Aletho News

ΑΛΗΘΩΣ

Pakistan Makes A Compelling Case That India Is A State Sponsor Of Terrorism

By Andrew Korybko | One World | November 15, 2020

This year’s Diwali celebration got off to a very symbolic start after Pakistan shined some light on the dark activities that it accused India of carrying out in the region. Islamabad released a detailed dossier during a press conference on Saturday strongly making the case that India is a state sponsor of terrorism whose intelligence services have weaponized this phenomenon as part of the proxy war that they’re fighting with respect to the UNSC-recognized international Kashmir dispute and against the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the flagship project of Beijing’s Belt & Road Initiative (BRI). These claims aren’t anything new, but what’s novel is the amount of detail devoted to proving them this time around.

According to Pakistan, Indian diplomatic facilities in Afghanistan are being used to coordinate the training of various terrorist groups on that landlocked country’s territory, including efforts to unite relevant Baloch and Pashtun ones as well as create a new ISIS branch dedicated to attacking Pakistan. Islamabad mentioned names, dates, bank accounts, phone numbers, and other identifying information such as exposing the Indian mastermind of these regionally destabilizing activities to make its case that India is a rogue state whose behavior should be investigated by the international community, which might find it fitting to sanction the country through the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and other related bodies.

Pakistan’s diplomatic masterstroke puts India in a very uncomfortable position because it had hitherto been the latter making such claims about the former and not the reverse. The comparatively muted reaction from the international community in the 24 hours since the dossier was revealed suggests that they feel uncomfortable about the accusations and aren’t too sure how to respond. India is a close military and economic partner of a growing number of influential players such as the US and “Israel” who might now be embarrassed for so closely associating with a country that’s been convincingly accused of such rogue behavior. At the same time, however, “birds of a feather flock together”, as they say.

For reasons of self-interest, it might turn out that the international community as a whole doesn’t react the same way to Pakistan’s accusations as they’ve done in the past whenever India made similar but much less detailed ones. Nevertheless, what’s most important to pay attention to is how these revelations might shape Chinese-Indian relations considering their clashes along the Line of Actual Control this summer and ongoing state of ever-intensifying cold war. The grand strategic interests of the People’s Republic are directly threatened by India’s Hybrid War of Terror on Pakistan, which aims to destabilize CPEC’s northern and southern access points in Gilgit-Baltistan and Balochistan respectively.

In fact, the timing of this dossier’s release might have been connected to those two countries’ rivalry. To explain, India was handily defeated by China during their clashes over the summer, which might be why it’s doubling down on its proxy war of terrorism against Pakistan in response. After all, Islamabad warned that New Delhi would soon seek to intensify its terrorist efforts in the coming future, so the dossier might have been intended to preemptively thwart that by exposing these plans in order to put pressure on India to reconsider its actions. Of course, it also took plenty of time to assemble all the details that were disclosed, but the timing was at least very convenient from the Pakistani perspective even if it was ultimately coincidental.

All told, the dossier heralds the advent of a new phase of Pakistani diplomacy where Islamabad confidently exposes India’s Hybrid War of Terror on the world stage. Since it can be assumed that China considers these claims credible considering the fact that its interests are directly threatened irrespective of the country’s public reaction (or potential lack thereof in line with its diplomatic traditions), the conclusion can thus far be made that this report already had a significant impact. It might very well end up being the case that Chinese-Indian relations will never return to their former friendliness, especially if Beijing begins to wonder whether Washington might be tacitly supporting New Delhi’s proxy war on CPEC.

Andrew Korybko is an American political analyst.

November 15, 2020 Posted by | Aletho News | , , , | Leave a comment

Joe Biden’s Coronavirus Task Force Is a Rockefeller, Council on Foreign Relations, Gates Foundation Swamp

Coronavirus Task Force

By Derrick Broze | The Last American Vagabond | November 10, 2020

As the media-ordained President-Elect Joe Biden announces his Coronavirus Task Force it is becoming increasingly clear that a Biden/Harris administration will maintain many of the relationships established under the Trump administration.

On Monday, Joe Biden announced the creation of a COVID-19 Transition Advisory Board and a Coronavirus Task Force that will assume control of the fight against COVID-19 on January 20, 2021, should he eventually be sworn in as the 46th president of the United States. Biden stated that Transition Advisory Board would help his presidential transition team establish rapid testing and a “core of contact tracers to track and curb this disease.”

Biden also issued a call for the American people to begin wearing masks “for the next few months” until a vaccine is available. Biden said the CDC has called a mask the “most potent weapon against the virus.” The former Vice President also repeated his warning that the U.S. was facing a “dark winter”, a phrase that has been repeated with increasing frequency over the two weeks.

Biden announced that his Coronavirus Task Force would be chaired by former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, former Food and Drug Administration commissioner David Kessler and Yale University’s Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith. The three chairs would oversee ten other health professionals and experts in their field.

In previous investigations we have revealed the ties between the Trump admin’s Operation Warp Speed and Big Pharma, DARPA, and the Gates Foundation. These ties made it clear that the Trump admin was very much in partnership with the likes of Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation – institutions which maintain an exorbitant amount of influence and control on global health policy. An examination of the Biden Coronavirus Task Force reveals that these same institutions will continue to hold sway over the direction of the fight against COVID-19.

Connections to the Gates Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Council on Foreign Relations, and the CIA

Before we proceed, if you find yourself wondering, “what’s wrong with being connected to the Gates Foundation or Bill Gates?”, I recommend reading my 3-part investigation into Bill Gates. The simple fact is that Gates and his foundation have been able to gain influence and control of global health policies by funding and partnering with nearly every global organization involved in health in one fashion or another. This was apparent under Donald Trump’s Operation Warp Speed and it is apparent with Biden’s Task Force.

For starters, at least six members of the 13 member Task Force have worked directly with Gates or the Gates Foundation, while at least 3 others have tangential connections to Gates. Several members also have connections to the Rockefeller Foundation, which is also infamous for shaping international health policy.

Let’s begin with the tangential connections. These might not be evidence of a strong relationship with the Gates Foundation or other organizations, but they do show the consistent presence of these institutions. We will progress through each task force member and show an increasing amount of worrisome relationships.

Dr. Julie Morita is the Executive vice president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation who helped lead Chicago’s Department of Public Health for nearly 20 years. She has participated in events with the Gates Foundation.

Dr. Celine Gounder is a clinical assistant professor at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine. While she was on faculty at Johns Hopkins, she was the Director of Delivery at Gates Foundation-funded Consortium to Respond Effectively to the AIDS/TB Epidemic. Gounder is currently a CNN Medical Analyst, and has appeared as an expert guest on CNN, MSNBC, Al Jazeera America, CBS, and the BBC.

Ms. Loyce Pace is the Executive director and president of the Global Health Council, who previously served in leadership positions at the American Cancer Society. GHC is supported by the Gates Foundation and gives out the Gates Award, named after Bill Gates. As recently as September 2020, the Gates Foundation gifted $25,000 to the GHC.

Dr. Eric Goosby is an infectious disease expert and professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine. During the Clinton administration Goosby was the founding director of the largest federally funded HIV/AIDS program. Goosby was also part of a 25-member commission convened by the Rockefeller Foundation and Boston University which focused on “how global decision-makers can better use burgeoning data on the wide range of factors influencing people’s health.”

In 2012, he participated in a panel with Bill Gates as part of the International AIDS Conference.

Michael Osterholm is the Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, and former science envoy for health security for the State Department. He also has connections to the Rockefeller Foundation. Osterholm was involved with the creation of the Rockefeller Foundation’s COVID-19 Testing Action Plan, along with Dr. Zeke Emanuel (see below).

In an op-ed in the New York Times, Osterholm described the Rockefeller plan:

“Finally, the Rockefeller report calls on states to hire at least 100,000 people to perform the work of testing and contact tracing. This, too, most likely requires federal funding — and has the virtue of doubling as a jobs program during this period of extremely high unemployment.”

Dr. Atul Gawande is Professor of surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and at Harvard Medical School. Gawande served as a senior adviser in the Department of Health and Human Services in the Clinton administration. Dr. Gawande appears to maintain a close friendship with Bill Gates, as evidenced by an an interview on CNBC where the two men were interviewed about their participation in a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos. The WEF is behind the push for a Great Reset. Gawande also moderated an event at the United Nations featuring Bill Gates and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Dr. Luciana Borio has served in senior leadership positions at the FDA, including Acting Chief Scientist. Some reports have claimed she “predicted” a pandemic was coming and the U.S. government was unprepared. In 2018, Borio told a symposium that “the threat of pandemic flu is our number-one health security concern.”

Borio is also the Vice president of technical staff at In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s venture capital firm, and was formerly a biodefense specialist on the National Security Council. The NSC is well-known as a haven for intelligence agents and government spokesman who advise the president. The NSC was also involved in the creation of the Presidential “Disposition Matrix”, otherwise known as the Presidential Kill List.

In August, Borio joined the Council on Foreign Relations think tank as a fellow. Borio was listed as a “stakeholder who participated in the R&D consultations” as part of The Neglected Dimension of Global Security: A Framework to Counter Infectious Disease Crises, a 2016 “consensus study report” funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Wellcome Trust, among others. Each of these organizations have been extensively involved in the fight against COVID-19.

Borio was involved in another book examining global health threats which was also funded by the Rockefeller Foundation and Gates Foundation. Frankly, the constant presence of these two organizations is a clear example of how extensively the foundations influence and shape global health policies.

We should note that Dr. David Kessler, Dr. Robert Rodriguez, and Dr. Eric Goosby, all have ties to the University of California, San Francisco. I have previously reported on UCSF’s role in the COVID-19 response, including working with Google on contact tracing apps and partnering with the Gates Foundation.

Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel is an oncologist and chair of the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. He is also the chair of the Department of Bioethics at The Clinical Center of the National Institutes of Health. Emanuel has long been the subject of controversy as Republicans have sought to connect him to the promotion of the so-called “death panels”, medical boards which ration healthcare and in some cases, decide who receives life-saving care.

While most of these claims seem overblown – Emanuel has opposed legalizing euthanasia – he also wrote an essay called “Why I Hope To Die When I’m 75.” In the essay he argues that life after 75 is not worth living and that U.S. health care should not prioritize treatment for those over 75. “Once I have lived to 75, my approach to my health care will completely change. I won’t actively end my life. But I won’t try to prolong it, either,” Emanuel wrote.

Dr. “Zeke” Emanuel also sits on the Health Care Advisory Board of the Peterseon Center alongside Bill Gates. Gates also called Emanuel the “godfather of Obamacare” and recommended his book as summer reading. The two men appear to have a working relationship that goes back at least a decade. They have even appeared together on MSNBC. Emanuel has also worked with the Gates founded and funded GAVI Global Vaccine Alliance.

In April, Emanuel told MSNBC that COVID-19 would be around for at least 18 months and that the American public would “not be able to return to normalcy until a vaccine or effective medications.” He acknowledged that the American economy would be hit hard and people would have trouble finding work, but claimed “we have no choice” because without social distancing and masks “deaths could skyrocket into the hundreds of thousands, if not a million.” Additionally, in an op-ed piece to the NY Times he asked, “Why isn’t it mandatory to wear masks in public?”

Coincidentally, Dr. Emanuel is also the brother of former Mayor of Chicago and former Chief of State during the Obama administration. Among other things, Rahm Emanuel is infamous for a 2008 interview where he stated, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste, and what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before.” 

Rahm Emanuel brought his famous quote back in March while speaking about COVID-19. “Never allow a crisis to go to waste,” Emanuel said on ABC This Week. “Start planning for the future. This has to be the last pandemic that creates an economic depression. We’re going to have more pandemics, but this has to be the last economic depression.”

Dr. Rick Bright was recently celebrated as a whistleblower who attempted to hold the Trump administration accountable during the COVID-19 battle. Bright is an immunologist and virologist who was removed as head of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) for criticizing Trump’s handling of COVID-19.

While speaking in front of Congress, Bright stated, “without clear planning and implementation of the steps that I and other experts have outlined, 2020 will be darkest winter in modern history,” a phrase which Joe Biden repeating during the Presidential debates and again on Monday.

The appointment of Bright to the Coronavirus task force and Joe Biden’s growing use of the term “Dark Winter” could be a sign of potential chaos resulting from the final election outcome, and/or reports of an increase in COVID-19 cases and subsequent lockdowns around the world.

The presence of counter-terrorism experts, a Council on Foreign Relations fellow, an In-Q-Tel executive, connections to the Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation are all signs that Joe Biden’s Coronavirus Task Force will carry on the trends started under the Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed.

November 13, 2020 Posted by | Aletho News | , | Leave a comment

New IAEA Report Proof of Iran’s Continued Cooperation: Envoy

Al-Manar | November 12, 2020

Iran says the International Atomic Energy Agency’s latest report proves the country’s continued cooperation with the UN’s nuclear watchdog and the suspension of commitments under a 2015 deal.

Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran’s permanent representative to Vienna-based international organizations, told reporters on Wednesday that the new report shows the IAEA’s continued verification of the country’s nuclear program.

According to the report, he said, in addition to heavy water production and storage, Iran has exported more than 2.2 tons of its heavy water and also utilized 1.3 tons in line with its research and development activities.

He said the report states that Iran has continued its uranium enrichment activities in Natanz and Fordow sites, using new machines, and enriching uranium up to 4.5% purity, which is beyond the 3.67% limit set in the nuclear agreement, which is officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

In addition, he added, the report mentions Iran’s recent decision to relocate its R&D centrifuges underground in Natanz and states that the country has declared it will consider safeguard requirements.

According to Gharibabadi, “the IAEA report has announced the amount of Iran’s uranium reserves is about 2,442.9 kg as of November 2, which is equal to about 3,600 kg of low-enriched uranium.”

He also pointed to the report’s reference to the results of the IAEA’s inspection of one of the country’s sites in 2018, and said that despite the differences in Iran’s technical views with the IAEA, interactions in that area are still ongoing between the two sides with the aim of resolving the issue.

Separately, Iran’s Ambassador to the United Nations Majid Takht-Ravanchi told a meeting of the UN General Assembly that Tehran believes the IAEA must fulfil its verification duty in a way that it does not overshadow the member states’ inalienable right to reinforce their peaceful use of nuclear energy.

Even the non-proliferation concerns should not limit the member states’ rights, he said, adding that the international community must reject any attempt to restrict peaceful use of nuclear energy.

He said over the past year, 22 percent of all the IAEA’s inspections have been carried out in Iran, and the watchdog’s activities have not stopped in the Islamic Republic even at the peak of the coronavirus outbreak.

Iran signed the JCPOA with six world states — namely the US, Germany, France, Britain, Russia and China — in 2015.

However, Washington’s unilateral withdrawal in May 2018 and subsequent re-imposition of sanctions against Tehran left the future of the historic agreement in limbo.

Iran remained fully compliant with the JCPOA for an entire year, waiting for the co-signatories to fulfill their end of the bargain by offsetting the impacts of American bans on the Iranian economy.

But as the European parties failed to do so, the Islamic Republic moved in May 2019 to suspend its JCPOA commitments under Articles 26 and 36 of the deal covering Tehran’s legal rights.

Iran took five steps in scaling back its obligations, among them abandoning operational limitations on its nuclear industry, including with regard to the capacity and level of uranium enrichment.

All those measures were adopted after informing the IAEA beforehand, with the agency’s inspectors present on the ground in Iran.

November 12, 2020 Posted by | Aletho News | , , | Leave a comment

Previewing a Biden Presidency: Dementia, Impotence, Collapse

By Ted Rall • Unz Review • November 7, 2020

At this writing, two days after the election, Joe Biden appears to be six electoral votes away from winning the presidency.

The Trump campaign has requested a recount in Wisconsin. Republicans are suing in Wisconsin, Michigan, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Nevada to demand the right to observe vote counts and challenge absentee ballots and COVID-related mail-in ballots.

Recounts rarely change the outcome of an election and never do so when the margin is significant. So that’s a doomed Hail Mary pass. Trump’s fading hopes remain, as I have written previously, with the obscure 12th Amendment to the United States Constitution. If legal challenges prevent another state from certifying its results to the Electoral College by the Dec. 14 deadline, the incoming House of Representatives votes by state delegation for the new president. Most states are Republican, so Trump would win.

If Trump can reverse the trend of Biden being a single state away from legitimately declaring victory, possibly by disqualifying Democratic votes, he may remain in the White House. But Trump’s legal challenges in Nevada, though technically still alive, face long odds.

So, the wind is at Biden’s back, even if it feels more like a mild breeze. Which makes it a good time to consider what a Biden presidency could/will look like.

Few presidents in American history have entered the White House as politically impotent as Joe Biden. No Democrat since and including Andrew Jackson has ever been elected without Democratic control of both houses of Congress. Biden’s inverse coattails made history: Democrats lost four seats in the House. They expected to pick up 15.

The most recent Republican to face congressional opposition on day one was Ronald Reagan in 1981. The GOP controlled the House; Democrats had the Senate.

Biden’s advisers have to be obsessing over the words of former House Speaker John Boehner in 2010: “We’re going to do everything — and I mean everything we can do — to kill it, stop it, slow it down, whatever we can.” “It” was then-President Barack Obama’s agenda. Then-Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell added at the time: “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.” McConnell is even more of an obstructionist today. And now he’s the majority leader.

Even if Joe Biden were predisposed to a bold agenda, which progressives have a good reason to doubt, McConnell will block it. Unlike Obama, who had a Democratic supermajority in the Senate, Biden will have a valid excuse to accomplish nothing.

And that’s assuming that he is able to function in the first place. All the Democratic denials in the world can’t hide the possible president-elect’s worsening dementia. At a recent campaign event, Biden introduced his granddaughter as if she were his dead son: “This is my son Beau Biden, who a lot of you helped elect to the Senate in Delaware.” Wrong gender, wrong generation, wrong sentience. He tried to correct himself. “This is my granddaughter, Natalie.”

Actually, Natalie is a different granddaughter. His son Beau died five years ago. Beau never even ran for the Senate. This is dementia, not “stuttering.” It’s sad. It’s also scary. As commander in chief, Biden could single-handedly launch a nuclear attack.

Biden’s defenders point to evidence that Reagan suffered from Alzheimer’s, but there was zero evidence of the disease when he took office in 1981. Woodrow Wilson suffered cognitive decline after a stroke, but that was toward the end of his second term. Biden will be the first president to begin his first term with clear signs of dementia.

November 7, 2020 Posted by | Aletho News | | Leave a comment

China condemns US for ‘whitewashing’ terrorist organizations after dropping Islamic extremist group’s designation

RT | November 6, 2020

Beijing has called on the US to reverse its decision to remove the East Turkestan Islamic Movement from its list of terrorist organizations, accusing Washington of ‘whitewashing’ militant groups.

Speaking at a press briefing on Friday, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said that “China deplores and firmly opposes the US decision” to drop the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) from its list of designated terrorist groups.

Demanding the US reverse its decision, he strongly affirmed that “terrorism is terrorism” and urged America to “refrain from ‘whitewashing’ terrorist organizations or going backwards in international cooperation on counter-terrorism.”

The change in policy was made in a US State Department notice by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, although the Trump administration did not immediately explain why they had delisted the group. The absence of an explanation led Wenbin to accuse the US of having “flip-flopped” on the designation and claiming it has exposed “the current US administration’s double standard on counter-terrorism.”

Removing ETIM from the list means that the group will no longer be subject to any US sanctions that were imposed, removing any limits on financial transactions or travel restrictions that had previously applied.

Beijing has been accused of detaining up to one million Uighurs and other Muslim minorities in internment camps in Xinjiang, which China terms “vocational training centers.”

The ETIM is an Islamic extremist group founded by Uyghurs in Western China who seek to create an independent Islamic state in Xinjiang, called East Turkestan. The group has been affiliated with Al-Qaeda and it has been listed as terrorist by the UN Security Council ISIL (Da’esh) and Al-Qaeda Sanctions Committee since 2002.

November 6, 2020 Posted by | Aletho News | , | Leave a comment

Venezuelan Government Denounces ‘Terrorist Attack’ Against Refinery

By Manuela Solé | Venezuelanalysis | October 29, 2020

Mérida – Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro condemned a ‘terrorist attack’ against the country’s largest refinery.

During an international press conference in Miraflores Palace on Wednesday, Maduro detailed that “high potency weaponry” was used to blow up a tower in the Amuay refinery, in Falcon State, the day before.

He added that Venezuela faces permanent plots against its refineries and infrastructure “backed, financed and promoted by the US government.”

On Thursday, Oil Minister Tareck El Aissami reported that preliminary findings pointed towards a missile fired from a drone or a ship. He added that a commission was set up to further investigate.

“Investigations have determined a very strong explosion caused by a missile. We are investigating the source of this terrorist attack,” he told reporters. El Aissami denounced repeated attacks against the oil industry as well as electricity infrastructure in Falcon State.

Although the explosion caused no injuries it means yet another setback to the distillation unit which is currently inactive whilst workers try to restart output. Preliminary reports revealed that the exploded tower may be unrecoverable and may have to be completely rebuilt.

Amuay has a 645,000 barrel per day (bpd) processing capacity, and together with the 310,000 bpd Cardon refinery forms the Paraguana Refining Complex, the second largest in the world.

The South American nation has faced severe gasoline shortages in recent months and been forced to import fuel from Iran. With sanctions heavily affecting Venezuela’s oil sector, Tehran has also assisted Caracas in reactivating the refining industry. The El Palito and Cardon refineries have been working intermittently in recent months, with technical problems forcing repeated stoppages.

The Venezuelan president also informed that on October 26 two foreign men were apprehended in Zulia state. He claimed that they had links to “extremist groups” and “planned to kill leaders of the Bolivarian Revolution.” No further details, including their names, were revealed..

Maduro likewise recalled that in September Venezuelan security forces arrested Matthew John Heath, a former US marine, near the Paraguana Refining Complex, Heath and three Venezuelan men were captured with weapons and large amounts of US dollars.

Edited and with additional reporting by Ricardo Vaz from Merida.

October 30, 2020 Posted by | Aletho News | | Leave a comment

The Anniversary of Gaddafi’s Death and the Current Reality in Libya

By Yuriy Zinin – New Eastern Outlook – 26.10.2020

“Security problems, political discord, oil blockades, corruption, and Libya’s foreign debt, which has reached 270% of its GDP, all torpedo economic life,” said Central Bank of Libya governor Sadiq al-Kabir. Oil revenues in Libya have plummeted, from $53 billion in 2012 to near zero this year, he added.

These words, spoken on the eve of another anniversary of the assassination of Libyan leader M. Gaddafi on October 20, 2011, do in fact serve to illustrate what the country has come to over the past nine years of its history, since the collapse of the previous regime.

Having come to rule with massive outside support from NATO, the new forces, although they inherited huge financial reserves and the potential following the era of the previous leader, became dependent on the various militias that brought them to power. Along with that, these “brothers-in-arms” soon turned into implacable enemies. The country fell into an abyss of civil strife and, since the summer of 2014, has been divided into two military and political camps, with one pole of power in Tripoli and the other in Tobruk. Because of this turmoil, Libya’s development has come to a standstill, and GDP is dropping. In comparison with previous times, it has slid backwards in many respects.

The oil sector has become hostage to conflicts in society, a source of funding for diverse groups that act in opposition to national interests. However, there is plainly a growing shadow economy, flourishing of currency fraud, the smuggling of goods, illegal emigrants, etc.

The dependence of the Libyan authorities on external forces, both regionally and globally, has increased. At the same time, the intra-Libyan conflict does not have a clearly defined bloc “tutelage”. The aspirations of the “stakeholder forces” have many different thrusts. Their desire to resolve their differences by taking to the Libyan field is often seen, and that, among other things, is fraught with the likelihood of collisions occurring between them.

Since 2015, the UN has been initiating efforts to reconcile the opposing poles in Libya. Delegates from the warring parties participate nonstop in different series of negotiations, sometimes under the auspices of the UN, sometimes hosted by major powers, or as part of the efforts put forth by various neighboring states and the African Union. These kinds of conferences and meetings, including those between the leaders of the two camps, were held in no less than a dozen cities on three continents, including Moscow.

The efforts by various mediators have not turned the tide, or yielded any decisive results. No new constitution has been adopted, and no presidential elections, or elections for a new parliament have been held.

It is encouraging that so far the opposing sides have been honoring the decision they made on August 21 this year for a ceasefire. A number of local and foreign observers have pinned their hopes on three tracks for the negotiation process, all of which are now going on simultaneously.

For example, at talks in the Moroccan city of Bouznika under the auspices of the UN Support Mission in Libya, they reached “a mutual understanding on the transparency of the standards and mechanisms” used to allocate key positions in the government, and throughout other echelons.

In the Swiss city of Montreux, the participants agreed that for the duration of a comprehensive resolution of the intra-Libyan crisis, Sirte, which effectively divides the North African country, will become the seat of the executive and legislative bodies.

In the Egyptian city of Hurghada, Libyan representatives talked about building on the peaceful respite, and restructuring the armed forces.

Libyan experts note that there is a long distance between the decisions that were announced, and the mutual understanding that was reached, to realizing them. From circles close to the governing bodies and military authorities in Tripoli and Tobruk, criticism is spilling forth about the agreements that are progressing on these tracks.

At the same time, it cannot be said that there is absolutely no ground for agreements or compromises. First, the balance of power in Libya does not allow either of the two poles to achieve final victory by military means.

Second, Libya today is divided by the parties into peculiar areas of responsibility, but along with that none of them is economically self-sufficient. For example, most of the fields, pipelines, and oil terminals are in the sphere of influence of the authorities in Tobruk. But normal operations for the entire economic infrastructure under its control are impossible without interacting with the other component present in the Libyan conflict. In matters concerning producing oil, selling it, and earning revenue from it, the key role is still played by the state acting as a rentier, and in which economics and politics are fused in a union of marriage.

These issues for the opposing sides can serve as a starting point for moving towards each other. Among everything else, the Libyan public is putting pressure on top officials. In August this year in Tripoli and Benghazi, the largest cities for both poles of power, there were demonstrations by residents who were tired of political instability and socioeconomic hardship.

Libya since the fall of Gaddafi represents a tragic example of how a country that used to be stable, and which is rich in oil reserves, can be bled dry not only by outside intervention, but from internal conflict as well.

Yury Zinin is a Leading Research Fellow at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations.

October 27, 2020 Posted by | Aletho News | , | Leave a comment

Chile vote is a blow to corporate Canada and Trudeau

By Yves Engler · October 26, 2020

With Chileans voting overwhelming to rewrite the country’s Pinochet era constitution it’s a good moment to reflect on Ottawa’s support for his coup against Salvador Allende. It’s also worth looking at Canadian companies’ opposition to the popular uprising that lead to the referendum on reforming the dictatorship’s neoliberal constitution.

On Sunday nearly 8 in 10 Chileans voted to rewrite the country’s Augusto Pinochet era constitution. The vote was the culmination of months of antigovernment protests that began against a hike in transit fares last October and morphed into a broader challenge to economic inequality and other injustices. The dictatorship’s constitution entrenches pro-capitalist policies and was widely seen as contributing to the country’s large economic divide.

The Pierre Trudeau government was hostile to Allende’s elected government and predisposed to supporting Pinochet’s dictatorship. Days after the September 11 1973 coup against Allende, Andrew Ross, Canada’s ambassador to Chile cabled External Affairs: “Reprisals and searches have created panic atmosphere affecting particularly expatriates including the riffraff of the Latin American Left to whom Allende gave asylum … the country has been on a prolonged political binge under the elected Allende government and the junta has assumed the probably thankless task of sobering Chile up.” Thousands were incarcerated, tortured and killed in “sobering Chile up”.

Within three weeks of the coup, Canada recognized Pinochet’s military junta. Diplomatic support for Pinochet led to economic assistance. Just after the coup Canada voted for a $22 million Inter American Development Bank loan “rushed through the bank with embarrassing haste.” Ottawa immediately endorsed sending $95 million from the International Monetary Fund to Chile and supported renegotiating the country’s debt held by the Paris Club. After refusing to provide credits to the elected government, on October 2nd, 1973, Export Development Canada announced it was granting $5 million in credit to Chile’s central bank to purchase six Twin Otter aircraft from De Havilland, which could carry troops to and from short makeshift strips.

By 1978, Canadian support for the coup d’etat was significant. It included:

  • Support for $810 million in multilateral loans with Canada’s share amounting to about $40 million.
  • Five EDC facilities worth between $15 and $30 million.
  • Two Canadian debt re-schedulings for Chile, equivalent to additional loans of approximately $5 million.
  • Twenty loans by Canadian chartered banks worth more than $100 million, including a 1977 loan by Toronto Dominion to DINA (Pinochet’s secret police) to purchase equipment.
  • Direct investments by Canadian companies valued at nearly $1 billion.

Prominent Canadian capitalists such as Peter Munk and Conrad Black were supporters of Pinochet.

When the recent protests began against billionaire president Sebastián Piñera in October, Trudeau supported the embattled right-wing leader. Two weeks into massive demonstrations against Piñera’s government, the PM held a phone conversation with the Chilean president who had a 14% approval rating. According to Amnesty International, 19 people had already died and dozens more were seriously injured in protests. A couple thousand were also arrested by a government that declared martial law and sent the army onto the streets for the first time since Pinochet. A Canadian Press story on the conversation noted, “a summary from the Prime Minister’s Office of Trudeau’s phone call with Pinera made no direct mention of the ongoing turmoil in Chile, a thriving country with which Canada has negotiated a free trade agreement.”

Rather than express concern about state-backed repression in Chile, the Prime Minister criticized “election irregularities in Bolivia” during his October conversation with Piñera. The false claims of “election irregularities” were then being used to justify ousting leftist indigenous president Evo Morales.

Amidst the massive demonstrations against Piñera in October, Trudeau also discussed Venezuela. In another phone conversation with Piñera two months ago Trudeau again raised “the situation in Venezuela”, according to the official readout, as he did in February 2018 and previously.

Chile is the top destination for Canadian investment in Latin America at over $20 billion. Over 50% of Chile’s large mining industry is Canadian owned and Canadian firms are major players in the country’s infrastructure. Scotiabank is one of the country’s biggest banks.

A number of stories highlighted Scotiabank’s concerns about the protests against inequality that ultimately lead to Sunday’s constitutional referendum. The Financial Post noted, “Scotiabank’s strategic foray into Latin America hits a snag with Chile unrest” and “Riots, state of emergency in Chile force Scotiabank to postpone investor day.” The CEO of the world’s 40th largest bank blamed the protests on an “intelligence breakdown” with people outside Chile “that came in with an intention of creating havoc.” In a January story titled “Why Brian Porter is doubling down on Scotiabank’s Latin American expansion”, he told the Financial Post that Twitter accounts tied to Russia sparked the unrest against Piñera!

Canadian companies, with Ottawa’s support, have led a number of environmentally and socially destructive projects in Chile. In the mid 2000s Toronto-based Brookfield Asset Management led a consortium, with US $700 million invested by the Canadian Pension Plan and British Columbia Investment Management Corporation, pushing to build a massive power line and dams in Chile’s Patagonia region, one of the planet’s greatest environmental treasures. “This kind of project could never be implemented in a full-fledged democracy,” explained Juan Pablo Orrego, a prominent Chilean environmentalist, to the Georgia Straight. “Our country is still under a constitutional, political, and financial checkmate to democracy which was put in place during the [Pinochet] military dictatorship and empowers the private sector.”

Sunday’s referendum is a blow to Canadian corporations operating in Chile and the Trudeau government’s alliance with right-wing governments in the Hemisphere.

October 26, 2020 Posted by | Aletho News | , , | Leave a comment

Maduro Says Venezuela Found 100% Effective Medicine Against COVID-19

Sputnik – 26.10.2020

CARACAS – The Venezuelan Scientific Research Institute (IVIC) discovered a medicine that contains molecule DR10 to combat COVID-19, Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro said on national channel Venezolana de Television, stating that the medicine can eliminate 100 percent of the coronavirus infection.

“Venezuela has created a medicine that eliminates 100 percent of the coronavirus, as the six-month studies by the Venezuelan Scientific Research Institute have demonstrated, and this study has been consequently certified by the experts,” Maduro said on Sunday.

Maduro added that the molecule that eliminates COVID-19 is DR10, which is already used in the treatment of such diseases as hepatitis C, Ebola and human papilloma.

Maduro hopes that the World Health Organisation (WHO) will ratify the results obtained by the IVIC and Venezuela will be able to prepare the mass production of this molecule as a cure for COVID-19 and provide it worldwide with the necessary international collaboration.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, Venezuela has registered 89,565 positive cases, including 83,947 patients who have recovered and 773 people who died.

October 26, 2020 Posted by | Aletho News | , | Leave a comment

Bolivian court drops ‘terrorism’ charges against ex-President Evo Morales, withdraws arrest warrant

RT | October 26, 2020

Bolivia’s regional court in La Paz has dismissed “terrorism” charges and dropped the arrest warrant issued against former President Evo Morales, arguing that his rights were violated and judicial procedures breached.

The ex-president’s rights, including his right for judicial protection, have been violated, Judge Jorge Quino, the head of the Departmental Court of Justice in La Paz, said as he explained the court’s decision to grant a request filed by Morales’ lawyers.

He also said that judicial procedures were violated in this case since Morales was not properly summoned. The charges were dropped as the prosecutors did not comply with the procedures established by law, Quino told Bolivia’s Unitel TV Network.

The ruling does not mean though that the currently exiled former president, who was indicted for inciting riots and “terrorism” in the wake of his ousting last year, can safely return home just yet. The decision is yet to be approved by the nation’s Plurinational Constitutional Court which can still reverse it.

An arrest warrant against Morales was issued by the Bolivian prosecutor general back in December 2019 under a ‘provisional’ government formed in the wake of a coup. The interim government, led by right-wing Senator Jeanine Anez, argued that his calls for protest amounted to “sedition and terrorism,” and vowed to jail the ex-president “for the rest of his life.”

Morales, who ruled the nation for 14 years, resigned from the presidency and went into hiding in November 2019, under pressure from the military. Earlier that month he was [falsely] accused of election fraud by the opposition after a controversial vote.

Following his resignation, Morales first traveled to Mexico and eventually arrived in Argentina where President Alberto Fernandez granted him political asylum.

Still, even in absence of its leader, Morales’ Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) party secured majorities in both chambers of the Bolivian parliament in the latest general elections held on October 18. Socialist Luis Arce, who served as an economy minister under Morales and was allegedly handpicked by the former leader as a presidential candidate, also won the vote, securing a landslide victory against his leading rival, Carlos Mesa.

October 26, 2020 Posted by | Aletho News | , | Leave a comment

Whoever wins the US presidency the pressure on Venezuela will continue: Scholar

Press TV | October 26, 2020

Whoever wins the presidency on November 3 election in the United States the pressure on Venezuela will continue, an American human rights expert and peace activist says.

Daniel Kovalik, who teaches international human rights at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law in the state of Pennsylvania, made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Monday.

In Venezuela, many say US presidential candidates Donald Trump and Joe Biden represent the same threat against peace in the world, especially in Latin America. They believe whoever the winner is, the South American country will go on fighting against illegal US sanctions.

“In terms of Venezuela they’re certainly correct that whoever wins the presidency whether Joe Biden or Donald Trump the pressure on Venezuela will continue in the form of sanctions and other provocations,” Kovalik told Press TV on Monday.

“You have to remember in fact that it was Obama that began the sanctions regime against Venezuela when Joe Biden was Vice President,” he said.

“And in terms of resisting, it’s critical that Venezuela continue to resist this pressure and hold firm. I think it gives courage to other countries around the world like Iran, North Korea, Nicaragua, Cuba that are also under pressure by the US – pressure to change their governments,” he added.

“We see what happened in Bolivia recently with the election, which voted out the coup government after a year. And I think that’s given a lot of hope to people. So I, you know, Venezuela has to hold on tight, regardless of who wins the US election,” he concluded.

Venezuelans claim that US presidential election will not improve the foreign policy of the United States toward other nations, including those in Latin America, as this region is regarded by Washington as its political backyard.

Whether Republican Trump is re-elected or his Democratic rival Biden emerges victorious, Venezuelans affirm that the meddlesome and aggressive US policy against the Bolivarian Republic will not cease as both politicians belong to a political system that characterizes US imperialism. Venezuelans say Trump and Biden are the same in political terms.

Regarding the US sanctions, experts believe they won’t be lifted if Biden wins the Presidency. In spite of the US savage policies against Venezuela, people seem to be hopeful about a better future.

Observers say Democrats and Republicans in Washington have both led hostile policies against Latin American, Venezuelans say no matter who wins the US Presidency, the hostility will go on but Venezuelans won’t surrender.

October 26, 2020 Posted by | Aletho News | , , | Leave a comment

Moscow won’t deploy controversial 9M729 missiles in European Russia if NATO reciprocates: Putin

By Jonny Tickle | RT | October 26, 2020

Russia will delay deployment of its much-debated 9M729 missiles in the European part of its territory, as a goodwill gesture, if NATO takes reciprocal steps. Monday’s proposal comes after the US withdrew from the INF treaty.

“Given the unrelenting tension between Russia and NATO, new threats to European security are becoming evident,” Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a statement posted on the Kremlin’s website.

Signed in 1987, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) banned land-based missiles with a range of more than 500km. According to Putin, the agreement was vital for ensuring international security and strategic stability, and the US’ withdrawal was a mistake which risks provoking a missile arms race.

In October 2018, American President Donald Trump announced that his country would withdraw from the treaty, blaming supposed Russian non-compliance. In particular, Trump accused the Kremlin of creating a missile that is effective over the legal limit of 500km, named 9M729. Steven Pifer, the former US ambassador to Ukraine, once estimated that its range is 2,000 kilometers. Pifer is now the director of the Arms Control Initiative at the Brookings’ lobby group, which is funded by Gulf states, amongst other donors.

As part of his stated attempt to de-escalate, Putin also revealed that he wishes to take further steps to minimize the negative consequences of the collapse of the INF Treaty, including an agreement for mutual inspections of missile systems. The president also reiterated Russia’s previous promise not to deploy ground-based INF missiles until US-made missiles of similar classes are deployed.

On the controversial 9M729 missiles, Putin maintained they are in “full compliance” with the previously existing INF treaty, but still offered not to position them in Europe.

“The Russian Federation, nevertheless, is ready, in the spirit of goodwill, to continue not to deploy 9M729 missiles in European Russia, but do so only provided NATO countries take reciprocal steps that preclude the deployment of the weapons earlier prohibited under the INF Treaty in Europe,” the statement read.

October 26, 2020 Posted by | Aletho News | , , | Leave a comment

« Previous Entries     Next Entries »