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FDA Has Authority to Recall COVID Vaccines — A Growing Number of Scientists Are Demanding Swift Action

By Brenda Baletti, Ph.D. | The Defender | December 9, 2024

“It’s time for a recall” of the COVID-19 vaccines, epidemiologist Nicolas Hulscher argued on a recent episode of “Brannon Howse Live.” The mounting evidence that the COVID-19 vaccines caused death and other serious injuries are grounds for “Class I recall” by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Hulscher said.

Hulscher is one of the growing chorus of voices among public health officials, scientists and researchers demanding public health officials hit the pause button on the shots until definitive safety studies are performed.

The latest round of calls began in January when Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo called for a “halt in the use of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines” over safety concerns that the mRNA technology is delivering DNA contaminants into people’s cells.

A few weeks later, the journal Cureus published the first peer-reviewed paper to call for a moratorium on the COVID-19 vaccines. The paper included a sweeping review of “lessons learned” from the clinical trial data and the many adverse events associated with the shots.

Just last week, elected officials, organizations — including the World Council for Health and Door to Freedom — and hundreds of doctors and researchers sent a letter to the heads of state of 10 European countries calling for a suspension of the “modified mRNA vaccines,” citing serious health concerns associated with the shots.

Calls for a moratorium or a recall have been widely controversial. Ladapo was accused by The New York Times of peddling “misinformation.” The Washington Post said he had a pattern of making “debunked claim[s],” and FactCheck.org accused him of relying on “faulty science.”

Cureus retracted the “lessons learned” paper in what co-author Dr. Peter McCullough called, a “stunning act of scientific censorship.” The paper was later republished in two parts in a different peer-reviewed journal.

Despite efforts to censor and discredit medical professionals and researchers who draw attention to the harms associated with the vaccines, even mainstream publications have conceded that the COVID-19 vaccines can cause serious injuries and that vaccine-injured people have been ignored. Yet, they continue to push the shots.

Hulscher told The Defender that the mainstream media’s refusal to seriously report on calls to pull the vaccines from the market has serious implications for public health. It’s “a contributing factor to excess mortality” among global populations, he said.

“The FDA has failed to protect Americans from unsafe products because they suffer from corporate capture,” he added.

M. Nathaniel Mead, lead author of the “Lessons Learned” paper, told The Defender the FDA never should have authorized the vaccines in the first place. The “usual safety testing protocols and toxicology requirements were bypassed” and a reanalysis of the trial data showed serious adverse effects. “The ‘safe and effective’ narrative has always been a farce,” he said.

Freedom of Information Act requests have uncovered evidence that top officials at the FDA and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention knew about COVID-19 vaccine injuries early in 2021 — long before making the information public.

Still, U.S. public health agencies continue to authorize and recommend new boosters.

The FDA could easily respond to calls to halt vaccination, Hulscher said, by issuing a Class I recall, where a drug is recalled because it is likely that its use will cause serious health consequences or death — which he said nine studies and the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) data show.

“Because criteria for a Class I recall have been far exceeded, it should be an easy and effective way to halt the COVID-19 injection program and begin the process of compensating those who were harmed.”

Hulscher said he expects that calls will grow to withdraw the vaccines from the market until the regulatory authorities finally take action.

How does a Class I recall work?

Drug recalls are mechanisms to remove or amend pharmaceutical products that violate laws under the purview of the FDA.

Recalls range from minor to serious. In a minor case, companies issue a public alert that a medical device may cause harm in some situations or temporarily withdraw a product from the market while addressing a rule violation.

More serious recalls come into play in the case of pharmaceutical products that may, or likely will, cause harm to human health. A Class I recall, the most serious type, typically involves withdrawing a drug from the market completely.

In most cases, the FDA doesn’t recall the product, the company does — either by its own initiative or at the FDA’s recommendation — and the FDA oversees the recall process.

In the case of vaccines and other biologics, medical devices and controlled substances, the FDA has the authority to compel a company to recall a drug.

If a determination is made that a batch, lot or other quantity of a product licensed under the Public Health Service Act presents an imminent threat to public health, the FDA can issue an immediate recall.

However, for most drugs, the FDA doesn’t have the authority to force a company to recall products that violate FDA rules — it can only recommend the drugmaker recall its product.

Federal lawmakers have periodically introduced legislation to provide the FDA with mandatory recall authority for any and all faulty or unsafe prescription and over-the-counter drugs. However, Congress has not yet passed a bill giving the FDA that authority.

In the past, drugmakers have initiated vaccine recalls and informed distributors and facilities that may have purchased a vaccine about issues with the product.

In 2007, Merck recalled 1.2 million doses of Haemophilus influenzae type B (Hib B) vaccines due to concerns the vaccine was contaminated with the Bacillus cereus bacterium. The CDC analyzed VAERS from April 2007 to February 2008 and identified 75 reports related to the Hib B vaccines, including five deaths. The agency said the deaths weren’t related to the reported B. cereus.

Merck also recalled one lot of Gardasil in 2013 because it contained glass.

In 1999, the FDA-approved RotaShield vaccine, meant to prevent rotavirus gastroenteritis, was found to be causing intussusception in infants, an often excruciating and potentially fatal condition in which part of the intestine telescopes into itself.

The CDC withdrew its recommendation after identifying more than 100 reports in VAERS of intussusception following vaccination with RotaShield. Wyeth, now Pfizer, withdrew the vaccine from the market.

The FDA had approved that vaccine as safe, even though the clinical trials showed increased incidences of intussusception in vaccinated infants.

A congressional investigation showed that many of the FDA and CDC advisers who recommended the vaccine had financial ties to pharmaceutical companies developing rotavirus vaccines.

Thousands of FDA-approved drugs and devices are recalled each year, and the number of Class I recalls has been trending upward. Details of each recall are listed on an obscure FDA “enforcement report” website.

There have been some limited recalls for vaccines in 2024, including for COVID-19 vaccines, but these have been Class III recalls of limited lots, and in those cases, the product was deemed unlikely to cause harm.

For example, in November, Pfizer issued a Class III recall of four lots of its Comirnaty vaccine that were shipped at temperatures exceeding refrigeration requirements. The lots went to Alaska and U.S. Pacific island territories.

McKesson Medical Supply issued Class III recalls for lots of polio, Tdap, Hepatitis A and B, shingles, flu and other vaccines after their walk-in refrigerator failed.

The FDA did not respond to The Defender’s request for comment on calls for a Class I recall of COVID-19 vaccines.

Researchers say evidence supports Class I recall of COVID vaccines

Last week, two new peer-reviewed studies presented evidence supporting a moratorium or recall for the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines.

A study published in Science, Health Policy and the Law detected DNA contamination in the COVID-19 vaccines, at levels three-to-four times higher than regulatory limits. The study added to previous findings by other researchers that were also the basis for Ladapo’s concerns. Such contamination could be grounds for a recall.

“The recent paper by Kammerer et al. is another in a series of papers that show very high levels of DNA contamination in modified mRNA vaccines,” Children’s Health Defense Chief Scientific Officer Brian Hooker told The Defender.

“In light of this and the already exhaustive body of literature on the toxicity of these jabs, they need to be recalled as soon as possible and the myriad injuries caused by the shots need to be addressed,” he added.

Another study published last week analyzed COVID-19 vaccine and booster safety data. The authors concluded that “at minimum,” health officials should institute a moratorium on the shots. “But ideally, they should be removed from the market and their use in humans should be stopped.”

In addition to the 38,190 deaths after the COVID-19 vaccine reported to VAERS as of Nov. 29, Hulscher also pointed to recent studies that taken as a whole he said provides enough evidence to trigger a recall.

Analyses have linked 3.1 million excess deaths to vaccines and lockdowns in 47 countries between 2020 and 2022, and 17 million excess deaths globally from vaccines and other pandemic response measures.

A 2023 article in BMC Infectious Diseases, later retracted by the journal, estimated that 278,000 Americans may have died from the COVID-19 vaccine by December 2021. Similarly, Pantazatos and Seligman estimated between 146,000 and 187,000 possible vaccine-associated deaths by August 2021.

Another 2023 study published in the Asian Pacific Journal of Health Sciences found that higher COVID-19 vaccine uptake was associated with increased all-cause mortality. Another recent study published in Bulgarian Medicine found a positive correlation between COVID-19 vaccination rates and excess mortality.

A recent study published in Microorganisms found that all-cause death risk was higher among people who had received the COVID-19 vaccine than those who hadn’t.

Hulscher and colleagues also recently published a study estimating 49,240 excess cardiac deaths possibly due to the COVID-19 vaccination in the U.S. from 2021-2023.

Hulscher and co-authors published a systematic review in Science, Public Health Policy and the Law on Nov. 17 of autopsy-related literature following COVID-19 vaccination. They found that 73.9% of the 325 deaths were linked to the shots, suggesting “a high likelihood of a causal link” between the shots and death.

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.

December 10, 2024 Posted by | Science and Pseudo-Science | , , | Leave a comment

Current Pfizer Board Member and Former Trump Appointed FDA Commissioner, Dr. Scott Gottlieb

His loyalty to Pfizer is so strong he’s willing to be publicly disloyal to Trump and attack Trump’s pick for HHS Secretary with false claims about vaccines

Injecting Freedom by Aaron Siri | December 1, 2024

Pfizer board member and former Trump appointed FDA commissioner, Scott Gottlieb, went on the air to attack Trump’s nomination for HHS Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Here is my response, posted on X, to his comments:

Pfizer board member, @ScottGottliebMD, you look foolish attacking @RobertKennedyJr on CNBC (links to clips below) because it’s clear you lack basic knowledge regarding vaccines. For example:

  • Your claim that in “early 2000s … FDA reformulate[d] the existing MMR vaccine to take some of the preservatives out,” is false. Never happened. You are likely thinking about the removal of thimerosal in the early 2000s from various vaccines but as even CDC explains, “Measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccines do not and never did contain thimerosal.” https://www.cdc.gov/vaccine-safety/about/thimerosal.html
  • Your claim that a child “can’t get vaccinated [for MMR] until age 2” is simply false. MMR is routinely given at one year of age and sometimes even earlier. https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/hcp/imz-schedules/index.html
  • Your claims regarding pertussis vaccines nonsensically ignore the fact that these products do not prevent transmission of the pertussis bacteria – they only provide, at best, personal protection. As a recent consensus paper of industry pertussis vaccine “experts” explained, “aPVs [pertussis vaccine] … cannot avoid infection and transmission. … aPV pertussis vaccines do not prevent colonization. Consequently, they do not reduce the circulation of B. pertussis and do not exert any herd immunity effect.” https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31333640/
  • Your claims regarding polio nonsensically ignore the fact that the last wild case of polio in the U.S. was in 1979 and that the only polio vaccine used in the U.S. for the last 24 years only provides, at best, personal protection and does not prevent transmission of the polio virus. As CDC explains: “IPV [inactivated polio vaccine] … does not stop transmission of the virus.” https://www.cdc.gov/poliovirus-containment/diseaseandvirus/index.html
  • You claimed that “we [Pfizer] don’t make the pediatric vaccines, Pfizer is not in that market” to deflect the claim that, as a board member of Pfizer, you have a serious conflict of interest in attacking RFK Jr. regarding pediatric vaccines. But, as you no doubt know, Pfizer does sell pediatric vaccines, including the Prevnar vaccine given to babies at 2, 4, 6, and 12 months of age, which was one of Pfizer’s top three selling products in 2023. https://www.pfizer.com/sites/default/files/investors/financial_reports/annual_reports/2023/ Your claim is either a lie or reveals deep ignorance.
  • Your claim regarding measles mortality is based on dubious and unreliable data and ignores the facts that (1) approximately 400 people total died annually in the U.S. in the years before the first measles vaccine in 1963 (amounting to around 1 death for every 500,000 Americans), and (2) mortality from measles declined by over 98% from 1900 to 1960 before the vaccine and was continuing to decline. https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/6200. In any event, you dutifully ignore the fact that RFK Jr. has made clear he has no intention of taking away vaccines from anyone who wants them.
  • You claim RFK Jr. will cost lives, but I would argue that ignorance regarding vaccine products does and has cost lives. I welcome a public debate in which we can discuss the number of lives ignorance about vaccines has cost versus your speculations about those RFK Jr. will supposedly cause (a man who has actually devoted his life to saving the lives of children).

Your knowledge regarding these products is only matched by your track record as a public “health” official. The plummeting decline in childhood health from the early 1980s (from less than 13% with chronic disease to now well over 50%) continued unabated while you were FDA commissioner. Respectfully, you lack authority or a track record, let alone basic knowledge, to speak on the subjects you address in this interview (let alone to discuss this topic with Senators to dissuade them from confirming RFK Jr.)

If you were being honest, you would reveal that your real concern, as a board member of Pfizer, is that Pfizer’s golden gooses – Covid-19 vaccines, Prevnar vaccines, RSV vaccines, etc. – will have to face the reality of the devastating harms they have caused to families across America. Your interview stinks of self-interest. The time for selling out America’s children so pharma and its leaders, like you, can line their pockets has come to an end.

The above responds to a recent CNBC segment on which you recently appeared and which you tweeted out in two parts:

https://x.com/ScottGottliebMD/status/1862521935994708379

https://x.com/ScottGottliebMD/status/1862521935994708379

December 10, 2024 Posted by | Corruption, Deception, Science and Pseudo-Science | , , | Leave a comment

Wind and Solar Are Fragile

By Steve Goreham | Master Resource | December 2, 2024

Wind and solar have been growing as a share of US electrical power generation over the last two decades. State and federal mandates and subsidies have driven the expansion of renewables because of their inherently dilute and intermittent nature. But it’s clear that renewable electricity sources have a third strike: they are fragile and prone to weather damage and destruction.

Twenty-three states now mandate Net Zero electricity by as early as 2035. Their aim is to replace coal- and gas-fired power plants with wind and solar generators. Wind and solar have grown from near zero in 2000 to 14.1% of US electricity generation in 2023 (10.2% wind and 3.9% solar).

Weather Risk

Wind and solar systems are located on ridge lines, on plains, and offshore, and are exposed to weather forces that usually don’t affect building-housed coal and gas generators. In addition, these systems require about 100 times the land area of traditional generators to deliver the same average electricity output, increasing the chances of storm damage. Damage incidents are rising as more and more systems are deployed.

In May 2019, a massive hailstorm in West Texas destroyed 400,000 solar modules of the Midway Solar Project, about 60% of the facility. The project was only one year old. The system was rebuilt, costing insurers more than $70 million.

On June 23, 2023, the Scottsbluff solar system was destroyed in western Nebraska. Baseball-sized hail falling at up to 150 miles per hour smashed most of the 14,000-panel system. The system had only been operating for four years of its 25-year lifetime and had to be completely rebuilt.

Solar loss insurance claims from hail damage now average about $58 million per claim. Hail damage claims have increased to account for about 54% of solar insurance loss claims. Analysis by Iowa State University shows that severe hail (greater than one inch in diameter) can occur for 20 to 30 days per year in Great Plains states, a wide area of the country stretching from North Dakota to Texas and Colorado to Indiana.

“Fighting Jays Solar” became operational in July of 2023, 40 miles northwest of Houston, Texas. Less than one year later, on March 15 of this year, hail destroyed much of the system, with repair costs estimated to be hundreds of millions of dollars. The system had not yet completed full construction.

Hail is not the only weather hazard facing solar installations. This fall, a tornado associated with Hurricane Milton destroyed much of the Lake Placid Solar Plant in Sylvian Shores, Florida. The facility had only been operating for about five years.

Insurance and Liability Ahead

As a result of hail and other weather damage, insurance premiums for solar facilities are skyrocketing, in some cases up by as much as 400%. In addition, policy coverage is being capped at as little as $10-15 million, requiring system developers to obtain multiple policies to try to cover their projects.

The federal government has been promoting the installation of wind systems off the US East Coast. Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Rhode Island, and Virginia are constructing or planning offshore wind systems. But offshore wind must operate in one of the world’s harshest environments, buffeted by wind, waves, lightning, and salt spray that is very corrosive to man-made structures.

To date, most offshore wind systems have been deployed in China, Europe, and Vietnam. These systems are prone to weather damage. Turbines deployed in Asia coastal areas suffer typhoon wreckage. Eighty percent of the turbines installed in Europe’s North Sea have required repairs due to weather damage.

The London Array, east of England, the world’s largest offshore wind system, required extensive repairs after only five years of operation. Danish wind operator Ørsted needed to repair undersea cables to offshore wind systems in the North Sea at a cost that exceeded $100 million.

But turbines sited off the US East Coast must survive brutal weather, more severe than offshore turbines in Europe. Tropical storms, hurricanes, and nor’easters periodically traverse the coastal sites planned for new offshore wind systems.

For example, historical data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows that 26 hurricanes and 51 tropical storms passed through New Jersey coastal waters during the last 170 years, or almost five storms each decade. Wind installations will be vulnerable to these weather systems.

In 2018, Hurricane Maria passed over Puerto Rico, ripping blades from many turbine towers. East Coast wind systems will likely suffer the same fate.

Wind systems are designed to try to protect wind towers and blades in high winds. When winds exceed 55 MPH, a braking system brings the rotor to a standstill to try to avoid turbine damage. Tower blades are also “feathered” or oriented so that they no longer catch the wind.

But near the eye of a hurricane or tropical storm, violent winds can change direction instantaneously and powerfully, too fast for damage-prevention systems to react. The result will be destroyed blades and damaged towers.

Conclusion

In July, a 351-foot-long offshore wind blade splintered and washed up on the beaches in Nantucket, Massachusetts. Beaches were closed and clean-up crews collected six truckloads of fiberglass and plastic debris from the single destroyed blade. Wind operations were temporarily shut down.

Residents, beachgoers, fishermen, and local businesses posted signs, complained to the press, and spoke out at board hearings. But this was just one turbine blade. Image the outcry when a whole offshore system is destroyed by a hurricane, producing mountains of beach debris at Myrtle Beach, Virginia Beach, Atlantic City, or Long Island?

Media headlines claim that weather is becoming more extreme because of human-caused climate change. But to solve the problem, it’s proposed that we install more and more wind and solar systems, which are fragile and vulnerable to violent weather. Incidents of weather destruction of wind and solar installations will continue to rise.

—————-

Steve Goreham is a speaker on energy, the environment, and public policy. His books include the bestselling Green Breakdown: The Coming Renewable Energy Failure.

December 10, 2024 Posted by | Economics, Malthusian Ideology, Phony Scarcity | Leave a comment

Russian gas was ‘win-win’ – Merkel

RT | December 10, 2024

Buying natural gas from Russia was a good deal, former German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said, rejecting suggestions that it may have been a strategic mistake.

Merkel, who served as chancellor from 2005 to 2021, was in Paris this week to promote her memoir. She gave an exclusive interview to state TV channel France 2, in which she was asked about Germany’s energy relationship with Russia.

“The gas trade with Russia has a deep-rooted tradition. It began during the Cold War and continued throughout my time in office. I do not think it was a mistake, because we obtained Russian gas at a favorable price,” Merkel said in the interview, which aired on Monday evening.

“It was a win-win situation,” the former chancellor added.

Following the escalation of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Germany had to source gas elsewhere because “prices exploded,” Merkel said, noting that this would have happened much earlier had Berlin stopped doing business with Moscow during her term.

“I believe it is reasonable to procure the most affordable gas,” she told France 2.

Earlier on her press tour, Merkel also defended the decision to build Nord Stream 2, noting that she had “no support from the business community to stop the gas trade with Russia” at the time. The project was launched in 2015 and the first pipes were laid in 2018.

While the government of Merkel’s successor, Olaf Scholz, has accused Moscow of “shutting off” gas to Germany, his coalition partner Robert Habeck had moved to end the energy trade long before the Ukraine conflict and EU sanctions on Russia provided the pretext. The Green Party leader presented giving up gas for “renewables” as an environmentally responsible policy choice.

Berlin thus refused to certify the newly finished Nord Stream 2 pipeline in January 2022. Nord Stream 1 was destroyed by a series of underwater explosions in September 2022. Investigations by Germany, Sweden, and Denmark have not pointed to a culprit yet, though German media reports have blamed a “rogue” group of Ukrainians.

One of the lines of Nord Stream 2 survived the bombing unharmed and could still deliver gas to Germany should Berlin change its policy and certify the pipeline.

The loss of Russian gas and reliance on the far more expensive US alternative has since pushed energy prices in Germany beyond what a lot of industrial enterprises could afford, triggering a wave of shutdowns and bankruptcies.

In a December 2022 interview, Merkel revealed that Germany and France considered the Minsk Agreements – a framework to peacefully resolve the dispute between Kiev and the two Donbass republics – as a play for time until the West could arm Ukraine for a confrontation with Russia. Former French President Francois Hollande has confirmed her claim.

December 10, 2024 Posted by | Economics, Malthusian Ideology, Phony Scarcity | , | Leave a comment

Syria after 13 years of U.S. state terrorism… what do you expect?

By Finian Cunningham | Strategic Culture Foundation | December 10, 2024

In less than 13 days, a coalition of U.S.-backed jihadist militant groups took over Syria. The offensive, which began on November 27, culminated in Syrian President Bashar al-Assad hastily stepping down and fleeing to Russia. Assad and his wife were confirmed to be in Moscow by December 9.

Assad said he made his decision to preserve the peace in Syria. Russia said it was not involved in his decision-making.

The gloating by American and European politicians reflects the years of investment by the Western powers for regime change in Syria. An investment that seems to have paid off, finally.

It is misplaced to speculate that there may have been some kind of betrayal or “deal” by Assad and his allies in Russia and Iran to let the country go. Yes, the Syrian army and authorities capitulated in breath-taking short order. But it is callow to conjecture about a more devious move behind the scenes, such as Russia or Iran leaving its Syrian ally to the mercy of insurgents.

Syria was simply broken and exhausted by years of Western aggression and attrition. There was little that Russia or Iran could do to salvage an allied country.

The final collapse of Syria did not come after a 13-day blitzkrieg. It came after 13 years of non-stop state terrorism by the United States and its European NATO allies. The earlier phase of U.S.-sponsored proxy terrorism (2011 to 2020) was checked by the intervention of Russia, Iran, and Hezbollah. But the West’s proxies weren’t defeated definitively. In retrospect, that may be seen as a fateful strategic blunder.

The continuation of the proxy war after 2020 relied on the imposition of crippling economic and trade sanctions on Syria by the U.S. and the European Union. War by other means also involved the American and Turkish military forces illegally occupying Syrian territory in the north, east, and south, which enabled the theft of Syria’s oil and wheat exports. During Trump’s previous presidency, he openly bragged about “stealing Syria’s oil.”

So, from 2011, when the Obama administration targeted Syria for regime change, until the fall of Damascus at the weekend, the nation has endured a 13-year war of attrition. Even after the relative peace obtained due to Russia and Iran’s intervention from around 2020 onwards, Syrians have been starved of food, medicines and fuel. Over half its population suffered displacement from their homes. The Syrian economy was in ruins. Its currency had become worthless, adjusting for inflation by the hour. When the Western-backed insurgents launched their offensive on November 27 from the northern Idlib enclave, there was nothing left of the Syrian state to put up resistance. Aleppo, Hama, Homs and the capital fell like dominoes.

The main insurgent faction is Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), led by Mohammed al-Jawlani. HTS is an internationally proscribed terrorist organization that even the U.S. officially designates as an outlawed group. Its leader has a bounty of $10 million on his head offered by the State Department.

But in the shell game of U.S. proxy war, HTS and its leader are Washington’s assets. From 2011, the Americans and their NATO partners used Al Qaeda, ISIS, Jabhat al Nusra Front (later HTS) with ratlines of weapons and fighters from Libya, Turkey and all over the world to descend on Syria to inflict horrors. The Western media propagated the charade by cynically referring to the terrorist proxies as “moderate rebels.” The Pentagon-run military base at Al Tanf in southern Syria is said to be for training “moderate rebels” when, in reality, it is jihadist extremists who are weaponized.

Only last week before the final push on the Syria capital, Damascus, Al-Jawlani, the HTS commander, was given a primetime interview/platform by CNN, the U.S. news channel, to rehabilitate his image as a statesman-like leader instead of being a wanted terrorist. Al-Jawlani says the days when he and his organization were associates of ISIS and Al Qaeda are long gone. And CNN and other Western media do their best to make the claim sound plausible. Ah, such a happy ending!

It’s not clear at this early stage if Syria will now be plunged into sectarian bloodletting, reprisals, and murderous mayhem that characterized the earlier phase of U.S.-sponsored proxy war in Syria when Shia, Alawites, and Christians were beheaded for being “apostates and infidels.”

Ominously, the United States and Israel immediately started bombing the country, cynically claiming that they were trying to stabilize the situation.

The rapid events in Syria have taken aback the whole world. Who would have thought only two weeks ago that Assad would end up exiled in Moscow? The reaction of the U.S., Israel and other Western leaders is almost disbelief in what they see as their great luck.

Russia and Iran seem to have been genuinely blindsided. The NATO proxy war in Ukraine on Russia’s doorstep has no doubt taken a toll on Russian military resources. Iran is preoccupied with securing its own country from Israeli aggression.

American President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke excitedly about the new “opportunity” in Syria. Both claimed to have had a hand in the triumph of a terrorist insurgency. Netanyahu took credit for his genocidal war on Gaza and Lebanon for weakening Syria’s allies in Hezbollah and Iran.

Biden was even more shameless in spelling out how U.S. state terrorism destroyed Syria and paved the way for its takeover by terrorist proxies. He said: “Our approach has shifted the balance of power in the Middle East through a combination of support for our partners, sanctions, diplomacy [sic], and targeted military force.”

In Washington’s double-speak, “support for partners, sanctions and targeted military force” translates as sponsoring terrorists to traumatize a nation, economic warfare to grind it down, and illegal aggression to force final submission.

The destruction of Syria is another vast crime by the U.S.-led imperialist West.

December 10, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Wars for Israel | , , , , | Leave a comment

With Assad gone, Israel looks to expand while rival NATO-backed groups will turn on each other

By Omar Ahmed | MEMO | December 10, 2024

While others spoke of the revival of the Syrian revolution as an inevitability, especially with the weakening of Syria and the erosion of its allies capabilities, Hezbollah in particular, others have for years warned of the dire consequences of the alternative, given the domination of the armed opposition by former Al-Qaeda affiliate Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS).

The ousting of long-time President Bashar Al-Assad marks the end of 61 years of Baathist rule, paving the way for an uncharted and volatile future. As a key member of the Axis of Resistance, the loss of the Syrian state which served as a supply route from Iran to Hezbollah in Lebanon is another major blow to the only regional alliance that has taken military action against Israel in support of the Palestinians.

On 27 November, a coalition of Syrian opposition groups led by HTS launched a surprise offensive against government forces in north-west Syria from their bastion of Idlib after years of deadlock. This coalition, which included Turkish-backed factions and other rebel groups, quickly gained momentum. Within days, key cities fell to the rebels, notably Aleppo, Hama and Homs, ultimately tightening the noose around Damascus, before that too fell.

The timing of this offensive appears to be anything but coincidental.

Shortly before the operation, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had issued stern warnings to Assad, accusing him of “playing with fire” by hosting Iranian and Hezbollah forces and his role in transferring arms to Lebanon. This sequence of events suggests that the opposition groups in Syria may have perceived an opportunity to strike; more sinisterly, it suggests a call to action. It is common knowledge that Israel has provided arms and funding to several Syrian rebel factions during the civil war.

Implying his own role in being behind the opposition offensive, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that, “The target, of course, is Damascus. The opposition’s march continues. Our wish is that this march in Syria continues without accidents.” This was reportedly after Assad’s refusal to “determine the future of Syria together” with him.

In the immediate aftermath of Assad’s downfall, Israel wasted no time and moved swiftly to “secure” its northern borders by invading Syrian territory for the first time in 50 years. On 8 December, Israeli forces occupied the demilitarised buffer zone in Syria’s already Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, seizing Mount Hermon. Netanyahu framed the further occupation as a necessary defensive measure to prevent hostile entities from establishing a presence near the settler-colonial state’s borders. Although claiming to be a temporary measure, there is nothing to say this won’t be the latest case of the occupation state pushing back its nominal borders.

According to Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid, developments in Syria showed why “it is more important than ever to create a strong regional coalition, with Saudi Arabia and the countries of the Abraham Accords, to work together.” He added that, “The Iranian axis has weakened significantly, and Israel needs to strive for an overall political achievement.”

The lightning advances of opposition forces were facilitated by the weakened state of Assad’s traditional allies, notably Hezbollah and Russia, which is preoccupied with Ukraine. Hezbollah has been impacted severely by its cross-border exchanges of fire with Israel which erupted in solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza, and the subsequent Israeli invasion and bombing campaign in Lebanon. Having failed to achieve its stated objectives, Tel Aviv had to settle for a ceasefire, but the movement suffered significant losses, including the assassination of its Secretary-General, Hassan Nasrallah, in September.

Nasrallah had long warned that if Syria were to fall, it would have major ramifications for Palestinian liberation. “If Syria falls, so will Palestine, the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem,” he said in 2013. “We will enter a very dark phase. If Syria falls at the hands of the Americans and the Israelis and the American representatives in the region, the ‘resistance’ will be isolated and Israel will enter Lebanon and force its laws upon it. Lebanon will return to the Israeli era.”

There is a very real threat that extremists in Lebanon may seek to instigate their own “uprising” now that Hezbollah is regrouping and recovering, without support from Damascus. “If Syria is lost, Palestine would be lost,” Nasrallah reiterated two years later.

As of now, neither HTS nor the transitional government have released a statement addressing the Israeli invasion and occupation of Syrian lands, nor how, if at all, they intend to support the Palestinian resistance. While congratulating the Syrian people, Hamas stopped short of mentioning any rebel faction specifically, but did stipulate that it hoped that post-Assad Syria would continue “its historical and pivotal role in supporting the Palestinian people.”

How this will happen remains unclear.

Hezbollah, for its part, has issued a statement following the Israeli invasion of Syria: “This aggressive occupation of Syrian lands coincides with the ongoing Zionist military aggression against Lebanon, its daily violations, and its assaults on Gaza. These interconnected threats place the region’s peoples in imminent danger, underscoring the unity of their struggle and the necessity of rejecting and confronting this aggression.”

Meanwhile, the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), composed primarily of Kurdish fighters, have seized the city of Deir Ez-Zor, expanding their control over significant portions of eastern Syria. The US maintains an illegal military presence at the Al-Tanf base in southern Syria, a strategic location near the borders of Iraq and Jordan and close to Israel.

The rapid collapse of the Syrian Arab Republic and the lack of significant resistance from the Syrian Arab Army have raised questions about a potential behind-the-scenes agreement. Analysts speculate that discussions involving Russia, Iran, Turkiye and possibly the US resulted in a tacit understanding that allowed for Assad’s ouster with minimal bloodshed. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s apparent prioritisation of a resolution in Ukraine over Assad’s survival adds weight to this theory. By trading influence in Syria for concessions in Eastern Europe, Putin may have decided that Assad was expendable in the broader calculus of Moscow’s foreign policy.

Suffice to say he and his family have since been granted asylum in the Russian capital.

Essentially, the Syrian state’s prolonged depletion, exacerbated by continued Israeli bombardments targeting infrastructure and military assets, left it ill-prepared to mount any substantial defence.

With their common enemy — the Assad government — now removed, longstanding tensions among various rebel factions are likely to resurface owing to the opposing agendas of their NATO-member backers. The Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) and the US-backed SDF have historically had strained relations, primarily due to Ankara’s opposition to Kurdish autonomy near its borders. The power vacuum has heightened the risk of clashes between these groups, each vying for control over strategic territories. At the weekend, Turkish-backed Syrian fighters launched an offensive against Kurdish forces in the northern Manbij area.

While the loss of a nation-state in the Axis of Resistance represents a major blow, the broader network remains resilient. Hezbollah, although weakened, is expected to adopt a more defensive posture in the short term, focusing on rebuilding its arsenal and fortifying its positions. Yemeni and Iraqi factions, meanwhile, continue to carry out operations against Israeli targets, signalling their ongoing commitment to the cause. Without Iranian supplies going to Lebanon via Syria, though, Israel stands to make further strategic gains now that the rebels have laid out the groundwork.

Even as Syria’s role as a logistical and strategic hub diminishes, the resistance will have no choice but to adapt, relying on alternative routes and methods to sustain operations. Hezbollah will need to refocus on indigenous weapons development and rely heavily on the expertise of the IRGC — Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — to recover its strength. However, this effort will face its own challenges under Donald Trump’s incoming presidency, with possible renewed sanctions and increased pressure on Iran aiming to curb its regional influence.

Assad failed to bring about serious reforms even after the respite provided by Russia, Iran and Hezbollah against the foreign-backed opposition. The army, low on morale and supplies, offered little to no resistance against the march to Damascus. With scenes of freed prisoners from the notorious Sednaya Prison, only the most unhinged could double down uncritically about support for Assad’s rule. After 13 years of war, the people want and deserve peace and stability.

However, as post-Gaddafi Libya and post-Saddam Iraq have shown, the collapse of totalitarian or authoritarian states often gives way to new conflicts and instability, with tribal, ethnic or sectarian tensions resurfacing. For now, Syria remains a fractured and weakened state, dominated by regional and global powers. It is far from being free.

December 10, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation, Wars for Israel | , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Israeli forces reach Damascus outskirts as chaos grips Syria

The Cradle | December 10, 2024

Israeli forces have continued to expand their occupation in Syria and are now around 20 kilometers from the capital, Damascus – coming as Tel Aviv is simultaneously waging a massive bombing campaign across the country.

The Israeli army reached the city of Qatana in the southern Damascus countryside on 10 December, according to Al Mayadeen and Reuters.

Tel Aviv has denied moving past the now expanded UN-monitored buffer zone near Quneitra, which Israeli forces invaded on 8 December after the collapse of the deposed Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s government and the storming of Damascus by extremists.

Israeli jets continued destructive airstrikes early on Tuesday, hitting Syrian army facilities in Aleppo, Damascus, and the western port city of Latakia.

“The Israeli Navy carried out a large-scale operation last night to destroy the Syrian army fleet, where several ships belonging to the Syrian naval fleet were destroyed, which were carrying dozens of naval missiles, in the area of ​​the Bayda port and the Latakia port,” Israeli Army Radio reported on 10 December.

Over 250 Israeli airstrikes have targeted Syria since the fall of Damascus. Meanwhile, violence and instability have prevailed across post-Assad Syria.

According to reports on 10 December, Syrian chemist Dr Hamdi Ismail has been found killed inside his home.

Several executions of Syrian army soldiers have been reported since Damascus fell.

The new leadership in Damascus, led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) commander Abu Mohammed al-Julani, has kept quiet about the Israeli occupation of southern Syria and the relentless attacks across the country.

HTS – formerly known as Al-Qaeda’s branch in Syria, the Nusra Front – has been implicated in numerous atrocities, including kidnapping, public executions, indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas, and other war crimes over the years.

The extremist organization appointed Mohammad Bashir as the new Syrian prime minister on 9 December.

Bashir was the prime minister of the HTS-led Salvation Government, which was formed in 2017 and ruled Syria’s northern province of Idlib – where HTS was based before the massive Turkish-backed assault against Syria that began late last month.

December 10, 2024 Posted by | Illegal Occupation, Militarism | , , , , | Leave a comment

US backs Israeli invasion of Syria

RT | December 10, 2024

Washington has defended Israel’s military incursion into Syria, with State Department spokesman Matthew Miller stressing that the operation is in self-defense. At a press briefing on Monday, Miller claimed that the Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) advance to the Syrian side of the Golan Heights was done to prevent Syrian-based militants from taking over the border areas and launching an offensive into Israel in the future.

Israeli troops moved into the demilitarized buffer zone in the occupied Golan Heights on Sunday, after Syrian opposition forces seized Damascus and forced former President Bashar Assad to flee the country. On Monday, Israeli forces moved beyond the buffer zone and into Syria proper, with Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz saying they intend to create a new “security area” there that would be clear of “heavy strategic weapons and terrorist infrastructure.”

According to Miller, by abandoning its positions in the area around the buffer zone, the Syrian Army “potentially created a vacuum” that could be filled by terrorist organizations.

“That would threaten the state of Israel and would threaten civilians inside Israel. Every country has the right to take action against terrorist organizations,” Miller stated, adding that “ultimately, it’s important that there is security along that border,” which, according to him, the Israeli military can now ensure.

Miller noted, however, that Washington expects the Israeli occupation to be temporary.

“This is a temporary action that they have taken in response to actions by the Syrian military to withdraw from that area… We want to see the 1974 disengagement agreement upheld, and that includes the terms of the buffer zones, which includes Israel withdrawing to its previous positions,” he stated, referring to Israel’s 1974 agreement with Syria to establish a demilitarized strip in the Golan Heights.

Miller’s words run counter to remarks made earlier by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. While West Jerusalem told the UN Security Council that its incursion into Syria is a “limited and temporary measure” at a press conference on Monday night, Netanyahu declared that “the Golan Heights will forever be an inseparable part of the state of Israel.” He previously argued that Israel’s disengagement agreement with Syria effectively “collapsed” once Syrian troops “abandoned their positions” in the buffer zone.

The UN has criticized Israel for the incursion, saying it violates the disengagement agreement and stressing that “there should be no military forces or activities in the area of separation.” A number of Middle Eastern countries have also condemned Israel’s advance past the Golan Heights, accusing West Jerusalem of orchestrating an illegal land grab. In a statement on Monday, Qatar’s Foreign Ministry slammed the move as “a blatant attack on Syria’s sovereignty and unity” and “a flagrant violation of international law.” Similar remarks were made by Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan.

December 10, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation, Militarism | , , , , | Leave a comment

Israeli Finance Minister: Time to Seize Control of Gaza

By Kyle Anzalone | The Libertarian Institute | December 9, 2024

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Tel Aviv should exploit the downfall of Bashar al-Assad in Syria and seize the Gaza Strip.

At a meeting of his Religious Zionist Party on Monday, Smotrich said, “We’ve seen in Syria how regime leaders flee like rats when they realize they’ve lost their grip on power. The same can be achieved in Gaza.” He continued. “We are close – we’ve already made tremendous strides there. Now, we must take the next step to secure a decisive and clear victory.”

“It is time to seize control of Gaza and strip Hamas of its civilian authority, cutting off its lifeline.” Smotrich added, “[We] must end the policy of containment and defense and shift to initiative and offense. We must dismantle terror hubs, strengthen Jewish settlements, and create facts on the ground that prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state and remove this possibility from the agenda once and for all.”

Several top Israeli officials have openly called for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Gaza as well as building new Jewish settlements in the depopulated Strip. Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, leader of the Jewish Power party, recently said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is open to the idea of expelling Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.

Some Israeli officials see Donald Trump’s return to the White House as an opportunity to expand Israel’s borders, including Smotrich. “It is possible to create a situation where Gaza’s population in two years will be less than half its current size. Encouraging voluntary emigration is an opportunity that arises with the new administration,” he explained.

During his address to the Religious Zionism party, Smotrich went on to say that Israel should not agree to any ceasefire with Hamas and attempt to free hostages in Gaza with military force.

“Instead of discussing partial deals that leave many hostages behind, compromise the war’s achievements, and diminish the chance of victory, we must press forward. We must stop fearing our own shadows and do what is necessary,” he stated. “If we take these necessary steps, with God’s help, we will see the remaining Hamas leaders flee like rats, desperate to save themselves and their families. This will bring all the hostages home and remove the threat to Israel once and for all.”

Smotrich also said he has desires to expand Israel’s borders beyond Gaza, including the annexation of the West Bank. “The axis of evil’s ultimate hope is to establish a Palestinian state there as a base for the destruction of Israel,” he asserted. “Here, too, we must end the policy of containment and defense and shift to initiative and offense. We must dismantle terror hubs, strengthen Jewish settlements, and create facts on the ground that prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state and remove this possibility from the agenda once and for all.”

Following Trump’s election, Smotrich noted that annexation of the West Bank is a possibility. This radical view is shared by Mike Huckabee, Trump’s pick for ambassador to Israel.

December 10, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment