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Sights set on Somaliland: The threat of a total US–UK–Israeli takeover

By Kit Klarenberg – The Cradle – April 3, 2025

In recent weeks, Somaliland has drawn unprecedented attention from western media. As Israeli and US officials scramble to find a destination to forcibly relocate Gaza’s population, the globally unrecognized breakaway territory is increasingly floated as a potential solution.

Multiple mainstream reports suggest Tel Aviv and Washington are making quiet overtures to Hargeisa. On 14 March, the Financial Times revealed:

“A US official briefed on Washington’s initial contacts with Somaliland’s presidency said discussions had begun about a possible deal to recognize the de facto state in return for the establishment of a military base near the port of Berbera on the Red Sea coast.”

Somaliland’s President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi has made international recognition his central foreign policy objective. Since the territory declared independence in 1991, no country has recognized it as a sovereign state. But late last year, before entering the White House, US President Donald Trump made the surprise announcement that he intended to officially recognize Somaliland, which would make Washington the first foreign capital to do so.

For the internationally isolated statelet, the prospect of a permanent US military footprint, which would shield the East African statelet from Somalia’s endemic instability, is no doubt enormously appealing, especially as it would be attached to official recognition of statehood by a major global power.

Search for a new ‘Nakba’ 

From Washington’s perspective, the deal would yield far more than just a convenient dumping ground for displaced Palestinians, evicted to make way for Trump’s fantasized “Gaza-Lago.” Somaliland’s strategic location on the Red Sea makes it an ideal staging post for operations against Yemen.

A current map of the Horn of Africa

Such a move would grant the US a critical new foothold in the Horn of Africa at a time when American and French forces are being ejected from countries across the continent at breakneck speed.

It could also serve as a counterweight to China and Russia’s expanding presence in northern Africa. Beijing established its first overseas military base in neighbouring Djibouti in 2017, and has since emerged as an aggressive critic of western policies in the region – while also welcoming Iranian naval vessels at its ports.

The strategic utility of recognizing Somaliland is not lost on Washington’s foreign policy architects. Project 2025 – a sprawling, right-wing policy blueprint by the Heritage Foundation, intended as a roadmap for Trump’s second term—explicitly advocates “[countering] malign Chinese activity” in Africa. It specifically recommended “the recognition of Somaliland statehood as a hedge against the US’s deteriorating position in Djibouti.”

Another neocolonial outpost

Keep in mind that Trump’s interest in the territory was made public well before Somaliland was floated as a relocation site for Gaza’s 2.4 million Palestinians. In November 2024, former British defence secretary Gavin Williamson announced he had held “really good meetings” with Trump’s “policy leads” on the matter, expressing confidence that recognition was on the horizon.

Williamson has long been an ardent advocate of Somaliland’s independence, regularly undertaking all-expenses-paid trips to the breakaway territory, and receiving honorary citizenship for his lobbying efforts.

Williamson’s interest exposes a rarely acknowledged truth: Somaliland is, in practice, a modern British colony. Though it claimed independence from Somalia in 1991 and was formally granted independence by Britain in 1960, the territory remains under London’s shadow.

Should Palestinians be forcefully relocated there, they would be trapped in yet another open-air prison – under the watchful eye of British-trained security forces with a long history of violent repression.

‘ASI Management’

In April 2019, British government contractor Aktis Strategy abruptly declared bankruptcy, leaving staff unpaid and suppliers out of pocket, despite having secured tens of millions of pounds from the UK’s Foreign Office for “development” programs across Africa and West Asia.

The Somaliland Chronicle published a detailed exposé on the company’s collapse, which came while it was overseeing a “justice and security sector reform project” in the statelet.

Official records reveal that between 2017 and 2022, London allocated over £18 million (around $23.5 million) to that project alone. It was one of many UK-financed schemes in the breakaway region that placed Somaliland’s state architecture – government, military, judiciary, prisons, police, intelligence – under effective British management.

Internal files reviewed by The Cradle lay bare the extent of this control.

One document details how notorious British intelligence cutout Adam Smith International (ASI) provided “ongoing training and mentoring” to Somaliland’s National Intelligence Agency and Rapid Response Unit, while managing the territory’s forensics services, border surveillance, and even prosecution procedures via the Attorney General’s Office. The British-created Counter-Terrorism Unit was established in 2012 with Foreign Office funds – “under ASI management.”

Elsewhere, ASI boasts of its “proven history of establishing close professional relationships” with senior government, armed forces, police, “security sector,” and Ministry of Defense officials. One file notes the contractor “deployed ex-UK military advisers” to train Somaliland’s army and coastguard intelligence units, “[mentoring] senior officers in leadership, management, and military doctrine,” and even drafted legislation later adopted as law.

Meanwhile, British contractor Albany Associates focused on teaching Somaliland’s leaders the mechanics of propaganda and information warfare. Its mission: to train ministers and senior officials to generate a “steady flow of information” and proactively manage the media, in order to counter independent outlets.

It was noted that “unsatisfied public demand for information” from the government “on nationally significant events” gave independent information sources significant influence locally, which was to be countered at all costs.

In Somaliland, public distrust of their government was fueled by frequent arrests of journalists and media shutdowns, so Albany’s role was to consolidate state control over information – ensuring one narrative, “one voice,” no dissent.

An official document reviewed by The Cradle

A prison camp in waiting 

While ASI touted its reforms, documents from another contractor – Coffey International – presented a more candid picture. Somaliland’s military, the files noted, was “the largest and most costly institution of state,” yet evaded oversight, with its funds likely diverted for opaque ends. Accountability for military abuses was virtually nonexistent.

The police, meanwhile, had “a history of applying disproportionate force,” and no “dedicated public order unit.” Coffey proposed creating one within the Special Protection Unit – a paramilitary force protecting foreign organizations and their staff. At the time, the unit had no mandate for crowd control or responding to peaceful protests.

That July 2015 document recommended Somaliland police be trained in the UK by the National Police, covering human rights, crowd engagement, and first aid. The aim: instill “proportionality, lawfulness, [and] accountability” throughout Somaliland’s police forces. Yet if this training occurred, it had no visible impact.

In late 2022, mass protests erupted in the contested city of Las Anod. Somaliland forces responded with lethal force, killing dozens. The crackdown escalated, and in 2023, Somaliland’s military indiscriminately shelled the city. Amnesty International described the attack as “indiscriminate,” targeting schools, hospitals, and mosques, displacing hundreds of thousands and killing scores.

This is the context in which Somaliland appeals to Israel and its western patrons: a brutal, British-run security apparatus capable of extinguishing any form of dissent – ergo, the perfect dumping ground for Gazan refugees. If Washington establishes a base to launch strikes on Yemen, Palestinians could also be held hostage – literal human shields – to deter reprisals from the Ansarallah-aligned armed forces.

One can only hope this depraved plan collapses as swiftly as earlier US–Israeli schemes to expel Gazans to Egypt or Jordan.

The real question now is whether Somaliland’s leaders are desperate enough for international recognition to trade their 34 years of independence for total US–UK–Israeli military, political, and security hegemony.

April 3, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Top Russian official visits US to discuss improving bilateral ties

Al Mayadeen | April 3, 2025

Russia’s top economic negotiator visited Washington on Thursday for talks on improving ties, in the highest-level Kremlin trip to the US since the war in Ukraine started in 2022.

Kirill Dmitriev, head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, said he was meeting with Trump administration officials in Washington but gave no details, while US media reported that Dmitriev arrived on Wednesday and is expected to meet Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, at the White House.

“The dialogue between Russia and the United States, which is crucial for the entire world, was completely destroyed under the Biden administration,” Dmitriev wrote on his telegram channel, adding, “Restoring dialogue is not an easy process, and it’s gradual. But every meeting, every frank conversation allows us to move forward.”

Dmitriev, a sanctioned former Goldman Sachs banker and Stanford graduate, could visit after temporary restrictions were lifted. Having previously participated in February talks with Trump officials in Saudi Arabia, he has been instrumental in US-Russia rapprochement efforts.

The White House has not commented on the visit, while the Kremlin stated that details would be shared only after the meetings conclude. Although Dmitriev has not revealed the discussion topics, his visit follows Trump’s criticism of the slow progress in Ukraine ceasefire negotiations.

The United States and Russia reached a diplomatic row, with Trump expressing his annoyance at the Russian President Vladimir Putin for rejecting an unconditional ceasefire, and conditioned a US-proposal for a truce in the Black Sea to the lifting of certain sanctions.

Economic coercion under the guise of diplomacy

Russia announced on March 25 that a US-mediated deal to suspend military operations in the Black Sea would only take effect if certain sanctions, particularly those targeting its state-owned agricultural bank, were lifted.

Amid rising tensions, President Trump has threatened to escalate pressure—not through diplomacy, but via punitive economic measures. In a recent interview with NBC News, Trump said he would impose secondary tariffs of up to 50% on all Russian oil exports if he concludes that Moscow is not cooperating on a peace deal.

“If Russia and I are unable to make a deal on stopping the bloodshed in Ukraine… I am going to put secondary tariffs on oil, on all oil coming out of Russia,” he said, warning that countries or companies buying Russian oil could also face US penalties.

Though Western sanctions have led to a reported 16% decline in shipments by Russian state-owned Sovcomflot in 2024, Moscow has adapted by working with non-Western partners and employing a fleet of independent vessels—dismissively labeled a “shadow fleet” by Western officials—to sustain its oil trade.

April 3, 2025 Posted by | Economics | , | Leave a comment

Germany acting irresponsibly by sending troops to Lithuania

By Lucas Leiroz | April 3, 2025

Germany is moving forward with its remilitarization process amid ongoing tensions with the Russian Federation. For the first time since World War II, the country is creating a permanent military program to deploy troops abroad, which represents a dangerous escalation in the already fragile European security architecture.

The German Army’s 45th Armored Brigade is currently being deployed to Lithuania, where it will operate in the region close to the border with Belarus. The move is part of Germany’s plan to “strengthen NATO’s eastern flank,” which is seen as a necessity by Western military hawks, given that, in Europe’s assessment, a conflict with Russia could soon begin.

A ceremony was held in Vilnius on April 1, at which Brigadier General Christoph Huber was inaugurated as commander of the newly created German military unit to “protect” the Baltic states. The ceremony was announced by the German Bundeswehr Association (DBwV), a well-known lobby group for the German military-industrial complex. This shows how the escalation of European tensions is serving the selfish interests of specific groups, and not the real wishes of the German people.

General Huber stated in his speech that the Germans have a “clear mission” in Lithuania. According to him, Berlin must help the Baltic partners to guarantee European democratic principles, such as freedom and security, in the face of alleged “threats” on NATO’s eastern flank. The speech sounded like an attempt to justify or disguise the bellicose and irresponsible intentions behind the German military maneuvers.

“We have a clear mission. We have to ensure the protection, freedom, and security of our Lithuanian allies here on NATO’s eastern flank,” the official said

In fact, this German move is the result of a long process of expanding the actions of the country’s defense and security services abroad. Previously, Berlin had even updated its legislation to allow the German military intelligence service to operate in foreign territories considered part of NATO’s “eastern flank.” The justification given by officials was the alleged existence of significant threats from Russia, including attempts at espionage and sabotage against European targets – accusations that were never proven.

“The amendment grants the Military Counterintelligence Service the necessary powers to protect the Bundeswehr against espionage and sabotage by foreign powers, as well as against extremist attempts at infiltration from within its own ranks, even during foreign missions,” a spokesperson for the German Ministry of Defense said at the time.

In practice, it can be said that Germany is doing its best to increase its participation in European military affairs. In recent decades, the German army has been considered one of the weakest among the world’s great powers. Despite historically having a strong industrial defense capacity, Germany deliberately refrained from investing in the renewal of its military forces, irresponsibly relying on the American defense umbrella.

This situation has changed since 2022. Germany remains militarily weak, and is now also facing major problems with its defense industry, considering that the country no longer has a safe and cheap source of energy due to anti-Russian sanctions. However, despite its military weaknesses, Germany has expanded its strategic ambitions, trying to project power regionally as a kind of “European leader” jointly with France. Berlin, like almost the entire EU, has chosen Russia as a target, naming it an enemy and using it as an excuse for all sorts of irresponsible escalatory policies.

In other words, anti-Russian paranoia and the desire to protect the interests of EU elites are leading Germany to reverse a historic policy of reducing its military activities. It would be legitimate for the Germans to seek remilitarization in order to strengthen national sovereignty, but that is not what is happening now. Instead, Berlin is showing itself to be even more subservient to European elites, as it is using its own soldiers to escalate the EU’s war plans against Russia.

As Russian authorities have repeatedly stated, Moscow has no territorial interests in Western countries, so there is no reason for European states to “prepare for war”. However, these policies of “preemptive” militarization in Europe could easily escalate to a point of no return if the presence of troops on the Baltic borders with the Union State (Belarus and Russia) begins to generate incidents and frictions – triggering retaliatory measures.

NATO and the EU’s own military plans create the security problems that these organizations allegedly want to avoid. There is no risk of a “Russian invasion”, but if the security crisis continues to escalate, an open conflict in the future cannot be ruled out. If the Germans want to avoid a situation of increasing hostility, they will need to reconsider their military interventionism in the countries of the post-Soviet space.

Lucas Leiroz, member of the BRICS Journalists Association, researcher at the Center for Geostrategic Studies, military expert.

You can follow Lucas on X (formerly Twitter) and Telegram.

April 3, 2025 Posted by | Militarism | , , | Leave a comment

Serbia, Hungary sign military agreement in response to Croatia’s Tripartite Pact

By Ahmed Adel | April 3, 2025

Hungary and Serbia signed a military agreement following the joint declaration of cooperation on defense by Albania, Croatia, and Kosovo on March 18 in Tirana. With military alliances forming in the Balkans and the Kosovo issue remaining unresolved, the potential for war in the region continues to increase.

The defense ministers of Serbia and Hungary, in the presence of Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, signed a Bilateral Military Cooperation Plan for 2025 on April 1. Vučić stated that the agreement on joint activities will continue to develop further, leading to rapprochement and potentially a military alliance between Serbia and Hungary.

“We aim to forge the closest strategic relations in the field of defense, and we believe that this agreement on joint activities will pave the way for a military alliance or union between Serbia and Hungary,” the Serbian leader emphasized.

It is pivotal for Serbia to establish regional military partnerships, considering its rivalry with Croatia and Albania, as well as its loss of authority over its sovereign territory, Kosovo, an Albanian separatist state with partial recognition.

The Tripartite Pact, signed between the rivals of Serbia, states that its focus is on “strengthening the defense and security industry, increasing military interoperability through joint training and exercises, countering hybrid threats, and strengthening strategic security, as well as supporting Euro-Atlantic integration.” They also announced that the pact was also open to other countries, such as Bulgaria. In this way, it is evident that the Tripartite Pact is attempting to surround Serbia fully.

Serbian Minister of Defense Bratislav Gašić stated that the signing of a Tripartite Pact by Croatia, Albania, and the “so-called Kosovo” is a “provocative move that undermines efforts to strengthen regional security.”

“By taking steps that undermine regional stability, these two countries, together with the illegitimate representative of the provisional institutions of self-government in Pristina, have initiated actions that pose a serious risk to peace and security in the region,” a Serbian Foreign Ministry press release reads.

According to Vučić, the pact was a “violation of the Agreement on Sub-Regional Arms Control” signed by Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, and Serbia in 1996.

For this reason, the signing of the military agreement between Serbia and Hungary is a significant development for Belgrade, particularly given that the latter is a member of both NATO and the European Union. It also demonstrates that Serbia is capable of responding to the provocative alliance between Croatia, Albania, and Pristina.

Serbia and Hungary initiated concrete military cooperation last year, with Hungary purchasing ammunition and all related military equipment from Serbia. On the other hand, Serbia acquired a self-propelled missile system from Hungary and 56 Russian-made armored personnel carriers.

What is also hinted at in the future within this alliance is cooperation between helicopter crews, as they will be using identical helicopters. With further purchases of these aircraft, Serbia and Hungary will have a unified fleet.

Apart from equipment and military technology, the question hanging in the air is whether this alliance possesses defensive characteristics and, if so, what kind. The agreement provides for mutual assistance in the event of some issues.

Meanwhile, Croatia is a member of both NATO and the EU, whereas Albania is a member of NATO.

Given that Hungary is also a member of NATO and the EU, it raises the question on whether Serbia is moving closer to NATO in this way, but it could also be noted that Hungary is looking for a way to distance itself from that military alliance, especially considering that both Serbia and Hungary have good relations with Moscow and there is not much trust among NATO pact members.

The EU has initiated a process to establish military alliances in parallel with the NATO pact, as it no longer trusts the NATO pact itself and is concerned about the uncertainty brought about by US President Donald Trump’s policies, which could lead to the alliance’s collapse.

Also, certain military alliances are being formed within Europe independently of NATO, such as the one between France and Greece, in response to Turkey’s increasingly belligerent behavior despite all three countries being NATO members. Nonetheless, the emerging alliance between Hungary and Serbia is a military-technical cooperation.

Croatia has a significant and historical rivalry with Serbia. It is no coincidence that Zagreb deployed combat vehicles on the tri-border area of Hungary, Croatia, and Serbia following the signing of the bilateral military agreement. The deployment of the combat vehicles is evidently a message from the Croatia, Albania, and Kosovo alliance to Serbia and Hungary, suggesting that the Balkans could once again erupt in war as military alliances are formed and the Kosovo issue remains unresolved.

Ahmed Adel is a Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher.

April 3, 2025 Posted by | Militarism | , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Company That Wants All Your Data Can’t Protect Its Own

By Didi Rankovic | Reclaim The Net | April 2, 2025

While Oracle co-founder, executive chairman, and CTO Larry Ellison is busy trying to position his company as just the right provider of future centralized surveillance systems powered by AI and containing massive amounts of sensitive information – Oracle’s existing solutions are suffering embarrassing data breaches.

Two reported recent incidents affecting Oracle Cloud, and Oracle Health – a subsidiary providing software for the healthcare industry – revealed not only technical shortcomings but also the giant’s puzzling lack of transparency, which reports say extremely frustrated those affected.

In fact, Oracle continued to deny that the first breach happened at all – even as customers were starting to confirm it.

A hacker calling themselves “rose87168” earlier in March offered data belonging to six million Oracle Cloud customers, only for Oracle to tell Bleeping Computer, “There has been no breach of Oracle Cloud. The published credentials are not for the Oracle Cloud. No Oracle Cloud customers experienced a breach or lost any data.”

The company attempting to “wordsmith statements” is how cybersecurity expert Kevin Beaumont reacted to this.

“Oracle is attempting to wordsmith statements around Oracle Cloud and use very specific words to avoid responsibility. This is not okay,” Beaumont wrote in a blog post, noting that the platform that has highly likely been affected is managed by Oracle.

A threat actor named “Andrew” is behind the second incident, which has left a number of healthcare organizations and hospitals in the US exposed to attempts to extort millions in cryptocurrency from them, in exchange for not leaking or selling the stolen patient data.

Once again, when the news about the privacy nightmare broke, Oracle started to look like something of a nightmare itself for its customers, refusing to formally admit there was a breach, and then going to considerable lengths to try and disassociate itself from the event.

This includes communicating with affected organizations without using the company’s letterhead, and even, according to reports, instructing them to communicate with the Oracle Health security officer only by phone and not email.

Oracle did not respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment when asked about the two incidents.

Merely a month prior, Larry Ellison was presenting his case for allowing Oracle to be the one to centralize pretty much all the data available in the US, including DNA.

Another of his distinctly dystopian ideas is to keep citizens on their “best behavior” via a constant AI-powered surveillance system.

April 3, 2025 Posted by | Full Spectrum Dominance | | Leave a comment

Zundel and Cole in Auschwitz

German human rights activist Ernst Zundel and Jewish revisionist David Cole investigate the iconic former concentration camp of Auschwitz to find what was really there.

View video

April 2, 2025 Posted by | Timeless or most popular, Video | | Leave a comment

HHS Ousts Peter Marks, Sending Vaccine Stocks Tumbling and Biopharma Lamenting Loss of ‘Ally’ at FDA

By Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D. | The Defender | March 31, 2025

Pharma stocks tumbled today after Peter Marks, M.D., Ph.D., director of the agency within the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) responsible for authorizing vaccines, resigned under pressure from his new boss, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

“If Peter Marks does not want to get behind restoring science to its golden standard and promoting radical transparency, then he has no place at FDA under the strong leadership of Secretary Kennedy,” an HHS official said in a statement.

Shares of Moderna, BioNTech, Novavax and Pfizer declined 11%, 7%, 6% and 2%, respectively, on the news, Fast Company reported. STAT News reported that Marks’ departure “is a worst-case scenario realized” for investors and “a biopharma industry that saw him as an ally.”

“Given Dr. Marks’ influence on the development of biologics and uncertainty as to who will replace him and how his legacy might continue, his departure will create a significant near-term overhang,” William Blair analyst Matt Phipps told Reuters.

The Biotechnology Innovation Organization, an industry lobbying group, said it was “deeply concerned” Marks’ resignation would “broadly impact the development of new, transformative therapies to fight diseases for the American people.”

Brian Hooker, Ph.D., chief scientific officer for Children’s Health Defense (CHD), said the reaction to Marks’ departure on the part of the markets and the pharmaceutical industry is indicative of the influence Big Pharma had over the FDA. He said:

“Marks gave an over $100 billion gift to Pfizer and Moderna via the woefully undertested and outright dangerous COVID-19 mRNA vaccine. So, yes, for the short term, I would imagine that some investors would not like his departure from the FDA.

“Marks’ departure also signals a shift from ‘sick care’ and ‘customers for life’ where, unfortunately, Pharma invests now, to ‘Make America Healthy Again’ where everyone benefits from ending chronic disease in the U.S.”

John Gilmore, executive director of the Autism Action Network, welcomed Marks’ departure. “The American people are well-served by Marks’ resignation.” Gilmore cited the “institutional failure” of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) “to use the highest standards for evaluating the safety and efficacy of products that are injected in almost all American children.”

Marks has led the FDA’s CBER since 2012 and “played a key role,” The Wall Street Journal reported, in Operation Warp Speed in 2020, leading to the development of the COVID-19 vaccines.

In his resignation letter, Marks wrote: “It has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the Secretary, but rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies.”

Marks’ ‘support of immunizations conflicted with Kennedy’s skepticism’

According to the Journal, an HHS official gave Marks a choice between resigning or being fired. His resignation is effective April 5. Marks wanted to remain in his position, but “his support of immunizations conflicted with Kennedy’s skepticism.”

“Undermining confidence in well-established vaccines that have met the high standards for quality, safety, and effectiveness that have been in place for decades at FDA is irresponsible, detrimental to public health, and a clear danger to our nation’s health, safety. and security,” Marks wrote in his resignation letter.

Marks said he was “willing to work to address” Kennedy’s concerns on vaccine safety, including through a series of public meetings, but that these proposals were rejected. He also accused Kennedy of spreading “misinformation and lies” during the “ongoing multistate measles outbreak.”

But in a post on X, Steve Kirsch, founder of the Vaccine Safety Research Foundation, said that while Marks “claimed he wanted to stop misinformation,” he “refused all offers to meet with the ‘misinformation spreaders’ to settle the question on just who is spreading the misinformation.”

While Marks claimed he was willing to address questions on vaccine safety, he also wrote, “Efforts currently being advanced by some on the adverse health effects of vaccination are concerning.”

One day before Marks’ resignation, Kennedy announced the creation of a new sub-agency under the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to focus on vaccine injuries — part of a broader restructuring of public health agencies, including the FDA.

In February, Kennedy promised that under his watch, HHS and CDC would develop a better system for tracking vaccine injuries.

Earlier this month, Reuters reported that unnamed sources within the CDC said the agency was planning to study the possible link between vaccines and autism. The story triggered negative mainstream news reports claiming the study isn’t needed.

Last week, The Washington Post, citing anonymous sources, reported that HHS had tapped researcher David Geier — a researcher and expert on the connections between toxic exposures and autism — to lead a study of possible links between vaccines and autism. The Post and other media outlets used the opportunity to attack Geier and the need for such a study.

Marks’ resignation also came as the FDA is considering a petition a group of scientists submitted earlier this year, calling upon the FDA to suspend or withdraw the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines.

Marks ‘became a cheerleader for the jab’

Writing on Substack, investigative journalist Maryanne Demasi, Ph.D., said it’s “evident there was a significant clash over vaccine safety” that led to Marks’ resignation. She said Marks’ departure “may be an opportunity for the FDA to refocus on its mission of protecting public health rather than rubber-stamping new vaccine approvals.”

Epidemiologist Nicolas Hulscher agreed. “Those who believe vaccine safety must not be questioned do not belong in our regulatory agencies. When it comes to injectable products, safety is more important than blind faith in vaccine ideology.”

According to The New York Times, while Marks “was viewed as a steady hand by many during the Covid pandemic,” he was criticized “for being overly generous to companies that sought approvals for therapies with mixed evidence of a benefit.”

The Times cited Marks’ role in pressuring two FDA scientists to approve full licensure of Pfizer’s mRNA COVID-19 vaccine in 2021, leading to the researchers’ resignation. Pfizer’s vaccine was fully licensed in August 2021 — one day later, the Biden administration mandated COVID-19 vaccination for military service members.

The rushed licensure of the Pfizer vaccine was the topic of a congressional hearing last year in which Marks testified. In a post on X Saturday, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) wrote, “Instead of verifying safety and efficacy of the shots, Marks swept things under the rug and became a cheerleader for the jab.”

“In order to get the vaccines to people in need when thousands of people were dying, we actually allowed the safety to be authorized with just two months of median follow-up, rather than the normal six to 12. But we were confident that that would capture adverse events,” Marks testified at last year’s hearing.

‘It was clear that he did not want to know about our injuries’

While Marks was actively engaged in the licensure of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, he “remained steadfast” in dismissing concerns about injuries related to the COVID-19 vaccines as “misinformation,” Demasi wrote.

In 2023, The BMJ wrote that “more than once” during FDA meetings, Marks “expressed confusion about why it would matter to doctors whether or not regulators acknowledged that a condition might be related to the vaccine.”

Documents CHD obtained last year through a Freedom of Information Act request showed that Marks was aware of COVID-19 vaccine injuries in early 2021 when several vaccine injury victims emailed him for help. Marks blew off scheduled meetings with them.

According to TrialSite News, even though Marks was aware of the growing number of COVID-19 vaccine injuries, “vaccine injury became a political hot potato under the Biden administration,” leading Marks to abandon the vaccine-injured.

Brianne Dressen, co-founder of React19, an advocacy group for the vaccine-injured, sustained serious injuries after participating in a clinical trial for the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine in 2020 and later sought meetings with Marks but was rebuffed.

“Constant emails and calls with Marks … sent while I was in constant pain, literally begging for help, begging for them to help others, begging for a lifeline. A lifeline that never ever came,” Dressen said.

Dr. Danice Hertz, a retired gastroenterologist from California injured by the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, also communicated with Marks but said he “brushed off anyone who contacted him regarding vaccine side effects.”

“He systematically refused to hear our pleas for acknowledgment and help,” Hertz said. “This is why the medical community is unaware of these injuries and cannot help us. One would think that the FDA would want to know about serious adverse reactions to the novel COVID vaccines. I can say from first-hand experience that they don’t … It was clear that he did not want to know about our injuries.”

Dressen said it “didn’t matter what we said or how we said it, COVID vaccine injuries were not a priority at the FDA. Didn’t matter if it was safety signals for MIS-V, dysautonomia, neuropathy, tinnitus or reports of suicides. It was never enough. We begged, we pleaded, we pushed as hard as we could, and came up with nothing.”

According to Demasi, Marks instead “blurred the line between regulation and promotion” by participating in FDA videos promoting the COVID-19 vaccines and by authorizing COVID-19 mRNA vaccines for children without sufficient testing.

“Without randomized data regarding clinical outcomes, he repeatedly approved COVID boosters for kids as young as 6 months,” Dr. Vinay Prasad, professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco, wrote on Substack, calling these “some of the biggest regulatory errors in the 21st century.”

Demasi said Marks “repeatedly pointed to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) as proof of rigorous safety monitoring, yet failed to improve its efficiency.”

During last year’s congressional hearing, Marks claimed that numerous false reports of vaccine injuries are submitted to VAERS, a government-run database. However, he acknowledged, “We probably have not done a good enough job of communicating sometimes the actual numbers of deaths versus what’s in VAERS.”

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.

April 2, 2025 Posted by | Corruption, Deception, Science and Pseudo-Science | , | Leave a comment

Canadian PM Mark Carney Downplays Role in Freedom Convoy Crackdown Despite Backing Emergency Measures

Carney called protest “sedition” and Urged financial chokehold

By Didi Rankovic | Reclaim The Net | April 1, 2025

Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney recently gave a masterclass in the art of political evasion and deflection – all the more “masterful” since one of the arguments he went for was that he is not really a politician.

This unfolded before TV cameras in the area of the 2022 Freedom Convoy blockade, which the authorities led by former PM Justin Trudeau and his Liberals clamped down on using unprecedented measures.

They included invoking the Emergencies Act to target the protesters against restrictive Covid-era policies with anything from extreme vilification to freezing their bank accounts.

“Sedition,” is what Carney decided to brand the civil protest in an op-ed published in the Globe and Mail on February 7, 2022, and, true to his previous roles in Big Finance, proposed to put an end to the protest (he called it “this occupation”) by “choking off the money” that funded it.

Now – given his current “affiliation” with the Liberal party, the new prime minister was asked to send a message to those Canadians who lost trust in the previous cabinet because of its handling of the protest.

Instead of doing that, Carney first sought to “distanced himself from himself” – saying that he has only been a politician for two months, and claiming that he took on his new role because he “knew this country needed big change.”

And he then proceeded to list all the allegedly significant changes achieved during his short time in office so far, thus deflecting from the Freedom Convoy question.

Despite his best efforts to paint himself as no more than a conscientious citizen determined to help his country through difficult times – three years ago this former governor of the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England was an informal advisor to Trudeau.

And he not only accused the Freedom of Convoy protestors of committing “sedition” and those donating to the cause of “funding sedition,” but was also mentioned in the Public Order Emergency Commission documents (which investigated the invocation of the Emergencies Act).

Spoiler: Carney supported that decision, along with the freezing of citizens’ bank accounts because they protested against the government.

But Carney’s failed upward now to become prime minister, and “re-earn trust” – not to mention, introduce “big change.”

April 2, 2025 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance, Progressive Hypocrite | , , | Leave a comment

Iran can rely on its hydrocarbon resources for 100 years: NIOC

Press TV – March 30, 2025

The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) has said that production from hydrocarbon resources in the country will continue for the next 100 years.

In a statement issued on Sunday, the NIOC detailed its performance in the calendar year that ended on March 20, saying that Iran’s hydrocarbon resources amount to the equivalent of more than 1.2 trillion barrels of oil, adding that some 340 billion barrels of those resources are available for extraction.

The statement said that Iran can rely on those resources for the next 100 years considering the current extraction rates and technologies.

The NIOC said oil and gas production in Iran had increased to record levels in the last calendar year, adding that the amount of natural gas delivered to the Iranian pipeline grid had reached an all-time high of 870 million cubic meters (mcm) in the past winter.

It said that total gas production in Iran had increased by an average of 36 mcm per day in the second half of the calendar year to late March to reach 1,106 mcm per day.

The company said that gas production from the Iranian side of South Pars, the world’s largest gas field shared with Qatar in the Persian Gulf, had reached 716 mcm per day.

The statement also elaborated on efforts to increase oil production from several oilfields in south and southwest Iran despite sanctions targeting the exports of crude oil from the country.

The NIOC said that Iran’s baseline oil production would increase by 250,000 barrels per day (bpd) to reach 2.189 million bpd in the near future thanks to $3 billion worth of investment provided by the Central Bank of Iran.

April 2, 2025 Posted by | Economics | | Leave a comment

Saskatchewan becomes first Canadian province to fully eliminate carbon tax

Life Site News | April 1, 2025

Saskatchewan has become the first Canadian province to free itself entirely of the carbon tax.

On March 27, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe announced the removal of the provincial and federal carbon tax beginning April 1, boosting the province’s industry and making Saskatchewan the first carbon tax free province.

“The immediate effect is the removal of the carbon tax on your Sask Power bills, saving Saskatchewan families and small businesses hundreds of dollars a year. And in the longer term, it will reduce the cost of other consumer products that have the industrial carbon tax built right into their price,” said Moe.

Under Moe’s direction, Saskatchewan has dropped the industrial carbon tax which he says will allow Saskatchewan to thrive under a “tariff environment.”

“I would hope that all of the parties running in the federal election would agree with those objectives and allow the provinces to regulate in this area without imposing the federal backstop,” he continued.

The removal of the tax is estimated to save Saskatchewan residents up to 18 cents a liter in gas prices.

The removal of the tax will take place on April 1, the same day the consumer carbon tax will reduce to 0 percent under Prime Minister Mark Carney’s direction. Notably, Carney did not scrap the carbon tax legislation: he just reduced its current rate to zero. This means it could come back at any time.

Furthermore, while Carney has dropped the consumer carbon tax, he has previously revealed that he wishes to implement a corporation carbon tax, the effects of which many argued would trickle down to all Canadians.

The Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities (SARM) celebrated Moe’s move, noting that the carbon tax was especially difficult on farmers.

“I think the carbon tax has been in place for approximately six years now coming up in April and the cost keeps going up every year,” SARM president Bill Huber said.

“It puts our farming community and our business people in rural municipalities at a competitive disadvantage, having to pay this and compete on the world stage,” he continued.

“We’ve got a carbon tax on power – and that’s going to be gone now – and propane and natural gas and we use them more and more every year, with grain drying and different things in our farming operations,” he explained.

“I know most producers that have grain drying systems have three-phase power. If they haven’t got natural gas, they have propane to fire those dryers. And that cost goes on and on at a high level, and it’s made us more noncompetitive on a world stage,” Huber decalred.

The carbon tax is wildly unpopular and blamed for the rising cost of living throughout Canada. Currently, Canadians living in provinces under the federal carbon pricing scheme pay $80 per tonne.

April 2, 2025 Posted by | Economics, Malthusian Ideology, Phony Scarcity | , | Leave a comment

New Info on How the Feds Helped Censor a Bombshell

By Didi Rankovic | Reclaim The Net | April 2, 2025

The US House Judiciary Committee has released internal chat logs, that show the FBI moved into cover-up mode the very day the New York Post published the Hunter Biden laptop story, on October 14, 2020.

The logs, first reported about by journalists Michael Shellenberger and Catherine Herridge, reveal that the FBI employees were immediately instructed “not to discuss the Biden matter,” while an intelligence analyst who, during a call with Twitter, accidentally confirmed that the story, i.e., the laptop, was real, was placed under a “gag order.”

The reason the analyst, who was with the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division, was able to so quickly confirm the reporting was based on credible information was the fact the FBI had seized and authenticated Hunter Biden’s laptop several months earlier.

Big Tech platforms – notably Twitter and Facebook – then started censoring the article, branding it falsely “Russian disinformation.” By maintaining the “no comment” policy instead of confirming that the laptop was real and under investigation, the FBI was in effect tacitly promoting the false narrative about foreign interference.

These moves originated from the Foreign Influence Task Force, which was shut down earlier this year for its activities related to censorship through pressure on social platforms.

The laptop scandal was unfolding during a crucial time in the 2020 campaign and represents one of the most egregious publicly known examples of political censorship of free speech and media orchestrated by government agencies.

The chat logs that have now been published reveal that one of the FBI staff involved in the Hunter Biden laptop story suppression was Bradley Benavides.

Only weeks prior, Benavides featured in another controversy: that time in what appeared to be a smear campaign against Senators Ron Johnson and Chuck Grassley, who were allegedly “advancing Russian disinformation.”

At the time, the senators just so happened to be investigating Hunter Biden’s financial connections to foreign governments.

A letter the Judiciary Committee sent Benavides in June 2023, shows that he had by that time gone through the Big Tech-Big Government “revolving door” – and was senior risk manager at Amazon.

April 2, 2025 Posted by | Corruption, Deception, Full Spectrum Dominance, Russophobia | , | Leave a comment

Iran presses the IAEA on Trump’s ‘bombing’ threat, reaffirms no nukes pursuit

IRNA – April 2, 2025

Tehran – The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) must adopt a clear position regarding threats against Iran’s civilian nuclear facilities, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said Tuesday, days after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to “bomb” Iran.

Araqchi was speaking on the phone with the secretary general of the IAEA, Rafael Grossi.

He emphasized that given the recurrence of such threats, the Islamic Republic will take every necessary measure to protect its nuclear program.

Grossi, for his part, said he would talk with other parties to create a suitable atmosphere to help resolve existing issues. He also asked to visit Iran, which Araqchi accepted.

Trump said on Sunday that he would order military strikes against Iran if Tehran did not strike a new deal with Washington on its nuclear program. “If they don’t make a deal, there will be bombing,” he said in an interview with NBC News.

Iran has warned to respond swiftly and decisively to any act of aggression on its soil.

Reacting to Trump’s threat, a senior adviser to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said that even though Iran doesn’t seek nuclear weapons, any strike on the country by the United States or Israel on that false pretext would force the country to develop atomic bombs for defensive purposes.

“If America or Israel bomb Iran under the nuclear pretext, Iran will be compelled to move toward producing an atomic bomb,” Ali Larijani said during a televised interview on Monday.

Araqchi, however, once again clarified Tehran’s long-standing position, which is based on a religious decree (fatwa) by Ayatollah Khamenei prohibiting the development, possession, and use of nuclear weapons, reaffirming that the country will never produce or acquire any atomic bombs under any circumstances.

He said in an X post on Tuesday that ten years after signing the Iran deal and seven years after the U.S. unilaterally walked away from it under Trump’s first term, “there is not ONE SHRED OF PROOF that Iran has violated this commitment.”

Meanwhile, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric was asked on Tuesday to comment on Trump’s threat, to which he said, “We urge everyone to avoid inflammatory rhetoric.”

“I think the UN Charter is very clear in encouraging Member States to settle all disputes through diplomatic means,” he said in response to the question asked by IRNA’s correspondent.

On March 12, Trump sent a letter to Iran via an emissary from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), requesting that negotiations be opened into a deal that he says would stop Iran from building a nuclear weapon. This is while, in 2018, he pulled out of a multinational nuclear deal with Iran. On February 4, the U.S. president signed a presidential memorandum to restore a hostile policy from his first term of “maximum pressure” on the Islamic Republic.

Iran, which has relayed its response to the U.S. president’s letter via Oman, has ruled out direct negotiations with the United States as long as the “maximum pressure” policy and the military threats are in place.

“Diplomatic engagement worked in the past and can still work. BUT, it should be clear to all that there is—by definition—no such thing as a ‘military option’ let alone a ‘military solution,’” Araqchi said in his X post.

April 2, 2025 Posted by | Wars for Israel | , , , | Leave a comment

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