Another key hospital taken out of service by Israel in north Gaza
Press TV – January 4, 2025
Gaza health officials say one more key hospital on the northern edge of Gaza has been taken out of service by Israeli forces.
The Gaza Health Ministry said in a statement on Saturday that the Indonesian Hospital “no longer provides any services to patients or the wounded.”
On Friday, the regime’s forces surrounded the health facility, which is home to many displaced Palestinians in the northern town of Beit Lahiya and ordered the immediate evacuation of staff and patients.
According to the ministry, the North Gaza governorate has three public hospitals Kamal Adwan, Beit Hanoon and the Indonesian Hospital, all of which are now out of service.
Beit Hanoon also received an evacuation order on Saturday.
Israel’s military has also issued a separate evacuation order to al-Awda Hospital, in Jabalia. The military ordered the staff and patients to immediately leave, or it would bomb the facility, with all the people inside. There are reported 65 staff and 36 patients inside the hospital.
Healthcare in the besieged enclave has been pushed to the brink of collapse under relentless attacks by Israeli forces, including last week’s barbaric destruction of the Kamal Adwan Hospital. The regime’s forces raided the hospital, forcibly removed patients and staff, and set the building on fire on Friday.
Both the Indonesian and al-Awda Hospitals have been damaged due to relentless Israeli attacks since October 2023.
Under the radar: ‘Israel’s’ ruthless expansion and Syrians’ struggle
By Sara Salloum | Al Mayadeen | January 2, 2025
“Israel” capitalized on the fall of the Syrian regime on the 8th of this month, launching a wide-scale operation to destroy the qualitative capabilities of the Syrian Arab Army. The operation targeted missile weapons stores, manufacturing and development sites, air force facilities, air defense systems, radar installations, research centers, and naval combat assets. Israeli warplanes are still freely parading in Syrian airspace, with Syrian citizens always hearing the sounds of Israeli reconnaissance planes overhead.
In this scenario, the Syrian Arab Army would have lost the majority of its weaponry. If reconstituted, it would become a fragile and symbolic army force, incapable of effectively facing an overwhelming, American-backed Israeli military that occupies whatever land it wants, and bombs whatever it wants, whenever it wants.
While the head of the new Syrian administration, Ahmad al-Sharaa, (formerly Abu Muhammad al-Julani), was busy receiving political and security delegations from various countries, “Israel” initiated a large-scale ground incursion into southern Syria. This action was justified by the new governor of Damascus who stated, “Recently, Israel might have felt afraid, so it advanced a little and bombed a little. These fears are natural, but Syria’s problem is not with Israel, and we do not wish to tamper with Israel’s security.”
In full view of the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) posts, Israeli forces violated the 1974 agreement and took control of more than 10 Syrian villages, covering an area of more than 20,000 km²,
Abu Muhammad, a resident of the Quneitra countryside, told Al Mayadeen English what happened:
“The Israeli forces raised their flag on the Quneitra Governorate building, and destroyed numerous houses in the surrounding countryside, along with small farms in various towns. They bulldozed lands and farms and uprooted trees, and erected earthen barriers and fortifications around the Mantara Dam, Syria’s second-largest dam, cutting off our water supply. Additionally, they installed extensive surveillance cameras and communication devices. When civilians protested against their actions, the Israeli forces fired live ammunition directly at them, resulting in numerous injuries.”
Karmageddon
Iyah May | December 18, 2024
While ‘Karmageddon’ has sparked significant conversation and controversy, Iyah has stood her ground. She refused to compromise her vision when asked to change a key lyric line, leading to the end of her contract with her manager. She chose to walk away from her record label and now, fully independent, Iyah continues to carve her own path as an artist.
Her fearless approach is shaped by her unique perspective as a qualified medical doctor, having worked on the frontlines during the COVID-19 pandemic.
LYRICS:
I open up my phone on a Monday morning
Staring at my screen
I’m tired and a little lonely
Mr Musk he said some shit the lefts are angry
Twitter wars and Gaza man it’s overwhelming
Maybe that’s how life becomes when
People less important than a profit line
No one cares about your dreams just pay
Your tax on time
Keep scrolling
Hold me near to you now
Gender, guns, religion and abortion rights
You better pick a tribe and hate the other side
Keep scrolling
But did you see Taylor live?
Man made virus watch the millions die
Biggest profit of their lives
Here’s inflation that’s your prize
This is Karmageddon
Turn on the news and eat their lies
Kim or Kanye pick a side
Cancel culture what a vibe
This is Karmageddon
Corporations swear they never lie
Politicians bribed for life
More than war it’s genocide
This is Karmageddon
Welcome to the chaos of the times
If you go left and I go right
Pray we make it out alive
This is Karmageddon
It’s fashion week celebs lose ribs
Balenciaga how’s the kids
Just ask Drake he’s losing beef
Kendrick killed him in his sleep
Diss tracks about beating up your queen
While women dying doesn’t cause a scene
While we’re fed all these distractions
Kids are killed from Israel’s actions
I’mma speak my mind
Sick to death of all these crazy lies
A circus for humanity’s decline
We just want a peaceful life give the people back their rights
And I’ve still got a beef
Cause Fauci’s laughing and we’ve been asleep
And WHO’s a liar and it’s running deep
Big pharma finna eat they a devil make them weak
Man made virus watch the millions die
Biggest profit of their lives
Here’s inflation that’s your prize
This is Karmageddon
Turn on the news and eat their lies
Kim or Kanye pick a side
Cancel culture what a vibe
This is Karmageddon
Corporations swear they never lie
Politicians bribed for life
More than war it’s genocide
This is Karmageddon
Welcome to the chaos of the times
If you go left and I go right
Pray we make it out alive
This is Karmageddon
Written by: Iyah May & Danny Duke
Performed by: Iyah May
Produced by: Danny Duke
Mixed by: Danny Duke
Mastered by: Chunkyluv
Video By: Brad Murnane
Edited By: Brad Murnane & Iyah May
Denials of Washington’s Links to Murder of Russian General Igor Kirillov Highly-Suspect
By Henry Kamens – New Eastern Outlook – December 31, 2024
The mysterious assassination of General Igor Kirillov raises suspicions of a covert connection between U.S. biolabs, Ukraine, and the broader geopolitical interests of the West, highlighting potential motives linked to sensitive military research.
Maria Zakharova, speaking for Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, confidently dismissed U.S. State Department claims of no involvement in the killing of Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, Russia’s chief of Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Protection Troops. Zakharova had accused the U.S. of creating and funding the Kyiv regime, supplying it with weapons, and failing to condemn its terrorist acts. The suspicious timing of such assassinations can be compared to historic high-profile killings before major events, from WWI to operations in Afghanistan.
Such assassinations, often aimed at demoralizing Russia and targeting those Kyiv considers war criminals, which Ukraine defends as legitimate wartime tactics, raise many questions. Knowing Kirillov’s access to sensitive documents and possessing many of the same and similar materials, I can offer some insights into the “likely motives” behind him and his deputy being blown up in Moscow.
Peter Daszak, Spooky Guy with a Checkered Past
A very spooky guy with a Ukrainian father, Peter Daszak, is President of EcoHealth Alliance, a global nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting wildlife and public health from the emergence of disease. It should come as no surprise that this person is connected with BSL 3 labs Worldwide, Ukraine, Georgia and China.
This was also one of the main players at Lugar Lab, Tbilisi, Georgia too, at least when it comes to bat research and diseases transmitted between animals and humans (zoonosis). It is claimed Daszak is a fellow traveller with the Bat Lady from Wuhan, China. Coincidence or not, the British zoologist and president of EcoHealth Alliance Peter Daszak provides much revealing information in a video that was originally taken on Dec. 9, 2019, three weeks before the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission announced an outbreak of a new form of pneumonia.
EcoHealth Alliance presents itself as a nonprofit that protects the world from the emergence of new diseases and predicts pandemics. Since 2014, Daszak’s organization has received millions of dollars of funding from the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), which it has funneled to carry-out research on bat coronaviruses.
There are other suspects to investigate: Daszak was named by the World Health Organization as the sole U.S.-based representative on a team sent to investigate the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, a team that also includes Marion Koopmans, Hung Nguyen, Fabian Leendertz, and Christian Drosten. This is more than coincidence, especially since many believe COVID is not naturally occurring, and if made in a lab, nature is not picking up where lab workers left off.
Too many ducks are lining up, COVID-19 pandemic. On February 9, 2020, Newt Gingrich invited Daszak as a special guest along with Anthony Fauci on Newt’s World to discuss the coronavirus and how it could potentially evolve into a global pandemic.
A lizard loving kid!
As one source describes, Dasak is not very honest, and the cover face, poster boy, for disguising military research and experiments. He started out in zoology, e.g., a lizard loving kid, who studied reptiles and then was able to help his wife get a job at the CDC in Atlanta, he tagged along unemployed with her and “suddenly” got a job coordinating virus research among seven (7) USAID and DoD universities.
Coincidence or not, Daszak described during the Ebola outbreak in West Africa in 2011,
“Our research shows that new approaches to reducing emerging pandemic threats at the source would be more cost-effective than trying to mobilize a global response after a disease has emerged”.
As the NYT reported, in October 2019, when the federal government “quietly” cut off funding to the ten-year-old program called PREDICT, operated by United States Agency for International Development (USAID)’s emerging threats division, much to the dismay of experts like Daszak, He was worried that shutting PREDICT down, could “leave the world more vulnerable to lethal pathogens like Ebola and MERS that emerge from [unexpected places], such as bat-filled trees, gorilla carcasses and camel barns.”
These disease sources can be considered as Red Herrings, and there is still great speculation that many of these Especially Dangerous Pathogens, EDPs, were manipulated in labs, and not only one country may be involved.
Daszak said, “PREDICT” a USAID project, was an approach to heading off pandemics, instead of sitting there waiting for them to emerge, and then mobilizing” in reaction. But in reality it was to seek out potential bio weapons.
EcoHealth also claims that it looks at the nexus between emerging viruses and how they affect public health, and what is underlying that … and it is claimed that “almost” all emerging disease are linked to some underlying drivers, some cause that’s related to people: travel and trade and building roads into forests around the world,
We have this unprecedented population growth. We’re doing things on the planet that we never used to do. We’re building roads into the remotest forests and what we do is we come into contact with wildlife species and pick up those artists. What we do at EcoHealth is to look at the relationship between people and animal, and the environment, and how that [leads] to pandemics and [then] we try and do something about it.
Peter Daszak plays a central role in discussions about the origins of SARS-CoV-2. According to an expert collaborating with independent scientists investigating military labs, Daszak is widely viewed as a key figure of suspicion, allegedly disguising his self-interest as humanitarian work. Despite potential conflicts of interest due to his close ties with Wuhan and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Daszak headed up a WHO group in Wuhan and another group under the Lancet to investigate the virus’s origins.
General Igor Kirillov’s death is most likely connected to sensitive documents reportedly involving Ukraine, Georgia, and the Lugar Lab in Tbilisi. These documents, (still classified and under investigation, detail a joint Georgian-U.S. military research project on diseases potentially affecting Georgian and Ukrainian military recruits. The project, primarily funded by the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) in collaboration with the CDC and other institutions, outlines research objectives, budgets, and criteria for participant selection. Specific pathogens of interest, such as anthrax, are noted for their military relevance.
The WHO’s decision to appoint Daszak to monitor COVID-19 outbreaks in China has been criticized as politically motivated. Articles by Henry Kamens (NEO) and Jeffrey Silverman (Veterans Today ) support the allegation that that Kirillov’s death and the likelihood of U.S.-Ukrainian collusion in bio weapons research are not coincidental.
Silverman, whose work often focuses on Georgia’s unique geopolitical dynamics, has participated in RT documentaries on U.S. biolab activities and foreign policy. These documentaries have faced bans and restrictions on platforms like Facebook, reflecting their controversial nature, and bans for those who share the link with others.
The nexus between Daszak, the Lugar Lab, and broader U.S. geopolitical strategies are more than speculative. The closed-source verification and personally being involved with undisclosed documents, especially some of the actual documents which resonate within the context of broader Russian criticisms of Western intervention and bio-weaponization of animal diseases, (Zoonosis).
Peter Daszak a British zoologist and president of EcoHealth Alliance, which researches emerging diseases and zoonotic pathogens has too many links to controversial funding for bat coronavirus research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, raising questions about his role in the origins of COVID-19 and the covert development of new bio weapons for offensive purposes, at various BSL3 labs as being funded and operated by the US government in blatant violation of the 1972 bio weapons treaty.
It is clear that what Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov had access to, as confirmed by others, and his knowledge and role in sharing of these documents may have been the main motivation for his murder.
Kirillov “most likely” had a treasure trove of either highly classified or sensitive information about the links of these labs to the acquisition, development, and potential use of weapons of mass destruction, including but not limited to highly resistant strains of anthrax.
Israel’s collateral killing of civilians is finally in the spotlight
The New York Times’ recent “bombshell” presents facts that have been known for a long time – and does its best to sanitize them
By Robert Inlakesh | RT | December 30, 2024
The New York Times recently published a piece admitting that an unprecedented amount of “collateral damage” was permitted by the Israeli military. However, it omits key statistics that were previously revealed in order to sanitize the revelations it claims to be uncovering.
Presented as a bombshell piece, the December 26 article reveals that Israel had sent through an order that permitted killing up to 20 civilians for each low-level Hamas target. “The order, which has not previously been reported, had no precedent in Israeli military history,” the article reads.
However, in early April of 2024, an Israeli media outlet called +972 Magazine had not only published this fact, citing sources within Israel’s military, but uncovered much more damning figures detailing what was to be considered “acceptable” collateral damage.
The +972 article revealed that the Israeli airstrike that killed Hamas’ Shujaiya Battalion Commander, Wisam Farhat, was authorized to kill 100 civilians. Even more shocking was the infamous case of Ayman Nofal, the commander of Hamas’ Central Gaza Brigade, where, according to the sources, “the army authorized the killing of approximately 300 civilians.”
The +972 report was mentioned in passing by The New York Times, with the caveat that Israel’s military had denied it. However, +972 Mag’s investigative work on this topic did not begin in April. In fact, a piece published in November of 2023 cited a source who claimed the following:
“The numbers increased from dozens of civilian deaths [permitted] as collateral damage as part of an attack on a senior official in previous operations, to hundreds of civilian deaths as collateral damage.”
So, while a big deal is made of the fact that such high numbers of collateral damage have “no precedent in Israeli military history,” the IDF has been knowingly writing off civilians as collateral damage for years. One need only look at literally any UN report on Israel’s past military conduct to see it.
It isn’t only in Gaza that such horrendous “collateral damage” has been normalized, it has also been the case in Lebanon. When Israel carried out the assassination of Hezbollah’s Secretary General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah, it openly announced that it estimated the total death toll to be around 300, as a result of leveling a number of civilian buildings in southern Beirut.
There is literally nothing in the article published by The New York Times that is new; all it does is affirm what has already been reported, yet it is done in a way that works to water the killings down by omitting key facts and repeating old tropes.
For example, it repeats as proven fact the widespread allegation that Hamas purposely embeds itself amongst civilians to use them as human shields, a point that has been found at least questionable before.
What is undeniable however, is that Israel uses Palestinians as human shields, as has been copiously documented throughout the war and used to be an accepted part of Israel’s military doctrine.
“From November 2023 onward, amid a global outcry, Israel began to conserve ammunition and tighten some of its rules of engagement, including by halving the number of civilians who could be endangered when striking low-ranked militants who posed no imminent threat” states the NYT. The question here is, where did this information come from? According to the article itself, the sources are all Israeli soldiers and officials.
The only evidence presented is the words of the Israelis. Was there any analysis done or examples cited to prove that the IDF would only kill ten civilians on average for every low-ranking Hamas fighter? Absolutely not, because not even Israel can present this information to the public, nor the names of the thousands of supposed “Hamas fighters” it has targeted.
If we go by Israel’s official figures for the number of alleged Hamas militants killed, they rise at such a rate that it doesn’t match the death toll figures accepted by the United Nations. While the official death toll in Gaza is nearly 46,000, with 10,000 missing and presumed dead, the only way Israeli “Hamas fighter” figures make sense is if the toll is much higher. However, accepting a higher death toll in order to give Israel’s claims about Hamas fighters more legitimacy would mean that The New York Times would face another issue: they would then have to wrestle with the fact that the killing only escalated in November of 2023.
In addition to this all, the +972 article from April 3 provides a much more in-depth insight into the artificial intelligence systems used by the Israeli army and points out that the targets it generated were highly inaccurate. The investigation discovered that when the Lavender system chose junior Hamas targets, the Israeli army would actually use its more lethal unguided munitions, because “you don’t want to waste expensive bombs on unimportant people.”
Furthermore, +972 noted that while a human has to verify targets chosen by the AI before a strike is ordered, eventually this boiled down to simply making sure the target is male – spending about 20 seconds on average before pulling the trigger.
Nowhere in the New York Times article is there any mention of the slaughter of civilians where no military target is located, there is no mention of the mass torture, sexual abuse, or demolition of homes for the pure vanity of soldiers. Everything is framed as a military that went a little overboard after the Hamas-led October 7 attack.
Robert Inlakesh is a political analyst, journalist and documentary filmmaker currently based in London, UK. He has reported from and lived in the Palestinian territories and currently works with Quds News. Director of ‘Steal of the Century: Trump’s Palestine-Israel Catastrophe’.
More than Dozen Martyred in Israeli Strike on Syria’s Adra
Al-Manar | December 30, 2024
At least ten people were martyred on Sunday in an Israeli strike on Syria’s Adra Industrial City in rural Damascus, Syrian and Arab media reported.
Reports said there was an explosion in the city of Adra, on the eastern outskirts of the capital.
An Israeli drone had reportedly fired two missiles at a building in the vicinity Adra industrial zone.
Arab media outlets reported that 11 people were killed, while other reports put the death toll at 17, with a number of others being injured.
A video shared on social media showed the aftermath of the attack. The video showed a building reduced to rubble with several bodies scattered among the debris.
The Zionist entity has been taking advantage of the former Syrian regime’s fall earlier this month, with the occupation military launching hundreds of strikes in the last weeks on several areas across the Arab country, and seizing positions including the summit of a mountain with an uninterrupted sightline to the capital Damascus.
In America It’s Another Week to be Proud of!
By Philip Giraldi • Unz Review • December 26, 2024
Something good happened in Washington last week, suggesting that the year might actually end on a high note without Joe Biden starting World War 3 and opening up all the country’s prisons for the on-the-street rehabilitation of the inmates where they will undoubtedly learn new skills. The good thing was the signing by Biden of a bill, perhaps with a little bit of help from his friends to make sure he spelled his name correctly, to make the Bald Eagle the official bird of the United States of America. The Eagle has been around the American Republic virtually since its foundation, appearing on the Great Seal and on various documents and even on currency, but it has never been officially dubbed the national bird.
All honor of place is due to the great bald eagle, but one might recall that Benjamin Franklin once suggested that the best choice for the national bird would be the wild turkey. And Biden still has time for mischief, including possibly ennobling turkeys or even the issuance of a pardon to himself for ignoring the United States Constitution for four years. And Joe might well choose to go preemptive by pardoning Hillary Clinton for all those classified emails and other documents that somehow disappeared from her home and office ten years ago. But apart from that, it is somehow reassuring to be able to keep repeating “only three more weeks of Biden and Harris” even though the potential for more damage to the Bill of Rights remains enormous.
Joe is well remembered for his open borders invitation which has produced huge crowds of happy American voters who were clearly not delighted to share the burden of millions of uneducated and unskilled foreigners who have demonstrated their ability to burn to death women sleeping on subway trains in New York City just to see what a flaming human body looks like. Oh, and the new Americans have to be housed and fed by the existing population as the process grinds on, but that is what the Democrats running nearly all the major US cities have come to expect from a cowed population that now understands that opposing government policies puts one on the FBI enemies list.
Joe and his stalwart band of liars have also connived in pulling together two wars in which the United States had no actual interest, arming and funding both Ukraine and Israel. Israel has said thank you by adroitly engaging in genocide against the Palestinian people while Kiev is somewhat clumsily occupied in trying to draw the US and NATO into open warfare against Russia, which would become a nuclear World War 3, so there is still time Joe! And then there is the new war going on in Syria where the US armed and trained militias are fighting similarly armed and trained militias controlled by the Turks, who are poised to divide what once was a place called Syria with the Israelis. The Zionists have for many years been planning to exterminate Lebanese and Syrians as well as Palestinians to create a Greater Israel.
But Joe and his buddies apparently are not satisfied with having started two wars when there are so many other places that need a stern dose of the old “rules based international order” to get their houses in order. China is number one on the list as it is outperforming the United States and the Europeans economically. And one can always use the excuse that it is threatening good old Taiwan to crank up a shooting war. And then there is Iran, everyone’s favorite when it comes to “who is next on the list?” Israel has eliminated Hezbollah and Syria, with US connivance and approval, to open the door to destroying the Iranian non-existent nuclear weapons program. Both Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have been openly discussing that option as it would mean bombing Iran’s military bases as well as its technical research facilities. Donald Trump has been involved in similar discussions with Netanyahu.
How the attacks on Iran might play out is interesting to contemplate and might follow something like the model of what happed to Syria. Recent reports indicate that something unexpected took place during an Israeli bombing attack directed against a Syrian strategic military site located near the city of Tartus. Israel has been bombing Syria constantly since the government of Bashar al-Assad fell and it has particularly targeted any sites or weapons warehouses that the new government can use to defend itself or establish its territorial integrity. The bombing in question used what many suspect to be a tactical nuclear weapon in an effort to completely obliviate the Syrian military installation that houses scud surface-to-surface missiles among other high-level ordnance. A huge explosion was noted on seismographs located five hundred miles away, as far as Iznik in Turkey. The blast might have been caused by the detonation of the many weapons stored in the facility, but the suspicion grows that Israel, protected as always by Washington even when it commits mass murder or defies international conventions on banned weapons, continues to believe that it can do and get away with anything.
Even if Biden does not open any new doors to further deploy the US military, there is considerable danger that he will succeed in locking new President Donald Trump in the conflicts currently going on. Trump is not averse to using force when it is what he considers the best option. He has lately said some ridiculous things, arguing that the United States considers the “ownership and control of Greenland” to be an “absolute necessity” for maintaining American “national security” and “freedom throughout the world.” This has naturally riled the people who actually live in Greenland who now are wondering how they are blocking freedom globally.
The statement on Greenland came after Trump in a conversation at Mar-a-Lago demoted Prime Minister Trudeau of Canada by giving him the title of “Governor”, calling Canada the 51st State of the United States “union,” which would “save on taxes and military protection.” Trump also has threatened to take over the Panama Canal and tweeted “we’ll see about that!” in response to the President of Panama’s declaration that every inch of the Panama Canal belongs to Panama. Trump then posted up a graphic on his website featuring “Welcome to the United States Canal!” above a picture of the American flag flying over a lock in the Panama Canal. Trump has also allegedly privately considered invading Mexico in order to combat the drug cartels on the US border and using American soldiers to block illegal immigrants seeking to cross.
Trump’s ignorance over who is doing what in the Middle East is astonishing but largely derives from his own personal and family attachment to Zionism and more particularly to his reliance on billionaire Jewish donors. The serial appointments of pro-Israel nominees to the key cabinet posts where decisions impacting Israel will be made for the next four years both will shape policy and guarantee that Trump stays on track with Israel, just as Joe Biden did when surrounded by his own Jewish neocons. Trump has already vowed that there will be “hell to pay” in the Middle East if the remaining Israeli hostages held in the Gaza Strip are not released by his January 20th inauguration.
Likewise, Israeli government officials, including Netanyahu, cannot wait for current Secretary of State Antony Blinken to be replaced by Florida congressman Marco Rubio. Blinken has been a complete tool of Israel but he projects a certain timidity. Rubio shows no such restraint and is very clear on what he believes to be true. He recently called Hamas “animals” and made clear that they are “100% to blame” for everyone killed in Israel and in Gaza during the current war. The moment he assumes control, there will be the “maximum pressure” that Trump often cites on Hamas to surrender or face the consequences. The Trump administration will supply Israel with bunker-busting bombs and whatever else is needed to kill anyone perceived to be an enemy of the Jewish state. Trump’s nominee for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has said, “If you love America, you should love Israel.” He will back that up by delivering on Israel’s military needs as defined by Netanyahu.
So there you go! The old year is ending on both a bang and a whimper. Joe Biden still has plenty of opportunity to raise hell and tie Trump to certain policies, particularly when it comes to continuing “useless” wars. Trump for his part will enter office owned by Israel and led by the nose by his belligerent cabinet. The actual needs and interests of the American people will be, as usual, invisible to the politicians and lost in the shuffle.
Philip M. Giraldi, Ph.D., is Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest, a 501(c)3 tax deductible educational foundation (Federal ID Number #52-1739023) that seeks a more interests-based U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. Website is councilforthenationalinterest.org, address is P.O. Box 2157, Purcellville VA 20134 and its email is inform@cnionline.org.
Alawites Are Syrians Too
By Peter Ford | 21st Century Wire | December 27, 2024
Alawites in their towns and villages in the Tartous and Lattakia provinces of Syria are being subjected to hideous pogroms under the new Islamist dispensation in Syria. And the world turns its back. The Alawites are just too inconvenient for the emerging preferred narrative.
While Christians, Kurds, Armenians and women have their vocal champions in the West, Alawites have no-one. Abandoned by Asad, the Russians and even the Iranians, the Alawites are all alone.
Historically despised in Syria for poverty, backwardness and ‘superstition’, not accepted until recently even by Shia as fellow Muslims, the Alawites are now anathematised for having allegedly been the backbone of the fallen Assad ruling system.
Ravening wolves descend on Alawite villages
Since Day 1 of the new jihadi era Alawites have been hounded, intimidated, beaten up, killed, mutilated, raped and pillaged. Gangs of gunmen have rounded up surrendering Alawite soldiers for roadside executions. Alawite judges have been murdered. Alawite householders have been expelled from their houses to make way for jihadi families. Thousands have been put to flight into the mountains or across the Lebanese border. Shrines have been desecrated. Armed gangs roam the streets flaunting ISIS and Al Qaida flags.
If any of this gets reported at all in Western or Middle Eastern media it is always alongside claims by the new HTS junta in Damascus that these incidents are aberrations and that perpetrators are being called to order. But they are not. The instances multiply. And how unsurprising is that when the slogan of the so-called Islamist revolution was “Christians to Beirut, Alawites to the grave”? What the world would see if it would just open its eyes is visceral bloody sectarianism. This goes way beyond the score-settling that inevitably occurs when one side wins a conflict. It is in the DNA of the fundamentalist pro tem winners.
Myths about Alawite power
Some of the hatred of Alawites arises from the myth that the Alawites ruled Syria in the Assad era. It is true that the Alawites as a community saw their position in Syrian society improve after the Alawite general Hafez Al Asad became President. Young Alawite men from impoverished families had since the days of the French mandate seen career opportunities in the army when other communities with opportunities in business or elsewhere in the state spurned such careers. A cadre of Alawites made their way up the ladder, culminating in Hafez Al Asad’s coup.
But Alawites never dominated Assadist Syria as much as was alleged. The business sector remained firmly in the hands of Sunnis and Christians. Alawites rarely held key positions in government cabinets. In the army, while a disproportionate segment of officers were Alawites, the top generals were almost always Sunnis. As were most of the rank and file. Alawites held key positions in the security apparatus, but even there the pinnacle was usually occupied by Sunnis.
In their heartlands of coastal Syria Alawite social life was much like that of the related Alevi community just up the coast in Turkey: more liberal, more emancipated than predominantly Sunni areas.
For this, and for their links to Assad, the Alawites are now being punished. Even those links to Assad were often strained: Alawites, perhaps because they were less likely to be accused of disloyalty, were often more vocal in their criticisms of the government and the security services than others. Alawites suffered as much as anybody from the impoverishment brought on by the war and by Western sanctions, blocking of reconstruction and deprivation of the oil and gas in the US/Kurdish area.
Persecution of Alawites doesn’t fit the narrative
Western powers and media look away from the vile torment of the Alawites. They can hardly disguise their glee at having had their Christmas come early with the toppling of Assad and the discomfiture of Russia and Iran. They prefer to revel in the new genre of ‘Assad porn’: stories, rarely fact-checked, of mass burials of political prisoners (mostly war dead, in fact), increasingly sensational claims about the notorious Sednaya Prison, as well as fake prisoners stumbling out of torture chambers, ‘liberated’ by CNN star reporters, and of course – chemical weapons somehow not quite yet found etc, etc.
Western governments and UN agencies lose all dignity rushing to kiss the feet of the erstwhile terrorist now moderate new Sultan of Damascus. They mouthe platitudes about the need for ‘inclusion’ as though all that was at stake was a corporations’ DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) score, rather than very lives of terrified Alawites and others, just over the hill. They want to lift sanctions and get on with cementing the new regime into the Western system. Human rights come way down the list of priorities now that the West has what it wants.
The new Badlands
But the Alawites are brave. They are fighting back. They are resisting the Islamist gangs who come to confiscate their weapons, without which they and their families fear they will be butchered. And how is this presented in the media? Ah, these are ‘Assadist forces’.
Well let me tell you this. The new jihadi overlords may rule but they will not have control in areas like the Alawite and Kurdish heartlands, where they fail to respect communities and try to impose their jihadi system out of the barrel of a gun. These will be the jihadis’ Badlands, just as the Eastern areas bordering Iraq were the ISIS-spawning Badlands for the Assad government.
Author Peter Ford is a geopolitical and global affairs analyst, and former British Ambassador to Syria (2003-2006) and Bahrain (1999-2002). See more of Peter’s work here.
Convicted US spy worked on ‘genetic screening’ of Russians – FSB
RT | December 27, 2024
US national Eugene ‘Gene’ Spector, who was found guilty of espionage earlier this week, had been collecting “biomedical” data in the country, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has said. The authorities believe these materials could have been used by the US government to develop a genetic screening system for analyzing Russia’s population.
Over the past several years, there have been a number of high-profile cases in which Russian security services have accused American citizens of espionage. Since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022, Moscow and Western nations have also increasingly expelled each other’s diplomats, claiming they are spies.
In a press release on Friday, the FSB alleged that the “American national, acting in the interest of the Pentagon and a commercial organization affiliated with it, gathered and handed over to a foreign party various biotechnological and biomedical data, including classified materials, with the aim of creating a high-speed genetic screening system of Russia’s population by the US.”
On Monday, a court in Moscow sentenced Spector to 15 years in prison as well as a 14 million-ruble ($135,000) fine.
The former chair of the board of Russia’s Medpolymerprom Group, a supplier of disposable medical items, was handed the punishment in conjunction with his previous sentencing for acting as an intermediary in a bribery case. In 2022, the US citizen of Russian origin was sentenced to 3.5 years behind bars after being found guilty of providing an aide to former Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich with free trip vouchers from 2015 to 2016. The judge ruled at the time that Spector had thus remunerated the woman for promoting the products of several pharmacy companies.
Last August, a court separately ordered his arrest on suspicion of espionage, though the details of the case were not made public.
Earlier this year, Russia and the US exchanged a total of 26 individuals held in several countries, in the largest prisoner swap of this kind since the end of the Cold War. Among those sent to the US were Wall Street Journal correspondent Evan Gershkovich and former US Marine Paul Whelan – both of whom had been convicted of espionage in Russia. In return, ten Russian nationals who Washington accused of being intelligence agents and cybercriminals were sent to Moscow.
In September, Moscow declared six British diplomats persona non grata, claiming that their activities in the country “showed signs of intelligence and subversive work.” The UK Foreign Office dismissed the accusations as “completely baseless.”
A Palestinian year in review: Genocide, resistance and unanswered questions
By Ramzy Baroud | MEMO | December 26, 2024
‘Act of terrorism’ sank Russian cargo ship – owner
RT | December 25, 2024
A “terrorist attack” is to blame for the sinking of the Russian cargo ship Ursa Major in the Mediterranean Sea, Russian state shipping company Oboronlogistics announced on Wednesday.
The freighter went down in waters between Spain and Algeria on Monday. Initial reports spoke of an explosion in the engine room that caused the vessel to list sharply to the starboard. Spanish rescue ships recovered 14 crew members, but two are still missing.
“Oboronlogistics believes that on December 23, 2024, a targeted terrorist attack was carried out on the Ursa Major vessel,” the company said in a statement.
According to the surviving crew members, “three successive explosions” happened on board the ship, which then began to take on water.
Built in 2009, the 142-meter-long Ursa Major was one of the largest Russian cargo vessels, and was headed from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok with several specialized pieces of port and ship construction equipment.
Ursa Major set sail on December 11 and was scheduled to arrive by January 22. It had undergone scheduled maintenance this past summer. According to Oboronlogistics, it was carrying many empty containers and was not overloaded at the time of the sinking.
Oboronlogistics is a shipping company that is part of the Russian Defense Ministry. The Ursa Major was operated by its subsidiary SK-Yug.
The company did not name a culprit in the alleged act of terrorism. Ukraine has previously taken responsibility for multiple attacks on Russian ships in the Black Sea.
According to Spanish media, the Ursa Major sent a distress signal as it transited the Strait of Gibraltar. After the vessel deviated from its course and began to list, fishing vessels came to the crew’s rescue. They were later joined by Spanish Navy and the coast guard vessels Clara Campoamor and Serviola. The 14 surviving crew members were taken to the port of Cartagena.
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UK Researchers: Tax Food to Reduce Climate Change
I doubt these professors have anything to fear from a food tax
By Eric Worrall | Watts Up With That? | November 19, 2016
A group of researchers in Oxford University, England have suggested that imposing a massive tax on carbon intensive foods – specifically protein rich foods like meat and dairy – could help combat climate change. […]
This proposal, from a group of people who have probably never missed a meal in their lives, is totally obscene. High income countries often have a lot of poor people who would be hard hit by increases in the price of food.
Needlessly exacerbating the risk poor people don’t get enough to eat, especially children and pregnant mothers, who are especially vulnerable to adverse health impacts from lack of protein in their diet – if this ghastly proposal is ever implemented, future generations will look upon it as a crime against humanity. – Read full article
Blog Roll
Aletho News- Seyed M. Marandi: Trump Lost the Iran War – Must Sell It as a Victory
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- AIPAC-backed candidates lose New York primaries as voters reject pro-genocide lobby
- The West’s Post-Soviet ‘Democracy’ Playbook
- UK suppressed intel on Sudan genocide to protect UAE ties: Report
- Starmer’s exit exposes dirty secret: UK can’t afford Ukraine War
- Putin Warns the West: Russia Is Ready
- BEN-GVIR: “ALL OF LEBANON MUST BURN” — w/ Mouin Rabbani
- There Are No Budget Constraints In New York City: “Coastal Resiliency” Edition
- If Americans Knew
- Israel’s Attacks on Gaza’s Children (Photos)
- ‘His only crime is that he is a Palestinian doctor’
- ‘Killed pursuing her dream’: Gaza girl on her way to school dies in Israeli drone strike
- Unbelievable pressure on Gaza from Israel, “Board of Peace” – Daily Update
- UN: Israel Continues to Commit Genocide and Other Atrocity Crimes by Deliberately Targeting Palestinian Children
- Bari Weiss, Free-Speech Fraud & Zionism Promoter, Would Rather Deport Than Debate
- ‘Doctor of the Poor’: Israeli Occupation Arrests Prominent Palestinian Physician
- Search for Your Church (and see if it has been targeted by the Israeli gov’t)
- Mark Levin Flying to Israel as Netanyahu Reportedly Seeks to ‘Leverage’ Levin to Trash Trump’s Iran Deal
- Watch: Zionist Brags about Israel’s Power to Get the World to Do What Israel Wants
- No Tricks Zone
- 3 New Studies Find Increasing Trends In Solar Radiation Since The 1980s – Easily Explaining Warming
- THE TRANSCEIVER PARADOX: Why Organoid Intelligence (OI) Could Become Our Ultimate Alien Predator
- German Wind Turbines Face Regulatory Shutdown Due To Excessive Noise
- New Study: Chile’s Relative Sea Level Was 3.2 Meters Higher Than Today During The Mid-Holocene
- Beyond The Pitch: Why FIFA’s World Cup Is One Of Humanity’s Best Investments
- Climate Alarmists Now Using Natural Phenomena To Support Their Claims
- New Study: Significant CO2 Fluxes From Non-Volcanic Sources Are Largely Neglected In Carbon Budgets
- Women Climate Scientists Being Harassed, Insulted By Skeptics, Claims Berkeley Earth Researcher
- Germany’s Longterm Spring Climate Data Show “No Climate Trend”
- New Study: Solar Photovoltaic, Wind Power Fail To Meet Annual Energy Demands 62% Of The Time
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