BRICS rejects ‘illegal’ Western sanctions
RT | October 23, 2024
BRICS countries strongly oppose and condemn the practice of unlawful politically motivated sanctions that undermine the development of other states, according to a joint declaration adopted at the 16th BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russia.
Entitled ‘Strengthening Multilateralism for Just Global Development and Security,’ the 43-page ‘Kazan Declaration’ was released on Wednesday following a range of multi-format meetings by the BRICS leaders.
“We are deeply concerned about the disruptive effect of unlawful unilateral coercive measures, including illegal sanctions, on the world economy, international trade, and the achievement of the sustainable development goals,” the declaration reads.
The joint statement pointed out that such measures are “inconsistent with rules” of the WTO, undermine the UN Charter and jeopardize the multilateral trading system.
The sanctions also “negatively impact economic growth, energy, health and food security exacerbating poverty and environmental challenges,” the document said.
The declaration underlined that the “unilateral coercive measures, inter-alia in the form of unilateral economic sanctions and secondary sanctions that are contrary to international law,” have far-reaching implications for the human rights, including the right to development, of the general population of targeted states, disproportionally affecting the poor and people in vulnerable situations.
“Therefore, we call for their elimination,” the BRICS statement stressed.
The group’s members have been deepening their economic ties and strengthening cooperation despite unprecedented Western sanctions against Russia and the threat of secondary sanctions. The US and its allies have introduced a record number of restrictions against Moscow, freezing an estimated $300 billion in assets belonging to the Russian state, as well as sanctioning individuals and entities, including those in the energy, metals and mining, and financial sectors.
Moscow has repeatedly condemned the curbs as illegal, responding with travel bans on Western officials and warning of other countermeasures.
Meanwhile, some high-ranking Western politicians and diplomats have acknowledged that the sanctions on Russia are ineffective, noting that the scope for further restrictions is narrowing.
Leaked report finds Israel targeting UN troops in Lebanon, injured several with white phosphorus
The Cradle | October 23, 2024
Israel’s military has attacked UNIFIL troops deployed on the Lebanon–Israel border a dozen times, including possibly with white phosphorus, the Financial Times (FT) reported on 22 October.
According to a confidential report prepared by a country contributing troops to the UN mission, Israeli forces forcibly entered a clearly marked UN base and are suspected of using the incendiary chemical white phosphorus, injuring 15 UN soldiers.
Israeli forces began targeting UN troops shortly after launching ground operations across the border into Lebanon on 1 October.
UNIFIL has called the attacks “deliberate” and a “flagrant violation of international law.”
UN troops, which come from 50 separate countries, have rejected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s demand that they evacuate their border posts to clear the way for current Israeli military operations in southern Lebanon.
Israel hopes to establish a so-called security zone and push Hezbollah fighters some 30 kilometers away from the border to positions behind the Litani River.
The confidential report viewed by FT includes photographs documenting the extent of the damage done to bunkers that shelter UN troops, perimeter walls, and observation towers at several bases.
On Sunday, an Israeli bulldozer deliberately demolished an observation tower and perimeter fence of a UN position in Marwahin.
On 10 October, two UN troops were injured when an Israeli Merkava tank opened fire and struck an observation tower at the UNIFIL headquarters in Naqoura on the Lebanese coast. The same day, Israeli forces fired at a UN bunker sheltering Italian troops in Labbouneh.
The report says the Israeli military first surveilled the area with drones and destroyed the bunker’s cameras before attacking.
Israeli forces also fired several munitions, which landed near a base and emitted “smoke of suspected white phosphorus” into it.
The FT notes that Israel has used white phosphorus in Lebanon throughout the past year. Its use is unlawful in populated areas under international law.
UN troops were deployed to the Lebanon–Israel border following Israel’s first invasion of Lebanon in 1978. Repeated invasion attempts were made in 1982, 2006, and 2024.
Israeli troops occupied large areas of southern Lebanon between 1982 and 2000 before armed resistance by Hezbollah forced them to withdraw.
The Hidden Motives Behind Hochstein’s Lebanon Visit and the Strategic Bet on the Resistance
By Zoulfikar Daher | Al-Manar | October 23, 2024
The first visit of US envoy Amos Hochstein to Beirut since the outbreak of Israel’s large-scale aggression against Lebanon came approximately three weeks after the Israeli enemy expanded its operations across southern Lebanon, the Bekaa, and even the southern suburbs of Beirut and the capital itself.
Prior to his visit, speculation arose about its true purpose: Was Hochstein bringing concrete solutions, or was he simply testing the waters and assessing the political landscape? Some questioned whether he was delivering Israeli demands aimed at pressuring Lebanon into submission. Did this move stem from American initiative alone, or was it coordinated with “Israel” as part of its efforts to impose terms? Alternatively, could it signal Israel’s realization that the conflict with the resistance is proving more difficult than anticipated, given the losses it has suffered along the Lebanese-Palestinian border?
There is a view that the Israeli enemy, recognizing the challenge posed by the resistance, is attempting to de-escalate while still hoping to extract some benefit from its tactical strikes. However, these strikes have done little to alter the situation. The resistance remains steadfast, its retaliation capabilities growing and reaching deeper into Israeli territory, while its capacity to manage the conflict remains strong.
Fearing that Israel’s “achievements” on the ground might slip away, the US administration appears to have dispatched Hochstein to reopen negotiations. The strategy follows a familiar pattern: escalate demands to the maximum in hopes of gaining concessions, all while threatening continued aggression.
Simultaneously, Israeli attacks intensified in various areas, particularly in the southern suburbs of Beirut (Dahiyeh). The timing of these escalations, paired with Hochstein’s visit, was no coincidence. “Israel” aimed to showcase its destructive capabilities, resorting to psychological warfare by targeting buildings associated with the Al-Qard Al-Hassan Association, although these were largely unoccupied. This was intended to send a message to the Lebanese leadership receiving the American envoy. The strikes continued the following night, extending to Al-Awzai and areas near Beirut’s governmental hospital. But the question remains: Can these aggressive moves impose Israel’s conditions on Lebanon?
Hochstein reportedly presented amendments to UN Resolution 1701, which included:
• Expanding the role of international forces and allowing them to operate without restrictions.
• Pushing the resistance several kilometers north of the Litani River, with some reports suggesting as far as the Owali River near Sidon.
• Assigning oversight of the resolution’s implementation to US, British, or German forces.
• Granting “Israel” unrestricted access to Lebanese airspace for supervision.
These terms essentially aim to hand “Israel” significant control, leaving Lebanon, its army, people, and resistance with little ability to defend national sovereignty. Some media and political voices have described this proposal as nothing less than a “surrender document.”
However, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri reaffirmed Lebanon’s commitment to Resolution 1701, with no amendments. He emphasized that this is the final opportunity for the US to intervene diplomatically and halt the war. Berri made clear that Lebanon stands united on Resolution 1701, and that “Israel” must respect it. He anticipated that Hochstein would push Israel’s maximum demands but remained confident that nothing could be imposed on Lebanon. “Israel” has failed to achieve its objectives on the battlefield, and it will not succeed through diplomacy either.
Hochstein’s visit, it seems, was primarily a test of Lebanon’s resolve—an attempt to gauge whether the country, particularly the resistance, might offer concessions under pressure. But Lebanon’s leadership, backed by its steadfast resistance, will not yield. Neither the US, nor the Zionist entity, nor their allies can force Lebanon into submission.
Contrary to some perceptions, “Israel” is not in a position of strength. Those following the situation behind the scenes of Hochstein’s visit might believe “Israel” can impose its will, but the facts tell a different story. For over three weeks, it has faced setbacks along the border with Lebanon, failing to make significant gains or take control of any Lebanese towns. These developments underscore that the US-Israeli pressure campaign is shallow and ineffective against the united front of Lebanon, its resistance, and its people.
Ultimately, the outcome of this conflict will be decided on the battlefield, where the resistance, as emphasized by its leader, Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah (may he rest in peace), continues to hold the upper hand. The realities on the ground, both day and night, will shape the political and diplomatic consequences, not the other way around. The battlefield will determine the fate of this war, and indeed, the future of the entire region.
Iran’s Bomb Is Real — And It’s Here
For months now, the world has focused on the danger of nuclear war between the United States and Russia. But Iran and Israel could beat them to it.
By Scott Ritter | Consortium News | October 20, 2024
The outbreak of conflict between Iran and Israel appears to have changed Iran’s stance against possessing a nuclear weapon as Israel is poised to strike after Teheran’s retaliation with two major attacks of drones and ballistic and cruise missiles.
Iran has issued at least three statements through official channels since April that has opened the door to the possibility of religious edicts against Iran acquiring nuclear weapons being rescinded.
The circumstances which Iran has said must exist to justify this reversal appear to have now been met.
No mere threats, these statements issued by Teheran should be viewed as declaratory policy indicating Iran has already made the decision to obtain a nuclear weapon; that the means to do so are already in place and that this decision can be implemented in a matter of days once the final political order is given.
The religious fatwa against possessing nuclear weapons was issued in October 2003 by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. It reads:
“We believe that adding to nuclear weapons and other types of weapons of mass destruction, such as chemical weapons and biological weapons, are a serious threat to humanity… [w]e consider the use of these weapons to be haram (forbidden), and the effort to protect mankind from this great disaster is everyone’s duty.”
However, the Shia faith holds that fatwas are not inherently permanent, and Islamic jurists can reinterpret the scripture in accord with the needs of time.
Shortly after Iran launched Operation True Promise against Israel in April, Ahmad Haghtalab, an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander responsible for the security for Iran’s nuclear sites, declared:
“If [Israel] wants to exploit the threat of attacking our country’s nuclear centers as a tool to put pressure on Iran, it is possible and conceivable to revise the Islamic Republic of Iran’s nuclear doctrine and policies to deviate from previously declared considerations.”
In May, Kamal Kharrazi, a former foreign minister who advises the Supreme Leader, declared: “We [Iran] have no decision to build a nuclear bomb, but should Iran’s existence be threatened, there will be no choice but to change our military doctrine.”
And earlier this month Iranian lawmakers called for a review of Iran’s defense doctrine to consider adopting nuclear weapons as the risk of escalation with Israel continues to grow. The legislators noted that the Supreme Leader can reconsider the fatwa against nuclear weapons on the grounds that the circumstances have changed.
These statements, seen together, constitute a form of declaratory policy which, given the sources involved, imply that a political decision has already been made to build a nuclear bomb once the national security criterion has been met.
Has the Capability
Iran has for some time now possessed the ability to manufacture and weaponize nuclear explosive devices. Using highly enriched uranium, Iran could construct in a matter of days a simple gun-type weapon that could be used in a ballistic missile warhead.
In June Iran informed the IAEA that it was installing some 1,400 advanced centrifuges at its Fordow facility. Based upon calculations derived from Iran’s on-hand stockpile of 60 percent enriched uranium hexaflouride (the feedstock used in centrifuge-based enrichment), Iran could produce enough highly enriched uranium (i.e., above 90 percent) to manufacture 3-5 uranium-based weapons in days.
All that is needed is the political will to do so. It appears that Iran has crossed this threshold, meaning that the calculus behind any Israeli and/or U.S. attack on Iran has been forever changed.
Iran has made no bones about this new reality. In February, the former chief of the Atomic Energy Organization, Ali-Akbar Salehi, stated that Iran has crossed “all the scientific and technological nuclear thresholds” to build a nuclear bomb, noting that Iran had accumulated all the necessary components for a nuclear weapon, minus the highly enriched uranium.
Two weeks later, Javad Karimi Ghodousi, a member of the Iranian parliament’s National Security Commission, declared that if the supreme leader “issues permission, we would be a week away from testing the first [nuclear bomb]“, later adding that Iran “needs half a day or maximum a week to build a nuclear warhead.”
A simple gun-type nuclear weapon would not need to be tested — the “Little Boy“ device dropped on Hiroshima by the U.S. on Aug. 6, 1945 was a gun-type device that was deemed so reliable that it could be used operationally without any prior testing.
Iran would need between 75 and 120 pounds of highly enriched uranium per gun-type device (the more sophisticated the design, the less material would be needed). Regardless, the payload of the Fatah-1 solid-fueled hypersonic missile, which was used in the Oct. 1 attack on Israel, is some 900 pounds—more than enough capacity to carry a gun-type uranium weapon.
Given the fact that the ballistic missile shield covering Israel was unable to intercept the Fatah-1 missile, if Iran were to build, deploy, and employ a nuclear-armed Fatah-1 missile against Israel, there is a near 100 percent certainty that it would hit its target.
Iran would need 3-5 nuclear weapons of this type to completely destroy Israel’s ability to function as a modern industrial nation.
Consequences of Pulling Out of Iran Nuclear Deal
This situation came about after President Donald Trump in 2017 withdrew the U.S. from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action — the JCPOA, better known as the Iran nuclear deal. The driving factor behind the negotiation of the JCPOA, which took place under President Barack Obama, was to shut down Iran’s pathway to a nuclear weapon. As Obama said,
“Put simply, under this deal, there is a permanent prohibition on Iran ever having a nuclear weapons program and a permanent inspections regime that goes beyond any previous inspection regime in Iran. This deal provides the IAEA the means to make sure Iran isn’t doing so, both through JCPOA-specific verification tools, some of which last up to 25 years, and through the Additional Protocol that lasts indefinitely. In addition, Iran made commitments in this deal that include prohibitions on key research and development activities that it would need to design and construct a nuclear weapon. Those commitments have no end date.”
Early on in his administration, in June 2021, after Trump had already pulled the U.S. out of the deal, President Joe Biden declared that Iran would “never get a nuclear weapon on my watch.”
The director of U.S. National Intelligence said in a statement released Oct. 11 that, “We assess that the Supreme Leader has not made a decision to resume the nuclear weapons program that Iran suspended in 2003.”
In the aftermath of Trump’s precipitous decision to withdraw from the JCPOA, Iran took actions which underscored that it no longer felt constrained by any JCPOA limits.
Iran has expanded its nuclear program by installing advanced centrifuge cascades used to enrich uranium and scaled back International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) monitoring of its nuclear program. In short, Iran has positioned itself to produce a nuclear weapon on short order.
While the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) currently believes that the Supreme Leader has not made the political decision to do so, an assessment published in July contains a telling omission from past assessments of Iran’s nuclear capabilities.
The February 2024 ODNI assessment noted that, “Iran is not currently undertaking the key nuclear weapons-development activities necessary to produce a testable nuclear device.”
However, this statement went missing from the July 2024 assessment, a clear indication that the U.S. intelligence community, due in large part to the reduction in IAEA inspection activity, lacks the insight into critical technical aspects of Iran’s nuclear-related industries.
Senator Lindsey Graham, after reading the classified version of the July 2024 ODNI report on Iran, said he was “very worried” that “Iran will in the coming weeks or months possess a nuclear weapon.”
What Confronts the US & Israel
This is the situation confronting Israel and the United States as they decide on an Israeli retaliation against Iran for the Oct. 1 missile attack.
Iran has indicated that any attack against its nuclear or oil and gas production capabilities would be viewed as existential in nature. That could trigger the reversal of the fatwa and the deployment of nuclear weapons within days of such a decision being made.
President Joe Biden told reporters on Friday that he knows when and where Israel will strike but refused to say. Leaked U.S. intelligence documents in recent days showed the limits of U.S. knowledge of exactly what Israel plans to do.
The United States and nuclear-power Israel have long said that a nuclear-armed Iran was a red line which could not be crossed without severe consequences, namely massive military intervention designed to destroy Iran’s nuclear infrastructure.
That line has been crossed — Iran is a de facto nuclear power, even if it hasn’t taken the final steps to complete the construction of a nuclear bomb.
The consequences of attacking Iran could prove fatal to the attackers and possibly the whole region.
Joe Biden Allowed His Friend Bibi to Destroy His Presidency and Legacy
By Kyle Anzalone | The Libertarian Institute | October 22, 2024
In 2020, amid lockdowns, Joe Biden prevailed in the election, running his campaign from his home. Biden was clearly experiencing significant cognitive decline, so the American people were presented with a carefully choreographed message that a vote for Biden was a return to normalcy.
Since Donald Trump descended the golden escalator, Americans have been subject to a non-stop barrage from establishment media and politicians wailing that we are in an existential battle for our country’s soul. We were told Russia hacked the election, Trump was Hitler, Democracy was on the ballot, and the sitting president was bowing to dictators around the world.
But Biden would save us: no more inflammatory rhetoric, no more prosecutions of the political opposition, and a more stable world.
While Biden was never going to return the US to a normal country in a normal time, he had the potential to significantly de-escalate America’s foreign entanglements. However, during his time in the Oval Office, 46 has done the opposite, starting wars and undermining international norms.
Upon taking office, Biden had two easy foreign policy victories he could have secured. Firstly, the current White House could have followed Trump’s deal with the Taliban and exited Afghanistan in a coordinated manner during May 2021.
Rather, the White House mishandled the situation, first by pushing back the exit from Afghanistan until September, the height of the Afghan fighting season. By then, the US-built government in Kabul had collapsed. This chaos culminated in an ISIS-K bombing at the Kabul airport that killed hundreds of desperate Afghans and 13 US soldiers.
Botching Iran Talks
The other easy win for the new president was returning to the Iran Nuclear Deal. Negotiated during the Barack Obama administration, the deal implemented additional safeguards on Iran’s civilian nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.
Tehran was entirely in compliance with the deal in May of 2018 when Trump unilaterally pulled out of the agreement at Tel Aviv’s behest. Washington then placed crippling sanctions on Iran aimed at cutting the Islamic Republic’s oil output to a minimum.
Upon taking office, Biden could have easily negotiated with the moderate Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to return to the deal and lift the sanctions. But, the Biden team was determined to demand Tehran agree to a “longer and stronger” agreement, and at the same time, looked the other way as Israel began attacking Iranian shipping and nuclear facilities.
Over the following two years, US and Iranian officials would engage in several rounds of indirect talks while Israel continued to attack Iranian shipping and conducted assassinations and other sabotage inside Iran. Under those conditions, a deal was never reached, and talks were abandoned last year.
Pushing Tehran from the table and the crippling economic sanctions on Iran had an important impact on Biden’s Ukraine policy.
After Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Washington and its NATO partners engaged in a two-front strategy to use Ukrainian soldiers to bleed and “weaken” Russian invaders. The first was providing billions in weapons, training, and intelligence. The second was launching an economic war to cripple and isolate the Russian economy and bring the Kremlin’s war machine to a halt.
However, as the Iran Nuclear Deal is what ostensibly tied Tehran to Western economies, once the war broke out, the Islamic Republic saw no downside in strengthening its ties with Moscow. Additionally, as is the case with Iran, Russia’s main export is energy. The law of supply and demand says it would have been easier to push the Russian supply off the market if the US was not attempting to simultaneously remove the Iranian oil supply.
Genocide, War, Annexation
After a few years out of power, Netanyahu returned to his post as Prime Minister of Israel, leading a far-right-wing government in late 2022. That government included two extremist settlers in key positions who made clear a top priority was the annexation of the West Bank.
That government ushered in a brutal regime for the Palestinians, with 2023 killings in the West Bank before October 7 reaching a multi-year high.
Still, when Hamas broke the Israeli siege of Gaza on October 7, the White House pretended that Israel had been a normal democracy, not a declared Jewish state with apartheid oppression directed at the native Arab population.
The White House was a key amplifier of the atrocity propaganda put out by Tel Aviv following the Hamas attack. This gave Israel an unlimited blank check for killing in Gaza.
Netanyahu has cashed in that check for $23 billion in military aid from the US, Washington’s protection from UN resolutions at the Security Council, and the killings of tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza, thousands of Lebanese civilians, and hundreds of Palestinians in the West Bank.
The killing has intentionally targeted civilians and civilian targets such as hospitals, schools, shelters, and aid convoys. After each Israeli war crime, the US State Department acts as an Israeli PR firm and insists the world must blame Hamas, not Israel.
What Happened to International Law?
So now President Biden has spent the final year of his presidency providing arms to Netanyahu so his government can commit war crimes every day. This is the same president who has insisted to every American that we must send nearly $200 billion to Ukraine to defend international law.
If Russia was wrong to invade Ukraine, why can Israel invade Lebanon?
If Russia is violating international law to extend its border, why is Israel allowed to continue settlement expansion in the West Bank?
If Russia was wrong to detain American journalists in Russia, why has Israel been allowed to kill at least 170 Palestinian journalists, including Shireen Abu Akleh, an American citizen?
If Russia is wrong to attack civilian targets in Ukraine, why has Israel been allowed to destroy nearly every hospital, school, and shelter in Gaza?
One could go on at some length citing the myriad hypocrisies intrinsic to Biden’s murderous foreign policy. When it comes to starving the people of Gaza, assassinations in Iran, bombing diplomatic facilities in Syria, and attacking UN Peacekeepers in Lebanon, it’s clear that Netanyahu wipes his ass with the international “rules-based order” that Joe Biden claims to love so much on a daily basis.
Currently, Americans care more about domestic issues, but history will evaluate Biden by his elective and catastrophic wars. The x-rays of Israeli bullets lodged into the brains of Palestine’s pre-teen children will define the legacy of Biden and his good pal Bibi during the coming decades.
EU President Likens Free Speech to Infectious Disease
Ursula von der Leyen advocates “pre-bunking” in the public forum to “vaccinate” people against “disinformation”
By John Leake | Courageous Discourse | October 23, 2024
EU President Ursula von der Leyen just joined the ranks of former Senator John Kerry and other globalist ghouls in declaring war on free speech by perversely proclaiming that the EU citizenry needs to be “vaccinated against disinformation.”
Like every censor in history, she characterizes her censorship program as a means of expunging erroneous information and ideas from public discourse. By using the word “disinformation,” she implies that she and her clique are already the sole possessors of the truth about everything, and that everyone who has and shares heterodox ideas is necessarily in error.
Her entire premise is FALSE for the following reasons:
1). Knowledge about the world is constantly evolving through constant inquiry, discussion, and dissemination. Knowledge is NOT a static thing. This is why countries with stifling censorship regimes have experienced intellectual, scientific, and artistic stagnation. Their rulers try to freeze the human mind in its state at their moment in history.
2). NO state, university, or ecclesiastical committee has ever been in possession of the full truth of any matter. Official orthodoxies have always been challenged by heterodox thinkers. Indeed, virtually every major advance in human insight has been performed by heterodox thinkers.
3). As John Milton observed in his 1644 pamphlet, Areopagitica, contending with error is an intrinsic part of learning and discovery. We literally learn by making mistakes and correcting them. If free speech is suppressed for the objective of preventing the propagation of erroneous thought—or “vaccinating against it”—it will become extremely difficult if not impossible for people to learn and discover.
4). Without a single exception in history, the people who hold power always advocate the orthodoxy that sustains and extends their power and that of their friends and supporters.
Ursula von der Leyen is the quintessence of this principle. As president of the EU, she conducted secret negotiations with Pfizer CEO to purchase a 20 billion Euros of Pfizer’s fraudulent and dangerous vaccine so that it could be inflicted on all the citizens of the European Union. She is currently under criminal investigation for her conduct in this affair that has come to be known as Pfizergate.
It takes a special kind of chutzpah for a powerful state official who is probably guilty of committing a major crime—a crime that has been systematically and ruthlessly concealed—to lecture the public about the need for censorship. The time has come for the citizens of Europe to rid themselves of Ursula von der Leyen and her clique of corrupt tyrants.
To be sure, there is increasing evidence that the Biden Administration has been exerting pressure on Germany—which remains an American vassal state—and the EU to step up its censorship regime. I will cover this strange development in a subsequent post.
US Government Behind Campaign Violating North Korean Airspace
By Brian Berletic – New Eastern Outlook – October 23, 2024
North Korea has recently warned against the use of drones over its sovereign airspace to spread subversive propaganda.
CNN in its October 11, 2024 article, “North Korea accuses South of flying drones over Pyongyang,” reported, “North Korea accused South Korea of flying propaganda-filled drones over Pyongyang and threatened “retaliation,” state media reported.”
The same article admits that “South Korean activists and North Korean defectors have sent balloons to the North, loaded with propaganda material criticizing leader Kim Jong Un, along with USB sticks filled with K-pop songs and South Korean television shows.”
What the article omitted is that this campaign is not an organic activity carried out by independent activists, but a campaign of subversion organized and funded by the US government.
A US State Department Provocation…
As early as 2014, the Western media promoted what was called, “Thumb Drives for Democracy,” a campaign organized by the New York-based Human Rights Foundation (HRF).
The Atlantic published an article in early 2014 titled, “We Hacked North Korea With Balloons and USB Drives,” by HRF founder Thor Halvorssen, which admits its balloons carry “subversive information” meant to undermine the North Korean government. It also admits that before HRF began its campaign, “the U.S. government provided support for these groups through the National Endowment for Democracy* and the State Department’s DRL [The Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Affairs] programs.”
The balloons were just one part of a much wider campaign of subversion and ultimately regime change.
HRF also organizes the annual “Oslo Freedom Forum” (OFF) funded in part by the Freedom Fund, which includes the US State Department as a “key investor.” The OFF is a continuation of US State Department-funded training programs gathering agitators from around the globe, training, funding, and equipping them to then return to their respective nations and attempt to overthrow them.
The New York Times in its 2011 article, “U.S. Groups Helped Nurture Arab Uprisings,” admits the US government prepared years ahead of the so-called “Arab Spring,” backing the core organizations that ultimately carried it out across the Middle East and North Africa. The article explicitly states:
A number of the groups and individuals directly involved in the revolts and reforms sweeping the region received training and financing from groups like the International Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute and Freedom House, a nonprofit human rights organization based in Washington, according to interviews in recent weeks and American diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks.
Clearly, HRF serves as an intermediary continuing US government-funded sedition around the globe in a way more difficult to trace directly back to the US government itself. Its objectives nonetheless remain to undermine, divide, destabilize, and overthrow nations targeted by the US State Department for regime change, including North Korea.
More Than Just Balloons…
Considering the aftermath of the admittedly US-engineered “Arab Spring” which included the full-scale destruction of Libya, a deeply divided Egypt, and a nearly destroyed Syria, North Korea’s concerns regarding similar US government-sponsored activities being aimed at it falls far short of an overreaction.
The CNN article reporting on North Korea’s recent warning notes that previous South Korean governments prohibited the use of balloons to spread subversive information across North Korea, recognizing the role it plays in damaging relations and raising tensions. This decision has since been reversed by a client regime more obedient to Washington.
This years-long campaign of subversion aimed at North Korea eventually prompted North Korea itself to respond with its own balloons laden with garbage. The collective Western media depicted this action out of context, omitting the US government-sponsored program targeting North Korea for over a decade, or that the ultimate goal of the campaign is “Arab Spring-style” regime change.
In 2023, when a Chinese weather balloon flew off course across the continental United States, headlines were undulated with hysteria and hostility toward China. The US Department of Defense, without providing evidence, identified it as a “high-altitude surveillance balloon,” implying it was spying on American territory. F-22 fighter jets were eventually deployed, launching air-to-air missiles at the balloon, destroying it off the eastern US coast.
Clearly, the US government itself desires other nations to respect its airspace, considering the unauthorized flight of any object, including balloons, as a potential danger to both national security and public safety. Yet, it is funding a program admittedly designed to subvert the government of a sovereign nation by flying balloons and now most likely drones into its airspace, obviously endangering both national security and public safety.
South Koreans may be convinced that the greatest obstacle to peace on the Korean Peninsula lies across the northern border, but the US has repeatedly demonstrated that it itself obstructs peace for the Korean people, and deliberately so. Continued tensions allows the US to perpetually justify the presence of its military on the Peninsula – not to defend South Korea from North Korea – but to encircle and threaten South Korea’s largest trade partner – China.
While Washington has appointed itself underwriter of stability on the Korean Peninsula, peace cannot be achieved as long as this deliberate obstruction to it remains stubbornly entrenched upon it.
ECHR orders Russia to compensate ‘foreign agents’
RT | October 23, 2024
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ordered Russia to pay out hundreds of thousands of euros in compensation to 107 organizations and individuals it has designated as ‘foreign agents’. Russia rejected the court’s jurisdiction after leaving the Council of Europe in 2022.
Russia’s foreign agent law, similar to the US Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) of 1938, was first adopted in 2012 and expanded in 2022. It requires anyone who receives support from abroad or is under the influence of entities from outside the country to register and be labeled as such. The designation does not ban persons or entities from operating in Russia, but introduces a range of restrictions. Those in violation of the law face fines of up to 5 million rubles and up to six years in prison.
Russian State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin has explained that the law is necessary in order to protect the country’s sovereignty and “prevent outside interference in internal affairs.”
A number of these individuals and organizations have since filed a joint complaint with the ECHR, including Radio Liberty/Radio Free Europe, the International Memorial and the Memorial Human Rights Center, journalist Yuri Dud, opposition activist Lyubov Sobol, who is also designated as an extremist, and political scientist Ekaterina Shulman.
In a ruling published on Tuesday, the ECHR claimed that the law violates the rights of NGOs, media organizations, and individuals by introducing “restrictions on their freedom of expression and association” and infringing on the individual applicants’ “right to respect for private life.” The court also claimed that those who received the designation have been “discriminated against and subjected to restrictions” that are not in line with the ECHR’s conventions.
“The Court held that Russia was to pay the applicants amounts ranging from 5,500 euros (EUR) to EUR 10,000 [$5,900-$10,700] in respect of non-pecuniary damage, and various other amounts in respect of pecuniary damage and costs and expenses, indicated in the appendix to the judgment,” the ECHR said in a press release outlining the ruling.
While Russia has yet to comment on the ECHR’s decision, the court’s jurisdiction was earlier rejected, with President Vladimir Putin signing a law nullifying all ECHR verdicts after March 15. The move came after Russia left the Council of Europe (COE) in 2022, accusing the body of taking a blatantly anti-Russian stance and turning into an “obedient instrument” of the West, while becoming immersed in “double standards.”
Last year, in light of the ECHR accepting complaints from individuals and entities declared ‘foreign agents’ by Moscow, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin described the court as a “mad printer rubber-stamping politically charged complaints against Russia,” while “censoring” any cases considered to be linked to Russian interests.
The real victim of genocide is the man who crushed people with bulldozers
Thank you to CNN for explaining
Laura and Normal Island News | October 22, 2024
The genocide in Gaza has posed a moral dilemma for people like myself: the sensibles. As Israel carpet-bombed Gaza into oblivion, our problem was how the hell do we convince the public to support this bloodshed? Well, all I can say is thank god for CNN!
For the benefit of those who think Normal Island News is the only news outlet in existence (an easy mistake), let me explain CNN is considered one of the more sensible American news outlets because it’s not Fox News. Therefore, CNN was the perfect platform to divert your sympathies towards the only people who matter: Zionists.
CNN published one of the most moving pieces of journalism I’ve ever read, a report that will truly echo through the ages. It told the harrowing story of a brave Israeli soldier whose job it was to… crush Palestinians to death with a bulldozer. Heartbreakingly, crushing people to death later made the soldier feel sad. This proves he is the real victim of the genocide. What do you mean, I’m “doing the meme”?
While Eliran Mizrahi was on active duty, he always maintained a brave face, which included smiling on camera as he drove a gigantic child crusher. He explained he destroyed more than 5,000 homes and ran people over in their hundreds, whether they were dead or alive, but it was okay because “there are no civilians in Gaza”. He sensitively referred to the “terrorists” he crushed to death as “meat” and later told the Israeli knesset “everything squirts out”.
Mizrahi appeared in videos on social media, gloating about his war crimes, but his family would like you to know it’s unfair to talk about the incriminating evidence. It was clearly the fault of Iranian troll farms that Mizrahi posted this stuff to TikTok for clicks.
Do-gooders might argue Mizrahi was insensitive and the best approach is to pretend to care about Palestinians. Thankfully, Mizrahi softened his approach and claimed he was nice to the civilians he previously said don’t exist. He even claimed he shared food and water with them because he’s that nice. He explained he did everything he could to minimise civilians. I, for one, totally believe this story.
Ironically, referring to Palestinian civilians as “meat” must have had an impact on Mizrahi, because he later found it hard to eat meat and became a vegetarian. A starving toddler drinking from puddles in Jabalia has no idea of his torment. This is why it’s so important we show you real suffering.
We in the mainstream media don’t bother to name Palestinian victims of bombs that mysteriously fall from the sky, but we will fucking well give you the life story of any IDF soldier who feels self-pity.
Israeli soldiers are feeling so confused, some of them don’t want to be drafted for a second round of genocide. That little orphan girl who carried her injured sister for two kilometres cannot comprehend what the poor things are dealing with.
Mizrahi heartbreakingly explained only the soldiers with him in Gaza could understand what he was going through. Not the largest cohort of child amputees in human history. Not the fathers who watched their wives and children be melted in their hospital beds. Not the civilians without food, water or medicine. There are no cvilians in Gaza, remember, just meat…
No wonder this war is taking a toll on Israeli society. Israelis have been so impacted by genocide that a whopping 6% think it should stop due to “the great cost in human life.”
Poor Zionists are cowering in their warm beds in their intact houses, worried the world might be upset with them for destroying an entire country and planning to colonise it. Not even the iron dome can protect them from this level of pain.
It is at this point I must bring you to the most agonising part of this story, so please take a moment to brace yourself…
Haunted by the screams of children from the rubble of the buildings he bulldozed, Mizrahi tragically took his life. I understand he’d posted so much evidence of his war crimes on TikTok that an ICC arrest warrant was inevitable.
I’m sure you will agree this one life is worth so much more than the 42,000 Palestinians Israel has blown up and the countless more they’ve indirectly exterminated.
What makes us westerners better than Middle Eastern savages is that we respect the human lives that matter. As Sir Keir Starmer so eloquently explained, it’s wrong to mourn men like Sinwar because they kill civilians, but it’s right to mourn men like Mizrahi because they kill civilians.
We should now spend weeks focusing on this tragedy and overlook that Israel has started doing the same shit in Lebanon that it’s done in Gaza. We must, as a matter of urgency, address PTSD in the genocidal military, and we must remember that Palestinians are not entitled to PTSD. Thankfully, an IDF psychologist is on the case.
The psychologist explained he tries to “normalise” genocide by reminding Israeli soldiers about October 7th and telling them to “remember their values”. This way they feel less guilty about turning civilians into tomato puree. As you can see, Israel is learning all the right lessons here. No wonder they’ve already started doing this all over again in Lebanon.
Who Is GOP Mega-Donor Miriam Adelson & What Does She Want?
Glenn Greenwald | October 17, 2024
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The Case for Dismantling the Rules-Based International Order
By Professor Glenn Diesen | December 23, 2024
The so-called “rules-based international order” aims to facilitate a hegemonic world, which entails displacing international law. While international law is based on equal sovereignty for all states, the rules-based international order upholds hegemony on the principle of sovereign inequality.
The rules-based international order is commonly presented as international law plus international human rights law, which appears benign and progressive. However, this entails introducing contradictory principles and rules. The consequence is a system devoid of uniform rules, in which “might makes right”. International human rights law introduces a set of rules to elevate the rights of the individual, yet human-centric security often contradicts state-centric security as the foundation of international law.
The US as the hegemonic state can then choose between human-centric security and state-centric security, while adversaries must abide strictly by state-centric security due to their alleged lack of liberal democratic credentials. For example, state-centric security as the foundation of international law insists on the territorial integrity of states, while human-centric security allows for secession under the principle of self-determination. The US will thus insist on territorial integrity in allied countries such as Ukraine, Georgia or Spain, while supporting self-determination within adversarial states such as Serbia, China, Russia and Syria. The US can interfere in the domestic affairs of adversaries to promote liberal democratic values, yet the US adversaries do not have the right to interfere in the domestic affairs of the US. To facilitate a hegemonic international order, there cannot be equal sovereignty for all states. … continue
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