The war that the Israeli regime has opened will not close until it is dealt a strategic defeat, one from which it will not likely recover.

Robert Inlakesh

After all of its gloating, the Zionist entity appears to have fallen for its own propagandistic bravado and is sleepwalking into the abyss. Having failed to defeat Hamas in Gaza, the Israelis appear to have lulled themselves into a belief that they had already crushed Hezbollah with their initial blows of the war.

When the Israelis detonated thousands of pagers on September 17, a day later detonating walkie-talkie devices, inflicting dozens of deaths and hundreds of serious injuries, this represented a momentary tactical victory for the settler project. What followed, with the assassination of countless Hezbollah officials, culminating in the martyrdom of the party’s Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, made the Israelis appear as if they were then in the driver’s seat of the conflict.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu grew so confident and emboldened that he decided to record a video message to the people of Iran, indicating that he would soon aid in carrying out a regime change. The Zionist leaders ordered large-scale airstrikes against thousands of targets across Lebanon, devastating civilian infrastructure and inflicting over 2,000 deaths. The Israelis repeatedly pounded the Southern Suburb of Beirut with hundreds of tons of explosives, while expanding the nature of their strikes against Syrian territory too.

While the Arab and Muslim World entered a stage of collective mourning over the repeated attacks on Lebanon, processing the loss of one of its most cherished leaders in recent memory, the Israelis also decided to declare a ground incursion into South Lebanon. Terrorist tactics and assassinations have served as propaganda victory in the media battle of the optics, in addition to a temporary tactical victory, which certainly inflicted a blow.

Yet, the strategic initiative was suddenly recovered on October 1, with the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC)’s unprecedented response to the repeated assassinations – including the murder of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran – firing 180 ballistic missiles at Israeli military sites. Despite countless attempts to deflect, cover up, and downplay the effectiveness of the Iranian response, dubbed “Operation True Promise II,” the impact was felt throughout the entire region.

What also happened following this, with the repeated successful strikes against Israeli targets by Yemen’s Ansar Allah and the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, combined with repeated Hezbollah’s successes in repelling the Zionist forces’ attempts at penetrating Lebanese land, all worked at changing the direction of the tide. On October 7, Hamas demonstrated its ability to hit “Tel Aviv” with M90 rockets, which was followed by strikes on “Tel Aviv” by Ansar Allah and then Hezbollah.

After repeated costly failures along the Lebanese border, the Israelis then decided to invade Jabalia Refugee Camp in northern Gaza and begin a terror bombing campaign across northern Gaza, also carrying on its assassinations of journalists and educators in the besieged territory. However, despite the terror that they inflicted, when their forces entered on the ground and besieged Jabalia Refugee Camp, the Palestinian Resistance factions began executing sophisticated and daring ambush operations, exacting a significant price on their soldiers.

The al-Qassam Brigades – the armed wing of Hamas – then began firing drones at troop formations and even one toward Israeli settlements, indicating that their capabilities were much greater than they were previously believed to be by the enemy. Suddenly, the Israelis were in a position where the Palestinian Resistance was killing and injuring their soldiers in Gaza, while Hezbollah was doing the same from South Lebanon.

Although the Israelis dealt significant blows to the Axis of Resistance, it is now in an even more difficult position than it previously found itself in prior to its assaults on Lebanon. Hezbollah has replaced its military leadership and has had the time to plan, rid itself of potential security breaches, and take the initiative on the battlefield. We see that Hezbollah is today intensifying its rocket strikes against the Israelis, dealing significant blows and putting the Zionist entity in a position of embarrassment before its own public once again.

The Israelis now must mount significant offensive actions across all fronts and fight on, managing a battle with Lebanon, Gaza, the West Bank, Yemen, Iraq, and even Iran. Benjamin Netanyahu envisioned himself as the Israeli Prime Minister to inflict a 1967-style defeat on the regional resistance, yet he has dragged the entire entity into something very different. We are no longer in the days of Egyptian President Gamal Abdul Nasser or the PLO in the 1980s, Hezbollah and the regional Axis of Resistance axis are not an alliance that can be broken through assassinations of senior leaders, in addition to this, they are ready for the fight.
Hezbollah undoubtedly enjoys superiority on the ground, in face-to-face combat, while the Zionist military has only proven capable of pulling off sophisticated terrorist plots and assassinations, in combination with their elite video-game warriors who specialize in using advanced weapons from a distance. The reality is that typing on a keyboard or commanding controllers, while sitting in a fortified position, may deliver some tactical victories, but it will not win a war that requires immense physical courage, which the Israelis simply do not possess.

Even in the West Bank, where the Israelis frequently raid refugee camps and face off against poorly trained teenagers and men in their young twenties, armed with no more than light weapons, their special forces units have to call in backup and end up using air support. Even against the weakest link in the chain of Resistance groups, they struggle to hold ground in confrontations and never do so in a fair way. In Lebanon, they face committed, well-trained, and well-prepared fighters who do not fear death and crave the opportunity to confront them.

The Israeli regime may well pull off more trickery and terrorism on a grand scale, as it will turn to more assassinations, attempts to stir unrest, and perhaps special force operations deep into Lebanese or Syrian territory. There cannot be any doubt that there will be more challenges ahead, that the Israelis have many more tricks up their sleeves, and that the terror they plan to inflict will be painful, primarily to civilians. Yet, they do not possess the capability to win a multi-front confrontation and will be bled to death, so long as the Axis of Resistance continues to seize the initiative and respond forcefully to each escalatory violation of international law that the Israelis commit.

Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, in his first speech issued during the Gaza Genocide, spoke of “scoring points” and that the “knockout blow” had not yet been delivered against the Israeli regime. What has happened during the past month is that the Israelis were being beaten on points and decided to begin throwing haymaker punches with the intent of ending the fight abruptly, taking a chance at victory. Some of those punches landed and knocked down the Axis of Resistance, yet they got back on their feet, dealt blows back to the Israelis, and are now fighting with even more intensity. Both sides have been hit and hurt, so this fight now looks like it will end with a KO.

The war that the Israeli regime has opened will not close until it is dealt a strategic defeat, one from which it will not likely recover. It is also a war that the United States has enabled and backed in every way. In today’s world, the Palestinians and Lebanese people are taking on not only the Zionists, but the US too.

[…]

Via https://libya360.wordpress.com/2024/10/12/the-zionist-regime-cannot-fight-hamas-and-hezbollah-at-the-same-time/

Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Crown Prince, (R), received Iranian  Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, Riyadh, Oct. 9, 2024

M. K. BHADRAKUMAR

Reuters reported on Friday quoting three sources in the Persian Gulf that the regional states are lobbying Washington to stop Israel from attacking Iran’s oil sites as “part of their attempts to avoid being caught in the crossfire.” The exclusive Reuters report singled out Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar as also refusing to let Israel fly over their airspace for any attack on Iran.

These moves come after a diplomatic push by Iran to persuade its Sunni Gulf neighbours to use their influence with Washington. Saudi Arabia has drawn the bottom line to the Biden Administration that it is determined to pursue the track of normalisation with Iran that began with the rapprochement brokered by China in March 2023. This affirmation, well into the Iranian-Saudi détente’s second year, puts paid to any residual hope that Arab states may eventually join a ‘coalition of the willing’ against Iran.

The big picture here is that the Gulf states are positioning themselves to be among the key contributors to the ongoing power diffusion in their region — and globally. Tehran and Riyadh have found ways to responsibly share the neighbourhood. Suffice to say, the Arab world is already in the post-US and post-West era.

Now, this also signals Riyadh’s unease about Israel continuing its war on Gaza and Saudi frustration with the US for refusing to pressure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government into accepting a ceasefire.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi was in Riyadh on Wednesday and was received by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The Saudi readout said they discussed bilateral relations and regional developments as well as the “efforts exerted towards them.” The meeting was attended by Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman, Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah and Minister of State and National Security Advisor Dr. Musaed bin Mohammed Al-Aiban.

Araqchi also held talks with Prince Faisal. “Discussions focused on relations and explored ways to strengthen them across various fields,” the Saudi report said. Only the previous day, Prince Khalid had spoken with his American counterpart Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin.

The Saudi Press Agency reported Tuesday that the two defence ministers “discussed the latest regional and international developments, efforts to de-escalate tensions in the region, and ways to ensure regional security and stability.”

Clearly, the Saudis are on the ball, quite aware that they can assume a pivotal role in restoring calm and preventing the spillover of the conflict into the region. The ground beneath the Israel-Iran standoff is shifting in systemic terms.

The military implications are profound when the Gulf States close their airspace to Israel (and the US) for operations against Iran. The Israeli jets will now have to take a circuitous route via the Red Sea and circumvent Arabian Peninsula to approach Iranian airspace, which of course will necessitate mid-air refuelling and all that it entails in such a sensitive operation that may have to be undertaken repeatedly. In a ‘missile war,’ Iran may prevail.   

How far the coordinated move by the Persian Gulf States to get the US to de-escalate the situation will work remains to be seen, as it depends largely on Netanyahu mellowing, of which there are no signs. Nonetheless, President Joe Biden did his part by calling Netanyahu on Wednesday. But the White House readout neatly sidestepped the main talking point between them.

It stands to reason, though, that the call from Biden did have some effect on Netanyahu. The New York Times reported that Israel’s security cabinet convened on Thursday during which Netanyahu discussed with senior ministers “the overall plan for Israel’s retaliation.”

The results of the meeting were not released. And Times concluded its report by taking note that “analysts still say neither side appears interested in all-out war.” Indeed, the Gulf states’ anxiety has become a key talking point between the US officials and Israeli counterparts.

After the call from Biden, Netanyahu asked Defence Minister Gallant who was scheduled to visit Washington to stand down. Meanwhile, the US Central Command chief General Michael Kurilla came to Israel for “a situational assessment.” Lloyd Austin followed through on Thursday with a call to with Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant but the focus was on Lebanon. No doubt, the Biden administration is pulling many strings in Tel Aviv.

Netanyahu is known to be a realist himself. The point is, Tehran is explicit that Tel Aviv will pay a heavy price for any further hostile action. The warning will be taken seriously as Israeli military and intelligence — indeed, Netanyahu himself — have just had a preview of Iran’s deterrent capability.

Second, the price of oil has already begun going up and that is something Candidate Kamala Harris wouldn’t want to see happening.

Third, as for nuclear facilities, Iran has dispersed them to all parts of the country and the critical infrastructure is buried deep in the bowels of mountains that are hard to reach.

To be sure, Iran’s missile strike on October 1 carried also showed that it has superb intelligence to know what to target, where and when. In a tiny country like Israel, it is difficult to hide — although Tehran may not stoop so low as to decapitate opponents.

Suffice to say, all things taken into account, a terrible beauty is born in the Middle East: How far will the US go to rescue Israel?

The beginning of an alignment of the Arab states, as evident this week, refusing to be part of any form of attack on Iran and the signs of ‘Islamic solidarity’ bridging sectarian divides — these are, quintessentially, to be seen as tipping points. This is the first thing.

Secondly, this isn’t going to be a short, crisp war. Colonel Doug Macgregor, an astute US combat veteran in the Gulf War and former advisor to the Pentagon during the Trump administration and a noted military historian, aptly drew the analogy of the Thirty Years’ War in Europe (1618-1648), which began as a battle among the Catholic and Protestant states that formed the Holy Roman Empire but evolved in time and became less about religion and turned into a political struggle, more about which group would ultimately govern Europe, and ultimately changing the geopolitical face of Europe.

To quote from a 2017 essay by Pascal Daudin, an ICRC veteran who was deployed in major conflict situations such as Pakistan, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, Central Asia, Caucasus, Saudi Arabia and the Balkans, the Thirty Years’ War turned into “a complex, protracted conflict between many different parties –- known in modern parlance as State and non-State actors. In practice, it was a series of separate yet connected international and internal conflicts waged by regular and irregular military forces, partisan groups, private armies and conscripts.” (here)

True, a Middle Eastern War in the current setting already has combatants, bystanders and onlookers who, as the conflict evolves into a latter-day Crusade, are bound to jump in — such as Turkey and Egypt.

It will most certainly exhaust Israel — and vanquish the US presence in the Middle East — although a protracted war may prompt an intellectual upheaval that would ultimately bring about the Enlightenment to the region, as the Thirty Years’ War did to Europe.

[…]

Via https://www.indianpunchline.com/the-arabs-are-transparently-displaying-their-crossover-to-multi-alignment-in-a-us-led-middle-eastern-war/

Al Mayadeen English

Israeli soldiers tell CNN that the war against Hezbollah and Lebanon has proven to be more challenging than expected, as flashbacks of 2006 haunt the occupation.

The Israeli war against Lebanon could end at a stalemate, as violent confrontations at the border indicate that [an Israeli victory] will not be easy, CNN said in a recent report.

According to the network, Hezbollah’s level of resistance has surprised many observers, particularly following the recent Israeli aggression and assassinations, including that of Martyr Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.

Nevertheless, the Resistance remained organized and continued launching its missiles and rockets against “Israel”.

Hezbollah holds the upper hand in the South

Israeli occupation soldiers fighting in Lebanon have abundantly expressed to CNN that the open, mountainous terrain of Lebanese territories, where Hezbollah fighters are present, makes the operation more difficult to carry out.

One occupation soldier, who had fought in Gaza and is now deployed against Lebanon, highlighted the stark differences between the northern front and his experience in Gaza.

“The challenge is not that Hezbollah is more equipped by Iran or have more training. The challenge is the switch in the head from months of fighting in an urban territory versus fighting in an open area territory,” he said, adding that the most basic maneuvers, including the IOF line-up and how they move, differ.

Additionally, despite claims of the Israeli military being “far more superior” to Hezbollah’s freedom fighters on paper, due to its more sophisticated weapons arsenal, larger battalions, and stronger allies, the soldier confirmed that all their strongholds are rendered worthless in open battle in the Resistance’s homeland.

Guerrilla warfare proves deadly for Israeli soldiers

In the same context, Daniel Sobelman, an international security expert at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said the IOF underwent a similar experience during the 2006 July war against Lebanon.

“Hezbollah were up against the strongest military in the Middle East, there were literally hundreds of Israeli air raids per day, and artillery, and all the capabilities that a modern, advanced military has to offer. And they were not defeated. They survived. And throughout the entire Israeli offensive, Hezbollah was able to fire hundreds of rockets into Israel every day,” he said.

Following “Israel’s” humiliating defeat in 2006, it has spent the past two decades preparing to confront Hezbollah once again, until Hamas carried out Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7, 2023, which was completely unprecedented and unexpected, according to Sobelman.

And while “Israel” decided to wage war against Hezbollah, expecting to end it unscathed, it is worth noting that Hezbollah has also been preparing for war, and “that is never the case with guerrilla warfare.”

Additionally, “Israel” is fighting on lands Hezbollah are masters in and are driven and determined to inflict massive losses against the IOF, Sobelman added.

“They’re entrenched in underground facilities and they’re playing a defensive game,” he said of Hezbollah’s fighters, noting that “it doesn’t matter how many of them you kill, still (in a guerilla war) the weaker side ultimately wins by imposing a sustained accumulation of costs.”

Revisiting “Israel’s” defeat in 2006, Sobelman said today’s scenario is exactly what happened during the July War, noting that despite the occupation’s material superiority, it was still unable to achieve any of its war objectives.

History repeats itself

Therefore, the next move could potentially constitute the deployment of more occupation troops along the northern front, which could quickly transform the current battle into a bloodier one.

“Israel” announced that four divisions of 10,000 to 20,000 soldiers each have been deployed to fight in Lebanon. However, Hezbollah remains undeterred, and continues ambushing the occupation forces and inflicting severe losses among their ranks.

On October 11, the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon, in defense of its lands and in support of Gaza, targeted five Israeli forces in Ras al-Naqoura, four of which had been trying to evacuate the casualties that preceded.

[…]

Via https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/hezbollah-shocks-observers—israel–reliving-2006-war–cnn

Cynocephali

Episode 17 Fictional Travels and Monstrous Races

The Middle Ages Around the World

Dr Joyce E Salisbury

Film Review

During the Middle Ages, fictional travel accounts were far more popular than genuine travel diaries . Dr Salisbury specifically singles out The Travels of Sir John Manderville, which was was totally fabricated. Written in Norman French in the 14th century, it was mostly  copied from the works of other travellers and historians. Translated into every existing European language by 1400, 300 copies of the manuscripts survive (in contrat to 135 copies of The Travel of Marco Polo’). Until quite recently, Manderville’s book was taken as totally factual and was used as a guide book by Columbus and other explorers.

Among other false claims in the manuscript are

• assertions that Manderville visited the Holy Land (which never happened) and saw the desert cave where Adam and Eve lived. as well as spots of Mary’s breast milk on a pink rock.
• assertions that he visited Turkish and Persian lands (including the area described in Greek legend ruled by Amazon women, who expelled all men from their territory).*
• a description of a healing well that cured illness and made people young again (which sent Ponce de Leon searching for the fountain of youth in Florida)
• a description of Spice Islands rulers living in palaces of gold.**
• a visit to China (which never happened) to observe the immense opulence of the Yuan dynasty (which he copied from Marco Polo), despite the state of serious decline of the Yuan dynasty 1356.
• a visit to India (which never happened), where he claimed to have encountered a Christian king named Prester John.

According to Salisbury, Manderville’s most damaging claims concerned fantastic half-human creatures he allegedly during his voyages. This helped to popularize the notion that foreign lands harbored exotic subhuman people ripe for murder and exploitation

Manderville copied most off these accounts from the Roman historian Pliny the Elder, who first introduced the concept of race – with what are now called “Plinian races” or “monstrous races.” Examples include

• Blemmyae – human beings lacking heads or necks who had faces on their chests

• Aeomi – apple smellers who derived nutrition from smells and died if exposed to foul odors.
• Scropods – who had only a single large leg.
• Paditi – who had ears so long they could wrap their body in them.
• Cynocephali – human creature with dog heads

Catholic monks also compiled bestiaries, which alo included centaurs, manticors (had four legs with the face of a man, leading to a big debate whether such monsters were human or not. It was generally believed that refusing to wear clothes and eating human flesh were a sign of non-humanity.

*Strongly influenced by Manderville’s book, 16th century Spanish explorer Francisco Oriano named the Amazon River after women warriors he encountered in South America.

**Which inspired Columbus to sail across the Atlantic seeking gold in what he believed were the Spice Isands.

Film can be viewed with a library card on Kanopy.

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/13172786/13172823

(Photo by Jabin Botsford/Getty Images)

The Blogging Hounds

In the wake of Hurricane Helene’s destructive path through North Carolina, the Trump campaign has reportedly sounded the alarm over what it sees as a clear threat to voter turnout in the region.

With 26 of the 28 counties hit hardest by the flooding having voted for President Trump in 2020, campaign insiders are concerned that more than 530,000 Trump voters in western North Carolina could be left unable to vote in the upcoming election.

Veteran investigative reporter Paul Sperry broke the story, writing on X: “SCOOP: Trump campaign fears >530k Trump voters in western NC cd be disenfranchised by Helene. In fact, 26 of 28 counties hit by flooding voted for Trump in ’20. ‘There’s a 4-to-1 disparity (vs Biden/Harris voters). We’re very concerned,’ a Trump insider said. NC = 16 electoral votes.”

The liberal media are already signaling how the storm could swing the election, but many conservatives are asking: are they preparing to cheat again?

Politico’s latest report reads almost like a gleeful prediction, saying: “Helene hit Trump strongholds in Georgia and North Carolina. It could swing the election.”

Politico reported:

Research has shown that major disasters can influence both voter turnout and voter preference. And Helene has pushed this contest into novel territory: It’s the first catastrophic event in U.S. history to hit two critical swing states within six weeks of a presidential election, based on a POLITICO’s E&E News analysis of data compiled by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The challenge for Trump: The parts of western North Carolina and eastern Georgia that were flooded by the monster storm are largely Republican. In 2020, he won 61 percent of the vote in the North Carolina counties that were declared a disaster after Helene. He won 54 percent of the vote in Georgia’s disaster counties.

According to Newsweek, registered Democrats in North Carolina have taken an early lead in returning mail-in ballots, raising Republican concerns about election integrity after officials implemented rule changes in counties severely impacted by Hurricane Helene.

According to VoteHub.us, which sources data from the North Carolina State Board of Elections, a total of 22,910 mail-in ballots have been submitted so far, with 9,075 returned by Democrats, compared to 5,595 by Republicans and 8,240 by unaffiliated voters.

Out of the 284,245 mail-in ballots requested, 261,335 have yet to be returned.

Of the outstanding mail-in votes, 93,285 belong to registered Democrats, 65,333 to Republicans, and 102,717 to unaffiliated voters.

Starting on October 9, the “Team Trump Bus Tour” will travel across North Carolina. The goal: to energize the conservative base and ensure every Trump supporter makes it to the polls despite the challenges.

This tour is filled with high-profile conservative figures, including Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds, Rep. Elise Stefanik, and former Trump administration officials like Hogan Gidley and Kash Patel.

[…]

Via https://theblogginghounds.com/2024/10/10/report-trump-campaign-sounds-alarm-over-potential-disenfranchisement-of-more-than-530000-trump-voters-in-flood-ravaged-western-north-carolina/

CBS has come under fire for deceptively editing Kamala Harris’ “60 Minutes” interview – replacing her word-salad answer from a pre-interview teaser with a completely different answer in the version that aired.

When asked by host Bill Whitaker why it seemed like Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wasn’t listening to the United States, Harris originally replied:

“Well Bill, the work that we have done has resulted in a number of movements in that region by Israel that were very much prompted by, or a result of, many things, including our advocacy for what needs to happen in the region.”

The clip received the standard reaction to Harris feigning intellect:

But in the version that aired, Harris’ answer was: “We are not going to stop pursuing what is necessary for the United States to be clear about where we stand on the need for this war to end.”

The Trump campaign has demanded that the network release the full interview.

“On Sunday, 60 Minutes teased Kamala’s highly-anticipated sit-down interview with one of her worst word salads to date, which received significant criticism on social media,” said Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign’s national press secretary. “During the full interview on Monday evening, the word salad was deceptively edited to lessen Kamala’s idiotic response.”

“Why did 60 Minutes choose not to air Kamala’s full word salad, and what else did they choose not to air?” she asked. “The American people deserve the full, unedited transcript from Kamala’s sit-down interview. We call upon 60 Minutes and CBS to release it.”

Trump also posted about it on Truth Social, writing “I’ve never seen this before, but the producers of 60 Minutes sliced and diced (“cut and pasted”) Lyin’ Kamala’s answers to questions, which were virtually incoherent, over and over again, some by as many as four times in a single sentence or thought…” Trump suggested that the network helping Harris may have been a “major Campaign Finance Violation,” and is a “stain on the reputation of 60 minutes that is not recoverable.”

Trump also called for an investigation.

[…]

Via https://www.zerohedge.com/political/spliced-60-minutes-under-fire-deceptively-editing-kamala-harris-interview-trump-demands

A report by Dr. Reiner Fuellmich on his prison conditions in the Göttingen high-security prison Rosdorf, in response to the author Kerstin Heusinger, Germany correspondent of the French-language online publication BAM! With exclusive photos from the courtroom and sketches:

7:00 am Court Hearing for the Civil Rights Activist and Lawyer Dr. Reiner Fuellmich

Heavily armed officers with pistols and submachine guns equipped with bulletproof vests welcome me. They try to convince me to put on a bulletproof vest, which I consistently refuse. They then have me sign a waiver that releases them from liability if I am injured or killed by gunfire.

One of the officers searches my body and then forces me to kneel on a stool as he does every time while he puts shackles on me.

He ties a wide leather belt around my waist and then puts handcuffs on me, which are attached to the belt with chains, which in turn are secured with a large padlock.

The ankle shackles force me to take very small steps, which makes it difficult to get in and out of the transport vehicle. If I stumbled like this, I wouldn’t be able to catch my fall and would probably break my wrists.

Prison officials told me that they had never seen a defendant be held in pre-trial detention for more than 11 months for a simple offence (and not for a serious crime or an act of terrorism), held in solitary confinement and, most importantly, brought to court hearings handcuffed and shackled.

In the court, I was taken to the basement, to a tiled cell with a simple wooden bench, the basement is cynically called “the cellar.” Renewed body search. Then I have to wait until I am led into the courtroom in handcuffs. Every time the trial is interrupted, I am handcuffed again and taken “to the basement” again.

Every time I returned from the court, I was completely stripped in a transit room to conduct a thorough body search.

Harassment, Humiliation, Punishment

Mr. D., the deputy director in charge of pre-trial detention, ordered my complete isolation on the grounds that my legal advice to other detainees could incite them to revolt.

Rosdorf prison is divided into two areas: criminal detention (400 inmates) and pre-trial detention (80 inmates), where I have been imprisoned since 13 October 2023.

The pre-trial detainees are spread over 4 levels. Those who are considered particularly dangerous or at risk will be isolated at level A0, where security will be increased and additional restrictions will be imposed. I was accommodated there.

Like the other inmates of level A0, I am strictly forbidden to speak to any other inmate.

For 11 months I have had no internet access, no computer and no cell phone. I’m only allowed to watch TV. My only contact with the outside world is my lawyer and the 3 hours per month for visits or phone calls with my family. Yes, a total of 3 hours per month.

My isolation goes so far that even my daily walk in the yard has to be done alone. This hour-long walk will be suspended if I am caught communicating with another inmate, even if it is only a hand signal. Yes, if I exchange a greeting with a fellow inmate through the bars of a window, even if I just nod my head – he and I will be punished immediately.

All disciplinary measures will be imposed without giving reasons and without the possibility of appeal.

Everyone is Guilty!

The treatment of pre-trial detainees is particularly poor and borders on torture. Mr. D., who manages the pre-trial detention and also works as a social worker, makes no secret of his convictions: He believes that you are guilty if you are in pre-trial detention.

His disregard for the presumption of innocence is the main reason for my placement in solitary confinement.

He committed serious and intentional breaches of duty, which I witnessed. These violations were covered up by the prison management. With two exceptions, the security officers carry out the orders they receive without remorse, like robots.

On 8 August 2024, I asked for an interview with the deputy director of the prison. I told her that during my absence for the trials, personal belongings and documents had disappeared from my cell. The cells are usually searched regularly according to strict rules. These thefts occurred outside of the official inspections that are recorded.

Persecution: Dr. Reiner Fuellmich Refers to the Redzep Case

The full seriousness of the situation is shown in the attacks on a pre-trial detainee, Kevin Redzep, who was seriously injured. He allowed me to publish his name and story. He is from Montenegro and although he is intelligent and speaks several languages, he cannot read or write German fluently. He was placed in a ward where there were several violent inmates or who were accused of premeditated murder. He was called a “gypsy” by his fellow prisoners, threatened and asked Mr. D. for help, who refused to take him to the endangered prisoners. The next day, Kevin Redzep was attacked by three fellow inmates while walking. He was so badly injured in the head with a glass bottle that the zygomatic bone above his left eye was crushed and his eyesight was endangered.

On 9 July 2024, Kevin Redzep had to undergo surgery before returning to Rosdorf prison before recovering. There was another physical altercation with five or six prison officers, who threw him to the ground and injured him again in the head. Mr. D. then ordered the isolation of Kevin Redzep, who was already severely traumatised.

Kevin Redzep, who wanted to sue Mr. D, the penitentiary and the state of Lower Saxony for bodily harm, asked me for help. When Mr. D. learned that I had advised this prisoner and found him a lawyer, Kevin Redzep disappeared. It is believed that he was transferred to another prison. Since then, lawyer Wörmer, my lawyer, has been trying in vain to find him, hoping that he is still alive.

Ray of Hope

Despite the disciplinary sanctions they face, the pre-trial detainees show solidarity with me. They encourage me. For example, they call out to me: “Don’t give up, keep going.”

Some prison officials have seen through the hoax with the pandemic and know that my trial is a sham justice orchestrated by the intelligence services. They let me know that and wish me a good outcome.

What helps me the most is the enormous support of the international public.

I receive a large number of letters that are not even read by the prison administration. I read all the letters and am infinitely touched by the affection they show. I try to answer as far as I can.

Sometimes I see the vigils and the people greeting me as I sit in the transport vehicle to the court.

I feel the remarkably strong connection to all those who support me. It is this connection that allows us to overcome adversity together.

Twice a week, I have to go to the medical service to be examined because I refused to take blood. I have argued that any medical act, especially any invasive medical act, constitutes a violation of physical integrity if the patient does not voluntarily give consent. I am therefore regularly examined because a prisoner suffering from tuberculosis could possibly have infected people with whom he came into contact.

One of the prison’s doctors expressed his sympathy for my work. He also explained to me that the medical staff felt that the health of many detainees was incompatible with detention. However, the prison management prefers to ignore this fact.

Having personally seen what happens in pre-trial detention – the suspension of the fundamental rights of the accused, their difficulties in gaining access to a defence that really cares about their fate – I am convinced that prisons only benefit those who profit from them, with pre-trial detention being more lucrative than post-trial detention.

I have not met any defendant whom I would describe as “evil.” I have met many, really many pre-trial detainees who seem innocent to me, or who need therapeutic treatment above all, as a prison doctor admitted.

If we didn’t need some prisons for some sociopaths, for example, for those responsible for the pandemic, the wars, the massacres like in Gaza and for the corrupt people of the system, I would be in favour of the abolition of prisons.

[…]

Via https://expose-news.com/2024/10/11/persecution-in-prison-by-dr-reiner-fuellmich/

Irish peacekeepers serving with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, UNIFIL, on patrol along the Blue Line in the vicinity of UN Post 6-52 in southern Lebanon in July 2011. (UN Photo/Pasqual Gorriz)

By Mick Hall

An Irish-Israeli diplomatic crisis has been defused after Israel withdrew its invasion force from firing positions metres from a U.N. post in south Lebanon staffed by Irish peacekeepers.

Irish President Michael D. Higgins had called Israeli demands for U.N. peacekeepers to abandon their posts as its invading army crossed deeper into Lebanese sovereign territory “an outrageous threat.”

The incident underlined how Israel is increasingly alienating itself on the international stage while continuing to undermine institutions and instruments of international humanitarian law.

Satellite images published by Irish state broadcaster RTE showed two dozen Israeli Defense Force (IDF) military vehicles, including tanks, located just 60 metres from the boundary of U.N. outpost 6-52 last Saturday as it exchanged fire with Shia resistance group Hezbollah.

[The Washington Post reported Friday that Israel has wounded U.N. peacekeepers after Al Jazeera reported Thursday that “United Nations peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix tells UN Security Council that safety and security of peacekeepers in Lebanon is ‘increasingly in jeopardy’ as Israeli forces open fire on UNIFIL posts in country’s south, injuring two.”]

Since Monday 30 Irish soldiers stationed at UNP6-52, approximately 1km from the Lebanese town of Maroun El-Ras, had been bunkered down and isolated from their 300-odd comrades at Camp Shamrock, which lies West of Bint Jbeil and 7km from the border with Israel.

Israel’s actions prompted accusations from Hezbollah, Lebanese media, and Irish Defence Minister Micheál Martin who said the IDF was using the Irish troops as cover, or human shields, as it extended its invasion. When asked by a journalist if Irish peacekeepers were being used as such, Martin said, “they’re certainly availing of the cover that that presents.”

The U.N. had been communicating with the Israeli permanent mission to the U.N. in New York over the ongoing situation. On Tuesday U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres announced the Israeli forces had moved away from the Irish position after high-level talks.

A force of over 347 Irish soldiers is stationed in Lebanon, 332 of whom are attached to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and stationed at Camp Shamrock (UNP 2-45), where RTE reported constant Israel drone activity above the camp last week.

They help make up a force of 10,000 UNIFIL international peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, which patrol the so-called Blue Line, a demarcation negotiated before Israel was forced from the country in 2006 following its invasion in 1982.  More than 30,000 Irish troops have served in UNIFIL since its establishment in 1978.

UNIFIL this week instructed all battalions to limit movements as Israel continues to encroach farther into Lebanon, attacking Hezbollah targets and killing thousands of Lebanese civilians as they go. UNP6-52 is in the most precarious position of the 29 U.N. posts, all within 5km of the Blue Line, it said.

The IDF had requested UNIFIL battalions to retreat from some positions at the weekend where it was moving into, which UNIFIL rejected.

On Saturday, Higgins, who as Irish president is also supreme commander of the Defence Forces, said Irish soldiers were risking their lives on behalf of defenceless civilians in southern Lebanese villages and that Israel’s demand was an insult to those carrying out their mission. He said:

“It is outrageous that the Israeli Defence Forces have threatened this peacekeeping force and sought to have them evacuate the villages they are defending. Indeed, Israel is demanding that the entire UNIFIL operating under U.N. mandates walk away.

“This is not only an insult to the most important global institution to which 193 members are committed, but it is also an insult to the soldiers and their families who have taken risks so we might all live in peace and protect the most vulnerable.”

The rejection of Israel’s request for U.N. forces to withdraw was much to the chagrin of its government and supporters.

On Monday, Washington-based think tank analyst and former director of policy at the Jewish Policy Center, Matthew R.J. Brodsky, even called for the area controlled by the Irish contingent to be carpet bombed and “napalmed.”

The Irish Defence Force on Monday had said troops’ movements had been limited, with supplies estimated to run out within weeks and the current environment not conducive to the movement of large convoys.

In a statement it said Israel had breached the Blue Line in multiple areas, raising “significant concerns, particularly regarding the breaches near our Irish Battalion posts.”

“These incursions have been accompanied by the establishment of a new military zone on the Israeli side, suggesting an intent to expand operations further,” it said.

Israel has been carrying out airstrikes in Beirut’s southern suburbs. It has also cut off the main border crossing between Lebanon and Syria, a key route for people fleeing Israeli bombardment that has so far killed more than 2000 civilians, according to Lebanese authorities.

The office for Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris said Harris had reiterated to Guterres on Monday that it was “unacceptable that U.N. resolutions and the blue line in southern Lebanon have been breached and violated with IDF military activity.”

Earlier UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti told Irish media there had been intense shelling between Hezbollah and the IDF at the weekend and warned UNIFIL may order withdrawals from the area if fighting intensified.

Pressuring UNIFIL forces and putting its peacekeepers in danger is a new escalation by Israel in its disdain for the activities of U.N. agencies since Oct. 7, 2003.

It has widely targeted the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) after invading Gaza, targeting its schools and health centres, as well as its employees, while accusing the organisation of being infiltrated by Hamas. Up to this week, it had killed 226 U.N. employees in Gaza over the past year.

However, targeting U.N. peacekeepers would further isolate Israel on the global stage and cause serious fallouts with the countries of origin of any soldiers killed or injured while patrolling the Blue Line.

The Israeli embassy in Dublin said Higgins’ interpretation of IDF requests to evacuate as “threats” were “unfounded and inflammatory,” as the requests for some troops to move were “for their own protection and safety.”

Tensions between Higgins and the Israeli embassy have been building for several months. Last month, Higgins accused the embassy of spying on him, intercepting and leaking a congratulatory letter sent to the newly-elected president of Iran Masoud Pezeshkian.

Israel’s diplomatic relationship with Ireland has been strained for some time. As a former colony of England, support for Palestine among the general population has been high, with its politicians among the most vocal in criticising Israel’s genocidal onslaught in Gaza.

However, much of the current government’s support for Palestinians has been tokenistic, with Harris’ right-wing coalition refusing to bring into law the Occupied Territories Bill (2018), which would ban trade with and economic support for illegal settlements in Israeli-occupied territories.

It was passed by majorities in both the Irish Seanad (upper house) and the Dáil (lower house), which prompted U.S. lawmakers to warn of serious repercussions to the Irish economy if implemented.

The U.N. has historically found it useful to involve Irish troops in peacekeeping missions to sensitive areas like Lebanon and the Congo, partly due to their country’s historic policy of neutrality and history of colonialism, offering a fig leaf to populations they embed with.

Forty-eight Irish soldiers were killed in Lebanon after their initial deployment in 1978 up to 2000, when Ireland completed its first deployment to UNIFIL. It sent its soldiers back as peacekeepers in 2006.

Several Irish peacekeepers were killed in Baraachit in separate incidents between 1986 and 1991, the same southern Lebanese town where an Israeli airstrike struck a municipal building on Monday, killing 10 firefighters in an attack reminiscent of the targeting of essential workers in Gaza over the past 12 months.

In 1986, an Irish soldier was shot dead after being fired on by IDF and Israeli militia forces positioned outside Baraachit. A year later an Irish soldier was killed when an IDF tank in the village fired shells into his U.N. post. In 1989 three Irish soldiers were killed by a land mine and shelling.

Ireland sent its soldiers back as peacekeepers after 2006, when Hezbollah forced Israel out of most of the country in a historic defeat for the Zionist state.

[…]

Via https://consortiumnews.com/2024/10/10/idf-in-outrageous-threat-to-irish-un-troops-in-lebanon/

>

Dmitry Orlov

It was a disaster 80 years in the making. At the end of World War II, the United States stood virtually alone as an economic power. Accounting for 50 percent of global GDP, it held 80% of the world’s hard currency reserves. Fast-forward to 2024 and the share of the US in the world economy has shrunk to 14.76% (calculated from figures provided by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund).

But even this number is misleading, for fully 20% of the US economy is made of what goes under the acronym FIRE: finance, insurance and real estate. These are unproductive parasites on the productive economy. Another unproductive parasite is health care: ridiculously overpriced, it amounts to almost a quarter of all spending in the US. Neither the resources consumed by FIRE, nor by health care spending, contribute much of anything to the standing of the US within the world economy.

Adjusted for these, the US share of the world economy dwindles to just over 8%. While hardly negligible, this share is nowhere near sufficient to give the US anything like a majority vote or veto power in world affairs. The tragedy of the situation is that the mindset of Americans, particularly those occupying positions of authority in Washington, has been unable to adapt to this development. Their mindset appears to be fixed for all time: they believe that they can still dictate terms to the whole world and finding it increasingly awkward to cover up for the fact that almost the whole world (with some notable exceptions) now feels free to ignore them.

Starting just after World War II, when much of the world’s industry lay in ruins, the US was able to make use of its industrial power, supported by its military might, to tilt the economic playing field in its favor. With the US dollar used as the main currency in international trade and, crucially, in oil trading, it was able to maintaining a chokehold on international finance and trade by alternately tightening and loosening the supply of dollars. While initially making it possible to exchange dollars for gold, this option was cancelled in 1971. In 1986, the US went from a net creditor (a position it had held since 1914) to a net debtor, making its continued ability to borrow from the rest of the world in its own currency a matter of survival. At the same, the dwindling share of the US in the world economy eroded the effectiveness of US financial warfare, inevitably shifting the emphasis to warfare proper. Maintaining its unrestricted borrowing ability, along with the value of the US dollar, has been made possible through increasingly oppressive and violent means, earning the US the title the empire of chaos.

Starting with the staged terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the US attempted to unleash its military might in a contrived “war on terror” in order to sufficiently terrify its adversaries to once again tilt the playing field in its favor. This mission has not been a success. Here is a quote from Le Monde Diplomatique, describing some of its successes.

From the moment of the invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001, in fact, everything the U.S. military touched in these years has turned to dust. Nations across the Greater Middle East and Africa collapsed under the weight of American interventions or those of its allies, and terror movements, one grimmer than the next, spread in a remarkably unchecked fashion. Afghanistan is now a disaster zone; Yemen, wracked by civil war, a brutal U.S.-backed Saudi air campaign, and various ascendant terror groups, is essentially no more; Iraq, at best, is a riven sectarian nation; Syria barely exists; Libya, too, is hardly a state these days; and Somalia is a set of fiefdoms and terror movements. All in all, it’s quite a record for the mightiest power on the planet, which, in a distinctly un-imperial fashion, has been unable to impose its military will or order of any sort on any state or even group, no matter where it chose to act in these years. It’s hard to think of a historical precedent for this.

What is notable in this quote is what it omits: that the US has failed even in producing chaos. Most nations across the Middle East and Africa (with the exception of Israel/Palestine and Lebanon) are at least superficially stable; Afghanistan is doing much better under the rule of the Taliban and working out large development plans with China and Russia, Iraq is weak but allied with Iran; Syria hasn’t collapsed and once again controls much of its territory. But the conclusion is correct, and uncanny: the US has failed even in imposing chaos.

The failures of the US to foment chaos were not limited to the military sphere: its attempts at sowing political chaos have been similarly ineffective. The color revolution syndicate, once quite successful in overthrowing governments that the US foreign policy establishment found uncooperative, has misfired all around the world — in Russia, Venezuela, Belarus, Georgia and other places. In each case, the US-supplied replacement leader was abandoned as a political corpse: Alexei Navalny (now an actual corpse) in Russia, Juan Guaidó in Venezuela, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya in Belarus and Mikheil Saakashvili in Georgia. But such failures were to be expected and the level of resulting political chaos was controllable. This changed, at first imperceptibly, with the US-instigated Ukrainian coup in early 2014 and then abruptly and permanently with the launch of Russia’s Special Military Operation to demilitarize and denazify the Ukraine in early 2022. That was a signal event for the whole world: it is no longer necessary for anyone to obey the United States!

Examples of disobedience are by now many and varied. The US asked Iran not to ship ballistic missiles to Russia — and Iran does ship them. The US asked China not to supply Russia with manufactured goods and technologies that allow it to skirt sanctions and to conduct its Special Military Operation — and China does supply them. After Nicolas Maduro was reelected in Venezuela, the US asked for this result to be reconsidered and the request was denied. The Houthis in Yemen pay no attention to US efforts to stop them from interfering with Red Sea shipping. US military bases are being asked to leave by several African nations which now prefer to deal with Russia and China. Even Israel no longer bothers to coordinate its actions with Washington, never mind whether or not they hurt Washington’s interests.

Gevorg Mirzayan, Associate Professor of Political Science at Financial University in Moscow, has offered three reasons for this pandemic of disobedience:

• The first is the rapid shift of national governments toward reasserting their national sovereignty. With Western-style globalization discredited by actions of the United States, along with a major weakening of international institutions (again, due to them having been discredited by the US), governments have been forced to rely on their own resources for achieving their goals. In the process, they became much more active in defending their national interests, inspired by the understanding that nobody else will do it for them.
• The second reason was that they were quick to realize that defending their national interests is not as complicated or difficult as it might have seemed at first. Initially, they were fearful of various methods of US retribution — sanctions, humanitarian interventions, bombings, invasions and political ostracism. But Russia demonstrated that they need not fear US and Western sanctions, presenting an example of a developed, internationally integrated economy that could withstand the most powerful Western sanctions in history; all that’s needed is political will and national unity. This unity, in turn, can be achieved through demonstrated correctness of political decisions multiplied by feelings of national pride. Looking at Russia’s results, other nations, such as China, which until now has tried to avoid open conflict with the US, is working up to a level of political determination needed for direct confrontation.
• And then there is the third reason, which is that political figures in the US have, to put it politely, gone completely stupid. The ascent to power of batshit-crazy liberals spouting radical feminism, Critical Race Theory, LGBT nonsense, climate catastrophism, borderless policies, transhumanist nightmares and globalist fantasies has squeezed out the better informed, more practical-minded contenders. As a result, we are seeing the fifth election cycle in the US when none of the candidates are capable of controlling global processes — unable to maintain what various Russian analysts have termed controlled chaos. The controllable chaos they had once tried to create, be it Arab Spring or the color revolutions or attempts to keep Africa and Latin America from drifting away, has rather swiftly spun out of control — out of US control, that is, leaving plenty of room for controlling events from the point of view of more thoughtful, better informed and quicker-thinking politicians in China, Russia, Iran and so on.

But losing control of its adversaries is, to some extent, to be expected and is not even the worst of it. What is even worse is that the Washingtonians are losing control of their allies, upon whose resources they have relied in their now frustrated quest for global dominance.
• Turkey, a large NATO power, is seeking to join BRICS, is working with Russia’s Rosatom to build its Akkuyu nuclear plant and is serving as a major transshipment point for Russian natural gas exports.
• Saudi Arabia has refused to extend its Petrodollar Agreement with the US, which expired on June 9, 2024, and is now trading oil with China in yuan instead of dollars while closely cooperating with Russia as part of OPEC+ and also looking in the direction of BRICS.
• Israel — the closest US ally — has essentially taken the US hostage. Its genocidal operation in Gaza has dealt a serious blow to US relations with the entire Moslem world. And now Israeli leader Netanyahoo is attempting to pull the US into a military conflict with Iran.
• Even smaller countries, such as Hungary, Slovakia and Georgia, are refusing to accede to various US demands.
• The worst mutineer of all, from the US perspective, is the Ukraine. The Kiev regime, deprived of sufficient US military and financial support and sensing Washington’s weakness as it negotiates a period of severe political uncertainty due to Biden’s senility, Harris’s manifest idiocy and Trump’s unpredictability and tempestuousness, are attempting the same gambit as Netanyahoo — to embroil the US in an armed conflict, but not with Iran but with militarily invincible, nuclear-armed Russia. Just as with Israel, the Washingtonians are demonstrating their complete inability to prevent Ukrainian crimes against humanity, nuclear provocations and war crimes.

Given these developments, what would make the most sense for the US is to attempt to cut its losses. It should try to find a mutually agreeable compromise with its allies and to allow its adversaries to deal with those who are completely out of its control. But such geopolitical stewardship requires sober, pragmatic, well informed leadership — which does not exist in the US.

The alternative is to wait for the inevitable worst case scenario to unfold. Deprived of sufficient US support, the Ukraine and Israel will both fail. Taiwan will rejoin China. Countries around the world will go on ignoring the US. Meanwhile, the US will continue borrowing more and more money (over a trillion every three months) to finance its huge and growing budget deficit (now a third of the federal budget) while rolling over its longer-term, lower-interest debt as shorter-term, higher-interest debt. Newly generated dollars, representing nothing of value, will disappear like water into sand, generating negligible economic activity. No matter how the Washingtonians cook the numbers, pretending that dollar inflation is under control (it is not) or that the US economy is still growing (it is not), the American Empire is at an end.

[…]

Via https://boosty.to/cluborlov/posts/ac2b6fc6-b089-4450-81b1-d19446a7c4f6

Source: ned.org

By Jeremy Kuzmarpv

On September 13, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) announced that it was appointing Victoria Nuland to its Board of Directors, effective immediately.

Covert Geopolitics has called Nuland the “queen of chicken hawks” and “Lady Macbeth of perpetual war,” as she has “promoted a foreign policy of intervention, coups, proxy wars, aggression, and occupation…in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Ukraine.”

Nuland served as Acting Deputy Secretary of State from July 2023 to February 2024, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs from 2021 to 2024, and Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs from 2013 to 2017, as well as U.S. Ambassador to NATO from 2005 to 2008 and as an adviser to Dick Cheney during the Iraq conflict.

Her husband Robert Kagan co-founded the Project for the New American Century in 1998 around a demand for “regime change” in Iraq, a project that was accomplished in 2003 with President George W. Bush’s invasion.

Disturbingly, Nuland expressed glee at one of the greatest acts of environmental terrorism in history, the bombing and destruction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, telling Congress that “I am, and I think the administration is, very gratified to know that Nord Stream 2 is now…a hunk of metal at the bottom of the sea.”

In a February 2024 interview with CNN, advocating for congressional approval of $95.34 billion for Ukraine, Nuland remarked: “We have to remember that the bulk of this money is going right back into the U.S., to make those weapons.” Basically, she was announcing her support for war profiteering.

Founded in the 1980s to do overtly what the CIA had done for decades covertly, the NED is a non-profit corporation funded by Congress that specializes in mobilizing activist networks and advancing disinformation in countries targeted by the United States for regime change.

The neo-conservativism of the NED has been evident in its appointment to its board of leading war hawks like Henry Kissinger, Frank Carlucci (Ronald Reagan’s defense secretary), Zbigniew Brzezinski, current CIA Director William Burns, Francis Fukuyama and Paul Wolfowitz.

Nuland fits very well within this crowd, particularly as a key architect of one of the greatest humanitarian disasters in modern history—the Ukraine War—which NED and the neo-conservative establishment has fervently championed.

In July 2015, journalist Robert Parry wrote an article entitled “The Ukraine Mess That Nuland Made.” It detailed Nuland’s role as a “mastermind” behind the 2014 “Maidan” coup that precipitated a war resulting in more than a million deaths and that has placed the world on the precipice of World War III.

The Maidan coup unseated the democratically elected pro-Russian government of President Viktor Yanukovych and brought in a pro-U.S. regime which waged war on eastern Ukraine after it pushed for autonomy following the imposition of draconian language laws and other efforts to eviscerate the people’s Russian culture.

Nuland pushed for the coup within the State Department and helped hand-pick the post-coup leaders who would sow the seeds of the destruction of their own nation by picking a fight with the Russians they could never win.

These same leaders allowed foreign corporations to take control over their economy and imposed a neo-liberal economic program that resulted in the slashing of social services, attacks on organized labor, and declining living standards compounded egregiously now by the war.

Parry wrote that, “to sell this latest neocon-driven ‘regime change’ to the American people, the ugliness of the coup-makers had to be systematically airbrushed, particularly the key role of neo-Nazis and other ultra-nationalists from the Right Sektor.”

Nuland was herself present at the scene of the Maidan Square protests with U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt, and famously handed out cookies. A leaked conversation with Pyatt featured her badmouthing the EU and choosing Arseniy Yatsenyuk as Ukraine’s first post-coup leader, even though he had almost zero support among the Ukrainian people.

“Yats is the guy,” Nuland declared, sounding very much like a pro-consul from a past age of colonialism in which the native viewpoint did not count. All while she professed to be leading a glorious “democratic” revolution.

Parry pointed out that Nuland’s conduct in Ukraine resembled her husband Robert’s and other neo-cons’ conduct with respect to Iraq.

In both cases, a complete disregard for local political considerations and history led to the unleashing of ethnic conflict, with the U.S. supporting elements in Ukraine that had fought the Russians in collaboration with the Nazis during World War II.

Nuland’s appointment to the NED will help to ensure that the mistakes/atrocities of the past are continuously repeated.

The NED engages in a form of social engineering that helps trigger uprisings and revolutions in many countries that often lead to civil wars.

In many cases, it pits young people seduced by the allure of consumerism and an idealized view of Western democracy with older, more established generations committed to preserving their country’s sovereignty from Western neo-colonialism and to securing a stronger social safety net.

As one example, the NED and Nuland were very active in triggering a youth revolt in Belarus against the socialist regime of Alexander Lukashenko, which had been praised even by the World Bank for resisting neo-liberal economic policies that fueled vast inequality levels in much of Western and Eastern Europe.^[1]

In a statement announcing Nuland’s appointment to NED’s Board, NED Director Damon Wilson stated that, “as NED partners face increasing threats from autocrats around the world, Ambassador Nuland’s experiences will help the Endowment sharpen its approach to supporting democracy advocates. Her life-long commitment to democracy will be a valuable addition to the NED Board at this consequential moment for our mission.”

Nuland, however, was never committed to democracy in Ukraine but to imposing leaders who served U.S. imperial interests. The same is true for Iraq, Libya and Syria, where U.S. military and covert operations that she championed empowered Islamic fundamentalists and warlords.

Source: archive.org

Significantly, Nuland began her State Department career in the 1990s working on Russia-related issues under Strobe Talbott, the Clinton administration’s point man on Russia, who oversaw a U.S. campaign to support Russian Prime Minister Boris Yeltsin’s re-election in 1996.

Time magazine proudly proclaimed, “Yanks to the Rescue: The Secret Story of How American Advisers Helped Yeltsin Win.”

[…]

Via https://covertactionmagazine.com/2024/10/09/cia-cutout-welcomes-infamous-neo-conservative-warmonger-victoria-nuland-to-its-board-showing-its-true-colors/