In the autumn of 1973, Jack Anderson, the wonderful iconoclast of the Washington press corps, published a syndicated column revealing that a Hearst Newspapers reporter had spied on Democratic presidential candidates in the service of Richard Nixon’s 1972 reelection campaign. 

At the time of Anderson’s column, Seymour Frieden was a Hearst correspondent in London.  Anderson also reported, not quite in passing, but nearly, that Frieden tacitly acknowledged working for the Central Intelligence Agency.

By Patrick Lawrence
Special to Consortium News

Anderson’s column was as a pebble tossed in a pond. The ripples grew, if slowly at first. 

Senator Thorpe is correct. We have two nations in Australia. An Aboriginal nation – and then the rest of us. The issue is of sovereignty, a matter that can only be settled by a treaty, and not an Indigenous Voice to parliament. Great to see Senator Thorpe thinking very deeply. 

Graeme Wells, Hornsby 

We shouldn’t doubt Thorpe’s deep personal commitment genuinely outweighs her loyalty to a political party. She is being honest in the face of a lot of hostility – why not accept her views have crystallised since she was elected, not that she is being cynical and gaming the system.

The countries of the Atlanticist Axis are supplying increasingly powerful weapons to Ukraine, logically reinforcing the risks of a headlong rush from the conflict and a direct confrontation with Russia. In the role of the firefighter-arsonist, the German Chancellor Scholz has just declared that Western weapons will not be used to strike Russian territory.

by Karine Bechet-Golovko

One might actually be willing to consider that there might be some value in the “rules based international order” being promoted by the Joe Biden Administration if such a thing actually existed and was applied equally to all transgressors. Of course, in reality, the “rules” being referred to are neither agreed upon nor driven by any broad international consensus and are merely a trick that is exploited to further the interests of the United States and its closest allies.

In fact, the “rules”, such as they are, are most frequently ignored to give a pass to the bad behavior being exhibited by the US and its friends.

History has gone too far the wrong way, 

The Kiev regime has gone too far astray.

We can admire the unity of the Belgium people 

As the French and the Flemish learned to live together

But in Ukraine, unity has been destroyed forever

by an Americans hegemonic demonic power

As the Americans have hated anything Russian since that fateful day of the revolution in 1917,

When capitalism became under threat from “Das Kapital", 

By Karl Marx, a German thinker, and his friend Friedrich,

Who showed us a new way for humanity to live more equally

While workers, so far enslaved under the axe, would be better treated.

Unfortunately, there’s a moment in the excellent documentary 

“The United States and the Holocaust”

When the writers mention the Germans and their “ACCOMPLICES”,

In late 1996, the impression was allowed, or caused, to become prevalent that it had been somehow and somewhere decided to expand NATO up to Russia's borders. This despite the fact that no formal decision can be made before the alliance's next summit meeting, in June.

The timing of this revelation -- coinciding with the Presidential election and the pursuant changes in responsible personalities in Washington -- did not make it easy for the outsider to know how or where to insert a modest word of comment. Nor did the assurance given to the public that the decision, however preliminary, was irrevocable encourage outside opinion.

IT TOOK A WHILE TO WORK OUT WHY THE ORBIT OF MERCURY IS WEIRD. FOR THE ORDINARY MAN IN THE STREET, THIS IMPORTANT BIT OF KNOWLEDGE HAS AS MUCH IMPORTANCE AS A DEAD LEAF FALLEN THREE WEEKS AGO, TWO HUNDRED AND FORTY NINE METRES FROM THE LOCAL PUB.

BUT FOR THE ASTRONOMER, AND THE SPACE TRAVELLING PROBES, KNOWING WHERE MERCURY IS GOING TO BE, IS ESSENTIAL.

ACCORDING TO THE DISCOVERER OF NEPTUNE WITHOUT SEEING IT, URBAIN LE VERRIER MADE SOME CALCULATION PROVING THE EXISTENCE OF SUCH A PLANET, IN 1845.

OF COURSE SHOULD YOU BE A PROUD FRANCOPHOBIC ENGLISHMAN , YOU WOULD KNOW THAT “SIMULTANEOUSLY”, THIS DISCOVERY WAS MADE BY ANOTHER ENGLISHMAN, JOHN COUCH ADAMS. BUT THIS IS IRRELEVANT EXCEPT FOR TRIVIA NIGHT. 

How can we allow this to continue (“Land clearing threatens wildlife”, February 6)? It’s an established fact that rampant land clearing is decimating native wildlife. In this case, the endangered greater glider will face certain extinction, and for what? More urban spread in Jervis Bay and to top it off, facilities for two wealthy educational institutions, Scots College and the University of Sydney. Really?

Australia has been persuaded, enticed and strongarmed into taking gravely dangerous decisions. But Australia is a sovereign state and its fingerprints are, ultimately, all over the formation of its terrible abdication of national independence.

We need to pay particular attention to a definitive insight advanced by Paul Keating: Taiwan is not a vital Australian interest. In fact, it is an entity that could help unravel decades of remarkable, positive development in Australia, if we allow this to happen.

By Richard Cullen

FROM CARTER TO BIDEN, EIGHT AMERICAN PRESIDENTS OVERSAW DEMOLITION SUCCESS IN AFGHANISTAN…. 

JIMMY CARTER, 1977-1981

RONALD REAGAN 1981-1989

GEORGE H W BUSH 1989-1993

BILL CLINTON 1993-2001

GEORGE W BUSH 2001-2009

BARACK OBAMA 2009-2017

DONALD TRUMP 2017-2021

JOE BIDEN 2021-

YES THE AFGHANISTAN CAMPAIGN, THE US LONGEST WAR, FINALLY BORE THE DESIRED FRUIT — DESPITE A SPECTACULAR EXIT DEBACLE. SO WHAT WAS THE AMERICAN PLAN FOR AFGHANISTAN FROM THE TIME OF JIMMY CARTER ONWARDS:

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is willing to pull the UK out of the European Convention on Human Rights if the continental court that interprets the agreement tries to interfere with his legislative crackdown on illegal immigration, official sources told The Times on Saturday. 

The PM’s new legislation will prohibit anyone arriving in the UK illegally from claiming asylum there. Set to be unveiled “within weeks,” according to The Times’ sources, it establishes a process to deport new arrivals in “days or weeks” to their origin country, if considered “safe,” or to Rwanda, with whom the UK signed a controversial hosting agreement last year. Previously, the deportation process took “months or years,” Sunak told TalkTV last week after unveiling the proposal. 

President Joe Biden says he gave his authorization to shoot down a Chinese high altitude balloon a day after he was first briefed on the suspicious device, which was hovering over sensitive US military sites, but defense officials convinced him to wait until it was safe for people on the ground. 

“I ordered the Pentagon to shoot it down on Wednesday as soon as possible,” Biden told reporters on Saturday. “They decided, without doing any damage to people on the ground… they decided that the best time to do that was when it got over water outside within a 12 mile limit.”

This is for Western politicians. They obviously pass for what they are: liars doubling as idiots (c**ts in the original work).

Whether they work for pension “reforms”, or for the war they “launched” against Russia.

As I said before, the Ukrainian army has been brought up to NATO standards, that is to say extremely mediocre. The role of the Ukrainian army was to hold a heavily fortified line, while the sanctions against Russia would bring down the Moscow regime. This would have been child’s play — in a matter of a few weeks.

Rédigé par Patrick REYMOND — TRANSLATION and adaptation BY JULES LETAMBOUR. 

In the thick of Oscar season, the Alec Baldwin shooting story has returned like a nightmare Hollywood can’t rouse itself from - or perhaps a dreadful cautionary tale that refuses to be ignored.

The latest development, announced last week by Santa Fe’s District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies, is that Baldwin is to be charged with involuntary manslaughter over the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of his western Rust in October 2021: Hutchins was killed by a live round fired from a prop gun by Baldwin during a scene. (Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the film’s armourer, is facing the same charge.)

Carmack-Altwies also said that David Halls, Rust’s first assistant director, has agreed to plead guilty to a charge of “negligent use of a deadly weapon,” after handing the loaded revolver to Baldwin before the shot was fired.

Russia’s food exports jumped by 12% in monetary terms last year to more than 70 million tons, despite difficulties caused by Western sanctions, the country’s Ministry of Agriculture reported on Thursday.

The ministry highlighted that domestic agricultural products had been supplied to 150 countries, emphasizing that Russia’s contribution to world food security is constantly growing.

According to the latest report, exports of oil and fat products soared by 26%, meat and dairy products rose by 16%, and grain exports increased by 14%.