Author Archives: stuartbramhall

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About stuartbramhall

Retired child and adolescent psychiatrist and American expatriate in New Zealand. In 2002, I made the difficult decision to close my 25-year Seattle practice after 15 years of covert FBI harassment. I describe the unrelenting phone harassment, illegal break-ins and six attempts on my life in my 2010 book The Most Revolutionary Act: Memoir of an American Refugee.

It’s 2025, but Africans are still in chains. Why?

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It’s 2025, but Africans are still in chains. Why?
© Getty Images / Harvepino

By Moussa Ibrahim

As Gaddafi’s last spokesperson, I saw what real African independence can look like: free education, universal healthcare, interest-free housing, and no IMF interference

The past few days have offered a brutal snapshot of Africa’s unresolved crisis. In Burkina Faso, militants from Jama’at Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM), affiliated with Al-Qaeda, overran the Diapaga military base in the east, seizing most of the city and exposing the precarious state of security in the Sahel. Meanwhile, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the M23 rebel armed group, which has been fighting the government since the beginning of the year, tightens its grip on Goma, leading to vulnerable political conditions in which stolen minerals are funneled to foreign markets. In the diplomatic arena, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa was treated with disrespect in the US when President Donald Trump ambushed him with a crude, racist presentation about so-called “white genocide,” using footage falsely attributed to South Africa. Kenya now fears economic chaos as the US threatens to revoke the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) trade deal, a reminder that many African economies are still at the mercy of external powers.

This is the continent’s daily reality. Behind the headlines lie patterns of systemic violence, extraction, and manipulation. Whether it is Boko Haram in Nigeria, Al-Shabaab in Somalia, or foreign security firms in Mozambique, the message is the same: Africa’s enemies are armed not only with bullets but with contracts, media narratives, and economic traps. The ‘post-colonial’ moment has long expired – what remains is a managed crisis, policed by the IMF, militarized by AFRICOM, and sanitized by the African Union’s silence.

And yet, in the middle of this, we are told to celebrate. May 25th is Africa Day – the anniversary of the founding of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) in 1963. Every year, flags are raised, speeches are delivered, and African leaders sing songs of unity. But let’s ask the uncomfortable question: What exactly are we celebrating?

When Kwame Nkrumah, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Julius Nyerere, Ahmed Sekou Toure, and Haile Selassie came together to form the OAU, their aim was not to build bureaucracies. It was to liberate the continent – militarily, economically, culturally, and ideologically. They envisioned a single army, a common currency, a unified foreign policy, and a break from Western dependency.

Nkrumah famously said: “Africa must unite or perish.” Today, we see more perishing than unity. Sixty-two years later, Africa Day has been reduced to a symbolic spectacle – flags without force, drums without direction. We watch parades while our lands are auctioned. We hear Pan-African slogans while our central banks answer to Paris. We commemorate independence while 14 African countries still use a currency created by their former colonizer – the CFA franc, a tool of economic control whose name itself means ‘Financial Cooperation in Africa’ – but cooperation for whom?

Over 25 African countries are either in or near debt default. Collectively, the continent owes over $650 billion to external creditors. Nigeria spends substantial sums of its revenue servicing debt. Ghana, once called a rising star, is back at the IMF for the 17th time. In Zambia, debt repayments have choked investment in hospitals and education. This isn’t mismanagement – it’s engineered subservience. The so-called development partners make billions while entire generations are sacrificed to the gods of fiscal discipline.

Meanwhile, Africa’s material wealth continues to flow outward. The DRC supplies more than 70% of the world’s cobalt, yet over 70% of its people live in poverty. Our uranium powers Europe’s cities while Niger’s villages remain in darkness. African agriculture – despite controlling 60% of the world’s uncultivated arable land – is gutted by foreign subsidies and aid dependency.

We import $40 billion in food each year, while our farmers are criminalized or displaced by foreign agribusiness. It is no exaggeration to say: Africa is being starved by design.

But exploitation today is not only economic – it’s also digital. Foreign companies dominate our telecom infrastructure, cloud storage, and digital platforms. Our data is stored abroad, our elections influenced by foreign code, our children fed algorithmic colonialism on social media. AI tools are trained on African voices but controlled by Silicon Valley. The scramble for Africa 2.0 is here – and it’s happening on screens.

Even our culture is colonized anew. Our stories are funded by Western NGOs. Our artists are rewarded for repeating narratives of trauma, not defiance. From art galleries to film festivals, African creatives are often made to conform to donor expectations. Real revolutionary expression is defunded, censored, or drowned in an ocean of meaningless ‘diversity’ campaigns. Cultural sovereignty requires more than visibility – it requires ownership.

What makes this tragedy worse is that many of our own leaders are complicit. Elites who benefit from foreign contracts, imported goods, and IMF handouts – pose as nationalists while enabling neocolonialism.

But Africa is not silent. In Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, new governments are challenging the old order. They have expelled French troops, broken from the CFA zone, and are building a regional alliance rooted in sovereignty. Western media calls them juntas. But to millions of Africans, they are a new hope. These governments are not perfect – but they are confronting imperialism where the African Union has capitulated. Their stand echoes that of Sankara, Nkrumah, and Gaddafi.

As Gaddafi’s last spokesperson, I saw what real African independence looked like. Free education, universal healthcare, interest-free housing, and no IMF interference. Gaddafi’s dream of a gold-backed African currency and a continental defense force terrified the West – not because it was mad, but because it was achievable. That is why Libya was destroyed. The lesson is simple: When you challenge an empire, it fights back.

But we must not retreat. Africa must forge new alliances – not with masters, but with partners. Cooperation with China, Russia, India, and Brazil must be based on mutual respect and shared interest – not dependency. We must demand technology transfers, co-ownership of infrastructure, and the right to control our natural resources. BRICS can be a platform of liberation – but only if Africa enters as a united, self-respecting bloc.

Equally vital is a revolution of the mind. Our educational systems still glorify colonizers and marginalize indigenous knowledge. Our universities chase Western rankings while neglecting community development. We need a new curriculum – one centered on African languages, philosophies, history, and political economy. We must build schools that produce thinkers, builders, and liberators – not bureaucrats.

The African diaspora is another critical front. It contributes over $50 billion annually in remittances, but its political power remains underused. We need institutional pathways for diaspora participation – in elections, investment, security, and culture. From Sao Paulo to London, Atlanta to Kingston, the diaspora is not a spectator. It is a co-creator of Africa’s destiny.

Let us also talk about the ecological front. Africa is on the frontline of climate breakdown – but the solutions proposed often mask the same exploitation. Green capitalism – carbon markets, climate finance, offset schemes – lets polluters profit while Africa pays the price. We must fight for ecological justice rooted in land reform, water sovereignty, and indigenous stewardship – not donor agendas.

This is the real meaning of Africa Day in 2025. Not celebration. Mobilization. Not pageantry. Resistance.

The African Union must rise from dormancy or be bypassed by movements and governments that are willing to fight. Cultural organizations must reject NGO dependency and build spaces for radical imagination. Our youth must refuse the logic of escape and rebuild this continent with dignity. We need Pan-African banks, Pan-African education, Pan-African defense. And above all, we need truth.

[…]

Via https://www.rt.com/africa/618156-truth-behind-africa-day-2025/

Max’s Story: What Happens When Water Fluoridation Goes Wrong

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max widmaier and his mom
by Brenda Baletti, Ph.D.

When Utah lawmakers met during the legislative session to discuss and vote on whether to end the practice of fluoridating the state’s drinking water supply, 17-year-old Max Widmaier was there to offer key testimony.

2019, fifth-grader Max Widmaier was poisoned when a malfunctioning pump in Sandy, Utah, released undiluted hydrofluorosilicic acid into the water, affecting 1,500 households, institutions and businesses and sickening over 200 people. Turns out fluoridation accidents happen frequently, and the public is often the last to know.

An investigation revealed that fluoride was detected in the drinking water at 40 times the recommended levels, and officials failed to notify the public for 10 days.

Max unknowingly drank the over-fluoridated water in school. Soon after, he spiked a high fever, developed tics, had severe emotional swings, and experienced developmental regression so severe that at one point he lost the ability to compose sentences, his mother, Jenny Widmaier, told The Defender.

“I don’t remember fifth grade,” Max told Utah lawmakers. “That year is just a gaping hole where memory should be … because I drank the fluoridated water that day when Sandy City broke its line to public water.”

Jenny said that day, the school called her to pick Max up because he had a fever. She didn’t know if it was a virus, an infection, food poisoning or something else, so she asked Max about what he had been up to. Max mentioned that he drank water at school and it tasted metallic. At the time, Jenny didn’t give it a second thought.

After some severe gastrointestinal distress and about four days sick in bed, Max seemed fine, she said. The following Saturday, he hung out at a friend’s house, ate some tacos, and things seemed normal.

That night, Jenny’s husband, who came home late, checked in on Max before heading to bed. He immediately went to Jenny and asked, “What’s wrong with Max’s face?”

Jenny was surprised by the question. They went downstairs to examine Max together. “I was just watching him,” Jenny said, “and about every 30 to 45 seconds, his whole face would seize up and his head would drop, his chin would drop to his chest, and then he’d lift up and he was fine. He didn’t even notice it was happening.”

She asked Max what was going on with his face, but strangely, he had no idea what she was talking about. “It seemed he was blacking out,” Jenny said.

She called the emergency line for her pediatrician. They told her that if it happened while he was asleep, it could be serious, but that otherwise it was probably just a tic.

The “tic” seemed slightly better the following day, but Jenny took Max to the hospital to be evaluated. While they were there, the provider asked if they lived in Sandy City — which they didn’t.

When Jenny asked why it mattered if they lived in Sandy, the provider said there had been a fluoride leak there.

“Then it sort of clicked into place — the metallic tasting water, and his school is in Sandy,” Jenny said. The provider checked the map and saw that Max’s school was located in the fluoride leak zone. He told Jenny to get Max tested for heavy metals.

Water fluoridation comes with heavy metals

Jenny performed a home test on Max and it was positive for several metals, including chromium and lead. She kept him out of school the next day.

She said:

“At this point it was getting weird. He had reverted to being a 2-year-old. We took him to get some food, and he sat there and he had this little metal cow that he was using to make mooing noises.

“And his ability to put sentences together had declined dramatically. This is a kid who in fifth grade, was scoring high on what’s called the AMC 8 test, which is a mathematics test for eighth graders. And that day, he could hardly put words together into a sentence.”

The family struggled to find a place that could do the appropriate blood tests, although she did finally find an out-of-network provider. A neurologist told her it was late for a tic to present, but that Max probably just had tourette syndrome.

Max also experienced behavioral problems. He had panic attacks and would scream hysterically.

She reached out to the city for help, but got no response. Finally, through Facebook, she connected with Lorna Rosenstein, executive director of Waterwatch of Utah, who “was like my fairy godmother.”

Rosenstein, who had been active in attempting to end water fluoridation in Utah for years, connected Jenny with fluoride toxicity expert Phyllis Mullenix, Ph.D., who helped develop a treatment plan for Max so his body could eliminate the toxic levels of fluoride from his system.

In addition to a very strict diet, Max had to undergo several rounds of chelation therapy because he also had high levels of lead, arsenic and cadmium in his blood.

Most members of the public are not aware that heavy metals are present in the hydrofluorosilicic acid — a byproduct of the phosphate fertilizer production process — typically used to fluoridate water.

Max also had to do neurological exercises to retrain his brain. As the fluoride was eliminated from his system, his mental health also returned to normal.

None of the treatments were covered by insurance, Jenny said. The family never received any compensation from the city. The school, however, was very responsive. Jenny said they immediately turned off the water fountains and now provide filtered water for all students.

‘I have horrible balance and my sense of body is all screwed up’ 

“It took us about a year to recover him back to normal,” Jenny said. Max no longer has a tic unless he consumes food or drink with fluoride in it. “I can always tell almost immediately when he has eaten rice that’s been cooked in water, it’s not been filtered because he starts to twitch and his face starts to seize.”

Max told The Defender that his only memories of the entire year-long experience were of getting strange soreness at the edge of his eyes. He said he would blink to make it go away. Those were the blackouts.

When Max accidentally consumes something with fluoride in it today — now more than five years later — he experiences that same feeling and has to blink.

He also continues to have shaky hands. “My handwriting is horrible,” he said, so he uses heavy pens to counter the shaking. “I have horrible balance and my sense of body is all screwed up.”

Intellectually, he said, he feels fully recovered.

Max said he was glad to be able to tell his story to the legislators. “It was an acknowledgement,” he said. “It was like, ‘man what this kid went through is unfortunate’ from people on both sides of the water fluoridation debate.”

Max said he hopes his story raises the question for people about whether adding fluoride to water is worth the risk. “Sure, you can brush your teeth with a fluoride toothpaste or drink fluoridated water, but how much goes to your teeth and how much ends up elsewhere?”

“And there can be some freak accident. Is that a risk you are willing to take?”

Water fluoridation accidents occur frequently — but public often last to know

The 2019 accident in Sandy City was just one of many accidental fluoride spills and overfeeds that happen regularly, according to the Fluoride Action Network, which tracks publicly recorded accidents on a webpage.

Accidents range from a small, 10-gallon spill in 2012 in Connecticut to an incident in New Orleans in 2008, where the fluorosilicic acid ate through its storage tanks and then through a concrete containment tank.

In that case, to avoid a “catastrophic mix of toxic chemicals,” the environment department discharged nearly half a million gallons of the toxic acid into the Mississippi River.

Failure to warn the public about fluoride accidents is also common.

Last month in Richmond, Virginia, an accidental fluoride overfeed caused a discharge of approximately 5,900 gallons of fluoride solution into the drinking water. The city said the previous fluoride system had failed in January, and the recent leak occurred during the installation of a new pump.

The leak began on April 23. However, it wasn’t until April 27 — when a Richmond Water Treatment Plant employee called a state agency to report the overflow and said no one was taking action to address the problem — that any state officials even knew about the spill, 6 News Richmond reported.

The City of Richmond had not notified the Virginia Department of Health, neighboring counties or the public.

Officials said the short-term exposure didn’t cause a public health concern. However, that assertion was based on the claim that, “Fluoride levels detected at the Water Treatment Plant were 2.67 milligrams per liter (mg/L) which is below the Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) of 4.0 mg/L, the highest level that is allowed in drinking water by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA),” the city’s press release said. “The optimal target level of fluoride is 0.7 mg/L.”

While that may be technically true, last year, plaintiffs who sued the EPA alleging fluoride causes damage at levels far below 4.0 mg/L won their case.

A federal judge ordered the EPA to initiate a process to regulate the chemical, finding that it poses an “unreasonable risk” to children’s health even at the recommended 0.7 mg/L levels.

The 2.67 mg/L is several orders of magnitude higher than the level at which exposure for children becomes risky, even though it is under the legal limit, and that limit must now be changed.

The city’s press release warned that children under age 9 could be at risk of dental fluorosis — a tooth discoloration — from the leak and should be provided with an alternative water option.

It did not mention any of the recent research that has been making headlines for the last year, showing that ingesting fluoride is linked to reduced IQ, behavioral issues, disruption of thyroid functioning and the gut microbiome in children.

Nor did it mention the risks to pregnant women.

[…]

Via https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/maxs-story-water-fluoridation-utah-lawmakers/

Nightmare of Jerusalem Part VIII – The Mossad Role in Irangate and Creation of ISIS

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Nightmare of Jerusalem Part VII

Press TV (2025)

Film Review

This final episode mainly covers Irangate, a scandalous Reagan administration program (1981-86) that secretly sold weapons to a sworn US enemy (Iran) to fund the Contra war against Nicaragua; the relentless Hezbollah attacks on Israeli occupiers that forced the IDF to withdraw from Lebanon in 2000; Israel’s more recent attacks on Iran’s nuclear program; and their role (with the CIA) in creating Daesh (ISIS) to undermine Arabic sovereignty and unity in the Middle East.

Yaakov Nimrodi, the Israeli arms broker who provided the 45,000 Uzis the US sold Iran, was a long time Mossad agent Yaakov Nimrodi stationed mainly in Iran. His son Ofer was born in Iran.

Concerned about the risk of Iran developing nuclear weapons, since 2000, Israel has assassinated five Iranian nuclear scientists. It also tried to infect Iran’s nuclear power plant with Stuxnet malware. According to Edward Snowden, the Mossad and US intelligence jointly developed Stuxnet. Fortunately Iranian security specialists managed to isolate and destroy it before it infected Iran’s nuclear power plant.

The filmmakers also note the Mossad and CIA role in creating Daesh. They find it significant that Daesh terrorists have never once attacked Israeli forces, also that injured Daesh members seek treatment in Israelli hospitals if they become injured.

https://www.presstv.ir/doc/Detail/2025/04/09/745850/Nightmare-of-Jerusalem-Israel-Iran-PressTV-Documentary

How the Covid-19 Vaccine Programme Has Crippled Our Health System

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NZDSOS

The covid-19 vaccination programme has impacted the New Zealand healthcare system in three significant ways:

  1. Tsunami of increased healthcare burden: There has been a substantial rise in patients presenting with conditions linked to vaccine injuries, creating an overwhelming strain on an already stressed system. This includes an emerging epidemic of cancer (particularly in young people), heart conditions, autoimmune diseases, neurological issues, and other chronic illness.
  2. Loss of healthcare professionals: The vaccine mandates led to the departure of experienced medical professionals who chose to maintain their bodily autonomy, exacerbating critical staffing shortages.
  3. Healthcare workforce illness: Many healthcare professionals who received the vaccine have themselves experienced adverse effects or illness, further reducing our workforce capacity.

These voices have been systematically silenced in mainstream discourse, yet they represent a crucial perspective in any honest assessment of our healthcare system.

[…]

Via https://nzdsos.com/2025/04/29/elephant-in-the-room-at-the-hikoi-for-health/

RFK Urges Other Countries to Join the U.S. in Leaving the WHO: «We Don’t Have to Suffer the Limitations of a Dying WHO»

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photos-website-gh---2025-05-21t190319.173

Rafa Gomez-Santo Martin

In an unprecedented act of political courage, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., current U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, has openly challenged the World Health Organization (WHO), describing it as “dying” and accusing it of being riddled with corruption and influenced by political interests—particularly those of China.

In a recorded message delivered during the World Health Assembly in Geneva, Kennedy called on other countries to follow the United States’ lead and withdraw from the organization. According to Kennedy, the WHO mishandled the COVID-19 pandemic by concealing information about human transmission of the virus and promoting false theories about its origin.

He also criticized the new pandemic treaty adopted by the WHO, calling it a perpetuation of systemic dysfunction. In response, the Trump administration has begun forming a new global health alliance with countries such as Argentina, Italy, and Israel.

[…]

Via https://gatewayhispanic.com/2025/05/rfk-urges-other-countries-to-join-the-u-s-in-leaving-the-who-we-dont-have-to-suffer-the/

Biden Regime Labeled Opponents of Covid mandates as domestic violent extremists

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By Michael Shellenberger | May 23, 2025

Former President Joe Biden announces Covid vaccine mandates on September 9, 2021, in Washington, DC. Three months later (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

The Biden Administration labeled Americans who opposed the COVID-19 vaccination and mask mandates as “Domestic Violent Extremists,” or DVEs, according to newly declassified intelligence records obtained by Public and Catherine Herridge Reports. The designation created an “articulable purpose” for FBI or other government agents to open an “assessment” of individuals, which is often the first step toward a formal investigation, said a former FBI agent.

The report, which the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, has declassified, claims that “anti government or anti authority violent extremists,” specifically militias, “characterize COVID-19 vaccination and mask mandates as evidence of government overreach.” A sweeping range of COVID narratives, the report states, “have resonated” with DVEs “motivated by QAnon.”

The FBI, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) coauthored the December 13, 2021 intelligence product whose title reads, “DVEs and Foreign Analogues May React Violently to COVID-19 Mitigation Mandates.”

The report cites criticism of mandates as “prominent narratives” related to violent extremism. These narratives “include the belief that COVID-19 vaccines are unsafe, especially for children, are part of a government or global conspiracy to deprive individuals of their civil liberties and livelihoods, or are designed to start a new social or political order.“

“It’s a way they could go to social media companies and say, ‘You don’t want to propagate domestic terrorism, so you should take down this content,’” said former FBI agent Steve Friend…

[…]

Via https://alethonews.com/2025/05/24/biden-regime-labeled-opponents-of-covid-mandates-as-domestic-violent-extremists-newly-released-documents-show/

VE Day 80th anniversary: The Anglo-Nazi global empire that nearly came to be

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By Kit Klarenberg 

As VE Day (Victory in Europe Day) approaches, Western officials, pundits and journalists are widely seeking to exploit the 80th anniversary of Nazism’s defeat for political purposes.

European leaders have threatened state attendees of Russia’s grand May 9th victory parade with adverse consequences. Meanwhile, countless sources have drawn historical comparisons between appeasement of Nazi Germany throughout the 1930s, and the Trump administration’s ongoing efforts to strike a deal with Moscow to end the Ukraine proxy conflict.

As The Atlantic put it in March, “Trump Is Offering Putin Another Munich” – a reference to the September 1938 Munich Agreement, under which Western powers, led by Britain, granted a vast portion of Czechoslovakia to Nazi Germany.

Mainstream narratives of appeasement state that this represented the policy’s apotheosis – its final act, which London believed would permanently satisfy Adolf Hitler’s expansionist ambitions, but actually made World War II inevitable.

Appeasement is universally accepted today in the West as a well-intentioned but ultimately catastrophically failed and misguided attempt to avoid another World War with Germany, for peace’s sake. According to this reading, European governments made certain concessions to Hitler, while turning a blind eye to egregious breaches of the post-World War I Versailles Treaty, such as the Luftwaffe’s creation in February 1935, and Nazi Germany’s military occupation of the Rhineland in May the next year.

In reality, though, from Britain’s perspective, the Munich Agreement was intended to be just the start of a wider process that would culminate in “world political partnership” between London and Berlin. Two months prior, the Federation of British Industries (FBI), known today as the Confederation of British Industry, made contact with its Nazi counterpart, Reichsgruppe Industrie (RI). The pair eagerly agreed that their respective governments should enter into formal negotiations on Anglo-German economic integration.

Representatives of these organizations met face-to-face in London on November 9th that year. The summit went swimmingly, and a formal conference in Düsseldorf was scheduled for next March. Coincidentally, later that evening in Berlin, Kristallnacht erupted, with Nazi paramilitaries burning and destroying synagogues and Jewish businesses.

The most infamous pogrom in history was no deterrent to continued discussions and meetings between the FBI and RI representatives. A month later, they inked a formal agreement on the creation of an international Anglo-Nazi coal cartel.

British officials fully endorsed this burgeoning relationship, believing it would provide a crucial foundation for future alliance with Nazi Germany in other fields. Moreover, it was hoped Berlin’s industrial and technological prowess would reinvigorate Britain’s economy at home and throughout the Empire, which was ever-increasingly lagging behind the ascendant US.

In February 1939, representatives of British government and industry made a pilgrimage to Berlin to feast with high-ranking Nazi officials, in advance of the next month’s joint conference.

As FBI representatives prepared to depart for Düsseldorf in March, British cabinet chief Walter Runciman – a fervent advocate of appeasement, and chief architect of Czechoslovakia’s carve up – informed them, “gentlemen, the peace of Europe is in your hands.”

In a twist, they arrived on March 14th, while Czechoslovakian president Emil Hácha was in Berlin meeting with Hitler. Offered the choice of freely allowing Nazi troops entry into his country, or the Luftwaffe reducing Prague to rubble before all-out invasion, he suffered a heart attack.

After the revival, Hácha chose the former option. The Düsseldorf conference commenced the next morning, as Nazi tanks stormed unhindered into rump Czechoslovakia.

Against this monstrous backdrop, a 12-point declaration was ironed out by the FBI and RI. It envisaged “a world economic partnership between the business communities” of Berlin and London. That August, FBI representatives secretly met with Herman Göring to anoint the agreement. In the meantime, the British government had via back channels made a formal offer of wide-ranging “cooperation” with Nazi Germany.

Political partnership

In April 1938, journeyman diplomat Herbert von Dirksen was appointed Nazi Germany’s ambassador to London. A committed National Socialist and rabid antisemite, he also harboured a particularly visceral loathing of Poles, believing them to be subhuman, and eagerly supporting Poland’s total erasure.

Despite this, due to his English language fluency and aristocratic manners, he charmed British officials and citizens alike, and was widely perceived locally as Nazi Germany’s respectable face.

Even more vitally, though, Dirksen, in common with many powerful elements of the British establishment, was convinced that not only could war be avoided, but London and Berlin would instead forge a global economic, military, and political alliance.

His 18 months in Britain before the outbreak of World War II were spent working tirelessly to achieve these goals by establishing and maintaining communication lines between officials and decision makers in the two countries while attempting to broker deals.

Dirksen published an official memoir in 1950, detailing his lengthy diplomatic career. However, far more revealing insights into the period immediately preceding World War II, and behind-the-scenes efforts to achieve enduring detente between Britain and Nazi Germany, are contained in the virtually unknown Dirksen Papers, a two-volume record released by the Soviet Union’s Foreign Languages Publishing House without his consent.

They contain private communications sent to and from Dirksen, diary entries, and memos he wrote for himself, never intended for public consumption.

The contents were sourced from a vast trove of documents found by the Red Army after it seized Gröditzberg, a castle owned by Dirksen where he spent most of World War II.

Mainstream historians have made no use of the Dirksen Papers. Whether this is due to their bombshell disclosures posing a variety of dire threats to established Western narratives of World War II, and revealing much the British government wishes to remain forever secret, is a matter of speculation.

Immediately after World War II began, Dirksen “keenly” felt an “obligation” to author a detailed post-mortem on the failure of Britain’s peace overtures to Nazi Germany, and his own.

He was particularly compelled to write it as “all important documents” in Berlin’s London embassy had been burned following British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s formal declaration of war on September 3, 1939. Reflecting on his experiences, Dirksen spoke of “the tragic and paramount thing about the rise of the new Anglo-German war”:

“Germany demanded an equal place with Britain as a world power…Britain was in principle prepared to concede. But, whereas Germany demanded immediate, complete and unequivocal satisfaction of her demands, Britain – although she was ready to renounce her Eastern commitments, and…allow Germany a predominant position in East and Southeast Europe, and to discuss genuine world political partnership with Germany – wanted this to be done only by way of negotiation and a gradual revision of British policy.”

German response

From London’s perspective, Dirksen lamented, this radical change in the global order “could be effected in months, but not of days or weeks.” Another stumbling block was the British and French making a “guarantee” to defend Poland in the event she was attacked by Nazi Germany, in March 1939.

Thisbellicose stance – along with belligerent speeches from Chamberlain – was at total odds with simultaneous conciliatory approaches such as Düsseldorf, and the private stances and utterances of British officials to their Nazi counterparts.

In any event, it appears London instantly regretted its pledge to defend Poland. Dirksen records in his post-mortem how, subsequently, senior British officials told him they sought “an Anglo-German entente” that would “render Britain’s guarantee policy nugatory” and “enable Britain to extricate her from her predicament in regard to Poland,” so Warsaw would “be left to face Germany alone”.

In mid-July 1939, Horace Wilson – an extremely powerful civil servant and Chamberlain’s right-hand man – approached Göring’s chief aide, Helmuth Wohlthat, during a visit to London.

Wilson “outlined a program for a comprehensive adjustment of Anglo-German relations” to him, which amounted to a radical overhaul of the two countries’ “political, military and economic arrangements.” This included “a non-aggression pact”, explicitly concerned with shredding Britain’s “guarantee” to Warsaw. Dirksen noted:

“The underlying purpose of this treaty was to make it possible for the British gradually to disembarrass themselves of their commitments toward Poland, on the ground that they had…secured Germany’s renunciation of methods of aggression.”

Elsewhere, “comprehensive” proposals for economic cooperation were outlined, with the promise of “negotiations…to be undertaken on colonial questions, supplies of raw material for Germany, delimitation of industrial markets, international debt problems, and the application of the most favoured nation clause.”

In addition, a realignment of “the spheres of interest of the Great Powers” would be up for discussion, opening the door for further Nazi territorial expansion. Dirksen makes clear that these grand plans were fully endorsed at the British government’s highest levels:

“The importance of Wilson’s proposals was demonstrated by the fact that Wilson invited Wohlthat to have them confirmed by Chamberlain personally.”

During his stay in London, Wohlthat also had extensive discussions with Overseas Trade Secretary Robert Hudson, who told him, “three big regions offered the two nations an immense field for economic activity.”

This included the existing British Empire, China and Russia. “Here, agreement was possible; as also in other regions,” including the Balkans, where “England had no economic ambitions.” In other words, resource-rich Yugoslavia would be Nazi Germany’s for the taking, under the terms of “world political partnership” with Britain.

Dirksen outlined the contents of Wohlthat’s talks with Hudson and Wilson in a “strictly secret” internal memo, excitedly noting “England alone could not adequately take care of her vast Empire, and it would be quite possible for Germany to be given a rather comprehensive share.”

A telegram dispatched to Dirksen from the German Foreign Office on July 31st 1939 recorded Wohlthat had informed Göring of Britain’s secret proposals, who in turn notified Nazi Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop.

Dirksen noted elsewhere that Wohlthat specifically asked the British how such negotiations “might be put on a tangible footing.” Wilson informed him “the decisive thing” was for Hitler to “[make] his willingness known” by officially authorizing a senior Nazi official to discuss the “program”.

Wilson “furthermore strongly stressed the great value the British government laid upon a German reply” to these offers, and how London “considered that slipping into war was the only alternative.”

Authoritarian regimes

No “reply” apparently ever came. On September 1st 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Poland, Britain declared war on Germany two days later, and the rest is history – albeit history that is subject to determined obfuscation, constant rewriting, and deliberate distortion.

Polls of European citizens conducted in the immediate aftermath of World War II showed there was little public doubt that the Red Army was primarily responsible for Nazi Germany’s destruction, with Britain and the US correctly perceived as playing mere walk-on roles.

For example, in 1945, 57% of French citizens believed Moscow “contributed most to the defeat of Germany in 1945” – just 20% named the US, and 12% Britain.

By 2015, less than a quarter of respondents recognized the Soviet role, with 54% naming the US as Nazism’s ultimate vanquisher. Meanwhile, a survey on the 80th anniversary of D-Day in June 2024 found 42% of Britons believed their own country had done more to crush Hitler than all other allied countries combined.

The same poll identified a staggering level of ignorance among British citizens of all ages about World War II more generally, with only two-thirds of respondents even able to place D-Day as having occurred during that conflict.

The pollsters didn’t gauge public knowledge of Britain’s long-running, concerted attempts to forge a global Empire with Nazi Germany in the War’s lead up, although betting is high that the figure would be approximately zero.

Meanwhile, in 2009, the European Parliament instituted a day of remembrance on August 23rd each year, to “mark the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of All Totalitarian and Authoritarian Regimes”.

This is just one of several modern-day moves to perversely conflate Communism and Nazism, while transforming Wehrmacht and SS collaborators, Holocaust perpetrators, and ultranationalists and fascists in countries liberated by the Red Army into victims, and laying blame for World War II at Russia’s feet, by dent of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact.

What British officials were proposing to Hitler in 1939 far eclipsed the terms of that controversial agreement, but this has been lost to the sands of time.

[…]

Via https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2025/04/30/747142/ve-day-80th-anniv-anglo-nazi-global-empire-that-nearly-came-to-be

US moves to implement Trump’s ‘vision’ for Syria

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US moves to implement Trump’s ‘vision’ for Syria
FILE PHOTO: US President Donald Trump shakes hands with Syria’s interim leader Ahmad al-Sharaa, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, May 14, 2025 ©  Bandar Aljaloud / Saudi Royal Palace via AP

RT

Washington has eased sanctions and appointed a special envoy to Damascus to oversee its path to “greatness” promised by the US president.

The White House has initiated a significant shift in policy toward Damascus by easing longstanding sanctions and appointing a special envoy, following US President Donald Trump’s recent meeting with Syria’s interim leader Ahmed al-Sharaa.

Al-Sharaa, also known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammad al-Julani, rose to prominence as the leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an Islamist group with ties to Al-Qaeda, which led a coalition of opposition groups that toppled longtime leader Bashar Assad last year.

“I will be ordering the cessation of sanctions against Syria in order to give them a chance at greatness,” Trump announced at an investment forum in Riyadh last week, where he met al-Sharaa and expressed hope that the new government would “succeed in stabilizing the country.”

On Friday, the US Treasury Department issued General License 25 (GL25), authorizing previously prohibited transactions under the Syrian Sanctions Regulations (SSR). The measure effectively lifts restrictions on dealings with Syria’s central government, including the Central Bank of Syria, several state-owned banks, energy firms, telecommunications providers and national carriers such as Syrian Arab Airlines.

Simultaneously, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a 180-day waiver of the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, suspending some of the most punitive measures passed by Congress in 2019. The waiver covers financial services, engineering, and logistics support for projects involving water, electricity, sanitation, and public health. Rubio described the move as a “first step” in fulfilling Trump’s new “vision” for Syria.

Earlier this week, Rubio warned US lawmakers that a civil war of “epic proportions” could erupt in Syria within weeks. Although the country’s new leadership “didn’t pass their background check with the FBI,” Rubio said the US must support them in order to prevent wider regional instability. He defended Trump’s approach, arguing that maintaining a pragmatic foreign policy means the US human rights agenda is “different in certain parts of the world” than in others.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated in February that the sanctions were “harming the Syrian people” and should be lifted without preconditions.

 In order to oversee Washington’s growing ties with Damascus, Trump has appointed Tom Barrack, his ambassador to Turkey and longtime confidant, as US Special Envoy for Syria. Barrack said on Friday that the administration’s goal was to “integrate Syria into a peaceful, cooperative Middle East,” and hinted that reopening the US Embassy in Damascus was “on the table.”

While sanctions relief is significant, most measures remain temporary, with GL25 expiring in six months unless renewed. Congress would need to pass legislation to permanently repealing the Caesar Act and related sanctions packages imposed since Syria was designated a state sponsor of terrorism in 1979.

Nightmare of Jerusalem Part VII – The Birth of Islamic Nationalism

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Nightmare of Jerusalem Part 7

Press TV (2025)

Film Review

This episode briefly summarizes the decline of secular Arab nationalism and rise of Islamic nationalism.

Following World War II, the socialist Arab parties across the Middle East united under the pan-Arab Baath Party. Built on ethnic pride, the Ba’ath Party took power in Egypt, Iraq, Syria and Jordan. Constrained by internal struggles and deliberate destabilization by Western governments and Israel, it eventually collapsed (Syria was the last Ba’ath party regime to fall in December 2024).

Beginning in the 1960s, Shiite scholars in Homs (Syria) organized to to rebirth the movement along Islamic principles. Integral to this movement, Iran’s revolutionary leader Iman Khomeini wrote many letters to the Shah, warning him about negative US and CIA influences on Iran. Once he began addressing public gatherings, he was arrested and exiled. He spent his 14 years in exile continuing to organize against the Shah’s government.

Not in our name: US citizens take action over tax dollars fueling Gaza genocide

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By Alireza Akbari

On May 14, the grassroots group Taxpayers Against Genocide (TAG), along with the National Lawyers Guild International Committee, submitted a legal filing to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, charging the US government of enabling Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.

The historic complaint states that US military and financial support for the Israeli apartheid regime has played a direct role in the destruction of Palestinian lives in Gaza.

The 133-page document includes sworn affidavits from Palestinian-American plaintiffs who lost loved ones in Israel’s ongoing genocidal war on Gaza, where more than 53,000 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 120,000 injured over the past 19 months, as per official estimates.

The complaint names former US presidents Joe Biden and Donald Trump, as well as members of US Congress, accusing them of funding and arming a genocidal campaign.

Huwaida Arraf, a civil rights attorney and Palestinian solidarity activist, announced the filing of the complaint in Washington, D.C.

Arraf, who also helped lead the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, drafted the petition and is serving as lead attorney on the case.

Huwaida Arraf, human rights attorney and a founder of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, speaking at the May 14 press conference in DC.

She said the complaint was brought before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights because the US has “effectively shielded itself from accountability for its international crimes under its own legal system, even for crimes against humanity and genocide.”

“The US cannot continue to finance, arm, and politically cover for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide abroad while remaining immune from international scrutiny,” she noted.

“This petition is a call for accountability where none has yet been possible.”

Arraf was joined by several co-complainants, including Robert S. McCaw, director of government affairs at the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR); Dr. Nidal Jboor, co-founder of Doctors Against Genocide (DAG); and Jacqueline Luqman, chair of the coordinating committee for the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP), along with TAG members and Palestinian-American plaintiffs.

The complaint is supported by a broad coalition of advocacy groups, including the Arab Resource Organizing Center Action, Palestinian Youth Movement, US Palestinian Community Network, CAIR, the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, CODEPINK, Black Alliance for Peace, Doctors Against Genocide, Friends of Latin America, the Nicaraguan Solidarity Coalition, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, the Alliance for Global Justice, and many others.

At a press conference held Wednesday in Washington, several plaintiffs delivered prepared statements condemning US support for the Israeli regime’s genocide in Gaza. They called for an immediate halt to the use of American tax dollars to fund Israel’s genocidal campaign.

Seth Michael Donnelly, a social worker and co-founder of TAG, cited his long-standing activism against US-backed human rights abuses worldwide.

“As a social worker,” he said, “I’ve spent years trying to stop human rights violations perpetrated by the US government.”

Donnelly also emphasized the efforts of high school students in his community, who, in January 2024, met with Congressman Mike Thompson to express their concerns about US complicity in the ongoing campaign of extermination of Palestinians in Gaza.

“They urged him to stop sending weapons and US tax dollars as military aid to Israel in light of the growing evidence of genocide in Gaza,” he said.

Despite the students’ appeal, Donnelly said, “Representative Thompson did not heed the information he was provided. Thompson willfully ignored the concerns of these students, and the majority of his own constituents.”

Donnelly pointed out that Thompson was one of 365 members of Congress who, on April 20, 2024, voted to approve $26.38 billion in funding through the so-called ‘Israeli Supplemental Security Act’, with most of it designated for military aid to the Tel Aviv regime. On April 23, 2024, 79 Senators also approved the $26.38 billion Israeli aid package as part of a broader spending bill. “In so doing, these representatives demonstrated a blatant disregard for the bill’s illegal provision of US weapons to support ongoing war crimes and plausible genocide,” he stated.

According to the plaintiffs and human rights advocates, the vote came despite mounting evidence that US-supplied weapons were being used by the Israeli military to commit acts that meet the legal definition of genocide in the Palestinian territory.

Jacqueline Luqman, Chair of the Coordinating Committee of the Black Alliance for Peace, speaking at the May 14 press conference.

Jacqueline Luqman, chair of the Coordinating Committee of the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP), reiterated the group’s full support for the legal effort led by TAG.

“We support TAG’s campaign to end the use of US taxpayer dollars to fund genocide in Palestine, Lebanon, and everywhere else Israel is implicated in human rights violations and war crimes, such as in Congo,” she stated.

She also emphasized that while US citizens struggle to make ends meet under a capitalist dictatorship that deprives people of their basic needs for the profit of a few, the US government is once again violating international law and its own Congressional mandates by facilitating genocide using its citizens’ resources.

Palestinian-American plaintiff Tarik Kanaan underscored Israel’s “systematic destruction” of Palestinian history, heritage, and culture.

“The intentional destruction of the ancient Al-Omari mosque, the ancient Byzantine Church and the Church of Jabalia, the third oldest in the world, to name a few, inflicts irreversible damage to our traditions and cultural history,” he said.

Kanaan added that Israel’s acts of genocide have only been possible because of Washington’s unwavering support. He pointed to “the full support and protection of the US” that has allowed the Israeli regime “to destroy anything and everything that sustains life to the Palestinian people.”

Tariq Raouf, a human rights activist and one of the plaintiffs, described Israel’s genocidal actions in Gaza as “a blatant violation of morality, human rights, and ethics.” He added that without accountability, the genocide would continue unchecked.

“I did not consent to my tax dollars being used to commit violence against my own family; I did not consent to paying for the bullets and bombs that have killed 43 of my family members,” he said.

Raouf called on fellow Americans to reject the use of public funds for war.

“It is a ludicrous and delusional expectation that we, the American taxpayers, will stand idly by while money that should be going to our education, healthcare and veterans is instead going on to fund more war crimes, and more deaths,” he remarked.

Dr. Nidal Jboor, co-founder of Doctors Against Genocide, emphasized the medical community’s alarm over the Israeli weaponization of basic necessities in Gaza.

“We are doctors. We swore to protect life—not to fund its destruction,” he said. “In our name, with our tax dollars, children in Gaza are being starved and bombed while food and medicine sit just five miles away,” he said.

Robert S. McCaw, Director of Government Affairs at the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), also voiced support for the plaintiffs and their legal team.

He stated that CAIR offers its fullest support in efforts to hold the US government accountable for its complicity in Israel’s ongoing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, as well as its occupation and apartheid of Palestinians throughout the region, including the occupied West Bank.

Nida Liftawiya, a Palestinian refugee, US taxpayer, and organizer with the Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC), expressed her outrage at how public funds have been used.

Committed to justice and human rights, she said she seeks “restitution” for the US government’s role in “misusing” her “tax dollars to commit genocide and ethnic cleansing” of Palestinians.

Cynthia Papermaster, Bay Area coordinator for the anti-war group CODEPINK, condemned the US government’s continued military support for the Israeli regime.

She pointed to the early April 2025 allocation of $8.8 billion in additional weapons and aid, saying the funding amounts to “thousands more 2,000-pound bombs and thousands more Hellfire missiles which are shredding the children of Gaza.”

She also called for a shift in focus to humanitarian relief. “We demand that our Senators and Representatives stop funding this barbaric and illegal massacre,” she said.

Monadel Herzallah, another plaintiff who lost 43 family members in the ongoing genocidal war, added, “We as Palestinians in the US have sought accountability in federal court, but we also made a pledge to seek justice in any other possible venue available.”

They further denounced the blockade of Gaza and the prevention of basic necessities from entering the blockaded territory, as well as the regime’s weaponization of starvation against Palestinians. Banners read, “bread not bombs” and “let the children eat.”

The legal filing came just one day before the anniversary of Nakba Day and followed months of sustained activism.

On April 7, TAG, a growing movement of over 2,000 American taxpayers, submitted a groundbreaking report to the UN Human Rights Council, detailing US congressional votes that have enabled Israel’s war on Gaza.

“We have gone through all the channels open to us in our effort to stop US officials from using our tax dollars to fund genocide. We have called and met with these officials, we have peacefully protested, and we have taken them to federal court. To date, none of this has stopped them,” Donnelly said following the April report.

He added that the genocide in Gaza continues, driven by American tax dollars.

“We have now elevated our struggle to the international arena, starting with our report to the UN Human Rights Council, as one necessary step towards countering the impunity of the US government.”

The report centers on violations by the US Congress and the executive branch, charging them with misusing taxpayers’ money to support, aid and abet genocide in Gaza.

TAG asserts that Israel’s acts of aggression against Palestinians would not be possible without US support, which supplies the majority of weapons used in war on Gaza.

It condemns US officials’ direct complicity in the genocide, presenting evidence that both the Biden and Trump administrations, as well as specific members of Congress, used federal funds to support war crimes—violating the US Constitution, domestic laws, and the Genocide Convention.

In December, after being repeatedly denied meetings with their representatives, the taxpayers filed a federal lawsuit—Seth Donnelly et al. v. Mike Thompson and Jared Huffman—against two Democratic congressmen.

[…]