what shows up annually requires draconian measures to protect against what for the great majority of people is a few days of illness that pass with no adverse side effects.
Readily available safe, effective, inexpensive drugs are needed at most for relief, for many people none at all.
Yet most people in the West have been brainwashed to self-inflict short and longer-term harm from hazardous covid jabs and other draconian policies on the phony pretext of self-protection not gotten.
Notably in the West, virtually all politicians lie. So do their complicit bureaucrats, public health handmaidens, and press agent media.
Renaming flu covid and draconian measures instituted were planned many months in advance, including vaccine passports for unrestricted access to public places.
In April 2018, the European Commission (EC) — the EU’s executive branch — proposed health passports in a document titled ‘Strengthened Cooperation against Vaccine Preventable Diseases.”
Months later, plans to implement the EC’s proposal “examine(d) the feasibility of developing a common vaccination card/passport” for European countries that’s “compatible with electronic immunization information systems and recognized for use across borders.”
Unmentioned in the West is that vaccines cause outbreaks of illnesses they’re supposed to protect against.
They’re hazardous to health, not the other way around.
Bioweaponized covid mass-jabbing to the rescue risks widespread harm, not protection.
What’s been going on since early last year has nothing to do with protecting and preserving health, just the opposite.
Growing numbers of covid jabbed individuals are falling ill from the virus.
Numbers of adverse events and deaths are suppressed, the tip of the iceberg alone reported.
Throughout the West alone, millions of unwitting guinea pigs were harmed, many seriously.
As long as mass-jabbing continues unchecked, numbers of harmed individuals will increase exponentially.
Unreported by major media, a September 2019 mass-jabbing summit was held in Brussels — Western nations and the complicit WHO involved, supporting the scam instead of exposing and debunking it.
Weeks before seasonal flu-renamed covid outbreaks began, a global pandemic exercise was held.
So-called Event 201 “simulated a series of dramatic, scenario-based facilitated discussions, confronting difficult, true-to-life dilemmas associated with response to a hypothetical, but scientifically plausible, pandemic.”
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, WHO, and Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security supported the diabolical scheme.
Political leaders, senior UN officials, scientific, public health, and medical experts, Pharma, other private sector figures, and NGO’s attended summit discussions.
They were titled “In Vaccines We Trust” “The Magic Of Science,” and ‘Vaccines Protecting Everyone, Everywhere” — knowing they afford no protection and risk great harm when used as directed.
Plans were laid in Europe and the US for what was unleashed at year-end 2019.
Seasonal flu-renamed covid was planned as part of the diabolical Great Reset New World Order plot.
It’s all about transforming the world community of nations into ruler-serf societies — ruling class interests owning everything, ordinary people nothing.
Events rolled out in early 2020 took months of detailed planning.
What’s going on is the most diabolical ever plot against public health, free and open societies, and fundamental freedoms too precious to lose.
A new abnormal in the West and elsewhere is eliminating what just societies hold dear.
Protecting public health and fundamental freedoms demands mass resistance against ongoing horrors no one should tolerate.
If eliminated, they’ll likely be lost for good in our lifetimes — dystopian hell replacing them, much of it already in place.
Mandatory vaccines are ‘necessary in democratic society,’ don’t infringe human rights, EU court rules
European Court of Human Rights, in Strasbourg, France. (FILE PHOTO) © Reuters / Vincent Kessler
RT | April 8, 2021
Making children get jabs for common diseases is ‘necessary in democratic society’ and is in their best interests, the European Court for Human Rights (ECHR) ruled on Thursday in a landmark decision against anti-vaxxers.
It’s the first time the ECHR has ruled on mandatory vaccinations for children against common diseases. While the case dealt with the Czech Republic’s laws that require schoolchildren to have jabs against diseases like whooping cough, tetanus and measles, it has implications when it comes to compulsory Covid jabs.
Nicolas Hervieu, a legal expert specializing in the ECHR, said the ruling reinforces the possibility of compulsory vaccination under the current coronavirus pandemic conditions.
A panel of judges ruled 16-1 that the Czech health policy that prevented unvaccinated children from attending nurseries or schools was consistent with “the best interests” of children.
“The… measures could be regarded as being ‘necessary in a democratic society,” the court ruled.
“The objective has to be that every child is protected against serious diseases, through vaccination or by virtue of herd immunity.”
The judges dismissed the appeal brought by six Czech nationals who were fined for failing to comply with mandatory vaccination rules or whose children were denied admission to nursery school for the same reason. The parents had claimed that the mandatory jab rules violated their human rights.
“The objective had to be to protect every child against serious diseases,” the court ruled.
It said that the need for compulsory vaccination in the Czech Republic represented the national authorities’ answer to the pressing social need to protect individual and public health against diseases and “to guard against any downward trend in the rate of vaccination among children.”
The court said that while mandatory vaccinations raised sensitive issues, the value of social solidarity to protect the health of all members of society, particularly those who were especially vulnerable, required everyone to assume a minimum risk by having jabs.
There was no immediate reaction from the six who appealed the case to the ECHR.
Iran, Kazakhstan share many objectives on regional stability, nuclear disarmament: FM Zarif
Press TV – April 8, 2021
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says Iran and Kazakhstan have many common goals when it comes to global nuclear disarmament and regional stability.
In a post on his Twitter account on Thursday, Zarif hailed his “substantive and fruitful meetings” with Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and Foreign Minister Mukhtar Tleuberdi which were held in Kazakhstan’s capital Nur-Sultan on Wednesday during his third leg of a four-nation Central Asian tour.
“Our two countries share many objectives on regional stability and global nuclear disarmament,” the top Iranian diplomat said.
In his tweet, Zarif once again highlighted the top priority of the neighboring states in Iran’s foreign policy.
During a meeting between Zarif and Tokayev in the Kazakh capital of Nur-Sultan, formerly called Astana, the two sides discussed bilateral relations and the latest developments surrounding the peace processes in Afghanistan and Syria in addition to Iran’s nuclear deal.
In talks with his Kazakh counterpart, Zarif highlighted the many historical and cultural commonalities linking the two nations.
“Excellent talks were held on important regional and international issues, and we thank Kazakhstan for its support of the Islamic Republic of Iran on international fronts,” he said.
The Iranian and Kazakh foreign ministries also signed a 15-article document for cooperation between the two countries aimed at reinforcing friendly, fraternal and neighborly relations based on mutual respect and trust.
Zarif visited Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan before heading to Kazakhstan. He will visit Turkmenistan as the last leg of his tour.
Beijing blames Washington’s aggression for Taiwan tensions
RT | April 8, 2021
The Chinese Foreign Ministry has dismissed accusations that Beijing is engaging in “intimidation” and “coercion” in Taiwan, and called on the US to recognize the one-China principle and refrain from coercive practices.
Speaking on Thursday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian blasted Washington’s history of intimidation and international aggression as he questioned why the USS John S. McCain had transited through the Taiwan Strait on Wednesday.
“Do Chinese warships go to the Gulf of Mexico?” he asked, adding that China had never intended to intimidate anyone, but was not afraid of intimidation. He stated that the hat of “intimidation” and “coercion” does not sit on Beijing’s head.
Zhao claimed that the US has seen only 16 years of peace in its 250-year history and had frequently fought wars under false pretenses. “Back then, the United States fought over a bottle of washing powder and a fake video as evidence. In wars against the sovereign states of Iraq and Syria, they caused countless civilian casualties and the breakup of countless families.”
Turning his attention to Taiwan, the spokesman reiterated Beijing’s position that the island was a part of Chinese territory and that the People’s Republic of China was the sole legal government representing the whole of China.
Zhao called on Washington to recognize Chinese authority over Taiwan and stop sending the wrong signals about Taiwanese independence by “showing their muscles” in the South China Sea and provoking unrest. The spokesman said the one-China principle was an “an insurmountable red line.”
On Wednesday, the US Navy confirmed that the guided-missile destroyer the USS John S. McCain conducted a “routine” transit of the Taiwan Strait. At the same time, Taipei reported that 15 Chinese aircraft had flown over its airspace.
China has previously stated its opposition to the US military transiting through the Taiwan Strait.
Florida and Texas Ban Vaccine Passports
By Stephen Lendman | April 8, 2021
Digital vaccine passports are all-about pushing unwitting people to be jabbed with experimental, hazardous to heath drugs that risk potentially irreversible harm short-or-longer-term when taken as directed.
Already rolled out in Israel, Denmark, and Estonia by late April, they’re coming to the US and other Western states.
Apartheid in new form, they’ll create two-tiered societies — jabbed individuals afforded rights everyone deserves and unjabbed social outcasts denied them.
Where vaccine/health passports are instituted, they’ll likely be required for employment, attending school, air travel, other public transportation, hotel reservations, restaurant dining, in-store shopping, attending sporting events, and other social interactions.
Normal daily lives and routines will likely be denied without proof of covid jabs.
What was inconceivable not long ago already became the new abnormal.
Refuseniks will become untouchable social outcasts.
Draconian brave new world conditions will be more intolerable, unsafe and unfit to live in than already.
Nothing remotely justifies lockdowns, quarantines, face masks that don’t protect and risk harm from longterm use, PCR tests not designed to diagnose viral infections, social distancing that destroys normal human interactions, and hazardous experimental drugs that risk contracting diseases they’re supposed to protect against, but don’t.
What’s happening in real time is all-about replacing free and open societies with dystopian ones.
It’s about transforming world community states into ruler-serf societies.
It’s about instituting social control — enforced by police state harshness.
It’s about powerful monied interests owning everything, exploited ordinary people nothing.
It’s the worst of Orwell’s 1984 and Huxley’s Brave New World combined.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Texas Governor Greg Abbott banned the transformation of their states into two-tiered ones.
On April 2, DeSantis banned businesses from requiring customers to show proof of covid jabs (by executive order) to enter their premises and be served.
Barring government agencies from requiring proof of jabs, he said “vaccination passports reduce individual freedom and will harm patient privacy.”
His order doesn’t prevent businesses from establishing screening protocols and other policies recommended by state and federal public health officials.
On Tuesday, Texas Governor Abbott banned state agencies, political organizations receiving public funds, and some private entities from requiring vaccine passports or other proof of jabbing for covid to receive services.
His executive order overrides local ones that call for mandating what infringes on civil liberties.
“We will continue to (jab) Texans (for covid) and protect public health, (but) will do (it) without treading on Texans’ personal freedoms,” Abbott said, adding:
The US Constitution does not permit the federal government to mandate proof of inoculations.
The Biden regime ruled out establishing a national mandate to show proof of covid jabs — so far.
At this time, it’s up to states and local communities to set their own standards.
That policy isn’t written in stone and could change ahead — notably if millions of refuseniks refuse jabs to protect their health and well-being.
Pre-2020, no one could have imagined what’s going on now.
Draconian policies may harden ahead. Guidelines being developed by the White House could be stiffened after in place.
Free and open societies in the West are being replaced by draconian ones.
Based on what happened since early last year, what remains of personal freedoms may disappear entirely ahead — full-blown tyranny replacing them.
A Final Comment
Since Texas scrapped mandatory mask-wearing in public weeks earlier, seasonal flu-renamed covid outbreaks and deaths declined in numbers.
Days earlier, MSNBC noted that Texas today resembles 2019, adding:
“(R)estaurants are full. Ballparks are full.” Yet covid outbreaks declined.
Asked for an explanation, pro-mass-jabbing huckster, fraudster, profiteer, chief Biden regime medical adviser Fauci — a doctor who never treated a patient — failed to explain what’s clear to truth-telling medical and scientific experts.
Policies imposed since early last year did infinitely more harm than any number of serious diseases combined — notably by creating deeper Main Street Depression conditions than in the 1930s and deceiving the public to self-inflict harm from toxic covid jabs.
Former Trump regime trade representative Peter Navarro slammed Fauci, saying the following:
“From the first time I met him, he just did not make a lot of sense.”
“We’ve seen all of his flipflops.”
“My new theory is that he’s simply a sociopath. He just lies to advance his own interest.”
Navarro wants him held accountable for serial lying that contributed to inflicting enormous harm on millions of Americans and countless others abroad.
For what I call crimes against humanity, US and other Western political hardliners, their public health handmaidens, Pharma and media press agents for all of the above share guilt.
Biden Regime Pushing for War on Russia?
By Stephen Lendman | April 8, 2021
What interventionist Blinken calls “reckless…adversarial actions” by Russia is how the US operates at home and abroad, not Moscow.
What his spokesman Price calls “profound (Biden regime) disagreements with the Russian Federation” were made-in-the-USA, not at the Kremlin.
No “Russian attempts to destabilize the West” exist, no military threat against any country.
Hostile Biden regime actions against Russia risks turning escalated Cold War hot.
More illegal US sanctions on Russia are coming for invented/illegitimate reasons.
According to unnamed Biden regime officials, Russian diplomats in Washington may be expelled, others close to Vladimir Putin sanctioned.
Biden regime hardliners falsely accused Moscow of US election meddling (sic), offering the Taliban bounties to kill Pentagon troops in Afghanistan (sic), cyber-attacking SolarWinds (sic), poisoning Navalny (sic), and likely more illegitimate accusations to come.
Illegal Biden regime sanctions on Russia in March were prelude for likely stiffer unlawful ones in the works.
When Biden — or his impersonator — called Putin a “killer,” warning that he’ll “pay a price,” US Cold War on Russia escalated a step closer to possibly turning hot by accident or design.
On Wednesday, White House spokeswoman Psaki said Biden regime hardliners intend “hold(ing) Russia to account for its reckless and adversarial actions (sic).”
It’s how the US operates, notably when undemocratic Dems control things in Washington like now.
Russia under Vladimir Putin operates by higher standards — notably by waging peace, not war, respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of other nations, and observing international law — polar opposite US war on humanity at home and abroad.
US-orchestrated war by Kiev on Donbass along Russia’s border has its forces mobilized to respond defensively if necessary.
Earlier this week, Russia’s Security Council secretary Nikolai Patrushev said Moscow has no intention of intervening cross-border, adding:
“(W)e are closely watching the situation. Concrete measures will be taken depending on how it develops” — to protect Russian Federation security.
Separately, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said “Russia’s armed forces are (in its own) territory in places it considers necessary and appropriate.”
“(T)hey will stay there for as long as our military leadership and supreme commander consider it appropriate.”
Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) leader (in Donbass) Denis Pushilin said the following in response to escalated Kiev aggression:
“The situation on the line of contact remains, alas, extremely unpeaceful.”
“The situation is escalating and changing for the worse. The amount of (preemptive) shelling (by Kiev forces) is increasing.”
Military spokesman for the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) in Donbass Yakov Osadchy said the following:
“Throughout the past day, militants of (Kiev’s) 59th brigade have been shelling Logvinovo from the direction of Luganskoye by order of the military criminal Gennady Shapovalov, with the use of a 120mm mortar (rounds) banned by the Minsk agreements.”
At the same time, US-controlled Ukraine abandoned Minsk peace talks — agreements its ruling regimes never observed.
According to Peskov, US-installed puppet Zelensky never advanced peace along the Contact Line between Ukraine and Donbass “one iota” — in deference to his imperial master in Washington.
The 2014 Minsk Protocol peace deal — agreed to by Kiev, Moscow, the OSCE, the DPR and LPR — is “dead,” Peskov explained — because US hardliners want endless war along Russia’s borders.
“(R)eaching new agreements (with US-controlled Kiev) is impossible, because how can one resolve a conflict if one side (won’t) communicate with the other” and rejects peace, Peskov added.
On Tuesday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said his government held emergency talks with Biden regime officials in an attempt to prevent full-scale war by Kiev on Donbass, adding:
US-dominated Western rhetoric is “increasingly belligerent.”
Hardliners in “Washington should be concerned about the consequences of this coordinated policy” for escalated war along Russia’s borders.
Defying reality, the Biden regime “call(ed) on Russia to refrain from escalatory actions (sic)” — engaged in by the US and puppet regime in Kiev, not Moscow.
Days earlier, Ukrainian official Aleksey Arestovich said ongoing large-scale (US-controlled) DefenderEurope 2021 military exercises in European Baltic states are all-about preparing for possible war with Russia, adding:
Drills focus on areas “from the waters of the Baltic to the Black Sea, to put it bluntly, armed confrontation with Russia.”
Cognitively and physically impaired figurehead Biden is uninvolved and perhaps unaware of reckless actions by his regime’s hardline/interventionist geopolitical team.
In short order after replacing Trump — illegitimately by brazen election rigging — escalated US Cold War it’s waging on Russia risks turning things hot.