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Israel expects US and other allies to help bomb Iran

RT | August 17, 2024

Israel’s Foreign Minister, Israel Katz, has stated that his country expects not only the United States but also its allies, including Britain and France, to assist in offensive operations against Tehran in the event of direct conflict.

Katz made these comments during a meeting with British Foreign Secretary David Lammy and French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourne in Jerusalem on Friday, according to a Hebrew-language statement from his office.

”Israel expects France and Britain to publicly clarify to Iran that it is unacceptable for it to attack Israel, and that if Iran attacks, the US-led coalition will join Israel not only in defense but also in an attack against significant targets in Iran,” the statement said, as cited by the Times of Israel.

Katz reiterated in a post on X that he made it “clear” to his colleagues that they should publicly announce their countries “will stand with Israel not only in defense but also in striking targets in Iran.”

The French and British diplomats downplayed these assertions, with Sejourne telling reporters that it would be “inappropriate” to discuss any “retaliation or preparation for an Israeli retaliation” amid diplomatic efforts to negotiate a deal to end the Gaza war. A joint French-British statement following the meeting also made no mention of any anti-Iran coalitions.

“We have urged Iran and its proxies to stand down the ongoing threats of military attack against Israel. We have also stressed to all parties that the spiral of escalating reprisals must end,” they said in their only reference to Tehran.

The meeting in Jerusalem occurred shortly before the latest round of indirect ceasefire talks ended without breakthroughs, though there were promises to return to the negotiating table next week. The war between Israel and Hamas has dragged on for 10 months since the militant group staged a deadly incursion, resulting in approximately 1,100 deaths and around 200 hostages. The massive Israeli response has claimed over 40,000 Palestinian lives, according to Gaza health officials.

The risk of wider conflict in the Middle East was drastically exacerbated by the assassination of Hamas Political Bureau Chief Ismail Haniyeh, who served as the Palestinian armed group’s lead negotiator in indirect talks with Israel. He was killed in Tehran on June 31, hours after attending the inauguration of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. Iran promised to inflict a “harsh punishment” on Israel, which has neither acknowledged nor denied any involvement in the killing.

The US has deployed additional warships and a submarine to the Middle East to protect the Jewish state from potential attacks, but it remains unclear whether Washington has agreed to any plans to bomb Iran.

In April, when Iran fired hundreds of missiles and drones at Israel in retaliation for the bombing of its embassy in Damascus, US fighter jets and warships helped intercept many of the incoming projectiles. However, this was a purely defensive operation, with no direct counterstrike on targets inside Iran.

August 16, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Militarism, Wars for Israel | , , , , , , | 2 Comments

American Bombings of Vietnam during World War II

Tales of the American Empire | August 15, 2024

Americans know about the massive American bombing of Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s. Few know that thousands of American bombs fell on Vietnam during World War II. The Japanese had occupied some ports in French Indochina in 1940 to support naval and air operations in the region. After the United States entered the war, the US Army Air Corps needed targets to justify strategic bombing since Japan remained beyond range until B-29s arrived in 1944. As a result, many questionable targets were bombed in Vietnam that resulted in thousands of civilian casualties, while a million Vietnamese starved during the resulting famine.

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Related Tale: “The Anglo-American War on France”;    • The Anglo-American War on France  

Related Tale: “American Mass Bombings of Chinese Cities in World War II”;    • American Mass Bombings of Chinese Cit…  

“Bombing of South-East Asia (1944–1945)”; Wikipedia; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing…)

“The OSS in Vietnam, 1945: A War of Missed Opportunities”; Dixee Bartholomew-Feis; The National World War II Museum; July 15, 2020; https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war…

Related Tale: “American Bombings of Allied Cities in World War II”;    • American Bombings of Allied Cities in…  

Related Tale: “The Illusion Called South Vietnam”;    • The Illusion Called South Vietnam  

Related Playlist: “The Vietnam War”;    • The Vietnam War  

August 16, 2024 Posted by | Militarism, War Crimes | , , | Leave a comment

‘Medical Warfare’: Doctors Who Questioned COVID Shots, Promoted Ivermectin Lose Certification

By Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D. | The Defender | August 14, 2024

Two doctors who spoke out about vaccines and alternative treatments for COVID-19 received notice that their medical certifications were revoked, while another doctor said her certification was revoked without her knowledge.

The American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) last week revoked the certifications of Drs. Pierre Kory and Paul Marik, following a two-year investigation into their promotion of ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine as treatments for COVID-19 and their statements questioning the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines.

According to The Washington Post, the two physicians continued “to promote ivermectin, an anti-parasitic medication, as a treatment for COVID long after the medical community found it to be ineffective.”

Kory and Marik are co-founders of the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC), which promotes alternative treatments for COVID-19.

Citing unnamed experts, the Post claimed the FLCCC “spread misinformation about the coronavirus pandemic.”

MedPageToday quoted an ABIM spokesperson, who said the organization “does not comment publicly on the reasons for the revocation of certification.”

However, in a summary of the ABIM’s decision reviewed by The Defender, the organization stated that the doctors’ “conduct poses serious concerns for patient safety and undermines the trust that the public and the medical profession place in the meaning of ABIM board certification.”

In a press release, the FLCCC Alliance said it “categorically disagrees” with ABIM’s decision.

“We believe this decision represents a dangerous shift away from the foundational principles of medical discourse and scientific debate that have historically been the bedrock of medical education associations,” the press release states.

Marik told The Defender :

“The bottom line is we’re disappointed because we stand up for the truth. To censor science is to censor progress. Science is based on dialogue and people can have different points of view. That is the principle of science: it’s people having different points of view.

“We’ve never been in a situation before where physicians who have opposing points of view are silenced … It sets a really bad precedent that you can’t really challenge the status quo, and as we know, in medicine, there have been very dramatic changes based on changing understandings of science.”

In the FLCCC Alliance press release, Kory said, “This fight is about more than just our right to speak — it’s about protecting the future of healthcare. When doctors are silenced for questioning the prevailing narrative, we all lose.”

Kory and Marik participated in an ABIM hearing in May, but internist Dr. Meryl Nass, founder of Door to Freedom, told The Defender that ABIM revoked her certification without her knowledge.

Nass said she was blindsided by ABIM’s decision to revoke her license, which she said she found out about only when she searched for herself in the organization’s database of certified physicians.

Nass told The Defender :

“After the Maine Medical Board suspended my license illegally — even though none of my alleged transgressions met the statutory requirement for an immediate suspension — the board later found me guilty of things I had not done and continued the suspension … All of this with never a single patient complaint.

“Now I learn, by chance, that the ABIM has suspended me without ever informing me I was even under an investigation, which is illegal according to the ABIM’s process.”

Dr. Peter McCullough also faced similar difficulties with the ABIM over his positions on COVID-19 vaccines and treatments. According to MedPageToday, ABIM revoked his certifications in 2022 — although, as of today, ABIM lists him as certified.

McCullough told The Defender, “The ABIM is violating principles of equal protection, due process, rules of evidence and has gone ex post facto to find reasons to attack qualified ABIM-certified doctors who innovated and saved lives early in the pandemic.”

Science based on ‘different points of view’

Kory and Marik held ABIM certifications in internal and critical care medicine, while Kory was also certified in pulmonary disease, according to MedPageToday.

They were initially notified about the risk of losing their certification in May 2022. Last year, ABIM’s Credentials and Certification Committee recommended the revocation of their certification for disseminating “false or inaccurate medical information.” A hearing followed in May.

According to the FLCCC Alliance’s press release, Kory and Marik “tirelessly defended their positions.” However, despite “presenting over 170 references in a detailed 60-page response submitted in January 2023, the ABIM has chosen to dismiss these robust scientific contributions in favor of a narrow, ‘consensus-driven’ narrative.”

According to the summary of ABIM’s decision, Kory and Marik’s “statements about the safety and efficacy of ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine” as treatments for COVID-19 “are false and inaccurate because they are unsupported by factual, scientifically grounded, and consensus-driven medical information.”

The ABIM also addressed the doctors’ positions on the COVID-19 vaccines:

“[The doctors’] statements about the purported ineffectiveness and dangers of COVID-19 vaccines are false and inaccurate because they are unsupported by factual, scientifically grounded, and consensus-driven medical information. …

“There is extensive factual, scientifically grounded, and consensus-driven medical information demonstrating that the COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective, and lead to better health outcomes.”

Marik questioned the board’s assertions regarding ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine and the vaccines.

“What they do is, they cherry-pick articles which support their point of view and then they go on to say the vaccine is safe and effective. We know that’s completely not true. There’s overwhelming data to question both the safety and efficacy of the vaccine,” Marik added.

McCullough said:

“ABIM never updated its members on important risks such as fatal vaccine adverse events, including myocarditis, nor failing theoretical efficacy necessitating boosters that skipped human testing altogether.

“Setting a new dark milestone, ABIM is decertifying highly qualified physicians for nonclinical reasons and ignoring the evidence for early therapeutics and COVID-19 vaccine safety.”

ABIM engaging in ‘medical lawfare’

According to the Post, Kory maintains a license to practice medicine in California, New York and Wisconsin, where “there are no disciplinary actions listed against him.” Marik has retired and his medical license expired in 2022.

Revocation of their ABIM certification “effectively prevents them from practicing at large hospitals and academic institutions,” the Post reported.

Marik and Nass outlined the difficulties of practicing medicine without certification.

“It doesn’t affect us directly, but it affects us indirectly because we’re being accused of committing offenses that are just not true,” Marik said. “The indirect impact to our reputation … it’s a slap in the face, basically, for all the hard work we’ve done.”

Accusing the ABIM of being part of the “medical-industrial complex,” Marik said, “They seem more interested in making money than in protecting physicians. There have been a number of lawsuits against ABIM, so they don’t have the best of reputations. But unfortunately, they are the main certifying organization in the U.S., so they have enormous power and leverage.”

“If I get my license back — a big if, without board certification, I would have great difficulty getting hospital privileges and collecting insurance reimbursements. In other words, I would be unemployable, though I could potentially work on my own if patients paid me directly,” Nass said.

In 2021, ABIM and the Federation of State Medical Boards collaborated to draft the statement used to discipline Nass.

Nass said organizations like ABIM are engaging in “medical lawfare.” She said they are:

“Creating crimes that do not exist, using procedures that do not exist, to try and silence people like me. What did I do wrong? I read the literature and told the truth about what it said, publicly. The COVID vaccines are very dangerous. They don’t prevent COVID. Drugs can effectively treat COVID. And I prescribed those drugs and helped hundreds of Maine citizens. That was my crime.”

This article was originally published by The Defender — Children’s Health Defense’s News & Views Website under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Please consider subscribing to The Defender or donating to Children’s Health Defense.

August 16, 2024 Posted by | Science and Pseudo-Science | , | 1 Comment

Whistleblower Will Appeal After Federal Court Dismisses Lawsuit Alleging Fraud in Pfizer COVID Vaccine Trials

By Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D. | The Defender | August 13, 2024

For the second time, a federal court in Texas has dismissed a whistleblower lawsuit alleging Pfizer and two of its contractors manipulated data and committed other acts of fraud during clinical trials for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in 2020.

In his Aug. 9 ruling, District Judge Michael J. Truncale sided with the U.S. government, ruling the government had demonstrated “good cause” to intervene and dismiss the case. He wrote:

“The Government’s desire to dismiss the case — because of its doubt as to the case’s merits, differing assessment of the Pfizer vaccine data, desire to avoid discovery and litigation obligations, and belief that it should not have to expend resources in a case that is contrary to its public health policy — constitutes good cause to intervene.”

Whistleblower Brook Jackson filed the lawsuit against Pfizer, Ventavia Research Group — which conducted some of the clinical trials for Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine — and Pfizer contractor ICON PLC in January 2021. Jackson’s complaint was most recently amended in October 2023.

Jackson, a former Ventavia employee, alleged the companies committed numerous violations of the False Claims Act (FCA) during the clinical trials.

According to the lawsuit, the three companies “deliberately withheld crucial information from the United States that calls the safety and efficacy of their vaccine into question,” thus defrauding the federal government, which purchased the vaccines.

The FCA allows the government or a party suing on its behalf to attempt to recover money for false claims made by parties to secure payment from the government.

The FCA also allows whistleblowers to be rewarded for confidentially disclosing fraud that results in a financial loss to the government.

While whistleblowers have the right to sue under the FCA, the federal government can choose to intervene in the case at a later date. In Jackson’s lawsuit, the U.S. government initially declined to intervene in February 2022. However, in March, the government filed a motion to intervene and to dismiss the case.

Attorney Warner Mendenhall, one of the lawyers representing Jackson, questioned whether the U.S. government’s “public health policy” is tolerant toward allegations of fraud during clinical trials for vaccines.

In an interview Monday with Sasha Latypova, a former pharmaceutical industry executive with 25 years of experience in pharmaceutical research and development, Mendenhall said:

“What’s the public health policy of the United States? To kill people and damage people and injure people and make them sick? If that’s the public health policy, well then yes, we’re inconsistent with that.”

Latypova told The Defender she was “not really surprised” by the ruling, noting that drugmakers enjoy legal immunity afforded by emergency use authorization granted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Latypova described this immunity as a “legal cage.”

She said “The court took as evidence an unsubstantiated opinion of two government bureaucrats … published in an editorial article of a medical journal,” but did not consider the extensive evidence of wrongdoing Jackson provided.

The government’s motion to dismiss cited a Jan. 5 JAMA editorial authored by FDA Commissioner Robert Califf and the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research Director Peter Marks, claiming that “data from various studies” show that “tens of millions of lives were saved by vaccination.”

During his interview with Latypova, Mendenhall argued the government failed to demonstrate good cause and that last week’s ruling did not name any specific examples of this. He said:

“If you read the actual document, there’s no cause listed at all. In fact, the judge has a footnote saying, ‘There is no cause here, but I’m going to look at this other motion I think I can find’ … that’s not how courts are supposed to proceed. You look at the motion first to intervene for good cause. If it’s not there, you’re done. You don’t get to go on and look at the motion to dismiss for hints that maybe there is good cause.”

The ruling also stated that Jackson “failed to allege that she complained to Ventavia or the FDA about fraud against the government.” Accordingly, her claims don’t “rise to the level of protected activity” as a whistleblower.

Mendenhall told Latypova this poses “constitutional concerns” and may have “a chilling effect on other whistleblowers.”

Jackson has 30 days to appeal the ruling, and plans to, Mendenhall said.

“I am very confident we’re going to win that case and get, at least, the retaliation [claim] vindicated, and vindicate what she did as a conscientious citizen of the United States,” Mendenhall said.

Jackson fired within six hours of submitting claims to the FDA

Ventavia, which operated several sites where it conducted clinical trials on behalf of Pfizer, hired Jackson in September 2020.

That same month, Jackson reported problems she observed with the Pfizer vaccine trial to the company’s management. When management didn’t respond, she took her claims to the FDA on Sept. 25, 2020. Ventavia fired her later that day.

Jackson, who had over 15 years of experience working with clinical trials, claimed she “repeatedly informed her superiors of poor laboratory management, patient safety concerns and data integrity issues.”

She also gave The BMJ a cache of internal company documents, photos and recordings highlighting alleged wrongdoing by Ventavia.

“Her job was to fix things. They wouldn’t fix them. She reported it to the FDA, and six hours later was fired from her job,” Mendenhall said.

He added:

“There was not informed consent. They were making up records. I mean, it was just endless. They were violating patient privacy, which is critical in a clinical trial because you have to not know who’s getting the shot in order to determine any effectiveness.

“Basically, the allegations that she brought forward show that the clinical trial that she saw, what she saw of it, was essentially worthless. It wasn’t valuable or useful data.”

Jackson filed her qui tam lawsuit under the FCA in January 2021. A qui tam action refers to any legal case where a private citizen initiates legal action on behalf of a state.

Documents released in November 2021 supported Jackson’s claims that she was directly involved in the Phase 3 trials for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.

‘Level of ignorance’ of scientific facts by government officials ‘astounding’

In February 2022, the federal government declined to intervene in the lawsuit on Jackson’s behalf but reserved the right to intervene at a later date.

Later that month, Jackson filed her first amended complaint, while the court unsealed 400 pages of exhibits.

In July 2022, Pfizer asked the court to dismiss Jackson’s lawsuit on the basis that the U.S. government was aware of wrongdoings in the clinical trials but continued to do business with the vaccine maker. In March 2023, Truncale granted the motion to dismiss, ruling that Jackson had not proved the companies violated the FCA.

Jackson appealed the dismissal in April 2023, and in August 2023 submitted a motion to file a second amended complaint, which was granted in September. Jackson filed her second amended complaint in October 2023.

Pfizer and Ventavia filed motions to dismiss the second amended complaint later in October 2023, while the U.S. government filed its motion to intervene and dismiss in March 2024. Oral arguments discussing the motions to dismiss took place on May 1.

“What happened in the interim here while we’re fighting the case and moving forward, apparently the government itself decided that what we were doing in exposing Pfizer and Ventavia and ICON, the three companies involved here, was contrary to the public health policy in the United States,” Mendenhall said.

In ruling in favor of the government, the court cited a 2023 U.S. Supreme Court decision that gave the government significant leeway concerning when it could intervene in an FCA case and on what basis.

According to Mendenhall, this occurred despite meetings Jackson and her legal team had last year with representatives of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), during which he said they “were completely unaware” of evidence questioning the safety of the COVID shots, including SV40 DNA contamination and vaccine injuries.

Mendenhall said:

“The level of ignorance about the scientific facts that we have uncovered was astounding to me, for someone who is supposed to be in charge of a major decision on behalf of the United States’ people, whether these shots need to be pulled from the market, whether Pfizer needs to be prosecuted or at least held civilly liable along with the other companies.

“I think that, certainly for some in the government, they just don’t want to face what they’ve actually done … they have hurt, damaged the health of millions of Americans and tens of millions, at least, around the world.”

According to Mendenhall, government attorneys were “actually sitting on the side of the courtroom with Pfizer” attorneys during the May 1 hearing.

“How strange that was to have the defendants sitting with the government who’s supposed to be going after them,” Mendenhall said.

In April, Pfizer submitted a statement to the court in support of the U.S. government’s motion to intervene and dismiss.

Pfizer previously was fined in connection with the FCA. As part of a 2009 settlement, the company paid $2.3 billion in fines — the largest healthcare fraud settlement in the history of the DOJ — stemming from allegations of illegal marketing of off-label products not approved by the FDA.

This article was originally published by The Defender — Children’s Health Defense’s News & Views Website under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Please consider subscribing to The Defender or donating to Children’s Health Defense.

August 16, 2024 Posted by | Deception, Science and Pseudo-Science | , , , | Leave a comment

Norway closes its Palestine office after Israel revokes status of diplomats

Press TV – August 16, 2024

Norway has announced the closure of its Representative Office in al-Ram, Palestine, after Israel’s “extreme” decision to revoke the diplomatic status of several Norwegian diplomats.

Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said it was an “extreme and unreasonable” decision made by the regime.

“This decision seeks to target the Palestinians and the Palestinian Authority and all those who defend international law, the two-state solution and the Palestinians’ legitimate right to self-determination.”

The minister vowed that his country will continue to support the Palestinian people “with full force.”

“We will do our utmost to ensure that this does not affect our work for Palestine and for a viable Palestinian state. Our commitment will continue with full force.”

He noted that the Israeli decision obviously “has consequences for our work in Palestine.”

“It affects our locally employed staff. Many of them have worked at the representative office for several years. It also affects our diplomats and their families. We are now fully focused on how to safeguard our employees and our work in the best possible way,” Eide said.

Earlier this month, Israel revoked the diplomatic status of eight Norwegian diplomats who had been working in Norway’s representative office to the Palestinian Authority.

Ties between Oslo and Tel Aviv have been deteriorating since Norway recognized the state of Palestine in May.

More than two-thirds of the United Nations, approximately 140 countries, already recognize a Palestinian state.

August 16, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , | Leave a comment

Hezbollah reveals massive underground base, reminds Israel retaliation imminent

The Cradle | August 16, 2024

Hezbollah released a video on 16 August showcasing a highly secretive underground facility, which serves as a missile storage and launch site.

The video is titled “Our mountains are our storage sites,” indicating that the underground facility is part of Hezbollah’s large and sophisticated tunnel network built underneath southern Lebanon’s mountainous terrain.

The facility is named Imad-4, after the late Hezbollah commander Imad Mughniyeh, who was assassinated by Israel in 2008.

The video starts by showing motorcycles and trucks equipped with missile launch pads moving through the facility’s long tunnels. Later, one of the trucks is seen positioning to fire missiles out of the facility as a tunnel entrance opens up.

Al Mayadeen said on Friday that the facility’s name, Imad-4, indicates that other sites like it exist.

It sends the message that Hezbollah “is not afraid to go to war, and is prepared for it if [Israel] decides to go too far in escalation and aggression,” the outlet wrote.

It also serves as the “obituary” of Israel’s “battle between wars,” the campaign of airstrikes on Syria which aims to stifle the flow of weapons to Hezbollah.

“The capabilities of the Islamic Resistance, especially missiles, are fully prepared to defend Lebanon … the secrecy of the site allows Hezbollah’s missile capabilities to be immune from any preemptive Israeli strikes,” as well as from Israeli espionage and intelligence warfare, according to Al Mayadeen.

The video is a reminder that “even if the retaliation for the targeting of the southern suburbs and the assassination of martyr Fuad Shukr, and the killing of civilians is delayed for several reasons, it will surely come,” Al Mayadeen went on to say.

In the video, excerpts from speeches by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah are heard. “Our next battle with Israel will span across the entirety of occupied Palestine,” Nasrallah is heard saying in the clip.

Hebrew newspaper Maariv referred to the video as Hezbollah’s “psychological pressure” on Israel.

Israeli journalist for the Ynet news site, Lior Ben Ari, called the video “disturbing” and said it should be “examined in depth.”

“The video revealed an underground facility called “Emad 4” that launches missiles underground, but not only. The video reveals huge tunnels, lit, equipped with computers, which allow motorcycles and trucks to pass easily. Did someone say Philadelphi [Corridor]?” he added sarcastically, referring to Hamas’ tunnel network under the Gaza–Egypt border, seemingly indicating that the Hezbollah facility is much more sophisticated.

Hezbollah is known to have a large and advanced secretive network of tunnels under south Lebanon.

In February, French newspaper Liberation reported that the network is remarkably sophisticated, spanning hundreds of kilometers and even reaching into Syria.

Dr Andreas Krieg, an assistant professor at King’s College London, told The Cradle last month: “There are different types of tunnels: surface-level tunnels used for moving operatives and materials, which can be destroyed from the air; and deeper, concrete-reinforced tunnels that serve as command centers and armories. The deeper tunnels, some up to 60 meters underground, are almost impervious to Israeli airstrikes and were built with support from North Korea and Iran.”

These tunnels constituted a major obstacle for Israel in the 2006 war.

The new video comes as Tel Aviv is in high anticipation over Hezbollah’s promised retaliation to the killing of top commander Fuad Shukr and several civilians, including children, in Beirut late last month – which was followed by the assassination of Hamas chief and lead negotiator Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.

The Islamic Republic has also promised to retaliate to Haniyeh’s assassination.

August 16, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , , | Leave a comment

Hezbollah unveils underground Imad 4 missile facility

Al Mayadeen | August 16, 2024

Hezbollah, the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon, has released a new video showcasing a sophisticated underground facility and an extensive tunnel network, complete with missile launchpads.

The video titled “Our Mountains, Our Strongholds” features the Imad 4 facility, which highlights the Resistance’s missile capabilities.

The footage reveals Hezbollah freedom fighters inside a sophisticated underground complex, with visible signs marking the facility as Imad 4, and displaying the Quranic verse: “Prepare against them whatever you can of [military] power.”

The video also shows missile trucks moving from within the facility toward a blast door, preparing them for launch.

In the video excerpts from a speech by Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah were used, during which he asserts that “the resistance is stronger than ever since its inception in the region.”

Al Mayadeen’s sources revealed that Imad 4 features a state-of-the-art technical system and a secure communication network that links it to the outside world, allowing it to receive launch orders within minutes, adding that the network’s communications are said to be highly encrypted for added security.

The sources also disclosed that the facility is equipped with a comprehensive logistics team, as well as dedicated construction, security, and backup launch teams. These teams operate based on pre-determined coordinates for launching operations.

In addition, the facility, according to exclusive sources, is outfitted with a field hospital and enough supplies to sustain its occupants for a period ranging from eight months to a year.

The same sources also noted that the Resistance maintains larger, more critical facilities designed to accommodate larger and heavier rockets, including precision missiles.

It is worth noting that the video comes shortly after US special envoy Amos Hochstein arrived in Beirut, warning that time is running out to secure a Gaza ceasefire and a deal for the release of Israeli captives, which could also bring an end to the situation on the Lebanese-Palestinian borders.

Concurrently, parties involved in the Doha negotiations are set to continue their meetings on Friday, as the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza nears its 11-month mark.

August 16, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , | Leave a comment

Why the Israelis are incapable of implementing a ceasefire

By Robert Inlakesh | Al Mayadeen | August 16, 2024

A lot of value has again been placed upon useless ceasefire negotiations supposedly aimed at ending the war in Gaza, despite Hamas having rejected involvement in the hamster wheel process that the US is telling the world represents a serious diplomatic effort. In reality, a regional conflict has already been opened, the pre-October 7 world will never return and the future of the Zionist Entity is to remain in a state of perpetual war.

Let’s be clear, if the US government wanted a ceasefire, it would have already happened or will be announced suddenly. The framework is already there for it, a deal could be implemented and every Israeli held in Gaza would eventually be exchanged for a large sum of Palestinian detainees. We need not go back far to demonstrate that such a ceasefire and prisoner exchange is possible, a smaller truce and prisoner swap occurred in November of last year which proved that Hamas would implement such an agreement. Yet, neither the US nor their Israeli allies seek a meaningful ceasefire and only play with this notion for political purposes.

Eventually there will need to be a ceasefire in Gaza, likely following a large escalation across the West Asia region, but even in the event that this takes place sooner rather than later, the war will continue elsewhere.

The level of genocidal extremism that is present at every level of Israeli society is not ignorable. We are no longer talking about the intelligent politicians, dog whistles and sanitized rhetoric of the past, this is raw and brazen ethno-supremacy. Itamar Ben Gvir is the Israeli Police Minister and Bezalel Smotrich is the entity’s finance minister, they aren’t some kind of fringe elements of the settler movement in the West Bank, they directly control the regime’s policy.

There are no notable Israeli political forces that oppose the war in Gaza and no notable anti-war demonstrations at all from Jewish Israelis, even the 98-Palestinians living in the occupied territories are often too intimidated to dare hold demonstrations, despite their heartache at what is happening in Gaza. The demonstrations that frequently take place against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, are motivated out of concern for the Israeli captives held in Gaza and the soldiers dying at the hands of the resistance, there is no concern for Palestinian civilians.

Western liberals have presented the argument that Israelis are fed up with Netanyahu and that he would be pushed out of power suddenly if there was an election, in order to suggest that somehow there is a voice of reason opposed to the current leadership. This is based upon outdated polls, the latest of which now suggest that the Israeli Premier currently remains the most popular politician and that despite projections that he couldn’t secure a coalition, he would still outperform his opposition. Yet this is irrelevant, as the issue that many Israelis have with Benjamin Netanyahu is not that he is waging a genocidal war that is slaughtering tens of thousands of children. We know this because all the polls suggest that the overwhelming majority of the Zionist public believe that enough or not enough force is being used in the Gaza Strip, while the number of those who believe that too much force has been used remains in the low single digits (percentage wise).

Why point this out? Because the Zionist dream has been broken on every level. We are now well past the idea of an Israeli “deterrence capacity”, let alone expansionism, it has become apparent to anyone with eyes that the Zionist regime has no way of dealing with the threats posed from Lebanon, Yemen, Syria, Iran and Iraq, besides opening up a wider regional war. The Zionist regime’s military has failed in the Gaza Strip to defeat the Palestinian resistance and is now left with no way out other than a wider regional war or ceasefire.

If we look at the state of the Israeli economy, tourism is dead, 46,000 businesses have declared bankruptcy, imports and exports have plummeted, investors are withdrawing, multi-billion dollar projects are falling through, the Port of Eilat has gone bust, the value of the Shekel has fallen and the list goes on. In the north of occupied Palestine, industry is dead, settlements have been evacuated and were/are pummeled with missiles, drones and rockets, while over 100,000 displaced have nowhere to turn.

The Israeli military is exhausted and has scattered its soldiers across the fronts in Gaza, the West Bank and northern occupied Palestine, while they deal with a lack of tanks and armored personnel carriers in the event that war in the north opens up. Their ill-trained, ill-disciplined and overworked soldiers are clearly incapable of fighting the likes of Hezbollah.

All of this is obvious and this weakness has brought out the very worst in Israelis that had already adopted an apartheid ideology. Deep down, they all would like to return to the delusional racist bubble world in which they lived prior to October 7, but it isn’t possible. The world will never forget what has been done and the survivors will never abandon their struggle for self-determination.

The idea that their racist settler colony can exist in prosperity at the expense of the entire region is under threat, an existential threat, and with this, so too is American hegemony. This is why neither Washington nor Tel Aviv will back down from their position of pursuing “victory”. For Benjamin Netanyahu personally, he is surrounded by a coalition of extremist nut jobs that he helped nurture into power, a project that began in 2005. Behind him also is an Israeli public that wants their captives returned and may apply some pressure in that regard, but also wants to see Gaza wiped off of the map for good. So there is no incentive for him to end the war in Gaza from the US or domestically, since the resistance forces across the region are the only ones that can apply real pressure.

If you want a good indication of how the Israeli society thinks, following the declaration by International Criminal Court (ICC) chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, that he was calling for an arrest warrant against the Israeli premier, Netanyahu’s support surged in the polls at the time. Or, look at the fact that it was completely acceptable for the issue of gang-raping a defenseless Palestinian prisoner, who died from his wounds and was held without a charge, to be debated in the Israeli Knesset, with a member of Netanyahu’s Likud Party passionately defending the gang-rapists. One of the gang-rapists was even invited on Israeli television to advocate for the actions committed by him and follow soldiers, despite there being a video that showed the horrifying incident. There were even protests that broke out in favor of 10 soldiers accused of involvement in the case of gang-rape, who Ben-Gvir called heroes, and an Israeli legal representative organisation for four of the accused argued that the gang-rape occurred in self defense.

Whether we look at the Israeli political elite, military, police, intelligence, society or media, we see genocidal mania. This is because their narcissistic supremacist ideology is collapsing before their very eyes, they are beginning to realize that maintaining apartheid is no longer viable.

The opportunity for the Israelis to implement the only solution that would have enabled them to continue their existence has passed. If the Zionist regime was actually serious about the Oslo Accords and simply accepted international law as the consensus for a so-called two-state solution, they could have perhaps proceeded and actually maintained their regime. However, allowing the Palestinian people to gain access to basic human rights in only 22% of historic Palestine was not possible for them under their racist expansionist ideology.

We are now reaching the final phase of this settler colonial project and the Israelis have come to the realization that maintaining their ethno-supremacist regime of absolute privilege will mean exterminating and ethnically cleansing everyone in their way. They are so immersed in their own collective form of narcissism, in which they view themselves as both the victim and hero of the story, that stopping now is impossible. This is also why Israeli society is split down the middle on the question of what kind of ethno-supremacist regime they seek: whether that will be a secular or religious regime going forward.

Therefore, with full US backing they are slowly committing national suicide. This may be a process that is somewhat delayed if a ceasefire is reached in Gaza that prevents the immediate end of the regime by military means, but the war will continue in other ways. The West Bank will likely end up becoming their punching bag until they can again escalate elsewhere and the only promise that can be made to their own people is a future of perpetual war.

August 16, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , | 4 Comments

CIA awards Qatari intel chief top medal for cooperation with US

The Cradle | August 16, 2024

In a ceremony earlier this week, CIA Director William Burns awarded the head of the Qatari State Security Agency the George Tenet medal for his work on strengthening intelligence cooperation between the US and Qatar, Axios reported on 16 August.

Both Burns and Al-Khulaifi have played important roles in the negotiations between Israel and Hamas for a potential ceasefire in Gaza and prisoner exchange.

One reason for the award is Qatari efforts to release the remaining 111 Israeli captives held by Hamas in Gaza, one source with knowledge of the issue told Axios.

Israel is holding thousands of Palestinians in its prisons and detention camps, where torture and rape is common.

Another source said Burns gave the award to his Qatari counterpart in “appreciation of his role in maintaining national and regional security, and the exceptional support he provided to the CIA in preserving the interests and security of the US and Qatar.”

Another important reason for the award was the cooperation between the CIA and Qatari intelligence in counterterrorism and the ability of the Qatari State Security Agency to prevent and foil threats and attacks in West Asia, the source told Axios.

Both the US and Qatar have long been known for their support of terrorist groups in the region.

Starting in 2011, the US and Qatar worked closely with other regional states to support Al-Qaeda in Syria.

The Syrian branch of the terror group, the Nusra Front, led a jihadist insurgency against the Syrian government led by Bashar al-Assad under the cover of US-sponsored anti-government protests.

August 16, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Wars for Israel | , , , , , | Leave a comment

Blair, UK Government Warned Over NATO War Crimes in Belgrade

© Aaron Chown
By John Miles – Sputnik – 16.08.2024

As NATO aggression in the former Yugoslavia fully unmasked the alliance as a tool of Western imperialism, newly-released documents reveal controversial former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair was warned of the possible legal consequences of the bombing of a state-owned broadcaster in Belgrade.

“Twenty five years ago, NATO bombed the main studio of Yugoslavia’s state-owned broadcasting company, Radio-Television Serbia (RTS),” writes the independent outlet Declassified UK. “The attack at 2am on 23 April 1999 came amid Bill Clinton and Tony Blair’s ‘humanitarian intervention’ in Kosovo.”

“16 media workers were killed and 19 injured in the strike on RTS, which remains the single most controversial event in NATO’s 78-day military campaign,” notes journalist John McEvoy.

The UK and allied NATO forces claimed to be acting in the interest of protecting ethnic Albanians as ethnic violence broke out on all sides during the breakup of the former socialist Yugoslav republic. But President Slobodan Milošević remained a conspicuous holdout as newly-independent states deregulated their economies in line with neoliberal economic policy advocated by Western governments.

The United States would back numerous “color revolutions” after the fall of the Eastern Bloc, with wealthy donors like George Soros encouraging and standing to benefit from economic liberalization enforced by Western-led institutions like the International Monetary Fund.

The case of Milošević demonstrates a scenario during which the United States was willing to employ substantial military force to seek regime change, paving the way for NATO aggression in countries like Libya and Afghanistan.

Blair claimed the destruction of the RTS headquarters and other civilian targets was justified in the name of dismantling the “dictatorship” of Milošević. Sixteen media workers were killed during the bombing, which Amnesty International labeled a “war crime.”

“Killing journalists does not stop censorship, it only brings more repression,” claimed the International Federation of Journalists in a statement.

“We do not see how the suppression of news sources can serve any useful purpose,” said European Broadcasting Union president Albert Scharf. “Over and beyond the deaths involved, the EBU is concerned about any attempts to limit the rights of audiences to full news services.”

Declassified files now reveal that UK Prime Minister Tony Blair was warned against the depraved attack at the time by British attorney general John Morris, who questioned how the destruction of the broadcast headquarters was related to NATO’s purported cause in ensuring “relief of humanitarian need in Kosovo.”

The UK and the United States launched the illegal act of aggression in Belgrade without a required UN Security Council resolution, demonstrating the lengths NATO was willing to go to to ensure Western hegemony after the end of the Cold War.

“We are moving towards a situation where our aim will become removing Milosevic,” admitted Blair in a note at the time, revealing that regime change was the ultimate motive of the assault. “Plainly Milosevic will threaten the stability of the region as long as he remains.”

NATO forces would go on to strike a number of other civilian targets including Belgrade’s Hotel Jugoslavija and Montenegro’s main airport, with little apparent concern for the climbing death toll. Thousands were killed or wounded by the end of the campaign while elevated rates of cancer and birth defects are still observed due to NATO’s highly controversial use of depleted uranium.

The UK would become the first of multiple Western countries to recognize the disputed breakaway territory of Kosovo in 2008. Future leader of the territory Hashim Thaci, who played a key role during the NATO aggression via his leadership of the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army, is currently on trial on war crimes charges at The Hague.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, under intense pressure from the United States, would controversially decide against investigating the bombing of the RTS as a war crime.

August 16, 2024 Posted by | Timeless or most popular, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

UK trained Ukrainian soldiers before Kursk attack – Times

A Ukrainian soldier during training in the UK. © Getty Images / Finnbarr Webster
RT | August 16, 2024

Some of Kiev’s troops underwent training in the UK shortly before the Ukrainian incursion into Russia’s Kursk Region, The Times has reported.

On August 6, Ukrainian forces launched their largest attack on Russian territory since the outbreak of the conflict in February 2022. The advance of Kiev’s troops in Kursk Region was swiftly halted by the Russian military, but they still remain in control of a number of settlements.

Kiev “utilized some of Ukraine’s most battle-hardened fighters” taken from other parts of the front line during the incursion, the British paper said in an article on Friday.

A Ukrainian serviceman, who talked to the Times from a hospital bed after being wounded in clashes in the Russian border town of Sudzha, said his unit had been defending Volchansk in Ukraine’s Kharkov Region when he was told that “today they were going to invade Russia.”

According to the article, the members of this formation were already “specialists in street fighting” after being involved in “some of the bloodiest battles” of the conflict, including the fight for the strategic settlement of Avdeevka in Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic, which Ukraine lost in February.

But The Times reported that, “a month before they were dispatched into Kursk, some of the unit were sent to England where they underwent a few days of training alongside British soldiers.” The major focus of this training course was “raids on high-rise buildings,” it revealed.

Western officials have voiced their support for the Ukrainian incursion into Kursk Region, but denied any prior knowledge of the operation or involvement in it. However, Mikhail Podoliak, the top adviser to Ukrainian leader, Vladimir Zelensky, claimed earlier this week that “there were discussions between partner forces, just not on the public level,” of the attack on Russian territory.

Adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin and former Security Council secretary, Nikolay Patrushev, told Izvestia newspaper on Friday that Kiev’s incursion was “planned with the involvement of NATO and Western special services.” It was the US and its allies who “put the criminal junta at the head of Ukraine,” while “NATO countries have supplied Kiev with weapons, military instructors, and continuous intelligence while controlling the actions of neo-Nazis,” Patrushev added.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Friday that, since the start of the incursion, Ukraine had lost up to 2,860 servicemen and several hundred units of military hardware, including 41 tanks, 40 APCs, and three US-supplied HIMARS multiple rocket launchers.

August 16, 2024 Posted by | Militarism, War Crimes | , , | 1 Comment

Scott Ritter: Biden Administration Declaring War on Journalism

Sputnik – August 16, 2024

Recent FBI raids on properties belonging to Russian-American political scientist Dimitri K. Simes and Scott Ritter, who both challenge the mainstream US political propaganda, are meant to squash dissent on Ukraine, former UN weapons inspector Ritter told Sputnik.

The conflict in Ukraine – in which the US has become deeply involved by providing the Kiev regime with billions of dollars – reportedly has people questioning Washington’s hawkish policy that the government seeks to suppress.

“What is our crime? Our crime is to have an opinion that is opposite of that of the United States government when it comes to Ukraine,” Ritter emphasized.

It is not just about the government deceiving the American people, it is about the mainstream media working in close coordination with the US government to deceive the American people about a war, Ritter noted.

“That’s where independent journalists come in. That’s where a genuinely free press [comes in], a press that isn’t subordinated to the US government, that doesn’t serve as a stenographer of US government policy, a free press that questions the official narrative,” he pointed out.

Ritter concluded that the US government does not trust common people, irrespective of their political leanings, and is actively trying to deceive and manipulate the public.

Earlier, Simes, a Channel One presenter in Russia and the founder and ex-president of the Center for the National Interest (USA), told Sputnik that he had not been to the United States since 2022, and had not been notified ahead of time that FBI agents would be conducting a search of his property in Rappahannock County, Virginia, this week.

August 16, 2024 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance, Russophobia | , | 1 Comment