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Pfizer Deliberately Deceived Regulators About SV40 Contamination of COVID Shots, Scientist Says

By Brenda Baletti, Ph.D. | The Defender | October 25, 2023

Did Pfizer deliberately deceive regulators about contamination of its COVID-19 vaccine? Yes, according to Kevin McKernan, chief scientific officer and founder of Medicinal Genomics.

Appearing on CHD.TV with Children’s Health Defense (CHD) President Mary Holland and Brian Hooker, Ph.D., CHD’s senior director of science and research, McKernan explained how Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine is contaminated with plasmid DNA, which should not be present in an mRNA vaccine.

He said this raises concerns that the plasmid DNA could lead to cancers or autoimmune issues in some vaccine recipients.

McKernan said that annotating Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine sequence with a simple online tool — which any trained person can do — reveals the presence of DNA from simian virus 40 (SV40).

But in the data it gave to regulators, Pfizer deleted the annotation of the SV40 DNA and did not disclose its presence. That deletion, McKernan said, shows “intent to deceive.”

This raises serious questions about the vaccine’s safety that must be investigated, McKernan said. It also suggests major problems with the mRNA vaccine regulatory process.

After McKernan’s lab made its findings public, and other researchers confirmed them, Health Canada also confirmed that the Pfizer vaccine contains this DNA. However, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has neither confirmed nor denied the presence of these billions of plasmid DNA fragments in Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine.

The FDA told reporter Maryanne Demasi, Ph.D., who questioned the agency on the issue, that it remains “confident in the quality, safety, and effectiveness of these vaccines.”

McKernan and his team stumbled accidentally on what Holland called an “incredibly important finding” when they used the RNA from the Pfizer vaccine — which they assumed was a functional pharmaceutical grade RNA — as a control to test the RNA purification system they were using in other work the lab was conducting.

In the process, they tested vaccines and found that instead of only containing mRNA, the Pfizer vaccines also contained DNA plasmids — small, circular, double-stranded DNA molecules distinct from a cell’s chromosomal DNA.

How did the contaminant DNA get into the vaccines?

McKernan explained that to synthesize the RNA for the vaccines, labs use a process called “in vitro transcription” whereby an RNA-making enzyme called an RNA polymerase uses a DNA template to synthesize RNA molecules.

“It’s like the ink for your Xerox machine,” McKernan said.

But the DNA first has to be amplified. For the clinical trials, Pfizer amplified the DNA using PCR (polymerase chain reaction), a method it called “Process 1.” McKernan said this process is ideal because it amplifies the DNA a millionfold. As a result, “There’s no residual background. You get a really clean piece of DNA that you can make your RNA from.”

But to scale up the process to mass produce vaccines for the public, McKernan said, Pfizer did a “bait-and-switch,” producing the vaccines using “Process 2.”

Process 2 includes “changes to the DNA template used to transcribe the RNA and the purification phase, as well as the manufacturing process of the lipid nanoparticles,” Josh Gueztkow and Retsef Levin wrote in a letter, published in the BMJ, which raised concerns with the process.

For Process 2, rather than amplifying DNA with PCR to make the template, vaccine makers amplified the DNA by plugging it into a bacterial plasmid vector, which uses E. coli for rapid amplification, but runs the risk of introducing sequences not present in the initial DNA, McKernan said.

This creates a practically infinite supply of DNA much more cheaply and easily than using PCR, he added.

But this DNA template comes with additional risk because the DNA of the plasmid used to create the template has to be removed from the vaccine before it can be injected into people.

He said it is clear the vaccine makers tried to get rid of that DNA by “chewing it up with an enzyme” called deoxyribonuclease, or DNase, which breaks down DNA, but they failed to eliminate it completely.

Why didn’t the DNA-destroying enzymes eliminate the DNA?

McKernan told Holland and Hooker the DNase failed to fully eliminate the contaminant DNA fragments from the vaccines delivered to the market because of the modifications they made to the RNA in order to make the mRNA vaccines function, and because of “blind spots” in how they measured the amount of residual DNA.

To make the mRNA vaccines work the way they wanted to, the vaccine designers had to make the RNA slightly more durable than usual, he said.

DNA, he said, is like a hard drive — it’s a long-lived form of information storage. RNA is temporary — like the task manager of the programs that are opening and closing on the hard drive.

Those programs and the RNA itself, get turned on and off. For RNA, an enzyme called RNase functions as an on/off switch.

The makers of the mRNA vaccines added a nucleotide, N1-Methylpseudouridine, that stopped the RNA from turning off right away so it would remain present to ensure the spike protein was produced “long enough to matter,” McKernan said.

That made the RNA “extraordinarily sticky,” so when the RNA polymerase copies the RNA off of the DNA template, it accidentally makes some RNA-DNA hybrids, a triple helix.

In that context, the DNase enzyme that was supposed to get rid of the template DNA can’t function properly.

McKernan said it was likely that the vaccine developers didn’t anticipate that would happen and they would therefore need to develop different enzymes.

“I think with the Warp Speed program, they didn’t really have time to investigate this,” he said.

The second reason the DNA is still there, he said, is because of the tools Pfizer used to measure the DNA and the RNA. Pfizer could measure them both with a single tool, called fluorometry, which can identify very tiny pieces of DNA and RNA.

But, he said, instead Pfizer is using fluorometry only for the RNA, which will give the vaccine developers inflated numbers, and the vaccine maker is using a different tool, called qPCR for the DNA, which can’t identify such small pieces of DNA and so will produce deflated numbers.

“They are playing some games” with these measuring tools, McKernan said, because regulators will want them to have high RNA numbers and low DNA numbers — and by measuring RNA and DNA with different tools, that’s exactly what they get.

That, he said, suggests “intent to deceive.”

What’s in the DNA and why should we be concerned?

Hooker asked McKernan to explain what “is hiding” in this remnant DNA and why people should be concerned.

McKernan said “hiding” was an apt term, because Pfizer gave the whole sequence to the regulators, but only annotated certain parts of it, which allowed it to hide some of the contents.

He said anyone can plug the sequence into a standard annotation software tool like SnapGene, and it automatically annotates the entire sequence — and he wrote a Substack post showing people how to do this.

He also showed Holland and Hooker a side-by-side comparison of the software’s annotation and Pfizer’s annotation, and he showed them where a key annotation was missing in Pfizer’s regulatory submission.

McKernan said that annotation marked the location of the fragments of SV40 virus— which Pfizer used as the necessary promoter and enhancer to drive gene transcription during the vaccine manufacturing process.

Someone had to delete those annotations before giving them to the regulators, he said.

SV40 is controversial because it was an artifact of the live polio vaccine and some experts say it is a cancer risk due to potential integration with the human genome.

To really understand the possible risks, McKernan said, more data have to be collected.

“We have a lot of reasons to believe this is a bad idea. They don’t need this DNA in there. They didn’t tell the regulators about it.”

He added:

“So all of that is a train wreck. If you’re putting in 200 billion of these molecules per shot and you’re doing them five times a year … I don’t know how many times people are taking them, but if you think of your schedule, you should be past your fifth by now. So there’s a cumulative dosing problem here. There’s a high number of these fragments in there.”

Even though the amount of DNA overall may be small, McKernan said, it has been fragmented into tiny pieces that make it “like a buckshot,” meaning it scatters like a shotgun bullet, hitting a broad area, which makes them “much more potent as integration tools because you have more active ends of DNA.”

Concerns beyond SV40: gene therapy and ‘open reading frames’

The U.S. regulatory structure is completely outdated, McKernan said. The current regulations allow for fairly high quantities of DNA because they are based on the idea that the DNA takes the form of a dead virus.

But mRNA vaccines are bringing these DNA sequences into the body in lipid nanoparticles that target the cell nucleus.

Hooker said, “We were told this [mRNA] would not target the nucleus. Is the nuclear targeting sequence the SV40 enhancer?”

McKernan said it is. In fact, he said, SV40 has been successfully researched as a gene therapy tool.

“There’s just no debate anymore. The plasmids that are in there are gene therapy tools, and they’re injected into billions of people,” he said.

Holland asked, “So not only was there no informed consent for anybody, and this was Emergency Use Authorization, so, by law, they weren’t able to give truly informed consent, but it looks like this was a gene therapy, and people were not told that this was a gene therapy. Is that right?”

“That’s right,” McKernan responded.

Holland asked McKernan whether, now that Health Canada acknowledged the presence of SV40, he thought all governments should take the vaccine off the market until this issue is investigated.

“I would think so,” McKernan said. “If they don’t do this, what are they there for?”

McKernan said he also identified other concerns in Pfizer’s mRNA vaccine sequence.

For example, he showed Holland and Hooker that the sequence contains an Open Reading Frame — a DNA sequence with no “stop codon” or stop signal — that is 1,252 amino acids long on the reverse strand of the spike protein in the Pfizer sequence.

Despite extensive research, he said, he can’t identify what it is. “I don’t know what this does, but I know that this is an artifact of their codon optimization that should not be there and is a massive risk and they should get rid of it.”

Hooker asked what the implications of that might be. McKernan said it was unknown, but regulators should never have let it through because it is “risk with no gain and it’s unnecessary.”

Watch video:

Brenda Baletti Ph.D. is a reporter for The Defender. She wrote and taught about capitalism and politics for 10 years in the writing program at Duke University. She holds a Ph.D. in human geography from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a master’s from the University of Texas at Austin.

This article was originally published by The Defender — Children’s Health Defense’s News & Views Website under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Please consider subscribing to The Defender or donating to Children’s Health Defense.

October 25, 2023 Posted by | Deception, Science and Pseudo-Science, Timeless or most popular, Video | , , | Leave a comment

Campaign against US, UK arms sale to Israel gains further steam across world

Press TV – October 25, 2023

A new campaign to shut down weapons companies in the US and UK over providing arms to the Israeli regime has gained further momentum, expanding across northern America, Europe and Australia.

The campaign, titled Palestine Action, was launched days after Israel waged a large-scale war on Gaza on October 7, which has claimed the lives of thousands of innocent Palestinians, including women and children.

On October 12, the organizers of Palestine Action US took direct action against Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer, Elbit Systems at its so-called “Innovation Center” in the US city of Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Activists blockaded Elbit’s main entrance and defaced the building with red paint and graffiti, rebuking Elbit for profiteering from Israeli war crimes against Palestinians.

“Elbit Systems will not conduct business as usual in our city, while their weapons are mass murdering the Palestinian people right now,” the activists said. “What Israel is doing to Palestine is nothing short of a genocide and Elbit has blood on their hands.”

Elbit’s Cambridge office has since then been targeted multiple times, with activists spraying the building with upper-case slogans that read, “ELBIT PROFITS FROM GENOCIDE,” and “WAR CRIMINALS WORK HERE.”

Data in media reports show Elbit supplies 85% of Israel’s military drone fleet, along with bullets, tear gas, land-based equipment, and internationally banned weapons.

“A child is being murdered every 15 minutes in Palestine,” Palestine Action US said on its website. “These bombing attacks not only serve to ethnically cleanse Gaza but will be used by Elbit to market their arms to repressive regimes around the world. By striking Elbit, we disrupt a crucial link in the military apparatus of Western imperialism.”

In a new development on Wednesday, Palestine Action US said the activists protested against Elbit Systems at Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston and disrupted the Israeli firm’s recruitment process.

“Elbit Systems, you will not find peace ANYWHERE in Boston. We will keep confronting you wherever you show up. Genocide profiteers are not welcome in our city. We will shut you down,” Palestine Action US said in a post on its X social media account.

Palestine Action US also announced in other posts the expansion of the anti-Israel campaign in other countries.

Palestine Action US has called on the international community to recognize the profound terror and grief Palestinians have been experiencing for generations, and move to put an end to the 75-year-long Israeli genocide “still unfolding before our eyes.”

“As long as we allow Elbit to operate in our communities, every one of us has blood on our hands,” it added.

Israel waged war on Gaza on October 7 after Palestinian resistance groups launched Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, a surprise attack into the occupied territories in response to the occupying regime’s intensified crimes against the Palestinian people.

The Israeli attacks on Gaza have targeted places of gathering, including hospitals, schools, mosques and churches, displacing more than one million in the densely-populated region, which is home to more than 2 million people.

According to the Palestinian health ministry, the Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip has so far killed more than 6,000 people and left over 18,000 others wounded.

October 25, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Solidarity and Activism, War Crimes | , , , | Leave a comment

Russia Receives Proposals From US on Arms Control

By Oleg Burunov – Sputnik – 25.10.2023

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov touched upon a spate of pressing issues, including US arms control proposals, Moscow-Tehran cooperation and prisoner exchange.

Russia has received proposals on strategic stability and arms control from the United States that are currently being studied, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told a news briefing earlier in the day.

According to him, there are no new elements in these proposals and Moscow will respond to Washington in due time.

Ryabkov added that the US is “proposing to discuss strategic stability and arms control on a systematic basis” and “in isolation from current events”. The Russian diplomat stressed that Moscow is “not willing to do that.”

“We believe that a return to the dialogue on strategic stability, including the issue of strategic offensive weapons and other issues, is simply impossible in its previous form without a change in the fundamentally hostile attitude of the United States towards Russia,” Ryabkov pointed out.

Russia-Iran Cooperation

Separately, Ryabkov touched on Iran-related issues, saying Russia intends to use the lifting of UN Security Council restrictions on the Islamic Republic’s missile program to develop cooperation.

“We will continue to develop our cooperation on a mutually beneficial basis in full accordance with international obligations and existing regimes in this area. Now, after the expiration of some restrictive provisions of [UN] Resolution 2231, there are fewer such restrictive regimes. Of course, we will take advantage of this, and this should not raise any questions for anyone,” he told reporters.

Moscow cooperates with Iran within a strictly legal framework, the Russian diplomat said, adding that the Kremlin foresees all politicized attempts to prevent this and will try to stop them.

Prisoner Exchange

In addition, Ryabkov commented on a recent statement by the US State Department by saying that the Russian Foreign Ministry had not received any additional proposals from the US on the exchange of prisoners through its channels.

Ryabkov was referring to Washington’s “serious proposal” to Moscow for the release of former US Marine Paul Whelan, who is serving a prison sentence in Russia for espionage.
“The issues of prisoner exchange, or rather, the issues of release of Russian citizens who, in the vast majority of cases, have received long sentences on unjust verdicts and false charges, are being discussed through the special services. The Russian Foreign Ministry has not recently received through its channels any additional ideas or proposals in this regard from the American side,” Ryabkov stated.

“If such proposals are received, they will be forwarded to those involved in the distribution of responsibilities on this issue so that the proposals can be considered. At the moment, there is no news or updates on this issue,” the Russian diplomat added.

Russian authorities charged Whelan with espionage and arrested him in December 2018, he was sentenced to 16 years in prison by a Moscow court. Whelan, who is a citizen of Canada, Ireland, and the United Kingdom, has maintained his innocence, claiming that he came to Russia for a friend’s wedding.

October 25, 2023 Posted by | Militarism | , , , | Leave a comment

Pentagon Report Hypes ‘China Threat’ to Sustain Own Hegemony

By Wang Qi | Global Times | October 20, 2023

The US’ “China Military Power report,” like its previous editions, ignores the facts and is filled with bias, spreading the “China threat” theory which only serves as an excuse to maintain its military hegemony, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Friday, in response to a Pentagon report that warned Beijing is building up its nuclear and long-range missiles arsenal “faster than previous projections.”

The newly-released annual Pentagon document claimed that China has more than 500 operational nuclear warheads as of May 2023, surpassing earlier projections, and forecast that China would likely have more than 1,000 operational nuclear warheads by 2030.

Describing China as a “pacing challenge,” the US Defense Department report also said that Beijing may be exploring the development of conventionally-armed long-range missiles that could reach the US. It said that Beijing has completed the construction of three new fields of long-range ballistic missiles silos.

Mao Ning, a spokesperson from the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said on Friday that China is firmly committed to a defensive nuclear strategy, and has always maintained nuclear forces at the lowest level required for national security, and has no intention of engaging in a nuclear arms race with any country.

China has a unique nuclear policy among nuclear weapon states and has maintained a high degree of stability, consistency and predictability, Mao said, “No country will be threatened by China’s nuclear weapons as long as it does not use or threatens to use them against China.”

We urge the US to abandon its Cold War mentality and hegemonic logic, to view China’s strategic intentions and national defense development objectively and rationally, to stop publishing such irresponsible reports year after year, and to take practical actions to maintain the stability of the military-to-military and overall relations between the two sides, Mao said.

Chinese military expert Zhang Junshe said that it’s hilarious that a country with more than 5,000 nuclear warheads says another nation poses a threat.

In 2020, Fu Cong, then director general of the Department of Arms Control and Disarmament, cited statistics from renowned international think tanks, pointing out that the US nuclear arsenal stands at about 5,800 nuclear warheads.

Even if China does have 500 nuclear warheads, they are not even close to the size of the US’ arsenal. In addition, the number of US strategic nuclear submarines, strategic bombers, and the number of warheads they carry are far higher than any other country in the world, including China, Zhang remarked.

For fiscal year 2024, the US defense budget request hit another record high of $842 billion, more than the gross domestic product of Saudi Arabia for the entire year of 2021, and 20 percent higher than the combined defense budgets of nine countries, including China, Russia, India, and the UK, according to Xinhua.

According to Zhang, the US is developing a new generation of strategic nuclear weapons, including intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), sea-based strategic missiles and airborne nuclear weapons, a new generation of nuclear submarines, and strategic bombers.

In addition, the US is miniaturizing nuclear weapons for so-called tactical use, namely, lowering the threshold for the use of tactical nuclear weapons, Zhang said. “The US is also considering resuming the storage of nuclear weapons in other countries, such as the UK, a Cold War era practice of nuclear sharing with allies.”

The hyping of the “China threat” is nothing but a search for excuses for Washington’s uncontrolled nuclear arsenal expansion, and to discredit and suppress China’s normal military development, so as to maintain absolute military superiority, Zhang said.

‘Undesirable hobby’

The report smeared China’s military modernization as a means of projecting power across the Pacific region and ultimately around the globe, saying China’s strength is growing in all the domains of warfare, including the traditional land, air and sea, as well as nuclear, cyber and space, according to CNN.

The 212-page report also mentioned the word “Taiwan” 261 times, highlighting the Chinese mainland’s “military pressure” against the island.

The US is worried that the increase of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s military capability could pose challenges to US military hegemony, thus affecting the US political hegemony and global hegemony, Chinese military expert and  TV commentator Song Zhongping told the Global Times on Friday.

Given that the report was released ahead of the Beijing Xiangshan Forum, a China-hosted platform on defense and security issues, Chinese analysts believed it was also aimed at entrapping Chinese neighbors, cajoling them to resist and oppose China’s normal military development so that they can be better “utilized” by the US in the Asia-Pacific region.

As the world’s largest nuclear state, the US has not made a commitment not to be the first to use nuclear weapons, as China has done, as well as a commitment not to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear countries and regions. Instead, the US has even been aggressive, emphasizing the pre-emptive use of nuclear forces, according to Zhang.

The nuclear strategy of the US is global in its scope. When it provides nuclear umbrellas and even nuclear sharing to some allies, it poses a serious threat to other countries, and at the same time is extremely destructive to nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation around the world, and ultimately exacerbates regional tensions, Song said.

In July, the US deployed a nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarine to South Korea for the first time since 1980s. North Korea later fired two short-range ballistic missiles into its eastern waters as a response to the “grave provocation,” media reported.

The problem that the US poses to global security is its nuclear superiority and military power, said a Beijing-based expert. “When it comes to the resolution of regional crises, the US is inclined to resort to the use of force, either by itself or through its allies. And the US’ absolute military strength and nuclear power has further encouraged that undesirable hobby.”

“The US, with the largest and most advanced nuclear arsenal in the world, follows a first-use nuclear deterrence policy, keeps making enormous investment to upgrade its nuclear triad, advances forward deployment of strategic forces, and strengthens extended deterrence for its allies,” Mao said. “These policies and acts heighten the risk of a nuclear arms race and nuclear conflict, and will only adversely affect the global strategic security environment.”

October 25, 2023 Posted by | Militarism, Progressive Hypocrite | , | Leave a comment

Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Missouri v. Biden

By Aaron Kheriaty, MD | Human Flourishing | October 24, 2023

The Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments over the Fifth Circuit’s grant of a preliminary injunction in Missouri v. Biden. As I mentioned in previous posts, the injunction would bar officials from the White House, CDC, FBI, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and Surgeon General’s office from coercing or significantly encouraging social media platforms to censor constitutionally protected speech. My fellow plaintiffs and I welcome this opportunity to defend the First Amendment rights of all Americans in the U.S. Supreme Court. We expect to hear from the Court soon regarding the hearing dates—it could be in February or March.

The Fifth Circuit panel of judges last month upheld the key components of U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty’s July 4 preliminary injunction order, prohibiting named federal officials from coercing or significantly encouraging social media companies to suppress legal speech. That decision vindicated our claims that we—and countless other Americans—were blacklisted, shadow-banned, de-boosted, throttled, and suspended on social media as part of the government’s years-long censorship campaign orchestrated by the federal government.

The Biden Administration’s censorship regime has successfully suppressed perspectives contradicting government-approved views on hotly disputed topics such as whether natural immunity to covid exists, the safety and efficacy of Covid-19 vaccines, the virus’s origins, and mask mandate efficacy. Beyond covid, the documents we’ve obtained on discovery demonstrate that the government was also censoring critiques of its foreign policy, monetary policy, election infrastructure, and lightning rod social issues from abortion to gender ideology.

The vast, coordinated, and well-documented effort has silenced influential, highly qualified voices including doctors and scientists like my co-plaintiffs Dr. Bhattacharya and Dr. Kulldorff, as well as those like Jill Hines who have tried to raise awareness of issues. Though the U.S. Supreme Court temporarily stayed the Fifth Circuit’s injunction until they make a ruling, I believe the Justices are ultimately unlikely to permit the egregious First Amendment abridgements our case has exposed.

The Fifth Circuit recognized that the Plaintiffs did “not challenge the social-media platforms’ content-moderation policies.” Rather, Plaintiffs challenged the government’s unlawful efforts to influence “enforcement of those policies.” The government gravely harmed the ability of Americans to convey their views to the public, and it deprived Americans of their right to hear opinions that differ from the government’s. Judge Doughty strikingly described the Administration’s conduct as “arguably the most massive attack against free speech in United States history” and “akin to an Orwellian Ministry of Truth.” He was right, and the U.S. Supreme Court must not permit it.

Here are some reactions to the news from our lawyers at NCLA:

“NCLA is thrilled to have the opportunity to vindicate the First Amendment rights of our clients, and all Americans, in the nation’s highest court. We are confident that after a thorough review of the disturbing facts in this important case—which involves unprecedented government-imposed, viewpoint-based censorship—the Court will recognize the grievous, unconstitutional nature of the government’s conduct and enjoin it.”
— Jenin Younes, Litigation Counsel, NCLA

“We are disappointed Americans’ First Amendment rights will be vulnerable to government infringement until this case is decided. But we are confident this Court, as strong as it is on First Amendment issues, will rule against the government and uphold our clients’ rights and liberties.”
— John Vecchione, Senior Litigation Counsel, NCLA

“If anything, the Fifth Circuit’s decision did not go far enough in enjoining the reprehensible conduct exposed in this case. The facts of this case show government agencies censored speech in a deliberate effort to control the narrative on several controversial topics ahead of the last election. The First Amendment forbids such censorship, and the Supreme Court must never allow such mischief again, if we are to keep our democracy.”
— Mark Chenoweth, President, NCLA

October 24, 2023 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance | , | Leave a comment

Biden sets condition for Gaza ceasefire

MEMO | October 24, 2023

US President Joe Biden has said that it is not possible to talk about a ceasefire in Gaza before the hostages held by the Palestinian resistance groups are released. “We should have those hostages released, and then we can talk,” Biden said in response to a reporter’s question.

Biden also commented on his phone call with Pope Francis in the Vatican, which was announced by the White House on Sunday. He claimed that he and the Roman Catholic Pontiff are on the same page about developments in Israel and Gaza.

“He was very, very interested in what we were doing to deal with some of the crises we’re facing, particularly in Israel this time around. And I laid out to him what the game plan was, how we thought we should be providing the kind of assistance to Israel they needed. And the Pope was across-the-board supportive of what we’re doing.”

Earlier, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told a press conference that the US does not believe it is possible to implement a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip because “any ceasefire will give the ability to rest, to refit, and to get ready to continue launching terrorist attacks against Israel.”

October 24, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , , | Leave a comment

White House readies mass evacuation of US citizens from West Asia: Report

The Cradle | October 24, 2023

Washington is preparing contingencies for a “worst-case scenario” of being forced to evacuate hundreds of thousands of US citizens from West Asia, according to several US officials who spoke with the Washington Post on 23 October.

“[US citizens] living in Israel and neighboring Lebanon are of particular concern,” the officials said. According to State Department data, about 600,000 US citizens were in Israel and another 86,000 in Lebanon when Operation Al-Aqsa Flood was launched.

The contingency plan is being prepared in response to widespread anger over Washington’s blind support for Israel’s genocide campaign of Palestinians in Gaza.

As of 24 October, over 5,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli jets in the coastal enclave – nearly half of them children.

Since the start of the genocide in Gaza, US and Israeli embassies have been targeted by furious protesters across the region demanding an end to the bloodshed. In response, the State Department issued a worldwide travel advisory for US citizens last week, citing “increased tensions in various locations around the world, the potential for terrorist attacks, [and] demonstrations or violent actions against US citizens and interests.”

Furthermore, over the past several days, US military bases in Iraq and Syria have been targeted near-daily by resistance factions, forcing the Pentagon to deploy more air defense systems to protect their troops.

These systems will come on top of already-deployed warships carrying thousands of troops and dozens of warplanes to the Eastern Mediterranean, as Washington is warning that a “broader escalation” is possible “in the days ahead.”

October 24, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation, Timeless or most popular, War Crimes, Wars for Israel | , , , , | Leave a comment

US scampers to deploy arms to Israel amid ‘textbook case of genocide’ in Gaza

MEMO | October 24, 2023

The US has rapidly expanded military deployments across the region to back Israel’s assault on Gaza, as historians warn that the occupation state is carrying out a “textbook case of genocide” in the besieged enclave.

Open-source information gathered by Haaretz newspaper reveals that close to 80 US military planes and dozens of leased civilian aircraft are hauling equipment, with massive arms airlifted to Israel and Cyprus and fighter squadrons and Special Forces in Jordan.

At least 62 US and Israeli transport aircraft had landed in Israel by Sunday night, delivering arms and spare parts. Civilian planes leased by the US and Israeli defence establishments are being used for the airlifts.

Even larger numbers of US transports are deploying forces and armaments to bases in Jordan and Cyprus. This includes two fighter squadrons and Special Forces now stationed in Jordan, while 20 planes offloaded cargo from NATO depots at British bases in Cyprus.

Advocacy groups accuse the US of rushing to re-supply weapons used by Israel on Gaza civilians. They argue Washington is seeking to ensure Israel’s long-term military dominance over Palestinians. Activists warn the influx risks further regional conflagration.

Since Israel began its bombardment of the besieged enclave, over 30 US heavy transports have landed in Israel, many delivering advanced weaponry. Others brought officials like Secretary Blinken, while some transported armoured vehicles.

US and Israeli Air Force planes have also flown repeatedly into Europe, likely procuring more arms. Meanwhile, an aircraft carrier group armed with cruise missiles operates near Cyprus alongside missile defence systems deployed by the US.

A second carrier group is soon expected in the Mediterranean, though its destination remains uncertain.

Analysts caution the expansive US military activity enables further repression of Palestinians. Continued unconditional aid, irrespective of Israel’s actions, removes incentives for restraint, they argue.

Some warn active US replenishment of bombs dropped on Gaza may fuel cycles of violence, hindering de-escalation. With two carrier groups nearby, the fear is that planning for the next war has already begun.

The massive arms influx has made the power imbalance enabling Israeli impunity even starker, analysts say. While Gaza lies in ruins, Israel enjoys limitless supply from its superpower patron.

They urge greater scrutiny over whether US actions serve regional security or purely Israeli interests. Platitudes about restraint and “self-defence” ring hollow to Palestinians, they note, when American planes rush in vast stockpiles of bombs.

Israeli historian, Raz Segal, has condemned the latest bombing of Gaza saying that it is a “textbook case of genocide.”

October 24, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Militarism, Timeless or most popular, War Crimes | , , , , , | Leave a comment

Russia’s top lawmaker slams Biden’s ‘new world order’ plan

Russian State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin © Sputnik / Vladimir Fedorenko
RT | October 24, 2023

Russia’s State Duma chairman has compared the US government to a company executive, who has run a business into the ground and now wants to try again with a new corporation.

Vyacheslav Volodin was reacting on Tuesday to remarks by US President Joe Biden, who said last week that a new international order was needed, and that Washington can “unite the world in ways that it never has been”.

The speaker of the lower house of the Russian parliament said that just as a corporate manager with a bankruptcy on their hands would not be trusted with someone else’s money again, “nobody in the world will accept Biden and the US, who have destroyed the global security system, to build a new world order in their interests.”

The Russian official claimed the US has inflicted harm on the world “in attempting to save its hegemony,” causing a disruption of international commerce through trade wars, a deep crisis in the European Union, tensions over Taiwan, and hostilities in Ukraine and the Middle East.

“Attempts to reshape [the world] to fit the American mold will not lead to anything good and can only result in a global disaster,” Volodin warned, urging the US leader to be isolated “before he unleashes a world war”.

Biden’s “new world order” remark came on Friday, while he was meeting with donors as part of his re-election campaign. He touted the US as an indispensable nation and exemplified whipping up support of Washington-friendly governments for Ukraine as an example of his administration’s unifying endeavors.

He insisted that the US was up to the task of leading humanity, and that there has never been a crisis from which the country did not emerge stronger.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that Biden was correct in saying that the old system of global governance has become obsolete, but that Moscow rejects the notion that another “American-centric world order” should replace it. Peskov stressed that Russia supports a multipolar world, in which the US would be one stakeholder among many equals.

October 24, 2023 Posted by | Militarism, Timeless or most popular | , , , | Leave a comment

What Was the Jessica Lynch Story? – Questions For Corbett

Corbett • 10/23/2023

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

So, you’ve watched 9/11: A Conspiracy Theory and now you’re wondering who Jessica Lynch is? Well, you can always check the hyperlinked transcript. But while we’re at it, why not dig a little further into the Jessica Lynch and learn all about how the media fabricates war stories for the consumption of the fluoride-addled, television-addicted masses?

Watch on Archive / BitChute / Odysee / Rokfin / Rumble / Download the mp4

SHOW NOTES:

9/11: A Conspiracy Theory

Jessica Lynch myth

Jessica Lynch interviews from 2003 to 2023

A 2018 conversation on the “cleared hot” podcast with one of the SEAL team members involved in her rescue

The full video of Lynch’s 2007 testimony before the House Oversight Committee on the Pat Tillman and Jessica Lynch incidents

The entire (and entirely boring) video of the rescue operation

An overview and timeline of the media construction of the Lynch story via the Pew Research Center

BBC “War Spin” documentary on the Lynch hoax

2003 article on Bruckheimer’s “Profiles From the Front Line”

The Media Matrix

Mass Media: A History

The Gulf War Did Not Take Place

Context Is Everything

Waxman discusses Hollywood construction of fake Lynch story during Lynch congressional testimony.

October 24, 2023 Posted by | Mainstream Media, Warmongering, Timeless or most popular, Video | , | Leave a comment

US Treasury Deficit Doubles as Biden Bankrolls Multiple Foreign Conflicts

By James Tweedie – Sputnik – 23.10.2023

The US is going further into the red with as it arms its client states for a series of conflicts. Sergio Rossi, professor of macroeconomics and monetary economics at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, said the strategies to avoid a default would only prove to be a “time-bomb.”

US President Joe Biden’s appeal for cash to arm Ukraine and Israel could meet resistance from Congress thanks to the runaway federal budget.

Treasury department figures released late last week showed the government deficit had hit almost £1.7 trillion, up from £1.37 trillion a year earlier, a 23 percent increase in the public debt — although lower than the $2.78 trillion left by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021.

The news was worse than it sounded however. The 2022 deficit included the budget for Biden’s student loan repayment program, money that was never spent as the Supreme Court struck it down. The treasury then claimed those unspent public funds as a “saving” in 2023 — meaning the true deficit doubled from $1 trillion in 2022 to $2 trillion this year.

That news came a day before Biden asked Congress for a $106 billion emergency foreign military aid budget. The lion’s share, $61.4 billion, is earmarked for Washington’s proxy conflict with Russia in Ukraine, while another $14.3 billion is to arm Israel for its latest attempt to destroy the Hamas movement in the besieged Gaza Strip.

That request dwarfs the $77 billion in arms and cash gifted to the Kiev regime since the start of Russia’s de-Nazification operation in February 2022.

Economist Sergio Rossi told Sputnik that the mounting deficit would make it harder for Biden to persuade Congress to approve his $100 billion budget request for more arms to Ukraine and Israel “in light of the problematic economic situation and outlook for the US stakeholders, namely, households, firms, and a variety of financial institutions.”

“Usually, when the domestic economic situation worsens, these stakeholders and their political supporters reduce the volume of foreign aid, to focus on supporting their own national economy first of all,” Rossi said.

He said the funding the conflict in Ukraine — while preparing for a Pacific showdown with China over Taiwan — had already put too much strain on Washington’s finances before the Palestinian Hamas movement launched a surprise attack into southern Israel.

“The US government cannot continue financing two military conflicts, particularly if the latter will continue without any foreseeable peaceful agreement before long,” Rossi stressed. “There are already signs that the political consensus for such a financial support is diminishing across the US economy, notably where both the labour and the product markets are in a difficult situation for a number of middle-class workers and several small or medium-sized firms.”

The state of the US economy was “worrying,” he said, and the outlook for the next two years was “even worse,” thanks to “global macroeconomic issues related to different geopolitical problems.”

The “mushroom” of ensuing inflation has badly affected consumer purchasing power. “As a result, firms’ investment is discouraged, both because of this inflationary pressure and the Fed’s repeated increases in the policy rates of interest.”

“The US economy is even closer to a recession than it was one year ago,” Rossi warned, although “there is no potential risk of a default of the US federal government.”

He pointed out that Congress could simply raise the public debt ceiling and the US Federal Reserve could buy up government bonds as an effective loan.

“This, however, is a time bomb that eventually can burst, particularly once some viable and credible alternative to the US dollar will emerge across the global economy,” Rossi said. “The BRICS community could provide such an alternative in a not-too-distant future.”

October 23, 2023 Posted by | Corruption, Economics, Militarism, Russophobia | , , , | Leave a comment

The Damage Israel Does

Constitutional rights and genuine national interests are ignored as governments surrender to Jewish power

BY PHILIP GIRALDI • UNZ REVIEW • OCTOBER 23, 2023

There are numerous one-liners like “wag-the-dog” that constitute a long running joke about how Israel exploits Jewish power in the United States to limit and control Washington’s options in foreign policy as well as in many other aspects of international interaction. This has been accomplished by a cleverly executed neoconservative takeover of the foreign policy instruments of both major parties based on a series of nonexistent “threats” coupled with media control and billions of dollars in political donations that have bought the numerous politicians willing to be bought, which clearly constitutes a majority of Congress.

President Joe Biden and those who surround him are all about Israel and many of them are Jewish. His Secretary of the Treasury Janice Yellen claims that the US “can afford” two wars simultaneously and the Chuck Schumer led Senate has voted unanimously 97-0 pledging full and unconditional support for the Jewish state. Biden’s somewhat pathetic fifteen-minute speech last week justifying throwing another $105 billion of deficit spending at Ukraine and Israel could have been written by a neocon scribe in its attempt to demonstrate that the US is threatened by developments in those two countries. It is not, even Biden knows that, and his assertions were as hollow as the rhetoric used to support the false premise. My favorite argument being made by the president was that “American leadership holds the world together….and is necessary to keep freedom alive in both the Middle East and Eastern Europe… Hamas and Putin represent different threats, but they share this in common: They both want to completely annihilate a neighboring democracy.” As it turns out, Biden was wrong on every point. Opinion polls suggest that the world overwhelmingly sees the United States as the most disruptive and dangerous nation on the planet, so Biden’s unwillingness or inability to discern that he is presiding over the death throes of America’s global leadership is particularly troubling. And Joe even fails to realize that Russia is more democratic by most measures than is Ukraine, which is consistently rated as the most corrupt country in the world, while Israel is not a democracy at all unless one is a Jew.

Biden was certainly motivated to speak to the American public in prime time, only the second time he has done so, by his overriding concern to express and obtain absolutely total support for Israel no matter what it does. He is willing to lie, cheat and steal for Israel. In the wake of the devastating October 17th blast at al-Ahli Baptist Hospital, a Christian-run medical complex in central Gaza City, which killed at least 500 people and injured hundreds more, he immediately jumped on the protect-Israel bandwagon and declared that Israel had not done it, which is far from being demonstrated and is being hotly disputed by eyewitnesses and forensic specialists. Ukraine is a secondary issue but it too is a war supported overwhelmingly by international Jewry for various reasons, most notably visceral hatred of Russia.

Nevertheless, the control by the Israel Lobby aside, one is at a loss to understand the actual rationale behind the recent trips to Israel in the wake of the Gaza uprising made by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and “they beheaded the babies” Joe Biden since the United States has no genuine national interest that compels it to get involved in either war, even less so in Gaza where Israel has been indisputably the source of nearly all the trouble. Lest anyone be confused over what signal was being sent, two US aircraft carrier strike groups were also dispatched to the Eastern Mediterranean together with orders to prepare to deploy 2,000 Marines, suggesting that Washington was itself preparing for war. And the Muslim world, convulsed by what it is seeing happen to Gaza, is also heeding a call to arms. As of last Friday there have been seven separate drone and rocket attacks on US military bases in Iraq and Syria. Journalist Caitlin Johnstone has neatly summarized the legitimate rage on the ground in Palestine that the White House and Congress make no attempt to appreciate: “The status quo in Israel has been one of continually escalating violence, tyranny and abuse for generations… Stand on someone’s face for long enough and one day it will surprise you if he eventually bites your foot. You might even feel like you were the victim, because that’s just what you’d gotten used to.”

Blinken, citing his ancestors and the holocaust, presented himself as a Jew to his Israeli audience, which meant that no further justification was required as he totally rolled over to comply with the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s interpretation of what had taken place on October 7th. Reports suggest that Blinken had initially sensibly supported a cease-fire on social media just after the Hamas attack, writing that he would be “encourage[ing] Turkey’s advocacy for a cease-fire and the release of all hostages by Hamas immediately.” Presumably under pressure from Biden and the Israel Lobby, he then deleted that and wrote, “Israel has the right to defend itself, rescue any hostages, and protect its citizens.” The State Department got the message and circulated instructions to staffers to not use the terms “de-escalation/ceasefire,” “end to violence/bloodshed” and “restoring calm” in regard to the Gaza/Israel situation, giving Netanyahu a free hand to do whatever he would choose to do.

Blinken was thus converted to fully support massive and indiscriminate Israeli retaliation against the civilian population, a war crime, and his reward was being stiffed by the Saudi Crown Prince, forced to wait in attendance all night before being allowed a short and non-productive audience. Biden outdid his colleague in being completely stonewalled by Saudi, Jordanian, Egyptian, Iraqi and Palestinian heads of state and government, which leads to the question “What did Biden seek to achieve apart from demonstrating that the United States was owned by Israel which is committing a war crime by its collective punishment of Gaza? Did he think the Arab and Muslim states would react positively to a developing massacre of the Gazans, which he specifically supported?”

So why were Biden and Blinken so willfully ignorant as to be unable to appreciate that they were bearing a message that could only succeed in infuriating their hosts? Israel, after all, is by law a Jewish state which not only does not provide equal rights to the non-Jewish citizens and residents, it also has a government that has senior officials and some leading religious figures describing Palestinian Arabs as something less than human or even “animals” and who, in some cases, openly consider it perfectly acceptable to exterminate them. It is the same government with a different cast of characters that has been stealing, killing and inflicting a host of war crimes and crimes against humanity on its captive and largely helpless Palestinian Christian and Muslim minority for the past 76 years.

Biden’s nice package of $105 billion, which will likely sail through Congress because it is “for Israel,” will include $14 billion for Netanyahu to buy some new heavy ordnance to exterminate the Palestinians, which guarantees that the Muslim world will hate the United States for the foreseeable future. The money is also funding the war in Ukraine for the next year and arming Taiwan with some shiny new weapons to ward off China. Ironically, a new CBS/YouGov poll finds that most Americans don’t want the US providing Israel with weapons and supplies in this war, but, of course ordinary voters are never asked their opinion when the White House chooses to demonstrate “American exceptionalism” towards the country that it loves beyond all others. Oh, and the bill will also include some cash to “fortify” America’s Mexican border, a sweetener that runs completely contrary to what Biden has been doing for the past three years. All this will be piled on to the United States government debt which, at just short of $33 trillion, is considered to be unsustainable and weighs in at $350,230 for every American family. And it is all being done for no good reason whatsoever in terms of genuine American interests, and probably illegally too as proxy wars run by the Executive Branch would seem to go against the Constitution’s separation of powers as well as the time constraints in the War Powers Act of 1973. Congressman Michael McCaul from Texas, the Israel firster fanatic who heads the House Foreign Affairs Committee, is currently pushing legislation that would provide an in-advance authorization to go to war on Iran and on Lebanon if Hezbollah were to come in to support the Gazans when Netanyahu starts his potentially genocidal ground attack. Another Congressional clown, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina is already calling for an attack on Iran under the presumption that it assisted the Gazans.

Fortunately for all of us who care for such issues as life and death, some cracks are appearing in the wall surrounding total subservience to Israel and its interest. Some even suspect that the “US-based Middle East system,” which mandates blind support for Israel, has become so abusive that the public is becoming reluctant to support it. Indeed, public opinion polls suggest that support for the Palestinians is increasing while that for Israel is growing weaker as atrocities against the Arabs multiply with Israel new ultra-conservative government. The resignation letter of senior State Department official Josh Paul, who recently quit over the Biden administration’s position on the Gaza War, makes for interesting reading. Paul described the Hamas attack as a “monstrosity of monstrosities” but continued: “This Administration’s response – and much of Congress’ as well – is an impulsive reaction built on confirmation bias, political convenience, intellectual bankruptcy and bureaucratic inertia. Decades of the same approach have shown that security for peace leads to neither security nor peace, The fact is that blind support for one side is destructive in the long term to the interests of the people on both sides.”

Paul was responding to the latest arms package being rushed through congress for Israel, which he described as “shortsighted, destructive and unjust,” and the US veto early last week of a Russian proposal in the UN Security Council to call for a ceasefire. The US permanent representative to the UN Linda Thomas Greenfield submitted the veto and then erupted with “By failing to condemn Hamas, Russia is giving cover to a terrorist group that brutalizes innocent civilians. It is outrageous, it is hypocritical, and it is indefensible.” She is the hypocrite in that she obviously does not recognize or does not care that Israel’s record is far worse than Russia’s in “brutalizing innocent civilians” for the past 76 years.

There are also other reports of general “discomfort” and dismay among civil servants over what is happening vis-à-vis the US role in Gaza out of concern for Israel not being urged to show restraint and the White House lack of any genuine concern over the developing humanitarian crisis. It also appears that several of the few Muslim federal government officials have been removed from positions having anything to do with Middle East policy. The US media likewise has been transferring many of its Muslim journalists who were on the ground in Gaza and elsewhere in the Middle East for fear that they will actually try to tell the truth about what is going on and who is doing what to whom.

On a next to last final note, it has often been noted that the first victim of war is truth. The US government in its various guises has been lashing out at social media and other sites that have been making available material that can be construed as favorable to Gaza. So far, they have been less than successful, but the efforts persist and could lead to legislation. Also, there have been the usual claims regarding “antisemitism” which can be exploited in “hate crimes” prosecutions as well as the existing legislation in 35 states that protect Israel with potential criminal and civil penalties as well denial of jobs and services to applicants who are critics of the Jewish state’s behavior. In Israel itself, al-Jazeera journalists have now been detained and expelled as a consequence of legislation criminalizing the activity of journalists who report “facts” that are not approved by the Israeli government.

But some of the most bizarre lashing out by the Israel lobby and its friends is taking place in the United States. In Florida the state Attorney General has told prosecutors to “exercise zero tolerance” when dealing with the “anti-Jewish hate crimes” engaged in by college students who have been demonstrating in support of the Gazans. At Harvard, major donors who are mostly Jewish have cut off donations to the university due to its tolerance of pro-Gazan student demonstrators. A so called “conservative group” Accuracy in Media headed by one Adam Guillette, who is Jewish, has led the response to a coalition of more than 30 Harvard student groups that posted an open letter on the night of the Hamas attack, citing Israel as “entirely responsible” for the violence that killed more than 1,400 people, mostly civilians. The letter was posted on social media and did not include the names of the individual students in the groups. But within days, students connected to those groups were being identified together with their personal information, all of which was posted online. Families back home were threatened while presumed Harvard alumni businessmen and executives demanded a list of the student names to ban their hiring. And a truck with a digital billboard paid for by Accuracy in Media circled Harvard Square, flashing student photos and names, under the headline, “Harvard’s Leading Antisemites.” The students now have to deal with “people’s lives being ruined, people’s careers being ruined, people’s fellowships being ruined” because they opposed a certainly controversial war being fought. Guillette said his organization’s next move, which has already started, is to create online domains using the students’ first and last names to create sites identifying them as antisemites. Guillette boasted that “I think it’s incredibly important for people to know who the antisemites are on their campus and in their community.”

And on a final note, if you have wondered where the money is coming from to fund Israel’s wars and crimes beyond what Joe Biden and his buddies are willing to hand them, there is an interesting story out of Georgia. Republican Governor Brian Kemp has ordered his state treasurer to use tax revenues to purchase $10 million in Israel Bonds. The bonehead then issued a statement: “Israel is one of Georgia’s strongest allies and greatest friends, and our support for its people as they endure horrific attacks from terrorists is unwavering. Purchasing these bonds is just the latest expression of that support.” It is not clear if the purchase is completely legal and someone should have advised the governor that buying Israel bonds is in the nature of a gift as they lack liquidity and are generally regarded as a terrible investment. So it is a rip-off of the Georgia taxpayer. I wonder if anyone will notice!

Philip M. Giraldi, Ph.D., is Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest, a 501(c)3 tax deductible educational foundation (Federal ID Number #52-1739023) that seeks a more interests-based U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. Website is councilforthenationalinterest.org, address is P.O. Box 2157, Purcellville VA 20134 and its email is inform@cnionline.org.

October 23, 2023 Posted by | Corruption, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Full Spectrum Dominance, Militarism, War Crimes, Wars for Israel | , , , , , , | Leave a comment

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