TOKYO MASTER BANNER

MINISTRY OF TOKYO
US-ANGLO CAPITALISMEU-NATO IMPERIALISM
Illegitimate Transfer of Inalienable European Rights via Convention(s) & Supranational Bodies
Establishment of Sovereignty-Usurping Supranational Body Dictatorships
Enduring Program of DEMOGRAPHICS WAR on Europeans
Enduring Program of PSYCHOLOGICAL WAR on Europeans
Enduring Program of European Displacement, Dismemberment, Dispossession, & Dissolution
No wars or conditions abroad (& no domestic or global economic pretexts) justify government policy facilitating the invasion of ancestral European homelands, the rape of European women, the destruction of European societies, & the genocide of Europeans.
U.S. RULING OLIGARCHY WAGES HYBRID WAR TO SALVAGE HEGEMONY
[LINK | Article]

*U.S. OLIGARCHY WAGES HYBRID WAR* | U.S. Empire's Casino Unsustainable | Destabilised U.S. Monetary & Financial System | U.S. Defaults Twice A Year | Causes for Global Financial Crisis of 2008 Remain | Financial Pyramids Composed of Derivatives & National Debt Are Growing | *U.S. OLIGARCHY WAGES HYBRID WAR* | U.S. Empire's Casino Unsustainable | Destabilised U.S. Monetary & Financial System | U.S. Defaults Twice A Year | Causes for Global Financial Crisis of 2008 Remain | Financial Pyramids Composed of Derivatives & National Debt Are Growing | *U.S. OLIGARCHY WAGES HYBRID WAR*

Who's preaching world democracy, democracy, democracy? —Who wants to make free people free?
[info from Craig Murray video appearance, follows]  US-Anglo Alliance DELIBERATELY STOKING ANTI-RUSSIAN FEELING & RAMPING UP TENSION BETWEEN EASTERN EUROPE & RUSSIA.  British military/government feeding media PROPAGANDA.  Media choosing to PUBLISH government PROPAGANDA.  US naval aggression against Russia:  Baltic Sea — US naval aggression against China:  South China Sea.  Continued NATO pressure on Russia:  US missile systems moving into Eastern Europe.     [info from John Pilger interview follows]  War Hawk:  Hillary Clinton — embodiment of seamless aggressive American imperialist post-WWII system.  USA in frenzy of preparation for a conflict.  Greatest US-led build-up of forces since WWII gathered in Eastern Europe and in Baltic states.  US expansion & military preparation HAS NOT BEEN REPORTED IN THE WEST.  Since US paid for & controlled US coup, UKRAINE has become an American preserve and CIA Theme Park, on Russia's borderland, through which Germans invaded in the 1940s, costing 27 million Russian lives.  Imagine equivalent occurring on US borders in Canada or Mexico.  US military preparations against RUSSIA and against CHINA have NOT been reported by MEDIA.  US has sent guided missile ships to diputed zone in South China Sea.  DANGER OF US PRE-EMPTIVE NUCLEAR STRIKES.  China is on HIGH NUCLEAR ALERT.  US spy plane intercepted by Chinese fighter jets.  Public is primed to accept so-called 'aggressive' moves by China, when these are in fact defensive moves:  US 400 major bases encircling China; Okinawa has 32 American military installations; Japan has 130 American military bases in all.  WARNING PENTAGON MILITARY THINKING DOMINATES WASHINGTON. ⟴  
Showing posts with label Iran-Contra Affair. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Iran-Contra Affair. Show all posts

February 22, 2016

Video - CIA & Swedish Military - Conspire to Bring Down Elected Swedish Prime Minister





CIA & Swedish Military
Conspire to Bring Down
Elected Swedish Prime Minister



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4Vc8CcH8ZY&feature=youtu.be




CIA & Swedish Military
Conspire to Bring Down
Elected Swedish Prime Minister

TRANSCRIPT
[confirm video for quotations]

Narrator:

In 1989 the Soviet empire started to collapse.

A historic victory. It could be that the Secret Committee of US President Ronald Reagan contributed to it.

Herb Mayer, CIA vice-chief of intelligence:

They stopped playing defence and began playing offence.

That was the great shift that changed the course of world history.

Thomas Reed Special Question Advisor:

We could have brought them to their knees if we wanted.

Narrator:

Did the Committee in fact exist?

What methods did Reagan's soldiers use?

John Lehman, the Minister of the US Navy:

The use of deception could make it appear to the soviets to be 20 feet tall.

Admiral James 'Ace' Lyons:

You have to go out and physically demonstrate.

Narrator:

For the first time, witnesses tell of those events.

Mathias Mossberg, the Secretary General for the 34d Submarine Investigation Board:

They made fools of the Swedish parliament and government as well as Swedish media.

What world do we actually live in?

Screen display:

Deception: Reagan's Method:
A film by Dirk Polmann

Submarines against Olof Palme

Narrator:

The next target is supposed neutral state of the North of Europe, Sweden.

Only the Baltic Sea separates it from the Soviet Union.

Ula Tuander
Forschungsprofessor für Sicherheitspolitik
/ Research professor of security policy:

Sweden actually was extremely important in case of a future world war.

Sweden was located northward of Germany and was kind of an unsinkable aircraft-carrier that the US could operate from.


Narrator:

Since 1960 Sweden had been integrated into the plans of NATO militarisation.

In the 1960s, Swedish Air Forces ranked 4th strongest in the world.

The US Army counted on Sweden's secret loyalty to NATO.


Ula Tuander
Forschungsprofessor für Sicherheitspolitik
/ Research professor of security policy:


Since 1960, Sweden was preparing to receive US aircraft on its territory.

There was a direct phone line with the headquarters of the US Navy in Wiesbaden.


Ingemar Engman:

We prepared airfields, on which the American jet planes could have landed on their way eastwards.


Narrator:

The USA needed Sweden as an 'aircraft-carrier.'

And besides, the Soviet Union would be forced to fight on two fronts.

There's an extremely conservative elite in the Swedish Army, an economy and aristocracy completely aligned with the USA that treats Social Democrats with deep mistrust.

Ola Frithiofson
Jungsozialisten:

In Social Democratic Sweden it was perhaps the most powerful Social Democratic party in the world.


Narrator:

A charismatic leader, Olof Palme, a man of indisputable international renown. A man who had enemies.


Ula Tuander
Forschungsprofessor für Sicherheitspolitik
/ Research professor of security policy:

It was the Social Democratic government of the country.

But there were also ruling elites who shared quite different views.

They were closely related to the USA and Great Britain.

And this meant that you have a divided Sweden.

Once I was invited to dinner with James Schlesinger (economist / public servant), the former US Secretary of Defence (1973-1975 Nixon & Ford), and the Director of the CIA.

I asked him what he thought of Sweden, at the time he had occupied his position.

And he asked me: "What Sweden, the political Sweden or the military Sweden?"

Narrator:

At the end of the 1960s, beginning of 1970s, the Vietnam War shook up the Western states and deeply divided society.

Outraged youth organised demonstrations all over the world.

Olof Palme, together with North Vietnamese Ambassador, led demonstrations criticising US policy.

The case is exactly one for the Committee.

In 1981 Palme is still the opposition leader.

But a year later he wins the elections and has brilliant ratings.

Palme's and Reagan's plans are as much like fire and water.

However, the Committee can use the preliminary work for the CIA.

Since the 1970s, the US secret service had been scheming against Palme on Swedish territory.

Reagan and Casey knew: Palme is considered to be a traitor among Swedish security agencies.

Besides, important Swedish admirals are on their side.

John F. Lehman Jr
American investment banker & writer
Served as Secretary of US Navy in Reagan Administration 1981 - 1987
Member of 9/11 Commission 2003 - 2004:


Certainly, there were efforts to see that that Swedish military addressed the demands of NATO strategies and ideas, and that Sweden had access to technologies needed to defend their neutrality.

Narrator:

On the morning of October 28th, 1981, the Chief of Swedish Naval Staff in Karlskrona receives an unexpected report: fisherman found a submarine washed ashore.

Commander Karl Andersson immediately heads there.

Karl Andersson:

As soon as we called in at the Gåsefjärden I slowed down and, suddenly, I saw a black and green Whiskey-class submarine 100 metres in front of me.

It was obviously a Russian submarine.

Narrator:

The highest rank aboard was the Chief of Brigade Staff from the City of Baltiysk, Joseph Avrukevich.

He had navigated the submarine along quite a narrow fjord.

The commander, Peter Gushchin, was forced to follow Avrukevich's instructions.

Karl Andersson:

I could never understand what kind of commander he was or what the operation was meant to be.

I actually didn't even think of that because it was incredibly stupid to call in at the Gåsefjärden since a submarine could run aground.

Narrator:

The submarien had been drifting for a long time until Avrukevich, guided by a beacon, steered the submarine into the fairway of the just 100-metre wide Gåsefjärden.

Karl Andersson:

They could hire a fishing boat under the guise of a Swedish flag for that purpose.

But it was a very stupid decision to call in there with a submarine.

The public will discover: the submarine was sent to spy in a fjord that it couldn't submerge into since there was 1.5 metres of water under the keel.

Anderson notes that the person who was responsible for making decisions was the mysterious chief of Staff Arukevich.

He then received an order not to interrogate him.

Karl Andersson:

Yes, I received this exact order.

I received orders to interrogate Gushchin only, the watch officer, the signaller and the navigator.

I was prohibited from interrogating anyone else.

Narrator:

The Swedish Naval Forces sent a diver under water.

Their footage is being officially shown here for the first time ever.

They make a startling discovery.

A big sand dune formed behind the marine propeller.

Ula Tuander
Forschungsprofessor für Sicherheitspolitik
/ Research professor of security policy:

In front of the propeller there was no sand dune.

That meant someone wanted the submarine to run further against the rocks, to stay there.

And then it was turned around more than 50 degrees so the submarine would really get stuck in the rocks, so it wouldn't slide off.

Narrator:

To sum up: a supposed spy submarine put into the extremely narrow fjord where there's almost no water under the keen and will sooner or later run aground.

When it happened, the engines continued to work at full capacity.

But one mustn't interrogate the officer responsible for this insane operation.

"Whiskey on the Rocks" hit the headlines.

Sweden is shocked and indignant.

Olof Palme wins the elections in 1982.

He wants to achieve neutrality, disarmament and non-alignment to the military blocs for Sweden.

Confrontation mitigation; but Reagan just wanted the opposite.

Therefore the 'Deception Committee' begins a project launching an operation of psychological warfare: a pretence of reality that should return Sweden back on the course that corresponds to the Reagan strategy.

Two weeks after Palme took office, a submarine's periscope was detected at a Swedish naval base: Musko.

It could be -- and everyone claimed they were only Soviet submarines after 'Whiskey on the Rocks'.

Ula Tuander
Forschungsprofessor für Sicherheitspolitik
/ Research professor of security policy:

They showed their periscopes and cone towers to the public.

A submarine's captain shouldn't do that.

Mathias Mossberg:

Why did they want to be seen?

To turn the trick. And they did that very well.

Narrator:

A few hours after the submarines had been detected, more than 750 journalists from all over the world report on the Swedish Naval Forces with arms ready in manhunt for the soviet submarines, without success.

Is it just pretence for the media?

In the following years, the hunt for submarines repeats hundreds of times.

Foreign submarines are seen in front of the Royal Palace and in front of summerhouses and naval bases.

While Palme negotiates with the Soviets on disarmament and proposals of peace, Soviet military forces apparently pretend to want it.

Moscow is confused.

No one has given such orders to their military.

Or are there self-ruling captains?

Palme protests to the Soviet Ambassador again and again.

In the end, the latter passes a proposal from the Kremlin.

Boris Pankin, the Soviet Ambassador to Sweden:

If you think our submarines are there, you can bomb them.

But we know there are none, that's why we are not afraid of any bombing.

Narrator:

Endless, unsuccessful war against the ghost submarines has its consequences.

Ulf Svenson
Director of Security
Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs:

It was impossible for Palme to do anything else than to decisively blame the Russians.

It was difficult to ensure the policy of 'common security' in relation to the communist states.

The leaders of the Swedish naval forces sunk not a single enemy submarine, but it successfully torpedoed Palme's 'common security' policy.

Without the Swedish media, this operation would fail.

Mathias Mossberg:

The media were very much taking a lead in blowing up this issue according to the information they got from our militaries.

Narrator:

From 1981 to 1983 the number of Swedes who felt there was a Soviet threat increased from 27% to 83%.

Boris Pankin, the Soviet Ambassador to Sweden:

I would like to mention why it bothers me now.

It turned out that even in such an educated, Western European state, in such a bulwark of democracy, it was quite easy to distract vast masses of people and brainwash them, to zombify them.

Narrator:

Since 1983, three investigations into the submarines scam were carried out.

Mathias Mossberg:

The first inquiry came to the conclusion that it was Soviet submarines.

The second concluded that this could not be proven.

Then a few years went by and an interview came out with Caspar Weinberger, the US Secretary of Defence, who clearly said that the US was involved in this.

Caspar Weinberger,
US Secretary of Defence:

There was no direct insertion or testing of Swedish defence without consultation, when speaking of the agreement.

Keith Speed
British Navy Minister:

There were exercise attacks.

Could the submarines infiltrate their waters and emerge at the port in Stockholm?

Well, that's not quite the thing, but something like that.

How far could we go?

During my administration, we had Oberon-class and Porpoise-class diesel submarines for that purpose.

Narrator:

It's quite clear: Swedish Naval Forces' leadership knew NATO's submarines were in Swedish territorial waters.

Why had they kept silent back then?

And what part had the Americans and British played?

Mathias Mossberg:

Obviously, we needed to go into the question again.

They instituted a new inquiry and appointed me as Secretary General.

Mossberg found a document in the Muskö naval base archives.

Several senior admirals were worried about Weinberger's statement and wanted to be prepared.

Mathias Mossberg:

To the effect we had to coordinate our response to this.

I wanted to take a copy of this document. but our military expert told us: "You don't need to do that. We have this at the office in Stockholm."

I believed him. When I came back to our office, it turned out we didn't have this document at all.

And next time we went back to that archive, that particular document had disappeared.

So these were the kinds of things we had to fight with.

Narrator:

The board faced resistance: access to the archives was denied and it discovered the military destroyed important evidence, photos and documents.

Mathias Mossberg:

What we were dealing with was a certain group that was not telling the government the full truth about what they knew or had happened or was happening.

And they were taking decisions which had far-reaching implications for Swedish defence and foreign policy.

They were decisions that were taken outside the democratic framework of the Swedish government.

Then, of course, you ask yourself where you are.

Narrator:

In a country where the military conspired with a foreign power against its own Minister-President?

Mathias Mossberg:

Sweden was taken for a ride.

Public opinion was taken for a ride, Swedish parliament was taken for a ride, Swedish government was taken for a ride, the press was taken for a ride.

What sort of world are we actually living in?

Narrator:

In a world where Olof Palme was murdered.

The killer hasn't been found yet.

Mikhail Gorbachev,
President of USSR:

I'm sure it was a political killing. It was a contract killing ...

I don't think he was murdered for some domestic reasons ...

Interviewer:

Why do you think it was a political killing?

Mikhail Gorbachev,
President of USSR:

Because this man and the things he was proposing ...

Their implementation involved the interests of groups who weren't particularly interested in making the world a better place.


Subtitles by amara.org community

-- 17:01 end  --

SOURCE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4Vc8CcH8ZY&feature=youtu.be

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

Miscellaneous Look-Ups:

Mathias Mossberg
  • Sweden's Ambassador to Morocco - 1994 to 1996
  • Involved in Middle East peace negotiations since the 1980s
  • Swedish team re back-channel negotiations re Oslo peace process
  • Senior Research Fellow at Lund university's Centre for Middle Eastern Studies, Sweden
  • Editor of: 'One Land, Two States: Israel & Palestine as Parallel States (University of California Press, 2014)
  • Previously Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Stockholm adviser re Muslim affairs.
  • Previously secondment to East West Institute in New York
  • Previously Secretary-General for major Sweden government review of Swedish security policy during cold war
  • was Director of Policy Planning Group of Ministry 1996-2000
  • CSCE Personal Representative of Chairman for Nagorno-Karabakh 1992 - 1994.
  • Previously Assistant Under-Secretary for Africa & Middle East at the Ministry
  • Held diplomatic posts in London, Aman, New York, Moscow & Geneva.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mathias-mossberg/


John F. Lehman Jr
  • American investment banker & writer
  • 1977 Lehman founded the Abington Corporation,
  • a consulting company with clients including defence companies such as Northrop Corporation
  • was president & director to 1981
  • Served as Secretary of US Navy in Reagan Administration 1981 - 1987
  • Member of 9/11 Commission 2003 - 2004:
  • National Security Advisory Council for the Centre for Security Policy (CSP)
  • board of trustees for the think tank Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI)
{"New York Times (NYT 1967:1, 32) revealed that FPRI had been funded directly by the CIA since the fifties."
http://www.leopoldreport.com/LRsajt81.html}
  • member National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States
  • signed policy letters by: Project for the New American Century
  • served as an advisor to Sen. John McCain for the 2008 presidential bid
  • served as an advisor to Mitt Romney - 2012 presidential bid
  • developed a strategic concept to counter threat of Soviet incursion into Western Europe
  • known as the "Lehman Doctrine"
  • plan called for a military response to any Russian invasion in Europe
  • by attacking and invading the Soviet Far East along the Pacific (less defended front)
  • chairman of the private equity investment firm J. F. Lehman and Company from 2004
  • / involved in other interests & NGOs - listed
  • Revealed: Reagan admin secretly offered use of amphibious assault helicopter carrier to British re 1982 Falklands War
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lehman

Senior US military officer critical of Lehman
Lehman once rowed for Cambridge in Britain
http://www.nytimes.com/1987/04/30/us/navy-chief-says-lehman-was-not-balanced.html

Keith Speed
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Speed

Caspar W. Weinberger
Caspar Willard Weinberger
b. 1917
  • father Jewish (Bohemia, now: Czech Republic)
  • met wife: Jane (Rebecca Jane Dalton Weinberger), nurse
  • on troops ship
  • transporting US troops to Australia during WWII
  • married in 1942 in Sydney, Australia
  • Harvard, law
  • Army
  • officers' candidate school at Fort Benning, Ga.
  • / intelligence staff of Gen. Douglas MacArthur
  • private law practice
  • 1952 politics: California Assembly + re-elections
  • held high positions under three Republican Presidents
  • oversaw largest & costliest military build-up in peacetime history
  • as Ronald Reagan's Secretary of Defence
  • had written a regular column for Forbes magazine
  • to his death 2006, was chairman of Forbes Inc.
  • key backer of President Ronald Reagan's
  • missile-based Strategic Defence Initiative ('Star Wars')
  • enemy of the Soviet Union
  • more faith in arms than diplomacy
role in the Iran-contra affair
  • / granted presidential pardon - questions left unresolved
  • 1992 - indicted on felony charges of perjury and obstruction of justice
  • re covert sale of arms to Iran & diversion of proceeds to Nicaraguan rebels ('contras')
  • k.a. 'Iran-Contra Affair' / against declared US policy
  • accused of concealing voluminous notes re Iran-Contra Affair
  • roles of Reagan & VP George Bush
  • 1992 President Bush pardoning Weinberger + several other officials re Iran-Contra Affair
  • under Weinberger, Pentagon:
-- understated cost of some weapons by billions of dollars
-- overstated effectiveness of weapons
-- exaggerated the threat of the Soviet Union
{General Accounting Office 3-year study, 1993}
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/28/obituaries/28cnd-weinberger.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

http://bangordailynews.com/2009/07/13/news/caspar-weinbergerrsquos-widow-a-milford-native-dies-at-age-91/

Karlskrona
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karlskrona

Gåsefjärden
http://archive.is/D5VRL

http://research.omicsgroup.org/index.php/Soviet_submarine_S-363


Professional American Disinformation Agents
Sabotaged the Investigation into the Murder
of Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme
http://www.leopoldreport.com/LRsajt71.html#ankare449926

Sweden's American Colony
Nya Sverige
New Sweden
1638 to 1655 - Swedish Colony
  • in present-day: Delaware, New Jersey, & Pennsylvania
  • first settlement: Fort Christina (now Wilmington, Delaware)
  • other settlers: Finns & Dutch
  • 1655 - Second Northern War - Dutch take New Sweden
  • (incorporated into New Netherland)
mid 1600s - Sweden was at most expansive territorial extent
/ was one of great powers of Europe
-- territories incl. FINLAND, ESTONIA, parts RUSSIA, POLAND, GERMANY, LATVIA
-- monarchs: Gustavus Adolphus & Queen Christina
-- Swedes aimed to create tobacco & fur trading colony
-- founded: Swedish West India Company
-- mandate to establish trading colonies Florida & Newfoundland
-- stockholders: Swedish, Dutch & German
-- led by directors of New Sweden Company, incl. Samuel Blommaert
-- 11 expeditions / 14 separate voyages to Delaware
-- 1637 - port of Gothenburg - first Swedish expedition sails
-- Indian tribes sold only small portion land / claim Swedes stole rest
-- Second Northern War in the Baltic opened by Sweden
-- Sweden vs. Polish-Lithuanian C'wealth
-- Dutch grabbed New Sweden Colony 1655
-- Dutch then dispossessed by the British in 1664
-- [ skip ]
-- major Swedish immigration took place only in late 19th C: 1870-1917 - 1.2 million Swedes arrived (Minnesota +)


[source:  Wikipedia]


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

COMMENT

Found this interesting.

No time to comb over this entry for typos, or to finish the look-ups I wanted to do.

It looks like our world is controlled by psychopaths.  There are no rules.  Money is god and power is king.  Or something like that.

Anyway, I thought all these ties (US, UK, Sweden ... and even Australia, in a round-about way, etc) ... & all this grubbiness was really interesting.

Good luck getting justice in America, Britain or in Sweden, especially if you expose American and government wrongdoing.

Note that Australian publisher-journalist, Julian Assange, is political prisoner of these same bent interests.

We're all political prisoners and de facto prisoners of state, as our well-being and the future of our nations is sacrificed to the money-serving plans of a colluding coterie of states serving money-hungry and money-controlling elites, while pretending 'democracy' and righteousness. 

Some things never change.   History is a constant.



December 25, 2015

2012 - 'Afghanistan: The First Feminist War?'

Article
SOURCE






Afghanistan: The First Feminist War?

Dan Ehrlich
Posted: 16/03/2012 22:37 GMT Updated: 16/05/2012 10:12 BST

The tragedy in Afghanistan of a US soldier murdering 16 civilians has given President Obama a greater urgency in getting American troops out of that country. Yet, he finds himself in a similar situation as President Nixon during the latter days of the Vietnam War...Securing Peace (leaving) with honour.

With America's "puppet" Afghan ruler Hamid Karzai now asking NATO troops to stay in their camps, abandoning one of their main goals of winning the hearts and minds of the people...one question resonates: Why are we sill there?

Leaving Afghanistan was a main topic Obama discussed with British Prime Minister David Cameron this past week. And it's a cinch one of the talking points was that question: Why are we still there? What are our goals?

Now that Osama Bin Laden is dead and Al Qaida is opening up chapters all over the Islamic world, the only concrete answer to that question is the protection of women.

The feminist victory may be complete in America, but on the international stage it's not doing so well with three quarters of the world's women still under often-severe male domination. Afghanistan is an extreme case in point in what might be termed the first feminist war...a war that now may not be won even if Hillary Clinton dons a flack jacket and shoulders an M16 on the front lines. Still, since the Bush Administration to the present America's top foreign policy office has been held by women...women who have promised not to desert their Afghan sisters.

I say that since there has yet to be a credible explanation as to why we, and other NATO nations, are sill there, except to keep the extreme male chauvinist and misogynist Muslim Taliban from power. Our main goal of defeating Osama bin Laden's Al Qaida group and international terrorism is over...at least there.

Remember, America originally helped arm the Taliban in its fight against the Soviets. As far as anyone can tell the reason for our conflict with them, as with Iraq, is regime change. We have also accomplished that. How long Karzai remains in power after NATO leaves is questionable.

Yet, unlike Iraq, which had a strong central autocratic government, the Taliban is a theocracy made up of hill tribesmen who simply abandoned Kabul when we arrived and took the mountains and friendly villages for a protracted war against NATO.

Of course it doesn't have to be that way. If we had the money and popular support we could stay there as long as we wanted. We have maintained forces in South Korea since the end of WW2, most of that time under a cease-fire agreement with North Korea.

But, this is the main weakness with progressive democracies when pitted against stagnant theocracies. Like sharks, we have to keep moving or we eventually will perish. Many Islamic states simply exist as shellfish, going where the tide takes them, in a non-evolutionary permanent state shielded by their faith.

But, for us, as usual there's more at stake in Afghanistan than our war on terror, women being forced to wear burkas and our international reputation. There are big, big bucks in the form of natural gas and minerals. And there's one more thing...narcotics. The country's biggest cash crop is opium poppies, another battle that hasn't been going well. Because as with our similar efforts to eradicate South American cocaine, we're fighting an indigenous people's traditional work.

President Obama's original contention during the GW Bush years that we should be concentrating on Afghanistan rather than invading Iraq was good politics in the aftermath of 9/11. Our invasion of Iraq wasn't based so much on Saddam Hussein's brutality as it was on reports of his so-called weapons of mass destruction aimed at the West...a claim that has since been proven false.

So, it was left to the media to ramp the US population up for our Afghan adventure. Photos and videos of women being tortured and executed for trying to have jobs or enjoy some western music, inflamed many of us against the brutal Taliban religious fanaticism. As it should have. Develop a war on terrorism and couple this with the Taliban and nine years later we are still there with more NATO troops dying every week.

But wait! There's one more weakness progressive democracies
have: We won't do what some of our enemies would do to win. We are limited by our civility, rules of warfare, the Geneva Convention, etc. That's partly why those 16 senseless civilian deaths is so difficult to stomach.

During the Korean War General Douglas MacArthur, one of the most brilliant military tacticians we have ever had was fired by President Truman because he wanted to bomb the railroads in Manchuria. That was from where China's Red Army supplies were being funneled into Korea. He felt if we broke the supply line, the Chinese offensive would collapse. Truman, however, felt such as action might bring Russia into the conflict and trigger WW3. We didn't win in Korea...but eventually bargained for a truce.

In Vietnam we tried everything except invading North Vietnam and nuclear weapons. But, those options were nixed for fear of bringing the Chinese into the war.

We are not about to nuke Afghanistan, killing everyone that isn't waiving Old Glory or even try to fight a war of attrition, which we would lose. That's possibly because we are still too nice to win. We will eventually just leave...but probably without that infamous Mission Accomplished banner.

And, hopefully we may at long last learn that our nation is best defended by guarding our own borders and fighting a never-ending battle at home for truth, justice and the American way, if anyone can recall what that way is. 



Decades-old CIA crack-cocaine scandal gains new momentum

Published time: 11 Oct, 2014 01:47
Edited time: 13 Oct, 2014 14:52


Nearly two decades after a US reporter was humiliated for connecting the CIA to a drug-trafficking trade that funded the Nicaraguan Contras, important players in the scandal – which led to the journalist’s suicide – are coming forward to back his claims.
 

Back in 1996, Gary Webb of the San Jose Mercury News broke a story stating not only that the Nicaraguan Contras – supported by the United States in a rebellion against their left-leaning government – were involved in the US crack cocaine epidemic of the 1980s, but also that the CIA knew and turned a blind eye to the operation.

As a result, Webb concluded, the CIA was complicit in a drug trade that was wreaking havoc on African American communities in Los Angeles.

The bombshell report sparked outrage across the country, but when national newspapers like the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, and Washington Post weighed in on the matter, they dismissed Webb and attacked his story to the point that it was disowned by the Mercury News. Webb was forced out of journalism and ultimately committed suicide in 2004.

Now, however, the whole ordeal is being looked at with fresh eyes in the form of two new films: “Kill the Messenger” and a documentary called, “Freeway: Crack in the System.” Additionally, several figures involved in the operation have recently spoken out, lending further credibility to Webb’s original reporting. 




---------------------- ꕤ ----------------------

COMMENT

I'm not really good with subtlety.  I don't get it.  I find it annoying.

What exactly is this, a piss-take?  We know it wasn't a 'feminist war' and the writer himself goes on to discuss the big draw-cards of Afghanistan:

1.  "big, big bucks in the form of natural gas and minerals."

2.  "country's biggest cash crop is opium poppies" (narcotics).

So that probably explains what the Americans are doing there.  That and the regime change the Americans sought.
And regime change was accomplished, according to the author.  By installing  Hamid Karza.

So what else is there?

Seeing a military base in Korea was discussed (a base that is like an occupation since WWII), I'm going to guess that the Americans also want a military base in Afghanistan, so they can permanently occupy the country.


There's a large number of military bases in Afghanistan.  Wow, who knew? 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ISAF_installations_in_Afghanistan

The writer comes across as rather unpleasant, the way he keeps referring to the American invaders and aggressors as 'too nice' to win the invasion, yet he admits that the Americans will not win a war of attrition.  So short of dropping nukes on Afghanistan, what is there?  Whatever it is, it's not a case of being 'too nice' to win.

This is a nation of invaders and destroyers that have killed for decades on a worldwide scale.

The reference to progressive democracies being limited to rules of war, the Geneva Convention and so on, are total crap.

The US has refused to ratify protocols of the Geneva Convention, the US has denied detainees basic human rights and denied detainees rights as combatants, and the US has engaged in torture of detainees, rendition (kidnap & transfer abroad), and was/is running black sites.  Plus the US has bailed out of the Rome Statute, so that it is not subject to provisions of the International Criminal Court (thus to avoid conviction for:   genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression).
The illegal invasion of Iraq would, I believe, be considered a 'war of aggression' and therefore a war crime.

Chauvinism & burqas, and exporting 'feminism' (democracy or anything else), have absolutely nothing to do with American (or Western) NATO motivations.

And as the CIA was involved in trafficking drugs in South America to fund the Nicaraguan Contras, even the mention of eradicating cocaine in South America is suspect.

What's the bet that the CIA is just repeating the same patterns in the Middle East?

P.S.

Following is link to USA Rome Statute (ICC) unsigning:



USA - Rome Statute - ICC
-- USA 'unsigns' Rome Statute
-- USA threatens military force
-- USA hypocrisy re ICC & regime change Targets
(Libya & Syria)
Link | Post




December 22, 2015

Video - ASSANGE / Paris Attacks - M98 Gun / 'Century Arms' Florida - History of Smugging Arms

VIDEO

ASSANGE

"Les Entretiens du Nouveau Monde Industriel: intervention de Julian Assange par Skype"

Translation:

Talks New World Industrial: 
intervention 
by Julian Assange
(Skype)



---------------------- ꕤ ----------------------

No luck finding the recent Russia-1 video, but I've found this recently loaded video on YouTube.

It's recent:  refers to gun manufactured by the Serbian arms company that was sold to an American dealer, before finding its way to the Paris Attacks  (Paris Attacks - Sites / Reference).


[M92?] - Shortened AK47



Serial number of [M92 ?] (shortened AK47) tracked down.

Gun registered to Century Arms, Florida, USA.

Gun manufactured by large, Serbian arms company and shipped as a batch to the US, to Century Arms in Florida and then founds its way to the Paris Attacks -- without there being a record of shipment from the US overseas.

Assange says Century Arms has been smuggling arms for years:


TRANSCRIPT

ASSANGE
[For quotation, confirm audio]

"Century Arms is very well documented in our archives. It's an arms company which people previously people did not find to be interesting, and the characters in it, who we deal with, were not in the last few years viewed to be interesting or important.

But, suddenly, they have become important, and we look back and see that Century Arms has been smuggling arms to various terror groups over a number of years. US-backed terror groups.

So, for example, in the early 2000s, according to our records, it smuggled more than 3,000 AK47s to the AUC.

The AUC is a right-wing terror group in Columbia: they've killed in the 2000's; they've killed the most number of people and kidnapped the most number of people.

We've heard about the FARC. Actually, the AUC has kidnapped more people and killed more people than the FARC, but because it's on the right, the United States and Great Britain don't talk about it so much.

The person involved is *** the former Israeli commando, who has been the middle-man for Century Arms in acquiring arms and selling arms to the right-wing ..."

-------

United Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC)

***sounds like Assange said 'Ari Zeigler,' but could not find that name (associated with the gun dealer) on the WikiLeaks database.

There is, however, an 'Ori Zoller' associated with the Century Arms company.

Note:  sounded like an 'M98' on the video, but I think it might be a 'M92' that is associated with the attack:

more on M92
Serbian M92 semi-automatic pistol
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/apnewsbreak-dealer-gun-linked-paris-attack-us-35697324



Palm Beach Post

WikiLeaks secret cables detail Delray firm's role in arms trade
10:49 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 11, 2011

Just before the start of the rainy season in Guatemala City, a U.S. State Department team landed in the bustling Central American capital on a mission to track forgotten guns.

The goal: to find out how World War II-era rifles, donated by the United States to Guatemala during the Cold War, made their way from a Guatemalan government warehouse to Century International Arms - a Delray Beach gun dealer and one of the largest movers of surplus military weapons in the world.

The April 2008 effort was detailed in secret diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks and made public 10 days ago, documents reviewed by The Palm Beach Post.

The dispatches offer rare glimpses into the shadowy world of the international arms trade. They show how guns can move from the U.S. to foreign military stockpiles, from stockpiles to dealers like Century Arms, and from dealers to buyers worldwide.

In this marketplace, Century Arms has prospered, trading in pistols, sniper rifles and assault weapons - sometimes with the help of "unauthorized brokers," according to the cables.

To carry out the Guatemala transfer, an Israeli arms dealer with a troubled past took control of at least one shipping container full of American M-1 rifles, guns the Guatemalans were forbidden to sell, and hawked them to Century Arms in 2007.

The Delray Beach company, run by the same family for 50 years, offered the weapons for general sale.

State Department officials, who declined to comment for this story, ultimately concluded that the transaction was illegal, according to the cables. An attorney for Century Arms maintains the company did nothing wrong.

Moving in shady circles

During the Cold War, the United States used its now-defunct Military Assistance Program as a way of shoring up friendly governments around the world. Between 1956 and 1989, the American government doled out what today amounts to $131.3 billion in rifles, bullets, jeeps, planes and other items, according to the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Guatemala's share was about $130 million. The cables don't specify when the guns peddled to Century Arms were donated to Guatemala, but as "MAP-origin" weapons, they were subject to the same stringent restrictions that applied worldwide: It was illegal to trade or resell them without first getting U.S. permission.

Gun broker Ori Zoller played the middleman in the Century Arms deal. In Central America, Zoller was a savvy operator with spy-novel credentials. He served as an Israeli special forces soldier and worked as an intelligence officer before founding his gun-dealing business in Guatemala in 1996, according to an investigation by the Organization of American States.

He sometimes moved in shady circles. In January 2001, eight months before 9/11, Zoller tried to round up "arms and ammunition, including twin- and four-barrel anti-aircraft guns, surface-to-air missiles, rocket-propelled grenades, anti-tank 'launchers' and small arms" for Samih Osailly, a Lebanese arms dealer with suspected ties to Al-Qaeda, the OAS found in 2003.

Century Arms has done business with Zoller for years. In 2006, the Guatemalan government came to owe Zoller a "significant debt" for arming the Guatemalan military, and the Israeli got an idea for how they could pay it back, according to a June 2008 cable, which was marked secret and not to be shared with foreign governments.

If the Guatemalans agreed to a barter deal, he would sell off their surplus military rifles to a private buyer and pocket the proceeds - if they could find a buyer.

As it turned out, that wasn't a problem. The buyer he lined up was Century Arms.

From office to ordnance

Founded in Canada in 1961, Century International Arms started out selling office equipment in Montreal. The company entered the arms trade after it bartered used typewriters for a trunk of Enfield rifles and made a tidy profit selling the guns, according to a trade publication.

Century Arms moved its headquarters to Delray Beach in 1993, but the company's owners have had ties to South Florida since the 1960s, business records show. It now leases a gray, 78,000-square foot office complex on South Congress Avenue, across the street from a Palm Beach County sheriff's substation.

Run by the Sucher family, the closely held company is reaping the benefits of a booming trade in military relics and surplus arms - especially after the 2004 sunset of a federal assault weapons ban.

Working with brokers like Zoller, Century Arms scours the world for surplus military weapons, imports and sometimes modifies them, selling them to collectors. In the past six years, it has bought or sold in the Czech Republic, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Belgium, France, Israel and Australia, according to the cables.

The Guatemala deal wasn't the first time Zoller had called on Century Arms.

In 1999, he approached the Delray Beach dealer about buying Kalashnikov rifles, assault weapons he planned to pick up in a trade with the Nicaraguan military, according to the OAS investigation. Century Arms was interested, but the deal fell through.

Instead, Zoller sold 3,000 AK-47s to a middleman who routed them to the AUC, a right-wing paramilitary group whose heavily armed death squads have terrorized Colombia.

Zoller contended he was duped, but not everybody lost out. Having cut a side deal, Century Arms walked away with a shipment of 9,000 bayonets, according to the report. The company's executive vice president, Brian Sucher, signed for the weapons days before the rifles were shipped to Colombia.

'Proper procedures'

Back in Guatemala City, the State Department team sat down with Zoller and heard his side of the story.

First, Zoller said, he had insisted he would sell only to an American company, according to the cables. Otherwise, he said, he ran the risk of getting tangled up in "shady deals."

Century Arms was a natural choice . He'd been doing business with the company since 1997. But it was Century Arms officials, he continued, who should have followed the U.S. government's rules. They were the ones who produced American import papers that seemed to show authorization.

Zoller added that he had no idea he was dealing in donated, and hence off-limits, American weapons until after the transfer. And, he stressed, Century Arms packed and shipped the rifles from the Guatemalan military warehouse. Zoller never touched the guns; he just owned them on paper to get paid, he said.

When the team sat down with the Guatemalans, they heard a different story. Zoller's company, not Century Arms, had shown up at the warehouse, loaded a truck full of weapons and rumbled off, acting with little or no supervision from the military.

Still, the defense officials said, more should have gone into vetting the transaction.

They blamed "confusion over the proper procedures" and admitted that "the necessary time and care were not taken when selecting the material that was to be sold," according to the cables.

In this case, fessing up was easy for the Guatemalan department heads: They had been on the job for only three months, installed after the new president took office.

Century Arms' attorney and lobbyist, Mark Barnes, said the company did nothing wrong in making the deal. In a letter to The Post, he described the transaction as "a standard international government sale," and laid blame for any broken rules on the Guatemalan government.

"Century acted in accordance with the laws of the United States at all times and continues to pride itself on its compliance with export control regulations," Barnes wrote.

Ominous items

The Guatemala deal was just one of many Century Arms has done in the past few years. The diplomatic cables document two other transfers immediately before and after the State Department's investigation began.

In the first, Century Arms sold pistols and revolvers to a Costa Rican gun dealer, a sale in which nothing seemed out of place. In the second, the company shipped weapons to Belgium, a case that again got the State Department's attention, according to the cables. A purchase order provided by Zottegam gun dealer Podevijn Eddy Wapenhandel listed some ominous-sounding items:

"'Booby traps,' 'unconventional warfare devices and techniques-incendiaries,' 'sniper training and employment,' and 'improvised munitions handbook.' "

Once again, as it had in Guatemala, the State Department set out to investigate.

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


How we got this story

Palm Beach Post staff writer Adam Playford obtained a file containing WikiLeaks archives of more than 250,000 State Department cables and wrote special software to search it.

Playford and staff writer Michael LaForgia pored over the dispatches, which detail developments in major areas of U.S. foreign policy. Thousands are marked secret.

They also include insights into how South Florida people and companies influence world events.

This story, the first in an occasional series, is based on those cables.


SOURCE
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/news/wikileaks-secret-cables-detail-delray-firms-role-i/nLxsM/



PARIS ATTACK  LINK


RT News

RT News

Gun in Paris terror attacks linked to ‘Iran-Contra’ Florida arms dealer

Published time: 12 Dec, 2015 03:36

A gun linked to the Paris terror attacks that left 130 people dead and wounded 368 others has been traced back to a Florida arms dealer. It is the same arms dealer that sold arms to the Contras of Nicaragua at the time the 1980s Iran-Contra scandal.

The revelation came during an interview with the head of a Serbian arms factory, who said the M92 semi-automatic pistol’s serial number was the same as one that his company delivered to an American online arms dealer, Century International Arms, in May 2013.

[ continues ... ]

SOURCE
https://www.rt.com/usa/325689-gun-paris-attack-iran-contra/




Our internet speed has been wound back to something shocking slow because I did some marathon listening to YouTube videos during marathon sessions online.  Oops.

If I sulk enough, I'm hoping we'll get an upgrade so I don't have to spend Christmas going nuts on what may as well be 'dial up' internet, for the time being.

Anyway, back to checking out all this stuff.

Oddly, I can watch the YouTube Video even though I'm now on slow internet ... but some of my searching is REALLY slow.


Wow, Zastava Arms has been operating ages:  founded 1850s (link).  Trivia:  'zastava' means 'flag'.






January 30, 2015

‘Espionage Den'


‘Espionage Den'
Westerners can see a Hollywood re-enactment of the early days of the hostage-taking, “Argo”, the wildly popular but very inaccurate docudrama, winner of 2012 Best Picture Oscar ...

In addition to Canada’s cloak-and-dagger role during the siege, the visit is made especially piquant because of the “conspiracy” surrounding the Stephen Harper’s decision to cut all diplomatic relations with Iran in 2012. Harper’s personal crusade to demonize Iran reached a bizarre high/low point when Minister of Foreign Affairs John Baird announced the severing of relations with Iran in 2012 just hours before “Argo” premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. “Life imitates art” takes on new meaning.

The Tehran embassy had indeed been a ‘nest of spies’, as the Shah was the most reliable US ally in the Muslim world, along with Turkey’s Kemal Ataturk the only Muslim leader who recognized Israel, and it was only natural that the CIA made the US embassy in Tehran ‘mission control centre’ for all US espionage activity in the Muslim world. Officially, the US has since admitted that there were at least three bona fide CIA agents among the captives. The six diplomats rescued by Taylor were consular workers, so they probably were not CIA agents.

No money changed hands as a result of the siege, and there were no American casualties, except for eight Marines who died when their helicopter crashed in the Iranian desert in Carter’s first bungled rescue attempt in April 1980. The 52 hostages were flown to Algeria January 20 1981, 20 minutes after Reagan concluded his inaugural address, the first move in what came to be known as the Iran-Contra affair. Reagan’s foreign policy team had secretly agreed to exchange arms-for-hostages with the Iranians, now at war with Iraq.

Since 1979, the United States government has officially had no dealings with the Iranian government, and is represented in Iran by the United States Interests Section of the Embassy of Switzerland in Tehran. This is belied by the hostage crisis itself, as Reagan swore his oath of allegiance in 1980, resulting in their release, and by the subsequent Iran-Contra Affair, when Reagan authorized selling arms to Iran to fight Saddam Hussein (who of course also received US arms and much more to fight the Iranians), funneling the proceeds to the Nicaraguan contras in Reagan’s own personal jihad against the socialist Sandinista government. With reality this bizarre, who needs fiction?

The visit to the embassy was bittersweet. Clearly Iranians are now of two minds about this time warp into their anguished past. The museum is generally closed, and visits require special arrangements for both foreigners and Iranians. Iranians uniformly want to restore relations with the US.

Yes, in the siege, the US was reaping the fruits of decades of imperialist intrigues, notably its involvement in the overthrow of the Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh in 1953 and the reinstalling of the Shah, who kowtowed to the US and Israel, and presided over a ruthless and unpopular dictatorship, turning Iranians against the US. At the same time, Carter, who lost the 1980 election to the trigger-happy Reagan primarily due to the hostage crisis, was America’s most liberal president, now revered as a humanitarian. Reagan’s foreign policies were far more militaristic, leading to Bush and the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, hardly policies that were favorable to Iran.

RANDOM EXTRACTS
ARTICLE BY:   Eric Walberg

SOURCE  http://www.eurasiareview.com/03012015-espionage-den-american-ghosts-tehran-oped/

COMMENT

Really enjoyed this article.  
These are only random extracts.  Full article is on link above.


October 15, 2014

Perversion and Poetry

PERVERSION & POETRY


1.  US Surveillance of entire foreign populations


US spies on multiple, whole populations worldwide ... depriving entire nations of their privacy & freedom.

USA spying on Bahamas, Mexico, Kenya, Philippines + one other (likely violent unnamed) >> 

Article

Data Pirates of the Caribbean: The NSA Is Recording Every Cell Phone Call in the Bahamas

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/05/19/data-pirates-caribbean-nsa-recording-every-cell-phone-call-bahamas/

2.  US Criminal Activities - Gladio B

"... Pentagon, CIA and State Department maintained intimate ties to al-Qaeda militants as late as 2001." [ceasefiremagazine.co.uk]

"... memoir, Classified Woman: The Sibel Edmonds Story, published last year, charged senior [US] government officials with negligence, corruption and collaboration with al Qaeda in illegal arms smuggling and drugs trafficking in Central Asia." [ceasefiremagazine.co.uk]

"In interviews with this author in early March, Edmonds claimed that Ayman al-Zawahiri, current head of al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden’s deputy at the time, had innumerable, regular meetings at the U.S. embassy in Baku, Azerbaijan, with U.S. military and intelligence officials between 1997 and 2001, as part of an operation known as ‘Gladio B’. Al-Zawahiri, she charged, as well as various members of the bin Laden family and other mujahideen, were transported on NATO planes to various parts of Central Asia and the Balkans to participate in Pentagon-backed destabilisation operations." [ceasefiremagazine.co.uk]

Source - Article - ceasefiremagazine.co.uk:

Special Report | Why was a Sunday Times report on US government ties to al-Qaeda chief spiked?

FBI whistle-blower Sibel Edmonds was described as "the most gagged person in the history of the United States" by the American Civil Liberties Union. Was the Sunday Times pressured to drop its investigation into her revelations? 
http://ceasefiremagazine.co.uk/whistleblower-al-qaeda-chief-u-s-asset/
3. Operation Gladio > Secret Stay-behind Fascist Paramilitary - Europe
Operation Gladio is the codename for a clandestine NATO "stay-behind" operation in Europe during the Cold War. Its purpose was to continue armed resistance in the event of a Soviet invasion and conquest. Although Gladio specifically refers to the Italian branch of the NATO stay-behind organizations, "Operation Gladio" is used as an informal name for all stay-behind organizations. [Wikipedia] 
The role of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in sponsoring Gladio and the extent of its activities during the Cold War era, and its relationship to right-wing terrorist attacks perpetrated in Italy during the "Years of Lead" (late 1960s to early 1980s) and other similar clandestine operations, is the subject of ongoing debate and investigation. Switzerland and Belgium have had parliamentary inquiries into the matter. [Wikipedia]

Source:  Wikipedia >>  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Gladio

4. Gary Webb - CIA-backed Contra Drug Ops - Media Corruption

‘The New York Times’ Wants Gary Webb to Stay Dead | The Nation thenation.com/blog/181940/ne


GARY WEBB >"dead from 2 gunshot wounds to the head, which the coroner's office judged a suicide" >exposed CIA-backed Contra drug ops - #USA


#USA >> Contras, CIA, crack cocaine, crimes of state, media power & media corruption >> Power of the Internet >> whale.to/b/mighty__wurl



>>Collusion b/w the press & the powerful: "national news orgs. have had a long .. history of playing footsie with the CIA"



WashingtonTimes (.. helped finance ..Contras, hosting fund-raisers & speaking engagements 4 .. leaders while supporting .. cause editorially)
5.  US Whistle-blower Harassment
MUST READ: Applebaum, WikiLeaks, Snowden & USA harassment -

http://www.exberliner.com/features/people/jacob-appelbaum-on-the-usa-and-nsa/
What they did to Applebaum's mother is disgusting.

6.  Australia - Absence Accountability & Transparency, Extension of Govt (& Govt agency) Powers, Suppression, & Threat to Free Press






>>> Brandis ... an easy 'out' not commenting on anything. Not a good look. Busy ducking behind 'inaccurate' paraphrasing.

#Auspol >>> Edward Snowden a traitor, Attorney-General George Brandis tells Washington think tank >>>

>> Snowden had the guts to take on the biggest criminal enterprise in the world: USA. Snowden's a hero.

Note:  Centre for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) - Washington foreign policy 'think tank' is where Brandis made the Snowden pronouncements. 

7.  'Democracy' Lobbying Propaganda - Europe


"Khodorkovsky for caution in anti-Russian sanctions in Prague
Prague - The EU and the USA can influence the situation in Russia, but their use of sanctions should be cautious, Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who was recently released from prison, said at the opening of the 18th Forum 2000 international conference in Prague today.

The EU and the USA can help Russia on its road to democracy, Khodorkovsky said.

Rather, the Russian democratic movement needs a cultivated influence of the Western countries, he added.

International sanctions can be a precarious instrument, said Khodorkovsky, who now lives in Switzerland from where he supports opposition and democratic changes in Russia.

In the summer, the EU imposed sanctions against Russia over its policy in the Ukrainian conflict.

The conference, initiated by the late Czechoslovak and Czech president Vaclav Havel (1936-2011), is this year entitled "Democracy and Its Discontents: A Quarter-Century After the Iron Curtain and Tiananmen" to mark 25 years of the communist regime collapse and the massacre on Tiananmen Square in Beijing."
http://www.ceskenoviny.cz/zpravy/khodorkovsky-for-caution-in-anti-russian-sanctions-in-prague/1134199
"The EU and the USA can help Russia on its road to democracy, Khodorkovsky said." [ceskenoviny/cz] 

"Democracy & Its Discontents: A Quarter-Century After the Iron Curtain & Tiananmen" > Not USA, Kissinger, Contras + Cocaine?

 >>Given above was @ Forum 2000 international conference in Prague, this fits in very nicely:   http://www.chomsky.info/letters/19900301.htm
On Vaclav Havel Speech

Noam Chomsky

Excerpted from Alexander Cockburn, The Golden Age Is In Us, Verso, 1995, pp. 149-151 [March 1, 1990]
" ... It's also unnecessary to point out to the half a dozen or so sane people who remain that in comparison to the conditions imposed by US tyranny and violence, East Europe under Russian rule was practically a paradise. Furthermore, one can easily understand why an oppressed Third World victim would have little access to any information (or would care little about anything) beyond the narrow struggle for survival against a terrorist superpower and its clients. And the Pravda hack, unlike his US clones, would have faced a harsh response if he told the obvious truths. So by every conceivable standard, the performance of Havel, Congress, the media, and (we may safely predict, without what will soon appear) the Western intellectual community at large are on a moral and intellectual level that is vastly below that of Third World peasants and Stalinist hacks -- not an unusual discovery. 

Of course, it could be argued in Havel's defense that this shameful performance was all tongue in cheek, just a way to extort money from the American taxpayer for his (relatively rich) country. I doubt it, however; he doesn't look like that good an actor."
[Source:  http://www.chomsky.info/letters/19900301.htm]

COMMENT


Although I knew there was NSA and FVEY mass surveillance, I must have missed the bit where the NSA conducts surveillance on entire populations of FOREIGN (non-FVEY) nations, as I was of the impression that surveillance was kept it 'in the family'.  Wrong.

Surveillance extends to the USA spying on the Bahamas, Mexico, Kenya, Philippines and another country (likely violent if named).  But the odds are it's not limited to these countries.

Why on earth would they be conducting surveillance on the population of Kenya?  Which country is the mysterious 'unnamed' country?

No idea about the interest in Kenya, but I'm going to go with Pakistan for the unnamed country.

Anyway, the enormity of this revelation totally blew me away.  

The populations of entire nations are subject to US surveillance and are not only deprived of privacy, but are also, therefore, deprived of liberty.

So how is it that this is swept under a rug and that nobody's concerned about a deed that, in my view, amounts to worldwide criminal activity by a major government?

Take into consideration the 'Operation Gladio' and US 'Gladio B' activities, and the US government attempts to suppress that information.  

Find the information difficult to absorb and might need to revisit the topic some time. 

Nonetheless, here we have yet another example of  the US engaged in what amounts to criminal activity. 
Judging by earlier disclosures (eg Gary Webb), the US has a long history of involvements in criminal activity, exposure, persecution of whistle-blowers and suppression of press and whistle-blower disclosures.

Yet we have Australia's attorney-general, George Brandis, addressing a US 'echo chamber' 'think tank' (Centre for Strategic & International Studies) earlier in the year, pronouncing a whistle-blower, Snowden, a 'traitor', according to the screaming SMH headline.

Brandis is the same guy who is aggressively ducking Senator Ludlam's questions in a parliamentary committee (video above), doing democracy a disservice in more ways than one, in my view.

Meanwhile, in Europe, we have a stripped Russian oligarch speaking about the holy grail of 'democracy' to be installed in Russia by Europe and USA, broadcast from some US agenda NGO platform, before a rapt audience of Cuban dissidents and assorted other US ass-kissers.

I don't have the mental skills, the language skills or the patience to sit here trying to find the words to articulate just how perverse I find all of the above.

As I see it, you have a criminal, or rogue, gargantuan, super-government seeking to control the rest of the world by whatever means and without any limits; you have those within its trade and military treaty sphere (which is enormous), not only standing by without question, but also aggressively smearing those that stand up and disclose wrongdoing; there's a long a pattern of those beyond control or influence (or dissidents) and members of the press that dare reveal the truth, being vilified, hunted down, harassed and shut down; there's a corrupt or fearful press, that is either part of the established order, or else otherwise controlled, by authorities; there's a topsy-turvy world where 'good' is 'bad' and 'bad' is 'good'; a thousand sly GO and NGO platforms from which to evangelise about the holy grail of 'democracy', had by none but to be exported to all;  there's the abuse of power and totalitarianism (that's hypocritically decried elsewhere), and this abuse is pervasive and entrenched.
Somewhere along the line, there's also denial of the important role whistle-blowers play -- or are supposed to play -- in keeping the crooked straight.
And Australian whilstle-blower publisher, Julian Assange, is still held without charge by the Sweden-UK-US trio blocking his political asylum to Ecuador, while his nation stands by unconcerned about this injustice.
Noam Chomsky's letter was the only breath of fresh air.  It's beautiful.  Poetry.