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“UKRAINE WILL WIN” | No Amount of Propaganda Can Hide the Fact that Ukraine is Winning this War

Matt Orfalea | February 22, 2024

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February 23, 2024 Posted by | Mainstream Media, Warmongering, Video | , | 3 Comments

Scientists warn against ‘miracle’ Alzheimer’s drugs

RT | February 20, 2024

Drugs hailed as game-changers in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, a type of dementia, carry risks that may outweigh any benefit, scientists warned UK media on Sunday.

UK regulators are expected to decide next week on whether or not to approve the drug lecanemab, which was greenlit by US regulators last year, and donanemab, which is currently awaiting approval.

However, the drugs, which manufacturers say slow cognitive decline by clearing out amyloid protein in patients’ gray matter, are also known to shrink patients’ brains, and as many as a third of those who receive them also experience side effects classified as “amyloid-related imaging abnormalities” (ARIA) – a catch-all term that includes the swelling and bleeding of the brain.

About 1% of patients have side effects so severe they are fatal or require hospitalization, and the US Food and Drug Administration has required lecanemab’s manufacturer Esai to include a “black-box warning” on its label signaling the possibility of serious adverse events.

“When I look at an MRI scan that shows ARIA, it reminds me of looking at MRI scans of patients who’ve had strokes or some sort of traumatic brain injury,” University College of London Institute of Mental Health Professor Rob Howard told reporters, adding that imaging data shows patients receiving the drugs “are actually losing probably slightly more than a teaspoon full of brain.” According to Dr. Madhav Thambisetty, a senior clinical investigator at the US National Institute on Aging, patients receiving the largest dose have lost up to three teaspoons of brain volume.

While the drugs’ manufacturers hail their supposed potential to slow cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s patients by 27% (lecanemab) and 35% (donanemab) compared to a placebo, this translated to just a 0.45 point improvement on the 18-point Alzheimer’s symptom assessment scale – where improvements under one point are unlikely to be felt by either doctor or patient, according to Thambisetty. Even the drugs’ own publicity materials acknowledge they cannot restore memory or cognitive function that has been lost already.

Meanwhile, brain shrinkage is considered an indicator of Alzheimer’s itself, raising questions about the utility of a “treatment” that may worsen the underlying pathology. Some patients with ARIA have experienced deteriorations in cognitive ability five times that of an unmedicated Alzheimer’s patient, according to clinical trial data, and one woman in the Lecanemab trial died in hospital with a 7cm brain hemorrhage.

A similar drug also hailed as a miracle treatment for Alzheimer’s when it was approved in 2021, aducanumab, is set to be discontinued by its manufacturer this year. A review of the clinical data showed patients receiving the drug in high doses were more than 15 times as likely as those receiving a placebo to experience brain swelling and almost three times as likely to experience brain bleeding.

February 23, 2024 Posted by | Science and Pseudo-Science | , | Leave a comment

Role of COVID-19 Vaccine Adjuvants in Cardiotoxicity

Causes of Heart Damage May Go Beyond mRNA and Spike Protein

By Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPH | Courageous Discourse | February 22, 2024

I have been impressed with the broad array of cardiovascular syndromes arising after COVID-19 vaccination including acute cardiogenic shock, myopericarditis, dilated cardiomyopathy, heart block, atrial fibrillation, primary ventricular arrhythmias, acute hypertension, vascular dissection, aneurysmal rupture, dysautonomia, and nonspecific chest pain.

Kanuri and Sirrkay raise the possibility of many mechanisms explaining the broad array of cardiac complications and the varying times from injection to presentation. They consider genetic (mRNA adenoviral DNA), antigen, and killed virus vaccines. These are in addition to proven cardiotoxicity and myocarditis demonstrated with mRNA and Spike protein. While exhaustive ingredient lists have not been disclosed by the vaccine manufacturers, the authors speculate that adjuvants and their known mechanisms of cardiotoxicity may be at work:

Types of vaccine adjuvants [possibly] used in COVID-19 vaccines. The adjuvants used in COVID-19 vaccines can be categorized into five classes namely Aluminum salt-based, Emulsion-based, TLR agonists, Metabolic, Cell death, and Epigenetic. 15,22 Each of these adjuvants instigate different mechanisms that are ultimately responsible for onset of spectrum of cardiovascular diseases seen in COVID-19 patients and those receiving vaccination (Figure 1). This review provides a brief overview of different mechanisms that can be arising out of these adjuvants, and each might be contributing at least partially to instigate cardiomyocyte damage.”

Kanuri SH, Sirrkay PJ. Adjuvants in COVID-19 vaccines: innocent bystanders or culpable abettors for stirring up COVID-heart syndrome. Therapeutic Advances in Vaccines and Immunotherapy. 2024;12. doi:10.1177/25151355241228439

Thus the authors give us additional mechanisms to ponder as more patients come into clinics and hospitals with “COVID-19 vaccine heart syndrome” and the medical community comes to the unfortunate recognition that mass vaccination has created a whole new large population of cardiology patients.

February 23, 2024 Posted by | Science and Pseudo-Science, Timeless or most popular | | Leave a comment

Biden Admin Wants To Spend Around $1 Million on University “Disinformation” Monitoring Program

Despite legal scrutiny, the Biden administration continues its interest in speech monitoring.

By Didi Rankovic | Reclaim The Net | February 23, 2024

The White House’s latest initiative to carry out its brand of combating misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation (which is now referred to by the handy “MDM” initial) continues to co-opt the education sector.

The Department of Justice agency the National Institute for Justice (NIJ) is behind the funding effort that is said to be designed to study and research “effective technologies and tools for identification, moderation, and/or removal of extremist content.”

grant worth $1 million will be spent to come up with a dashboard featuring an MDM tracker, which is supposed to surveil the internet for both speech, and narratives, and do so in real time. The project’s official name is, “Networks and Pathways of Violent Extremism: Effectiveness of Mis/Disinformation Campaigns.”

And reports say that the targeted speech coincides with “contentious political events.” Critics say that the taxpayer dollars here are in reality going towards suppression of conservative and religious groups, rather than as declared, violent extremists.

The recipient of the grant is South Carolina-based Clemson University. Researchers there are expected to come up with computer models that will keep an eye on accounts singled out as MDM peddlers and identify people associated with allegedly spreading MDM.

Eventually, the effort should produce the real-time tracking dashboard.

Regular citizens may not benefit from this project – considering the “fluid” nature of the very definitions of misinformation and its companions (some reports mention the initial, and subsequent treatment of the Covid origin and Hunter Biden laptop stories as examples of this.)

But the grant does specify who will benefit: law enforcement and policymakers.

This is by no means the only initiative of the kind coming from the Biden administration – since the current US president came to power, $39 million went to “MDM research” from the National Science Foundation (NSF) alone, also in some cases involving prominent educational institutions, such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

And while Clemson researchers are reassuring that their efforts are not politically or ideologically biased, the Internet Accountability Project and the Foundation for Freedom Online are voicing their fears that the end result will be yet another tool facilitating censorship, specifically by suppressing conservative voices.

February 23, 2024 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance | , | Leave a comment

US intelligence casts doubt on Israel’s accusations against UNRWA

Press TV – February 23, 2024

A US intelligence assessment has cast doubt on Israel’s accusations against the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), citing the regime’s bias against the UN agency.

A National Intelligence Council (NIC) report released last week assessed with “low confidence” that a handful of UNRWA staffers had taken part in the October 7 operation launched by Hamas resistance movement against the occupying entity.

The four-page intelligence report indicated that the NIC could not independently confirm the allegations.

Earlier this year, the Israeli regime claimed that 12 employees of the UNRWA were involved in the attack.

Tel Aviv also alleged that 10% of all UNRWA’s 12,000 workers have links to Hamas.

Noting that UNRWA does coordinate with Hamas, which governs Gaza, in order to deliver aid and operate in the besieged strip, the NIC said there was a lack of evidence to suggest that the UN agency was collaborating with the resistance movement in a wider way.

The NIC report added that Israel has not “shared the raw intelligence behind its assessments with the US.”

The Wall Street Journal cited two sources familiar with the report as saying that it highlighted Israel’s dislike towards the UNRWA.

“There is a specific section that mentions how Israeli bias serves to mischaracterize much of their assessments on UNRWA and says this has resulted in distortions,” one source told the WSJ.

Last week, Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner general of the UNRWA, said Israel was waging a concerted campaign aimed at destroying the main UN agency in the besieged Gaza Strip.

“It is believed that if the aid agency is abolished, the status of the Palestinian refugees will be resolved once and for all — and with it, the right of return,” Lazzarini told the Swiss newspaper group Tamedia.

The regime’s allegations against UNRWA, which were not publicly backed by evidence, have prompted more than 10 donor countries, including the United States, Germany, the European Union, Canada, and Japan, to suspend financial support.

The funding from these countries makes up the bulk of all funding received by the UN agency.

UNRWA said being cut off in this way means the agency will run out of money altogether within weeks.

“The grossly disproportionate decision to suspend funding by some of the largest donor states defies the basic principle of humanity, and goes against states’ commitment to leave no one behind,” several UN experts said in a statement earlier this month.

Nearly the entire population of Gaza now relies on UNRWA for basics, including food, water, and hygiene supplies.

Since the regime started its war on Gaza in early October, 1.9 million people – 85 percent of Gaza’s population – have been internally displaced.

Israel launched the war on Gaza on October 7 after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas waged the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity in response to the Israeli regime’s decades-long campaign of bloodletting and devastation against Palestinians.

Since the start of the offensive, the Tel Aviv regime has killed at least 29,410 Palestinians and injured more than 69,465 others.

Thousands more are also missing and presumed dead under the rubble in Gaza, which is under “complete siege” by Israel.

February 23, 2024 Posted by | Deception, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , | Leave a comment

Arms transfer to Israel must stop immediately: UN experts

Press TV – February 23, 2024

UN experts have called for an immediate halt to weapons transfer to Israel, warning that state officials involved in arms exports to the regime “may be individually criminally liable for aiding and abetting any war crimes” in the Gaza Strip.

The experts said on Friday that any delivery of weapons or ammunition to the regime that would be used in the genocidal war on Gaza is likely to violate international humanitarian law and must cease immediately, according to a statement by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

The UN experts reiterated that weapons transfers to Israel “are prohibited even if the exporting State does not intend the arms to be used in violation of the law – or does not know with certainty that they would be used in such a way – as long as there is a clear risk.”

They said that “the need for an arms embargo on Israel is heightened,” since the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled in late January that “there is a plausible risk of genocide in Gaza and the continuing serious harm to civilians since then.”

“This necessitates halting arms exports in the present circumstances.”

The experts warned the US and Germany, in particular, since the two countries have increased arms shipments to Israel, since October, when the regime started its war on the Gaza Strip. Other military exporters include France, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia.

The UN experts welcomed the suspension of arms transfers to Israel by Belgium, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and the Japanese company Itochu Corporation.

Washington, the regime’s main supporter, is still preparing to send more bombs and other weapons to Israel, the Wall Street Journal reported last Friday.

The arms are estimated to be worth tens of millions of dollars, the journal cited current and former US officials. They said that the proposal which is still undergoing internal administration review, needs to be sent to Congress for approval.

However, US President Joe Biden’s administration has so far twice bypassed Congress to urgently send bombs and other munitions to Israel to support the regime’s war machine that has killed more than 29,000 Palestinians, mostly children and women.

February 23, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

PCHR condemns the killing of its lawyer, and her family by an Israeli airstrike on Rafah

PCHR | February 21, 2024

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) condemns in the strongest terms the killing of our dear colleague, Nour Naser Abu Al-Nour and seven of her family members, including her two-years-old daughter, by an Israeli airstrike on her family house in Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip. The killing of Nour along with seven of her family members, comes as the latest example of the genocide that Israel is committing against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and a reminder that all Palestinians, including human rights defenders, are a target for the Israeli government and army. This heinous crime also constitutes further evidence of the lack of safe space for Palestinians in the Strip and an example of what the Palestinians in the Strip have been subjected to for the last 137 days of ongoing Israeli aggression. Nour and her family are among of tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians, the majority of whom are women and children, unjustly, illegally and cruelly killed as result of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip since 7 October 2023, which members of the international community have not only failed to bring to an end, but have been complicit by providing Israel with the necessary political, diplomatic and military support.

Our dear colleague Nour worked in the Women’s Rights Unit at PCHR since 2019. She holds a master’s degree in law and worked with distinction, perseverance and dedication until the last days, documenting the violations committed by the Israeli occupation, particularly against women and children, providing legal consultations, and trying to provide self-care to the women victims in shelters despite the difficult conditions. Several weeks ago, Nour was forced to move to her family’s house after Israeli war planes targeted a neighboring house, causing significant damage to her house.

According to information collected by PCHR, last night, 20 February 2024, at approximately 10:00 pm, Israeli war planes directly targeted without any prior warning the house of Nour’s Father, Professor Nasser Abu Al-Nour, Dean of the Faculty of Nursing at the Islamic University in Gaza, located in Al-Jeneina neighborhood in Rafah, on top of its residents. The targeting resulted in the killing of our dear colleague Nour Abu Al-Nour (30), who works as a lawyer in the Women’s Rights Unit, her child, Kenzi Jumaa (2), her father, Professor Nasser Abu Al-Nour (60), her mother, Mjida Farid Abu Al-Noor (55), three of her sisters, Amal Nasser Abu Al Nour (35), Mona Nasser Abu Al Nour (24), and Ayat Naser Abu Al-Nour (19), and her brother, Abdulrahman Nasser Abu Al Nour (23), and the wounding of dozens others.

The crimes committed by the Israeli occupation have not spared anyone, including human rights defenders, who have become themselves, along with their families, actual victims of the aggression by being subjected to targeting, starvation, torture and forced displacement as part of the ongoing genocide against the Palestinians in the Strip.

PCHR extends its deepest condolences to the remaining members of Nour’s family and to the Palestinian human rights community and calls upon the international community to abide by their moral and legal obligations and act promptly to end the Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people. With every day that passes, more civilians are targeted and killed. Despite this heinous crime and the challenging working environment, PCHR reiterates its commitment and dedication to documenting and exposing the crimes committed by the Israeli occupation against Palestinian civilians to ensure justice and dignity for the victims.

Our thoughts and prayers are with her loved ones. May the soul of our beloved Nour and her family rest in peace.

February 23, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Full Spectrum Dominance, War Crimes | , , , | Leave a comment

Gaza victims sue German government for ‘aiding genocide against Palestinians’

MEMO | February 23, 2024

Victims of months of Israel’s attacks on Gaza are filing a criminal complaint against top German government officials for supporting Israel’s war crimes and “genocide” against Palestinians, Anadolu Agency reports.

“We’re filing a criminal complaint against German government officials for the crime of aiding and abetting genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza by providing Israel with weapons and issuing related export permissions,” lawyers for the Gaza victims told a press conference in Berlin on Friday.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, Defence Minister Boris Pistorius, and Economy Minister Robert Habeck all stand accused of “complicity in the genocide in Gaza” by supporting Israel’s military offensive, and authorising the export of €326 million ($350 million) worth of weapons to Israel.

Nadija Samour, one of the lawyers who filed the criminal complaint with federal prosecutors in Karlsruhe, south-western Germany, said: “Our governments in Europe have a legal obligation not to provide Israel any support in perpetrating the current genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza. This has to stop and this is what we hope to achieve by going to court. This lawsuit sends a clear message to German officials: you cannot continue to remain accomplices of such crime without consequences. We want accountability.”

Samour said German law requires a ground for initial suspicion to start investigations on a potential crime being committed.

“The International Court of Justice’s interim ruling clearly showed that there is such ground for initial suspicion when it comes to the crime of genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza,” she stressed, referring to a 26 January ruling ordering Israel’s government to stop genocidal acts and take steps to ensure that civilians in Gaza get humanitarian assistance.

February 23, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

White House scrambles for legal loopholes in Yemen war

The Cradle | February 23, 2024

National security lawyers working for the Biden White House are seeking legal loopholes to justify the US war on Yemen, a new report from The New York Times (NYT) on 23 February details.

At question is the legality under US law of strikes carried out by the US Navy on Yemeni targets on three separate days starting in January and the detention of 14 Pakistani sailors the US accuses of transporting weapons to Yemen.

US involvement in Yemen began after Yemen’s Ansarallah-led government ordered its armed forces to target Israeli-linked commercial ships passing through the Bab al-Mandab Strait in the Red Sea in November.

Ansarallah is seeking to compel Israel to end its bombing campaign in Gaza, which has resulted in widespread killing and destruction. Israel has killed over 29,000 Palestinians – the majority of whom were women and children.

Rather than end its support for Israel’s campaign – which many view as genocide – the White House instead ordered the US Navy to protect Israeli ships passing through the Red Sea. This led to Yemeni forces attacking US and UK Naval ships.

The US has carried out 30 strikes in response. According to the national security lawyers, most of the strikes can be characterized as self-defense because they allegedly targeted sites from which missiles were about to be launched at US or UK ships. It has also become routine for the Navy to shoot down Yemeni attack drones in the Red Sea.

However, according to NYT, three major sets of US and UK strikes in Yemen were not in self-defense: on 11 January, 22 January, and 3 February. Those strikes were pre-emptive and targeted weapons bunkers, command hubs, and other targets, with authorization from President Joe Biden.

Because the strikes were not in self-defense, this means that the White House can engage in hostilities against Yemen for only 60 days before seeking congressional approval, per the 1973 War Powers Resolution. That 60-day clock would end on 12 March.

To continue the war on Yemen beyond that date, the White House will need to find a loophole in the resolution.

NYT writes that according to one US official, the text of the War Powers Resolution states that a president must have “introduced” US forces into conflict for the 60-day clock to apply. “It is not clear whether the law would apply to a situation in which the Navy was already in the Red Sea before hostilities arose, the official said.”

The White House also argues, in a contradictory fashion, that the strikes on Yemen are both too frequent to constitute being at war with Yemen and not frequent enough.

The US official said the strikes on Yemen “have been brief and infrequent, raising the possibility that they are too intermittent for the clock to apply.”

The same official at the same time pointed to operations “in which combat was more frequent or posed a greater threat to American forces,” which might provide a precedent for the current war on Yemen. These include the use of US Navy escorts for oil tankers in the Persian Gulf in 1987 under president Ronald Reagan, in which 37 Navy sailors were killed, as well as US strikes in Libya in 2011 under president Barack Obama to topple the government of Muammar Qaddafi. Congress did not approve the military operations in either case.

According to Jack Goldsmith, a Harvard law professor and former head of the Office of Legal Counsel in the George W. Bush administration, “The lawyers are taking advantage of a famously loophole-filled statute,” he said.

“The executive branch has been exploiting those loopholes for almost 50 years, creating many supporting precedents, and Congress has not stood on its prerogative to do anything about it.”

February 23, 2024 Posted by | Militarism, Wars for Israel | , | Leave a comment

OPCW attributes 2015 Syria chemical attack to ISIS: Report

The Cradle | February 23, 2024

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) stated on 22 February that there are “reasonable grounds” to believe that ISIS perpetrated chemical weapons attacks on the town of Marea, close to Aleppo, in 2015.

The Investigation and Identification Team (IIT) of the watchdog determined that ISIS militants utilized sulphur mustard in attacks across various parts of the town on 1 September 2015.

According to a OPCW report, ISIS units deployed sulphur mustard gas via their artillery munitions on the town of Marea between 9:00 and 12:00 pm. OPCW’s report stated, “The chemical agent was delivered using one or more artillery guns.”

IIT discovered that 11 people who were exposed to a “black, vicious substance” present in projectiles at the attack location exhibited symptoms that aligned with sulphur mustard exposure.

The recent report emerges amid ongoing accusations by the international community that the Syrian government conducted chemical attacks within its borders, allegations that Damascus vehemently denies.

In 2014, Syria relinquished its chemical weapons arsenal to a collaborative effort between the US and the OPCW, which then supervised the dismantling of these weapons.

Damascus asserts that the chemical attack was “staged” to exert pressure on and discredit President Bashar al-Assad’s government.

Last August, Syria’s UN representative affirmed that Washington provided chemical weapons to extremist militant groups in the Arab state’s western provinces in addition to training them for false-flag operations.

David Schenker from the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP) also previously noted that Washington used Al Tanf as a training ground for armed opposition groups in Syria, acting as a strategic asset in the extended discussions on the nation’s future.

According to a Reuters report, in 2018, Syria’s former foreign minister, Walid Muallem, noted that OPCW previously disclosed allegations of the Syrian government using chemical weapons against its civilians were devoid of any evidence.

However, the OPCW retracted its statement following pressure from the US. Several political commentators, including Noam Chomsky, reiterated that the organization had “suppressed” information indicating that the chemical attack by the Syrian government on Douma in 2018 did not occur.

More recently, US journalist Seymour Hersh reported in 2021 that a classified US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) briefing in June 2013 indicated that Al-Nusra Front maintained a sarin production cell and was attempting a large-scale production effort in Syria.

February 23, 2024 Posted by | War Crimes | , , | Leave a comment

Iran rejects ‘baseless and boring’ accusations over Ukraine war

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian speaks at a joint press conference with his Hungarian counterpart Peter Szijjarto in Tehran on February 22, 2024.
Press TV -February 23, 2024

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian says the repetition of baseless claims against the Islamic Republic over the war in Ukraine has reached a “boring stage”.

Amir-Abdollahian made the remarks at a joint press conference with his Hungarian counterpart Peter Szijjarto in Tehran on Thursday.

Iran’s top diplomat noted that they discussed bilateral relations and the latest global developments, including the conflict in Ukraine, adding “I would like to once again strongly condemn the baseless accusations leveled against Iran regarding Russia’s use of Iranian weapons.”

“The repetition of baseless claims has reached a boring stage,” he said.

Amir-Abdollahian’s remarks came as US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said on Thursday that Washington will be “imposing additional sanctions on Iran in the coming days” over its alleged efforts to supply Russia with drones and other technology for the war.

Both Iran and Russia have repeatedly denied claims that Tehran has provided Moscow with weapons to be used in the war in Ukraine.

The anti-Iran claims first emerged in July 2022, when US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan alleged that Washington had received “information” indicating that the Islamic Republic was preparing to provide Russia with “up to several hundred drones, including weapons-capable UAVs on an expedited timeline” for use in the war.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Iran’s top diplomat noted that he and Szijjarto also discussed Israel’s genocidal war on the besieged Gaza Strip that began in October.

“We had frank discussions on the logic behind Iran’s support for the Palestinian people. I also asked Hungary to use all its capacity to stop the war and restore sustainable security to the region,” Amir-Abdollahian said.

He slammed the US and Britain’s attempts to extend the war to other parts of the world as “a mistake”, stressing that Yemenis are acting independently regarding pro-Palestine operations.

The US and the UK have been carrying out numerous attacks against Yemen as a means of trying to pressure the country into stopping a series of operations that it has been conducting in support of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

In solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza, the Yemeni armed forces have targeted ships in the Red Sea with owners linked to Israel or those going to and from ports in the occupied territories.

Tehran-Budapest ties

The visit of Szijjarto, who also acts as the minister of trade, to Iran came as Tehran and Budapest held a joint economic commission earlier on Thursday.

“Relations between the two countries are developing,” Amir-Abdollahian said, adding that a protocol of the economic commission and a road map for cooperation in the field of agriculture were signed during the session of the commission.

Budapest concerned about war in West Asia

For his part, Szijjarto hailed the bilateral ties between the two countries as “strong”, expressing his country’s concern over the ongoing war in the West Asia region.

He warned that the escalation of the situation and the spillover of the war in Gaza into the region “could be a great threat to the global security.”

Israel launched the war on Gaza on October 7 after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas waged the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity in response to the Israeli regime’s decades-long campaign of bloodletting and devastation against Palestinians.

Since the start of the offensive, the Tel Aviv regime has killed at least 29,514 Palestinians and injured more than 69,616 others.

Thousands more are also missing and presumed dead under the rubble in Gaza, which is under “complete siege” by Israel.

February 23, 2024 Posted by | Deception, Fake News, Mainstream Media, Warmongering | , | Leave a comment

Selecting Syrsky: The Untold Half of the Zaluzhny Story

By Ted Snider | The Libertarian Institute | February 23, 2024

There were probably many reasons why Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky fired Ukraine’s popular commander in chief of the armed forces, Valerii Zaluzhny, on February 8, but one of the biggest seems to have been a disagreement over how to go forward in a war that seemed to have overwhelmingly turned against them. Zelensky spoke of a need for “the same vision of the war,” and Zaluzhny said “a decision was made about the need to change approaches and strategy.”

When the war began, Zelensky said that Ukraine “will definitely win” but stressed life over land. “Our land is important, yes, but ultimately it’s just territory.” He said that “Victory is being able to save as many lives as possible. Yes, to save as many lives as possible, because without this nothing would make sense.”

But actions speak louder than words. Zelensky began to define victory as the reclamation, not only of land lost during the war, but of Crimea and all of Ukraine’s pre-2014 territory. Zelensky insisted that Ukraine stay on the offensive. He insisted on moving forward, “Whether it’s by a kilometer or 500 meters, but forward every day.”

Zaluzhny saw Zelensky’s strategy of fighting for Bakhmut and Avdiivka at any cost as a strategic disaster that was costing Ukraine too much in weapons and in lives. Zaluzhny argued for preserving lives over forfeitable territory, lest Ukraine lose its land and its army.

In General Oleksandr Syrsky, Zelensky found the commander who would execute his vision and carry out his orders. Syrsky fought the Battle of Bakhmut. His performance there, and in other battles, gave him the reputation of a commander who is willing to give orders that lead to little real gain and lots of real loss of life. “Some soldiers say his orders are unreasonable, at times sending men to their obvious deaths,” The Washington Post reports. According to The Economist, he “has a reputation for being willing to engage the enemy, even if the cost in men and machines is high.” His reported willingness to put “his men in danger to reach his military goals” has earned him the nicknames “Butcher” and General 200, 200 being the code for a soldier’s corpse. Syrsky is also seen as being a commander who is close to Zelensky and who will not question his orders.

The replacement of Zaluzhny by Syrsky signals Zelensky’s intent to push ahead with the suicidal war of attrition and fight for every inch of land despite the cost in lives.

Aware of the optics of the choice in the public and, perhaps especially in the armed forces, Kiev assuaged the perception of Syrsky as “being indifferent to military casualties.” In his first statement as commander in chief, Syrsky said, “The lives and well-being of our servicemen have always been and remain the main asset of the Ukrainian army.”

But, again, actions speak louder than words. General Syrsky’s first words were about protecting the lives of his men, but his first actions were about fighting for every inch of territory.

On February 11, just three days after the change in command, Syrsky ordered the reinforcement and defence of Avdiivka, a strategic town that faced imminent loss to the Russian army and enormous loss of Ukrainian lives. Zaluzhny would have withdrawn his troops, preserved lives and moved the front to more defensible positions.

Syrsky deployed the 3rd Separate Assault Brigade, one of the best armed and trained and most successful brigades in the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

It did not go well. It went exactly as Zaluzhny said it would, and Syrsky was forced to respond exactly as Zaluzhny had said they should. But now the response was carried out in disarray instead of in an orderly, planned fashion. Perhaps Zelensky should have stuck with Zaluzhny.

In sending in reinforcements instead of retreating, Syrsky said the “goal of our operation is to exhaust the enemy, inflict maximum losses on him.” The opposite happened.

Less than a week later, on February 17, Syrsky announced the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from Avdiivka. “Based on the operational situation around Avdiyivka, in order to avoid encirclement and preserve the lives and health of servicemen,” he said, “I decided to withdraw our units from the city and move to defense on more favorable lines…The life of military personnel is the highest value.” That’s exactly what Zaluzhny advised Zelensky to do.

But the situation was worse than at first reported. Zaluzhny would have preplanned the retreat and executed it according to a plan. Zelensky and Skysky’s stubbornness turned the already costly loss into a disaster.

CNN at first reported that “Ukrainian forces are currently conducting a relatively controlled withdrawal from Avdiivka.” There were “indications,” though, “that not all Ukrainian units were able to escape an ever-tightening noose.” Though “the withdrawal was carried out in accordance with the plan that had been developed…a number of Ukrainian servicemen were taken prisoner at the final stage of the operation, under pressure from the enemy’s superior forces.”

Three days later, the situation was becoming clearer. Senior Western officials, The New York Times reported, now say that “Hundreds of Ukrainian troops may have been captured by advancing Russian units or disappeared during” what they now call, “Ukraine’s chaotic retreat from the eastern city of Avdiivka.” The Times was now calling it “a devastating loss.”

And hundreds may have been an understatement. Further down in the article, the Times reports that “soldiers with knowledge of Ukraine’s retreat estimated that 850 to 1,000 soldiers appear to have been captured or are unaccounted for.” There are unconfirmed reports of even higher numbers of dead and wounded.

That may not have happened under Zaluzhny, who long ago conceded that Avdiivka would fall and would have preplanned the retreat. Some Ukrainian soldiers and Western officials say “the Ukrainian withdrawal was ill-planned and began too late,” according to the Times. They say that “a failure to execute an orderly withdrawal, and the chaos that unfolded Friday and Saturday as the defenses collapsed, was directly responsible for what appears to be a significant number of soldiers captured.”

Suddenly, the 3rd Separate Assault Brigade was not assaulting but desperately trying “to cover the retreat.” The retreat was chaotic: “…some units pulled back before others were aware of the retreat. That put the units left behind at risk of encirclement by the Russians.”

But the true story may be even worse. Military analyst Stephen Bryen reports that the disaster may have begun before the reinforcements even arrived at Avdiivka. Some of the brigades Syrsky brought in gathered and organized in the nearby town of Selydove. Bryen says the Russian military discovered they were there and struck with missiles. Between 1,000 and 1,500 Ukrainian soldiers were reportedly killed.

Bryen says that when the 3rd Separate Assault Brigade arrived in Avdiivka, they found a desperate situation. They reportedly discarded Syrsky’s orders and retreated. Some reportedly surrendered. Syrsky then announced the troop withdrawal and the fall of Avdiivka.

Zelensky’s choice of Syrsky over Zaluzhny was, in part, the choice to maintain the course of a war of attrition to hold and retake all Ukrainian territory. Syrsky’s first orders fulfilled that choice in Avdiivka. It went exactly as Zaluzhny said it would but worse because Zelensky and Syrsky tried to defy the battlefield reality that Zaluzhny recognized. Perhaps Zelensky should have stuck with Zaluzhny.

February 23, 2024 Posted by | Militarism | , | Leave a comment