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Iran: UN Security Council sanctions on missile-related activities end

Press TV – October 18, 2023

The Iranian Foreign Ministry has announced that the Islamic Republic, as of October 18, will no longer be subject to any restriction with regard to its ballistic missile-related activities and transfers by the United Nations Security Council.

The Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday that the entire restrictions imposed on the Islamic Republic’s ballistic missile-related activities and its associated services and technology have “unconditionally” ended.

The termination came into force on October 18, eight years after the 2015 Iran nuclear deal with major world powers, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

“As of today, 18 October 2023, the last part of unjustly imposed restrictions by the United Nations Security Council on missile-related activities and its associated services and technology to/from Islamic Republic of Iran, including asset freeze and financial restrictions on certain Iranian individuals and entities, terminated unconditionally,” the statement said.

“According to the provisions of 2231 UNSC Resolution, termination of these restrictions, does not require any resolution, statement or any other action in the context of the UNSC and occurred automatically,” it added.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry also said cooperation in all military and defense areas would be carried out, without any restriction, based on the needs and discretion of the Islamic Republic of Iran, within the framework of bilateral contracts with other countries.

Pointing to the provisions of UNSCR 2231, the statement noted, “In accordance with paragraph 3 of Annex B, Iran is no longer ‘called upon’ by the Security Council ‘not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles.”

The Foreign Ministry said the Islamic Republic, by recalling the provisions of the UN charter, in particular article 25 as well as provisions of UNSCR 2231, emphasizes the commitments of all member states to effectuate the termination of the above-mentioned restrictions at the national level.

“Iran expects all States to modify and revise, in the case of existence, any relevant restriction or sanction, according to their domestic legal system,” it added.

The statement underlined that any measure, at the national or regional level, aiming at imposing sanctions or restrictions on defensive engagements and cooperation of the Islamic Republic of Iran, is in contradiction with the termination of restrictions of UNSCR 2231, and that Tehran reserves its right to take appropriate measures to secure its national interests.

“The defense doctrine of the Islamic Republic of Iran has always been on the basis of domestic capabilities and capacities, and deeply rooted in resistance and power of Iranian Nation. Unconventional arms and weapons of mass destruction has no place in the defense doctrine of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the statement said.

“Moreover, the Islamic Republic of Iran will continue to take necessary measures to strengthen its defense capabilities in order to protect its sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity against any aggression and to counter the menace of terrorism in the region,” it added.

Stressing that the Iranian military capabilities, including ballistic missiles, are exclusively for self-defense, the statement said, “The Islamic Republic of Iran continues to insist that all sanctions and restrictive measures introduced and applied against Iran, including those imposed under the pretext of its nuclear program, have been baseless, unjust and unlawful.”

Last month, the three European signatories to the JCPOA — the UK, Germany, and France — said they plan not to terminate their anti-Iran sanctions, including ballistic missile bans, arguing that Iran has been in non-compliance with the deal since 2019.

Iran halted some of its JCPOA commitments in 2019, a year after the US unilaterally walked out of the deal and after the EU failed to offer any compensation for the US withdrawal.

Iran said at the time the reduction of its commitments was in accordance with the deal, which allows parties to dishonor commitments should other parties do the same.

October 18, 2023 Posted by | Wars for Israel | , , , , , | Leave a comment

Former German chancellor slams increased military spending due to unrealistic Russian threat

By Ahmed Adel | October 16, 2023

The German government needs to invest mainly in infrastructure, education, and housing instead of the military because the danger allegedly coming from Russia is unrealistic, said the country’s former chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, in an interview with the Suddeutsche Zeitung newspaper. His statement comes as the popularity of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz continues to decline, along with the economy.

“Do you really believe that Russian medium-range missiles will be fired at Germany?” he said, commenting on the government’s increased spending on the German Army’s combat capabilities.

Schröder criticised Scholz for creating a special fund for the German Army despite other problems existing in Germany that require considerable investment.

“Scholz said: €100 billion – and nobody knows what for,” he highlighted.

Instead of investing mainly in rearmament, the former chancellor called for infrastructure, education, and housing investments because, according to Schröder, German citizens are miserable.

The Bundestag and the Bundesrat (both chambers of the German parliament), in turn, in June last year and by a majority vote, supported Scholz’s initiative to create a special fund for the Bundeswehr worth €100 billion. The current chancellor believes that the German military will have the largest regular army in Europe after modernisation.

Scholz formed a coalition of his SDP party, the Greens, and the Free Democratic Party (FDP) to gain power. However, at the halfway point of his term, the popularity of his party and coalition is looking grim, and news of wasting €100 billion on the military is not improving the situation.

A poll by DEUTSCHLANDTREND at the end of August found that if a federal election were to be held, the SPD would gather just 16% of the vote — nearly 10% lower than when it secured power — and, more importantly, behind the Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) party, which seeks reconciliation with Russia and end of support for Ukraine.

Meanwhile, a poll by German broadcaster ZDF, also conducted in the second half of August, found that 51% of Germans are dissatisfied with Scholz’s leadership for the first time since he took office in 2021. Only 43% of respondents said they were satisfied with Scholz’s work.

If these same polls were conducted now, Scholtz’s popularity would likely be even lower, considering the government announced on October 11 that the German economy is expected to shrink by 0.4% this year.

“We’ve had a difficult year economically, at a difficult time,” said Economy Minister Robert Habeck. “[The cause is] the energy price crisis, the need for the European Central Bank to fight inflation and the weakening of important global economic partners [, such as China].”

Berlin’s new forecast contrasts with the 0.4% growth initially predicted in late April. “We are emerging from the crisis more slowly than expected,” Habeck added, but “we have reached the low point and will be moving forward again.”

Only a day before Berlin’s economic revision, the International Monetary Fund forecasted that the German economy would shrink by 0.5%, while a group of leading German economic think tanks in September predicted a 0.6% contraction.

The Economy Ministry expects the economy to pick up in the winter and then accelerate because of recovering consumer demand. The Ministry also explained that the “necessary fighting of inflation” by the European Central Bank has been a factor in Germany’s economic difficulties, which resulted in higher borrowing costs.

Germany’s main issues include an ageing population, lagging use of digital technology in business and government, excessive red tape, a shortage of skilled labour, and, most importantly, crushing energy costs due to the self-depravation sanctions regime imposed on Russia. It is for this reason that Germany is slowly and quietly returning to Russian energy sources after it was revealed recently that Securing Energy for Europe GmbH — a former unit of Russian gas giant Gazprom PJSC — plans to load LNG produced by the Yamal plant in Siberia early next month.

Although the EU has imposed sanctions on Russia following the announcement of a special military operation against Ukraine, the bloc still allows the import of Russian LNG. This has not stopped European politicians from criticising Russian LNG shipments’ approval, which increased after Gazprom suspended Nord Stream pipeline deliveries, but it does show how Germany struggles to balance its economic interests with its false moralising of Russia.

For this reason, Schröder is absolutely correct in his assessment that decision-makers in Berlin should start prioritising domestic matters rather than trying to build Europe’s largest military force at the massive price of €100 billion despite no credible threat existing against the country and other issues needing priority.

Ahmed Adel is a Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher.

October 16, 2023 Posted by | Economics, Militarism | | Leave a comment

AfD NEEDLE ATTACK UPDATE

The Banana Republic of Germany has become a very absurd and extreme place

eugyppius: a plague chronicle | October 13, 2023

Last week, I posted about allegations of a needle attack on Alternative für Deutschland co-chair Tino Chrupalla. On 4 October, at a rally in Ingolstadt ahead of the Bavarian state elections this past Sunday, Chrupalla was posing for selfies with supporters when two fans hugged him. His right arm suddenly felt heavy and within minutes he was near collapse. An ambulance rushed him to hospital and he spent several days under medical observation in intensive care.

There have now been important developments in this case.

In the days after the attack, Ingolstadt prosecutors acknowledged that police were investigating, but insisted they had “no evidence … that Mr. Chrupalla was approached or attacked.” As intended, this gave the right-thinking press space to jeer that the AfD were “exaggerating shamelessly” for political gain ahead of the elections, and for the Bavarian interior minister Joachim Herrmann (CSU) to deplore “how perfidiously and deceitfully the AfD is trying to capitalise on these incidents … in the state elections.”

Amid Herrmann’s bizarre fulminations, AfD-adjacent newsweekly Junge Freiheit (JF) reported that Chrupalla’s own doctor had diagnosed an “intramuscular injection” with an unknown substance in Chrupalla’s deltoid. Police immediately summoned the doctor for interrogation, after which he mysteriously distanced himself from the diagnosis, pleading that in his assessment he had merely provided “a description of the injury based on Chrupalla’s statements and not an actual determination of an injection.” Public prosecutors again said that allegations of an attack had “no basis in witnesses statements … including the testimony of Mr. Chrupalla and his bodyguards.”

Only this Wednesday did Chrupalla feel well enough to give his first public statements on the attack. Because the police would do nothing, he said he was forced to enlist a Dresden pathologist to investigate his needle injury. The doctor took a skin sample from the injection site on his arm, confirming that an injection had occurred. Chrupalla also said that he still felt unwell and that he’d lost 3.5 kg in the days since the Ingolstadt rally, and he added an additional detail that the press had not yet reported: Immediately after the attack, federal police had noticed a blood-stain on his right shirt sleeve, corresponding to the injection site. All those official claims that police had no evidence of a needle attack were lies, in other words; they had clear indications from the first moment.

Hours after Chrupalla’s statements, Ingolstadt prosecutors suddenly reversed themselves, finally acknowledging the obvious:

… Expert opinion has confirmed that the blood stain on MdB Chrupall’s clothes is his own blood. According to our current assessments, this blood stain probably corresponds to the diagnosed puncture wound. The investigations of the Ingolstadt public prosecutor’s office continue to focus on the open question of when and how Chrupalla’s diagnosed puncture wound … occurred during the campaign rally … in Ingolstadt, and who caused it. In order to clarify these matters, we are identifying and questioning further witnesses, evaluating video recordings and seeking out expert assessments.

What happened here could not be clearer:

Chrupalla suffered a needle attack less than two weeks after a serious “security incident” against his co-chair Alice Weidel on 23 September. Worried that these possibly coordinated efforts against AfD leadership might have consequences for the elections in Hesse and Bavaria, the German press played down the Weidel incident, suggesting that she was just seeking any excuse for a holiday on Mallorca. In the case of Chrupalla, police and prosecutors collaborated towards the same ends, denying the attack until the elections were over and mounting evidence, procured by Chrupalla himself, stripped their stupid efforts of all credibility.

Aside from the Federal Republic of Germany, is there any other developed Western nation where the police, the press and the political establishment react with such obviously calculated indifference to serious assaults on leading opposition party officials? [Yes, USA for example.]

October 13, 2023 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Deception, Subjugation - Torture | , | Leave a comment

6 takeaways from AfD’s massive gains in Bavaria and Hesse regional elections

By John Cody | Remix News | October 9, 2023

While the Christian Democrats (CDU) and the Christian Socialists (CSU) received the most votes in the regional elections of Hesse and Bavaria, the headline news story across Germany is the Alternative for Germany’s (AFD) overperformance in both states. The outcome of the election is reverberating throughout Germany, with implications for the federal level as well. On the issues of immigration, the economy, and green energy, the AfD is pulling ahead, while the ruling left-liberals will be left searching for answers after an election shellacking.

Here are six takeaways from the election results and what they could mean for the future political landscape of the country.

AfD may be stronger than the polls say

With both Bavaria and Hesse combined, the AfD party will now have 70 seats, a 50 percent increase compared to its previous 2018 elections. The party actually did better than the polls said it would, which had already painted a rosy picture for the anti-sanctions, anti-immigration party.

For example, AfD was polling at around 16 percent in Hesse, but actually ended up in second at 18.4 percent, while in Bavaria the AfD is on par with the Greens and Free Voters, where it earned 15.8 percent, making it the third-largest party.

The party has for years had a stable level of support at around 10 to 12 percent, but in the last year, it has soared in the polls up to 23 percent and continues to hover at 21 percent.

Many new potential AfD voters may be “shy” voters who are afraid to express their support to pollsters, meaning that pollsters may not be capturing the full picture. The party is, after all, facing a potential ban, openly mocked and attacked by the political and journalistic establishment, and supporters of the party along with politicians have been physically assaulted in the past.

Furthermore, with the AfD’s success in local elections, it may begin to “normalize” the party in the eyes of voters, which could contribute to more open support for the party — and even a jump in the polls — going into the future.

Germans are fed up with mass migration

In the run-up to the elections, Remix News reported a new groundbreaking poll showing a huge majority of Germans wanted fewer migrants and also saw migrants bringing fewer advantages than disadvantages.

If we look at the polling surrounding these specific elections, it only cements the reality that Germans are remarkably shifting against mass immigration.

For example, in Bavaria, immigration was rated as the second most important factor by voters, behind the economy, with 48 percent of all respondents telling Infratest dimap that they “welcomed” that the AfD wanted to limit the number of foreigners and refugees more strongly. In Hesse, 42 percent backed the AfD’s anti-immigration policies. In Hesse, the issue of immigration was decisive for 18 percent of voters in terms of their vote, meaning that this was their number one issue.

This polling data shows the massive disconnect between the left-liberal mainstream that promotes mass immigration in the media and culture and the actual sentiment of the German people.

The AfD’s Robert Lambrou, who was second on his party’s election list in Hesse, leaned heavily into the issue of migration during the campaign. Notably, he not only called for faster deportations but stated that skilled legal immigrants should only be accepted in exceptional circumstances and then only from “neighboring countries that are culturally close to Germany.”

AfD rises in the west

The AfD has been historically strong in the east of the country, but with a result of over 18 percent in Hesse, it marks the first major breakthrough in the west of the country. The results come as the AfD recently broke the 20 percent mark in wealthy Baden-Württemberg, the first time it has achieved such a result in a western state.

Notably, the German mainstream is now noting that the AfD’s rise in two Western states is not a fluke or a mere protest vote, with Taggeschau writing:

To interpret the strong results in both states as just a protest election would be too short-sighted. More and more people are voting for the AfD out of conviction. The current situation benefits the party: Asylum and refugee policy concerns many people, and support for a more restrictive migration policy is growing, as data from Infratest dimap shows. At the same time, fewer and fewer voters in both states have a problem with voting for a party that is partly right-wing extremist. And it is not just in migration policy that it is increasingly being given authority: more people are also placing their hope in the far-right party when it comes to the issues of internal security, the economy and social justice.

Such an acknowledgment from the state-run Tagesschau regarding the AfD is big news all in itself.

Massive blow to the traffic-light government

Besides the AfD, the other big outcome was how incredibly poorly Germany’s left-liberal government performed in the election. Now, the political fallout could be felt for months and even years.

For starters, the business liberals of the Free Democrats (FDP) were completely wiped out and failed to obtain the 5 percent needed to enter parliament in both states. It follows a long string of election losses for the party, which has been accused of abandoning many of its principles in its coalition alliance at the federal level. The party is now suffering the consequences, with the results likely sending party leadership scrambling to avert all-out disaster. The FDP, which has already criticized its coalition partners at the federal level, will undoubtedly be seeking out a more independent path in the future, which could lead to a serious governing crisis for Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

However, the SPD and Greens also fared poorly, particularly the SPD, which earned an abysmal 8 percent in Bavaria and only 15.1 percent in Hesse, both historic lows. The Greens earned 14 percent in both Bavaria and Hesse, a substantial drop in both instances from their previous election results.

There is in all likelihood trouble ahead for this coalition, and the far-left Interior Minister Nancy Faeser could still lose her job over her party’s election debacle in Hesse, although there are currently denials from top party brass that this is a possibility post-election.

The CDU could shift further right

Of course, the CDU is also taking note of the AfD’s rise. The CSU, the sister party of the CDU, saw 100,000 of its voters shift to the AfD in Bavaria. In short, the AfD could quickly cut into the CDU’s base, especially over the issue of immigration.

According to German state-run media outlet Tagesschau, it also sees the CDU potentially shifting its stance over the issue, writing: “These results may well lead to a shift in the policies of the mainstream conservative CDU towards a stricter stance on migration. The votes — and the preceding campaign largely focused on national rather than regional issues — may also force the government to revisit its policy of phasing out fossil fuels.”

Will anything change?

Despite the AfD’s surge and a mass rejection of the left, the two elections are notable for another key reason. In both Bavaria and Hesse, both governing coalitions survived. In Bavaria, the CSU can continue governing with the Free Voters, and in Hesse, the CDU could form a theoretical coalition with the Greens once again. In other words, the status quo was maintained.

The AfD may have seen a serious boost in both states, but for now, all parties have vowed to never work with the party. In the short term, the AfD is working to create the conditions that make it increasingly difficult for ruling parties to form status quo coalitions. In the long term, it sees the only viable path to power through a coalition with the CDU. The big question mark is if and when that will ever happen.

Many voters may agree with the AfD’s positions on a range of issues, but many are mentally conditioned to never consider voting for the party. The CDU and other parties are aware of this and will continue to hone their message to keep their voters from straying too far away, even if they plan to maintain the status quo once they achieve power.

October 9, 2023 Posted by | Civil Liberties | | 1 Comment

Christian Drosten: “I’ve Had Three Doses of the Vaccine and Been Infected Twice”

BY ROBERT KOGON | THE DAILY SCEPTIC | OCTOBER 7, 2023

Does anyone still remember the days when COVID-19 vaccines were reputed to do what other vaccines do – namely, prevent people from getting infected – and hence we were all taught to speak of exceptional ‘breakthrough infections’ when the unexpected, nonetheless, came to pass?

Well, Germany’s ‘state virologist’ Christian Drosten apparently does not remember them either. Drosten is a member of the German Government’s ‘Corona Expert Council’ and is treated as the absolute authority in Germany for all things COVID-19-related. He also, purely coincidentally, developed the notoriously hyper-sensitive COVID-19 PCR testing protocol, which would go a long way to create the COVID-19 pandemic based on the innumerable ‘asymptomatic cases’ it would go on to detect.

Drosten has given a new interview to the German weekly paper Die Zeit on the solemn occasion of the awarding of this year’s Nobel Prize in Medicine to Drew Weissman and Katalin Kariko, two scientists who contributed to developing the mRNA technology underlying the most widely-used COVID-19 vaccines in the West. Drosten praises the decision to award the prize to the mRNA pioneers – “the technology has proven its significance thanks to the authorisation for COVID-19” – and goes on to note that “I’ve had three doses of the vaccine and been infected twice”.

Three doses and he still got infected twice? Well, why does he agree with the Nobel Committee awarding the prize to Weissman and Kariko then?

Drosten’s remark is apparently supposed to help explain why he will not be getting the new ‘variant-adapted’ COVID-19 jab this autumn or donning a facemask when out and about: since, namely, he already has adequate immunity to fend off the virus – not, it seems, thanks to his previous vaccine doses but due to having caught the bug despite them!

Further on in the interview, Drosten makes this assumption explicit. Thus, asked whether the public has to be concerned about new, more highly transmissible Covid variants, Drosten replies:

Two years ago, higher transmissibility due to new mutations always also meant that more people got seriously ill. Simply because immunity against serious outcomes was not yet complete. By now, the overwhelming majority have built up immune defences by way of infections which are directed against the whole virus, not only against the spike protein from the vaccine. Infections were required for this.

So, Drosten now speaks (and it is not the first time) as if the idea all along was for people to get the vaccine and the virus. He adds, however, that vaccination was still worthwhile, since, he claims, it reduced the severity of the illness when people got infected. Mind you, he has just said that “complete immunity” even against severe disease is only achieved via infection.

The somewhat bewildering position adopted by Drosten is, by the way and not surprisingly – he is not referred to as Germany’s ‘state virologist’ for nothing – also the official German Government position. The official recommendation of the Standing Committee on Vaccination (STIKO) of the German public health authority is that everyone over 18 years of age should have acquired a “basic immunity” by way of at least three “antigen contacts”, either in the form of vaccine doses or infections. The STIKO, however, insists that at least two of these “contacts” should have taken place by way of vaccination, thus suggesting that vaccine-induced immunity is somehow superior to natural immunity, whereas Drosten’s remarks clearly suggest the contrary.

In its latest recommendation on the new ‘variant-adapted’ jab, moreover, the STIKO notes that “the majority of the population has already been vaccinated multiple times and has acquired good basic immunity thanks to having had SARS-CoV-2 infections in addition”. This is why, incidentally, the STIKO only recommends the adapted jab for persons over 60 and members of other ostensibly high-risk groups, but not for anyone else. But the tenor is exactly the same as in Drosten’s remarks, as if getting vaccinated and then getting sick had been the plan all along.

Well, for Drosten’s and the STIKO’s benefit, the below comes directly from the European Medicines Agency summary document on what is by far the most-widely used COVID-19 vaccine in the EU: BioNTech’s mRNA-based ‘Comirnaty’.

Comirnaty was authorised to prevent COVID-19, not to prevent severe outcomes. If it does not prevent COVID-19, it failed.

Robert Kogon is the pen name of a widely-published journalist covering European affairs. Subscribe to his Substack and follow him on X.

October 7, 2023 Posted by | Deception, Science and Pseudo-Science | , | 1 Comment

German opposition party leader was attacked, medical exam suggests

RT | October 6, 2023

A medical examination of Tino Chrupalla, the co-chair of the right-wing party Alternative for Germany (AfD), has confirmed the politician was attacked with a syringe, the party said in a statement on Friday.

Citing a letter from the Ingolstadt Clinic, the party said the politician sustained a syringe puncture on his “right upper arm.” The medical examination also indicated the politician was injected intramuscularly with a “yet unknown substance.”

“Forensic toxicology analysis is ongoing,” the party added.

The incident occurred at a campaign event in Ingolstadt on Wednesday, when the politician collapsed after taking selfies with the participants of the rally. The AfD immediately alleged Chrupalla had been assaulted during the event. The politician ended up in the intensive care unit of Ingolstadt hospital.

Shortly after the alleged attack, sources confirmed it to RT.de, claiming the party’s co-chair suffered anaphylactic shock, apparently caused by the substance from the syringe. A party spokesperson further elaborated on the matter on Thursday, stating that Chrupalla had sustained a “puncture wound” and was being tested for “substances in his body.”

That account of events, however, has been disputed by German authorities, who stated on Thursday that there was “no evidence” of an attack on Chrupalla.

“At this time, there is no evidence that Mr. Chrupalla was tackled or attacked,” the Ingolstadt public prosecutor’s office and police said in a joint statement.

Chrupalla’s personal security detail did not witness any physical assault on the politician, authorities claimed. Local media reports also said no needles or similar objects were recovered from the scene by police except for two push-pins.

October 6, 2023 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance, Subjugation - Torture | | Leave a comment

Germany: Fresh call to ban AfD comes from CDU politician

By John Cody | Remix News | October 6, 2023

While the left is well known for calling for a ban on the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), often described as a conservative party, also has a variety of politicians calling for the party to be banned. This time, CDU MP Marco Wanderwitz, who was personally defeated by an AfD candidate, plans to introduce a motion in the Bundestag to ban the party.

Wanderwitz made the call to ban the party during the state-run ARD television program “Panorama,” saying, “We are dealing with a party that seriously endangers our free democratic basic order and the state as a whole,” which is why “it is high time to ban them.”

Wanderwitz says he is searching out other MPs to back his vote; however, the ultimate authority on whether such a ban is possible is the German Constitutional Court. Not only are the legal hurdles for such a ban very high, but the political implications of banning the AfD would be enormous.

The AfD is the second most popular party in the country, and currently sits at 21 percent in Politico’s poll of polls, only behind the CDU. However, some polls have placed it as high as 23 percent, indicating that nearly one out of four German voters in the country could back the party. Approximately 30 percent of German voters say they could imagine voting for the party.

In the event of a ban, the AfD could still appeal the process at the European Court of Justice (ECJ).

Wanderwitz is particularly irked by the fact that the AfD has any money at all, saying during his ARD interview that if there was a ban, then “all these people who can now be right-wing extremists, paid with tax money, 24 hours a day would have to look for another job the next day.”

Notably, Wanderwitz lost his constituency to AfD deputy Mike Moncsek. The only reason Wandertwitz has a job in politics still is due to the party system in Germany, with the CDU placing him on their list of candidates, which helped him gain re-entry into the Bundestag.

Besides Wanderwitz’s own personal fortunes, the CDU party also sees the AfD as its main democratic competitor to its right, giving the party ample motive to want to see a ban.

Wanderwitz said he fears the AfD’s growing strength: “The radical right-wing movement was very fragmented for many years. But the unifying, warming campfire of the AfD is now so dominant that almost everything that exists in this political spectrum is tied together.”

Wanderwitz, however, may not represent the current mainstream opinion within his party. So far, the head of the CDU, Friedrich Merz, does not back a ban of the AfD.

“Party bans have never led to solving a political problem,” he said in a ZDF summer interview earlier this year. Nevertheless, he has vowed to never work with the party.

Regional elections are set to take place in Hesse and Bavaria on Oct. 8, with the AfD expected to outperform.

October 6, 2023 Posted by | Civil Liberties | | Leave a comment

Germany Has Thrown Away or Donated 242 Million COVID-19 Vaccine Doses – 50 Million More Than it Has Used!

BY ROBERT KOGON | THE DAILY SCEPTIC | OCTOBER 5, 2023

An interesting article in the German online magazine Multipolar on the many German COVID-19 vaccine ‘profiteers’ (BioNTech of course, but also lipid-suppliers Merck and Evonik, the Strüngmann brothers, the city of Mainz etc.) also contains some interesting observations on Germany’s own COVID-19 vaccine orders.

Author Karsten Montag notes that Germany has ordered some 672 million Covid vaccine doses: 557 million already at the height of the pandemic under then German Health Minister Jens Spahn and another 115 million under his successor Karl Lauterbach. But Germany has only in fact used 192 million doses (as can be seen here at the Ministry of Health’s handy ‘Vaccine Dashboard’).

Montag calculates that at the current relatively paltry vaccination rates in Germany, perhaps another one million doses will be used altogether by the end of this year. But what then about the remaining 479 million doses that have been ordered?

Well, not all of them have in fact been delivered. But Montag notes that in response to a question from the member of the German Bundestag Thomas Dietz, the German Government has now admitted to discarding 114 million COVID-19 vaccine doses which had reached their date of expiration by August 31st and of donating another 128 million to other countries.

This gives a total of 242 million COVID-19 vaccine doses which the German government has either discarded or donated – 50 million more than it has used!

Robert Kogon is the pen name of a widely-published journalist covering European affairs. Subscribe to his Substack and follow him on X.

October 5, 2023 Posted by | Aletho News | , | Leave a comment

German city residents protest construction of weapons factory to equip Kiev

By Ahmed Adel | October 5, 2023

Residents of a German city in Saxony protested the construction of a factory to produce ammunition to supply Ukraine, The New York Times reported. According to the article, Grossenhain residents want to live in peace with Russia and disapprove of Germany’s aid to Ukraine.

The New York Times highlighted that government leaders in Saxony thought that the plans of Rheinmetall, Germany’s most prominent arms manufacturer, to construct a new munitions factory would lead to an economic boom.

“Some in the chosen city of Grossenhain, with a population approaching 20,000, saw it differently. Sixteen of 22 members of the City Council signed a letter to Chancellor Olaf Scholz urging him to block the project,” the article reported.

Opposition to the factory is widespread along the political spectrum, with the Alternative for Germany (AfD), a Far-Right political party, holding a rally in June against arms sales to Ukraine, while residents signed a petition circulated by the Left Party.

“We reject a further economic-military use after years of military use,” the petition read. “We do not want to be involved in wars all over the world in a roundabout way.”

According to the article, resistance to the factory in Grossenhain signals that the Germans are concerned about the commitments made by the country to arm Ukraine.

“Perhaps easily dismissed as small-town politics, the revolt in tiny Grossenhain in fact reveals far larger unease among some Germans,” the author writes, adding: “Many Germans still hold a deep aversion to war and to defence spending in a country whose Nazi past has made it reluctant to invest in military power.”

Grosssenhain is not the only city in Germany with residents critical of support for Ukraine. As recently as October 3, thousands of residents of the capital, Berlin, took to the streets to demand Scholz’s resignation, speak out against economic policy, and call for a diplomatic resolution to the Ukrainian conflict and the resumption of cooperation with Russia.

In the same light, retired German colonel Wolfgang Richter warned that more important than Ukraine losing weapons is its loss of human potential, a consideration Berlin is not taking into account as it prefers to follow blindly Washington’s interests rather than its own.

Despite the possibility of reducing military assistance to Ukraine, much more important is that, in perspective, the country may lose its human potential, Richter said in an interview with ZDFheute media when commenting on Slovakia’s possible reduction of military assistance to Ukraine. According to Richter, in the short term, the lack of assistance from Slovakia will not significantly affect Ukraine’s defence capability. Instead, prolonging military actions will lead to more serious problems.

“Factors other than armament must be taken into account,” he said. “Ukraine’s personnel reserves will be depleted in the long term, and there is a risk of high demographic losses.”

His comments came as American magazine Newsweek reported that Ukraine risks being left without military assistance from two NATO allies – Slovakia and the USA. It is worth noting that the head of the White House, Joe Biden, signed a law approved by Congress on temporary government financing that does not provide for allocating funds for Ukraine’s needs, making Germany’s insistence on building an unpopular factory in Grossenhain even more bizarre.

It is recalled that the Joint Economic Forecast, commissioned by Berlin and published twice a year, announced on September 28 that Germany’s economy is set to hit a slump in 2023. The Joint Economic Forecast expects a downswing in Germany’s gross domestic product (GDP) of 0.6% this year after initially predicting in their spring report growth of 0.3%. The revision comes as official numbers showed stagnation in the second quarter of 2023.

The new Joint Economic Forecast confirms the International Monetary Fund’s earlier year forecast that Germany’s economy is set to shrink in 2023. Across the European Union, the European Commission currently predicts 0.8% growth, putting Germany well below the bloc’s average.

According to German economists, skyrocketing energy prices in 2022 — linked to sanctions on Russia — halted post-pandemic economic recovery and is also why the German economy is struggling in 2023. Yet, a small town in Saxony is being forced to host an armaments factory it does not want under the justification of bringing economic prosperity. Rather, the quickest way to economic prosperity for all of Germany is to end its self-sabotaging policy of arming and funding Ukraine in a futile war it cannot win and end the sanctions on Russia.

Ahmed Adel is a Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher.

October 5, 2023 Posted by | Economics, Solidarity and Activism | , | Leave a comment

German mayor calls concerns over child safety ‘unfounded’ amid plans to accommodate 80 asylum seekers at a primary school

BY THOMAS BROOKE | REMIX NEWS | OCTOBER 1, 2023

Outraged parents have condemned the local mayor’s decision to accommodate up to 80 asylum seekers in containers on the grounds of a primary school in the German town of Monheim am Rhein.

Dozens of local residents attended a recent question time of the local council to voice their displeasure over the controversial move proposed by Mayor Daniel Zimmerman’s administration and expressed their concerns for child safety, calling the plans both inappropriate and unacceptable.

Starting next spring, a cohort of migrants will reside in containers located on the school grounds, which are no longer used for educational purposes.

In response to the protestations of locals, the council cited economic factors as a primary reason for the move, insisting that the estimated €150,000 it would cost to convert the containers into housing was substantially lower than the cost of renting private accommodations, where around 80 percent of the migrants recently received by the municipality currently reside.

“We simply can’t keep up with renting anymore,” a city press spokesperson told parents at the meeting.

Concerned parents told the council meeting that the housing of traumatized refugees in the vicinity of young children was wholly irresponsible, and expressed worries of potential conflict between the new arrivals and their children including the danger of rape or abuse.

However, Zimmerman called these fears “unfounded” and insisted that the migrants are “people like you and me” and are not dangerous.

“The safety of our children is the primary goal – I personally guarantee that,” the local mayor assured parents.

He explained that with the municipality receiving significantly more refugees from Ukraine, Syria, and Afghanistan, private accommodation in Monheim has become saturated and the town is reaching its acceptance limits. The council therefore needs to resort to alternative measures to accommodate further arrivals.

The mayor added that while he was open to discussing the matter further with concerned parents in the next few weeks, for instance at parent meetings, such correspondence will not change the city’s decision to repurpose the containers on the school grounds and considered the matter to be closed.

October 1, 2023 Posted by | Aletho News | | 1 Comment

The Anglo-American War on Russia – Part Ten (NATO Lies at Minsk)

Tales of the American Empire | September 28, 2023

The United States CIA organized a coup to overthrow the neutral government of Ukraine and installed a Russian hating regime in 2014 that wanted to drive millions of ethnic Russians out of Ukraine. This led to a rebellion in eastern Ukraine where the Russian majority took up arms to protect themselves. This led to a small civil war that was quickly settled with a peace agreement. These 2015 Minsk agreements were brokered by France and Germany, agreed to by Ukraine and Russia, and accepted by the United States. Ukraine would retain official ownership of this rebellious region called the Donbas that would be granted full autonomy for internal rule. The Minsk agreements were endorsed unanimously with United Nation’s Security Council Resolution 2202, see the link in the description.

Ukraine never complied by withdrawing its heavy weapons from the Donbas region and continued random artillery and tank fire into Donbas cities. The Donbas rebel’s ability to retaliate was limited because the Ukrainians fired from urban areas mostly inhabited by ethnic Russians. Russian President Vladimir Putin appealed to the United Nations, United States, France, and Germany to apply economic and diplomatic pressure on Ukraine to abide by Minsk. They promised to help and the occasional terror bombardments into Donbas cities lessened, but never stopped as they killed thousands of civilians, mostly ethnic Russians.

NATO refused to pressure Ukraine to adhere to the Minsk agreements and continued massive economic and military assistance. Ukraine possessed only 6000 combat-ready soldiers in April 2014 but NATO help allowed it to build its military into the second largest in Europe comprising about 250,000 active-duty troops and 80,000 reservists who were trained at the billion dollar American built base at Yavoriv where hundreds of American soldiers were based. Ukraine soon had more tanks than France, the United Kingdom, and Germany combined.

President Putin began to understand that NATO had no interest in peace. He correctly concluded that the United States planned for war on Russia. We now know this for certain because in 2022, Minsk agreement signers, former Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko, former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and former French President François Hollande, admitted that the Minsk agreements were a deception to trick Russia into a ceasefire with the promise of a peaceful settlement to buy Ukraine and NATO time to build up its military to attack Russia.

_________________________________

“Unanimously Adopting Resolution 2202 (2015); Security Council Calls on Parties to Implement Accords Aimed at Peaceful Settlement in Eastern Ukraine”; United Nations; February 17, 2015; https://press.un.org/en/2015/sc11785….

“Children Living in Bombshelters Entire Lives”; Patrick Lancaster; YouTube; March 10, 2022;    • Children Living In Bombshelters Entir…  

“Ukrainian/NATO Training Centre”; NATO; October 20, 2003; https://www.nato.int/structur/nmlo/li…

Related Tales: “The Anglo-American War on Russia”;    • The Anglo-American War on Russia  

September 30, 2023 Posted by | Deception, Timeless or most popular, Video | , , , , | 1 Comment

Nord Stream Blast: Why the West Still Can’t Name the Culprit

By Ekaterina Blinova – Sputnik – 26.09.2023

Exactly a year ago three out of four Nord Stream pipelines running from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea to provide Western Europe with natural gas were destroyed. Western investigators have so far failed to find the saboteurs behind the blast.

Gas leaks from the Nord Stream pipeline system were detected on 26 September 2022, with the EU leadership admitting that this could be the result of a “deliberate attack”.

Two days later, on 28 September, the Kremlin announced that Russia was ready to consider applications from EU countries for a joint investigation into the Nord Stream incident.

However, not only did the West snub Moscow’s request but also blamed Russia for destroying its own pipelines. Later, European and American officials backtracked on their accusations but fell short of naming a potential perpetrator.

On 12 October 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin called the incident “an act of international terrorism”. Meanwhile, as gas prices soared and US energy producers secured lucrative liquefied natural gas (LNG) contracts with European countries, it became clear that Washington had been the major beneficiary from the Nord Stream destruction.

Furthermore, the US leadership had previously issued several threats that it would destroy the pipelines.

“We know that the United States President Joe Biden, threatened openly that he would stop Nord Stream 2 if the Russians were to militarily intervene in Ukraine,” Philip Giraldi, former CIA station chief and now an executive director of the Council for the National Interest, told Sputnik. “That was repeated by Victoria Nuland, who was Number Three at the State Department. She said basically the same thing. So we had the President and a senior official both saying that they would stop the pipeline if this were to happen. So we have a statement coming from the government itself saying it would do this.”

“And then I would say on top of that, the United States – given its military capabilities – had the capability to do this. They sent divers down to attach explosives and to arrange for a drone satellite that would ignite the charges and blow up the pipelines. It had the capability to do it. And it also had the motive, which was basically to weaken Russia’s ability to use its energy resources to affect politics in Europe. So this is what it was all about,” Giraldi continued.

On 8 February 2023, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh dropped a bombshell, detailing an apparent plot by Team Biden and the US intelligence community to blast the Nord Stream pipelines with the help of Norwegian operatives.

Reflecting on Hersh’s version, Giraldi said that he feels that Hersh’s narrative is “correct in every detail.”

“And I can confirm to you that Sy Hersh, whom I know somewhat, has excellent sources inside CIA and inside the Pentagon. So what he’s telling us comes straight from people who know about it,” the CIA veteran said.

Blame Game Time: The Andromeda Yarn

On 7 March, the US and German mainstream sources published two separate articles claiming that international investigators had managed to trace the 26 September 2022 sabotage attack to a “pro-Ukrainian” group operating from the Andromeda, a 15-meter chartered yacht. The story immediately prompted a lot of controversy.

German media, for example, asked how a 15-meter chartered yacht could carry the 1,500-2,000 kilograms of explosives needed to destroy the pipelines, adding that the Andromeda does not have a crane to hoist such quantities safely into the water. It was also unclear how the group of volunteers managed to transport that amount of explosives across Europe.

Another problem, cited by the press, was that at the site of the explosion, the depth of the Baltic Sea is about 80 meters, requiring special diving equipment which the private vessel lacked. On top of this, the gang of saboteurs returned the yacht in bad condition and even left a couple of fake passports on board which made the story even fishier.

Hersh ridiculed the mainstream media yarn while discussing it with an anonymous CIA operative familiar with the issue. According to Hersh, it’s not just a “bad” media story but a deliberate “parody” fed by the CIA to the US and German media.

“In the world of professional analysts and operators, everyone will universally and correctly conclude from your story that the devilish CIA concocted a counter-op that is on its face so ridiculous and childish that the real purpose was to reinforce the truth,” the investigative journalist wrote on 5 April.

The most recent Western media stories alleging Ukraine’s involvement don’t hold water, either, according to Giraldi:

“Look, when you’re doing things in the intelligence world, you look for corroborative details – details that tell you that this story is coming from a good source or that it is fundamentally correct. And I saw none of that in this story. There have been a number of stories, of course, about people from Ukraine having done this, or people even from Germany renting boats and going over there, and they didn’t know what nationality they were. I mean, these are repeated stories. I have no reason to assume that this story is correct.”

The CIA veteran goes on to say that at present there is no story that sounds as credible as Hersh’s version. Besides, the US had the motive; it had the capability to do it; and it also had the objective to do it as a way of weakening Russia’s ability to influence Western Europe, Giraldi summarized.

“So I think that a lot of the background or the backstory supports the fact that the United States basically did it, though, apparently with the assistance of the Norwegians, and I would imagine some of the other NATO allies were also briefed in a certain fashion. In other words, not all the details, but given some indication that something might be happening in the near future in the Baltic.”

Why Couldn’t EU Investigators Name the Culprit?

It’s hardly surprising that despite official investigations in three countries – Sweden, Denmark, and Germany – the question of who is responsible for the sabotage remains unanswered, according to Giraldi.

“The fact that there have been three investigations carried out means nothing because the three countries that carry out the investigation are all NATO members. So they would have no motive whatsoever to challenge the argument that this was carried out by the Russians themselves or by the Ukrainians,” the CIA veteran said.

However, Giraldi suspects that the German investigation probably came closest to the truth. However, what they told the public was essentially a narrative acceptable to the United States and to NATO. The former CIA field officer pointed out that Germany suffered the most from the destruction of the Nord Stream pipelines.

“Their economy is in trouble. They were dependent on Russian energy and so they are paying a price for it, and I’m sure that many Germans – I do know that many Germans are aware of this and are complaining that this ever took place. I was in Eastern Europe about two months ago, and I heard this a lot from Europeans, how stupid this whole thing was to destroy a resource that was very good for Europe as well as being good for Russia.”

According to Giraldi, it’s interesting to examine who else – apart from the US and Norway – was aware of the Nord Stream plot and was foolhardy enough to get involved in it. Giraldi doubted whether Berlin had been in collusion with the US and Norway from the beginning and said that it did not make sense for a country to sacrifice its own economy willingly.

Furthermore, the Nord Stream pipelines weren’t just a Gazprom asset, Giraldi emphasized: there were other countries – other companies from Western Europe – that participated in the project that had been worth billions of dollars. And because of the US plot, their money had been squandered and their infrastructure had suffered incalculable damage.

But the financial aspect is only half the story: the most worrying part is that those who blew the pipelines up risked escalating the crisis dramatically.

“The destruction of the pipeline was an act of war,” stressed Giraldi, “… so this is an interesting story if we ever find out the truth.”

On 17 September 2023, the First Deputy Permanent Representative of Russia to the UN Dmitry Polyansky said that Russia was calling for the UN Security Council to meet to discuss the Nord Stream gas pipelines and the council will gather on Tuesday, 26 September – a year after the sabotage occurred.

On 27 August, the Prime Minister of the German federal state of Saxony, Michael Kretschmer, announced the need to repair the damaged gas pipelines which he said will help to ensure the country’s energy supply for another five to 10 years.

September 26, 2023 Posted by | Economics, War Crimes | , , , , | 1 Comment

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