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We need to call out the hypocrisy of the humanitarian paradigm

By Ramona Wadi | MEMO | September 26, 2024

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to the Lebanese people before bombing their country was eerily similar to the rhetoric usually associated with Gaza. Hezbollah, he told the Lebanese, are using them as human shields and hiding weapons in their homes; the latter was made to sound more familiar by mentioning specific family rooms: “Rockets in your living rooms and missiles in your garage.” To seal Israel’s impunity in Lebanon after telling the Lebanese population to flee from his army’s bombs, Netanyahu added, “Don’t let Hezbollah endanger your lives.” As Israel’s kill toll rises in Lebanon, almost 500,000 Lebanese have been forcibly displaced from their homes in a matter of two days. This can be added to the 1.9 million Palestinian civilians who have been forcibly displaced from their homes in Gaza by Israel.

Meanwhile, the US reached for its playbook on Gaza and endorsed Israel’s right to defend itself, this time allegedly from Hezbollah. “No nation should have to live with these threats right across their border, right next door,” said US White House National Security Spokesperson John Kirby.

How about people not having to live with Israel’s threats at their border or in their homes, Mr Kirby?

Israel has invaded Lebanon on at least five occasions since the late seventies, remember, not including numerous air strikes.

Now diplomats are revealing that the genocide in Gaza is only the beginning of the chaos in the Middle East and the humanitarian paradigm is the only way for them to feign political concern. So blatantly is the world supporting Israel’s actions, that it has come to the point where a failed humanitarian paradigm remains at the forefront of the international agenda, and the discrepancy is rarely called out.

The international community sustains this discrepancy between colonial violence, war, genocide and humanitarian aid. The former reigns supreme and yields profits. Humanitarian aid, on the other hand, works like a defunct charity to make sure that the displaced remain too busy trying to survive to do anything untoward against those responsible for their situation. They face a daily struggle to survive Israeli aggression, bombs and the international community’s collaboration allowing Israel to eliminate who it chooses for territorial gain. “Greater Israel” is the Zionist objective.

We now see that speaking out against breaches of international law is being criminalised, and being taught not to speak out is normalised; in turn, the normalisation of complicity in genocide and forced displacement completes the cycle. World leaders, we are told, must be allowed to talk and lead uninterrupted, and they will decide which nation is to be massacred, displaced, forced to live in temporary shelters while foraging for food, waiting for a temporary pause in the slaughter to receive polio vaccines and be killed later; letting Israel control the lives and deaths of civilians, and all because the international community offers humanitarian aid in return for silence. For the victims, the humanitarian paradigm is a failure on so many levels, a licence to silence criticism and an open invitation to perpetual displacement and premeditated murder.

What do we make out of humanitarian aid as a political paradigm? How is a bare minimum of shelter against biting cold an acceptable measure, when tents provide no shelter against bombs and bullets? Why is it acceptable that countries bolstering Israel’s genocide in Gaza and its war in Lebanon get to dictate who gets humanitarian aid, and when?

The Norwegian Refugee Council-led Shelter Cluster has estimated that it would take aid agencies more than two years to deliver 25,000 sealing kits to Gaza at the current rate of two truckloads per week. In the face of humanitarian aid being weaponised — US Secretary of State Antony Blinken misled Congress about Israel blocking aid to Gaza, for example — leading to the slow death of its intended recipients, why is the world keeping silent? We need to call out the hypocrisy of the humanitarian paradigm.

September 26, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Progressive Hypocrite | , , , , , | Leave a comment

Biden issues $8bln military aid for Kiev, including 130km-range bombs

Vladimir Zelensky and Joe Biden at an event in New York on September 25, 2024. © Michael M. Santiago / Getty Images
Al Mayadeen | September 26, 2024

US President Joe Biden unveiled over $8 billion in military aid for Ukraine on Thursday, emphasizing that the support is aimed at helping Kiev “win [the] war” with Russia.

The announcement coincided with a visit by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to the US. The Ukrainian president will meet with Democratic and Republican leaders at the Capitol prior to his meeting with Biden.

This assistance package includes the first delivery of a precision-guided glide bomb, known as the Joint Standoff Weapon, which has a range of up to 130 kilometers.

This would significantly boost Ukraine’s ability to carry out strikes further inside Russian territory, a move Moscow has warned could escalate the conflict and expand the war. It also suggests a shift in Washington’s policy, indicating unannounced approval for Kiev to utilize US-provided advanced weaponry to target areas deeper within Russia.

‘A global cryptocurrency network’

The bulk of the new aid, $5.5 billion, is to be allocated before Monday’s end of the US fiscal year, when the funding authority is set to expire. Another $2.4 billion is under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which allows the administration to buy weapons for Ukraine from companies – primarily American ones – rather than pull them from US stocks.

“That is why, today, I am announcing a surge in security assistance for Ukraine and a series of additional actions to help Ukraine win this war,” said Biden.

As part of his proposal, the President stated that the Defense Department will restore and deliver an additional Patriot air defense battery, along with extra Patriot missiles to Ukraine.

Biden also instructed the Pentagon to increase the training of Ukrainian F-16 pilots, with plans to train an additional 18 pilots in the coming year.

The United States, in collaboration with international partners, will take action to disrupt what President Biden described as “a global cryptocurrency network” used for Russian sanctions evasion and alleged money laundering.

Additionally, Biden announced that he will organize a leader-level summit of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group in Germany next month, aiming to unify the efforts of over 50 nations supporting Ukraine.

Firing Ukraine’s ambassador to the US

However, it remains uncertain how many Republicans will agree to meet with Zelensky, as criticism of Kiev grows among party leaders, including Donald Trump.

Trump has been vocal in his criticism of the Ukrainian President and has so far declined Zelenskiy’s request for a meeting.

During a campaign rally in North Carolina on Wednesday, Trump expressed strong disapproval of Zelensky, stating, “We continue to give billions of dollars to a man who refused to make a deal, Zelensky.”

Additionally, many Republicans in Congress were outraged by Zelensky’s recent visit to a munitions factory in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Biden’s hometown. The Republican-led House Oversight Committee has since launched an investigation into the Ukrainian President’s trip.

Trump also held President Biden and Democrat presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris accountable for allowing Russia’s war to take place.

Rep. House Speaker Mike Johnson, who is not expected to meet with Zelensky on Thursday, called on the Ukrainian President to sack his ambassador to Washington over the planning of the Scranton visit.

However, he reassured the Ukrainians that this diplomatic issue is not linked to the provision of military aid to Ukraine.

September 26, 2024 Posted by | Militarism | , | Leave a comment

Anglo-Americans attacked ally with Nord Stream sabotage – Russian intelligence

RT | September 26, 2024

The US and UK masterminded the 2022 sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines in an act of economic warfare against their EU allies, Russia’s SVR foreign intelligence service has claimed.

The assessment released on Thursday, on the second anniversary of the undersea bombing, detailed an alleged effort by Washington and London to interfere in the investigation and blame another party.

The intelligence “definitively points to the pipeline attack being an act of international terrorism and an act of economic war [by the US and UK] against European allies, primarily the Federal Republic of Germany,” the statement said.

The SVR claimed that Washington and London have been conducting a sustained campaign to “remove the issue of the Nord Stream sabotage from international agenda,” ramping up their efforts in August.

“Media answering to Washington and London are promoting the narrative that the attack was conducted exclusively by Ukrainian extremists, who acted independently,” it said, adding that the scenario “does not hold water”. German investigators are being pressured to accept this version as the main one, and “wrap up the probe before the year ends,” the statement alleged.

Berlin has been issued with an ultimatum, demanding that it name “Russia-hating Ukrainian desperados” as the culprits and “deflect a blow to trans-Atlantic cooperation,” the SVR stated.

The Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines were built under the Baltic Sea to deliver Russian natural gas directly to Germany. The attack in September 2022 was blamed by Western media on a privately funded group of Ukrainian divers, who supposedly acted on orders from General Valery Zaluzhny, who was later dismissed and became Kiev’s ambassador to the UK.

Prior to the attack, senior US officials, including President Joe Biden and veteran diplomat Victoria Nuland, had issued threats against Russian energy infrastructure, particularly the Nord Stream 2 project, which was completed in September 2021, a decade after Nord Stream 1 went on stream.

Nord Stream 2 significantly expanded the capacity of the network, but was never used due to Germany’s refusal to license it amid tensions with Russia over Ukraine.

September 26, 2024 Posted by | Deception, Economics, False Flag Terrorism | , , , , | Leave a comment

Biden behind Nord Stream sabotage – Russia’s top MP

RT | September 26, 2024

US President Joe Biden “was behind” the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines, and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz helped him tank his country’s economy in the aftermath, Vyacheslav Volodin, the head of the Russian State Duma, has claimed.

The senior legislator commented on Thursday on the second anniversary of the explosions, which disabled the undersea connectors built to deliver Russian natural gas directly to Germany, noting the failure of European investigators to name the culprit. There have been accounts in the media suggesting possible scenarios, “which were occasionally laughable,” he said.

“Washington and Biden personally were behind the Nord Stream bombing. His interest was to cut Western Europe off from cheap Russian gas and force it to buy it from America at a price three times higher,” he said.

The German economy took a hit and is now in recession due to a loss of competitiveness, Volodin added, “which means that the people of Germany were punished instead of Washington, as Biden and Scholz took money out of their pockets.”

“You cannot pin this one on some ‘pro-Ukrainian group’ and civilian divers,” Volodin stressed.

On Tuesday, the German news outlet Der Spiegel published its latest retelling of the events of September 2022. It mostly repeats the story that a privately-funded operation masterminded by a now-disgraced Ukrainian intelligence officer conducted the sabotage with the blessing of former General Valery Zaluzhny. The Western press has been repeating similar versions of this story for months.

Spiegel claimed to have identified the divers, saying that most were civilians, but the group was led by a commando. The operation was first contemplated years before the outbreak of hostilities between Russia and Ukraine in February 2022, it stated.

Pulitzer Prize-winning US investigative journalist Seymour Hersh alleged that Biden had ordered the sabotage of Nord Stream in a February 2023 article. He said US military divers had secretly planted explosives to destroy the pipelines at a significant depth, using a NATO exercise in the Baltic Sea as a cover. The White House has denied the accusations, but Russian officials have called the story plausible.

Prior to the destruction of Nord Stream 1 and 2, senior US officials, including Biden, had issued threats to destroy the Russian-German pipelines.

September 26, 2024 Posted by | Deception, Economics | , , | 2 Comments

NATO Countries’ Silence After Nord Stream Attacks is Shocking – French Politician

Sputnik – 26.09.2024

The silence of NATO member countries after the destruction of the Russian Nord Stream export gas pipelines is shocking; it is sabotage of strategic infrastructure, French politician, leader of the Patriots party, Florian Philippot told Sputnik.

“What is the most shocking is the degree of subordination of NATO countries, which have not even declared that they were victims of this sabotage. They simply do not even talk about it: the French government has not discussed it at all,” Philippot said.

He said it is surprising that European countries have not even admitted that they suffered from sabotage of the gas pipelines.

The Nord Stream pipelines, built to deliver gas under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany, were hit by explosions on September 26, 2022. Denmark, Germany and Norway have left Russia out of their investigations into the attack, prompting Moscow to launch its own probe on charges of international terrorism.

Russia has repeatedly requested data on the explosions from the European countries, but has never received it, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

September 26, 2024 Posted by | Economics | | 1 Comment

US house speaker demands Zelensky fire Ukrainian ambassador

RT | September 25, 2024

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has called for Vladimir Zelensky to fire Oksana Markarova, the Ukrainian ambassador in Washington, accusing her of interference in American elections.

“I demand that you immediately fire Ukraine’s Ambassador to the United States, Oksana Markarova,” Johnson wrote in a letter to Zelensky on Wednesday, noting that she organized the Pennsylvania event.

“The facility was in a politically contested battleground state, was led by a top political surrogate for Kamala Harris, and failed to include a single Republican because — on purpose — no Republicans were invited,” Johnson wrote. “The tour was clearly a partisan campaign event designed to help Democrats and is clearly election interference.”

The Louisiana Republican said that his party has lost trust in Markarova’s ability to serve in the US and that she “should be removed from her post immediately.”

While both Republicans and Democrats support Ukraine against Russia, Johnson wrote, “our relationship is unnecessarily tested and needlessly tarnished” when Zelensky and others in Kiev speak ill of Republican candidates in the media.

“These incidents cannot be repeated,” Johnson wrote, urging Zelensky to “take immediate action.”

September 26, 2024 Posted by | Corruption | , , | Leave a comment

NATO Prepares for Mass Transport of Wounded Soldiers

By Kyle Anzalone | The Libertarian Institute | September 25, 2024

As the North Atlantic alliance ramps up preparations for war with Russia, Brussels is considering how it might remove a large number of wounded NATO soldiers from the frontlines should conflict with Moscow breakout.

Lieutenant-General Alexander Sollfrank, the head of NATO’s logistics command, discussed the plans with Reuters. “The challenge will be to swiftly ensure high-quality care for, in the worst case, a great number of wounded,” he said.

Sollfrank believes that NATO will be unable to have air superiority over the frontlines in a conflict with Russia. He said the bloc is considering using hospital trains and buses to move the wounded soldiers. Sollfrank explained, “For planning reasons, all options to take a great number of wounded to medical installations need to be considered, which includes trains but potentially also buses.”

At the end of the Cold War, with the dissolution of the Soviet Union, war between Russia and NATO was unthinkable. However, over the past three decades, the North Atlantic alliance has expanded up to Russia’s borders.

At the start of the Joe Biden administration, Washington and Brussels began treating Kiev as a de facto member of the alliance. The ties between Ukraine and NATO provoked the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Throughout the war in Ukraine, the West has steadily escalated its support for Ukraine. The Kremlin has increasingly viewed itself in a direct conflict with the West.

President Biden is considering giving Ukraine the green light to conduct long-range missile attacks inside of Russia with American weapons. Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that if the White House approves the attack, it would mean direct war with NATO.

September 25, 2024 Posted by | Militarism | | Leave a comment

Hezbollah bombs Israeli arms factory, forces fighter jets to withdraw

Al Mayadeen | September 25, 2024

The Islamic Resistance in Lebanon – Hezbollah announced Wednesday that its fighters launched rockets targeting a bomb material factory in Zikhron, occupied southern Haifa, using a barrage of Fadi-3 rockets.

For the second time on Wednesday, Hezbollah struck the settlement of Kiryat Motzkin with volleys of Fadi-1 rockets. Concurrently, Hezbollah’s air defense units engaged two hostile fighter jets near the Lebanese towns of Houla and Mays al-Jabal to force them out of Lebanese airspace.

In its statements, Hezbollah emphasized that these operations were carried out in support of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and their Resistance, while also defending Lebanon and its citizens.

The Lebanese Resistance has expanded its strikes toward Israeli occupation military bases in northern occupied Palestine, landing precise and direct hits despite an unprecedented Israeli assault on various regions in the Bekaa Valley and southern Lebanon.

Israeli media reported that air raid sirens sounded in the settlements of Gonen, Lahavot Habashan, and Kiryat Shmona in the Houla Valley.

‘No region in Israel outside combat zone’

Israeli settlers in areas stretching from Katzrin in the North to Rosh Pina, Safed, and Mount Meron were advised to stay near bomb shelters.

“There is no region in Israel that is outside the combat zone in the past 24 hours, from Mount Hermon to the Arava Valley,” a correspondent for the Israeli Army Radio said.

These operations add to previous attacks carried out earlier in the day, including Hezbollah’s targeting of the Mossad headquarters in the outskirts of Tel Aviv with a Qader-1 ballistic missile. This facility was responsible for orchestrating assassinations and detonating pagers and handheld radio receivers in Lebanon.

Hezbollah had inflicted significant losses on the Israeli occupation through the expansion of its operations,  with Israeli media saying “Isreal” has lost an estimated $1.07 billion over the past two days alone.

The Israeli Broadcasting Corporation (KAN) reported that “Israel’s” strikes on Lebanon on Monday cost the entity some 650 million shekels ($173 million). Officials have underlined that if the airstrikes campaign on Lebanon protracts beyond 10 days, it would require the approval of an additional budget breach.

Israeli media quoted a former official from the Shin Bet security service as saying, “The capability of Hezbollah to launch rockets towards central Israel should not be underestimated.”

The former official added, “What [Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan] Nasrallah did today is just a small preview of what he has in store.”

In an interview with the Israeli Channel 12, retired Israeli brigadier general and former financial advisor to the military’s chief of staff, Reem Aminoach, said the escalating use of missile interceptors is a major factor contributing to the significant increase in daily operational costs.

September 25, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , , | Leave a comment

USAID memo exposes Blinken’s involvement in starving Palestinians

Al Mayadeen | September 25, 2024

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration have said that “Israel” is blocking humanitarian aid heading to the Gaza Strip.

In a 17-page memo sent to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in April, USAID told top US diplomats that US law requires the administration to cut off weapons shipments to governments that prevent the delivery of US-backed humanitarian aid. The refugees bureau also delivered a similar evaluation.

If acted upon, the assessment would cause tremulous changes to the Israeli regime’s supply of weapons, as the US delivers the majority of weapons through which the regime carries out its aggression.

According to ProPublica, both Blinken and the administration of President Joe Biden refused to accept the conclusions reached by the two US agencies.

“We do not currently assess that the Israeli government is prohibiting or otherwise restricting the transport or delivery of US humanitarian assistance,” Blinken said on May 10 to Congress, after receiving the reports.

Crimes, recommendations ignored 

USAID’s memo also highlighted a series of grave actions by the Israeli regime, including the killing of aid workers, the destruction of agricultural infrastructure, the bombing of ambulances and hospitals, the occupation of supply depots, and the frequent rejection of trucks carrying vital food and medical supplies.

Moreover, the head of the State Department’s refugees bureau determined that the Israeli regime was blocking humanitarian aid and that the Foreign Assistance Act should be triggered to stop nearly $830 million in taxpayer dollars allocated for military aid to the Israeli occupation, according to ProPublica, which cited emails it had obtained.

Stacy Gilbert, a former senior civil-military advisor in the Refugees Bureau, resigned in protest over the wording of Blinken’s report to Congress, which she had been helping to draft. In a statement released shortly after her departure, and reported by The Washington Post and other outlets, she wrote, “There is abundant evidence showing Israel is responsible for blocking aid. To deny this is absurd and shameful.”

Hamas: Blinken, Biden’s actions are shameful

Islamic Resistance Movement – Hamas released a statement, commenting on ProPublica‘s report on Wednesday.

Hamas condemned Bliken and Biden’s deliberate concealment of evidence of “Israel’s” non-compliance with US aid missions during his addresses to Congress.

The movement said that Blinken did so, in complicity with Biden, “Out of fear that it would impact weapons supplies to the occupation’s military.”

It said that the revelations serve as evidence of Washington’s involvement in the genocide of the Palestinian people.

“This criminal conduct by Blinken demands that honorable members of the US Congress and American judicial bodies investigate his actions, which have led to the deaths of thousands of our people,” Hamas underlined.

“We call on international judicial institutions, foremost among them the International Criminal Court, to take these reports seriously and take the necessary legal action against Blinken,” the movement urged.

Hamas stressed that Blinken had participated in the deliberate starvation and the genocide of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip through his actions.

September 25, 2024 Posted by | Deception, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

Open Letter to Dr. Jill Stein

Dear Dr. Stein,

Up to last week, you graciously provided US voters with a clear, viable, electoral alternative to the twin war parties, namely, Democrats and Republicans. Regrettably, last Thursday, September 19th, your campaign issued a statement undermining your status as the “peace candidate.”

The statement called Russian President Putin and Syrian President Assad “war criminals” for their roles resisting a US-orchestrated regime-change operation, begun in 2011 and continuing to this day, in Syria. That operation, illegal under international law, was initiated under the Obama Administration and led by his Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton. Under Clinton, the US created a government-in-waiting, called the Syrian National Council, which it recognized as the legitimate government of Syria, and marshalled its allies in Europe and among Arab countries, to recruit, finance, train, arm, insert, and coordinate armies of terrorist mercenaries (from Al Qaeda, the Muslim Brotherhood, and, later, ISIS) into Syria where they illegally invaded and occupied large swaths of Syrian territory. Through their barbaric war crimes, those de facto US foot soldiers caused terror among the Syrian population, causing millions to flee their homeland as refugees and even more to be displaced within Syria.

The US end game was to destroy an enemy of Israel and a state that opposed US hegemonic initiatives in the region.  The US strategy was to balkanize the country of Syria into tiny, warring, confessional statelets and leave the country as a failed state, in the same manner that the US and NATO destroyed the Libyan government at precisely the same time and left it as a failed state.

Presidents Putin and Assad were and are not the problem. Russia was and is an ally of Syria. It long maintained a naval base in Syria at Tartus. At the official request of the Syrian government, Russia was invited to help Syria, in accordance with international law, to defend the national sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria. With Russian help, along with support from Iran and Hezbollah (likewise allies of Syria), the Syrian Arab Army was able to liberate most of the country from terrorist control.

During his Administration, following the strategic defeat of ISIS, Trump decided to leave US troops (who were never invited into Syria in the first place) in occupation of the eastern third of Syria, where, to this day, they (along with their Kurdish militia) continue to steal Syria’s oil and wheat resources, thus preventing the legitimate government in Damascus from using these funds for reconstruction.

And, in addition to all these flagrant violations of international law, the US, its NATO partners, and various Arab countries joined the US in imposing extremely brutal coercive economic measures against Syria, devaluing the country’s currency and destroying its economy. These economic sanctions are unilateral and illegal (not having the approval of the UN Security Council). But they reduced 80% of the Syrian population today to food insecurity and to reliance on a meager hour or two of electricity per day.

Dr. Stein, your September 19th statement has disappointed many people in the USA and around the world. You cannot be the “peace candidate” on the one hand, and support criminal enterprises, (waged by both Democrats and Republicans) such as the war which continues today in Syria, on the other. We hope you will do the right thing, which would be for you to call for the US to end its unlawful occupation of eastern Syria and to drop its brutal sanctions regime against the country. Finally, you have certainly noted that Syria has been readmitted to the Arab League and that many countries of the world have re-established diplomatic relations as well as trade and communication links with the country. We hope that you, too, will champion the ending of US hostilities against Syria and call for the re-establishment of full diplomatic relations.

Suggested Resources:

September 25, 2024 Posted by | Progressive Hypocrite, Russophobia | , | 3 Comments

German Green Party in crisis – board resigns after election defeat

By Patrick Poppel | September 25, 2024

The Greens in Germany are drawing personal conclusions from a series of electoral defeats and are now restructuring the party leadership. The two chairmen Ricarda Lang and Omid Nouripour announced their withdrawal from the party in Berlin on Wednesday.

The Greens had suffered heavy losses in the last four elections (European elections and the regional elections in Saxony, Thuringia and Brandenburg). In Brandenburg they had more than halved their result. The party has left two regional parliaments.

Only in the state of Saxony did they narrowly manage to be represented in the state parliament again. “The election result on Sunday in Brandenburg is a testimony to the deepest crisis our party has faced in a decade,” said Nouripour. “It is not about the fate of one party alone.” It is about the fundamental question of whether in Germany, as “the country with the greatest responsibility in the European Union, it will be possible in the future to continue to make good politics for peace, for Freedom, for justice, for prosperity and for climate protection”.

“It takes new faces to lead the party out of this crisis,” Ms Lang said. “Now is not the time to be stuck to your own chair. Now is the time to take responsibility and we are taking that responsibility by enabling a new start,” she added.

Lang and Nouripour were elected chairmen at the end of January 2022. They are relatively popular in the party. Lang and Nouripour did not comment on their successor.

According to media reports, State Secretary for Economic Affairs Franziska Brantner and Bundestag member Felix Banaszak are in discussion. Brantner is a close confidante of Economics Minister Robert Habeck, who could lead the Greens into the next federal election as their candidate for chancellor.

Banaszak was formerly leader of the Green Party in North Rhine-Westphalia and is an important representative of the left wing. The Green Vice Chancellor and Economics Minister Robert Habeck called the party executive’s announcement a “great service to the party”.

CDU General Secretary Carsten Linnemann called on the government to hold early elections. “Our country will not be able to endure this government for another year!” Linnemann told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

There is no way around new elections. The resignation is a respectable step and the Greens have to fundamentally change their policies, said Linnemann. But how could a party that has become increasingly established in Germany over the last 80 years come to this disastrous point?

Of course, most of the Green Party’s voters are in western Germany and in the big cities. But even there the party faces competition from other left-wing groups. Despite the massive media debate on climate change, which is one of the Greens’ main issues, they suffered such a strong defeat.

Since the AFD (Alternative for Germany) can be seen as the clear winner of all these elections, the question naturally arises as to where the Green voters went. Green voters do not easily vote for a right-wing party. It is therefore very clear that the votes have gone from the political center to the right and the Greens have lost their quota to the center.

But what was the reason for these defeats? Maybe it wasn’t a lack of effort in the election campaign or the constant unprofessional appearances of the Green Foreign Minister. The reason for the problems and possible decline of this party is the increasingly visible distance from its roots. The Green Movement was known for its peace initiatives for decades. And the party has finally moved away from these ideals of peace in recent years.

The harsh words regarding arms deliveries to Ukraine particularly irritated many voters. The Greens used to be against wars and now they are marching at the forefront of escalating forces. Completely absurd political behavior when it comes to migration policy has also led many voters to make a different decision.

When it comes to energy policy, fewer and fewer people trust the Greens. The rise of the AFD and the decline of the Greens show us yet another aspect of German domestic politics. The real political center has clearly shifted to the right and Green voters have moved to the center. Since the consequences of the absurd migration policy and other mistakes will be visible for years to come, this shift from the center to the right will not end any time soon.

Patrick Poppel, expert at the Center for Geostrategic Studies (Belgrade).

September 25, 2024 Posted by | Malthusian Ideology, Phony Scarcity, Militarism | | 2 Comments

Germany’s BfV intelligence agency includes Remix News on list of websites tied to Russian propaganda campaign

Remix News | September 25, 2024

Remix News has been included on a list of websites accused of being used in a Russian propaganda operations, according to a controversial report from the powerful Office of the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), although Remix News has no ties to Russia.

The report, labeled “Doppelgänger,” made headlines across Germany due to its claims that certain media outlets were pushing Russian narratives or producing news reports that the Russians could use to promote propaganda campaigns. As a result, many of these media outlets, including Der Freitag, Junge Freiheit, and Berliner Zeitung successfully sued the BfV concerning a passage in the report which stated that “from the perspective of the actor, the content in question supports the Russian narrative.” The Bavarian BfV further wrote, “For this purpose, some of the articles were deliberately taken out of context.”

The report describes how Russia was allegedly using a number of news websites to promote its own narrative on social media platforms, and even in some cases, created duplicate news websites that appeared to be authentic to end users.

The lawsuit was successful and the secret service was forced to change part of the report, which then was updated to read: The BayLfV does not explicitly assume that those responsible for the websites listed here are spreading Russian propaganda or are aware of it or approve of their content being disseminated as part of the ‘doppelgänger’ campaign. Furthermore, the BayLfV does not make any assessment of the content of the websites in question.”

While Remix News is not among the websites mentioned in the actual main body of the report, it is instead included in a table at the end of the report along with about 350 news websites. Many of the news website are smaller, but Reuters, Zerohedge, Newsweek, and top German news outlets, such as Welt, Berliner Zeitung, and Junge Freiheit, are also included.

Many of these websites may not even be aware they are included in this report, as they are too large to be concerned about what a German intelligence agency operating from a single German state is publishing. However, the inclusion of Remix News on this list is problematic. For one, malicious journalists or activists may attempt to smear Remix News for being included on such a list from the German intelligence services, as the list tangentially ties our site to so-called Russian propaganda efforts. Without the proper context, such a list could be deemed extremely harmful to Remix News.

Second, there are no examples given of how Remix News was used by the Russians in their campaign. We are simply left to speculate how our website may have been allegedly used by these “Russian actors.”

For the record, Remix News has no ties to Russia in any form whatsoever.

The entire report appears to be somewhat of a debacle for the German intelligence services and has been heaped with criticism.

Speaking to the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Vice President of the Bundestag and FDP politician Wolfgang Kubicki said it was a good thing that the Bavarian Office for the Protection of the Constitution had been forced to correct its report.

“This correction should also give food for thought to all those who believe that the Office for the Protection of the Constitution’s assessments are sacrosanct per se. We must continue to be careful that authorities do not restrict the right to freedom of expression for political reasons — not just in Bavaria, but throughout Germany,” he stated.

Media lawyer Joachim Steinhöfel criticized the Bavarian BfV’s failure to act without the threat of a lawsuit, which he said was “certainly one of the most blatant examples of how state bodies try to disparage the media.”

Notably, many of the media outlets listed in the report are seen as critical of the German government. It is unclear how Remix News landed on this list, but it is concerning that we were included with no context whatsoever. Our publication does not have the resources at this time to take legal action against the BfV, and the report remains part of the public record, albeit with an updated correction thanks to the legal battle waged by German media outlets.

Some commentary pieces Remix has published from Poland are strongly critical of Russia and the war in Ukraine. Meanwhile, some content we have published that conveys arguments from a Hungarian perspective, simply state the official position, which has never condoned Russia’s invasion. These pieces have simply stated Hungary will not send weapons to Ukraine and has consistently called for a ceasefire. However, in both media markets, there is a broad range of opinions, and Remix News has endeavored to publish a wide range of perspectives on this complex issue.

The report is also concerning due to the fact that Remix News has reported a number of times in a critical manner in relation to the BfV. As Remix News has previously reported, the BfV is a highly politicized agency, with a special focus on targeting critics of the government, perhaps most notably the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. The BfV is focused on Germany’s domestic sphere and is tasked with ensuring Germany’s constitution is protected. This role has increasingly morphed into fighting parties deemed outside the mainstream, with many analysts viewing the agency as a growing threat to democracy.

It features incredible spying powers, which enable it to monitor political activists and even people who have done nothing wrong besides being members of political parties deemed a threat by the ruling class. The AfD, for instance, is labeled in some states as a “suspected threat” to democracy and a “confirmed right-wing extremist” party, which enables security forces in the BfV to monitor all communications, including email, phone and text messages of all its members.

September 25, 2024 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Deception, Full Spectrum Dominance, Russophobia | , | Leave a comment

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