The Six ‘Secret’ Tactics of Empire

Click here to access article by Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin from Global Research.

Although the author fails to identify the empire in the content of the article, it is obvious that the methods apply to the US-led Empire. He provides a useful and succinct summary of the methods that have been used by US-led Empire operatives in their attempts, sometimes successful, to destabilize and overthrow governments that stand in the way of the Empire's global interests of profits and power.

The 6 ‘secret’ tactics of empire are strategies of change used by governments, usually covertly, to attain political or military ends through means not normally acceptable to the populace as a whole. The strategies are as follows:

Washington's Long War Against Syria

Click here to access article by Stephen Gowans from What's Left. 

Gowans delivers a talk below on Middle Eastern political developments in the past 30 or 40 years with particular emphasis on the subject of his recently published book by the above title. He was invited by the Hands Off Syria Coalition to give a speech in July at the Solidarity Center in New York City. He has been described as a Canadian writer and activist, but now he can lay claim to be an author. He writes, I believe, mostly for What's Left but his articles have been re-posted frequently on many other websites. It is my opinion that he is one of the world's foremost political analysts. 

Gowans begins his approximately 48 minute talk at 12:25m into this video after brief words by other members of the Coalition. He concludes the talk by quoting from another Canadian, Norman Bethune, who served as a medical officer during the Spanish Civil War and the Sino-Japanese War with Mao's armies and said: "...such an organization of society, that permits these enemies of society to exist, must be abolished." Of course, he was referring to a capitalist organization of society. Gowans declares that the theme of his new book is the same.

The social pathology of the Las Vegas Massacre

Click here to access article by Patrick Martin from World Socialist Web Site.

The Las Vegas massacre is a peculiarly American crime, arising out of the social pathology of a deeply troubled society.

What is the social context of this latest episode of domestic mass killing? The United States has been at war more or less continuously for the past 27 years. The US government has treated tens of millions of people in the Middle East, Afghanistan, and Africa as targets for extermination through bombs, bullets, and drone-fired missiles. These wars have penetrated deeply into American culture, celebrated endlessly in film, television, music and even sport.

Social relations within the United States, characterized by the growth of economic inequality on a scale that exceeds any previous era in American history, fuel a culture of indifference, and even outright contempt for human life.

US Proxies in Southeast Asia Include Fake Communists

Click here to access article by Joseph Thomas from New Eastern Outlook. 

Thomas provides many illustrations in Thailand how capitalist operatives in cooperation with local capitalists, who promote the profit and power interest of the US Empire, make rather startling use of deception as they do elsewhere in the world. Of course, Karl Marx and others pointed out a century and half ago the sharp contradictions and conflicts between capitalists and workers. This phenomenon undermines any claim to the legitimacy of capitalist rule; therefore they must hide these contradictions by using their control of nearly all institutions of indoctrination and propaganda to deceive workers. When these institutions fail to dumb down workers, they always rely on violence by their police forces and armies to suppress dissidents.

Read how Thomas arrives at the following conclusion which encourages us to access rely on independent sources of information and improve our critical thinking skills.

If Washington is capable of creating legions of fascists and Wahhabi militants that serve its cause, it certainly can create “Communists” and any other ideological flavour of proxy it believes can serve its interests when and where needed. With Washington possessing such a capability, only real analysis can peel back the layers of money and motivations of any given movement, revealing its true colours, and those who refuse to peel back these layers, may in fact be aiding and abetting empire, not resisting it.

[Russian Revolution part 7 of ?] In Defence of the Russian Revolution - part two

The following is a 21:16m concluding video presentation by Alan Woods (via YouTube) regarding some of  the major effects of the Russian Revolution on not only Russia but the rest of the world. Woods is a British Marxist expert and author regarding issues and history related to Marxism.

In the second of a series of videos celebrating the 100th anniversary of the 1917 Russian Revolution, Alan Woods - editor of In Defence of Marxism, www.marxist.com - examines the lies and slanders used to attack the Revolution, the Bolsheviks, and the ideas of Lenin and Trotsky.

In this second part of "In Defence of the Russian Revolution", Alan examines the nature of the revolution and the subsequent civil war, answering the myths and distortions presented by bourgeois historians about the October Revolution being a "coup" or that Lenin and Trotsky were blood-thirsty tyrants.

As Alan explains, the rhetoric of the capitalists and their apologists reeks of hypocrisy from beginning to end, and it was the counter-revolutionaries in Russia who were responsible for violence.

“Diplomatic Flights used as Cover for Arms Trafficking to Terrorists” [Bulgarian journalist Dilyana Gaytandzhieva]

Click here to access article from FARS news agency in Iran. 

I've posted two previous articles regarding her claims which were mostly based on RT interviews with this Bulgarian journalist (see here and here) who has since been fired. Since then FARS news agency has followed up with this interview (in transcript form) of their own with Gaytandzhieva.

Dilyana Gaytandzhieva is a Bulgarian investigative journalist. In December 2016, she visited liberated neighborhoods of Aleppo where she found Bulgarian-made weapons inside underground warehouses belonging to terrorists. She felt suspicious and traced those weapons to its Bulgarian manufacturer realizing that they were legally exported to Saudi Arabia, which in turn supplied them to terrorists in Syria. As a result of further investigation she discovered that this was just a small part of a bigger international scheme.

FNA has conducted an interview with Dilyana Gaytandzhieva about the result of her investigation into the use of diplomatic flights for supplying weapons to terrorists.

[Russian Revolution series, part 6 of ?] In Defence of the Russian Revolution - part one

The following is a 22:03m video presentation by Alan Woods (via YouTube) regarding some of  the major effects of the Russian Revolution on not only Russia but the rest of the world. Woods is a British Marxist expert and author regarding issues and history related to Marxism. (I will be posting Woods' "part two" of his series in the near future.)

In the beginning of a series of videos celebrating the 100th anniversary of the 1917 Russian Revolution, Alan Woods - editor of In Defence of Marxism, www.marxist.com - examines the lies and slanders used to attack the Revolution, the Bolsheviks, and the ideas of Lenin and Trotsky.

In this first part "in Defence of the Russian Revolution", Alan looks at the gains made by the October Revolution and the planned economy in terms of science, industry, and culture.

[Russian Revolution series, part 5 of ?] Global Empire - The Centenary 1917-2017

Click here to access a 30:24m video production by TeleSur featuring Tariq Ali discussing this topic with Professor Stephen Smith. (Note: Beginning today I will occasionally offer the perspectives of this momentous event by various experts while running the excellent weekly/daily series provided by the World Socialist Web Site.)

To commemorate The Russian Revolution Centenary, Tariq Ali talks to Professor S.A. (Stephen) Smith of All Souls College, University of Oxford....

Safe-Zone Judo as Syrian Forces Cross the Euphrates

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

Cartalucci assesses how the Empire's "Plan B" (Plan A was regime change) which he refers to as "safe zones" is currently working to balkanize Syria, and finds that it has diminishing chances of success in the long term. 

...with Syrian forces on the east bank of the Euphrates, the Syrian government maintains an even greater presence within and along the edges of this tenuous “safe zone.”

Today – just as US policymakers had planned the US and its proxies would do in 2012 – Syrian forces can at any time during this current conflict or after it – expand incrementally into America’s “safe-zone.” The crossing of the Euphrates and the increasingly exhausted political legs the United States stands on regarding its military aggression in Syria, combined with Russia’s direct military intervention upon Damascus’ request – have severely complicated this “safe zone” policy.

It is no longer a matter of “Assad” being “foolish enough to challenge these zones,” they are being challenged, regularly, and by Syrian forces backed by Russian airpower, which is in turn backed by a nuclear deterrence preventing the sort of escalation against Damascus US policymakers envisioned before the Russian intervention.

[Weekly series of the Russian Revolution of 1917] October 2 - 8: Trotsky elected chairman of the Petrograd Soviet

Click here to access this week's account of the historical Russian Revolution from the World Socialist Web Site. (Note: I am posting a series of articles on the Russian Revolution; but they are from my selection of the best sources which, in my well-read judgement, are the most accurate and insightful.)

I will be posting a weekly summary of activities during the Russian Revolution of 1917 as well as articles by historians of that great event. You may be interested to read my introduction to the latter series if you have not already done so. 

How Syria’s Victory Reshapes Mideast

Click here to access article by Alastair Crooke from ConsortiumNews. 

I am departing from my usual practice to ignore speculative articles about the future because I simply could not pass this one up. It is clear that the actions of the Saudi-Israeli-US project of using ISIS to destabilize Syria and installing a more compliant government (Plan A) is coming to an end. 

In the first section Crooke provides a review of the history of the region which sets the stage for what he sees as a more likely second scene in this geopolitical drama in contrast to one which he refers to as "Israel’s New Scheme" (Plan B): using the Kurdish desire for independence to balkanize both Iraq and Syria.  If you have little time, I recommend that you skip down to the subsection entitled "Israel’s New Scheme" where he quickly disposes of this outcome, and proceeds to elaborate the outcome that he sees much more likely. I think you will agree with me that such an outcome will have monumental repercussions on global geopolitics.

RT may close down US based studio

Click here to access article posted on Fort Russ.

Russia Today (RT) may stop broadcasting in the US due to pressure from the US authorities. RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan stated this in an interview on Russia's NTV channel.

According to her, "in the worst case scenario," RT may leave the US territory and no longer broadcast....

Because of the ruling capitalist class's concern over alternative media publishing news and analysis that doesn't conform to their versions disseminated by their media corporations, I it was inevitable that our masters would introduce all types of censorship as they are doing in Google's search engine and YouTube (which is owned by Google) and Facebook. It will only get worse as illustrated by these latest actions to harass RT so much that they too will likely leave our shores. 

I personally have found RT as a very useful and convenient way to learn about what is going on in world, but I've notice increasing difficulties accessing their nightly news program. (Last night their program "crashed" about four times when I was watching it.) US media corporations seem to have vacated any significant coverage of foreign affairs beyond what Trump tweets or speechifies about in a threatening or flamboyant manner. In spite of the fact that his actions are becoming aligned with theirs, Trump continues to be our masters' favorite whipping boy and major distraction from real news coverage. And our masters love any kind of distraction to take our attention away from the criminal acts they are committing throughout the world.  

Defending the Indefensible - The Occupation of the American Mind

Click here to access two videos that make up the 56 minute film (via YouTube) "The Occupation of the American Mind" posted on Information Clearing House. 

The Occupation of the American Mind is a production of The Media Education Foundation (MEF), a Massachusetts-based organization that produces and distributes educational films about the social, cultural, and political impact of American mass media. [my link]

                                                             ------------------------------------------------------------------------

"This is a film that demands to be seen. It shows, with devastating precision, how effective propaganda can hide crimes that are epic in scale and have catastrophic consequences. Please see this film, hire it, screen it, talk about it." - Ken Loach

US’ Plan B? From Alleged Evacuation of Daesh to the Murder of Russian General

Click here to access an unedited interview with "The Saker" by a representative from Sputnik posted on The Greanville Post.   

"The Saker" gives his views on the outcome of the continued operation of the US-backed Kurds in Syria.

Having realized that they lost in Syria the US has shifted to “Plan B” to maintain control over the oil-rich regions of the country, military analyst The Saker told Sputnik. The Russo-Syrian advance in Deir ez-Zor has endangered the US plan, prompting the Pentagon to target the Syrian Arab Army and Russian military personnel on the ground.

Plan B is, of course, the splitting off of Syrian territory under the control of US-backed Kurds who continue to permit US military bases on their territory.

By The Grace Of Israel - The Barzani Clan And Kurdish "Independence"

Click here to access article by Bernhard from Moon of Alabama. 

The Kurdish region in Iraq held a "referendum" about splitting off from Iraq to form an independent state. The referendum was highly irregular and the outcome was assured. That such a referendum was held now had more to do with the beleaguered situation of the illegitimate regional president Barzani than with a genuine opportunity to achieve independence. The referendum was non-binding. It is now onto Barzani to declare independence or to set the issue aside in exchange for, essentially, more money.

....

Arabs, Turks, and Persians see the Kurds as a recalcitrant nomadic mountain tribe and stooge of Israeli interests.

And another article on the Kurdish situation which might also interest you is entitled "Kurdistan – what the referendum is hiding" by the French intellectual Thierry Meyssan. In the article you will encounter the word "Tsahal": this means the military forces of Israel.

Combined the two articles gave me an intellectual headache and a decidedly pessimistic outlook for the future of humans. 

Do you believe in miracles?

Click here to access a book review by Craig McKee from Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth.

It would have taken a miracle. A bunch of them, actually.

For the official story of 9/11 to be true, numerous physically impossible things would need to have taken place that day. This is the case made by prolific 9/11 researcher David Ray Griffin in his latest book, Bush and Cheney: How They Ruined America and the World. It is the twelfth Griffin-penned volume that takes on the official government claims of what happened—and did not happen—on 9/11. It also marks his return to the subject for the first time since 2011’s 9/11 Ten Years Later: How State Crimes Against Democracy Succeed.

“Meathead” is Running the Committee to Investigate Russia

Click here to access article by Phil Butler from New Eastern Outlook.

In this very clever piece Butler examines the Committee and finds a nest of Zionist mafia types. 

Finally, for those of you who think Rob Reiner ever changed from his role as “Meathead” in the 70’s sitcom All in the Family, his organization mentioning ousted Russian oil oligarch and mafioso Mikhail Khodorkovsky proves Archie Bunker was right about his “Meathead” son-in-law all along. [my link]

Unravelling the riddle of the Kurds’ Iraqi pipedream

Click here to access article by Pepe Escobar from Asia Times.

The extraordinary Brazilian journalist offers his take on the rather complicated interests involved in the Kurdish desire for independence in norther Iraq. It appears that Kurdish fantasies about independence are just that--fantasies.

Masoud Barzani has overplayed his hand – no regional powers are going to assent to partition of Iraq. 

Wall Street and City of London Press Panic Button on Catalonia

Click here to access article by "Don Quijones" from Wolf Street.

The author, who is a British ex-patriot and mostly lives in Spain, gives an excellent report about the financial factors behind the resistance of Western financial centers against the independence movement in Catalonia from Spain. As such the author provides an excellent illustration of the power and influence that major financial centers of Wall Street and the City of London, whose capitalists make up a core part of the ruling classes of the US-led Empire, have on political events in many countries. This is a further illustration of how contemporary capitalists control all major policy decisions both political and economic wherever they hold populations in debt. If this weapon fails to control populations, then the "jackals" are sent in, as John Perkins so well explained in his book Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. How did this weapon of debt used by the Empire's ruling class come about?

It developed over many years of capitalist rule whereby the capitalist classes accumulated more and more wealth extracted from exploited worker populations and stole cheap resources from countries they dominated. Think British Empire, the many years of exploitation of workers, the kidnapping of millions of African slaves, think US control over much of Latin America through occasional invasions to remind leaders of US power as well described by Major General Smedley Butler in his book War Is a Racket (1935), WWI, the emergence of US power after WWII, etc. This wealth was accumulated over many years in the Anglo-American empires which developed into today's US-led Empire. Now for anyone or any nation to purchase anything, they usually have to borrow money from a bank. And, now the Empire's capitalist financiers hold nearly everyone and "sovereign" nations in debt, and exercise considerable control over them with these debt obligations always backed by the threat of violence from their police and military. 

The is the inevitable evolution of capitalism into the advanced form we see today all over the Empire.

Internet censorship and government war plans

Click here to access article by Andre Damon from World Socialist Web Site.

The growing attempts to implement censorship measures to internet services by the ruling capitalist class indicates that the latter has no qualms about introducing overt fascist methods of censorship as its imperialist operations abroad and its austerity and police state measures here at home are increasingly exposed and discussed over these services.

On the eve of the UN assembly, the Times published an unambiguous brief for censorship of the Internet in the form of an op-ed column by the ambassador to the UN under Barack Obama, Samantha Power.

Under the headline “Why Foreign Propaganda Is More Dangerous Now,” and on the pretext of combating Russian disinformation and subversion, Power calls for the use of “professional gatekeepers” to police public discourse on the Internet.

Power, a leading proponent of “human rights” imperialism, looks back nostalgically at the Cold War as a golden age of news dissemination, when “most Americans received their news and information via mediated platforms.”

If they succeed in shutting out accurate information about their war crimes and secret nefarious operations, then all is lost for the people to prevent either a nuclear war conflagration or the calamities of climate destabilization.