Samizdat – 12.10.2022
The Quad was officially launched in 2007 but suspended in 2008 after Australia pulled out of the US-led grouping over concerns expressed by China. The grouping was revived in 2017, a year after the US announced its ‘Indo-Pacific Strategy’. Beijing has labelled the Quad ‘Asian NATO’, accusing Washington of inciting tensions in the region.
Former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating has slammed the US-led Quad grouping as “illegitimate” and a “strategic piece of nonsense,” as he advised Canberra to not be a part of the US-led efforts to “ring-fence” China.
The Quad, which comprises Australia, India, Japan and the US, says that its official goal is to maintain a “free and open Indo-Pacific region”.
“We shouldn’t be stringing together the US, Japan, India and Australia to try to contain China,” Keating, a senior party colleague of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, said on Wednesday.
Keating argued that that Beijing’s “ambitions are in the west, not the east,” as he underlined the inroads made by the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in regions outside Asia. “Everywhere between Wuhan and Istanbul, in the next 30 years, will have a huge Chinese influence.”
Keating pointed out that the BRI has already financed infrastructure projects in the Baltic states as well as in former Soviet countries.
The multi-trillion-dollar BRI initiative was launched by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013 and strives to connect east Asia with Europe and beyond through connectivity and infrastructure projects. As of March 2022, a total of 147 countries across Asia, Africa, Europe, South America as well as North America have been members of the Beijing-backed global initiative.
Keating also reckoned that the era of US “supremacy” as the pre-eminent global power has already passed.
“This idea that the US is an exceptional power… they have God’s ear and proselytizing democracy was fine in the 20th century. The 20th century was owned by the US. The 21st century belongs to someone else,” stated Keating.
He also expressed doubts whether the US would come to the help of Taiwan if Beijing went ahead with the re-unification of the island with the mainland through military means.
Beijing has doubled down on its commitment to “reunify” Taiwan with the mainland following the visit of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taipei in August. Chinese President Xi Jinping has said that reunifying Taiwan is part of China’s goal to achieve “national rejuvenation”.
“China would see every amphibious vessel coming towards the United States, whether it is San Diego or Honolulu. They would see them and sink them,” the former Australian PM claimed, suggesting that the chances of an American “victory” in such a scenario would be “nil”.
Keating advised the Australian government not to get involved in the “geopolitical conflict” around Taiwan.
“We should be no more interested in the political system of Taiwan than Vietnam and Kazakhstan,” argued Keating.
Samizdat | October 11, 2022
The Ukrainian military struck an electrical substation in Russia’s southern region of Belgorod on Tuesday, local authorities have said. The attack on the facility, located in the village of Shebekino, sparked a fire at a transformer and disrupted power supply for some 2,000 people in the area.
Footage circulating online shows the transformer at the substation on fire, with a thick plume of smoke visible many kilometers away from Shebekino.
The attack inflicted only material damage with no injuries reported, according to local officials. It was not immediately clear whether the substation was subjected to artillery or rocket fire. The attack disrupted electricity supply in the area, with some 2,000 people affected. The local authorities promised to restore power within several hours.
The border areas of Russia’s Belgorod Region have repeatedly come under rocket, artillery and drone attacks by Ukrainian forces amid the ongoing conflict. The latest incident comes a day after the Russian military launched a massive missile attack across Ukraine, targeting infrastructure and military installations.
The strikes came in retaliation for Kiev’s terrorist activities and repeated attempts to target Russia’s critical civilian infrastructure, in particular the attack on the Crimean Bridge over the weekend, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.
Russia sent troops into Ukraine on February 24, citing Kiev’s failure to implement the Minsk agreements, designed to give the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk special status within the Ukrainian state. The protocols, brokered by Germany and France, were first signed in 2014. Former Ukrainian president Pyotr Poroshenko has since admitted that Kiev’s main goal was to use the ceasefire to buy time and “create powerful armed forces.”
In February 2022, the Kremlin recognized the Donbass republics as independent states and demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join any Western military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked.
Free West Media | October 11, 2022
This is not a sign of de-escalation: the US is sending one of its most modern aircraft carriers, the USS Gerald R Ford, to Europe. It is the US Navy’s newest class of nuclear-powered aircraft carrier (CVN 78), departing on its first major deployment.
The 13 billion euro carrier was only put into service in 2017, is 337 meters long and has a crew of 4 500, 90 fighter jets and, presumably, nuclear weapons on board. The Strike Group includes 17 ships and one submarine.
The USS Gerald R Ford, accompanied by several guided missile cruisers, submarines and supply ships, should be operating in the North Sea in just a few days, joining the Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Kearsage. This would give the US Navy a massive concentration of troops in northern Europe – and the air support of the most modern stealth fighter jets.
The Strike Group will be deployed alongside NATO forces. The US aircraft carrier USS Harry S Truman is still stationed in the Mediterranean.
Samizdat – 11.10.2022
MOSCOW – Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov slammed on Tuesday US statements that Russia left unanswered Washington’s proposals on negotiations on Ukraine as lies, noting that Moscow received no serious proposals.
“This is a lie [that Russia refuses to negotiate]. We did not receive any serious proposals to enter into contact. There were some not very serious calls, to which we also did not respond negatively, but offered to formulate specific proposals, with which some people want to contact us through indirect contacts. And in this case, we did not receive more specific explanations from anyone,” Lavrov told the Rossiya 1 broadcaster.
US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said on Monday that a way out of the situation around Ukraine should be sought through diplomacy. At the same time, he noted that Washington did not see Russia’s serious intentions to negotiate with Kiev.
Moscow is not aware of details of Ankara’s new initiative to organize talks between Russia and several Western states on the situation in Ukraine, Sergey Lavrov said.
“It is obvious to me that if the Turkish colleagues have thought about this, then they will have a great opportunity this week during the meeting of presidents [Recep Tayyip] Erdogan and [Vladimir] Putin, who will be together at the events in Astana, to raise such issues. We haven’t heard anything other than public announcements,” Lavrov said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s decision not to engage in dialogue with Russia may change depending on his mood and the West’s position, Lavrov said.
“I do not rule out that he, as he forbade himself [to talk with Russia], will then forget about it, depending on his mood when he gets up in the morning and what he does. Well, or he will receive an order from Washington, from London – he will say ‘Yes’ and figure out how to explain all this so as not to lose face,” Lavrov stressed.
On October 10, Russian President Vladimir Putin, at a meeting with the Russian Security Council, said Moscow has made precision strikes on infrastructure facilities across Ukraine in the morning. Putin called the recent blast on Russia’s Crimean Bridge a Ukrainian terrorist attack aimed at destroying Russian civilian infrastructure. According to him, Kiev has put itself on a par with the most odious terrorist groups, and it is impossible to leave the crimes of the Kiev regime unanswered any longer.
Russia launched its special military operation in Ukraine on February 24, after the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics appealed for help in defending themselves against Ukrainian provocations. In response to Russia’s operation, Western countries have rolled out a comprehensive sanctions campaign against Moscow and have been supplying weapons to Ukraine.
In addition to possible escalation with Moscow, these operations also contradict Biden’s statements that the US will not send troops into Ukraine.
By Drago Bosnic | October 11, 2022
The US intelligence presence in Ukraine has existed at least since the end of the Second World War. After the war was over, the CIA worked closely with the Ukrainian Nazi insurgents of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) who were tasked with carrying out acts of sabotage in western parts of the Soviet Union. The OUN, led by the likes of Stepan Bandera and Yaroslav Stetsko was a Nazi organization infamous for its extreme anti-Semitism, Polonophobia (hatred of Poles) and Russophobia. It collaborated closely with the invading Nazi German forces and actively took part in the mass murder of Poles, Jews and Russians in Nazi-occupied Ukraine.
In the closing years of the Second World War, the OUN and other similar Nazi organizations were trained for behind-enemy-lines operations against the advancing Red Army. After Germany’s defeat, these forces continued their terrorist activities with the support of the CIA. The US top intelligence agency essentially recycled the Nazi German network in western Ukraine and also provided weapons and training for these forces. Declassified intelligence shows that the CIA even protected Stepan Bandera so he could coordinate and keep the Nazi movement in Ukraine alive. The CIA operation to accomplish this was codenamed PBCRUET-AERODYNAMIC, based on the now-declassified document dated June 17, 1950.
After the KGB and the Soviet military defeated the Nazi insurgents in what is present-day western Ukraine, the surviving members went dormant for the remainder of the (First) Cold War. However, during the last days of the USSR and the immediate aftermath of its dismantlement, Nazi groups were reactivated, only this time as political parties and organizations, most of which became militant by 2014. This paved the way for the NATO-orchestrated Maidan coup, bringing the Ukrainian Neo-Nazis to power. The militant wings of these organizations and political parties were directly incorporated into the Ukrainian military, including the infamous “Azov Battalion” and many other similar groups.
Although the Pentagon took over the task of training and arming these Neo-Nazi groups, the CIA and other US intelligence services never stopped working with them. US special operations forces are working closely with CIA personnel in Ukraine. According to The Intercept, the US initially withdrew its CIA and special operations operatives from Ukraine days before Russia launched its special military operation, leaving some personnel behind. However, their numbers have increased significantly in recent months. The report states that the CIA initially thought that Kiev would quickly be taken by Russian forces, but after it became clear that wouldn’t happen, the US decided to send its operatives back.
The report further states that “US intelligence and special operations within Ukraine are now far more extensive than they were early in the war, when US intelligence officials were fearful that Russia would steamroll over the Ukrainian army.” Multiple current and former US intelligence officials stated that “there is a much larger presence of both CIA and US special operations personnel and resources in Ukraine than there were at the time of the Russian invasion in February.” The New York Times made similar claims in a report authored in June, stating that there was a large CIA presence in Ukraine. Although there was no mention of US special operations forces activities in the country, the controversial report claimed that several US allies and satellite states, namely the UK, France, Canada and Lithuania, sent special operations forces to directly support the Kiev regime.
The Intercept claims that the secret CIA and US special forces operations in Ukraine are being conducted under a covert presidential finding and that this indicates US President Joe Biden quietly notified Congress of a “broad program of clandestine operations inside the country.” In the US, a presidential finding, formally known as a Memorandum of Notification (MON), is a presidential directive delivered to certain Congressional committees to allow covert CIA operations. President Biden is reportedly using an altered version of a finding originally used by the Obama administration:
“One former special forces officer said that Biden amended a preexisting finding, originally approved during the Obama administration, that was designed to counter malign foreign influence activities. A former CIA officer told The Intercept that Biden’s use of the preexisting finding has frustrated some intelligence officials, who believe that U.S. involvement in the Ukraine conflict differs so much from the spirit of the finding that it should merit a new one.”
It is currently unknown what exactly the US special operations forces are doing in Ukraine and neither is their precise location. However, it’s safe to assume they’re at least assisting the Kiev regime forces in training and possibly even targeting Russian troops during recent attacks involving Western weapons such as the HIMARS. In addition to possible escalation with Moscow, these operations also contradict Joe Biden’s statements that the US will not send troops into Ukraine.
Drago Bosnic is an independent geopolitical and military analyst.
Samizdat | October 11, 2022
Former US Congresswoman and 2020 presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard has announced her departure from the Democratic Party, arguing that it has fallen under the control of “an elitist cabal of warmongers.” Establishment Democrats have long called on Gabbard to leave the party and declare herself a Republican.
“I can no longer remain in today’s Democratic Party that is now under the complete control of an elitist cabal of warmongers,” Gabbard declared in a video message on Tuesday.
President Joe Biden’s party colleagues, she continued, are “driven by cowardly wokeness, who divide us by racializing every issue and stoking anti-white racism…who are hostile to people of faith and spirituality… who believe in open borders, who weaponize the national security state to go after their political opponents, and above all, who are dragging us ever closer to nuclear war.”
Gabbard did not declare herself a Republican, despite sharing many of the views of the anti-interventionist, ‘America First’ wing of the GOP. While the Democratic Party has – with the backing of establishment Republicans – voted almost unanimously to send more than $52 billion to Ukraine in recent months, Gabbard has condemned Biden for “exploiting this war to strengthen NATO and feed the military-industrial complex.”
The former congresswoman has expounded these views to Fox News host Tucker Carlson, and is a regular guest on his prime-time show.
Likewise, Gabbard’s claims that her former party promotes anti-white racism, open borders and persecution of their political opponents echo criticisms more often heard from the right.
Gabbard has long opposed US involvement in and funding of foreign conflicts. During her four terms in office from 2013 to 2021, she advocated dialogue with America’s rival superpowers, coupled with a hardline policy on Islamic terrorism. Failed 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton accused Gabbard in 2019 of being “a Russian asset,” likely referencing the Hawaiian lawmaker’s past praise for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s fight against terrorism in Syria.
Gabbard responded by calling Clinton the “personification of the rot that has sickened the Democratic Party,” and suing the former secretary of state for defamation.
By Ron Paul | October 10, 2022
Last week the New York Times ran a shocking article claiming that the US intelligence community believes the Ukrainian government to be responsible for the August attack that killed Darya Dugina, the daughter of a prominent Russian philosopher.
Surely the established narrative that Ukraine is a model western democracy standing strong for our shared values against an aggressive Russian invader is damaged with reporting that Kiev conducted an al-Qaeda style attack on an innocent civilian inside Russia. The murder of Dugina was a textbook definition of terrorism, which is, “the use of violence or the threat of violence, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political goals.”
Just over a month later, the Nordstream pipelines were blown up, seemingly ending at least in the near term the possibility that Germany may find a way to save its economy by mending fences with its main energy supplier. A leading Polish politician thanked the US for doing the job.
Then over the weekend, the bridge connecting mainland Russia to Crimea was bombed, killing at least six civilians and leaving part of the bridge under water. Traffic was restored hours after the attack, but Russian President Vladimir Putin placed the blame on Ukraine’s intelligence service. We all know that Ukraine relies on its US masters, so we can assume the US provided the intelligence allowing the targeting of the bridge.
There is a pattern here. More and more brazen attacks are being launched against Russia and Washington is doing little to hide US fingerprints. Why?
The Biden Administration seems to be moving us closer to nuclear war over Ukraine and Biden himself seems to know it. Last week he said, Putin “is not joking when he talks about potential use of tactical nuclear weapons or biological or chemical weapons…” For the “first time since the Cuban missile crisis, we have a direct threat of the use [of nuclear weapons] if in fact things continue down the path they are going.”
So the question is if he knows that his proxy war against Russia is moving us closer to the unthinkable – nuclear annihilation – why does his Administration persist in crossing red line after red line? Apparently, Biden’s “experts” believe that Putin is bluffing and will do nothing about the Dugina assassination, the Nordstream pipeline sabotage, and the Kerch Bridge attack.
But what if they’re wrong?
Normally foreign policy action should be weighed on a cost/benefit basis. Will adopting one particular policy benefit the United States more than the risks involved? In this case there is absolutely nothing on the positive side of the ledger. Will the security and prosperity of the United States benefit more from regime change in Russia than it would suffer should nuclear war break out?
It doesn’t seem all that hard. No.
So what’s going on here? Why does the US Administration – with the support of most Republicans in Congress – continue to send tens of billions of dollars in military aid and move us toward nuclear war over a conflict that has nothing at all to do with the United States?
The time to end US participation in this war is yesterday. And if it takes millions of Americans in the streets peacefully protesting while demanding that their representatives stop this madness, then bring it on. Tomorrow may be too late.
Samizdat | October 10, 2022
US Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) has called on Washington to cut foreign aid to Ukraine, which he argued is being used to fund a conflict that the US should have “no involvement in.” On Capitol Hill, a number of Republican lawmakers have condemned President Joe Biden’s open checkbook for Kiev.
“NO MORE Foreign Aid, especially not to fund a war that we should have NO involvement in,” Gosar tweeted on Monday. “Biden and his crime family may owe Zelensky, but America doesn’t owe him a damn thing,” the lawmaker added.
A staunch anti-interventionist and a member of the Republican Party’s unofficial ‘America First’ caucus, Gosar has emerged as one of the loudest critics of the Biden administration’s Ukraine policy. The Arizona congressman voted against a $40 billion military and economic aid package for Kiev in May, and against a spending bill offering Kiev another $12 billion last month.
“The border is open, fentanyl is killing hundreds of thousands and inflation is raging,” he wrote as his colleagues voted to pass the latter bill. “Yet the left and the establishment right just voted to send another 12 billion to Ukraine? This is more America Last policy.”
Gosar’s mentioning of Biden’s “crime family” owing Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensy a favor is likely a reference to the theory held by some US conservatives that Zelensky aided Biden’s 2020 election win by refusing a request by former President Donald Trump to reopen a corruption investigation into Biden’s son’s lucrative position on the board of a Ukrainian energy firm.
Gosar is not the only Republican calling on both parties to shut off the cash and arms pipeline to Ukraine. Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene declared last week that US aid to Kiev has “killed thousands and thousands of people [and] drastically driven up the cost of living all over the world,” while Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz wrote on Sunday that “maintaining Ukraine as an international money laundering Mecca isn’t worth” the threat of nuclear war.
With a deal that threatens non-proliferation, Australia is now yet another focal point of US-China tensions.
By Uriel Araujo | October 10, 2022
According to recent reports, an amendment proposed by AUKUS (Australia, UK and the US) countries to legitimize their nuclear submarine cooperation is being curbed by Chinese diplomatic efforts. The $122.4 billion dollars deal reached in September 2021 had been announced as the core component of this new strategic partnership.
AUKUS, the security pact between these three Anglo-Saxon countries to counter China, was announced in September 2021, and has been controversial from the very start. Together with the QUAD, it has certainly increased tensions in the Asia-Pacific region.
In this context, Australian authorities in Canberra plan to acquire at least eight nuclear submarines, thereby possibly making the Indo-Pacific state the first one in the Southern Hemisphere to possess such vessels, as well as the first country that is a party to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to do so other than the five recognized weapon states, namely the US, Russia, China, UK, and France. According to the International Atomic Energy (IAE) Rafael Grossi, these submarines will be fuelled by “highly enriched uranium”, so they could be weapons-grade or close to it. Beijing’s Permanent Mission, in a position paper sent to the IAE last month, emphasized the fact that the “AUKUS partnership involves the illegal transfer of nuclear weapon materials, making it essentially an act of nuclear proliferation.”
The AUKUS countries in turn argue that the NPT allows marine nuclear propulsion as long as the proper arrangements are made with the Agency. However, in this case, nuclear material will be transferred to rather than produced by Australia itself. China disagrees with the AUKUS’ stance, arguing that the IAE is in fact overstepping its mandate. Beijing has called for an “inter-governmental” process to examine the issue at hand.
This is a complicated matter: when nuclear submarines are at sea, their fuel is not within the reach of the IAE’s inspectors and there is no way to keep track of the nuclear material. The agency’s director himself, Rafael Grossi, has told the BBC the AUKUS submarine deal would be “very tricky” for nuclear inspectors.
China’s mission to the UN in Vienna has also bluntly described AUKUS’ plans as nuclear proliferation under a naval nuclear propulsion “cover”. Ambassador Wang Qun, Chinese Permanent Representative to the UN accused the AUKUS states of “double standard” in a September 19 interview.
American-Chinese tensions are already too high over the issue of Taiwan and to add fuel to the fire, Beijing perceives the US-led AUKUS plans as the West pushing its sea frontiers against China by weaponizing its ally Australia with nuclear submarines. To make matters worse, under the current arrangements the fleet would be a US-controlled squadron. Given the ongoing American “dual containment” policy, Beijing’s concerns do make a lot of sense.
Chen Hong, president of the Chinese Association of Australian Studies and also a director of the Australian Studies Center at East China Normal University, has even warned that by playing a part in this, Canberra could be sacrificing its own national security for the sake of other countries’ national interests.
In July, two Chinese think-thanks (China Arms Control and Disarmament Association and China Institute of Nuclear Industry Strategy) had already warned that the AUKUS submarine project could set a “dangerous precedent” and thus threaten non-proliferation in a lengthy report called “A Dangerous Conspiracy: The Nuclear Proliferation Risk of the Nuclear-powered Submarines Collaboration in the Context of AUKUS.”
According to the document, if the US and the UK have their way, nuclear states will for the very first time be transferring weapons-grade nuclear material to a non-nuclear state (Australia). Such a precedent, it warns, “ferments potential risks and hazards in multiple aspects such as nuclear security, arms race in nuclear submarines and missile technology proliferation, with a profound negative impact on global strategic balance and stability.” The report also controversially evokes the possibility that Canberra might actually be intent on acquiring nuclear weapons, given its historical pursuit of the technology since the 1950s.
Meanwhile, Rob Wittman and Donald Norcross, two members of the US House Armed Services Committee, in a Wilson Center discussion on southeast Asia and the Pacific, have urged Australians to work closely with the US to master nuclear technology.
Anthony Moretti, a Department of Communication and Organizational Leadership Professor at the Robert Morris University argues that there is a loophole in the NPT which would allow Canberra to acknowledge to the IEA that it has acquired nuclear materials and then simply refuse to allow any inspections validating its procedures. This would be the only way for Australia to go ahead with the AUKUS deal under the current framework, but the problem is the dangerous precedent it would set, as mentioned above. It is quite hard to imagine how Beijing could possibly allow such development.
In his recent book titled “Sub-Imperial Power: Australia in the International Arena”, retired Australian army intelligence officer, Clinton Fernandes makes the convincing point that Canberra’s defense strategy has been built around a “structural dependence” on the US, which leaves it unable to defend itself in any scenario other than “in the context of the US Alliance.”
Australia has been called the “coup capital” of the so-called democratic world and the American influence on the country over the years has a lot to do with this. Washington has also controlled Canberra’s foreign policy for decades, as exemplified by the infamous Anglo-American coup that “dismissed” Prime Minister Gough Whitlam. Right now, the island-country has become yet another focal point of tensions between great powers.
Uriel Araujo is a researcher with a focus on international and ethnic conflicts.
From most loved, to most hated… audiences are drowning out Green Party speakers at campaign rallies.
By P Gosselin – No Tricks Zone – October 8, 2022
The German Greens, who are partners with the SPD socialists in Germany’s government, are sinking dramatically in the public opinion polls as it becomes clear Green Party leader and Economics Minister Robert Habeck is driving the country’s economy into the ground at a dizzying speed.
Habeck, who currently also serves as Vice Chancellor, recently stunned millions of TV viewers when he appeared not to understand what bankruptcy is. Now as tomorrow’s state elections approach in Lower Saxony, the Green Party officials are scrambling to keep Habeck from doing more damage.
Blackout News reports that the Greens are “hiding” Habeck from the public in order to control the damage, and so far he has “had only one campaign appearance”. For that one particular appearance, “the audience had to stay outside, for security reasons” and “exclusively to selected members of his party.”
“In the polls, Robert Habeck has already experienced a significant plunge in the popularity of German politicians in recent days. So it’s no wonder that the Greens are literally hiding their once most popular politician ahead of the election in Lower Saxony,” reports Blackout News.
Desperate to find new sources of energy now that the Russian supply of natural gas has been halted, Habeck has angered his party base by extending the operating life for two nuclear power plants and putting lignite-fired power plants back on line.
In Göttingen, Habeck spoke at an election rally, but only in only in front of hand-picked audience after the police had completely sealed off the event.
Just a day earlier his party comrade Annalena Baerbock was “drowned out” by demonstrators. “Already at the beginning of her speech there was a deafening concert of whistles so that Baerbock could hardly be understood,” reports Blackout News. “In addition, there were shouts such as: ‘Baerbock must go’, ‘war-mongers’, ‘get lost’ and ‘impoverishment and war thanks to the Greens’, and ‘whoever votes Green, votes for war’.”
The mainstream media however, did not report on this.
Once the darlings of politics, the German Greens have seen their popularity plummet spectacularly over the recent weeks as Germany’s economy crashes due to excruciating energy shortages and price inflation.
“Therefore, on October 3, the Minister of Economics spoke only to a few dozen hand-picked party members and a few selected journalists,” according to Blackout News.
By Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D. | The Defender | October 7, 2022
In what pharmaceutical industry publication Fierce Pharma called “a troubling sign of the times,” the Biden administration this week purchased $290 million in anti-radiation drugs.
In an Oct. 4 press release, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) announced the purchase of Nplate, a drug used to treat acute radiation syndrome.
ASPR — the federal agency tasked with preparing for disasters and public health emergencies — said the purchase was made “as part of long-standing, ongoing efforts to be better prepared to save lives following radiological and nuclear emergencies.”
HHS did not clarify why it bolstered the government’s Nplate stockpile, other than describing it as “part of our ongoing work for preparedness and radiological security.”
Officials downplayed any connection to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, adding that the purchase “was not accelerated by the situation in Ukraine.”
However, two days after the announcement, amid growing tensions related to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, President Biden said the risk of nuclear “Armageddon” is at its highest since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.
The U.S. government in recent months has made several moves signaling a growing level of nuclear preparedness.
For instance, in late September, the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity launched a new program, — Targeted Evaluation of Ionizing Radiation Exposure — which will investigate methods to detect low doses of ionizing radiation.
According to The Register, the investigation will work to “build a new understanding of the effects of low-dose radiation” through the use of technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, biomarker discovery and analytical biography.
The Ohio State University, the University of Washington, Areté Associates and Signature Science received grants to conduct the research over a three-and-a-half year period. The research will occur at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Lab and the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute.
Earlier this summer, New York City authorities raised eyebrows with the release of a 90-second nuclear preparedness public service announcement (PSA), which the New York Times described as “bizarre” and as “well watched,” but “not well received.”
At the time, NPR reported that New York City’s emergency management department “wants residents to be prepared if [a nuclear attack] does occur,” but that the PSA left many of the city’s residents “confused.”
Outside the U.S., countries neighboring Ukraine, such as Poland, reportedly began distributing iodine tablets in response to the threat of nuclear fallout related to the Russia-Ukraine conflict as a result of shelling around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine.
Developed under Project BioShield, with funding from numerous government agencies
Nplate is the trade name for the drug romiplostim, approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in January 2021 for the treatment of blood cell injuries that result from acute radiation syndrome.
The drug is an artificial protein that promotes the production of platelets — or blood-clotting cells — in the human body.
The drug first received FDA approval in 2008, for the treatment of immune thrombocytopenia, an autoimmune disorder that causes serious bleeding.
Amgen, the drug’s manufacturer, developed Nplate in conjunction with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, or BARDA, under the auspices of Project BioShield, signed into law in July 2004 by then-president George W. Bush.
Project BioShield, which incentivizes private companies to develop vaccines and countermeasures for biological, chemical, nuclear and radiological threats, provided funding for the latest $290 million purchase by the HHS.
BARDA — another arm of HHS — garnered attention in recent years for its extensive deals with COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers and for its promotion of COVID-19 countermeasures.
In 2020, BARDA promised Moderna up to $483 million to “shepherd” its COVID-19 vaccine through the FDA approval process.
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) — headed by Dr. Anthony Fauci — also contributed to the development of Nplate.
For instance, during an April 2018 oversight hearing of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, Fauci described NIAID’s involvement in the development and promotion of “radiation/nuclear countermeasure candidates,” including Nplate, for FDA approval under the Animal Rule.
According to the FDA, Animal Rule regulations “allow for the approval of drugs and licensure of biological products when human efficacy studies are not ethical and field trials to study the effectiveness of drugs or biological products are not feasible.”
In the case of Nplate, drugs.com states that the effectiveness of the drug for the purposes of treating radiation exposure “was only studied in animals, because it could not be studied in people.”
Also according to drugs.com, Nplate also is associated with several serious potential side effects, including the increased risk of a blood clot or stroke, an increased risk of developing blood cancers and “harmful effects on your bone marrow that may result in serious blood cell disorders.”
The site states that it is “unknown” if Nplate will cause harm to unborn babies.
Amgen, based in Thousand Oaks, California, describes itself as “A worldwide pioneer in biotechnology.”
The company’s board of directors includes members from The Aerospace Corporation, the David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Northrop Grumman, Phillips 66, the University of California and Walmart.
The newly purchased stockpile will remain in vendor-controlled inventory, HHS said.
Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D., is an independent journalist and researcher based in Athens, Greece.
This article was originally published by The Defender — Children’s Health Defense’s News & Views Website under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Please consider subscribing to The Defender or donating to Children’s Health Defense.
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By Lisa Pease | Consortium News | September 16, 2013
More than a half century ago, just after midnight on Sept. 18, 1961, the plane carrying UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld and 15 others went down in a plane crash over Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia). All 16 died, but the facts of the crash were provocatively mysterious. … continue
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