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US government ‘has declared war on me’ – Scott Ritter

RT | August 8, 2024

Former US Marine turned journalist Scott Ritter has accused the US government of committing an “act of intimidation” against him for his journalistic work after federal agents and state police executed a search warrant on his house in New York State on Wednesday.

In a video statement on his Telegram channel on Thursday, Ritter, who is also a former UN weapons inspector, said that the warrant was based upon suspicion that he had violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

The authorities appear to be “primarily concerned” about his “relationship” with RT and the news agency Sputnik, he added.

According to Ritter, the FBI agents accused him of working “on behalf of the Russian government” and receiving “directions” from the two Russian outlets while being compensated for his contributions.

Ritter stressed that he was not a foreign agent and pointed out that he gets compensation from “any journalistic entity” he provides content for.

Ritter also dismissed as “absurd in the extreme” the accusation that his articles and podcasts were “designed to manipulate the opinion of the American people on behalf of the Russian government.”

He called the raid “an act of intimidation by the US government designed to have a chilling effect” and to discourage him from further cooperation with the Russian-based media outlets, Ritter said.

”There isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that I will back down because I’m doing nothing wrong,” he stated, adding that he is “an American citizen, holding my government accountable and exercising the rights given to me by the Constitution.”

Ritter went on to say that the US government has “declared war” on him, on his ability to write, to speak, and to interact with the American people and the broader international audience.

”It’s not a war I plan on losing,” Ritter concluded.

Ritter is a former US Marine Corps major who served as a UN weapons inspector in Iraq during the 1990s. He opposed the 2003 US invasion, insisting that Saddam Hussein’s government did not have weapons of mass destruction, as Washington claimed at the time.

According to the US Department of Justice, the US Foreign Agents Registration Act “requires certain agents” to disclose their relationship with “foreign principals,” thus “informing the public on the identity of persons engaging in political activities on behalf of foreign governments.”

Similar legislation adopted in Russia has been harshly criticized in the West, branded as “oppressive” and a “crackdown on opposition.”

August 8, 2024 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance, Progressive Hypocrite, Russophobia | , , | Leave a comment

Russia decries ‘routine repression’ of dissidents in EU states

RT | August 7, 2024

The West is turning into a “neoliberal dictatorship” that is intolerant of any form of dissent, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova claimed on Wednesday. She was commenting on the prosecution of journalist Svetlana Burtseva by EU member Estonia.

Burtseva, a 57-year-old naturalized Estonian citizen, was charged this week under an article of the Estonian penal code that prohibits relations with a foreign entity with the intention of committing treason.

Specifically, Burtseva was accused of writing under a pen name for a Baltic-focused Russian-language news outlet that belongs to the Russian media group Rossiya Segodnya, which is sanctioned by the EU.

Estonian officials have claimed Burtseva committed subversive activities such as writing a book that “belittles” the Baltic country, as claimed by public prosecutor Eneli Laurits.

Commenting on the case, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zakharova said that “similar to other ‘advanced democracies’ of the Baltics, Estonia continues to systematically use repression as a routine tool for quashing dissent.”

She described the allegations against Burtseva as “obviously fabricated” and claimed that they reflect Tallin’s “flawed and absolutely irreconcilable” attitude to opposition.

Moscow perceives the prosecution as an attempt to punish Burtseva for journalism and voicing opinions critical of the Estonian government. International bodies that should defend freedom of speech share the blame, since they have neglected their duties and have long turned a blind eye to the stifling of critical press by the Baltic states, the diplomat argued.

The entire situation “showcases the deep crisis and the deterioration of the Western-style democracy, how it is morphing into a neoliberal dictatorship,” Zakharova concluded.

August 7, 2024 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance, Russophobia | , , , | Leave a comment

Thousands join peace and freedom rally in Berlin

RT | August 4, 2024

Thousands took to the streets of Berlin on Saturday for a “peace and freedom” rally to protest against what was called Germany’s “belligerent” foreign policy and the country’s continued arms supplies to Ukraine.

The event was organized by so-called Querdenker (‘lateral thinking’) groups, a movement initially formed during the Covid-19 pandemic in order to protest against the German government’s lockdown policies and the overall pandemic response. It has since absorbed other government critics. Some German media outlets have referred to the movement as rife with conspiracy theorists or having links to far-right groups.

Some 5,000 people registered for the march, according to the city police. Several local media outlets put the number of participants at 9,000, citing law enforcement estimates. Many people carried blue flags with a white dove of peace, while others had banners and placards that read: “No US missiles on our soil!” “No missiles against Russia!” “No arms shipments to Ukraine and Israel!” or “Peace talks!”

Some demonstrators also carried banners bearing the slogan “Create peace without weapons!” This phrase comes from the 1982 Berlin Appeal, an outspoken petition crafted by two East German dissidents that called for disarmament.

Having started at Ernst Reuter Square in central Berlin, the demonstrators eventually made their way to Tiergarten Park for a rally attended by some 12,000 people, according to police estimates. Protesters called for “regionality, direct democracy and limiting the power” of the government, which, many claimed was filled with “absolute idiots.”

Some of the demonstrators still wanted the government to “bear responsibility” for what they believed were unjust lockdown policies during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Participants also demanded that Germany be “capable of peace instead of being ready for war” in an apparent reference to a statement in June by Defense Minister Boris Pistorius that the nation “must be ready for war by 2029” while advocating military reform and a “new form of military service.” The minister had previously made similar statements, citing the alleged threat posed by Russia in particular.

Some speakers at the rally urged Germany to leave NATO. “We want a government that represents our interests and not that of the USA and big business,” one said, according to local media reports. Thousands of protesters reportedly stayed at the rally site for many hours. Some 7,000 people were still demonstrating in the early evening, according to law enforcement estimates.

The event was largely peaceful, with just a handful of detentions, the police said, adding that most of those detained had violated the rules on banned symbols, such as the logo of the German Compact Magazine, which has been deemed extremist by the country’s domestic security service (BfV).

Some smaller counter protests organized by various left-wing groups were also held in the city on Saturday.

August 4, 2024 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Militarism, Russophobia, Solidarity and Activism | , , | Leave a comment

INF Treaty Stood in Way of Plans to Militarize Europe, Hold Russia Back – Ex-DoD Analyst

Sputnik – 02.08.2024

WASHINGTON – The United States scrapped the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty five years ago with the aim of expanding NATO further eastward, pressing Russia economically and militarily, and cementing America’s global hegemony, veteran Pentagon analyst and retired US Air Force Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski told Sputnik.

August 2 marks the fifth anniversary of the US’s formal withdrawal from the INF Treaty.

“This [the pullout from the treaty] was due to the US desire (led by neoconservatives in the State Department and elsewhere in the Obama, Trump and Biden administrations) to expand NATO eastward, as well to engage militarily on Russia’s European border with both conventional and nuclear arms, specifically via Ukraine,” Kwiatkowski said.

The military and economic rise of China, a neoconservative theme for the past 30 years, required in the eyes of hawkish US military planners a nuclear offensive line in Eastern Europe to hold Russia “captive,” Kwiatkowski explained.

“The INF Treaty always stood in the way of this,” she said.

Russia had formally complained of continual US violations of the INF Treaty since 2014, but this was information most Americans and Europeans never saw, and most were not even interested in, Kwiatkowski noted.

“The consequences have been straightforward and dangerous. First, both the United States and Russia are now actively engaged in an expensive competition in the INF field and other new missile technology arenas,” she said.

Unlike in 1987, Russian technological and economic capabilities in this space now exceed those of the United States, Kwiatkowski assessed.

“Instead of US-Russia treaties that could engage and limit war preparation, we have NATO expansion, including an attempt to NATO-ize former INF signatory Ukraine,” she said.

After two post-Cold War batch accessions to the NATO alliance in 1999 and 2004, the accessions of six new member countries since 2009 have created a larger “border” between Russia and NATO, Kwiatkowski cautioned.

“Peace and diplomacy were now not only verboten, or forbidden but for five years have been institutionally impossible in Europe, thanks in part to the elimination of the INF Treaty and abnormally weak and intellectually impoverished US and NATO leadership over the same time frame,” she concluded.

The INF treaty, signed between the Soviet Union and the US in 1987, banned the countries from developing and possessing ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges from 500-5,500 kilometers. In 2019, then-President Donald Trump withdrew the US from the treaty, accusing Russia of non-compliance. In response to the US decision, Russia suspended its participation in the Cold War-era accord.

August 2, 2024 Posted by | Militarism, Russophobia | , , | Leave a comment

Hungary Rejects Croatian Oil Route Over High Fees and EU Call to Stop Russian Oil

Sputnik – 02.08.2024

Croatia is not a reliable partner for oil transit, since it has raised the duty fivefold since 2022, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Friday, commenting on Brussels’ proposal to replace the Russian oil supplies stopped by Kiev with transit through Croatia.

Earlier in the day, the Financial Times reported, citing a letter from EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis, that the European Commission had advised Hungary and Slovakia to abandon Russian oil and seek alternative sources in response to a complaint that Ukraine has blocked the transit of oil from Russia.

“Croatia is simply not a reliable transit country,” Szijjarto wrote on social media, adding that since the start of the conflict in Ukraine, Croatia has increased the price of oil transit fivefold compared to the average market price.

Last month, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said that Ukraine had stopped the transit of Lukoil’s oil. The Slovak Economy Ministry confirmed that the country was no longer receiving oil from the Russian oil giant, which was sanctioned by Ukraine. On July 22, Szijjarto said that Hungary and Slovakia had launched consultations of the European Commission with Ukraine due to a stop in the transit of oil from Russia through the Druzhba pipeline. On Thursday, EU Commission spokesman Balazs Ujvari said that Kiev’s decision shows no energy supply risks for Hungary or Slovakia, so the Commission will not hold urgent consultations on the issue.

Dombrovskis said in the letter to Budapest and Bratislava that “diversification away from Russian fossil fuels should be actively pursued,” the report read on Thursday.

He reportedly added that at a meeting of representatives of all EU member states last week, “a significant number … questioned why Hungary and Slovakia had apparently not yet explored alternatives so far”.

August 2, 2024 Posted by | Russophobia | , , , | Leave a comment

US about to impose sanctions on Georgia due to its refusal to engage in anti-Russian hostilities

By Lucas Leiroz | August 2, 2024

Since the beginning of the special military operation, the US has been encouraging other countries to participate directly or indirectly in hostilities against the Russian Federation. Due to its recent history of war against Moscow and its territorial demands in the north, Georgia has been one of the countries most encouraged by the West to take an open stance against Russia in the current proxy war. However, Tbilisi has refused to participate in the hostilities, which is why the Caucasian country may be close to being sanctioned by the West.

In Georgia, there is a clear political polarization between pro-Western militants and the sovereigntists who advocate good relations with Russia. Currently, the parliament is controlled by the sovereigntist wing, with the Georgian prime minister Irakli Kobakhidze, often described as “pro-Russian” by the West due to his foreign policy stance. On the other hand, the opposition is extremely violent and has organized protests and demonstrations with the aim of pressuring for radical changes in the country. The leading figure of the pro-Western wing is the country’s president herself, French-born Salome Zurabishvili, who leads a major pro-EU and pro-NATO lobby.

Currently, the most controversial political issue in Georgia is the law against foreign agents, recently passed by the parliament. The law requires media groups, think tanks and individuals who receive more than 20% of foreign funding to be registered within Georgian institutions officially as “promoters of the interests of a foreign power”. Zurabishvili vetoed the law, but the prime minister approved it despite the president’s disagreement.

Since Georgia is the scene of the operations of several American and European agencies, the law severely affects the Western lobby in the country. Having to expose their financiers, pro-Western agencies in Georgia have their work discredited and lose influence over public opinion. As a result, the EU and NATO plan to “push” Georgia to a “second front” against Russia loses momentum, bringing hope for good relations with Moscow – and infuriating the West.

Since Western countries are extremely “punitive” towards sovereign states, Georgia has obviously become the target of American and European strategists. After several hostile statements, threats and even attempts at a color revolution, now the Under Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs James O’Brien officially announced to the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee that Washington is planning to impose sanctions on Georgia.

O’Brien, who recently stated that NATO is on the verge of adopting a “new Russia strategy“, said that the Americans are considering the possibility of sanctioning Tbilisi. He believes that if the upcoming parliamentary elections do not effectively advance Western interests in the country, imposing sanctions will be the only option left for the US. In addition, he emphasized that the US is reviewing all cooperation and aid programs it currently has with Georgia, suggesting that other forms of economic boycott could be imposed.

“You asked about sanctions, we are actively considering our options there. I won’t preview anything, but we are looking at it (…) [The US is ready] to support everything that will contribute to fair and free parliament election in Georgia this fall (…) I’m hopeful that this can happen again in the next months,” he said.

Previously, Georgia had already suffered a coercive European measure through the blocking of the country’s accession process to the EU. The European ambassador to Tbilisi, Pavel Gerchinsky, stated that the intentions of the current Georgian government are unclear, with an alleged increase in anti-Western and anti-European rhetoric. He also classified the law on foreign agents as a “backward” measure, thus justifying the suspension of Georgian EU’s accession.

“The intentions of the current Georgian government are unclear to EU leaders. The Transparency of Foreign Influence Act is clearly a step backwards. […] Also, the anti-Western, anti-European rhetoric is completely incompatible with the declared goal of joining the European Union. Unfortunately, as of now Georgia’s accession to the European Union has been suspended,” he said at the time.

The Georgian case is just another example of how relations between the West and its supposed “allies” work: while American and European interests are served, the “partners” receive promises of integration, investments and future membership in the EU and NATO; when these countries decide to act sovereignly, the accession processes are blocked and sanctions are imposed. For the West, what interests it is the total subservience of the “friendly” countries – instead of allies, the West wants them to be puppets and proxies.

Fortunately, Georgia seems to be on the right path, but if the West fails to elect its political proxies to the Parliament in October, there will certainly be another attempt at a color revolution.

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

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

August 2, 2024 Posted by | Economics, Russophobia | , | Leave a comment

China responds to US election interference claim

RT | July 30, 2024

Beijing has never interfered in US elections and has no intention of doing so, the Chinese Foreign Ministry has stressed in response to accusations recently levied by US intelligence officials.

The ministry’s statement comes in response to a late July Election Security Update by the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) in which Russia, China and Iran were accused of supposedly using their influence to impact US politics and threaten the upcoming US presidential election, scheduled for November.

In the report, ODNI stated that while China “probably does not plan to influence the outcome of the US presidential election,” actors linked to Beijing are expected to “seek to denigrate down-ballot candidates” who are seen as a threat to China’s core interests. The agency suggested that similar actions were carried out by Chinese agents “in a handful of midterm races in 2022.”

ODNI also stated that it is aware that Beijing is using social media to sow “divisions in the US and portray democracies as chaotic.”

Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian responded to the accusations by stating that “China has never interfered in and will not interfere in the US election.”

“We oppose the US spreading false information to smear China and oppose the US election using China as an excuse,” Lin stressed.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has also categorically rejected ODNI’s allegations of election meddling, describing them as “absurd” and accusing the US intelligence community of succumbing to “fashionable trends in domestic politics” and “looking for enemies.”

“The Americans cannot think of a better enemy than Russia,” Peskov told reporters on Tuesday, adding that more similar accusations are likely to come out in the future as the US election approaches. He explained that Russia and its President Vladimir Putin continue to be major factors for US Republicans and Democrats to exploit amid their ongoing political struggle.

The Kremlin spokesman expressed regret that Moscow has to deal with this fact, noting that the American politicians’ baseless accusations only serve to further harm Russian-American relations.

July 30, 2024 Posted by | Mainstream Media, Warmongering, Russophobia | , , , | Leave a comment

Russia reacts to Olympic ‘sabotage’ accusations

RT | July 29, 2024

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has dismissed reports of alleged Russian involvement in recent attacks on French infrastructure during the Olympic games as “unsubstantiated accusations” and “fakes”.

France’s high-speed train network was targeted early Friday by several “coordinated” arson attacks, according to the country’s transport minister. The sabotage paralyzed high-speed rail travel ahead of the Olympics opening ceremony.

“Low-quality media outlets, and even respected ones, have recently stopped at nothing to literally blame Russia for everything that is happening,” Peskov said, dismissing the accusations aimed at Moscow as “unsubstantiated fakes.”

He added that such reports without evidence do nothing for the reputation of the media outlets as supposedly “reliable sources of information.”

Last week, France’s minister of the interior said officials thwarted four credible planned attacks for the Olympics, including one that was allegedly tied to a Russian national.

According to the Paris prosecutor’s office, a 40-year-old Russian man was taken into custody three days before the opening of the Games. The incident raised fears of his alleged “intention to organize events likely to cause destabilization during the Olympic Games,” the office told NBC news.

Outgoing Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said on Monday that the profiles of those who may have been behind the Friday rail attack “resembled the ultra-left’s operating procedure,” but that “the question is if these people were manipulated by others or acted on their own behalf.”

On Monday, French authorities also reported that a number of fiber optic networks have been sabotaged across the country.

Meanwhile, Russian television channels and streaming services are not airing this year’s Olympic Games due to the IOC’s ruling on the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes. While initially banning their participation, the international body later ruled that a limited number of individuals from the two countries could take part in the Olympics under a neutral flag. Just 36 Russian athletes are thought to have been approved, but 20 have since refused to take part, citing humiliating conditions. ​

The Paris Summer Olympics is the first event in 40 years to be boycotted by Russia. Previously the USSR snubbed the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles citing “security concerns and chauvinistic sentiments and an anti-Soviet hysteria being whipped up in the United States.”

July 29, 2024 Posted by | Russophobia | , , | Leave a comment

The U.S. pressures Armenia to buy gas from Azerbaijan instead of Russia

By Steven Sahiounie | Strategic Culture Foundation | July 28, 2024

Ambassador Samantha Power, former U.S. Ambassador to the UN, and now director of USAID, an office of the U.S. State Department, traveled to Armenia on July 10 to strong-arm Prime MInister Nikol Pashinyan into buying gas from Azerbaijan, instead of Russia.

Armenia currently imports almost all of its hydrocarbons from Russia and Iran via gas pipeline.

The President Joe Biden administration supports the war in Ukraine by providing billions of dollars of weapons to Ukraine to fight Russia.

Prior to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline being destroyed, Biden had made a speech promising that the U.S. would prevent Russia from selling gas to Germany and Europe. It is an economic war waged on Russia, as well as militarily on the battlefields.

On February 28, 2023, the American Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, Seymour Hersh, published an article exposing how the Biden administration had blown up the Nord Stream 2 underwater pipeline designed to deliver gas to Germany and Europe.

The Nord Stream 2 had been sanctioned by Germany, and Biden was afraid that Germany would lift the sanctions because of a bad winter.

According to Hersh, Biden was obsessed with reelection in 2024, and wanted to win the war in Ukraine. Biden’s advisors in the Oval Office feared that Germany and Western Europe might stop weapons support to Ukraine, and the German chancellor could turn the pipeline on.

Biden placed winning the war in Ukraine above the warmth and health of the German people, even though winning a war in Ukraine is improbable, according to military experts.

The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), has criticized Power’s trip to Armenia because USAID hasn’t provided financial support to Armenians who left Karabakh and returned to their homeland Armenia as displaced persons, and victims of ethnic cleansing.

Despite previous visits and flowery speeches, Power has not initiated any funding programs for the Karabakh Armenians who lost their homes, possessions, lands and livelihoods.

In September 2023, almost 200,000 ethnic Armenians fled the battles, and eventual defeat in Nagorno-Karabakh following Azerbaijan’s victory ending three decades of ethnic Armenian separatist rule there.

Protesters on the streets of Yerevan blamed the policies of Pashinyan for the defeat.

Power arrived in Yerevan on September 25 and said, “The United States is deeply concerned about reports on the humanitarian conditions in Nagorno-Karabakh and calls for unimpeded access for international humanitarian organizations and commercial traffic.”

The ANCA say the needy are still waiting for help from Power and the Biden administration.

During Azerbaijan’s attacks on the Armenian people living in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, the U.S. supported the Azerbaijan government. There is no reason for the government of Armenia to view the U.S. as a friend, or supporter.

By contrast, the Russian peace-keeping troops tried to perform their job in the Nagorno-Karabakh armed conflict, but in the end, Armenia was defeated.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have made peace; the armed conflict is over, but the pain of hundreds of Armenian deaths at the hands of the Azerbaijanis remains fresh in the minds and hearts of Armenians.

Now, Ambassador Power is asking Yerevan to buy their gas from a former enemy, instead of a loyal friend.

On July 15, just days after Power visited, joint military drills with the U.S. began, and reflects the pressure Power and the Biden administration are putting on Armenia to forge closer ties with the U.S.

Russia had been Armenia’s main economic partner and Armenia hosts a Russian military base. Armenian authorities accused Russian peacekeepers who were deployed to Nagorno-Karabakh of failing to stop Azerbaijan’s onslaught. Moscow rejected the accusations, arguing that its troops didn’t have a mandate to intervene.

American military help was completely absent in the struggle for Nagorno-Karabakh.

“Has she no shame?” asked Sossy Saroyan in Latakia, Syria while referring to Power.

After the attack and massacre in Kessab, carried out by the U.S. supported Free Syrian Army (FSA) and their allied Al Qaeda terrorists, U.S. Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power, was asked to comment on what happened in Kessab.

Power said, “The U.S. is very concerned about what happened in Kessab, but unfortunately the armed groups there are not ones we have leverage on.”

Power had lied. The FSA was the armed wing of the Syrian National Coalition (SNC), based in Istanbul, Turkey and headed by its President, Ahmed Jarba. Both the FSA and SNC received their support, funds, training and weapons from the U.S. government through Congressional funding, and through the CIA program, “Sycamore Timber”.

To prove the U.S. connection to the attack, destruction, occupation, massacre and kidnapping in Kessab in March 2014, Jarba visited the FSA stationed in occupied Kessab on April 11, 2014.

On May 23, 2014, Jarba was sitting in the Oval Office with U.S. President Barak Obama and Susan Rice. On Jarba’s visit he met with Secretary of State John Kerry and received the use of two offices in Washington to be used as a U.S. base of operation for the SNC and FSA.

On the same day that Jarba was in Kessab, U.S. Ambassador to Turkey, Francis J. Riccardone, Jr. visited the 26 very elderly kidnap victims from Kessab who had been taken at gunpoint to Vikifly, Turkey as captives of the FSA.

Ambassador Riccardone had brought his wife with him, as she was a language specialist, and they also had a translator with them.

Ambassador Riccardone had just one question to ask of the captives who all but one was over the age of 80. His question posed to the group of captives was, “Are any of you American citizens?”

Kessab, Syria does have a number of dual citizens, Syrians by birth, who have obtained U.S. citizenship after living, working and paying incomes taxes in the U.S. in the past. In fact, at least four American citizens had lost their homes, farms and businesses when the U.S. sponsored terrorists attacked Kessab.

However, the group collectively answered, “No, we are just Syrians.”

At that point, Ambassador Riccardone and his entourage got up to leave. He was there for one purpose only, to free any U.S. captive, but none were U.S. citizens so he left them.

The very elderly Syrian Christian Armenian kidnap victims were captives of an armed group whose stated goal was to establish an Islamic government in Damascus, and to remove the existing secular government which had protected the rights of all Christians in Syria. The victims begged Ambassador Riccardone to please not leave them in captivity in Turkey, which had massacred 1.6 million Armenians in the 1916 Armenian Genocide, but to transport them to Latakia, Syria where all the residents of Kessab were sheltering at the Armenian Church.

The dozens of elderly, infirm, and immobile Armenians of Kessab were forced by Ambassador Riccardone to remain captives in a foreign country historical known for its genocidal hatred of Armenians, for three months, until they were transported by the Turkish government, allied with Obama, to Beirut, Lebanon and from there they were bused to Latakia, Syria.

Kessab has never recovered, and is a partial ghost-town because of the Obama-Biden administration.

The Armenians of Syria could teach the Armenian government a hard lesson learned from bitter experience: don’t expect help from the U.S., because they do not have friends, they only have interests.

Biden wanted to win the Ukraine war, and secure a ceasefire in Gaza to ensure reelection. Instead he has failed at both, and has lost the election.

July 28, 2024 Posted by | Progressive Hypocrite, Russophobia | , , , | Leave a comment

Vaccine Advocate Peter Hotez Calls for Use of Police, Military Against ‘Anti-vaccine Aggression’

By Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D. | The Defender | July 26, 2024

Vaccine advocate and pharmaceutical industry insider Dr. Peter Hotez, long a proponent of the COVID-19 vaccine, said he favors deploying police and military powers against “anti-vaxers,” whom he blamed for causing hundreds of thousands of deaths during the pandemic.

During an interview July 5 at the Simposio Internacional de Actualización en Pediatría (International Symposium of Pediatric Updates) in Cartagena, Colombia, Hotez suggested organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO), the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and NATO should target “anti-vaccine aggression.”

Hotez said:

“What I’ve said to the Biden administration is, the health sector can’t solve this on its own. We’re going to have to bring in Homeland Security, the Commerce Department, Justice Department to help us understand how to do this.

I’ve said the same with — I met with Dr. Tedros [director general of the WHO] last month … to say, I don’t know that the World Health Organization can solve this on our own. We need the other United Nations agencies. NATO. This is a security problem because it’s no longer a theoretical construct or some arcane academic exercise. Two hundred thousand Americans died because of anti-vaccine aggression, anti-science aggression.

The full interview was available on YouTube until Wednesday evening, when it was removed. The Defender obtained a video recording of the full interview.

Hotez is dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor University College of Medicine and director of the Center for Vaccine Development at Texas Children’s Hospital, one of the sponsors of the symposium, which was organized by the Colombian Pediatric Society.

Aside from being a vaccine proponent and developer — he helped develop the Corbevax COVID-19 vaccine which was administered in India and has received at least $30 million in vaccine development grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation — Hotez has crusaded against so-called “misinformation” about vaccines.

In March, The Hill reported that Hotez has found a “‘parallel career’ fighting misinformation.”

Hotez “finds his efforts to combat misinformation to be ‘meaningful,’” and says “pushing back on the anti-vaccine movement is just as important as developing vaccines,” The Hill wrote.

Hotez also holds six patents on the hookworm (helminth) vaccine, and has several listed patent applications as well, including those for SARS-CoV2 vaccines.

“Peter has cashed in significantly on the COVID-19 pandemic and gets a lot of money when shots go into arms,” said Brian Hooker, Chief Scientific Officer for Children’s Health Defense (CHD).

In his July 5 interview, Hotez called for more stringent action against “anti-vaxers,” whom he connected to entities such as the Russian government, and called for medical schools to educate new doctors about anti-vaccine sentiment.

“‘Anti-science’ and ‘anti-vaxxer’ are propaganda terms Hotez uses to establish a power dynamic over anyone who disagrees with him,” said cardiologist Dr. Peter McCullough.

“Now Hotez is calling for a security state to enforce his propaganda instead of engaging in much needed dialogue over vaccine safety with a critical appraisal of short- and long-term side effects from the routine childhood vaccine schedule, including the COVID-19 shots,” McCullough added.

According to Harvey Risch, M.D., Ph.D., professor emeritus and senior research scientist in epidemiology (chronic diseases) at the Yale School of Public Health:

“Hotez has spent his entire career developing vaccines which have not achieved success in commercial use. His demands to impose public health martial law are reminiscent of the ‘Comité de salut public’ — ‘Committee of Public Safety’ — that Robespierre used to murder his political opponents [during the French Revolution].”

For Francis Boyle, J.D., Ph.D., professor of international law at the University of Illinois, Hotez’s suggestions are a call to violate established international human rights law.

“Coercing vaccines upon human beings without their informed and voluntary consent violates the Nuremberg Code on Medical Experimentation, which is a crime against humanity,” Boyle said. “What we see at work here with Hotez is the Nazi mentality that pervades so many vaccinologists like him. Hotez is revealing his true colors.”

Independent journalist Paul D. Thacker has investigated Hotez for his site, The Disinformation Chronicle. He said, “This crackpot idea that we should deploy military forces to deal with moms worried about vaccine side effects and children … doesn’t that speak for itself?”

Dr. Sukharit Bhakdi, a microbiologist, questioned Hotez’s scientific credentials:

“Simple fact: Hotez is not a real scientist. He has never published any research article based on true scientific research. His publications transmit his personal opinions and beliefs. He has not conducted a single valid vaccine trial and has zero data to back his claims.

“He has been on the globalist team together with [Dr. Anthony] Fauci et al. and is now turning to violence to silence all dissenters. This very fact disqualifies him as a physician.”

“His evolution over the course of the pandemic is curious as he has become more and more shrill as time goes on,” Hooker said. “It seems he is trying to extend his 15 minutes of fame by ‘jumping the shark’ and inciting gestapo-like measures against ‘anti-vaxers’ and ‘science deniers.’ His definition of science is very ‘Fauci-esque’ indeed.”

Claim that unvaccinated caused ‘hundreds of thousands’ of deaths ‘an obvious untruth’

During his July 5 interview, Hotez asserted that the unvaccinated were responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic. He said:

“There’s anti-vaccine activity in every country, and each has its own unique national flavor. But the part that I’m worried about now is something very dark and accelerating in the United States.

“And the most dramatic evidence for that is what happened during the COVID pandemic … My estimate is 200,000 Americans died needlessly because they refused COVID vaccines in 2021, 2022.”

Hotez did not provide evidence supporting this figure, but it was similar to claims made by Dr. Anthony Fauci during Congressional testimony last month. Without citing evidence, Fauci said the unvaccinated are “probably responsible for an additional 200,000-300,000 deaths” in the U.S.”

Risch called this claim “an obvious untruth.”

“In the face of repeated major empirical CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] evidence and CDC’s public acknowledgement that the mRNA vaccines largely failed to reduce COVID transmission, Hotez absurdly claims that people choosing not to vaccinate themselves have contributed more to deaths from COVID than all of the large-scale breakthrough infections among vaccinated people,” Risch said.

McCullough said, “Hotez presumes COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective as any vaccinologist would dream. Sadly, his fantasy was over before it started. The COVID-19 vaccines were unsafe and failed to reduce hospitalization and death in prospective randomized trials or in valid observational studies. They never stopped transmission.”

“All experts, including Hotez, agreed theoretical protection from COVID-19 vaccines was just a few months, requiring frequent boosters,” McCullough added.

Hotez calls parents who choose not to vaccinate their children ‘victims’

In his interview, Hotez called for action — including more censorship — to counter what he called a “dark and accelerating” and “dangerous” anti-vaccine movement in the U.S. and globally that is “expanding and extending to childhood immunizations in the United States.”

“My worry is that this anti-vaccine movement, and it’s not misinformation or [an] infodemic, as many call it, it’s organized, it’s deliberate, it’s well-financed and it’s politically motivated … I worry that’s now globalizing to other countries on the African continent, in Asia and even Latin America,” he added.

On the topic of childhood vaccinations, Hotez said, “Parents who choose not to vaccinate their kids are victims” of this campaign, and called for medical schools to train doctors on how to respond to parents who oppose vaccinations.

“Pediatricians need to understand what the anti-vaccine ecosystem is, how it’s organized, how it operates, and to get educated about it,” he said. “I think that’s a first step … in our medical schools, in our pediatric residency training, in our conferences like this, being able to describe what this anti-vaccine monster looks like.”

But for journalist Rodney Palmer, formerly of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the increasing reluctance of parents to vaccinate their children is due to mounting concerns about vaccine safety. He said:

“The rising movement questioning the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines appears to be based on mounting evidence from government health data collection agencies and the life insurance industry.

“The fraud and cover-up of ivermectin as an effective prevention and treatment of COVID-19 caused a segment of the population to question the official guidance around vaccines — more so once they were mandated.”

Hotez blamed legacy and traditional media, as well as foreign governments, for fueling anti-vaccine sentiments.

“Fox News is now a source of anti-vaccine disinformation,” Hotez said. “If the parents are watching Fox News every night … They are going to be coming into your practice believing disinformation.”

Turning to social media, Hotez said, “Twitter, since Elon Musk has taken it over, has become an anti-vaccine site dominated by anti-vaccine groups and individuals who are monetizing the internet. They’re selling fake autism cures because they say vaccines cause autism, which they don’t.”

Hotez continues to be active on X.

Adversarial foreign governments are also to blame for propagating anti-vaccine rhetoric, according to Hotez. “For instance, the Russian government, the Putin government, is spreading anti-vaccine propaganda. The goal of this is to destabilize society and to have caused people to question authority,” he said.

Hotez did not provide any information to support this claim. Russia produces the Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine, under the auspices of the Russian Direct Investment Fund and The Gamaleya National Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology — an arm of the Russian federal government.

Hotez calls ‘anti-vaccine movement’ a tool of the ‘far-right’

Hotez also used the interview as an opportunity to plug his upcoming book, “The Deadly Rise of Anti-Science: A Scientist’s Warning.” He said the book “describes [the anti-vaccine] ecosystem and its political leanings in detail.”

According to the book’s publisher, Johns Hopkins University Press, Hotez “explains how anti-science became a major societal and lethal force” and how “the anti-vaccine movement became a tool of far-right political figures around the world.”

In 2022, Hotez fiercely criticized looming Congressional hearings into a possible lab-leak origin of COVID-19 and whether the National Institutes of Health (NIH) prematurely discredited the hypothesis, dismissing this as an “outlandish conspiracy.”

However, Hotez’s own 2012 to 2017 NIH grant — totaling $6.1 million — for the development of a SARS vaccine had the aim of responding to any “accidental release from a laboratory,” in addition to a possible zoonotic (or natural) spillover of the virus.

In a June 2023 interview with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., CHD’s chairman on leave, podcaster Joe Rogan offered to donate $100,000 to a charity of Hotez’s choice if he agreed to debate Kennedy.

Hotez — with the support of several legacy news media outlets and the American Medical Association — refused Rogan’s offer. He later claimed on social media that a “couple of anti-vaxers” “stalked” and “taunted” him outside his home after he declined the offer to debate Kennedy.

Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D., based in Athens, Greece, is a senior reporter for The Defender and part of the rotation of hosts for CHD.TV’s “Good Morning CHD.”

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.

July 26, 2024 Posted by | Book Review, Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance, Russophobia, Science and Pseudo-Science | , , , | Leave a comment

Russian Foreign Ministry Slams Paris Olympics Ban on Athlete in Hijab as ‘Segregation’

Sputnik – 26.07.2024

MOSCOW – France’s decision to ban an athlete in hijab, a traditional Muslim headscarf, from the Paris Summer Olympics is a “blatant act of segregation,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Friday.

This comes a day after French sprinter Sounkamba Sylla said she was banned from the Olympic opening ceremony because she wore a hijab.

“Another blatant act of segregation took place in Paris yesterday… It was made clear that even prior to the Games, this sporting event had nothing in common with the purposes of the Olympic movement … and in all regards contradicted the Olympic spirit,” Zakharova said.

She compared the ban to discrimination faced by Russian and Belarusian athletes and journalists at the Games, adding that the “logic of cancellation” was now affecting French sportspeople.

“One more time [the West] violates the spirit of sports outside of politics. Contrary to claims of some French officials that they are striving for diversity and freedom of expression, those who disagree are demonstrably and ostentatiously sanctioned,” Zakharova said.

The Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said that the Paris Olympics now had no reason to be seen as an open, fair or democratic sporting event.

The 2024 Summer Olympics will be held from July 26 to August 11, while the Paralympics will run from August 28 to September 8.

July 26, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Progressive Hypocrite, Russophobia | | Leave a comment

FBI accusing Russia to ‘divert attention’ from its failures – Moscow

RT | July 25, 2024

The FBI is using a supposed ‘threat’ to American democracy from Russia as a diversion to draw public attention away from the bureau’s own failures, Russian Ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov claimed on Thursday.

He was responding to allegations made by FBI Director Christopher Wray, who claimed before Congress on Wednesday that Moscow had been attempting to interfere in the US “election cycle after election cycle,” in particular, during the current race for the White House.

“We assess that the Russian government continues to want to influence and in various ways interfere with our democracy, with our electoral process,” Wray told lawmakers, claiming that investigators had recently uncovered a “significant disruption of a generative AI-enhanced social media” of Russian origin, which was “designed to be an influence operation.”

Antonov dismissed Wray’s allegations, describing them as “yet another unsuccessful example of blame-shifting.” He said this was a policy that is often utilized by both the FBI director and other American officials.

“These are obviously yet more attempts to play the ‘Russian card’ to justify their own failures,” he stated, adding that “it is understandable” that representatives of the US administration “want to divert the attention of ordinary citizens from their mistakes and the numerous internal contradictions in America.”

“We flatly reject insinuations against Russia. Our country has never interfered in democratic processes. Moscow has always respected and will always respect the choice of the American people.”

Antonov suggested that, in order to find those responsible for the problems within the US, Wray and other Washington officials “should look at their reflection in the mirror.”

Wray’s testimony on Wednesday was largely focused on the investigation into the assassination attempt on former US President and Republican nominee for this year’s election, Donald Trump. The attempt on Trump’s life during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13 caused public outcry, with Republicans lambasting the US Secret Service for failing to protect the presidential nominee. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle was forced to resign earlier this week, having admitted that Trump’s attempted assassination was “the most significant operational failure at the Secret Service in decades.”

Wray is not the first Washington official to make allegations of Russian interference in the US electoral process. During the 2016 and 2020 elections, US intelligence agencies repeatedly claimed that Moscow had deployed hackers and used disinformation to affect the vote in favor of Trump. Earlier this month, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) alleged that Russia had launched a “whole-of-government” effort “to shape electoral outcomes” in this year’s election to turn public opinion against President Joe Biden. None of the claims made in previous years have been substantiated.

July 25, 2024 Posted by | Deception, Russophobia | , , | Leave a comment

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