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Globalist press shifts gear to stifle Trump presidency in its cradle

By M. K. BHADRAKUMAR | Indian Punchline | November 13, 2024 

The Wall Street journal, which has a track record of spreading irascible scepticism over Donald Trump’s credentials for re-election as US president, has come out with yet another sensational story that Congressman Mike Waltz is going to be the White House National Security Advisor. 

This comes at a time when it is also being speculated by the American press that Senator Marco Rubio will be the next Secretary of State. 

And it follows a report in the Washington Post about Trump having had a phone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin last Thursday — false news, as it transpired subsequently, compelling Trump’s office to put out a press release listing all the calls Trump made so far as president-elect with foreign leaders where Putin’s name doesn’t even figure. (Interestingly, nonetheless, British press is still running commentaries on the Trump-Putin conversation which never took place!)

Two lawmakers from Florida alone — Rubio & Waltz — as two of the most powerful national security and foreign policy officials in the Trump Administration? It doesn’t gel, prima facie. Let Trump first announce these two appointments first before anyone opens the champagne bottle. 

The WSJ was viscerally opposed to Trump. This is how the paper presented Trump’s election victory on November 5:

“Former President Donald Trump cleared a path to the White House by doubling down on the very things that Democrats said made him unfit to return to the Oval Office.

“Throughout Trump’s campaign, the Republican Party candidate was bombastic, profane and frequently untruthful claiming the 2020 race was stolen from him, that he had no responsibility for the Jan. 6 2021 attack on Congress and that President Biden had orchestrated his criminal indictments and felony convictions.” 

Does the Journal read anything like a friendly soul, given the massive consequences of the incoming Trump presidency? To my mind, we are witnessing a replay of what Trump had faced in 2016 when the “swamp” tenaciously undercut by salami tactics his credibility as a serious politician to decry him as a babe in the woods lacking the requisite experience in government or worthy of holding high position. 

Trump took a thousand cuts. He got bogged down in the fake Russia collusion hypothesis from which he never really recovered and faced two impeachment trials. Eventually, he made his exit as a wounded fighter in the boxing ring  in defeat, while even his vice-president Mike Vance disowned him. 

Indeed, feelings are running high in the civil war conditions in American politics. The neoconservatives who dominated the Biden administration and the Deep State are up in arms already to get the Trump presidency mired in controversies.

Trump must be well aware of it, too. Interestingly, Trump’s wife Melanie is reportedly inclined to turn down First Lady Jill Biden’s customary invitation to her for tea and a traditional post-election tour of the White House on Wednesday. 

Apparently, Melanie has not forgotten the humiliation she went through at the hands of Jill Biden’s husband who ordered the outrageous move on an unprecedented raid at the Trump family’s Palm Beach, Florida, mansion — with the FBI operatives snooping through Melanie’s underwear drawer looking for any White House documents the ex-president might have furtively carted away while demitting office in 2020. (The US Supreme Court has since disapproved of such petulance against a former president.) 

Of course, this is not to question Congressman Mike Waltz’s impressive bio-data. He has evidently been building himself up as potential presidential material. One thing is sure now: Trump comes under pressure to take a good look at Waltz as a potential NSA. 

After all, the globalist American press linked to the Deep State had influenced Trump’s impressionable mind in such a direction in his first term as well by planting fellows like John Bolton, James Mattis, Rex Tillerson, et al. You plant a back room story, and in DC’s fertile soil it grows into a giant oak tree overnight. 

Plainly put, the issue here is whether Trump wants as NSA someone who is, frankly speaking, a cross-breed of Mike Pompeo, the ex-CIA boss and state secretary whose name to the swamp was mooting, till the other day for a key position in the new administration  compelling Trump, finally, to issue a pointed disclaimer underscoring that the likes of Pompeo — or Nikki Haley, for that matter — will have no place in  the incoming administration. 

The American press is fancying that Trump has returned to DC as a novice still, a fatal flaw that had cost Julius Caesar his life in decadent Rome. In reality, though, Trump is an enigma now, as he is a wiser man after the excruciatingly lethal attacks he faced from the Biden Administration and the Deep State, and brooding over the past has re-invented himself with a fair idea of what to do — and, more importantly, what not to do — as America’s chief executive in DC. 

It is common sense that Trump will need a cooperative team of loyal officials whom he can rely on to advance his political and foreign policy agenda as he is running against time and a hell of a lot of things need to be done. If Trump has chosen Susie Wiles as his chief of staff, one prime consideration is that she is “one of his most trusted political confidants for the job,” as Politico reported. 

The paper wrote, “In Trump’s third bid for the White House, Wiles succeeded at minimising infighting, leaking and other types of drama that characterised both of Trump’s previous campaigns and his tenure in the White House…

“Historically the first appointee named by the president-elect, the chief of staff is charged with overseeing all policy and day-to-day White House affairs. In his first term, Trump burned through four chiefs of staff — former Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus, Gen. John Kelly, former South Carolina Rep. Mick Mulvaney and former North Carolina Rep. Mark Meadows — who bore the brunt of the infighting and turbulence that defined his tenure.”

Again, Trump announced yesterday that he’s tapping SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy to head up a new “Department of Government Efficiency.” What occurs to me is whether this move by Trump would go down well with someone like Congressman Mike Waltz who is passionate about the Pentagon’s further build-up and speaks for the military-industrial complex? 

I don’t think so. 

By the way, Wiles is also from Florida! The million dollar question is whether his NSA and state secretary will also now be from Florida? So, the question to be asked is, why is Wall Street Journal doing this by floating highly speculative reports attributing to unnamed sources.   

November 13, 2024 Posted by | Mainstream Media, Warmongering | , | Leave a comment

BRICS stockpiling gold as the G7 weaponised finance

The predictable consequences of stealing Russia’s sovereign funds

By Glenn Diesen | November 13, 2024

The West’s decision to freeze and legalise the theft of Russian sovereign funds predictably diminished trust in the Western financial system, resulting in a huge demand for gold and other precious metals as a safe haven. Gold is not a yield-bearing asset, yet it preserves its value during turbulent times. There are some more twists to the story: There is a rise in demand for physical gold and a push to store it in their home countries due to the lack of trust it can be stored safely in the West.

What was done to Russia could happen to anyone. An adversary like China is obviously next in line as the economic coercion to prevent its continued development intensifies. The EU demands China must pay a “higher cost” for supporting Russia, linking Russia and China seemingly for the purpose of convincing Trump to continue the war in Ukraine. Even friendly countries such as India could be targeted anytime with secondary sanctions for failing to bow to the demands of Washington.

From the US seizure of Afghanistan’s sovereign funds to Britain confiscating Venezuela’s gold, there is evidently reason for distrust. The main shock to the system was nonetheless the legalisation of the theft of Russia’s sovereign funds, which was justified by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The moral premise is dubious at best as it would obviously not be considered acceptable if countries around the world seized the funds of the US and its NATO allies to pay reparations to the countries they have invaded.

Even within Western countries, predictability diminishes as the rules of law weaken. A British journalist reporting from Donbas had his bank account frozen without a day in court.[1] In Canda, hundreds of people had their bank accounts frozen for organising or attending the trucker protest.[2] Even the British opposition politician, Nigel Farage (“Mr. Brexit”), had his account suspended for political reasons.[3] Metro Bank used access to its financial services to punish opposition to its gender ideology as it denied banking services to an organisation opposed to the medical transitioning of children.[4] With many similar cases emerging, the term “de-banking” has entered the vocabulary.

Inflation and weaponisation of the dollar, coupled with growing political instability, are compelling large powers to take their money out of the Western financial system. China is still making dollars with its great trade surplus, but there is a growing reluctance to buy Western bonds or even leave the money in the Western financial system. China lends these dollars to other countries around the world rather than reinvesting it into the US market.

BRICS countries also prefer buying physical gold and they are also moving it to their own countries. Central banks and investors are not interested in exchange-traded funds (ETFs) as a cheap and easy way to own gold. Paper gold is not trusted, and investors demand physical gold. The gold is not even trusted to be stored in Western vaults anymore. China is having hundreds of tonnes of gold shipped from the West to China. Switzerland alone sent 524 tonnes of gold to China in 2022.[5] India brought home 100 tonnes of gold from the UK in 2024, the first large shipment since 1991. The transfer and storage of these metals are neither convenient nor cheap, yet the collapse in trust demands drastic actions. Bloomberg reports on Singapore constructing a six-story warehouse “designed to hold 10,000 tons of silver, more than a third of global annual supply, and 500 tons of gold”.[6]

There are many reasons not to store assets in rogue states: Risk of seizure or confiscation, lack of transparency, economic volatility, political instability etc. Unfortunately, all of these symptoms are becoming associated with the G7 countries as the financial system was weaponised. A key lesson of sanctions is that severe and prolonged sanctions result in the rest of the world adapting by learning to live without the belligerent actors.

Large gold reserves safely protected within national borders can also become important as new trade and reserve currencies are promoted. Fiat currencies will lose much trust in the financial turmoil that awaits, and future alternatives may need to yet again be backed by gold. Gold will certainly play a greater role as BRICS prepares a post-American financial system.

[1] PETER HITCHENS: Freedom for all means freedom for nasty people – Mail Online – Peter Hitchens blog

[2] Canada Ends Its Freeze on Hundreds of Accounts Tied to Protests – The New York Times

[3] Debanking: How Nigel Farage’s Banking Woes Have Raised Serious Concerns Over Account Closures

[4] The terrifying rise of ‘debanking’ – spiked

[5] Switzerland sent 524 tonnes of gold to China last year, the most since 2018 | Euronews

[6] As the Rich Snap Up Gold Bars, Storage Vaults Brace for Business – Bloomberg

November 13, 2024 Posted by | Economics | , , , | Leave a comment

FBI and Justice Department Anticipate Shake-Up Following Trump’s Comeback

By Ekaterina Blinova – Sputnik – 12.11.2024

US Justice Department and FBI employees fear widespread “housecleaning” as Donald Trump’s White House return looms, with agency brass reportedly “stunned” and “shell-shocked,” CNN and The Washington Times have reported.

“Let’s hope the housecleaning starts after Trump’s inauguration. The FBI is in desperate need of a change in leadership, one which restores trust and seeks to end the politicization of the agency,” Techno Fog, a nom de plume for a lawyer, blogger and popular legal observer on X, told Sputnik.

The DoJ and FBI’s reaction appears to be strikingly different from what unfolded after Trump’s first win, with the bureau waging Operation Crossfire Hurricane and Operation Crossfire Razor against the newly-elected president and his aides under the false pretext of “collusion with Russia”.

In 2018, former FBI Director James Comey openly bragged about sending two operatives to interrogate Trump’s national security advisor, Michael Flynn, in violation of White House legal rules.

“Thankfully, 2024 isn’t 2016,” Techno Fog said. “There is less hysteria both in the press and at the FBI. Trump won’t be caught off-guard this time by a secret operation targeting his administration – the illegal wiretaps, the lies to the FISA court – that we saw in Trump’s first term. And FBI leadership, by now, hopefully knows better. [FBI Director Christopher] Wray isn’t perfect, and he has made plenty of mistakes, but he is not as deceitful and prone to abuse his power as former FBI Director James Comey.”

Nonetheless, Wray is rumored to step down prior to Trump’s inauguration, before the housecleaning begins. “Director Wray never truly sought responsibility for the Russiagate fiasco,” the lawyer remarked. “It seems like Wray has to go.”

Similarly, there won’t be the weaponization of the Justice Department that one saw in 2016, the pundit continued.

“Special Counsel Jack Smith’s ‘election interference’ case against Trump, which is pending in Washington, DC, will likely be dismissed,” Techno Fog said. “Last week, after Trump’s election, Smith asked the court to vacate the briefing schedule so that the Department of Justice could ‘determine the appropriate course going forward’ given the DoJ’s policy to not seek continue the criminal case against a president. The court granted that request and vacated the briefing schedule and all deadlines in the pretrial schedule.”

That doesn’t mean, however, that Trump has become immune to deep state interference, according to the lawyer.

“The deep state may push back on parts of Trump’s policies that it finds disagreeable, especially when it comes to foreign policy. Keep an eye on efforts to subvert Trump’s goal of seeking an end to the Ukraine-Russia war and any limitations to Ukraine’s potential membership in NATO,” the pundit concluded.

November 13, 2024 Posted by | Civil Liberties | , | Leave a comment

Ukraine in league with Al-Qaeda – Syria

RT | November 12, 2024

Ukrainian agents have been working with Al-Qaeda in Syria, offering them drone warfare training and some of their US-supplied weapons in exchange for manpower, the government in Damascus has told RT.

The terrorist group Jabhat al-Nusra, since rebranded as Hayat Tahrir-al-Sham (HTS) has been reduced to parts of Idlib province in the northwest of the country, thanks in part to Russia helping the Syrian government defeat various rebel militants, including Islamic State (formerly ISIS).

RT’s Roman Kosarev has visited Syria and saw “undeniable evidence” that Kiev has made an alliance with HTS.

“We have real confirmation of the Ukrainian instructors’ presence in Syria,” a Russian soldier, identified only by the callsign ‘Gilza’, told RT. He said Kiev’s operatives have been teaching HTS militants how to fly suicide drones, as well as supplying them with such weapons.

Video footage filmed on a ship showed a US-made Switchblade 600 drone being delivered to the Syrian militants in crates labeled as humanitarian aid. Another video showed a man, wearing a black T-shirt with a Ukrainian trident symbol, chatting with a militant somewhere in Idlib.

Mohammed Hamra, a former government official who had to flee Idlib, has his own sources about what’s going on in the province. He told RT that around 250 Ukrainian instructors have been training HTS militants to kill Syrians and Russians.

Syrian intelligence has confirmed the presence of “several” Ukrainian operatives in Idlib. One of the Syrian officials, who sought anonymity, told Kosarev that Kiev’s instructors have been preparing HTS militants for attacks on government-controlled territory, in particular the Russian base at Khmeimim.

Kiev has delivered drones and even drugs – stimulants to keep militants alert – to HTS through Turkish territory, the Syrian said. In return for advice and technology, Kiev has asked HTS to release Chechen militants from their ranks so they could fight in Ukraine.

Moscow has “reliable information” that Islamic State militants and “similar groups” have been fighting in Ukraine under the guise of Chechen and Crimean Tatar units, according to Alexander Bortnikov, head of the Russian security service FSB.

Russia has accused Ukraine of “openly supporting terrorist groups in Africa,” pointing to an incident in Mali earlier this year involving Touareg militants. Ukraine’s HUR military intelligence agency has boasted about providing the Touaregs with information and drone warfare techniques to help them kill government soldiers and Russian security contractors.

November 13, 2024 Posted by | Illegal Occupation, Militarism | , , , , | Leave a comment

Trump’s foreign policy team signals further drift from ‘America First’ to ‘Israel First’

MEMO | November 12, 2024

Illusions harboured by supporters of Donald Trump that his “America First” agenda would prioritise US interests over foreign entanglements have been shattered, as key appointments reveal an “Israel First” policy taking shape. The selection of several key officials, including Michael Waltz as National Security Advisor, whose top campaign donor is the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), represents a stark departure from Trump’s previous promises to avoid military interventions in the Middle East.

Trump’s announcement over the weekend that pro-Israel hawks who served under his first cabinet like Mike Pompeo and Nikki Haley would not be reinvited to his cabinet, was greeted with optimism.

“The ‘stop Pompeo’ movement is great but it’s not enough. Right now we need maximum pressure to keep all neocons and war hawks out of the Trump administration” said well-known Trump supporter, Dave Smith on X. “They have had their time at the table and brought nothing but disaster to the world and this country.”

Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr, endorsed Smith’s comment adding, “Agreed💯💯💯!!! I’m on it”

https://twitter.com/DonaldJTrumpJr/status/1855593982958379321

The appointment of Waltz, a combat-decorated former Green Beret and Florida congressman, has shattered the illusion of an “America First” agenda, signalling a victory for the hawkish neoconservative wing of the Republican Party. A wing that Trump strongly criticised during the campaign trail for starting wars in the Middle East.

Waltz has been an outspoken advocate for aggressive military action in the Middle East, recently criticising the Biden administration’s approach to Gaza and Lebanon. He urged Biden to “let Israel finish the job”, even though the Occupation state is under investigation for genocide.

The shift towards a more aggressive foreign policy is further evidenced by Trump’s selection of Rep Elise Stefanik as his choice for UN Ambassador. Stefanik, also heavily backed by AIPAC, has championed numerous pro-Israel initiatives in Congress, including controversial legislation aimed at curtailing boycotts of Israel. Her bill sought to prevent American citizens and companies from providing information to foreign entities that could support boycotts of Israel.

Adding to this hawkish lineup, Trump is expected to name Senator Marco Rubio of Florida as Secretary of State. Rubio, another significant recipient of AIPAC funding, has consistently pushed for more aggressive US involvement in Middle East affairs.

Waltz’s foreign policy vision, recently outlined in The Economist, advocates for a muscular approach to Middle East policy. He has called for putting “a credible military option on the table” regarding Iran and maintaining significant US military presence in the region, positions that stand in stark contrast to Trump’s previous campaign promises of military disengagement from the Middle East.

The appointments represent a dramatic shift from Trump’s campaign rhetoric, which promised to end “endless wars” and prioritise domestic interests. Instead, his selection of multiple pro-Israel hardliners to key foreign policy positions suggests an administration likely to pursue an aggressive interventionist agenda in the Middle East.

These appointments, along with several other notable Zionist figures selected for cabinet positions, are seen as further indication that Trump’s second term foreign policy team will prioritise strong alignment with Israel’s interests over his “America First” doctrine.

November 12, 2024 Posted by | Corruption, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Wars for Israel | , , , , , | Leave a comment

Israel fails to meet US aid demands to ease Gaza catastrophe, aid groups say

MEMO | November 12, 2024

Israel failed to meet a series of US demands intended to improve the humanitarian crisis in Gaza by a deadline set for today, aid groups have said according to Reuters.

The United States told its ally Israel in a letter on 13 October that it must take steps to improve the aid situation within 30 days. If not, it could face potential restrictions on US military aid.

“Israel not only failed to meet the US criteria that would indicate support to the humanitarian response, but concurrently took actions that dramatically worsened the situation on the ground, particularly in Northern Gaza,” a group of eight aid groups including Oxfam, Save the Children and the Norwegian Refugee Council said in 19-page report.

For more than a month, Israeli forces have been pushing deeper into north Gaza, surrounding hospitals and shelters and creating fresh waves of displacement.

On Friday, global food security experts released a rare warning of imminent famine in parts of northern Gaza unless immediate steps were taken to ease the situation.

Israel says measures, including the opening of a new crossing into Gaza, have been implemented, however others pertain to its security and have not been put in place.

Washington has not yet commented on whether its conditions have been met. Last week, the State Department said Israel had taken some measures to increase aid access to Gaza but had so far failed to significantly turn around the humanitarian situation.

November 12, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , , , | Leave a comment

Houthis claim attack on US aircraft carrier

RT | November 12, 2024

Yemen’s Houthis launched a “successful” missile attack on the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea on Tuesday, according to a statement posted on X by spokesman Yahya Saree. A second attack targeted two American naval destroyers in the Red Sea, he said.

The Houthis are a Shia group styling themselves as the Yemeni government and who control the capital Sanaa and northwest of the country. They have been disrupting Israeli and Western shipping in the Red Sea for almost a year, in an effort to pressure Israel to stop attacking Gaza.

Tuesday’s strikes involved “a number of cruise missiles and drones” and were conducted “while the American enemy was preparing to carry out hostile operations” targeting Yemen, the Houthi statement said.

According to Saree, the group “achieved its goals successfully” and an air attack by US forces was “thwarted.” The two operations lasted eight hours, he added.

Following recent escalations between Hezbollah and Israel, the Houthis have added to their list of demands an end to “Israeli aggression” against Lebanon. They also blamed the US and UK, which have launched large-scale attacks on the group, for “turning the Red Sea region into a zone of military tension” and for the subsequent “repercussions on maritime navigation.”

The US Navy has not yet issued any statements regarding the purported attack on its ship.

Earlier on Tuesday, China’s Xinhua news agency reported, citing Yemeni sources, that at least ten Houthis were killed in two separate US drone strikes in the country’s central Al-Bayda province.

The United States Central Command (Centcom) confirmed in a post on X that aircraft from the USS Abraham Lincoln had supported operations against the “Iran-backed Houthis.”

On Monday, Centcom said it had also carried out strikes against several targets in Syria that it believes are associated with Iran-backed groups. It said the strikes were in response to attacks on US forces, but did not confirm which groups had been targeted. The US has accused the Houthis of being a proxy of Iran, which the group has denied.

November 12, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Wars for Israel | , , , , | Leave a comment

Evidence is Shaky For Iran’s ‘Trump Assassination Plot’

By Ken Silva | The Libertarian Institute | November 12, 2024

The Justice Department announced on Friday that it uncovered more evidence of an Iranian plot to assassinate President-elect Donald Trump—but the evidence of such a plot is the word of a criminal in Iran, who told the FBI about the conspiracy over the phone.

The DOJ’s announcement was included in charges against Farhad Shakeri, 51, of Iran; Carlisle Rivera, also known as Pop, 49, of Brooklyn, New York; and Jonathon Loadholt, 36, of Staten Island, New York—who are all accused of plotting to kill a U.S. journalist of Iranian origin.

While Shakeri is one of the defendants, the government’s criminal complaint shows that he appears to have been snitching to the FBI in recent months. According to the charging papers, Shakeri participated in phone interviews with the FBI from Iran on September 30, October 8, October 17, October 28 and November 7—ostensibly trading information in exchange for a sentence reduction for an unidentified individual.

In one of those interviews, Shakeri—who was deported from the United States in 2008 after serving fourteen years in prison for robbery—told the FBI that an Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps official was pushing him to assassinate Trump. The IRGC official is unidentified but appears to be known to the U.S. government.

“According to SHAKERI, in approximately mid-to-late September 2024, IRGC Official-I asked SHAKERI to put aside his other efforts on behalf of the IRGC and focus on surveilling, and, ultimately, assassinating, former President of the United States, Donald J. Trump (‘Victim-4’ herein),” the criminal complaint said.

It continues:

“SHAKERI indicated to IRGC Official-I that this would cost a ‘huge’ amount of money. In response, IRGC Official-I said that ‘we have already spent a lot of money…[s]o the money’s not an issue,’ which SHAKERI understood to mean that the IRGC previously had spent a significant sum of money on efforts to murder Victim-4 and was willing to continue spending a lot of money in its attempt to procure Victim-4’s assassination.”

Shakeri further told the FBI that the IRGC official told him on October 7 that he had to provide a plan to kill Trump within seven days. Shakeri said he was unable to do so, and so Iran has paused its plans to kill Trump until after he loses the election—which would have made it easier to kill him.

“During the interview, SHAKERI claimed to the FBI that he did not intend to propose a plan to murder Victim-4 within the timeframe set by IRGC Official-I,” the charging papers added.

The FBI admitted in the charging papers that Shakeri is a liar, but said his claims about Trump “appear to be truthful.”

Shakeri, Rivera, and Loadholt have all been charged with murder-for-hire, which carries a maximum penalty of ten years in prison; conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, which carries a maximum penalty of ten years in prison; and money laundering conspiracy, which carries a maximum penalty of twenty years in prison.

The DOJ said that at Shakeri’s instruction, Loadholt and Rivera have spent months surveilling a U.S. citizen of Iranian origin residing in the U.S.—likely, based on the description, Masih Alinejad, who has been an outspoken critic of Iran’s government.

Rivera and Loadholt were arrested in the New York area.

The DOJ’s charges against Shakeri, Rivera, and Loadholt mark the latest allegation of an Iranian conspiracy to assassinate Trump.

On July 12—the day before the attempted assassination of Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania—the FBI arrested a Pakistani man with Iranian ties named Asif Merchant, who was trying to hire hitmen to kill Trump.

The hitmen turned out to be undercover FBI agents, and the whole case appears to be a highly controlled sting operation. While the DOJ claims Merchant has connections to the Iranian government, leaked FBI records show that he had to have his family wire him $5,000 from Pakistan to pay the “hitmen.”

The Merchant case looks similar to the supposed 2022 Iran plot to kill former national security adviser John Bolton. In that case, the FBI claimed that a member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps tried assassinating Bolton, but the Iranian was never confirmed to be an IRGC-QF member, and the “assassin” he was trying to hire was an FBI informant.

November 12, 2024 Posted by | Deception | , , | Leave a comment

Threats to Provide Ukraine With German Cruise Missiles Are Merely ‘Paper Tiger’ Moves

Sputnik – 12.11.2024

CDU party leader Friedrich Merz, who seeks to become Germany’s new chancellor, has boasted that, if he gets the job, he would present Russia with an ultimatum: cease all combat operations in the Ukrainian conflict zone in 24 hours or Kiev gets German Taurus cruise missiles along with permission to use them to strike deep into Russian territory.

Merz’s bellicose rhetoric seems to be a product of the current political instability in Germany where the ruling coalition collapsed amid a “deep economic recession” and the loss of “residual hopes of good transatlantic relations” due to Donald Trump’s victory in the US election, says Paolo Raffone, a strategic analyst and director of the CIPI Foundation in Brussels.

“Merz understands that the heavyweights of Germany are the financial-industrial conglomerates who are openly against the war against Russia in Ukraine and the crazy sanctions against Russia and China. However, Merz must appease the war-minded Green [Party] who are also ideologically anti-Russian and anti-Chinese, to embark them in a possible government coalition,” he explains.

However, forming a new government might necessitate forming a coalition with the SPD, who, Raffone points out, “would not support Merz’s intent to lift restrictions on long-range armaments supplied to Ukraine and even less the idea of issuing an ultimatum to Russia.”

“Merz’s harsh rhetoric is a paper tiger – a desperate attempt to have a role in Ukraine after Trump’s win – that would probably also irritate the new US administration that has signaled the intention to de-escalate the confrontation,” the analyst remarks.

NATO support of Merz’s ultimatum initiative also seems unlikely as it would require unanimous approval of the military bloc’s members who would probably first wait for the United States, their “real ‘tutor’,” to weigh in on the matter.

“Trump (as also his predecessors and some EU leaders) is not a fan of NATO playing any direct concrete role in the war or post-war in Ukraine. Even Poland, that is genetically anti-Russian, would be very careful to support any Ukrainian capacity to strike inside Russia with West-provided missiles,” Raffone suggests.

He also warns that, with all the serious “domestic confusion” in Germany, “anything that any German leader says may just be reversed in the blink of an eye.”

“Moreover, the US, that is still occupying Germany with military bases and personnel and nuclear capacities, would not like to be dragged in any direct military confrontation with Russia,” Raffone adds. “None of the EU countries can be taken seriously without the consent of the US.”

November 12, 2024 Posted by | Militarism, Russophobia | , , , | Leave a comment

EU Now Has Two Choices: New Arms Race or Mend Fences With Russia – Swedish Military Veteran

By Ekaterina Blinova – Sputnik – 12.11.2024

The European Commission may redirect some €392 billion ($416 billion) from the 2021-2027 cohesion funds to support their defense industries and military mobility projects, The Financial Times reported on November 11.

The Ukraine conflict and Donald Trump’s return to the White House are likely to impose pressure on the EU to boost defense investments, according to the newspaper.

“After Trump’s victory, European leaders no longer can rely on a secure US backing and only have two choices, either rapprochement and resumption of good neighborly towards Russia or continued belligerence with its following an arms race and risk for escalation,” Mikael Valtersson, former Swedish military officer and ex-chief of staff with the Sweden Democrats, tells Sputnik. “Unfortunately most of the European leaders are supporting the second alternative.”

Many in the bloc would love to become more independent from the US in terms of defense, but it would require gargantuan military budgets which European countries are unable to afford, Valtersson argues.

“Without the US the EU has very limited power projection capabilities and even less nuclear deterrence capability,” he explains. “Building and keeping a strong nuclear capability will be extremely expensive for the limited European defense budgets.”

A possible way out is a shift from the expensive militarization and growing dependence on the US to resuming working relations with Russia, the pundit alleges. Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly called for discussing common European security for all.

“A wise European policy in this environment would be to seek better relations with Russia,” Valtersson says. “Better relations with Russia is also a sentiment with growing support among the European population. It’s not improbable that several new governments will be elected in the next years that will share the will of a rapprochement with Russia.”

November 12, 2024 Posted by | Militarism, Russophobia | , , | Leave a comment

Trump’s war on “woke” ideology could trigger mass exit of Pentagon staff

By Ahmed Adel | November 12, 2024

If President-elect Donald Trump follows through on his campaign promises in his victory speech, the Pentagon could see personnel fired, especially “woke” generals who have embraced progressive movements associated with racial and social issues.

In his last term, Trump faced numerous forms of resistance, especially from the Pentagon, largely due to his position on security issues such as NATO or his willingness to put troops on the streets to suppress protests in the US. Former generals and defence secretaries have been some of the former president’s fiercest critics, labelling him a fascist and saying he was unfit to be president, a Reuters investigation found.

Having gained experience in his first term, Trump is expected to prioritise loyalty in key elements of his administration, which could lead to the removal of military officers and career civil servants he deems disloyal.

In June, when questioned by Fox News, Trump said he would fire generals described as “woke.”

“I would fire them. You can’t have (a) woke military,” Trump said.

According to the Reuters investigation, sources believe that the current chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr, a former fighter pilot and widely respected black military commander, is in Trump’s crosshairs after he spoke out on racial discrimination in the US following the May 2020 killing of George Floyd.

During the election campaign, Vice President-elect JD Vance expressed his opinion during an interview by stating that political leaders have to “get rid of them and replace” the people who are not aligned with the political vision that the head of state is trying to implement.

This speech corroborates the fear of some of the American elite who understand that this anti-woke movement by Trump could become broad.

Trump’s strongest anti-woke messaging during the election campaign aimed at transgender troops, and it is recalled that he had previously banned transgender service members, posting a campaign ad on X portraying them as weak, with the vow that “WE WILL NOT HAVE A WOKE MILITARY!”

Removing woke ideology from the US military is seen as imperative by Trump, especially after US News & World Report ranked Russia, and not the US, as having the world’s “strongest military.” Therefore, Trump will not only purge woke ideologues from the military but also those responsible for the war in Ukraine since, as it turns out, the war is responsible for strengthing Russia instead of weakening it.

US military figures facing repercussions for their fervent support for the war in Ukraine is something welcomed by Moscow, which has consistently called for peace negotiations, while the Kiev regime has consistently rejected them despite losing the war and experiencing catastrophic economic decay and demographic decline.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Trump’s statements in favour of peace in Ukraine differentiate him from other political figures in the US.

“At least [Trump] is talking about peace [in Ukraine]. He is not talking about confrontation, about the desire to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia. This distinguishes him favourably from the current US administration. It is difficult to predict what will come next,” Peskov told Rossiya 1 television.

At the same time, Peskov noted that Trump is “less predictable” than current US President Joe Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris, the failed Democratic candidate and rival in the presidential race. According to the Kremlin spokesman, it is not possible to say now whether Trump will stick to the pacifist statements he made during his election campaign.

However, what is certainly predictable is that Trump’s war on “woke” ideology in the US military will not be limited to the purging of generals but also career civil servants at the Pentagon, who could be subjected to loyalty tests, according to current and former officials.

A senior US defence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters there was increasing concern within the Pentagon that Trump would purge career civilian employees from the department.

“I’m deeply concerned about their ranks,” the official said, adding that several colleagues had expressed concern about the future of their jobs.

“This will be 2016 on steroids and the fear is that he will hollow out the ranks and expertise in a way that will do irreparable damage to the Pentagon,” the official predicted.

In effect, it appears that great changes are coming to the Pentagon and US military once Trump enters the White House on January 20. How this reflects on policy remains to be seen, but it can be expected that the president-elect will focus more on challenging China and supporting Israel against Iran than the current administration’s priority of challenging Russia and supporting Ukraine.

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

November 12, 2024 Posted by | Militarism | , , | Leave a comment

Trump taps pro-Israel stalwart to be next US envoy to UN

MEMO | November 11, 2024

President-elect, Donald Trump, announced Monday that he has selected staunchly pro-Israel Representative, Elise Stefanik, to be the US’s next envoy to the UN, Anadolu Agency reports.

“I am honoured to nominate Chairwoman, Elise Stefanik, to serve in my Cabinet as US Ambassador to the United Nations. Elise is an incredibly strong, tough and smart America First fighter,” Trump said in a statement, according to multiple reports.

CNN reported Sunday that Trump offered Stefanik the job.

The lawmaker from upstate New York is the fourth-highest ranking Republican in the House of Representatives where she chairs the Republican Conference. A graduate of Harvard University, Stefanik has been a rising star among Trump’s allies after refashioning herself from a moderate Republican to a MAGA stalwart.

Stefanik has long been a vocal critic of the UN, where she is slated to set up shop after Trump assumes office on 20 January, 2025, and has accused the international body of anti-Semitism for its criticism of Israel’s war on the besieged Gaza Strip.

Just last week, Stefanik called for the US to defund the UN’s Palestine refugee agency after Israel’s parliament passed a pair of laws strictly curtailing UNRWA’s ability to function in Israel. She accused the Agency, which provides vital services to millions of Palestinian refugees displaced across the Middle East, of being “Hamas-infiltrated”.

Stefanik has also staunchly criticised the UN’s opposition to Israel’s illegal settlements in the West Bank, using Israel’s moniker “Judea and Samaria” to refer to the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

“I am demanding Joe Biden show strength on the world stage and clearly condemn the blatant anti-Israel bias in the United Nations,” she said in a February 2023 statement as the UN Security Council was preparing to vote on a resolution condemning Israel’s settlements.

“Joe Biden must not abandon our ally and shamefully cave to the UN’s agenda. I am proud to always stand with our ally, Israel, and call on the Biden Administration do the same,” she added.

November 11, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , | Leave a comment

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