ISIS, CIA, Saudi & Israel Connections

Click here to access the 48:39m video featuring a recent interview with Wayne Madsen via YouTube.

I've run out of time to listen to the entire interview, but I am posting this anyway because I have considerable confidence in Madsen's integrity and his observations about political events.

ISIS, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the connections between the CIA and Israel with the so-called enemies of America are exposed in an uncensored interview with Wayne Madsen. The former NSA worker, turned whistleblower and muckraker discusses the kabal of conspiracy that includes the Saudis, key figures in the US government, and stretches from the Bilderbergs to Rhodes Scholars in a web of influence that has spun country after country into turmoil. Are ISIS fighters just misguided and gullible proxy mercenaries for the Saudis? Was 9/11 another black op in a long line that has been the norm since WWII with the British government? Learn of the far reaching conspiracy in this Buzzsaw, hosted by Sean Stone.

I am posting the YouTube website because it offers much detail about the interview under the "show more" section.

Making Sense of Boston

Click here to access article by JP Sottile from WhoWhatWhy.

I’m a logical person. I do most things in life because they make sense. I have also been in a few extreme situations. For example, I was across the street from the Pentagon on 9/11, in the Hart Senate Building on the day anthrax was discovered there, in the White House during a bomb threat, and in New Orleans right after Hurricane Katrina passed through.

In all of those cases, I observed people acting rationally. They generally did what you would expect a reasonable person to do. We all looked out for our own safety and listened to people who sounded as though they knew what they were doing. Nobody I saw did anything that I would classify as dumb or reckless. In short, everybody’s behavior made sense and was appropriate to the situation.

Why am I telling you this? Because to me the actions of the Tsarnaev brothers did not make sense.

Like so much of the official story that I've read (enter "Boston Bombing" in search engine on this website), I share Sottile's skepticism about the video evidence presented at the trial because it does not seem reasonable or is not valid evidence.

Poll: Americans Starting to Worry About Climate Change Now That It Affects Their Lawns

Click here to access article by Andy Borowitz from The New Yorker. (fake news satire)

Lawns like this are causing increasing concerns among Americans according to new poll.

AIIB, BRICS Development Bank and an Emerging World

Click here to access article by F. William Engdahl from New Eastern Outlook. 

As promised I continue to post articles which show promise of explaining the dramatic trend that is now appearing: major alternative international funding organizations spearheaded by China. This is a fourth in this series which includes (in chronological order) this, this, and this.

I regard the control of money as a major component of the US Empire's hegemony over the rest of the world, and any threat to its control of it will be met by the most aggressive actions. These alternative organizations (Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and New Development Bank both centered in China) will follow much more legitimate rules than the US dominated IMF, World Bank, and the Asia Development Bank. Perhaps this explains the highly aggressive actions of the Empire targeting Iran, Syria, Ukraine, Venezuela, Russia, and China. What continues to astonish me is that Britain, France, Germany, Israel, Australia, and Japan (apparently) have joined the AAIB. I'm still looking for some reasonable explanation for this.

Washington is holding on like a pit bull to the old bylaws in which the US retains a blocking veto share of votes. The US Congress refuses to pass the IMF reforms and to break the impasse. This is a major way forced China and the other fast-growing BRICS states to look outside the IMF and World Bank and build an entirely new architecture. The AIIB today is emerging rapidly as a centerpiece in this emerging new global architecture.

Rather than trying to influence the new AIIB from within, Washington has chosen a tactic that has delivered it a huge and humiliating geopolitical defeat, and which will likely exclude US corporations from lucrative construction bids.

US foreign policy under Obama, as it was under George W. Bush, is being run by a gaggle of neo-conservative ideologues who seem incapable of flexible response. For them anything China does is “bad” and must be opposed with all US might.

China for those Washington people is the emerging global challenger to US military power, so Obama imposes an “Asia Pivot” military strategy to encircle and anger Beijing. China’s economic and financial influence threatens the dollar system so that too must be opposed. The BRICS threatens to become independent of Washington control as vassal states....

The problem for Washington is that none of this is working as it used to.

See also an article entitled "AIIB: Guess Who’s Got Back in Business?" from the same website.

Post-Election Violence: Wall Street Plots to Destroy Nigeria

Click here to access article by US activist Caleb Maupin posted on New Eastern Outlook.

Usually activities in Africa are poorly covered by US media, and the recent violence following the Nigerian elections is no exception. Mainstream media has covered the violence, which it likes to do, but no accurate political context is ever provided. Maupin in this article provides a lot of insights as to why the violence is occurring.

One of the primary reasons for the rapid expansion of production in Nigeria is its increasingly friendly relationship with the People’s Republic of China. Chinese political figures, including former president Hu Jintao, have visited Nigeria. Chinese investment in the domestic Nigerian economy is higher than ever.

For years the Nigerian state has been battling a group of religious extremists who call themselves “Boko Haram.” While until recently, US officials like Hillary Clinton have worked to keep Boko Haram off of the official list of foreign terrorist organizations, China has been supplying Nigeria with weapons to fight Boko Haram. In addition to selling Nigeria arms, the Chinese government officially presented the Nigerian navy with a battleship as a “gift.” China has acted as a champion of Nigeria, pushing for it to have a greater role in international affairs at the United Nations.

The Nigerian state, despite still working closely with western bankers, has been purchasing a great deal of Chinese weapons.

Maupin continues on to describe the close ties of the terrorist organization known as Boko Haram with Al Qaeda and the funders of both, Saudi Arabia. Sound familiar? 

See also this UN report appealing for donations to help the estimated 192,000 refugees in neighboring countries who fled the violence in Nigeria.

Seeds of Doubt

Click here to access article by Stephanie Santiago and Elliot D. Cohen from Project Censored.

Despite nearly 400,000 petition signatures from concerned citizen, health professionals and farmers, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) approved a new generation of genetically engineered corn and soybeans, created by the biotech company Dow Agrosciences, that will tolerate the use of a new weed killer also engineered by Dow Agrosciences called Enlist Duo, which contains two known herbicides: 2, 4-D a component of the toxic Agent Orange herbicide used during the Vietnam War and glyphosate aka Roundup by Monsanto.

Thawing Permafrost Will ‘Seep, Not Explode’ CO2

Click here to access article by Michael D. Lemonick from Climate Central. 

Highlighted in this article are the recent research findings published in the journal Nature (behind a paywall) about the amount of methane that will be released into the atmosphere as one of the effects of rising temperatures especially in land areas in the northern latitudes. I think the headline for this article tends to underplay the significance of the findings.

The Arctic holds more than a trillion tons of carbon, locked in the frozen soil known as permafrost. That’s more than twice as much carbon as there is in the atmosphere itself, according to a 2013 report from the National Academy of Sciences. And as the climate warms under its growing blanket of human-generated greenhouse gases, thawing permafrost could release some of that carbon into the atmosphere.

That could amplify the effect of global warming by boosting CO2 levels higher than they would otherwise be in a so-called feedback loop and making the consequence of warming, including rising seas, more intense and prolonged heat waves and droughts and distorted weather patterns even more severe. They could also lead to more thawing of permafrost and the release of even more CO2, starting the cycle again.

How much carbon will be released, however, and how much extra warming is likely to result, has been a matter of dispute in recent years. Some researchers have argued that that the effects will be horrific, while others say they’ll be significant but less dramatic. And now, a new report in Nature — the most comprehensive study ever done on the permafrost feedback loop, has come down firmly in the “significant” camp.

A rogue reporter takes on the masters of the universe

Click here to access article by Matt Kennard from Reflections on a Revolution. (a must read)

Kennard in this excerpt from his book The Racket: A Rogue Reporter vs. the Masters of the Universe essentially tells his political coming-of-age experience while working at his first professional job for the Financial Times. His "political coming-of-age experience" differs from most people who are trained to maintain the childish notion of following the dictates of authorities instead of seeing the world as it is. He learned what I have often argued: domination, or power over others, is probably the most addictive of all drugs.  

Whereas he simply identifies the authorities as "racketeers", I see them as functioning directly or indirectly as capitalist authorities to support their interests of wealth and power. By succumbing to power exercised by capitalist authorities, one will receive numerous rewards: a well remunerated career, many friends, and beautiful women (or handsome men) drawn to you.

I started working as a reporter at the Financial Times soon after the financial crisis began and at the height of the so-called “War on Terror”. I was a young, ambitious reporter assigned to one of the world’s most respected broadsheets, ready to speak the truth. I learnt soon enough that this was not the place to do it.

Fortunately, he did not succumb to this powerful drug and has insisted on living his life with his eyes wide open. He tells the story of his political coming-of-age in this excerpt.

US Wages Geopolitical Warfare against Russia in Central Asia and Caucasus

Click here to access article by Steven MacMillan from New Eastern Outlook.

It appears from the evidence collected by MacMillan that Empire operatives are implementing the same subversive strategies in Eurasia and the Caucasus as they successfully applied in Ukraine. But, there appear to be problems.
 
This complex strategy involves destabilising countries in Russia’s sphere of influence which creates numerous security problems for Moscow simultaneously, stretching the Kremlin’s ability to stabilise the chaos that has been deliberately contrived. Coupled with the attempt to build strategic partnerships with states close to Russia’s borders, this geopolitical strategy is a potent one that threatens the survival of the current Russian regime and is the logical next step in the West’s war against Moscow. After staging a colour revolution on Russia’s Western frontier in Ukraine which severely weakened relations between Moscow and Kiev, the West is aiming at replicating this model in numerous Eurasian countries including in Armenia, Kyrgyzstan and Azerbaijan.

Syria: Al Qaeda Seeks “Consultations” to Rule Newly Seized City

Click here to access article by Tony Cartalucci from New Eastern Outlook. 

While the Empire and its Medieval gulf allies sponsor terrorist armies, Western media managers have a huge problem in trying to spin their reports to conform with their other propaganda about NATO and the Arab collaborators being concerned about humanitarian issues and the brutal dictatorship of Syria's Assad. Cartalucci sees in such actions a strategy of destabilization that the Empire used successfully in Libya.

What is forming before the world’s collective eyes is an attempt to sell the concept of an Al Qaeda-led opposition government, based in Idlib, behind which NATO and its Persian Gulf allies will place their support.

Western Moral Bankruptcy and the New “Eastern” Hope

Click here to access article by Christopher Black from New Eastern Outlook.

There is much I like about this article, but also some parts that I disagree with. I have a profound respect for Black and have in the past posted several very excellent articles by him (see this, this, and this).  

In this piece Black joins such astute political observers as Pepe Escobar, William Engdahl, Tony Cartalucci, and Mike Whitney who regard Russia and China (and other BRICS countries) as representing a positive force in the world by creating a "multipolar world". I don't see, as yet, much hope with the "New 'Eastern' Hope". Russia and China have strong capitalist economies, and capitalists are always prone to imperialism, social injustice, and environmental destruction.  I just don't see the evidence to justify this optimism. To be sure, they are not at the stage of advanced capitalism characterized by imperialism, but that is only a matter of time.

...in the east, in China, in Russia, in Latin America, a new energy has shone its light on human possibilities, on sharing, cooperation, love of mankind instead of hatred, peaceful cooperation instead of conflict and death. We in the west need now to look to the east, to the south, to our own past, to find the strength and the will to regenerate ourselves, to save ourselves, and the planet we live on, from those in our midst who would reduce us to slavery and hopelessness.

And, Black completely ignores the failures of the revolutions in Russia and China.

Otherwise, I think there is much truth in his other observations such as the perspectives of young people in the 1960s versus today.

U.S. Propaganda 101: Illegally Invade Countries, Fund the Media, Call it “Independent”

Click here to access article by Canadian journalist Julie Lévesque from Global Research.

Lévesque does a thorough job of disclosing information about the Empire's extensive efforts to manipulate public opinion in Europe and the US. This development of managing the minds of citizens has been the genius of the US Empire builders. Its refinement has succeeded in brainwashing most Americans into the very naive belief that their media simply reports what is happening in the world. Most have no idea how their thinking has been so completely engineered by the sophisticated development of capitalist propaganda. Its recent application regarding Ukraine and the supposed threat that Russia poses has turned reality on its head.

In this piece Lévesque goes on to reveal considerable evidence of US propaganda inserting itself into European media with funding through various Empire connected NGOs: U.S. Agency for International Development; Department of State/Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor; Open Society (George Soros); National Endowment for Democracy; Freedom House; and many others all in close collaboration with the CIA. 

US Agribusiness, GMOs And The Plundering Of The Planet

Click here to access article by Colin Todhunter from East by Northwest.

Trans-national corporate farms

Small family/peasant farms produce most of the world’s food. They form the bedrock of global food production. Yet they are being squeezed onto less than a quarter of the planet's farmland. The world is fast losing farms and farmers through the concentration of land into the hands of rich and powerful land speculators and agribusiness corporations.

By definition, peasant agriculture prioritises food production for local and national markets as well as for farmers’ own families. Big agritech corporations on the other hand take over scarce fertile land and prioritise commodities or export crops for profit and foreign markets that tend to cater for the needs of the urban affluent. This process displaces farmers from their land and brings about food insecurity, poverty and hunger. 

Trans-Pacific Partnership says if a corporation claims its true, it must be true

Click here to access article by Pete Dolack from Systemic Disorder. 

Dolack scores again with more stuff that he has dug up from Wikileaks and other sources.

However the following concluding paragraphs bothers me because it contain some very false, or at the very least, misleading statements:

Where ever you are, voicing your opposition to the TPP to your elected officials, and joining a local or national group in opposition, is critical. The U.S. government is pushing the hardest, and attempting to insert the most draconian rules, to cement the control of U.S.-based multi-national corporations over the world’s resources and markets, and the other governments are willing to throw overboard what sovereignty remains to them so that their multi-national corporations get a slice of the pie.

Allowing the TPP to pass means nothing less than an end to democracy and a world where corporate power and money becomes more dominant than ever, where corporate profits are elevated above all other human concerns, codified in law.

First of all, "voicing" your opposition will do very little unless you also inclose a check for at least $10,000 along with your message. The sad reality is that the US government is essentially "owned" by rich capitalists because they finance it. Any semblance to democracy was lost in the 19th century.

We lost most real elements of "democracy" from the very beginning of our nation's creation by early capitalists like Alexander Hamilton, merchant and war profiteer Robert Morris, and land speculator George Washington. The final triumph of this ruling class was really marked by two main events in the late 19th century: first, the many massacres of workers trying to organize for reasonable working hours, benefits, safety standards, and making child labor illegal; and second, by the crushing of the Populist Movement spearheaded by farmers in the Midwest who were merely looking for ways to prevent predatory lending practices and the theft of their farms by bankers and merchants. (By far the best source of information about the Populist Movement is Democratic Promise by Lawrence Goodwyn.) 



Thus, by the late 19th century, the capitalist class, popularly known as robber barons, had accomplished their takeover of the government. They soon established control over the money supply in 1913 by stealthily creating the Fed. Since then, the history of the United States of America has been mainly the history of the consolidation of power of a ruling class composed of financial and industrial capitalists, and the subsequent development of their Empire that we see today marked by many wars, a huge military establishment and 1000 foreign military bases abroad, militarized police forces at home, and tight ruling class control over all ideological and information services.

Now we see capitalists going global, doing what they did within their nations and attempting now to do it to the entire world. However, we are faced with another growing menace to our survival. There is another capitalist gang forming to challenge the US Empire consisting of the BRICS nations led by Russia and Cbina. Both sides have nuclear weapons. 

Countering The Lies Of The Mainstream Media

Click here to access article by Colin Todhunter from East by Northwest.  (A very important article)

The control of the dissemination of information by corporate media is one of the most powerful methods that the ruling capitalist class uses to shape society in its interest of profit and power. Other means are indoctrination in their schools and more subtly in their entertainment industries. Hence the importance of alternative, independent media (mostly the internet, but also books) by people who have an allegiance to truth and not to ruling class interests.

Although Todhunter in this excellent, well-documented article makes reference to mainstream media in Britain where he has lived most of his life, of course the same observations apply to media in the US--maybe even more so.

...that’s the role of the [mainstream corporate] media: to help reinforce and reproduce the material conditions of a divisive social system on a daily basis. It’s called having a compliant, toothless media. It’s what the corporate media itself calls part of ‘liberal democracy’. And in this type of 'liberal democracy', it is people like Edward Snowden or Julian Assange who expose the wrongdoings of the political-corporate elites that are hounded.

Forgotten History: The Rise and Fall of the Russian Oligarchs

Click here if you wish to the original posting by Don Quijones from Raging Bullshit. (Commentary was updated at 5:15pm Seattle time.)

Several years ago I was very curious about what had actually happened in Russia following the fall of the Soviet Union. At the time this was happening in the late 1980s and early 1990s, there was little in Western media reporting on what was happening there, and what there was, was so skewed by pro-capitalist bias that I dismissed it. Several years ago I began seeing that there were more reliable reports coming out, but mostly in books. I selected one such book entitled Sale of the Century (2000) by Canadian journalist Chrystia Freeland. The book revealed how some well-positioned, sociopathic bureaucrats and privatization ideologues in the Soviet government saw the great opportunities that existed in the chaos following the fall, and by hook and by crook speedily took advantage of them with some Western help mostly in the form of advice and financing. But most of the money needed to pull off their takeover of state property was simply taken from the government and its banks.

But my knowledge of what has happened since then has been very sketchy. I have viewed only the first 30 minutes of the first video which reviews what happened after the fall of the Soviet Union. Because it dovetails nicely with what I learned from Freeland's book, I was very impressed and became confident of its quality. Hence I am recommending it and very much looking forward to the second video which suggests that there has been a significant "fall of the Russian oligarchs". I knew that some had fallen, but don't know what really has changed. Hopefully, the second video will shed some light on this. I don't normally post material without having read or viewed it, but due to a shortage of time and having viewed a substantial portion of the first video, I feel confident in posting both videos.





(5:15pm Seattle time) From watching the second film, it appears to me that Putin's regime up to 2005 had only gotten rid of the worst thieves of Russia's wealth and that much of this wealth has been restored to the Russian government. I noticed at the end of this film that the production date was 2005. Thus, there is a lot of history that is still needed in the years since then. What I would like to know is if further significant changes in the power structure of the country have occurred since 2005, and what they are.

I think the reason for the poor coverage by US media of these Russian events is precisely because what the Russian oligarchs did in Russia in less than 10 years excelled what the US oligarchs have accomplished in America very gradually over more than 200 years. However, the US oligarchs got away with it. The successful triumph of American capitalists is essentially reflected in the old boiling frogs metaphor.

New FBI Tactic Hints at Big DC Cover-up of Saudi 9/11 Funding

Click here to access article by Russ Baker from WhoWhatWhy. 

In the latest indication of a rolling government cover-up of the September 11, 2001, attacks, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is disowning an explosive internal report that suggests high-level Saudi involvement. And Washington seems only too happy to accept this latest peculiar FBI apologia.

....  In this bizarre development, the Bureau claims that an internal FBI document indirectly tying the alleged Al Qaeda hijackers to a prominent Saudi prince was fabricated.

Then you might also be interested in another case of government backtracking on evidence by reading "What’s Not Being Revealed in the Tsarnaev Courtroom" by James Henry and Lara Turner posted on WhoWhatWhy. 

According to Knapp’s [FBI agent] Thursday testimony, the bombs were relatively simple devices. Although he didn’t say it directly, he implied that anyone with an Internet connection could have pulled off the Boston bombing.

But that assertion contradicts the opinion of numerous experts, and of investigators directly connected to this case.

California drought: agribusiness, fracking untouched by water rationing

Click here to access article by Evan Blake from Ecologist. 

California has responded to the drought by rationing water, with $500 fines for domestic 'water wasters', writes Evan Blake. But agribusiness and water-intensive industries like fracking remain untouched by the restrictions, even though they consume over 90% of the state's water.

Five Years On, the WikiLeaks 'Collateral Murder' Video Matters More than Ever

Click here to access article by Christian Christensen from Common Dreams.

This American professor currently working at a Swedish university provides us with a deeper meaning of this sordid historical event: both the Empire's interest in silencing dissent as well as heroic citizens' efforts to expose the Empire's crimes. 

Monsanto’s “Discredit Bureau” Really Does Exist [UPDATE]

Click here to access article by Stephanie Hampton from Daily Kos.

Recently, I attended a talk by Monsanto’s Dr. William “Bill” Moar ....  Most notably, he also spoke about Monsanto’s efforts to educate citizens about the scientific certainty of the safety of their genetically engineered products. The audience was mostly agricultural students many of whom were perhaps hoping for the only well-paid internships and jobs in their field.

One student asked what Monsanto was doing to counter the “bad science” around their work. Dr. Moar, perhaps forgetting that this was a public event, then revealed that Monsanto indeed had “an entire department” (waving his arm for emphasis) dedicated to “debunking” science which disagreed with theirs. As far as I know this is the first time that a Monsanto functionary has publically admitted that they have such an entity which brings their immense political and financial weight to bear on scientists who dare to publish against them. The Discredit Bureau will not be found on their official website.

US-Israel Wage War on Iran in Syria

Click here to access article by Tony Cartalucci posted on Land Destroyer Report.  (Warning: this article contains much evidence to support a conclusion which you might find very upsetting.)

In this article Cartalucci examines several past Brookings documents and Seymour Hersh's articles in light of subsequent events to see a rather perfect match to reveal the Empire's strategy to not only control the Middle East but as a integral part of a global imperialist policy involving Russia and China. This was apparently written just before the tentative agreement with Iran reported on the 3rd of April, however I don't think that really weakens his very alarming argument--it may actually strengthen it.

The ongoing conflict in Syria has always been a proxy conflict aimed at  Iran, as well as nearby Russia, and more distant China. As far back as 2007, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Seymour Hersh warned in his 9-page New Yorker report "The Redirection: Is the Administration’s new policy benefitting our enemies in the war on terrorism?," that a region-wide sectarian war was being engineered by the US, Saudi Arabia, and Israel - all of whom were working in concert even in 2007, to build the foundation of a sectarian militant army.

He also warns us that the recent "fall-out" between the US and Israel is pure fakery designed to accomplish deniability:

...Brookings details explicitly how the US will wage war on Iran, through Israel, in order to maintain plausible deniability. 

He concludes his alarming argument with this statement:

This is precisely the political charade implied by the Brookings Institution in their 2009 report as being necessary before any so-called "unilateral" action by Israel could be taken. In reality there is no row, simply a need for establishing plausible deniability ahead of an egregious act of unwarranted, unjust military aggression.

Such theatrics are but one troubling sign that aggression toward Iran is still very much in the cards, that current negotiations are but a smokescreen for preparations to strike Iran anyway regardless of what concession it is willing to make, and that such aggression may take place once the US and its regional partners believe Syria has been reduced to its weakest state possible - if outright regime change is seen as impossible.

Those Who Want To Build, Those Who Want To Fight: The World Social Forum with a North African Twist

Click here to access article by Cihan Tugal from Jadaliyya.  (Highly recommended)

Tugal reports on his experience and observations of the recent World Social Forum held in Tunisia in March. Rarely have I seen all the nuances and realities of political views and activities expressed so clearly as in this report by a Turkish sociology professor at UC Berkeley. His report therefore constructs a lesson in revolutionary change and many of the real problems which this entails in our era.

...in a world where a small percent of the global population controls an immense part of the whole world’s wealth, any effort that will put their privileges in question risks being marginalized, repressed, or incorporated. Building alternatives to the world they have built needs to go hand in hand with efforts to redistribute their wealth. I cannot imagine that happening without a fight. And I cannot imagine the big fish leaving us alone if we don’t spread out the wealth they have monopolized.

The limits of both negotiation and building small-scale alternatives, in short, are much starker in the era of globalization. Statism is an easy, but misleading, response to these limits.

He then goes on to dismiss statism, a revolutionary relic of the 20th century, by stating:

We have seen in the past that statism can be as oppressive and inegalitarian as capitalism. Why put all our eggs in one basket again?

Police State Preparation? Homeland Security Stockpiling “Less Lethal Specialty Munitions”

Click here to access article by Mac Slavo from The AntiMedia.

...a new Homeland Security purchase order listed on FedBizOpps  also raises an eyebrow or two, given the heated and divided political and social climate at hand. Just look at what happened in Ferguson… 

Judge Approves Laughably Bad, Collusive Class Action Settlement

Click here to access article from Electronic Privacy Information Center.

This is another prime illustration of how institutional justice functions in a capitalist system.