The European Commission president said that due to the position he occupies he has to maintain “dialogue with many people. Even those, whose company I don’t appreciate much.”

As for relations with Erdogan, he said he holds meetings with the Turkish leader on a regular basis.

“I have known him for the last 17-18 years. I know him but also he knows me,” Juncker said.

According to the top EU official, Europe is in no position to lecture Ankara on the refugee and migrant crisis.

"Turkey is an important partner not only for the migration crisis. This aspect is obvious. But because it houses on its territory over three million migrants and refugees which Europe for its part doesn't do," he said.

"So I would like Europe to refrain from giving lessons to Turkey on that matter. Turkey does much more than Europe as do Jordan and Lebanon. So we need to be humble when we speak on these issues,"Juncker added.

However, he stressed that Turkey must pay close attention to the demands coming from Brussels if it wants to become part of the European Union.

read more;

https://www.rt.com/news/368310-eu-juncker-odious-regimes/

The French call for an emergency UN Security Council (UNSC) meeting on Aleppo is an attempt to distract attention from humanitarian issues of the Western-backed operation in the Iraqi city of Mosul, said Vitaly Churkin, Russia’s envoy to the UN. 

Paris is pushing for the meeting in order to “distract attention from what is going on in Mosul where the situation – in many respects, including humanitarian – is much is more dramatic than in eastern Aleppo,” Churkin told reporters.

read more:

https://www.rt.com/news/368643-churkin-russia-un-mosul-aleppo/

 

Meanwhile:

This week has brought a breakthrough for the Russian-backed Syrian operation to retake eastern Aleppo, allowing humanitarian relief to be brought to tens of thousands of civilians living in the captured districts, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

“Over the past few days, well-planned and careful action by the Syrian troops resulted in a radical breakthrough. Half of the territory previously held by the militants in eastern Aleppo has been de facto liberated,” Gen. Igor Konashenkov, spokesman for the defense ministry, said.

“The most important thing is that over 80,000 Syrians, including tens of thousands of children, have been freed. Many of them at long last were able to get water, food, medical assistance at humanitarian centers deployed by Russia. Those Syrians served as human shields in Aleppo for terrorists of all flavors,” the general stressed.

read more:

https://www.rt.com/news/368541-aleppo-breakthrough-humanitarian-relief/

President Obama has issued a memo waiving restrictions on the provision of military equipment to rebel groups in Syria. Speaking to Radio Sputnik, Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity director Daniel McAdams slammed Obama for trying to reignite the war, just as things are starting to look up for the establishment of a lasting peace.

Obama's memo, issued Thursday to the Departments of State and Defense, waived earlier legal restrictions on the provision of military aid to the rebels, and instructed officials to seek Congressional approval to proceed with providing official US support to Syria-based militants, ostensibly for the purpose of 'facilitating US anti-terrorist operations' in the country.

Read more: https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201612101048406117-us-weapons-waiver-daniel-mcadams-commentary/

A rapidly-increasing civilian death toll resulting from Saudi Arabia’s military campaign in Yemen has prompted the White House to halt the sale of weapons to Riyadh. Washington announced that instead it will shift focus to improving target practice in the kingdom and training the Saudi Air Force.

In the 20 months since the Saudis, at the behest of Yemen’s exiled president, became involved in the country’s civil war, President Barack Obama’s administration has been vexed by some 10,000 casualties and massive food shortages that have created a humanitarian crisis amid already scarce resources. 

In late October, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Stephen O’Brien addressed a statement to Obama on conditions in Yemen, writing, "This humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen is a man-made disaster, where conflict has exacerbated and exponentially increased the suffering of the 50 percent of the Yemeni population who already were in dire and extreme poverty."

"Repeatedly over the past 19 months," O’Brien wrote, "the people of Yemen have been robbed of their lives, their hope and their right to live in dignity. Thousands have been killed, tens of thousands have been injured, more than three million have been forced to leave their homes, and seven million suffer the daily anxiety of not knowing where their next meal might come from." 

An unnamed White House official said that "systemic, endemic" civilian killings by the kingdom compelled the Obama administration to cease the sale of weapons to Riyadh, including precision-guided ordnance. 

The official said the decision is "obviously a direct reflection of the concerns that we have about Saudi strikes that have resulted in civilian casualties." 

Read more: https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201612131048519501-us-stops-saudi-weapons-sale/

In the days of hysteria immediately following the Boston bombing, an unlikely media darling emerged. Ruslan Tsarni, the alleged bombers’ uncle, known to the press as “Uncle Ruslan,” gained notoriety for the ferocity with which he denounced his own nephews and their alleged Islamic radicalism.

It isn’t hard to see why the press focused so closely on “Uncle Ruslan.” He said precisely what the so-called “authorities” wanted to hear about the suspects in precisely the way they wanted to hear it. Compare this to the coverage of the boys’ mother in the mainstream media. After revealing the FBI’s connection to the Tsarnaev brothers—causing the Bureau to reluctantly confirm that they had investigated Tamerlan in the past—she has been alternatively smeared and dismissed by those same media outlets which have refused to delve into the FBI connection.

But even more interesting than the sudden popularity of “Uncle Ruslan” is his background and ties to other organizations.

In an official SEC filing from 2005 it was revealed that Ruslan Tsarni had worked as a consultant for USAID, ostensibly an independent federal agency which is little more than an adjunct of the US State Department and is a known front for deep cover CIA agents in various geostrategic corners of the globe. At the same time in the mid-1990s, Tsarni incorporated a company called the “Congress of Chechen International Organizations” which recently unearthed documentsshow was providing material support to Chechen terrorists, including Sheikh Fathi, who, according to US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, was a “military commander in the violent jihadist movement in Chechnya” and a “preacher of violent jihad.”

As investigative reporter Daniel Hopsicker has demonstrated, the address for the Congress of Chechen International Organizations just happened to be the home address of Graham E. Fuller, formerly Vice Chairman of the Reagan-era CIA’s National Intelligence Council. The relationship between Ruslan and this former top CIA official was not a loose one. Tsarni married Fuller’s daughter in the mid-1990s and lived in Fuller’s home for some time, basing his terror-supporting operation under Fuller’s own roof.

Fuller himself has an interesting background that includes his two decade stint with the Central Intelligence Agency. During that time he served as National Intelligence Officer for Near East and South Asia. One of his most notorious acts during that time was penning a memo that, according to the New York Times, later became the basis for the Iran-Contra scandal.

In addition, Fuller has long made the argument that Islam is a potentially useful geopolitical tool for the United States to manipulate for their own ends. He has been quoted as saying, “The policy of guiding the evolution of Islam and of helping them against our adversaries worked marvelously well in Afghanistan against [the Russians]. The same doctrines can still be used to destabilize what remains of Russian power, and especially to counter the Chinese influence in Central Asia.”

Fuller’s ties also extend to the network of Imam Fethullah Gulen, an Islamic preacher who was run out of Turkey for allegations of conspiracy to overthrow the secular government, Gulen ended up in Pennsylvania where he now oversees a vast organization known as the Gulen Movement which has over $20 billion at its disposal for setting up Islamic schools in over 100 countries.

read more: 

https://www.corbettreport.com/who-is-graham-fuller/

see toon at top...

 

 

Did a Trump Executive Order Just Cripple the Global US Regime Change Network?

 

 

By Kit Klarenberg / The Grayzone

 

Among the flurry of executive orders issued by President Donald Trump in the first days of his administration, perhaps the most consequential to date is one titled, “reevaluating and realigning US foreign aid.”

Under this order, a 90-day pause was instantly enforced on all US foreign development assistance across the globe – excepting, of course, the largest recipients of US aid in Israel and Egypt. For now, the order forbids the disbursement of federal funding for any “non-governmental organizations, international organizations, and contractors” charged with delivering US “aid” programs overseas.

Within days, hundreds of “internal contractors” at the US Agency for International Development (USAID) were placed on unpaid leave or outright fired, as a direct result of the Executive Order. Washington Post contributor John Hudson has reported organization officials brand Trump’s directives on “foreign development assistance” a “shock and awe approach,” which has left them reeling, uncertain of their futures. One nameless USAID apparatchik told him, “they even removed all the pictures in our offices of aid programs,” as accompanying photographs attested.

While the Trump administration’s purge sent shockwaves through Washington’s international development corps and the Beltway Bandits which feed at its trough, the sudden severing of USAID money has sparked panic overseas. From Latin America to Eastern Europe, the US has pumped billions into NGO’s and media outlets to fuel color revolutions and assorted regime change operations, all in the name of “democracy promotion.” 

Now, as the global apparatus of soft American power trumpeted by President George H.W. Bush as “a thousand points of light” goes dark, supposedly independent media outfits from Ukraine to Nicaragua are fretting about their future and panhandling for donations on their websites.  

US-backed media and opposition face extinction in Ukraine

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the US has pumped billions into Ukraine to create and propel a fervently anti-Russian opposition. As former State Department Assistant Secretary for Eastern European Affairs Victoria Nuland remarked to an oil industry-sponsored meeting in Kiev in 2009, “we’ve invested $5 billion to assist Ukraine” to “build democratic skills and institutions” allowing it to “achieve European independence.”

The US flooded Ukrainian civil society with grants on the eve of the 2014 Maidan coup, birthing a network of pro-Western media outlets almost overnight. Among them was Hromadske, a liberal broadcasting entity which pushed for the overthrow of President Victor Yanukovych and rallied for the subsequent war with pro-Russian separatists in the country’s east – including through the glorification of Nazis who fought the Soviet Red Army during World War II. 

With Trump’s executive order cutting off USAID programs, Hromadske has suddenly been severed from its financial tube. So too have the top Ukrainian media outlets which emerged in the wake of the Maidan coup, including Ukrinform, Internews, and a signatory of the Poynter-run International Fact Checking Network called VoxUkraine. 

The Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications and the Service of the Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, both created to propagandize for war against Russia, are also among USAID funding recipients now starving for cash.

Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky took to Twitter/X to whine that “critically important programs” wholly dependent on “US support” were now “suspended” as a result of Trump’s executive order. He promised that “certain key initiatives” would “be financed through our internal resources,” while begging for donations from Kiev’s “European partners” to be “intensified.”

Given Ukraine’s near-total economic destruction since its proxy war against Russia erupted in February 2022, and complete reliance on USAID to pay the salaries of state employees, it is uncertain how the country’s “internal resources” can possibly be used to even vaguely offset its sudden deficit. Already, major Ukrainian media outlets are pleading for financial support from their readers just to keep their lights on. 

According to Kiev’s foreign-funded Institute of Mass Information, around 90% of the country’s media is “dependent on American grants.” 

Contra 2.0 gravy train paused in Nicaragua

Similar bleating has emanated from US-financed organizations in Nicaragua, where since the re-election of popular leftist Sandinista Front in 2006, Washington has pumped tens of millions of dollars into right-wing media outlets and opposition groups. 

In tandem, these foreign-funded fifth columnists routinely disseminate disinformation, while inciting violence against the government and its supporters, and influencing Western media reporting on the country. 

As The Grayzone reported, a USAID-funded Nicaraguan opposition outlet called 100% Noticias led a campaign of violent incitement throughout 2018, when a failed US-backed coup attempt left hundreds dead in the country. While the outlet repeatedly featured calls for the murder of President Daniel Ortega, its director, Miguel Mora, told The Grayone’s Max Blumenthal he wished for a US military intervention of the country to topple the elected government. When the Nicaraguan government finally shuttered the station and prosecuted Mora, Washington responded with accusations of repression and threats of heavy sanctions.

https://twitter.com/TheGrayzoneNews/status/1405183102968905733

On January 21, an anti-Sandinista “news” operations called Nicaragua Investiga warned that Trump’s order “threatens to deal a severe blow” to the country and its anti-Ortega crusade, “which depends heavily on the financial and technical support provided by agencies” such as USAID. This backing, the outlet declared, was a “fundamental pillar” in the Nicaraguan right-wing’s efforts to undermine and depose the anti-imperialist President. 

“Civil society organisations that rely on this assistance would be forced to reduce or cease their activities,” Nicaragua Investiga warned. The outlet further lamented that “uncertainty reigns over how and when assistance will be restored, and whether organizations critical of Daniel Ortega’s regime that still survive outside the country will be able to maintain their operations.” 

Not coincidentally, Nicaragua Investiga was among the local outlets which largely depended on US government grants for their existence. 

Has the US balked at balkanizing the Balkans?

Across the West Balkans, USAID, self-avowed CIA front the National Endowment for Democracy, George Soros’ Open Society Foundations and the panoply of NGOs and media outlets have infiltrated every conceivable sphere of public life. Following the 1992 – 1995 civil war, Bosnia and Herzegovina was methodically transformed into a de facto EU and US colony, with all basic functions of the state hijacked by foreign interests.

Some concern about the imperial project found its way into mainstream media at the time. The New York Times warned in 1998 that US domination of Bosnia “raised troubling questions about how the state will work without continued infusions of outside aid and direct international supervision.” A senior foreign government advisor angsted over Washington’s lack of exit strategy in the country, or any plan to end “Bosnia’s culture of dependency.” Today, at least 25,600 Western-funded NGOs are active in Sarajevo.

The pause in “foreign development assistance” has placed countless jobs and beneficiary organizations at risk of permanent erasure across the Balkans. On January 30, Balkan Insight – an outlet exposed by The Grayzone as a tentacle of British intelligence – published an illuminating investigation into how the aid pause “has immediately affected a range of organisations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia.” 

From 2020 until the end of 2024, Washington has funnelled a staggering $1.7 billion into the West Balkans, “supporting civil society organisations and state institutions and projects ranging from human rights and media to energy efficiency,” with next to no demonstrable social benefit. Now, “all projects have been halted…until the evaluation period is over.” Expenses up until January 27 will be covered, “while everything after that has to be stopped.” Already, layoffs and huge pay cuts have been enacted at recipient entities.

Nameless NGO workers consulted by Balkan Insight fretted that the US financing freeze would not be temporary. One source speculated the Executive Order could be “just a soft way of cutting these funds permanently.” The outlet noted Washington “has supported thousands of activities” in the region, and “the precise number of affected projects” remains “unknown”. When reporters contacted local USAID offices seeking clarity on the cuts, they were redirected in every instance to the agency’s Washington headquarters.

USAID base camp “responded by sending a link to its press release” on the funding pause. “President Trump stated clearly that the US is no longer going to blindly dole out money with no return for the American people,” it bluntly declared. “Reviewing and realigning foreign assistance on behalf of hardworking taxpayers is not just the right thing to do, it is a moral imperative.” Evidently, the new administration is not remotely concerned that entire sectors of local economies in the Balkans have been effectively shuttered.

Even in Albania – a doggedly pro-US country with an influential DC lobby – 30 Washington-subsidized projects have been suspended, including bankrolling of “courts, prosecutor’s offices and the ministries of Defence, Education and Sports, and Finance.” In Macedonia – where “most” US funding is distributed via USAID and NED – $72 million allocated to 22 projects is “now on hold.” Six wider regional USAID-backed initiatives in the Balkans, which also covers Macedonia, “worth some $140 million”, are likewise mothballed. In local terms, these sums are monumental.

Georgia not on the Trump admin’s mind

The Republic of Georgia has been the site of a series of color revolution efforts since the start of 2023, all in response to the government’s successful push to compel the more than 25,000 foreign-financed organizations in the country to disclose their funding sources. Western-backed NGOs and activist groups have been at the forefront of all these attempted putsches. Unsurprisingly, this shadow army of previously US-funded foot soldiers are furious about the Trump administration’s “foreign development assistance” cutoff.

By contrast, the Georgian government appears delighted. Parliamentary leader Mamuka Mdinaradze has even suggested the highly controversial law on foreign funding transparency “might not be needed at all anymore” after Trump’s executive order. Indeed, with untold foreign-sponsored chaos agents suddenly out of money, the color revolution coast is now clear in Tbilisi. 

On January 30, local English language publication Georgia Today published a leader mourning that, “as the future of their funding hangs in the balance, aid organizations are already laying off or furloughing staff,” and “some programs” in Tbilisi “may struggle to restart after this temporary shutdown, with many potentially disappearing permanently.” It went on to note USAID financing “has been a cornerstone of the country’s development since 1992, with over $1.9 billion in assistance provided to date.”

Prior to the funding pause, USAID alone was “investing in 39 programs across the country, with a total value of $373 million and an annual budget exceeding $70 million.” These efforts overwhelmingly focused “on promoting economic reforms” and “fostering private sector investment,” which is to say facilitating foreign financial rape and pillage of Georgia. 

While domestic critics of Trump’s Executive Order have lambasted Washington’s resultant loss of expansive “soft power” influence in the Global South, such retreat can only be to the enormous benefit of target countries. As a LeftEast essay noted, foreign-funded NGOs have for decades “eroded Georgian citizens’ agency and the country’s sovereignty and democracy.” Its authors explained, “Activists in Georgia know all too well what is expected of them and which behaviors are punished and rewarded: being critical of the government on Facebook will net you more grants than being out in the community helping people… Donors even monitor activists’ social media profiles, and there can be consequences for posting the wrong things.”

However, the relief could be premature for populations that have suffered decades of US “foreign development assistance,” and the attendant coups and unrest it has paid for. The “pause” on US aid may indeed be a temporary measure, or, spending on soft power could be redirected to harder options with even more grave repercussions across the world. 

https://scheerpost.com/2025/02/01/did-a-trump-executive-order-just-cripple-the-global-us-regime-change-network/

 

 

READ FROM TOP.

 

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

 

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

 

HYPOCRISY ISN’T ONE OF THE SINS OF THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.

HENCE ITS POPULARITY IN THE ABRAHAMIC TRADITIONS…

 

 

PLEASE DO NOT BLAME RUSSIA IF WW3 STARTS. BLAME AMERICA.

 

WikiLeaks Bombshell: White and Fluffy USAID Exposed as Tool of Economic Warfare

Amid the buzz over DOGE chief Elon Musk’s words about USAID being “a criminal organization,” the world’s top whistleblowing website has dug up direct evidence to confirm as much.

While USAID promotes itself as an agency promoting “democratic values abroad” and advancing “a free, peaceful, and prosperous world,” a leaked US Army manual touts it as one means of applying “economic power” to “persuade adversaries, allies and surrogates to modify their behavior.”

USAID’s “placement abroad and its mission to engage human groups provide one channel for leveraging economic incentives” in support of US unconventional warfare efforts, the 2008 Special Forces Unconventional Warfare document states.

“Direct application of USAID grants to specific human groups can alter negative behaviors or cement positive affirmations,” it adds.

The Spec Ops doc also touts USAID’s “Conflict Assessment Framework” as an effective tool for informing “programmatic, operational- and tactical-level design and planning” for military use.

Elon Musk put USAID on the chopping block amid reports that Department of Government Efficiency agents were physically blocked from accessing USAID's secure systems as part of DOGE's accounting of federal programs and spending.

Speaking to press on Sunday, President Donald Trump said USAID "has been run by a bunch of radical lunatics," and promised to "make a decision" on the agency's future after "getting them out."

On Monday, Musk said Trump had "agreed we should shut [USAID] down."

https://sputnikglobe.com/20250203/wikileaks-bombshell-white-and-fluffy-usaid-exposed-as-tool-of-economic-warfare-1121532584.html

 

-------------------------

 

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) has closed its main office in Washington DC, multiple US media outlets reported on Monday. Most personnel have reportedly been told to stay away from the building. The development comes after US President Donald Trump accused the agency’s leadership of being “radical lunatics”and proposed major changes to the organization.

Established in 1961, USAID is responsible for administering foreign aid and development programs abroad to promote American interests.

According to an email obtained and shared by CNN, USAID leadership directed that the “headquarters at the Ronald Reagan building in Washington, D.C. be closed to Agency personnel on Monday, February 3, 2025.” 

“Agency personnel normally assigned to work at USAID headquarters will work remotely tomorrow, with the exception of personnel with essential on-site and building maintenance functions individually contacted by senior leadership,” the letter said.

AP has confirmed the email, adding that more than 600 employees discovered overnight that they had been locked out of USAID’s computer systems. 

The development comes after Trump blasted the agency, arguing that “it’s been run by a bunch of radical lunatics.” “We’re getting them out, and then we’ll make a decision,” he said.

Tech billionaire Elon Musk, the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and a close ally of the US president, has also been a fierce critic of USAID. He described it as a “criminal organization” which he believes was financing bioweapon research, including projects that allegedly led to the emergence of Covid-19.

“It became apparent that it’s not an apple with a worm in it. What we have is just a ball of worms. You’ve got to basically get rid of the whole thing. It’s beyond repair,”Musk said.

He also revealed that he had spoken with Trump, claiming that the president had “agreed” that USAID should be shut down. 

The crackdown on USAID comes after the Trump administration suspended foreign assistance, with a few exceptions. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the US would carry out a program-by-program review to determine which projects make “America safer, stronger or more prosperous.” He claimed that shutting down US-funded programs during the 90-day review had resulted in “a lot more cooperation” from recipients of various assistance.

https://www.rt.com/news/612118-usaid-agency-close-headquarters/

 

-----------------------

 

USAID: Soros' Secret Cash Cow

 

Is US taxpayer money fueling George Soros' global influence? Let's find out.

US conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation claimed in 2017 that George Soros' Open Society Foundations (OSF) had been made "the main implementer of USAID’s aid" since at least 2009.

But the Soros-USAID collaboration began much earlier. A 1993 USAID document shows the agency signed an agreement with the Soros Foundations’ Management Training Program to train 30 "professionals" from Bulgaria, Estonia, Poland, Romania and Slovakia.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, a series of color revolutions shook Eastern Europe, with George Soros' network of NGOs playing a central role in the unrest.

In 2003–2004, Soros’ International Renaissance Foundation partnered with USAID to support Ukraine's ‘Orange Revolution’. Prior to that, the US spent $54.7 million in 2003 and $34.11 million in 2004 on "democracy programs" in Ukraine through various agencies, including USAID.

The US legal watchdog Judicial Watch revealed in April 2018 that USAID sponsored Soros’ globalist agenda in Guatemala. In total, OSF reportedly spent around $100 million fomenting unrest in Latin America between 2015 and 2018.

In October 2018, the watchdog obtained documents indicating that USAID partnered with Soros to fund radical left-wing activists in Albania. In 2016, USAID reportedly allocated $9 million to a campaign overseen by Soros’ East West Management Institute.

To illustrate the scale of funds managed by Soros-linked initiatives, in 2024, then-President Joe Biden requested nearly $30 billion for USAID in 2025.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20250203/usaid-soros-secret-cash-cow-1121534067.html

 

-------------------------

 

SEE ALSO: 

From Soros to USAID: How US Organized 2004 Orange Revolution in Ukraine

 

 

READ FROM TOP.

 

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

 

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

 

HYPOCRISY ISN’T ONE OF THE SINS OF THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.

HENCE ITS POPULARITY IN THE ABRAHAMIC TRADITIONS…

 

 

PLEASE DO NOT BLAME RUSSIA IF WW3 STARTS. BLAME AMERICA.

 

SEE ALSO: 

america — the cynical intentional destroyer of countries......