by Patrick Pasin

The slogan "We Stand with Ukraine" continues to flourish. Do those who promote it know that Ukrainians were the most martyred people in Europe BEFORE the war? Because of the very one that Westerners cherish... President Zelensky. In summary, here is what our media hides from us and which should make us reflect on our sincere and friendly support for the Ukrainian people.

In 2021, the number of deaths exceeds that of births by 442,279 1, a staggering figure for around 41 million inhabitants: it means that more than 1% of the population literally disappeared that year, not to mention the effects of emigration.

In January 2022, the last month before the Special Operation, the situation got even worse: around 57,000 deaths were recorded, but only 18,000 births, a multiple of more than three.

Even though the gap was smaller in previous years, it still stood at a negative six-digit surplus since the 2014 Maidan revolution and before. At this rate, the Ukrainian people will be extinct within one or two generations, especially since a large part of the refugees and emigrants will not return, whatever form Ukraine takes at the end of the war.

We must now add the disaster in progress, where more than 200,000 men mowed down in the prime of life will no longer have children. And the butchery continues: it is now teenagers who are sent to the front. Who can imagine the medium and long term consequences for the very existence of the Ukrainian people?

According to data from the WHO and local authorities, including the Order of Physicians, the rates of infection by HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, hepatitis B and C, etc. in Ukraine remain among the highest in Europe and the world. Tuberculosis has even spread there in a unique, highly drug-resistant form.

The country is also affected by violent epidemics of measles, despite a high rate of vaccination, but also of swine flu, botulism, leptospirosis, diphtheria, etc., which are found nowhere else in such proportions. .

Medical tests carried out by the Russians on the thousands of Ukrainian prisoners of war show that a third of them have been infected with hepatitis A, more than 4% have kidney syndrome and 20% have West Nile fever . The conclusion is that they were subjected to years of biological experiments by the Americans. Russian propaganda?

No, since the United States Department of Defense recognizes on June 9, 2022 having established “collaborations” with 46 Ukrainian laboratories, obviously for peaceful purposes. In reality, the Pentagon was not "collaborating" but directly operating biological warfare labs in Ukraine since 2014, in contravention of the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention. This has been documented since the Maidan of 2014, including, for example, a report by a former agent of the SBU, the Ukrainian intelligence services, which reveals that the death of the trial subjects was permitted as part of its conduct ". In this case, the “test subjects” are Ukrainians, not lab rats.

It is also discovered that this extremely dangerous research was aimed at improving the pathogenic properties of plague, anthrax, tularemia, cholera and other deadly diseases. Among the priorities identified is also the study of bacterial and viral pathogens that can be transmitted from bats to humans, such as the pathogens of the plague, leptospirosis, brucellosis, as well as coronaviruses… Coronaviruses from bat ? Does this remind us of anything? Let's add that a military program called “Covid-19” was funded in November 2019, three months before the WHO gave this name to a global pandemic that has not finished talking about it. Mere coincidence?

Be that as it may, there is no doubt that the civilian population and the Ukrainian soldiers have been used as guinea pigs for years by the American military, with the complicity of kyiv. Moreover, these biological weapons threaten us directly, because who can guarantee that these deadly viruses will stop at our borders? What are the European Commission and our governments doing to protect us from this threat?

Reuters estimates at more than 100 what some call "integral nationalists" or Neo-Nazis. Whether they group together under the names of Azov, Aïdar, C14, etc., they have been poisoning the lives of Ukrainians since 2014, and not only of the Russian-speaking, Magyar, Jewish, Roma, LGBT minorities... In particular, they have participated in more than 14 killed in the Donbass, a situation which takes on the characteristics of genocide within the meaning of the Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide of December 9, 1948. Testimonies reveal, moreover, that these death battalions perceived up to $10,000 for the murder or capture of any separatist. A good business in a country whose democratic and progressive values ​​are constantly being sold to us.

They do not hesitate either to enter the courts armed to threaten the judges, in the administrations to compel the mayors and the governors. They even oblige certain municipalities to pay them as militiamen to ensure the… security of the citizens. Since Ukraine is also the country without justice, as we will see below, they have all the rights, including murder, rape, torture, robbery, racketeering, etc. Of course, with the complicity of the police.

And when the Aidar Battalion was disbanded by the authorities in 2016, its members blocked a thoroughfare in kyiv and attempted to storm the Interior Ministry. After such an act, one imagines that the prison sentences were severe… Nay! The disbanding order is canceled and they are integrated into the Ukrainian armed forces, like the other neo-Nazi battalions after the Minsk agreements, then sent to commit their crimes in the Donbass.

As a result, they become our allies, since the West has allied itself with Ukraine for life and death (especially that of the Ukrainians, at least to begin with…).

This point would require an entire chapter corruption is endemic in Ukraine. Thus, from 2015, CNN reports that it costs the state budget around $10 billion.. No international institution is fooled by this reality. For example, the European Court of Auditors finds in a 2016 report have no knowledge of the use of the last 11 billion euros sent to Ukraine. On the other hand, it reads that “the risks posed by the old and the new oligarchs remain high”. How better to confess corruption without using the word?

Nevertheless, the billions continue to flow, whether from the European Union, the United States, the IMF, etc. Strange, right?

In order not to dry up the flow of these funds of boundless generosity, the question of corruption is definitively settled by the Constitutional Court of Ukraine (CCU) with its spectacular decision of October 27, 2020 : it relieves the government, senior civil servants and judges of all responsibility for false declarations of assets.

As a result, a judge who would have only declared ownership of a modest dwelling in kyiv is now protected by law if it is discovered that he also owns a sumptuous villa on the French Riviera. At least, court decisions will be rendered more quickly: they will depend only on the thickness of the envelopes paid. The same is true for politicians and civil servants. The country of corruption has also become the country without justice.

Since then, of course, billions have continued to flow into Ukraine. In reality, are we sure that the Ukrainian leaders are the only ones to "profit" from corruption? Nothing of these staggering sums would therefore be shared out of sight with the Western part which sends them as lost funds in this barrel of the Danaides that Zelenskyland has become?

Be that as it may, it is certain that these tens of billions, to which we contribute, have not benefited the Ukrainian people or peace.

When war broke out, opposition parties and media that did not follow the official line were quickly banned. No doubt a demonstration of democratic values ​​to please the European Commission... Equally worrying, the authorities decide by law 5371, ratified on August 17, 2022 by President Zelensky, to abolish the labor code in companies with less than 250 people, that is to say for more than two thirds of the population. From now on, there are only contracts “freely” negotiated with the employer, who can impose, for example, weeks of 50 or 60 hours and beyond. Employees no longer benefit from legal protection, and unions have no means of action. Ukraine has quite legally become a paradise for rogue bosses.

Admittedly, a worker can refuse such a contract, but is he sure of finding another job that will not impose the same constraints on him, since all companies, apart from multinationals, benefit from this exceptional regime?

It should be noted that the fact that this law will remain in force as long as martial law lasts was added at the last minute. Who can guarantee that it will no longer be so, if only to “fluidify” the labor market? Who can even guarantee that with the crisis that is looming in the European Union, the same type of law will not be imposed, obviously for the good of employees?

The above leads to it in a way soft, but there is even worse: many reports prove that Ukraine is the country of children for sale, but not only. For example, le Trafficking in Persons Report of 2021 published by the US State Department, therefore unlikely to be biased towards Ukraine, reports:

« TRAFFICKING PROFILE: As has been reported over the past five years, human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Ukraine, and traffickers exploit Ukrainian victims abroad. Ukrainian victims are exploited in sex trafficking and forced labor in Ukraine, as well as in Russia, Poland, Germany and other parts of Europe, China, Kazakhstan and the Middle East. Ukrainian victims are increasingly exploited in European Union member states ».2

One wonders what the European Commission, so quick to boast of its human rights values, is doing to fight against this scourge... The report continues as follows:

« The approximately 104,000 children placed in state orphanages are particularly at risk of trafficking. The managers of several care institutions and public orphanages were allegedly complicit or deliberately negligent in the sex trafficking and labor of the girls and boys in their care. »

Even if the word pedophile does not appear in full, it is indeed child crime in question. " One in ten child victims of trafficking worldwide comes from Ukraine ». In this film broadcast on Art, we also learn that more than 40 nteens were sold to local politicians for sex 3. The press and the general public are kept away from the trial ". Of course, nothing came of it and who can believe that since then virtue has descended on the elites of Ukraine?

However, who heard Ursula von der Leyen, Charles Michel, Josep Borrell, Emmanuel Macron, Olaf Scholz, Boris Johnson… denounce these unacceptable human rights violations?

So, who still wants to support the dream country of President Zelensky and NATO that the Western media are bragging to us day and night? Does their Ukraine deserve our support, and even our sacrifices?

To help the Ukrainian people and avoid the catastrophe that is already having its effects on our society, there is only one option: peace. It is therefore urgent to stop sending arms and money for the war: it must stop for lack of arms and not for lack of fighters. Moreover, we run the risk of finding ourselves there too if we do not stop the madness of our leaders.

source: stratpol

READ FROM TOP.

MAKE A DEAL PRONTO BEFORE THE SHIT HITS THE FAN:

MAKE A DEAL PLEASE:

NO NATO IN "UKRAINE" (WHAT'S LEFT OF IT)

THE DONBASS REPUBLICS ARE NOW BACK IN THE RUSSIAN FOLD — AS THEY USED TO BE PRIOR 1922. THE RUSSIANS WON'T ABANDON THESE AGAIN.

CRIMEA IS RUSSIAN — AS IT USED TO BE PRIOR 1954

A MEMORANDUM OF NON AGRESSION BETWEEN RUSSIA AND THE USA.

EASY.

THE WEST KNOWS IT.

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW....

by Mendelssohn Moses

Statements by Pino Cabras and Rainer Rupp during the “non-compliant” meetings in Brussels and Berlin.

The online newspaper Apolut.net published a few days ago an appeal, signed by the essayist and ex-spy Rainer Rupp, whose constancy is unshakeable, concerning a meeting scheduled for the end of March in a Berlin location whose address, out of caution, is not yet made public, and which will bring together retired soldiers from the GDR and the FRG as well as anti-war notables from all political backgrounds.1

Here are excerpts from Rainer Rupp's text:

« In order to shed full light on the current state of affairs and above all to shine the spotlight on what these "elites" and their press" of the Dictatorship of opinion are plotting behind the scenes, at the end of March in Berlin will see the meeting of important figures both from both the West and the East: soldiers, scientists, artists and civil society.

« All participants, be they generals, privates, peace movement activists or artists, decided to put aside any political, ideological or party differences, in order to give the highest priority to peace with the Russia. Making this peace means first of all putting an end to the war waged by the USA and NATO, which would otherwise risk engulfing all of Europe, and also putting an end to the deindustrialization of Germany desired by the USA.

save the furniture

One of the organizers of the meeting, who prefers to give only his initials, RW, told us:

« No need tothree: pacifist or infatuated with Russians, to demand that peace be made with Russia. This peace is the reason that dictates it: it is the precondition so that our economy as well as the future of our sons and grandsons will not be sacrificed to a clique of vassals of the USA.. The watchword is therefore de to bridge any differences of partisan or social policy.."

« RW underlined that this meeting in Berlin will be a great novelty, because not only senior officers of the NVA (Neue Volksarmee) of the GDR will intervene, alongside their fellow retired officers of the Bundeswehr, but also personalities from all sides. politicians, from Die Linke to the AfD. All demand that peace be made with Russia. »

For RW, the organizers of the meeting hope:

« a) sweep away the artificial obstacles that have allowed the Transatlantic Opinion Dictatorship to divide the opposition; no one should fear being denounced as a right-wing extremist or a Nazi, for having demonstrated for peace with Russia. It is essential that the opposition advance in a united front against this war by NATO and the USA, and that it be present in all the streets and in all the squares of our country.

b) make the Berlin meeting the starting point for a myriad of similar meetings at local and regional level, where citizens of all political persuasions will put aside their differences in order to demand peace with Russia as a priority . The initiative can be the ferment of a huge anti-war movement. »

Rainer Rupp concludes by explaining that the meeting in Berlin was financed by donations from circles close to the organizers. In the future, the seriousness of civic engagement will be judged by the number of small donations intended for the organization of such meetings in every corner of Germany (printing of posters, rental of rooms, etc.). Interested parties wishing to contribute can consult the link below (go to the end of the article for the RIB).[1]

***

In addition, a similar conference took place in Brussels at the European Parliament on March 20: “ Measures to restore confidence in the face of the strong polarization of Europee "

Upstream, on March 16, the financial analyst and former Italian MP Pino Cabras commented on his own participation in his Facebook :

« I will be going to a conference in the wolf's den – Brussels (and it's not so much a wolf, as a strange beast turned belligerent activte). Indeed, I will be going to the seat of the European Parliament, at the invitation of MEP Tatjana ŽDANOKA, one of the few personalities who strongly speak out against the hysteria of the ubiquitous warmongers in the institutions of the EU and the NATO. (…) In a building that sweats hostility towards anyone who seeks peace, we will do the only thing that makes sense, while a pack of propagandists propels us towards a world war: we must find diplomatic ways, historical awareness, 'win-win' solutions, measures that promote detente and disarmament and the thousand alternatives that exist to total war. So I invite you to send us your own proposals. »

Final communiqué of the Brussels meeting as published by Investig'action by Michel Collon

“The war in Ukraine continues unabated, causing huge losses to the Ukrainian people and their infrastructure, as well as serious damage to the global economy. If the fighting continues, Ukraine will soon be a depopulated and devastated country.

“Many people across Europe fear an escalation of the war. They fear for their future and that of their children.

“The prolongation of the Ukrainian conflict increases the risk of nuclear, ecological and socio-economic disaster on a global scale, and even risks the annihilation of all humanity.

“That is why we consider it extremely urgent to call for an immediate ceasefire and the opening of negotiations accompanied by the lifting of sanctions and the cessation of the arming of Ukraine. . Negotiating does not mean capitulating. To negotiate is to compromise. In order to avoid hundreds of thousands more deaths, or even worse.

“We call on all governments to put an end to the escalation of arms deliveries. We must act quickly! Each day this war continues, costs up to 1 extra lives – and brings us closer to World War III.

“Today, there is no more important task for humanity than to stop our descent into disaster!

“We call on citizens of the world, all social movements, intellectuals, trade unions, religious communities and governments to act firmly on this path and coordinate their efforts to achieve lasting peace.

Sign

Attila Antal (Hungary), Editorial board of quarterly journal Eszmélet/Consciousness
Pino Cabras (Italy), former Member of Parliament, editor of online portal Megachip
Aleksandar Ciric (Serbia), Board Member, Association of Lawyers of Black see – Caspian see regions
Michel Collon (Belgium), journalist, Director of Investig' Action
Clare Daly (Ireland), Member of the European Parliament
Gilbert Doctorow (Belgium), political analyst, writer
Franceska Donato (Italy), Member of the European Parliament
Leo Gabriel (Austria), Member of the International Council of the World Social Forum
Marcel de Graaff (Netherlands), Member of the European Parliament
Inaki Irazabalbeitia (Basque country), former Member of the European Parliament
Dimitris Konstantakopoulos (Greece), journalist, editor of online portal Defend Democracy Press
Josifs Korens (Latvia), President, International Movement for a Future Without Fascism
Vladimirs Lindermans (Latvia), journalist, publicist
Miroslav Radacovsky (Slovakia), Member of the European Parliament
Mick Wallace (Ireland), Member of the European Parliament
Zahari Zahariev (Bulgaria), President, Slavyani Foundation
Tatjana Zdanoka (Latvia), Member of the European Parliament

See also for another story https://www.sueddeutsche.de/polen-armee-ukraine-aufruestung

MAKE A DEAL PLEASE:

NO NATO IN "UKRAINE" (WHAT'S LEFT OF IT)

THE DONBASS REPUBLICS ARE NOW BACK IN THE RUSSIAN FOLD — AS THEY USED TO BE PRIOR 1922. THE RUSSIANS WON'T ABANDON THESE AGAIN.

CRIMEA IS RUSSIAN — AS IT USED TO BE PRIOR 1954

A MEMORANDUM OF NON AGRESSION BETWEEN RUSSIA AND THE USA.

EASY.

THE WEST KNOWS IT.

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW....

THIS LINE OF ARTICLE AND COMMENTS HAS BEEN READ BY MORE THAN 164,581 READERS. At this stage, this little site has had more than 304,000 unique readers (154,000 more than in October 2022), representing more than 3 million dedicated viewers of the cartoons. But this is not the point here... 

WE THINK THAT "WHAT HAS BEEN EXPRESSED IN THE CARTOON AT TOP" HAS NOW BEEN PICKED UP BY THE RUSSIAN LEADERSHIP....

MORE TO COME.

READ FROM TOP.

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW......................

GUSNOTE:  this yourdemocracy line of articles has now 245,390 reads

SEE:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTDjI518MLU

Germany has gone quite mad, George observes. You have to swear an allegiance, not to Germany, but to Israel, before you can become a German citizen...

READ FROM TOP.

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW......................

Moscow published a transcript of an alleged conversation involving four German senior military officers on Friday. The leaked audio contained operational and targeting details of Taurus cruise missiles that Germany has held off on sending to Ukraine, with four officers discussing hitting the Crimean Bridge with the weapons.

By publishing Bundeswehr officials' intercepted alleged attack-plotting, Moscow did more than “shed light on the hybrid war waged by a united Western front against Russia for years,” Iranian political scientist Ruhollah Modabber told Sputnik.

Russia also “blew a hole in NATO ranks,” while demonstrating “the strength and capabilities” of its own forces, the expert stated.

“The publication of this audio file transcript is significant on several levels. Firstly, it testifies to Germany's extremely hostile position towards Russia. Among some German military personnel, fascist sentiments are still strong. They are haunted by the defeat delivered by the Soviet Army [in World War II], and they use Ukraine as a proxy tool in this conflict to get revenge for the defeat of Nazi Germany. It is they who fuel the neo-fascism and neo-Nazism that is now opposing Russia in Ukraine,” Modabber said.

The Iranian expert weighed in on the "hybrid war waged by the West against Russia for many years," saying:

“This war has targeted Russian values, Russian language and culture, and even Russian monuments, especially in Eastern Europe; anti-Russian sentiment has reached its climax in Lithuania, Latvia, and Ukraine, and [Russia’s President Vladimir] Putin has frequently mentioned this. This war is being waged through the media, which publishes fake news about Russia, and is also the result of the work of think tanks of intelligence agencies such as MI6 and the CIA, which have failed in achieving their goals.”

On Friday, RT and Rossiya Segodnya media group (Sputnik's parent company) Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan published a transcript of an intercepted conversation involving four senior German military officers discussing an attack on the Crimean Bridge with Taurus missiles and other issues.

The videoconference was held on the WebEx platform on February 19, 2024. It involved Brigadier General Frank Grafe (department head for operations and exercises at the Air Force Forces Command of the Bundeswehr), General Ingo Gerhartz (Bundeswehr Air Force inspector), and two employees of the Air Operations Command within the Space Operations Center of the Bundeswehr. German news agency DPA reported that the leaked conversation was authentic. The broadcaster ARD slammed the leak as a "catastrophe" for Germany's secret services.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20240303/russia-delivers-blow-to-nato-ranks-with-leaked-german-war-talks-on-ukraine-1117098264.html

GUSNOTE: THIS LINE OF COMMENTS HAS HAD MORE THAN 310,000 READS....

Among some German military personnel, fascist sentiments are still strong. They are haunted by the defeat delivered by the Soviet Army [in World War II]... THIS IS WHAT THE CARTOON AT TOP IS ABOUT..... As well, one can speculate that the Russian Intel has far more secret info from the USA, the EU and the UK.... The Russians know where the NATO stockpiles are in Ukraine and hit them regularly as soon as these reach a certain level of stock, worth using Kinzals...

SEE ALSO: 

MAKE A DEAL PRONTO BEFORE THE SHIT HITS THE FAN:

NO NATO IN "UKRAINE" (WHAT'S LEFT OF IT)

THE DONBASS REPUBLICS ARE NOW BACK IN THE RUSSIAN FOLD — AS THEY USED TO BE PRIOR 1922. THE RUSSIANS WON'T ABANDON THESE AGAIN.

THESE WILL ALSO INCLUDE ODESSA, KHERSON AND KHARKIV.....

CRIMEA IS RUSSIAN — AS IT USED TO BE PRIOR 1954

A MEMORANDUM OF NON-AGGRESSION BETWEEN RUSSIA AND THE USA.

EASY.

THE WEST KNOWS IT.

READ FROM TOP

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW....

Germany yet to be ‘denazified’ – Zakharova
Hitler’s ghost still haunts the EU country, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman has said...

Germany could face “dire consequences” if something is not done about the mindset that produced the conversation between Luftwaffe generals on a possible operation to destroy Russia's Crimea Beidge, Moscow's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Monday.

RT has published a recording and transcript of the February 19 call between senior leaders of the German Air Force, in which they discussed how Taurus long-range missiles could be deployed against the 18 km long connector, at the request of Ukraine. 

“As we now understand, they have not been fully denazified,” Zakharova told reporters on the sidelines of the World Youth Festival (WYF 2024) in Sochi.

“If nothing is done, if this process is not stopped by the German people themselves, this will lead first of all to dire consequences for Germany itself,” she added.

Earlier in the day, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Luftwaffe conversation was proof of the West’s direct involvement in the Ukraine conflict. The military officers involved “substantively and specifically” discussed plans to launch strikes on Russian territory, Peskov said. 

The Germans also revealed the presence of other Western military personnel in Ukraine, acting as targeting observers for British and French long-range missiles.

According to the Kremlin, the question now is whether the German military was acting on its own – which raises issues of civilian control – or if their discussion was in line with official government policy.

“Both possibilities are really bad,” Peskov said.

Denazification was a policy of the USSR, the US, the UK and France after the Second World War, intended to remove the Nazi ideology from German and Austrian politics, society, culture, economy, courts and journalism. Russia has accused the current government in Kiev of having rehabilitated Nazism. It vowed to “denazify” Ukraine as one of the objectives of its military operation, which began in February 2022.

The US and its NATO allies have responded by sending Ukraine over $200 billion worth of weapons, ammunition and supplies, while insisting they aren’t directly involved in the conflict.

https://www.rt.com/russia/593749-zakharova-russia-germany-denazified/

SEE ALSO: 

the nazi ideology thrives in the west without the fascist uniforms and army hats.....

Jetzt wissen wir, warum die Kanzlerin sich weigert, Taurus-Raketen zu schicken – sie werden nicht funktionieren...

MAKE A DEAL PRONTO BEFORE THE SHIT HITS THE FAN:

NO NATO IN "UKRAINE" (WHAT'S LEFT OF IT)

THE DONBASS REPUBLICS ARE NOW BACK IN THE RUSSIAN FOLD — AS THEY USED TO BE PRIOR 1922. THE RUSSIANS WON'T ABANDON THESE AGAIN.

THESE WILL ALSO INCLUDE ODESSA, KHERSON AND KHARKIV.....

CRIMEA IS RUSSIAN — AS IT USED TO BE PRIOR 1954

A MEMORANDUM OF NON-AGGRESSION BETWEEN RUSSIA AND THE USA.

EASY.

THE WEST KNOWS IT.

READ FROM TOP

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW....

Here’s what the ICC arrest warrant for Putin has accomplished in the past year
The final day of the Russian presidential election coincides with the anniversary of the utterly meaningless move against the incumbent

One year ago, on 17 March 2023, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued two politically important – to put it neutrally – arrest warrants, one for Russian President Vladimir Putin, and the other for Maria Lvova-Belova, the Commissioner for Children’s Rights, a position within the Office of the President.

The warrants reflected that the ICC, to be precise its Pre-Trial Chamber following the court’s Prosecutor Karim Khan, found what it considered “reasonable grounds to believe that President Putin and Ms. Lvova-Belova bear criminal responsibility for the unlawful deportation and transfer of Ukrainian children from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.” Khan further argued that “these acts… demonstrate an intention to permanently remove these children from their own country.” In sum, the arrest warrants depicted an extensive kidnapping operation during wartime.

Public – and published – opinion in the West preponderantly celebrated the warrants as not only justified but salutary. They were supposed to promote the protection of civilians during war and put pressure on Russia by increasing its international isolation, a geopolitical aim that the West was struggling to achieve.

As the Wall Street Journal proclaimed, this was “the first time the leader of a nuclear superpower” was “called to account before the court, an independent institution established … to end impunity for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.” The American President, Joe Biden, thought the ICC operation made “a very strong point.” Not to be outdone, reliably extremist Senator Lindsey Graham and equally reliably conventional publicist Fareed Zakaria both displayed historical illiteracy by absurdly claiming that Putin was copying Hitler. Historian here: Hitler’s victims would have disagreed.

Some Western commentators warned that the warrants were unlikely to be enforced and that convictions were even less likely. Yet such reservations did not challenge the overall Western consensus that the ICC move was both correct and, in some way, useful, even if mostly in a “symbolic,” that is, really, political manner.

Russian officials, unsurprisingly, responded very differently. They rejected both the charges as “null and void” and the jurisdiction of the ICC. Russia, like the US, is (after withdrawing in 2016) not a signatory state to the 1998 Rome Statute, on which the court is based. Hence, the decisions of the ICC have “no meaning for Russia,” as Maria Zakharova, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs put it. Russia even started its own investigation against members of the ICC, and later Graham.

Russian commentators, as well as dissenting voices in the West, also denounced the ICC warrants as an abuse of judicial procedures for political purposes, amounting to a form of information war or lawfare against Russia. The Grayzone’s Jeremy Loffredo and Max Blumenthal, for instance, investigated the ICC’s evidence and found that it was fundamentally flawed. Their work was thorough, and their findings were detailed as well as, for the ICC and Karim Khan personally, deeply embarrassing.

The key point was that Khan had based much of his case on a report produced by the Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) at Yale University, an organization “funded and guided” by the US State Department’s Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations, an entity the Biden administration established in May 2022 to advance the prosecution of Russian officials.” In addition, the executive director of HRL, Nathaniel Raymond, started contradicting himself. Whereas he had initially made grandiloquent public statements in the Graham-Zakaria register – even including a bizarre reference to “genocide” – he greatly toned down his allegations once challenged by investigative reporters. No wonder, as the HRL report was weakly sourced, and its content actually contradicted Raymond’s inflammatory rhetoric.

In other words, the ICC prosecutor had relied on a tainted source that crudely served the information warfare purposes of Russia’s main geopolitical opponent, to such a degree that even its executive director ultimately got cold feet. That this badly undermined Karim’s case and his reputation as a professional needs no further belaboring. Washington will be Washington, but why should the ICC join it? If, that is, it seeks to be respected.

In legal terms, the cases have already been shown to be shoddy. They are unlikely to succeed, and not only because of practical and political obstacles, but, more importantly, because there is much more politics than evidence behind them. In terms of those politics, ironically, they have also failed: The warrants have not led to or increased the isolation of Russia or its president. If they have weakened anything, then it is the standing of the ICC, and, in particular, of its Prosecutor Karim Khan. The ICC is already struggling with a deserved reputation as a willing tool of Western geopolitics, while turning a blind eye to the West’s crimes. The attempt to engage in geopolitical lawfare on Russia during a Western proxy war against it has made this image problem worse. Whether a coincidence or not, the fact that one of the judges who issued the warrant for the Russian president has just become the ICC’s new president will only deepen this impression of bias.

Yet what has recently cast an especially harsh new light on the ICC’s campaign against Russia is a matter of comparison, namely between the ICC’s treatment of Russia and of Israel. And, to get a popular piece of nonsense out of the way: comparison is not “whataboutism.” Justice, and that is what courts are supposed to be about, cannot exist without consistency. To assess consistency requires comparison. The cry of “whataboutism” is merely the last refuge of the special pleaders, that is, those who want bias and thus injustice as long as it favors their own side.

As early as April 2023, anotherGrayzone piece of reportingfound that Khan was stalling “the ICC’s case against Israel, frustrating human rights lawyers who represent the victims of grisly violence in the besieged Gaza Strip.”As critical lawyers pointed out even then, a court genuinely interested in the unlawful displacement of civilians, should have put decades of Israeli ethnic cleansing of Palestinians at the center of its activity.

In addition, the ICC stopped investigating American war crimes in Afghanistan. The US, in return, started displaying a favorable attitude – and offering generous financial support – to the ICC, which, previously, it had threatened with invasion in case it should ever dare prosecute Americans.

And all of that before Israel’s current genocidal campaign in Gaza, which began after the Hamas attack in early October 2023. Tel Aviv and its Western supporters – in criminal terms, which do apply here, accomplices – have pretended Israel has responded with a “war” on Hamas. But, in reality, everything – explicit Israeli statements, tactics, and, last but not least, the open display of sadism by many of its soldiers and civilians as well – show conclusively that this is not “war,” terrible as the latter is. Instead, this is a genocide executed with the purpose of ethnic cleansing, to be precise, the expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza (at least).

Prompted by South Africa, even the International Court of Justice – in a sense, the ICC’s “sibling”organization – has already recognized that genocide is at least a plausible possibility. It is important to understand that ICJ cases take years to conclude. At this point, a finding of a plausible possibility of genocide is the worst imaginable outcome for Israel already. In view of the fact that Tel Aviv has since then resolutely disregarded all the instructions the ICJ issued to restrain its assault, it is all the more likely that, in the end, Israel will be fully convicted.

And yet while the ICJ deals with cases between states, the ICC tries individuals – and has been conspicuous by its reticence to charge Israeli citizens. Critics have pointed out that the court and Khan himself have, once again, been very slow in reacting to Israel’s crimes. Mick Wallace, an Irish member of the European Parliament, has denouncedKhan as a “pawn of US Empire” who has displayed  pro-Israeli bias and cannot “be trusted to deliver justice.” Only Khan’s removal, says Wallace, could save the ICC from irrelevance. The BDS (Boycott Divestment Sanctions) movement, a key player in Palestinian and international resistance to Israel, has even accused Khan of being an accomplice to Tel Aviv’s genocide and, unsurprisingly, also called for him to be fired.

Only recently, as we are now looking back on half a year of unrelenting Israeli atrocities against the Palestinians in Gaza (and, as a matter of fact, elsewhere, too) have Khan and the ICC slowly started stirring themselves. Yet even now their efforts appear disingenuous. For instance, when finally appointing a prosecutor to lead the investigation into Israel’s actions against the Palestinians, Khan managed to find perhaps the worst candidate imaginable. Andrew Cayley is obviously well-embedded in the British establishment. He used to serve as the UK’s chief military prosecutor. He is a committed and open Conservative, while claiming that that does not tarnish his objectivity. Last but not least, according to The Guardian, Cayley “played a key role in a process that resulted in” the ICC giving up on a “long-running investigation into allegations that UK military personnel committed war crimes in Iraq.” Ask yourself: If you were Palestinian, would you expect fair treatment from a man with this CV?

As if to make things even worse for its own reputation, the ICC has recently added arrest warrants against two high-ranking Russian officers. In their case, the essence of the charges is that they are held responsible for attacks on infrastructure in Ukraine that, the court alleges, went beyond what humanitarian law permits. Really? The same court that has never issued similar warrants against US officers, while the comprehensive devastation of infrastructure – on a scale that Russia has not matched in Ukraine – is routine in American warfare? The same court that is dragging its feet over Israel’s assault on Gaza, which is all about mass killing of civilians not “only” directly but by the deliberate and virtually total destruction and crippling of infrastructure?

The ICC is neither promoting nor protecting human rights and international law. In reality, its obvious and indecently manifest political bias is undermining both. Is it possible that, one day, the ICC will change course, abandon its current role as an instrument of Western geopolitics, and finally do its job: pursue justice without bias? Maybe. No one knows the future. But one thing is predictable: If the ICC continues in what we might call the Khan mode of flagrant subservience, then it will become irrelevant, and soon.

https://www.rt.com/news/594370-icc-putin-arrest-warrant/

READ FROM TOP

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW....

Berlin - THE hotspot for spies. Nowhere else did the secret services of East and West clash as closely as in this city on the frontlines of the Cold War. Arts Unveiled delves into the shadows of Berlin and uncovers incredible stories from ex-agents.

Berlin has been at the center of countless spy stories - both real and fictional. From the cold war right up until today! Berlin's rise as an espionage hotspot began after World War Two. The erstwhile Allies put an end to Nazi rule and divided the capital into four sectors. Nowhere else did the superpowers of the East and West clash as they did in the divided city - a perfect scenario for spies! Some operated undercover, with secret identities while spying on the other side. The fact that West Berlin, essentially an island surrounded by communist East Germany, inspired countless spy movies: such as Steven Spielberg's "Bridge of Spies," the James Bond film "Octopussy," or "The Bourne Conspiracy."

We embark on a journey through "secret" Berlin, tracing spy scenes. We visit Checkpoint Charlie, the Friedrichstraße train station, the Teufelsberg listening post, and the Glienicker Bridge.

We meet ex-agents with incredible stories, such as the American couple, the Schevitzes. For years, the two lived in West Germany as top spies for East Germany. Bea Schevitz's high-value target was no less than the German chancellor. We reveal how infamous double agent George Blake betrayed the western powers' surveillance tunnel codenamed "Operation Gold." And we show why Berlin remains a scene of espionage: In recent years, there have been wiretapping scandals by the American National Security Agency (NSA), and Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), which was allegedly to blame for a dramatic assassination. And in 2023, a Russian double agent was exposed at Germany’s foreign intelligence service (BND).

Berlin is, and will remain, a popular field for secret services! These and other stories can be discovered at the German Espionage Museum, which opened in 2015, near Potsdamer Platz, in the heart of Berlin.

https://www.dw.com/en/why-berlin-remains-an-espionage-hotspot/video-64357395

IS THIS BECAUSE THERE ARE MORE THAN 40 AMERICAN BASES IN GERMANY ????.....

READ FROM TOP

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW....

Republican and Democrat US lawmakers alike have called for retaliating against the International Criminal Court (ICC) if it issues arrest warrants for Israeli leaders over their roles in alleged war crimes against the Palestinians.

Responding to media reports this week that the Hague-based tribunal will soon post warrants for the arrests of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials, members of Congress have issued statements warning of consequences for any such step. US Representative Brad Sherman (D-California) is among those insisting that Washington would retaliate for any attempt to arrest Israeli leaders during their ongoing war with Hamas.

“The ICC apparently considers warrants on Israeli leaders for legitimate self-defense,” the 14-term congressman said. Sherman argued that such a move would turn the tribunal into a “kangaroo court,”adding, “President [Joe Biden] must condemn this, and I know Congress will ensure consequences for such an absurd decision.”

https://www.rt.com/news/596820-us-lawmakers-threaten-icc-israel-arrest/

READ FROM TOP

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW....

GUSNOTE: IN THE FIRST COMMENT AT TOP THERE IS A SENTENCE:

"Reuters estimates at more than 100 what some call "integral nationalists" or Neo-Nazis."

THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE SAID:

Reuters estimates at more than 100,000 what some call "integral nationalists" or Neo-Nazis. 

IN REALITY, MORE THAN 3 MILLION UKRAINIANS VOTED FOR NEO-NAZIS AT THE LAST UKR ELECTION....

To attempt to use secular rationality as the predominant analytic tool by which to comprehend geo-political events may be to commit an error.

On a visit to Oxford a few weeks ago, Josep Borrell, the EU’s High Representative, (Walter Münchau writes), made an interesting remark: “Diplomacy is the art of managing double standards”. Münchau illustrated its inherent hypocrisy by contrasting the enthusiasm with which EU leaders supported the ICC’s decision to seek an arrest warrant against Putin last year, and “yet not to accept it – when it hits a member of your team” (i.e. Netanyahu).

The most egregious example of such double ‘thinking’ concerns its correlate – the western ‘management’ of created realities. A double standard – a ‘narrative’ of us ‘winning’ – is crafted, and then set against a narrative of ‘them failing’.

A resort to the manufacture of narratives of winning (instead of actually doing the winning) may seem rather clever, but the uncertainty it causes can have unforeseen potentially disastrous consequences. For instance, President Macron’s deliberately obfuscated threats to send NATO forces to serve in Ukraine – which only contributed to Russia preparing for a wider war against all NATO, accelerating its offensive operations.

Instead of deterring – as likely intended by Macron – it brought about a more determined adversary, with Putin warning that Russia would kill any NATO ‘invaders’. It was not so clever, after all…

Take as a more substantive example President Putin’s response to a press queryduring his visit to Uzbekistan: ‘These representatives of NATO countries, especially in Europe, … firstly provoked us in the Donbas; led us by the nose for eight years, deliberately deceived us into supposing they [the West] wanted going to resolve things peacefully – notwithstanding their seemingly contrarian attempt to force the situation ‘towards peace’ – through armed means.

‘Then they deceived us during the negotiation process’, Putin continued, ‘having, a priori decided in secret to defeat Russia on the battlefield – and thereby to inflict a strategic defeat on it. This constant escalation can lead to serious consequences (Putin probably refers to a ratchetting missile exchange ending – even – with nuclear weapons). If these serious consequences occur in Europe, how will the United States behave in view of our strategic arms parity? Do they want a global conflict? It’s hard to say… Let’s see what happens next’, he concluded. (This is a paraphrase of what was a long and extensive question and answer session by President Putin).

Naturally, some in the West will say that this is just a Russian ‘story’ – and that the West has acted reasonably throughout, in response to Moscow’s actions.

‘Rational thinking’ and reasonableness pretentiously are taken to be the defining qualities of the West (inherited from Plato and Aristotle). However, to attempt to use secular rationality as the predominant analytic tool by which to comprehend geo-political events may be to commit an error. For such a limited instrument forces a brutal amputation of the deeper dynamics of history and context – which risks yielding distorted analysis and flawed policy responses.

Just to be clear: What has this deceptive diplomacy achieved? It has resulted in Moscow’s complete distrust of European leaders and the wish to have nothing further to do with them.

Is it ‘rational’ to leave actors such as Putin wondering whether indeed Russia faces a West determined to “inflict a strategic defeat” on it, or whether Washington just wants to craft a ‘winning narrative’ ahead of November?

Putin pointed out (at the press conference) that Ukraine-based high-precision long-range weapons, (such ATACMS) are prepared on the basis of ‘space intelligence and reconnaissance’, which then is translated automatically into the appropriate target missile settings (with the operatives possibly not even understanding what co-ordinates they are entering as the target).

This complex task of readying a high-precision missile, however, is being prepared not by Ukrainian servicemen, but by representatives of NATO countries, Putin underlined.

Putin is saying: ‘You – Europeans, who supply and operate such weapons – are already at war with Russia’. Trying to ‘manage these double standards’ won’t work; you cannot claim on the one hand, that once your munitions are transported, they magically become ‘Ukrainian’, whilst ‘narrating’ too that NATO – its surveillance assets; its ISR technicians, and its missile handlers – do not translate into ‘war with Russia’.

In his explicit answers, Putin gave the West a clear warning: These representatives of NATO countries – especially in Europe; especially in small countries – should be aware ‘of that with which they are playing’.

Yet, in Europe the idea of striking deep inside Russia is presented as being entirely rational – in spite of knowing that such strikes into Russia will not change the course of the war. Plainly put, Putin effectively is saying Russia can only interpret western statements and actions as an intent for wider war.

The same ‘double narratives’ may be said to hold for Israel too. Netanyahu and his government, on the one hand, are cast as a messianic entity, pursuing a Biblical apocalypse. Whereas, the West claims it is simply pursuing its own rational understanding of what is in Israel’s true interest – i.e. a two-state solution.

It may be uncomfortable to say it, but Netanyahu’s ‘non-secular, non-rationalist’ zeitgeist probably reflects a plurality of opinion today in Israel. In other words, like it or not – and almost all the world does not – it nonetheless is authentic. It is what it is – and there is little point therefore to crafting strictly secular policies that simply ignore this reality (unless there is the will forcibly to change that reality radically – i.e. imposing a Palestinian state by force).

The reality is that a trial of strength is coming in the Middle East. And in its wake – with one or the other parties exhausted – a political current, or a shift in zeitgeist (were Israel to reconsider special rights for one population group over another living on shared land), might open a more productive path to a ‘solution’, one way or another.

Again, the insistence on a secular, materialist optic invites a misreading of the ground, and may make matters worse (by cornering Israel into the massive escalation on whose brink we stand).

When Gantz – regarded as a possible, more reasonable alternative to Netanyahu, calls for an early election, he is calling for it , writes Roger Alpher in Haaretz, “to renew the contract between the people and the government and to mobilise for a second war of independence. Under the new vision, Israel is at the start of a long, blood-soaked war for survival”.

“Gantz isn’t a secular person; his mentality is religious … When he accuses Netanyahu of bringing ulterior motives into ‘the holy of holies’, as he put it – i.e., defence considerations – he’s expressing his religious belief in the nation’s faith. The state is holy, the state before anything else”.

“His differences of opinion with Netanyahu are blurring a broad consensus – including Yair Golan, Bezalel Smotrich, Yair Lapid, Avigdor Lieberman, Naftali Bennett, Yossi Cohen and the Likud party with or without Netanyahu – that the war is the thing. The Israeli public is a hero because of the war. It’s at its best during its wars: A nation has no greater spiritual elevation than a love of sacrifice in “carrying the stretcher,” as Israelis put it”.

Plainly put, Gantz – like Netanyahu – is not in the western, liberal secular camp.

And here is where Josep Borrell’s ‘management of double standards’ meme enters into the equation: Can Europe or the U.S. continue to tolerate such an ‘unreasonable’ Zionist world view, with all its adverse implications for an increasingly volatile U.S. hegemony?

Well, there is a certain ‘rationality’ to the Netanyahu vision, but it is not one rooted in our mechanistic ontology.

Perhaps too, Netanyahu’s Biblical references to Amalek (the people King Saul was ordered to annihilate), touch on raw western nerves: Wasn’t the Scientific Enlightenment supposed to have ended that ‘other’ ontology? Does it remind the West of its own colonial ‘sins’?

Professor Michael Vlahos, who taught war and strategy at Johns Hopkins University and the U.S. Naval War College, and was Director of the Centre of Foreign Studies at the State Department, contends that America too is “a religion” consumed by the eternally recurring apocalypse, and that war is its “cleansing ritual”:

“The Founders—our “creators”—had imagined more than a nation … They had also drafted the story arc of a divinely heroic journey, centring the U.S. as the culmination (to be) of History. This is America’s sacred narrative. Since its founding, the United States has pursued, with burning religious fervour, a higher calling to redeem humanity, punish the wicked, and christen a golden millennium on earth.

“While France, Britain, Germany, and Russia stalked the world in search of new colonies and conquests, America has steadfastly hewed to its unique vision of divine mission as “God’s New Israel”.

“Thus, among all the revolutions unleashed by Modernity, the United States declares itself — in its own scripture — to be the trailblazer and pathfinder of humanity. America is the exceptional nation — the singular, the pure-of-heart, the baptizer, and redeemer of all peoples despised and downtrodden: The “last, best hope of earth”.

President Biden said this catechism precisely at West Point on 25 May 2024:

“Thanks to the U.S. Armed Forces, we’re doing what only America can do as the indispensable nation … the world’s only superpower, and the leading democracy in the world: The U.S. standing up to tyrants” worldwide: It is “protecting freedom and openness”.

“We’re standing against a man [Putin] who I’ve known well for many years, a brutal tyrant. We may not – we – and we will not – we will not walk away”.

This is the catechism of the “American Civil Religion”; Professor Vlahos explains:

“In the world’s eyes, all this may seem like a ritual of self-serving vanity, yet the Civil Religion is the national article of faith for Americans. It is Holy Writ, which takes rhetorical form through what Americans take to be History.

“American Civil Religion is inextricably linked with the Reformation, Calvinist Christianity, and the bloody history of Protestantism, with America’s sacred narrative shaped and christened through the country’s first and second Great Awakenings. Although its scriptural reading became secular in the Progressive era – the American religion still remained tethered to its formative roots. Indeed, even our contemporary “Church of Woke” cannot escape its original Calvinist Christian tubers”.

“Since 2014, a rapidly-growing new sect—“The Church of Woke”—has sought to transform and fully possess the American civil religion, to reign as the successor faith. Ironically, the fervour of its evangelism channels the post-millennialism of the First Great Awakening, whose messianism was codified in Novus Ordo Seclorum (New Order of the Ages)”.

What is the point here? Hubert Védrine, a former French Foreign Minister and Secretary-General of the French presidency under President Mitterrand says that the West (that is to say, embracing Europe, too) – the “descendants of [Latin] Christendom” – is “consumed in the spirit of proselytism“.

“That Saint Paul’s “go and evangelize all nations” has become “go and spread human rights to all the world” … And that this proselytism is extremely deep in our DNA: “Even the very least religious, totally atheist – they still have this in mind, [even though] they don’t know where it comes from”.

Is this the raw nerve? ‘The U.S. as the New Israel’ – in Professor Vlahos’ telling – that cannot be looked directly in the eye? Yet if we look in the mirror, is this what we see?

“This is by far the most profound and important question facing the West”, says Védrine.

“Is it capable to “accept alterity – one that can live with others and accept them for who they are … a West that is not proselytizing, and not interventionist?”, he asks.

To which he retorts: “There’s no choice”. Absolutely not —

“We are not going to become the bosses of ‘the world that’s coming’. So we are forced to think beyond; we are forced to envision a new relationship for the future between the Western world and the famous global South”.

“And what happens if we can’t get to accept this? Then we’ll continue being marginalized – increasingly cut from the rest of the world – and increasingly despised for our misplaced sense of superiority”.

(Novus Ordo Seclorum is Latin – ‘a new order of the ages’. The phrase is one of two Latin mottos on the reverse side of the Great Seal of the United States. The other motto – Annuit cœptis – translates as ‘He favors (or has favored) our undertakings’).

https://www.unz.com/article/the-coming-novus-ordo-seclorum-change-we-must-there-is-no-choice/

READ FROM TOP

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW....

410,000 READS....