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Epstein victims sue FBI

RT | February 15, 2024

A dozen victims of Jeffrey Epstein have sued the FBI, alleging that the agency failed to properly investigate the notorious sex offender. They claim that the FBI sat on reports about Epstein’s activities for two decades, allowing the victims to be “trafficked, abused, raped, tortured and threatened.”

The lawsuit was filed in a federal court in New York on Wednesday by 12 women, all of whom are referred to in the document as anonymous Jane Does.

“For over two decades, the Federal Bureau of Investigation permitted Jeffrey Epstein to sex traffic and sexually abuse scores of children and young women by failing to do the job the American people expected of it,” the complaint alleges. “As a result of the continued failures of the FBI, Jane Does 1-12 bring this lawsuit to get to the bottom – once and for all – of the FBI’s role in Epstein’s criminal sex trafficking ring.”

According to the lawsuit, the FBI began receiving tips, reports, and complaints about Epstein’s alleged trafficking and abuse of minors in 1996, but failed to open a case or share this information with other law enforcement agencies. The FBI eventually opened a case in 2006, two years before Epstein pleaded guilty to a child prostitution charge in Florida.

A controversial plea deal saw Epstein register as a sex offender and serve 13 months on supervised release in lieu of a possible life sentence. Despite the fact that he had been convicted for one offense and dodged a litany of other sex-trafficking charges, the FBI continued to ignore tips that flowed in over the next decade, the lawsuit claims.

“As a direct and proximate cause of the FBI’s negligence, plaintiffs would not have been continued to be sex trafficked, abused, raped, tortured and threatened,” the complaint said.

Epstein was eventually arrested in 2019 and charged with the trafficking of dozens of minors. He died awaiting trial in a Manhattan jail cell a month later, with his death officially ruled a suicide. Epstein’s girlfriend and “madam,” Ghislaine Maxwell, was sentenced to 20 years behind bars for child sex trafficking in 2022.

According to testimony from victims, Epstein and Maxwell recruited girls to perform sexual acts on themselves and their rich and powerful associates, and instructed these girls to recruit additional victims. Among the powerful men accused of abusing the girls was Britain’s Prince Andrew, who settled out of court with an accuser in 2022.

The plaintiffs behind the latest lawsuit are seeking an unspecified amount in compensation and damages from the US government.

The FBI has already been accused of negligence in its handling of the Epstein case. In a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in December, agency Director Christopher Wray was asked why the FBI didn’t do more to stop the notorious pedophile. Wray promised to conduct an internal investigation to “figure out if there is more information we can provide.”

February 15, 2024 Posted by | Corruption, Deception | , , | Leave a comment

Will GOP Witness Bobulinski’s Testimony End Joe Biden’s 2024 Presidential Bid?

By Ekaterina Blinova – Sputnik – 15.02.2024

Former business associate of Joe Biden’s son Hunter, Tony Bobulinski, delivered his long-anticipated testimony concerning Joe’s involvement in his son’s business dealings to US lawmakers on February 13. Could Bobulinski’s allegations shake up US politics?

Former head of the Sinohawk company Tony Bobulinski testified behind closed doors before US lawmakers in the House impeachment inquiry on February 13.

Commenting on the testimony, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer told Just the News on Wednesday that Bobulinski had revealed that “Joe Biden knew [Tony] was going in business with Hunter and with [Joe’s brother] Jim Biden, and he knew that the business was selling the Biden brand.”

In an explosive opening statement, Bobulinski alleged that Joe Biden could be probed in relation to the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), Anti-Corruption and Public Integrity statutes, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), and the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO).

“From publicly available information alone, it seems clear that the Biden family monetized Joe’s public offices for decades, just as the Clinton family seems to have done, albeit on a much smaller scale than the Clintons,” Wall Street analyst and investigative journalist Charles Ortel told Sputnik.

“We also know from [Joe Biden’s] tax returns that he declared very low incomes for decades. Miraculously after he left the vice presidential mansion on January 20, 2017, his declared income soared. But the murky ventures that may have paid him millions of dollars have never accurately been explained. Like other corrupt, dynastic families in both political parties, the Bidens, until now, have never been forced to explain how they obtained their mansions and other assets, and whether they have paid all required income and other taxes on these cash flows.”

Ortel drew attention to the fact that Bobulinski has been trying to make his case against the Biden family “business” for years; and yet over the same period, the FBI, Department of Justice and Internal Revenue Service have refused to prosecute many Biden family members and associates for corruption, influence peddling, money-laundering and income tax evasion.

“The really damning questions here include why did government officials protect so many potential, high-level defendants and who has been involved in this decision-making process?” the Wall Street analyst asked. “As in my case in December 2018, when I tried to persuade the FBI to investigate Clinton Foundation crimes unsuccessfully, I think the real timing question is why are authorities finally giving Bobulinski an audience only now?”

Bobulinski’s Involvement in Bidens’ Schemes Raises Questions

There are crucial questions concerning Bobulinski’s interaction with the Biden family and Chinese business tycoons which require answers, according to Jason Goodman, a US investigative journalist and founder of CrowdSource the Truth.

“Bobulinski was in business with an individual who was addicted [Hunter Biden] to crack which is obviously illegal and dangerous,” Goodman told Sputnik. “Either he didn’t notice this, or he knew and didn’t think it was a concern. Either reflects poorly on his judgment. Even without the crack, a reasonable person might have questions about getting into business with a bunch of Chinese nationals and the vice president’s moron son who clearly was doing exactly nothing for the business. It really is a very strange circumstance and hard to understand how a legitimate businessperson could find themselves in such a situation.”

Charles Ortel also wonders “why [Bobulinski] agreed, initially, to get anywhere near the Biden family in these ‘ventures’.”

‘Odds of Biden Being Prosecuted Now are Zero’

Having stepped forward with his explosive allegations, Bobulinski runs the risk of being hunted by the Biden administration’s “justice machine”, according to Sputnik interlocutors.

“One hopes Bobulinski is safe, but I believe another Biden accuser who deserves a fair hearing – Tara Reade – fled to Russia in fear of being attacked,” Ortel remarked.

“Bobulinski will be repeatedly audited and harassed by the IRS. Also, given personal experience, his computer will be hacked by government operatives,” suggested retired certified public accountant Robert Bishop in an interview with Sputnik.

Commenting on Bobulinski’s reference to FARA, FCPA, RICO and other statutes, allegedly violated by Joe Biden, Bishop noted that “his evidence is solid, but he will be, pardon the expression, pissing in the wind.”

Goodman is similarly skeptical about the odds of the Justice Department (DoJ) holding Joe Biden accountable.

“Irrespective of any evidence Bobulinski may have, I would say the odds of Joe Biden being prosecuted for anything are virtually zero,” the CrowdSource the Truth founder said. “Robert Hur already declared in his lengthy report, Joe Biden is just too stupid to prosecute. Sadly, it would seem Bobulinski’s opportunity to make a difference may have passed in 2020.”

“Bobulinski’s testimony was an absolutely historic bombshell in 2020, but now it is four years old. The bomb went off, everyone heard the boom, we saw the crater. Now it’s covered over. It was a smoke show that did nothing at its maximum potency. It’s clearly not going to do anything to Joe Biden now. It seems more likely that the clock will run out before the Senate convicts Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas, we can basically forget about a presidential impeachment. This testimony has become one of many straws on the camel’s back that is Joe Biden’s 2024 candidacy, which will break it remains to be seen,” Goodman pointed out.

According to Ortel, “cracks in the bi-partisan protection racket may emerge before November 5, 2024, but true reform and required prosecutions likely may only happen after January 20, 2025, should Donald Trump win in a landslide and bring economic conservatives and law and order officials into control of the House and Senate.”

Could Bobulinski’s Bombshell Upend Biden’s 2024 Bid?

Meanwhile, presidential election betting odds for Joe Biden have further plummeted following DoJ special counsel Robert Hur’s recent report.

The special counsel who looked into Biden’s apparent mismanagement of classified materials exonerated the president but pointed out that Joe is an “elderly” man with a fading memory. According to polling aggregator RealClearPolitics, Biden’s odds for the presidency now stand at 26.8, while those of his Republican rival Donald Trump are at 44.5.

In a recent interview, Vice President Kamala Harris went even so far as to state that she is ready to serve as the president of the US should Biden not be fit for the job.
Bobulinski’s testimony could add to Biden’s free-fall, but not considerably, according to Sputnik’s interlocutors.

“Biden will stay in office since Harris’s poll ratings are lower than his. Democrats will have a brokered convention replacing Biden with the presumptive candidate, Michele Obama,” projected Bishop.

For his part, Ortel believes that the Democratic Party has found itself between the devil and the deep blue sea and is entering nothing short of an “existential crisis.”

“I suspect the big money behind the Democrats is flummoxed by the status quo,” he said. “They know that neither Biden nor Harris can beat Trump. And they also know that Michelle Obama has no executive credentials and may truly have little interest in returning to live in the fishbowl that is the White House.”

“Gavin Newsome has a pathetic record as San Francisco mayor and California governor and Hillary Clinton is already less popular than the wicked witch of the West. So, as of this moment, the Democrats appear extremely weak. And that is before you consider that the largest slice of the electorate may be individuals who are actually independent and fed up with both parties,” the Wall Street analyst concluded.

February 15, 2024 Posted by | Corruption | , , | Leave a comment

The Vladimir Putin Interview – Part Two

Part Two — Is Russia Angling for an Exit?

By William Schryver – imetatronink – February 15, 2024

In the immediate aftermath of Tucker Carlson’s interview of Vladimir Putin, Carlson recorded at least two brief segments during which he gave his impressions of the experience. I was exceedingly surprised that one of his foremost “takeaways” from the interview was that Putin had expressed a desire to enter into negotiations to bring the hostilities in Ukraine to an end; that Putin was, as it were, “angling for an exit” from the war.

This is a gross misinterpretation and misrepresentation of what Putin actually said — and the fact is that Putin, on multiple occasions, reiterated his posture on the question.

Tucker Carlson: Will there be talks? And why haven’t there been talks about resolving the conflict in Ukraine? Peace talks.

Putin’s reply came without hesitation:

Vladimir Putin: There have been. They reached a very high stage of coordination of positions in a complex process, but still they were almost finalized. But after we withdrew our troops from Kiev, as I have already said, the other side (Ukraine) threw away all these agreements and obeyed the instructions of … European countries and the United States to fight Russia to the bitter end.

A brief discussion ensued wherein Carlson suggested that the negotiations must take place between Russia and the United States, rather than between Russia and Ukraine, and he (Carlson) lamented that Putin had not even spoken with US President Joe Biden since the war commenced.

Tucker Carlson: … why don’t you just call Biden and say “let’s work this out”?

Vladimir Putin: What’s there to work out? It’s very simple. I repeat, we have contacts through various agencies. I will tell you what we are saying on this matter and what we are conveying to the US leadership: “If you really want to stop fighting, you need to stop supplying weapons. It will be over within a few weeks. That’s it. And then we can agree on some terms …”

What’s easier? Why would I call him? What should I talk to him about? Or beg him for what? “You’re going to deliver such and such weapons to Ukraine. Oh, I’m afraid, I’m afraid, please don’t.” What is there to talk about?

I don’t know how Putin could have been more clear about the Russian posture at this stage of the war [paraphrasing]: “If the United States desires for the war to end, the solution is simple: STOP FIGHTING US!”

Earlier in the interview, Carlson had asked Putin if Russia had now achieved its aims in the war. Putin explicitly replied in the negative.

What are Russia’s aims in this war? Well, they were explicitly articulated in Putin’s two landmark speeches delivered in February 2022.

In his February 21, 2022 speech, Putin meticulously recounted the relevant history of the region dating back multiple centuries, and focused specifically on the events that followed in the wake of the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

In addition to Putin’s history lesson, he makes particular reference to a detailed proposal Russia delivered to the United States and its NATO allies in mid-December 2021 — a proposal that effectively amounted to a “final warning”; a last-ditch effort to avoid war in Ukraine.

Consider his words carefully, and particularly in light of how Russia has unswervingly adhered to the objectives Putin articulated in his February 24, 2022 speech.

Last December, we handed over to our Western partners a draft treaty between the Russian Federation and the United States of America on security guarantees, as well as a draft agreement on measures to ensure the security of the Russian Federation and NATO member states.

The United States and NATO responded with general statements. There were kernels of rationality in them as well, but they concerned matters of secondary importance and it all looked like an attempt to drag the issue out and to lead the discussion astray.

We responded to this accordingly and pointed out that we were ready to follow the path of negotiations, provided, however, that all issues are considered as a package that includes Russia’s core proposals which contain three key points. First, to prevent further NATO expansion. Second, to have the Alliance refrain from deploying assault weapon systems on Russian borders. And finally, rolling back the bloc’s military capability and infrastructure in Europe to where they were in 1997, when the NATO-Russia Founding Act was signed.

Vladimir Putin, Address by the President of the Russian Federation, February 21, 2022

(emphasis added)

I submit we can confidently assume Putin was as deadly serious on February 21, 2022 as he was on February 24, 2022; that he was not bluffing; that he was resolved to “raise the stakes” commensurate to whatever was required to achieve the objectives he had so carefully articulated.

The Russian objectives, as delineated in February of 2022, were as follows:

  • To prevent further NATO expansion.
  • To compel the withdrawal of NATO military forces and infrastructure to their 1997 borders.
  • To demilitarize Ukraine.
  • To denazify Ukraine.
  • To restore to mother Russia the portions of the “Russian Nation” that had been previously severed from it as a result of the ill-considered decisions of Russian leadership over the course of the twentieth century.

As the war has continued, Russian territorial objectives have been further defined. In addition to the reassimilation of the Lugansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions into Russia, it is now clear that the Russians are determined to reassimilate into the motherland the Kharkov region and all of the regions bordering the Black Sea coast, extending to the Danube River bordering Romania.

I was convinced as early as February 27, 2022 that it would become imperative for Russia to reassimilate at least the territory indicated on the map below:

Indeed, based on numerous repeated statements from various of the foremost Russian government leaders, including President Putin, it is increasingly evident that the imperatives of Russian “strategic depth” will not be satisfied short of reassimilating both the red and orange-shaded regions indicated on this map, and perhaps even the region shaded in yellow:

It is categorically false to believe Russia would be willing to “freeze” the conflict on the current line of contact, or even with the full annexation of the four regions that have already conducted referendums to rejoin Russia.

I submit that Vladimir Putin’s domestic popularity AND the support of his generals correlate closely to the perception that he will not waver from the objectives he set forth in the beginning. Indeed, it has only been the misplaced sense that he might stop short of achieving his stated objectives that has resulted in meaningful criticism arising from his domestic supporters — whether in government, the military, or the general public.

I further submit that it is precisely the burgeoning faith that Putin will resolutely pursue and achieve his stated objectives that has resulted in the unprecedented willingness of China, Iran, India, and other geostrategically important Eurasian and Global South nations to not only openly support Russia in this conflict, but to also, in many instances, openly defy imperial decrees forbidding military and commercial relations with Russia.

I am thoroughly convinced that a large proportion of the support Russia continues to command across the planet is directly correlated to a pervasive perception that the Russians “really meant it” when they solemnly, formally, and explicitly informed the United States and NATO that peace would henceforth be contingent on them “… rolling back the bloc’s military capability and infrastructure in Europe to where they were in 1997, when the NATO-Russia Founding Act was signed.”

Near the end of the interview, Carlson once again returned to the topic of negotiations to end the conflict:

Tucker Carlson: … are you worried that what’s happening in Ukraine could lead to something much larger and much more horrible and how motivated are you just to call the US government and say “let’s come to terms”?

Vladimir Putin: I already said that we did not refuse to talk. We are willing to negotiate. It is the Western side [not willing to negotiate], and Ukraine is obviously a satellite state of the U.S. It is evident. I do not want you to take it as if I am looking for a strong word or an insult, but we both understand what is happening.

Putin then briefly referred to the massive amounts of money and weaponry the NATO nations have pumped into Ukraine, and made the point again that, if there was a desire for the war to end, NATO support for Ukraine must end first.

Tucker Carlson: … that is why I asked about dealing directly with the Biden administration, which is making these decisions, not president Zelensky of Ukraine.

Putin then proceeds to explain to Carlson the situation in terms that ought to have defied any misunderstanding. Indeed, this is arguably the single most important part of the entire interview. Pay close attention to how Putin frames the issue:

Vladimir Putin: Well, if the Zelensky administration in Ukraine refused to negotiate, I assume that they did it under the instruction from Washington. If Washington believes it to be the wrong decision, let it abandon it, let it find a delicate excuse so that no one is insulted, let it come up with a way out. It was not us who made this decision, it was them, so let them go back on it. … They did it so let them correct it themselves. We support this.

And yet, amazingly, the ill-prepared and slow-to-comprehend Tucker Carlson still does not grasp Putin’s meaning:

Tucker Carlson: So, I just want to make sure I am not misunderstanding what you are saying — and I don’t think that I am — I think you are saying you want a negotiated settlement to what’s happening in Ukraine.

Putin visibly sighs at this retort, and patiently attempts again to make Carlson understand. He reminds Carlson of how a tentative peace settlement had been reached in early 2022, but was then torpedoed by the west, who instead persuaded Ukraine to fight on, with the reassurance that NATO would continue to support them “for as long it takes”.

Vladimir Putin: … we prepared a huge document in Istanbul that was initialed by the head of the Ukrainian delegation. He affixed his signature to some of the provisions … [later] he himself said: “We were ready to sign it and the war would have been over long ago, eighteen months ago. However, Prime Minister Johnson came, talked us out of it and we missed that chance.”

Well, you missed it, you made a mistake … Why do we have to bother ourselves and correct somebody else’s mistakes?

I know one can say it is our mistake, it was us who intensified the situation and decided to put an end to the war that started in 2014 in Donbass, as I have already said, by means of weapons. Let me get back further in history, I already told you this, we were just discussing it. Let us go back to 1991 when we were promised that NATO would not be expanded, to 2008 when the doors to NATO opened, to the Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine declaring Ukraine a neutral state. Let us go back to the fact that NATO and US military bases started to appear on the territory of Ukraine creating threats for us. Let us go back to the coup d’état in Ukraine in 2014. It is pointless though, isn’t it? We may go back and forth endlessly. But they stopped negotiations. Is it a mistake? Yes. Correct it. We are ready. What else is needed?

Tucker Carlson: Do you think it is too humiliating at this point for NATO to accept Russian control of what was two years ago Ukrainian territory?

Vladimir Putin: I said let them think how to do it with dignity. There are options if there is a will.

Up until now there has been the uproar and screaming about inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia on the battlefield. Now they are apparently coming to realize that it is difficult to achieve, if possible at all. In my opinion, it is impossible by definition. It is never going to happen. It seems to me that now those who are in power in the West have come to realize this as well. If so, if the realization has set in, they have to think what to do next. We are ready for this dialogue.

That both Tucker Carlson and others have failed to correctly interpret Putin’s words is incomprehensible to me. So permit me to paraphrase them in language that is perhaps more understandable to the dimwitted and disingenuous people in the west who continue to misrepresent them:

“We offered them an early out, and they rejected it in favor of an appeal to arms in order to inflict what they imagined would be a severe strategic defeat against Russia on the field of battle. But their reach greatly exceeded their grasp. They cannot defeat us. Now let them seek a delicate exit from the mess they’ve gotten themselves into — but we will achieve our objectives.”

February 15, 2024 Posted by | Militarism | , , | Leave a comment

US Militarizes Space While Using ‘Russia Threat’ as Smokescreen

By Ekaterina Blinova – Sputnik – 15.02.2024

Mainstream media fuss over groundless accusations of Russia deploying nuclear weapons in space is gaining steam while diverting attention from Washington’s militarization of space, Dmitry Stefanovich, a research fellow at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations, told Sputnik.

The mainstream US media claimed on February 14 that there is new intelligence that Russia has developed space-based nuclear weapon capabilities designed to undermine the US satellite network.

The intelligence was reportedly briefed to Congress and even key American allies with some lawmakers insisting that it was “very serious”.

Moscow has rejected the claims as yet another attempt by the US establishment to pass a $60 billion funding package for Ukraine, amid House unwillingness to send good money after bad to the corrupt Kiev regime.

Research fellow at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations, Dmitry Stefanovich, drew attention to the fact that the mainstream media’s comments are highly contradictory.

“Some say that something has already been deployed [in space], some say that something is planned to be deployed, some are talking about nuclear arms, and some are speculating about nuclear power equipment,” the researcher said, adding that the comments resemble nothing more than an exercise in smoke and mirrors.

On the other hand, one could hardly imagine that Moscow would resort to deploying nuclear arms in space given Moscow’s obligations as a signatory country and, moreover, as a depositary country of the Outer Space Treaty, the expert stressed.

The Outer Space Treaty outlines that “states shall not place nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction in orbit or on celestial bodies or station them in outer space in any other manner.” The Treaty was opened for signature by the three “depository governments” – the USSR (with Russia being its legal successor), the UK and the US – in January 1967. It entered into force in October 1967.

What’s more, the use of nuclear weapons in space would destroy spacecraft indiscriminately, knocking out American and Russian satellites alike, as well as those of third countries, Stefanovich pointed out.

“Starting to shoot down satellites all in a row is quite a serious escalation,” warned the researcher.

He likewise pointed out that in the event of a large-scale military confrontation, Moscow has conventional means to disrupt an adversary’s satellite constellations without needing to resort to nuclear arms.

“One can shoot down satellites with missiles,” Stefanovich said. “The S-500 missile defense system is capable of performing such tasks. There is no doubt that satellites in low orbit can be shot down from Earth. These tests were carried out by the Soviet Union, the US, China, and India. (…) One can jam or blind satellites. We know about the Peresvet complex, that it exists, and it presumably allows [Russia] to shield its [military positions] from observation.”

“Plus there are options with orbital interception. That is, there are so-called satellite inspectors that could provide tracking [of enemy spacecraft]; there are robotic arms that can theoretically grab satellites. (…) Plus, of course, returning to non-kinetic scenarios, these are different options using electronic warfare systems, as well as cyber impact systems,” the expert continued.

According to Stefanovich, Russia’s major aim is to prevent the militarization of space, whereas the US openly proclaims a goal of space dominance.

Thus, the US created the Space Force (USSF) in December 2019 – a new branch of the US Armed Forces. While announcing the establishment of the new Pentagon unit in June 2018, former US President Donald Trump specifically underlined the need to “have American dominance in space.”

Meanwhile, the US has itself shown it is willing and able to knock out satellites.

In early 2008, the Pentagon launched Operation Burnt Frost which used a navy-guided missile cruiser to launch an SM-3 missile into space which knocked down a non-functioning National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) satellite and showcased its capabilities in shooting down satellites.

Days before the Pentagon’s strike, China and Russia introduced a draft Treaty on the Prevention of the Placement of Weapons in Outer Space, the Threat or Use of Force against Outer Space Objects (PPWT) to the Conference on Disarmament (CD), the world’s permanent multilateral disarmament treaty negotiating body. However, the US dismissed the proposal, dubbing it “a diplomatic ploy by the two nations to gain a military advantage.”

“The militarization of space began, in fact, simultaneously with the beginning of the space age,” Stefanovich said. “Space has always had a military dimension. Now the problem we are trying to solve is to prevent weapons from being placed in space. Russia’s position is that we need a legally binding document to prevent the placement of weapons in space. We need to stop the arms race in outer space.”

“When it comes to the American potential, they have created a space force and a huge satellite constellation. The main threat here is not yet in strike systems, but in surveillance systems, both systems that allow, in fact, reconnaissance activities and target designation on Earth. This is a really serious problem,” the researcher concluded.

February 15, 2024 Posted by | Militarism, Progressive Hypocrite, Russophobia, Timeless or most popular | , | Leave a comment

The West’s duplicitous stance and hypocrisy draw condemnation in the world

By Viktor Mikhin – New Eastern Outlook – 15.02.2024 

Many politicians around the world strongly condemn not only Israel’s inhumane policy in the Gaza Strip, when peaceful Palestinians are being slaughtered, but also the hypocrisy, duplicity, pharisaism and arrogance of the West. In one case, the current worthless rulers of Europe condemn the defence of their citizens in Donbass by Russia, which is complying with all international rules of engagement. On the other, when Israel started to destroy civilians in the Gaza Strip (which according to international laws is considered a policy of genocide), the West welcomes and applauds, defending its protégé in the Middle East in every possible way.

For example, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan called the West’s position on Gaza, which differs from its position on Ukraine, “the height of hypocrisy.” “What happened in Gaza, has caused the West and the Europeans to lose all their reputation, all their accumulated credits (of trust). They have squandered all their political capital in the eyes of humanity, especially in the eyes of our generations,” Turkish daily Hürriyet quoted Hakan Fidan as saying. According to him, it will not be easy for the West to regain the lost trust. “It will not be easy for them to regain it. Unlike their stance on Ukraine and Russia, their stance on Gaza is the height of hypocrisy. They cannot talk about principles, virtue and morality. They ignore them completely. I see that all this is preparing the ground for a huge geostrategic rupture,” the minister said.

A huge swath of the Global South sees and criticises the double standards that guide the West’s actions in the Gaza Strip and Ukraine, as the New York Times (NYT) reluctantly reported through gritted teeth. The publication notes that for the past 20 months, US authorities have actively criticised Moscow for its special military operation in Ukraine, but now that the IDF has carried out a bloodbath in Gaza, full American support for Israel risks creating new and complex obstacles in Washington’s efforts to win over world public opinion.

The war in the Middle East, the piece says, is driving a wedge between the West and leading nations of the Global South such as Brazil and Indonesia. In addition, the West’s unconscionable double standard in defence of Israelis has been sharply criticised by leaders of the Arab world. The fact that the West treats Ukraine as a special case because it is in Europe, against the backdrop of Middle East escalation, has only increased discontent in Africa, Asia and Latin America. There, the impression is that the West is more concerned about refugees from Ukraine than about those affected by the conflicts in Arab countries. The publication has to admit that the West has failed to convince countries such as India and Turkey to support sanctions against Russia. Given the bloody events in the Gaza Strip, “Western efforts to widen the front against Russia are unlikely to be successful in the near future.”

Earlier, American businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, who was seeking the nomination as the country’s presidential candidate from the Republican Party (he ended his campaign and supported Donald Trump’s candidacy in the presidential election), said that the United States should seek an early settlement of the conflict in Ukraine, which would provide for the transition of Russian-speaking regions into Russia. And he is not alone in the US, where questions are increasingly being asked as to why it is the Americans who should bear the brunt of the financial burden and supply vast quantities of weapons to the neo-Nazi regime in Kiev.

Irish MEP Mick Wallace has rightly stated that the Ukrainian conflict is still going on because of the unwillingness of the United States to end it. He expressed the same opinion with regard to the situation in the Gaza Strip. The world media also noted that the International Criminal Court, at the behest of the United States, has ignored many years of genocide in Palestine, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, and therefore the ICC is “unfair in its choice of topics to explore” and has turned into “an unscrupulous legal body of the West.”

Russia’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya has accused the United States of its position preventing the Security Council from adopting resolutions aimed at stopping the violence in the Gaza Strip, RIA Novosti reported. “It is regrettable that under these circumstances the UN Security Council has so far failed to adopt a single resolution demanding a halt to the violence because of the position of one delegation, the United States, which is blocking all efforts and initiatives to stop the bloodshed,” the diplomat said. He noted that this gave Israel carte blanche to further destroy the Palestinians.

The huge difference in the West’s attitude to the Palestinian-Israeli and Ukrainian conflicts points to hypocritical double standards, one of the goals of which is to interpret international law exactly as it suits the US. In this case, the fate of the Palestinian population is much less interesting to the hardened Western officials in terms of “domestic political points.” How many times have Western delegations requested UN Security Council meetings on Ukraine? The answer is at least twice a month, while how many times the said delegations have requested Security Council meetings on the Middle East issue – zero. Apparently, in this case comments are unnecessary, the conclusion is already on the surface. The West’s double standards “in all their glory” were also observed in the situation with the migration crisis in the EU. While Ukrainian refugees have been given all sorts of benefits, refugees from Africa and the Middle East are being “kept in camps in inhumane conditions.”

The State Department has after all decided to explain the difference in its approaches to the situation in Gaza and Ukraine in the way that yesterday’s hegemon considers, rather than in accordance with the generally accepted laws of international law. Thus, the deputy head of the State Department’s press service, Vedant Patel, responded to a journalist’s question about the difference in the approaches of the US authorities to the situation in the Gaza Strip and the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. The official said that Washington sees no grounds to accuse Israel of genocide of Palestinians, and “one should be very careful when making such statements.” At the same time, when Patel was asked why US President Joe Biden “very quickly” called the events in Ukraine “genocide” in 2022, the State Department official could not give more specific explanations. He only noted that “such definitions must be made with a careful consideration of the law and the facts”, without specifying which facts he had in mind. He simply did not have a reasonable answer, and in the current circumstances he did not dare to say that this was Washington’s wish and favourable.

Incidentally, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said earlier that international law must be respected in all conflicts. This is a correct observation, but according to the Secretary General’s personal interpretation, the conflicts in the Gaza Strip and Ukraine have differences. And he personally believes that Israel, which destroys peaceful Palestinians, strictly observes international law, while Russia, which fights against the neo-Nazi regime in Kiev only on the battlefields, violates this law. Apparently, in Stoltenberg’s “enlightened” opinion, Russia will respect international law only when it, like Israel, destroys the peaceful population of our brother nation. A strange opinion worthy of a schizophrenic from a psychiatric hospital. On this occasion, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called the statement by the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, about the “senselessness of humanitarian aid supplies to the Gaza Strip” if hostilities continue there an apologetic of transhumanism. She asked her colleague whether he also considered it pointless to provide medical assistance and love “someone who will die tomorrow”. There was, of course, no reply.

The accusations against the Russian side on the subject of “indiscriminate strikes” against Ukrainian cities can best be assessed by comparing “two realities” – the situation in Ukraine and in the Gaza Strip. In this regard, we can recommend that opponents go to the Internet and familiarise themselves with Ukrainian news or watch local TV channels. On Ukrainian websites one can easily find a large number of reports on club and restaurant life in such cities as Kiev, Kharkov, Odessa, Dnepropetrovsk and others. Ukrainian state institutions and other municipal buildings are functioning normally almost everywhere, transport continues to operate, schools and hospitals are open. This situation can be observed almost two years after Russia launched a special operation aimed at protecting the population of Donbas from the neo-Nazi regime in Kyiv. All of this shows, as has been repeatedly confirmed by independent observers, that the Russian Armed Forces are conducting exclusively precision strikes against military facilities and infrastructure related to military capabilities. This policy is in sharp contrast to the crimes against humanity committed by the neo-Nazi regime in Kyiv, which is deliberately firing Western-made missiles at civilians in Donbas. And there are numerous facts and evidence to this effect, which at the very least would make for a new Nuremberg process.

The current leaders of the West should look at what their lackey Israel is doing in the Gaza Strip, which for three months now has sought to raze the territory and destroy the Palestinians living there. Not only have hospitals and schools been burned to the ground, but entire towns have been destroyed, and the death toll, including a large number of children, is appalling. And all this is happening before the eyes of the world in the 21st century, to the hooting and applause of the Biden administration and the current rulers of Europe, who have finally lost shame, conscience and simple human compassion. “Comparing these two realities, ask yourself a question: how many times have you condemned the methodical annihilation of peaceful Palestinians?” – noted Russia’s UN representative Nebenzya, when asking Western representatives whether they had ever supported calls for a ceasefire in the Middle East conflict, whether they had condemned Israel’s anti-human crimes. The answer would be only negative. Not only has the West done nothing to stop Israel’s current massacre of Palestinian civilians, it has encouraged them even more by supplying the latest lethal weapons, financially pumping in huge sums of money and defending them on the international stage. Suffice it to say that the US representative at the UN has twice vetoed Security Council resolutions to stop the deadly slaughter in the Gaza Strip, unleashing the Israeli military for even more atrocious crimes, rightly assessed by the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

In the current circumstances, when the former hegemon has lost its power and authority, it has to resort more and more to hypocrisy and double standards to somehow camouflage its bankrupt policy. But no matter how hard the West, led by the U.S., tries, they will no longer be able to fundamentally influence events in the world. And the events in Ukraine, where Russia is successfully conducting a special military operation to protect the Russian population, and the bloody events in the Gaza Strip are the best evidence of this.

Victor MIKHIN is a Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences.

February 15, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Progressive Hypocrite | , , , | Leave a comment

US spies behind ‘Russiagate’ conspiracy – report

US President Barack Obama and CIA Director John Brennan, December 14, 2012 in Washington, DC. ©  Pete Souza / The White House via Getty Images
RT | February 14, 2024

The US intelligence community inappropriately used foreign allies to target Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s campaign to set up the ‘Russiagate’ conspiracy ahead of the 2016 election, according to a trio of investigative journalists.

Michael Shellenberger, Matt Taibbi and Alex Gutentag – of ‘Twitter Files’ fame – published the first part of an investigation on Tuesday, in which they claim the so-called ‘Five Eyes’ were operationalized against Trump staffers, citing anonymous sources close to the House Intelligence Committee.

According to their report, President Barack Obama’s CIA Director, John Brennan, had sent America’s partners – the UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand – a list of 26 Trump associates to target with data collection, misinformation and manipulation.

The Russiagate conspiracy involved multiple failures across western media networks to critically assess US intelligence claims that Russia had interfered in the 2016 US presidential election. A 2018 Pulitzer prize was awarded to Washington Post and New York Times journalists for their reporting on what was later to exposed as a false story.

“They were making contacts and bumping Trump people going back to March 2016,” said a committee source. “They were sending people around the UK, Australia, Italy — the Mossad in Italy. MI6 was working at an intelligence school they had set up,” the journalists claim.

Officially, the FBI only started looking into the Trump campaign that summer, after an Australian diplomat reportedly overheard an aide mention Russia. If confirmed, these findings would demonstrate that the US intelligence community had worked for months before that to set up just such a pretext.

In a statement to the investigative journalists, the FBI said it had made “missteps” in the 2016 and 2017 investigation of the Trump campaign, but has since implemented reforms to prevent it from happening again.

“The allegations that GCHQ was asked to conduct ‘wiretapping’ against the then president-elect are nonsense,” a spokesman for the British surveillance agency said. “They are utterly ridiculous and should be ignored.” Shellenberger, Taibbi and Gutentag said they had never asked the GCHQ about “wiretapping.”

According to Shellenberger, there is a “10-inch binder” containing previously unknown documents about the intelligence community’s surveillance of the Trump campaign. The 45th US president had ordered these documents declassified, but they went missing instead. In a Fox News appearance on Tuesday evening, Shellenberger suggested the FBI’s August 2022 raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort may have been related to the missing binder.

After the US intelligence community created a pretext for investigating Trump for ‘ties to Russia,’ they spied on his campaign – and then his presidency – using a falsely obtained FISA warrant. The warrant was based on the ‘Steele dossier,’ a file compiled by a British spy in the pay of Hillary Clinton’s campaign, through several intermediaries. The FBI knew the dossier was false as early as January 2017, but continued using the FISA warrant for almost a year thereafter.

The FBI lawyer who altered evidence to obtain the warrant, Kevin Clinesmith, ended up sentenced to probation and his law license has since been restored.

February 14, 2024 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Deception, Fake News, Mainstream Media, Warmongering, Russophobia, Timeless or most popular | , , , | Leave a comment

CIA Had Foreign Allies Spy On Trump Team, Triggering Russia Collusion Hoax, Sources Say

By Michael Shellenberger, Matt Taibbi, and Alex Gutentag | Public | February 13, 2024

Last year, John Durham, a special prosecutor for the Department of Justice (DOJ), concluded that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) should never have opened its investigation of alleged collusion by then-presidential candidate Donald J. Trump and Russia in late July of 2016.

Now, multiple credible sources tell Public and Racket that the United States Intelligence Community (IC), including the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), illegally mobilized foreign intelligence agencies to target Trump advisors long before the summer of 2016.

The new information fills many gaps in our understanding of the Russia collusion hoax and is supported by testimony already in the public record.

Until now, the official story has been that the FBI’s investigation began after Australian intelligence officials told US officials that a Trump aide had boasted to an Australian diplomat that Russia had damning material about Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

In truth, the US IC asked the “Five Eyes” intelligence alliance to surveil Trump’s associates and share the intelligence they acquired with US agencies, say sources close to a House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HSPCI) investigation. The Five Eyes nations are the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

After Public and Racket had been told that President Barack Obama’s CIA Director, John Brennan, had identified 26 Trump associates for the Five Eyes to target, a source confirmed that the IC had “identified [them] as people to ‘bump,’ or make contact with or manipulate. They were targets of our own IC and law enforcement — targets for collection and misinformation.”

Unknown details about the FBI’s investigation of the Trump campaign and raw intelligence related to the IC’s surveillance of the Trump campaign are in a 10-inch binder that Trump ordered to be declassified at the very end of his term, sources told Public and Racket.

If the top-secret documents exist proving these charges, they are potentially proof that multiple US intelligence officials broke laws against spying and election interference.

“They were making contacts and bumping Trump people going back to March 2016,” a source close to the investigation said. “They were sending people around the UK, Australia, Italy — the Mossad in Italy. The MI6 was working at an intelligence school they had set up.”

The IC, a source said, considered the 26 Trump campaign people identified to “bump” or “reverse target,” or manipulate through confidential human sources (CHSs), to be easy marks because of their relative inexperience.

Doing so was illegal, both because US law prohibits such intelligence gathering unless authorized by a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant and because the weaponization of the IC for political purposes constitutes election interference.

…

Subscribers to Public substack can read the full report here…

February 14, 2024 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Deception | , , , | Leave a comment

US ‘security threat’ revelations prompt panic

RT | February 14, 2024

The US is facing a “serious national security threat” that requires action from the White House, the head of the House Intelligence Committee said on Wednesday. The exact nature of the alleged threat has not been revealed.

Mike Turner, an Ohio Republican, has sent a letter to all members of Congress about an urgent matter “with regard to a destabilizing foreign military capability.” The House Intelligence Committee voted on Tuesday to make certain information available to lawmakers between Wednesday and Friday this week, he said.

Turner also called on President Joe Biden to declassify “all information relating to this threat.”

What exactly the threat might entail, Turner did not say. CNN cited two anonymous sources and an unnamed US official to claim it was “related to Russia.” One of the sources, who has allegedly viewed the intelligence Turner provided, described it as “a highly concerning and destabilizing” Russian capability “that we were recently made aware of.”

A Fox News correspondent cited a Pentagon source to claim the threat “has to do with space.”

Answering questions from reporters on Wednesday afternoon, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said he had been trying to schedule a meeting of top lawmakers for Thursday when Turner went public with the existence of the “threat.”

“I’m not in a position to say anything further from this podium at this time,” Sullivan said when asked about the alleged threat.

Numerous social media commentators have pointed out the uncanny coincidence that the supposed “security threat” was announced just after the US Senate passed a $95 billion foreign aid bill – about two thirds of which was earmarked for Ukraine – and amid the pressure on the House of Representatives to do the same. Turner is a vocal proponent of funding Kiev.

The White House and most US media outlets have consistently denigrated Russia’s military capabilities and insisted that Ukraine is “winning” the conflict thanks to the ongoing support of the West.

According to NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, the alleged threat was announced because “the White House and Intel Committee felt a need to scare Members of Congress into line for a certain set of controversial pro-war and/or surveillance votes” that are coming up.

February 14, 2024 Posted by | Mainstream Media, Warmongering, Russophobia | | Leave a comment

US Dictating to its “Ally” Kenya and Creating Biased Vistas of Global Events

By Simon Chege Ndiritu – New Eastern Outlook – 14.02.2024 

Democracy is (or should be) a form of government in which policy decisions are influenced by the Majority of the population. However, this is not what Washington has been doing with its ally Kenya. An article published in the East African (here) ran a revealing title, “US pushes Nairobi into anti-Houthi campaign as EA peer steer clear.” The heading reveals that Washington is influencing Kenya’s policy instead of the citizens doing so. In addition to this push, the US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin proceeded to announce that Kenya was working with the US to address the Red Sea and Ukraine crises; was he also speaking for Kenya? January 2024 article by CNBC (here) also admitted to Washington’s coercion of allies and urged change to ‘persuasion’ but apparently in vain. From the foregoing, there is no democracy in Washington’s camp as allies are forced to adopt an American-fashioned tunnel vision.

US Modus Operandi; Lying and Bribing

Amidst ongoing crises in the international arena, one would expect all governments to seek balanced information as a basis for sound policy, but Washington and its allies are pursuing the formers’ failed strategies, concerning the ongoing war in Ukraine, Israeli-Gaza war, and US-Houthis standoff in the Red Sea. Kenya’s populace has no interest in these wars which Washington created. Therefore, the Kenyan government should let the US address its misadventures in the interest of democracy. Kenya, as the so-called US ally is unwilling or unable to stand against Washington’s dictations, and instead amplify Washington’s talking points, and interests while omitting or denying inconvenient truths concerning the Haiti, the Red Sea, Palestine, and Ukraine.

The Kenyan Government experiences backlash at home after agreeing to send 1000 police officers to Haiti, after probably being bribed by Washington. The High Court of Kenya had ruled such deployment illegal (here) as the Kenyan constitution does not envision the police service being deployed outside the republic. One scholar, who also sat on the committee that drafted the new constitution, questioned the wisdom of sending police service to other countries while Kenya experiences a shortage (here). He noted that Kenya’s ratio of the police to citizenry fell below the UN recommendation, which made Washington’s request to Kenya, allegedly through the UN, misguided. He also noted Washington’s financial inducement of Kenya Shillings 14 billion, (here) which shows that when Washington is not misrepresenting the truth, it is bribing clients state to follow along with unpopular and illegal policies. This cannot be democracy and must be called out for what it is; Washington’s political meddling.

US Deceitful stand on Houthis

On 7th February 2024, the US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin announced that Kenya had joined other nations to defend the Red Sea from Houthi rebels and to assist Ukraine. Ukraine and the Red Sea crises have become another of Washington’s sideshows to distract allies’ attention away from their interests, and instead join the US to pursue its increasingly failing prospect of global domination. Citizen’s interests are set aside, such that Lloyd Austin, an American citizen with no role in the Kenyan government was announcing to Kenyans, hence extending the American dictatorship from coercing to talking for allies; the American democracy for you. In Austin’s company was Kenya’s Defense Cabinet Secretary, Adan Duale, (a devout Muslim who in the past even clashed with the chief Kadhi and purported to know matters of moon sighting better than the head of this religious group) was not bothered by how Austin’s policy was genociding Palestinian Muslims, and that Houthis were only trying to help fellow Muslims. Instead, Duale was willing to view the evolving crises through Washington’s tunnel vision that focuses solely on the Houthis and conceals Israel’s and the US’s illegal actions in Gaza, Lebanon, or Iraq.

Supporting Ukraine

Washington is openly meddling in Kenyan politics and illegally influencing policy towards Ukraine, noting that the Kenyan parliament has never debated the subject. Most Kenyans do not think the matter is a priority, as it has not been featured in the media or social media as being important to the masses. Despite this, Lloyd Austin, as seen earlier, announced Kenya’s support for Ukraine’s Contact Group, of about 50 countries that have stopped minding their business and followed Washington’s lead. I highly doubt whether the Kenyan government can provide any meaningful assistance to Ukraine if all the backing from the US and EU is counting to naught. Supporting Ukraine is another tunnel vision that the Kenyan Government has chosen to follow, as opposed to letting Washington address its imperial overreach alone. The US meddled in Ukraine’s political affairs from as early back as 2004 (here) and continued to 2014 precipitating a coup. The coup brought leaders handpicked by Victoria Nuland to power, as can be noted in her leaked phone call to the then-US ambassador to Ukraine, Mr. Geoffrey Pyatt (here). Therefore, all the responsibility for the atrocities committed by Ukraine’s regime handpicked by the US should be left to Washington to address. Kenya and other countries should let Ukraine and Washington face a Russia’s response for committing atrocities against Russian-speaking Ukrainians in the east and the south of Ukraine since 2014. Instead, Washington’s allies and vassals are being led to bankrupt themselves supporting its overindulgence and misadventure that will also not change the course of the war.

Washington Attempts to erase the Genocide in Gaza?

Washington and its Disciples in Nairobi are disregarding the reality that they are the course of the problem, and that Houthis only resulted to attacking Israeli-bound vessels after Washington-backed Israel declined to lift its medieval blockade against Gazans. Houthis also attacked US vessels in retaliation after the US and UK bombed Yemen. Evidence is seen here; on December 9th, 2023, the Houthis threatened to target all vessels headed to Israel, if Israel did not lift its blockade against Gaza and allow food and medicine in. The group had not attacked any vessels, but Washington and Israel decided to ignore the warning, probably knowing they would lie to their client regimes to target Houthis instead of obeying the international law. Despite the Preliminary ICJ’s ruling ordering Israel to stop Genocide against Palestinians (here), and media reports that close to 30,000 Gazans have been killed, the US and its allies are conveniently omitting this reality in their policy as seen in the excerpt by Kenya concerning Houthis action “We condemn these attacks and demand an end to them. We also underscore that those who supply the Houthis with the weapons to conduct these attacks are violating UN Security Council Resolution 2216 and international law” (here). The statement strips all the context from the event while trying to spin the matter to deny justice to Palestinians, and Justifying Washington’s savage attacks on Yemen. The US is violating international law and enlisting its client states to follow it, while ignoring its role in supporting Israeli genocide against Gazans. If there was any democracy in Washington’s camp, participants would have stopped the genocide, but that is not the case.

 

Simon Chege Ndiritu is a political observer and research analyst from Africa.

February 14, 2024 Posted by | Corruption, Deception | , | Leave a comment

Biden will not ‘punish Israel’ for civilian massacre in Rafah: Report

The Cradle | February 14, 2024

The White House has no “reprimand plans” in the works to punish Israel if its army launches a ground invasion into the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, where 1.4 million Palestinians are taking shelter after forcible displacement.

“Israeli forces could enter the city and harm civilians without facing American consequences,” POLITICO reports, citing three US officials speaking on condition of anonymity.

Measuring about 64 square kilometers in size, Rafah is severely overcrowded, with hundreds of thousands of civilians who fled there after the Israeli army designated the city a “safe zone” in its ongoing genocide campaign.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plans to stage a land assault on Rafah, as he announced over the past several days, where he claims the “last four battalions” of Hamas’ armed wing are entrenched.

“We’re going to do it while providing safe passage for the civilian population so they can leave,” Netanyahu said in an interview with US outlet ABC News on Sunday. The premier, however, failed to specify where such a large number of displaced civilians could evacuate, stating only that Tel Aviv is “working out a detailed plan.” He alleged that “there are plenty of areas” north of Rafah despite the Israeli army having flattened most buildings and infrastructure in that region.

US President Joe Biden reportedly told Netanyahu on Sunday that an attack on Rafah should not be launched “without a credible and executable plan for ensuring the safety of and support for the more than one million people sheltering there,” yet he did not oppose the operation.

Hours later, bombs rained down on Rafah, killing over 100 civilians.

Over recent weeks, western media has been awash with reports that Biden is growing “frustrated” with Netanyahu, even using “disparaging terms” to refer to the Israeli premier and holding discussions about the “day after” Netanyahu.

Nevertheless, public statements by White House officials make it abundantly clear there will be no change in approach to US–Israel relations.

Newly-minted US National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby told reporters on Monday that the White House will “continue to support Israel … And we’re going to continue to make sure they have the tools and the capabilities” to continue military operations.

Asked on Wednesday what the US response would be to a ground invasion of Rafah without concern for civilian safety, Kirby refused to respond, saying, “I’m not going to get into a hypothetical game.” The senior US official has also come under fire for saying the Israeli military is doing a “better job at protecting civilians in Gaza” than their US counterparts would.

Furthermore, as international calls grow for Washington to cut arms deliveries to Israel, earlier this month, US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, Barbara Leaf, made it clear Washington has no plans to do such a thing.

“In a word, no – we are not contemplating that,” Leaf told reporters during a digital press briefing when asked if the White House is contemplating a reduction in the pace of arms deliveries to Israel.

In addition to fueling the mass murder of nearly 30,000 Palestinians in Gaza, the US has also provided political cover for Israel. Most recently, it threatened to review its ties with South Africa after Pretoria took Tel Aviv to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on charges of genocide.

February 14, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , | Leave a comment

When courts intervene: halting the transfer of vital military equipment to Israel

By Dr Binoy Kampmark | MEMO | February 14, 2024

Legal challenges regarding the Israel-Palestine War in Gaza are starting to fill lawyers’ briefcases and courtroom proceedings. South Africa got matters underway with its December application before the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of genocide in its campaign against the Palestinians. While determining whether genocide has taken place, the ICJ issued an interim order warning Israel to prevent genocidal acts, preserve evidence relevant to the prosecution of any such acts, and ease the crushing restrictions on humanitarian aid.

In the United States, a valiant effort was made in the US District Court for the Northern District of California to restrain the Biden administration from aiding Israel’s war efforts. The application, filed by the New York-based Centre for Constitutional Rights, argued that President Joseph Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin had made genocidal conditions possible “because of unconditional support given [to Israel] by the named official-capacity defendants in this case.”

The troubled judge, while citing the convention that foreign policy could not be the subject of a court’s jurisdiction, nonetheless implored Biden and his officials to observe the obligations of the UN Genocide Convention. As, “The undisputed evidence before this Court comports with the finding of the ICJ and indicates that the current treatment of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip by the Israeli military may plausibly constitute a genocide in violation of international law,” declared Justice Jeffrey S. White.

A Dutch appeals court in The Hague has further added its name to this growing list of legal interventions. In siding with the human rights groups making the application, including Oxfam Novib, Judge Bas Boele had no qualms about questioning government policy towards Israel and the shipping of parts vital for its F-35 fighter jets. While the Netherlands does not assemble or produce the F-35, it hosts at least one storage facility at Woensdrecht, where US-made components are stored in advance of onward shipping to various countries.

Despite the ongoing conflict in Gaza, which commenced after the Hamas cross-border incursion on 7 October, the Dutch government had not discontinued deliveries of such parts under a permit granted in 2016. This was despite the monumentally lethal nature of a war that has killed at least 28,100 Palestinians — most of them children and women — and the ICJ decision.

The lower court had, in a similar vein to its US counterparts, adopted the position that decisions regarding export permits of weapon components tended to be of a political and policy nature, warranting wide executive latitude. The judge duly held that the Minister of Foreign Trade and Cooperation had weighed up the relevant interests in the case in deciding to continue with the exports.

Such an artificial distinction – one which finds that political acts that may lead to complicity in genocide are protected from, if not above, legal challenge – was not persuasive enough for the higher court. “It is undeniable that there is a clear risk that the exported F-35 parts are used in serious violations of international humanitarian law,” the appeals court found. “Israel does not take sufficient account of the consequences for the civilian population when conducting its attacks.” Indeed, such attacks had “resulted in a disproportionate number of civilian casualties [in Gaza].”

It followed that, “The Netherlands is obliged to prohibit the export of military goods if there is a clear risk of serious violations of international humanitarian law.” The export and transit of all F-35 parts with Israel as their final destination would cease within seven days of the court’s decision.

In responding to the ruling, Oxfam Novib Executive Director Michiel Servaes called it “an important step to force the Dutch government to adhere to international law, which the Netherlands has strongly advocated for in the past. Israel has just launched an attack against the city of Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s population are sheltering; the Netherlands must take immediate steps.”

Immediate steps have duly been taken, but not along the lines advocated by Oxfam.

The Dutch government is appealing to the country’s Supreme Court to return to the status quo. It was always likely to happen and was timed to coincide with the 12 February visit by Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. “In the government’s view,” explained the official statement, “the distribution of American F-35 parts is not unlawful. The government believes it is up to the State to determine its foreign policy.”

The statement goes on to reveal the sheer scope of the F-35 supply programme and its relevance to the Dutch defence industry. Whatever the humanitarian considerations about the devastation caused by Israel’s F-35 fighters, no participant wants to miss out. “The government will do everything it can to convince allies and partners that the Netherlands remains a reliable partner in the F-35 project and in European and international defence cooperation.”

Being part of the programme is also, apparently, vital to the country’s own security, and that of Israel’s, “in particular with regard to threats emanating from the region, for instance from Iran, Yemen, Syria and Lebanon.”

The Palestinian civilians hardly figured in these considerations, although Gaza warranted the briefest of mentions. “The Netherlands continues to call for an immediate temporary humanitarian ceasefire, and for as much humanitarian aid as possible to be allowed to reach the suffering people of Gaza. The situation is extremely serious. It is clear that international humanitarian law applies in full and Israel, too, must abide by it.”

As, indeed, Israel implausibly claims to be doing, even as the bombs continue to be dropped, the people continue to starve and the graves continue to be filled.

February 14, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

Moody’s Downgrades Israel, Warns That Weaker US Backing for Israel, War with Hezbollah Would Trigger Crash

By John Helmer – Dances with Bears – February 11, 2024

Twice already the warning of the obvious has been posted in the money markets — Israel cannot survive a long war with the Arabs and Iran.

In this long war, the gods do not favour the Chosen People, it was reported on October 27, three weeks after the Hamas offensive began. The decline in Israel’s export earnings from tourism and diamonds; the loss of imported supplies for manufacturing and consumption from the Houthi blockade of the Red Sea; and increasing risk to both imports and exports at the Mediterranean ports within range of Hamas and Hezbollah strikes were identified at that time.

The international ratings agencies, Moody’s, Fitch and Standard and Poors, postponed announcing the obvious for as long as they could.

In attrition war, on the economic front just like the Gaza and other fire fronts, the Axis of Resistance wins by maintaining its offensive capacities and operations for longer than the US and US-backed Israeli forces can defend. Like troops, tanks, and artillery pieces, the operational goal is to grind the enemy slowly but surely into retreat, then capitulation. Last week, Moody’s had already decided in-house to downgrade Israel; for several days senior management fended off a ferocious attack from Israeli officials and their supporters in the US trying to compel postponement of the downgrade and the analytical report substantiating it.

On February 6, in a review of the shekel, bond, credit default swaps (CDS), budget deficit, and other indicators, the conclusion was there could be no stopping the money markets from moving against Israel. Negative ratings from the agencies raise the cost of servicing Israel’s state and corporate bonds, and put pressure on the state budget. A ratings downgrade is a signal to the markets to go negative against the issuer – this usually comes after the smart money has changed its mind and direction. In Israel’s case, however, there has been an exceptional delay between negative outlook and downgrade. The last Fitch report on Israel was dated October 17; Moody’s followed on October 19; Standard & Poors (S&P) on October 24.

That Israeli and US tactics had forced postponement of new reports from the troika was obvious. A fresh warning was published on this website: as real estate and other tax collections collapse, Israel will have to make a large cash call on the US. This is going to come in the near future, just as the government in Kiev has been forced into calling on Congress as the Ukraine war is being lost. The longer both wars are protracted, the more obviously the loss of confidence expresses itself in Washington.

Moody’s has now caught up. According to the Israeli press, this is the first credit and currency downgrade in their country’s history.

In a report dated last Friday but not issued until Saturday, the Jewish sabbath, the agency officially reduced Israel’s rating from A1 to A2, and added pointers of further downgrading to come. The Anglo-American press immediately reacted against Moody’s. “Israel hits back”, the Financial Times headlined. The newspaper added: “[Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu, in a rare statement over the Jewish Sabbath, said: ‘The rating downgrade is not connected to the economy, it is entirely due to the fact that we are in a war. The rating will go back up the moment we win the war — and we will win the war.’” In the Associated Press report, “Israel’s finance minister blasts Moody’s downgrade”. Rupert Murdoch’s platform Fox claimed: “Israel has a strong, open economy despite Moody’s downgrade”. “Israel’s creditworthiness remains high,” according to the New York Times, “but the rating agency noted that the outlook for the country was negative… A rating of A2 is still a high rating.”

The press release version of Moody’s report is republished verbatim so that its meaning can be understood without the propaganda.

Three points have been missed in the Anglo-American counterattack and Israeli government’s bluster. The first is the warning that Israel will soon have to request enormous cash backing from the US, and if there is any sign of weakening on that in Washington, the collapse of the Israeli economy and its capacity to continue its war is inevitable. The Moody’s report camouflaged the point this way: “The related issuances benefit from an irrevocable, on-demand guarantee provided by the Government of the United States of America (Aaa negative) with the government acting through USAID. The notes benefit explicitly from ‘the full faith and credit of the US’ and as per prospectus, USAID is obligated to pay within three business days if the guarantee is called upon.”

The second point strikes at announcements from Israel Defence Forces (IDF) generals and Netanyahu of their plan to expand their operations on the northern front – the Litani River ultimatum they called it in December. According to Moody’s report, “downside risks remain at the A2 rating level. In particular, the risk of an escalation involving Hezbollah in the North of Israel remains, which would have a potentially much more negative impact on the economy than currently assumed under Moody’s baseline scenario. Government finances would also be under more intense pressure in such a scenario.”

The third point is the most explosive. After cutting Israel’s rating to A2, Moody’s warned that further and deeper downgrades may follow, but that there is presently no way the ratings agency can predict what will happen next. “The ongoing military conflict with Hamas, its aftermath and wider consequences materially raise political risk for Israel as well as weaken its executive and legislative institutions and its fiscal strength, for the foreseeable future.”

In flagging those last four words – “for the foreseeable future” — Moody’s has told the markets that the strategic initiative in this war has now passed to the Axis of Resistance. Of course, the Arabs and Iranians already know. … Full article 

February 14, 2024 Posted by | Economics, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , , | Leave a comment

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