Yemeni forces shoot down another American spy drone, third in a week
Press TV – September 16, 2024
Yemeni Armed Forces have shot down another advanced American drone in support of Palestinians, who have come under a US-enabled Israeli genocide in the Gaza Strip, and in protest at Washington’s aggression against Yemen.
The MQ-9 Reaper was struck in the airspace of Dhamar Province in western Yemen on Monday.
The heavy aircraft, which is used for dual combat and spying purposes, is worth around $35 million.
The drone was the third aircraft of the type to be brought down by the forces in the span of a week and the 10th one to face such a fate since October 7.
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The forces have been carrying out numerous strikes against the occupied Palestinian territories since that day, when the Israeli regime began the war on Gaza.
Their most daring pro-Palestinian strike of the type came on Sunday, when they attacked an Israeli military site in Tel Aviv with a new hypersonic ballistic missile.
Also on Sunday, leader of Yemen’s Ansarullah resistance movement once again underscored the country’s support for Palestinians in the face of the Israeli genocide, saying the operations would continue until the regime ended the war and the siege.
At least 41,206 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed so far during the brutal Israeli onslaught, which enjoys unquestioning political, military, and intelligence support on the part of the United States.
The forces have also been targeting Israeli ships and vessels heading towards or away from the occupied territories as means of trying to force the regime into stopping the war and a siege that it has been simultaneously imposing on Gaza.
The United States has, on the other hand, been staging attacks against Yemen as means of trying to stop these operations.
China calls out Anglo-American ‘disinformation’
RT | September 16, 2024
Claims by Washington and London that Beijing is supporting Russia’s military in the conflict with Ukraine are “groundless,” the Chinese embassy in the UK stated on Monday.
The diplomatic mission responded to the ‘Joint Statement on the US-UK Strategic Dialogue,’ which was issued after talks between President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Keir Starmer at the White House last week. Among other things, the document said the sides shared “particular concern” about what they called “China’s support to Russia’s defense industrial base.”
The Chinese embassy rejected the accusation, stressing that Beijing has “always maintained an objective and fair position, actively promoted peace talks and pushed for a political solution” to the conflict between Moscow and Kiev.
“We firmly oppose the relevant countries’ constant propagation of disinformation that China supports Russia’s defense industry,” the statement read.
By making such claims, the US and UK are “adding fuel to the fire and shifting the blame” from themselves for the continuation of the fighting between Moscow and Kiev, the embassy said, adding that they should “stop” behaving in this manner.
The joint statement by Washington and London also underlined the importance of close coordination between the two nations in promoting their common values and interests in the Indo-Pacific region. The sides insisted that “peace and stability” in the Taiwan Strait, which separates Taiwan and mainland China, are “indispensable to the security and prosperity of the international community and called for the peaceful resolution of cross-Strait issues.
” The Chinese embassy reminded the US and UK that “the Taiwan question is purely China’s internal affair” and that “No external forces have the right to interfere.” Beijing considers the self-governed island to be part of its territory under the ‘One China’ principle.
“The biggest threat to peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait now is the separatist activities for ‘Taiwan independence’ and the interference of external forces,” the diplomats stressed.
The mission blasted the Anglo-American joint statement, saying that it “makes groundless accusations… and interferes in China’s internal affairs.” Beijing “strongly deplores and firmly rejects this.”
Would Be Assassin is a Media Darling
Ryan Wesley Routh, former roofer from N. Carolina and implacable foe of Trump and Putin, has often been approvingly quoted by MSM
By John Leake | Courageous Discourse | September 16, 2024
While we often hear that middle-aged southern white men pose a grave threat to American democracy and public safety, Ryan Wesley Routh—a former roofer from North Carolina who looks and sounds like a dumb cracker —has, in recent years, been a model of anti-Trump and anti-Putin sentiment. Also notable is the fact that in 2002, he was charged with the felony possession of a fully automatic firearm.
The following is a collection of statements he has made to various MSM outlets over the last couple of years.
“It’s a pretty big yard, but the front bank is completely full,” Ryan Routh, an American volunteer who started the memorial last year, said. “There may be 10,000 at this point. ‘Flags of the fallen’ is what I’ve been calling it.”
Routh, a former construction worker who lives in Hawaii, is one of the thousands of foreigners who, after seeing news reports about the invasion, travelled into Ukraine in early 2022 to volunteer as fighters or medics.
“Most of the Ukrainian authorities do not want these soldiers,” said Ryan Routh, head of the International Volunteer Center in Ukraine, a private organization which helps foreigners seeking to assist the war effort connect with military units and aid groups. “I have had partners meeting with [Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense] every week and still have not been able to get them to agree to issue one single visa.”
The New York Times article backs up the Russian Defense Ministry’s information regarding the countries which are actively trying to recruit mercenaries to join the fight in Ukraine. It wrote about Ryan Routh, a former construction worker from North Carolina who spent several months in Ukraine last year and is now seeking recruits among Afghan soldiers who fled the Taliban. He plans to move them to Ukraine from Pakistan and Iran – in some cases, illegally. Nevertheless, dozens of people have apparently expressed an interest.
With Legion growth stalling, Ryan Routh, a former construction worker from Greensboro, N.C., is seeking recruits from among Afghan soldiers who fled the Taliban. Mr. Routh, who spent several months in Ukraine last year, said he planned to move them, in some cases illegally, from Pakistan and Iran to Ukraine. He said dozens had expressed interest. “We can probably purchase some passports through Pakistan, since it’s such a corrupt country,” he said in an interview from Washington.
The man behind the wall of banners, Ryan Routh, told CNA that he posted the flags to pay tribute to the nations that have citizens fighting in Ukraine’s foreign legion, the International Legion of Territorial Defense of Ukraine. Routh said there have been no protests about the presence of the Taiwan flag so far, but even if China is dissatisfied, “I can order another 1,000, they can’t touch my flags.”
Routh, 56, originally hails from Hawaii, but most recently worked in the construction industry in North Carolina and has no military background. He came to Kyiv more than two months ago to show his support for Ukraine and wanted to join the foreign legion.
However, due to his age, he was unable to do so, and he is instead currently assisting the legion in recruiting volunteers for the Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie units in Kharkiv. Thus far, Routh has assisted in recruiting 70 volunteers to join the fight against Russia.
Routh began posting flags on the wall of a sandbagged monument in Kyiv’s Independence Square. He told the news agency that he included Taiwan’s flag because he had met at least five Taiwanese volunteers serving in the legion over the past two months and learned about Taiwan’s contribution to Ukraine’s war effort.
According to Routh, he has yet to receive any protests from China about the presence of the Taiwan flag. He said that any pressure that would come from China would be “nothing” compared to the daily assault by Russian forces on every soldier who supports Ukraine.
He said that he will continue to stay in Kyiv and encourage more people to fight against Russia. European countries deliver truckloads of food, medical supplies, and military equipment, but Ukraine may need three to four times more support, estimated Routh.
The volunteer pointed out that there are only 50 national flags on the stone wall, meaning that there are over 100 countries that do not have a single soldier that has volunteered to fight for Ukraine, “This is unacceptable.” He emphasized the war between Russia and Ukraine is a battle of good versus evil.
Routh asserted that at this critical moment, all countries should give their soldiers unpaid leave and provide air tickets to fly to Ukraine to participate in the war to prevent Russia from starting another war. “We should be united and share success and failure, which is what these flags stand for,” said Routh.
Thus, Routh has become a seemingly improbable face and voice of prevailing Democrat Party sentiment and foreign policy orthodoxy.
Ukraine war turns into Russian roulette
By M. K. BHADRAKUMAR | Indian Punchline | September 16, 2024
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer met with the US President Joe Biden in the White House on Friday with the question of the use of long-range missiles by Ukraine to hit deep inside Russia on their agenda of conversation. But there were no announcements, nor was there any joint press conference.
Starmer later told the media that the talks were “productive” but concentrated on “strategy” rather than a “particular step or tactic”. He did not signal any decision on allowing Kiev to fire long-range missiles into Russia.
Starmer said no final decision had been taken on the Storm Shadow missiles and hinted that further developments may follow at the gathering of the UN General Assembly later this month. “We’ll obviously pick up again in UNGA in just a few days time with a wider group of individuals,” he said.
One reason for such extreme secrecy is that the US and UK are intensely conscious of the Russian President Vladimir Putin’s explicit warning on Thursday that any use of western long-range missiles to strike Russia “will mean that NATO countries, the United States, and European countries are parties to the war in Ukraine. This will mean their direct involvement in the conflict, and it will clearly change the very essence, the very nature of the conflict dramatically.”
Putin added in measured words: “This will mean that NATO countries – the United States and European countries –- are at war with Russia. And if this is the case, then, bearing in mind the change in the essence of the conflict, we will make appropriate decisions in response to the threats that will be posed to us.”
Admittedly, Putin has given similar warnings before also, but did not follow through even when western weaponry was used by Ukraine with impunity to invade Russia recently. So much so that Biden was plainly dismissive about the latest Kremlin warning, saying, “I don’t think much about Vladimir Putin.”
On its part, Moscow estimates that although no official decision on the matter has been announced, it has already been made and communicated to Kiev, and that Moscow would have to respond with actions of its own.
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov, Moscow’s point person on the diplomatic track, was quoted as saying on Saturday, “The decision has been made, the carte blanche and all indulgences have been given (to Kiev), so we [Russia] are ready for everything. And we will react in a way that will not be pretty.”
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who now serves as deputy chairman of the country’s security council, went a step further saying that the West is testing Russia’s patience but it is not limitless. He said Ukraine’s invasion already gave Russia formal grounds to use its nuclear arsenal.
Medvedev warned that Moscow could either resort to nuclear weapons in the end, or use some of its non-nuclear but still deadly novel weapons for a large-scale attack. “And that would be it. A giant, grey, melted spot instead of ‘the mother of Russian cities’,” he wrote on the Telegram messaging app, referring to Kiev.
Putin, in his remark on Thursday once again rejected the Anglo-American sophistry that it is Ukraine that will be using any western long-range missiles and not NATO. He pointed out that the Ukrainian army “is not capable of using cutting-edge high-precision long-range systems supplied by the West. They cannot do that. These weapons are impossible to employ without intelligence data from satellites which Ukraine does not have. This can only be done using the European Union’s satellites, or US satellites – in general, NATO satellites…
“most important, the key point even – is that only NATO military personnel can assign flight missions to these missile systems. Ukrainian servicemen cannot do this. Therefore, it is not a question of allowing the Ukrainian regime to strike Russia with these weapons or not. It is about deciding whether NATO countries become directly involved in the military conflict or not.”
Interestingly, neither Washington nor London has so far refuted Putin’s above explanation and, curiously, it has been expunged altogether from British press reports — fearing, perhaps, that public opinion might militate against such direct involvement by the UK in a war against Russia in a combat role!
Moscow anticipates that the US-UK ploy may be to test the waters by first (openly) using Britain’s Storm Shadow long-range air-launched cruise missile, which has already been supplied to Ukraine. On Friday, Russia expelled six British diplomats assigned to the Moscow embassy in a clear warning that Uk-Russia ties will be affected. Russia has already warned the UK of severe consequences if the Storm Shadow were to be used to hit Russian territory.
What makes the developing situation extremely dangerous is that the cat-and-mouse game so far about NATO’s covert involvement in the Ukraine war is giving way to a game of Russian roulette that follows the laws of Probability Theory.
That is to say, although Russia cannot be defeated or evicted from the territories in eastern and southern Ukraine that it annexed, Washington and London regard that the final outcome of this random event cannot yet be determined before it occurs; it may even be any one of several possible outcomes, and the probability cannot be ruled out that the actual outcome might even be determined by chance.
Apparently, Biden believes that Russia’s current battlefield dominance is a random phenomenon and possible outcomes range from an annihilation of Russian military power to a large-scale disruption of life in Russia and a possible collapse of Russia — at a minimum, the weakening of the Russian hand in any future negotiations. Simply put, the war is now about Russia rather than Ukraine and long-range missiles can be a game changer.
Thus, Biden, with no political constraints working on him anymore, is escalating the war to create new facts on the ground before his presidency ends in January, which may create conditions for permanent NATO military presence on Ukrainian territory and present Russia with a fait accompli.
Such a strategy built on the quicksands of probability is akin to a game of Russian roulette — an act of bravado. Indeed, Biden’s options to support Ukraine are shrinking with each escalation, As the Wall Street Journal puts it, “With only four months left in the Biden administration and little hope of Congress approving additional funding for Ukraine no matter who wins the presidency, the White House is debating how best to help Kyiv given its limited toolbox.”
Equally, Europe’s interest in the war is also waning. European politics is becoming unpredictable with the ascendancy of the far-right in Germany, the crisis of leadership in French politics, the relative decline of EU’s economy vis-a-vis global rivals due to limited innovation, high energy prices and skills gaps, etc. and, of course, the overarching economic crisis in Europe with no end in sight, as brought out starkly in the recent report by Mario Draghi.
Basically, Biden is pre-setting the trajectory of the war beyond next January so that even after his retirement, his policy approach aimed at inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia remains on track. White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on Saturday that Washington is working on a “substantial” round of further assistance for Kiev. He confirmed a meeting this month between Biden and his Ukrainian counterpart Zelensky.
Sullivan noted that Biden is working to put Ukraine in the “best possible position to prevail” during his final months in office. The bottom line is that Biden’s war strategy is attenuating as “escalation management” while NATO transitions as a direct party to hostilities.
Palestinian fighter from Shatila refugee camp dies after 38 years in Austrian prison
By Dieter Reinisch | Press TV | September 15, 2024
On Friday, September 13, 2024, Tawfiq Chaovali, alias Imad Omran, a Palestinian resistance figure, passed away in Stein prison in Krems, Austria, after almost 40 years of incarceration.
Chaovali joined the Palestinian resistance at a young age and was actively involved in the fight against the Israeli invasion of Beirut in 1982 as a Palestinian refugee in the country.
Following the infamous Sabra and Shatila massacre in Beirut in September 1982, he participated in a retaliatory operation targeting the Israeli airline El Al at Vienna-Schwechat Airport in 1985.
Born in 1960, Chaovali grew up in the Shatila refugee camp, established in southern Lebanon in 1949 for Palestinian refugees. At the young age of 16, in 1975, he joined the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO).
His father was killed in an Israeli air raid near Sidon, a city in southern Lebanon.
In the summer of 1982, after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, Chaovali fled to Tunisia. However, he returned to Lebanon a year later. Upon his return, he joined the Abu Nidal Organization, a Fatah-affiliated resistance group, to fight against the Israeli regime.
In late 1985, Chaovali traveled to Austria via Hungary. Just days after his arrival, on December 27, 1985, an operation was carried out at Vienna-Schwechat Airport, which coincided with a similar operation at Rome’s Fiumicino Airport.
At around 9:00 AM, three attackers stormed a section of the departure hall at the Vienna airport, throwing a smoke grenade and three hand grenades toward the check-in counter for El Al and opening fire with machine guns.
Four people, including one of the attackers, were immediately killed, and 45 others were injured, 18 of them critically. Two victims were en route to Tel Aviv to permanently settle in the occupied territories.
Some reports claimed that passengers on board included Israeli military pilots involved in the Lebanon invasion. This claim, however, was later refuted by the PLO.
The Abu Nidal group fighters had entered Austria using Tunisian passports obtained in Libya. Two of the attackers were wounded and captured after a lengthy car chase, while Abdel Aziz Merzoughi, one of the gunmen, died after their vehicle was stopped on a road near the Slovak capital, Bratislava.
Chaovali and Mongi Ben Saadaoui, the other two attackers, were subsequently arrested by Austrian police with severe injuries.
Initially, both men refused to provide statements. “They had no ID cards. When asked if they were Palestinians, they answered, ‘I speak English,’” reported the Austrian newspaper Die Presse on December 28, 1985.
It later emerged that both of them were Palestinian refugees from the Sabra and Shatila camps, and Chaovali had witnessed the horrible massacre firsthand.
They had been trained for the mission in Lebanon and had met with the Rome attackers in Switzerland. The Abu Nidal Group, also known as the Fatah Revolutionary Council, claimed responsibility for the attacks in Vienna and Rome as retaliation for the massacres committed by Israeli forces and their allies in Lebanon.
Notably, the massacre at Sabra and Shatila, carried out on September 16, 1982, by the Israeli occupation and the Phalangist militia, resulted in the rape, torture, and murder of between 2,000 and 3,500 Palestinian refugees and Lebanese civilians.
Chaovali and his comrades sought revenge for these atrocities, as well as for numerous other massacres carried out by Israeli forces and their proxies in Lebanon.
One of the attackers who survived the Rome assault had also lost his father in the Sabra and Shatila massacre.
On the evening of December 27, 1985, an anonymous caller contacted a Spanish radio station, claiming that the Abu Nidal Organization, or Fatah Revolutionary Council, was responsible for the attacks in Vienna and Rome. The group later officially claimed responsibility under the name “Cells of the Arab Fedayeen.”
This was not the first attack carried out by the Abu Nidal group in Vienna. On May 1, 1981, Heinz Nittal, head of the Austria-Israel Friendship Society, a Zionist lobby group, was killed in a similar operation.
Founded by Abu Nidal in 1974 after his split from the PLO, the Abu Nidal Organization operated out of training camps in Lebanon and Libya. British journalist Patrick Seale, in his book about Abu Nidal, recounts an incident in Vienna in 1988, where he met a woman who had survived the airport attack:
“I attended a party hosted by the Friends of Palestine and was struck by a woman who spoke passionately about the Palestinian cause. A former Austrian foreign minister, who was also present, told me that she had been a passenger at Vienna airport during the attack,” he stated.
“A grenade had landed at her feet but failed to explode. Despite this, she remained a fervent supporter of the Palestinians, saying, ‘They do these things out of despair. I support them even more now.’”
In 1987, Chaovali and Ben Saadaoui were sentenced to life imprisonment in Austria. Ben Saadaoui was released in 2008 after serving 22 years and was banned from re-entering Austria for ten years.
Chaovali, meanwhile, received an additional 19-year sentence for attempting to escape in 1995 and his involvement in a hostage-taking incident at Graz-Karlau prison in 1996.
Abu Nidal himself died under mysterious circumstances in Baghdad in 2002, with some reports suggesting he was killed by West-backed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s secret service.
After 38 years in Austrian prisons, Chaovali passed away at the age of 64 in Stein prison, Lower Austria, on the morning of Friday, September 13, 2024.
His friends and supporters told Press TV that Chaovali was known for his courage and steadfast commitment to the Palestinian cause. He died without ever giving up his claim for the freedom and liberation of Palestine from the Israeli occupation.
Dieter Reinisch is a Press TV correspondent based in Vienna, Austria.
Japan’s Mistakes at Pearl Harbor
Tales of the American Empire | September 12, 2024
The December 7, 1941 Japanese attack on Hawaii was a key moment for the American empire. This channel produced four tales explaining how this attack was provoked by American President Franklin Roosevelt who allowed it to happen. See the playlist linked in the description. While the Japanese attack was successful, it was cautious and could have caused far more damage. Should the Japanese have launched their planned third aerial attack wave? Should their six aircraft carriers have searched for the two missing American carriers? Should they have landed ground troops to invade Hawaii?
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“Japanese Invasion of Pearl Harbor”; Navy Matters; April 22, 2019; https://navy-matters.blogspot.com/201…
“The Hawaiian Islands Under Imperial Japan – 1942 Japanese Military Invasion”; John Bond; Ewa Field; September 11, 2019; https://ewafield.blogspot.com/2019/09…
Related Tale: “Treachery by US Army Generals in World War II”; 
• Treachery by US Army Generals in Worl…
“Harbor Defense of Pearl Harbor”; Wikipedia; http://www.fortwiki.com/Category:Harb…
Related Tales: “The Attack on Pearl Harbor”; • The Attack on Pearl Harbor
How Rothschild Banking Clan Uses Its Vast Wealth to Influence World Events and Control Governments
By Ilya Tsukanov – Sputnik – 15.09.2024
How powerful is the Rothschild banking family? How did they amass their fortune? Just how rich are they? Do they secretly control the world? Sputnik explores.
Media-shy banking firm Rothschild & Co popped up in the news recently when it was revealed that it played a key role in restructuring over $20 bln in Ukrainian debt, including by arranging face-to-face meetings between Kiev officials and vulture funds like Black Rock and Amundi. The Rothschilds are known to have played an active role in carving up Ukraine’s wealth since at least 2014 and the Euromaidan coup.
But in the global scheme of things, despite its rich black soil and immense resource wealth, Ukraine may be just a side project for the banking family, whose role in the creation of the modern international financial order goes back to the 18th century, when German banker Mayer Amschel Rothschild and his five sons forged a global banking empire with offices in Frankfurt, London, Paris, Vienna and Naples.
What is the Rothschild Banking Clan Known For?
Emerging in the heyday of European colonial empires, the Rothschilds cashed in on the vast wealth flowing to the continent to create merchant and private banking, asset management, venture capital, insurance, commodities, sovereign debt, media, transport, real estate, pharmaceuticals, mining, and energy enterprises.
Establishing close ties to the British Crown, Mayer and his sons played an instrumental role in financing and operating colonial megaprojects of the day, from the Suez Canal trade artery to the East India Company – the British imperial megacorporation which ruthlessly ruled over India as a private company through much of the 18th and 19th centuries, sucking out untold wealth.
The family proved highly active in the international politics of the tumultuous 19th and 20th centuries, betting on Britain against France during the Napoleonic Wars by financing Hessian mercenary soldiers and loaning money to the Crown, and using insider knowledge of government deliberations and a sophisticated communication system to make financial decisions that would consolidate its fortunes.
How Rich are the Rothschilds?
A big question mark surrounding the Rothschild family revolves around their net worth, with publicly available valuations varying from a paltry $1 billion to $400 billion and even $1.2 trillion – which would put the family well above the oft-published pop financial media lists of the “world’s richest,” which typically include names like the Waltons, the Arnaults, the Kochs, Elon Musk and Bill Gates.
The difficulty in establishing a precise figure stems from the family’s incredible secrecy, combined with the murky nature of finance capital. The Rothschilds ‘went dark’, financially speaking, in the early 20th century, when the introduction of national taxation schemes across Europe led family banks to formally split to create ‘independent’ financial institutions.
For instance, while reporting on the family’s public-facing business empire is often focused on the Paris, London and Singapore-based Rothschild & Co, other divisions, like the Geneva-based Edmond de Rothschild Group are less often mentioned, and they are rarely if ever mentioned together.
How Powerful are the Rothschilds?
The world of high finance is an incredibly small place, with the Rothschilds assumed to enjoy a prominent place among banking families like the Rockefellers, Morgans, Barclays, Lazards, Warburgs and others in control over the world’s top private banks, from JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup to HSBC, Deutsche Bank, Societie Generale, and others.
The Rothschilds also have ownership stakes and investments ranging from 5%-50% or more in an array of European, US and Asian mega corporations, from Glencore Mining and TotalEnergies to Siemens, Exxon, Chevron, Repsol, Shell, Mitsubishi, Itochu Corp and the Rio Tinto Mining Corporation.
In his book ‘Big Oil & Their Bankers’, researcher Dean Henderson discovered that the Rothschilds and a clique of seven other banking families enjoy a controlling stake in the New York Federal Reserve Bank – the most powerful Fed bank and the heart of America’s financial system. Other investigators believe the Rothschilds either control the city of London and the Bank of England, or own it outright, although this has been disputed.
Do Rothschilds Control the World’s Politicians?
A handful of political figures, including several of America’s founding fathers, warned about the threat posed by the rise of powerful banking clans in their day. In a letter to John Taylor in 1816, Thomas Jefferson characterized the US banking system as a “blot” in “all our constitutions, which, if not covered, will end in their destruction,” and sweep away “the fortunes and morals of our citizens.”
“I sincerely believe that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies, and that the principle of spending money to be paid by prosperity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale,” Jefferson warned.
200 years on, Rothschild influence over world politicians has become impossible to conceal, with the family’s prominent members rubbing shoulders with the likes of Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, Henry Kissinger, Margaret Thatcher, Francois Mitterrand, Petro Poroshenko, Emmanuel Macron, and others, either taking advantage of business connections and sheer economic and market power, or in Macron’s case – hiring him as an investment banker before he began his political career.
Do the Rothschilds Control the World?
To suggest that the Rothschild family is so powerful that they control the planet’s entire economic and political life and world events would be a stretch, not only due to the never-ending, largely silent struggle for resources and power with competitors, but the ever-shifting geopolitical balance of the modern world, which powerful banking elites might try to influence, but never control outright. Nonetheless, overlooking these shadow forces’ actions, or worse, dismissing them as mere “ conspiracy theories,” risks an overly simplistic view on the events and processes taking place in the modern world.
Lawsuit Takes on Federal Campaign to Silence Vaccine Injury Claims
By Cindy Harper | Reclaim The Net | September 15, 2024
The New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA) has taken significant legal action by amending its complaint in the ongoing Dressen, et al. v. Flaherty, et al. case. This action challenges the alleged collusion between various federal entities and social media platforms aimed at stifling the voices of individuals claiming injuries from Covid vaccines. The complaint underscores a pervasive campaign spearheaded by agencies including the White House, the CDC, and the Surgeon General’s Office. These bodies are accused of pressuring social media giants to dismiss and discredit as “misinformation” the personal accounts and communications within private online groups of those affected by vaccine side effects.
We obtained a copy of the lawsuit for you here.
Central to the lawsuit are the stories of Brianne Dressen, Shaun Barcavage, Kristi Dobbs, Nikki Holland, Suzanna Newell, and Ernest Ramirez, all of whom reported severe adverse reactions to Covid vaccines—ramifications severe enough, in the tragic case of Mr. Ramirez, to include the vaccine-related death of his son five days post-vaccination. Despite experiencing firsthand the vaccines’ potential risks, these plaintiffs are not opposed to vaccination per se. For instance, Ms. Dressen herself participated in the AstraZeneca vaccine trials before reportedly suffering complications.
These individuals united in their distress, have faced relentless censorship on social media platforms where they sought solidarity and exchanged treatment ideas. Their attempts to share their personal stories and support one another were met with content flags, removals, and the outright shutdown of their support groups—actions directly influenced by what the NCLA terms an unconstitutional campaign by the Biden-Harris Administration.
This legal battle, which aims to secure an injunction against this alleged state-sponsored censorship, asserts that such actions violate the First Amendment’s protections of free speech and association. The ongoing suppression efforts not only undermine the plaintiffs’ rights but also silence an important dialogue about vaccine safety and personal health sovereignty.
Statements from NCLA’s legal team encapsulate the gravity of the case and its broader implications for civil liberties. Litigation Counsel Casey Norman emphasized, “If there is any case that exemplifies why the First Amendment exists—as well as the abominable and Orwellian consequences that take place when the government evades its restraint—it is this one. The time has come for the federal government and its private partners in this cruel censorship scheme to be held to account for the ongoing harm that they have caused our clients, along with so many other Americans across the country who were simply trying to do their part by getting vaccinated—and who were then silenced and made to be pariahs by their own government.”
Echoing this sentiment, Jenin Younes, another Litigation Counsel at NCLA, pointed out the stark contradiction in the government’s narrative versus the plaintiffs’ harsh realities. “The plaintiffs in this case posed a threat to the Biden Administration because their personal experiences conflicted with the government’s heavy-handed approach to Covid-19 vaccination, which was predicated on the false claim that vaccine injuries were virtually nonexistent. The response of the government defendants here—to wield their authority to get social media companies to silence these individuals, who had suffered serious injuries and in the case of Mr. Ramirez lost his own son—should shock the conscience of all Americans. Through this lawsuit, we will hold the Administration and these wayward officials accountable for their flagrantly unconstitutional conduct.”
US has declared war on free speech – Russia
RT | September 15, 2024
The US crackdown on Russian media amounts to a declaration of war on free speech, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Sunday. She described the new sanctions against RT and other news outlets as “repressions unprecedented in scale.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced new sanctions against RT on Friday, accusing it of engaging in “covert influence activities” and “functioning as a de facto arm of Russian intelligence.” Earlier in September, Washington imposed sanctions on RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan and three other senior RT employees over alleged attempts to influence the 2024 US presidential election.
“The US has declared war on freedom of speech throughout the world, turning to open threats and blackmail against other states in an effort to set them against the domestic media and establish sole control over the global information space,” Zakharova said, promising that the punitive measures Washington was using to target Russian media would not go unanswered.
She added that accusations of attempts to influence the elections are a mere “witchhunt” and “spy-o-mania” done to manipulate public opinion and protect its citizens from any information that is inconvenient for them.
The head of the State Department’s Global Engagement Center (GEC), James Rubin, told reporters on Friday that the “broad scope and reach” of RT was one of the reasons many countries around the world did not support Ukraine. The GEC has funded propaganda games aimed at children and forced Twitter to censor pro-Russian content. Rubin admitted last year that he wanted to use the GEC to shut down Russian media outlets around the world.
“We are going to be talking… in Latin America, Africa and Asia… to try to show all of those countries that right now broadcast – with no restrictions or control – RT and allow them free access to their countries,” Rubin said, arguing that RT’s presence has “had a deleterious effect on the views of the rest of the world about a war that should be an open and shut case.”
Reacting to the new restrictions, Simonyan argued that Washington’s claims about RT collaborating with Russian intelligence are a “classic case of projection.”
“The idea that you can’t achieve results without being part of the intelligence service has exposed them for what they are,” she said.
MIT divests from Israeli arms firm funded program
Al Mayadeen | September 15, 2024
The MISTI-“Israel” Lockheed Martin fund has been shut down after continuous pressure from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) staff and faculty, the MIT Coalition for Palestine announced on Friday, marking a major divestment win for the university’s Scientists Against Genocide (SAGE) movement.
“Under pressure from students and scientists of conscience at this Institute, the MIT administration has discontinued MISTI-Israel’s Lockheed Martin Seed Fund and will not renew its contract,” the organization said in a statement.
“This was a major target of our divestment action. The program ends after months of protest against it last fall, including letter deliveries, sit-ins, and public information campaigns,” it highlighted.
The Lockheed Martin Seed Fund was a program established in 2019, managed by the MIT International Science and Technology Initiative Israel (MISTI-“Israel”) to connect students and researchers to Israeli offices at Lockheed Martin, a weapons manufacturer firm.
The divestment marks the first American-Israeli arms manufacturer partnership to end at an American university since the genocide began on October 7. Additionally, the fund was removed from the MISTI-“Israel” website between December 2023 and February 2024.
The arms company has supplied the occupation with several billion dollars of weapons to be used during its ongoing genocide in Gaza, including Hellfire missiles, attack aircraft, and heavy artillery. These munitions have been used within the past 11 months to target schools, universities, hospitals, religious sites, and crucial infrastructure, as “Israel” killed over 41,000 Palestinians.
The MIT Coalition for Palestine emphasized that Lockheed also enabled its alumnus, Benjamin Netanyahu, to extend the occupation’s genocidal acts to the West Bank and al-Quds, as well as Israeli concentration camps.
The MIT Coalition for Palestine referred to the UK’s recent suspension of 30 weapons licenses, asserting there are many steps to implement to order a full arms embargo on the regime. The organization also shed light on how boycotts, divestments, and sanctions resulted in the end of South Africa’s apartheid regime in the 1990s.
“A similar campaign is now required of us if we want to see an end to the Israeli apartheid regime in our lifetime and the formation of a free, democratic Palestine from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea,” the statement read.
“Today we are gathered once again as a united MIT community, speaking in its majority voice, as we have in referendum after referendum, from the sit-ins in Lobby 7 to the Scientists Against Genocide Encampment this spring, to say that we are FED UP and DONE with aiding and abetting the apartheid state.”
The movement added that despite this major step in divestment, the institution’s laboratories continue to conduct direct research funding links to the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF), while the administration maintains its partnerships with Elbit Systems and Maersk.
They denounced these ties and criticized MIT for violating its “own ethical funding criteria, research ethics, and health and safety policies.”
“They are shameful and criminal and signal in clear and offensive terms that the Institute does not care about the human life and dignity of our Palestinian colleagues here at MIT and abroad. We say no. No science for apartheid and free Palestine,” the statement concluded.
Pro-Palestine protests prompt closure of Israeli arms firm’s US office
Last month, a US branch of “Israel’s” largest arms manufacturer, Elbit Systems, announced the termination of its office lease in Cambridge, Massachusetts following months of demonstrations led by Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) Boston.
A subsidiary of the Israeli-based company, KMC Systems, had moved into a building at 130 Bishop Allen Drive in December 2021, where the lease was expected to end next year.
The BDS organization described the end of Elbit’s lease as “a testament to our collective power,” attributing “varied community efforts” for the disruption of Elbit and its landlord, Intercontinental Management Corp.’s operations and “forcing the early termination of the lease.”
The movement has pledged to keep fighting to “prevent Elbit from moving to another nearby location,” as well as attempt to “sever Elbit’s ties with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and other actors in the Boston area.”
“We will not consider ourselves victorious until Elbit Systems is dismantled and until Palestine is liberated,” BDS Boston asserted.
Yemen says hit south of Tel Aviv with new hypersonic ballistic missile
Press TV – September 15, 2024
The Yemeni armed forces have struck an Israeli target near Tel Aviv with a new hypersonic ballistic missile after the occupying regime failed to repel the attack and intercept the long-range advanced projectile.
Brigadier General Yahya Saree, the Yemeni army’s spokesman, announced in a brief televised statement on Sunday that the missile force in the military had carried out a qualitative operation striking a military target of the Israeli enemy in the Jaffa area, south of Tel Aviv, in occupied Palestine.
“The operation was carried out with a new hypersonic ballistic missile that managed to reach its target, and the enemy’s defense systems failed to intercept and confront it,” Saree said.
“It crossed a distance of 2040 km in 11 and a half minutes, and caused a state of fear and panic among the Zionists, as more than two million Zionists headed to shelters for the first time in the history of the Israeli enemy.”
The spokesman said the operation was part of the fifth phase of the battle against the Israeli enemy, and successfully reached its target by overcoming all obstacles, including American and Israeli interception systems on land and sea.
“The geographical challenges, the American-British aggression, and the monitoring, espionage and interception systems will not prevent beloved Yemen from performing its religious, moral and humanitarian duty in solidarity with the Palestinian people,” Saree underlined.
“The Israeli enemy should expect more strikes and specific operations to come as we approach the first anniversary of the blessed October 7th Operation, including responding to its criminal aggression on the city of Hudaydah, and continuous supportive operations for the oppressed Palestinian people.”
Nasruddin Amer, a member of the political bureau of Yemen’s popular Ansarullah resistance movement, earlier said in a Hebrew-language post on X that the missile fired from Yemen reached Israel after “20 missiles failed to intercept” it.
Amer also described the Yemeni attack as the “beginning.”
Leader of Yemen’s Ansarullah resistance movement Abdul-Malik al-Houthi censured in a televised speech on Saturday the Israeli regime’s nearly year-old onslaught on the besieged Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank with US-made lethal munitions.
The Ansarullah leader said the United States is definitely a partner in Israel’s crimes in Palestine, fully supporting the regime’s interests and willing to act against any Arab country.
He also warned that the Israeli enemy continues to impose a siege, torture prisoners, and engage in other brutal practices against Palestinians.
Yemenis have declared their open support for Palestine’s struggle against the Israeli occupation since the regime launched a devastating war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, after the territory’s Palestinian resistance movements carried out a surprise retaliatory attack, dubbed Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, against the occupying entity.
The Yemeni Armed Forces have said that they won’t stop their attacks until unrelenting Israeli ground and aerial offensives in Gaza end.
So far, Israel has killed at least 41,182 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 95,280 others.
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