“Equating Putin with Adolf Hitler is another example of how our new cold warriors are recklessly damaging US national security in vital areas where Putin’s cooperation is essential.”
Professor Stephen F. Cohen gives speech at a recent Munk Debate, “Should the West engage or isolate Russia?”
Obama’s time as leader of the US is coming to an end – his term concludes next year. Wannabe presidents have already joined the race to the White House. And as President Obama goes through the final year of his rule, Washington suddenly changes its tone – now Iran is an appropriate nation to talk to, and it’s okay to meet with Cuban and Venezuelan leaders. But what is in that change? Has Washington finally dropped its previous policies? What does Obama want to achieve? And will the new, as yet unknown, leader of America make any difference? We pose these questions to prominent historian, author of bestsellers on US foreign policies, William Blum, who is on Sophie&Co today.
Full transcript at RT SophieCo
A video by musician and amateur filmmaker Artem Grishanov has gone viral on Youtube, providing a harsh commentary on the divide between Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s impassioned rhetoric about the conflict in eastern Ukraine and his own military’s destructive campaign, which has affected tens of thousands of civilians.
The video, with subtitles in English, features the Ukrainian president speaking with tears in his eyes about an unexploded rocket landing in a residential yard, and is followed by imagery of the Ukrainian military’s shelling of residential areas in the Donbass, and local residents’ reactions of terror and resistance. The video features original music by Grishanov about the Ukrainian government’s “‘kindness’ falling on our homes” in the form of rockets.
The video mixes a variety of imagery from the last year in Ukrainian politics, showing the connections the war in the east has to Ukrainian and international politics, and the incredible hypocrisy and sheer horror of the fact that Western politicians have ended up consciously or unconsciously supporting the bloodshed, via moral and political support, along with the provision of weaponry.
The video yearns to convey several facts about the war, including that over 6,000 civilians have been killed, over 15,000 injured and 1,500,000 turned into refugees, and that the Ukrainian military is using munitions prohibited under the Geneva Convention. The video also notes that while “the humanitarian aid coming from Russia to the people in the destroyed cities is regarded as an act of invasion and aggression… the USA and EU countries are going to supply weapons to Ukraine to continue the bloodshed.”
Source: Sputnik International
Noam Chomsky is one of the superstars of the intellectual world; a prolific author and self-proclaimed anarchist, who, at the age of 86 still doesn’t seem to be slowing down. He still rails against a whole host of perceived injustices, with the West generally in his line of fire. Isabelle Kumar of Euronews interviewed him about terrorism, Cuba and the future of Europe.
Full transcript at Euronews
A new poll from Bloomberg Politics contains a finding that, if you really think about it, is quite remarkable:
Almost half of all Americans want to support Israel even if its interests diverge from the interests of their own country. Only a minority of Americans (47 percent) say that their country should pursue their own interests over supporting Israel’s when the two choices collide.
It is inconceivable that a substantial portion of Americans would want to support any other foreign country even where doing so was contrary to U.S. interests. Only Israel commands anything near that level of devoted, self-sacrificing fervor on the part of Americans. So it’s certainly worth asking what accounts for this bizarre aspect of American public opinion.
The answer should make everyone quite uncomfortable: it’s religious fanaticism. The U.S. media loves to mock adversary nations, especially Muslim ones, for being driven by religious extremism, but that is undeniably a major factor, arguably the most significant one, in explaining fervent support for Israel among the American populace.
The primary reason evangelical Christians in the U.S. are so devoted to Israel is simple: their radical religious dogma teaches them that God demands this. In 2004, Pat Robertson delivered a speech entitled “Why Evangelical Christians Support Israel” and said: “evangelical Christians support Israel because we believe that the words of Moses and the ancient prophets of Israel were inspired by God,” and “we believe that the emergence of a Jewish state in the land promised by God to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was ordained by God.” He added that “God’s chosen people” — Jews — have an obligation to God to fight against “Muslim vandals” so that Israel remains united in their hands.
Full article at: The Intercept
(Photo credit: Flickr: Pierre J.)
Recently unearthed US government documents have shed some light on how the White House repeatedly missed an opportunity to disclose the Israeli secret nuclear weapons program.
The creation of the Israeli Dimona nuclear site has long been shrouded in secrecy, however, recently disclosed US government documents show that Washington either missed or deliberately turned a blind eye to warning signs about Jerusalem’s nuclear program.
In 1955, under Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion’s rule, Israel launched a secret program aimed at producing nuclear explosives. In 1958 and 1959 the United States’ officials received the first warning signs about Israel’s secret project. Richard Kerry (the father of US Secretary of State John Kerry), who was working at the US embassy in Norway, found out that the country provided Israel with 20 tons of heavy water, a key ingredient for a nuclear reactor. A year earlier in Tel Aviv another American diplomat learned that Jerusalem was working on a nuclear project.
Eventually, in December 1960, Ben-Gurion officially admitted that Israel was building a nuclear reactor, and asserted that the reactor was for peaceful purposes. Remarkably, the US State Department bought into this idea, welcoming the statement of the Israeli prime minister.
Full article at: Sputnik International
Free Republic of Liberland (hereinafter “Liberland”) is a sovereign state located between Croatia and Serbia on the west bank of the Danube river. The nearest towns are Zmajevac (Croatia) and Bački Monostor (Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, Serbia). On some maps, this area is referred to as “Gornja Siga”.
Liberland came into existence due to a border dispute between Croatia and Serbia. This area along the west bank of the Danube river is not claimed by Croatia, Serbia or any other country. It was therefore terra nullius, a no man’s land, until Vít Jedlička seized the opportunity and on 13 April 2015 formed a new state in this territory – Liberland. The boundary was defined so as not to interfere with the territory of Croatia or Serbia. Its total area of approximately 7 km² is now the third smallest sovereign state, after the Vatican and Monaco. For more information regarding the border dispute between Croatia and Serbia see an article on Wikipedia.
The motto of Liberland is “To live and let live” because Liberland prides itself on personal and economic freedom of its people, which is guaranteed by the Constitution, which significantly limits the power of politicians so they could not interfere too much in the freedoms of the Liberland nation.
If you want to become a citizen of Liberland, submit your application here.
United States of Scandinavia
Five Scandinavian countries have signed a joint declaration on the expansion of military cooperation amid what the countries’ defense ministers called “Russian aggression against Ukraine,” the Norwegian Aftenposten newspaper reports.
The declaration was signed by heads of the defense ministries of NATO members Norway and Denmark, as well as those of Sweden and Finland, along with the foreign ministry of Iceland, Aftenposten said on Thursday.
The ministers said in a joint declaration, quoted by the newspaper, that “Russian aggression against Ukraine” presents “the biggest challenge” to European security, particularly that of the Nordic countries.
According to Aftenposten, the five European countries will most likely expand joint military exercises, deepen cooperation in the sphere of defense and broaden the exchange of intelligence information.
Source: Sputnik International
Just like the EU and NATO, the Nordic countries are virtually controlled and manipulated by the Empire of Chaos. In addition, as far as I understand, none of the Scandinavian heads of state will attend the WWII Victory Day in Moscow on May 9, 2015 to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the capitulation of Nazi Germany in 1945. What a blatant disgrace that is! If you feel much the same way, please sign the petition below. Thanks!
Please accept our apologies for the behavior of our Governments and Media. Western Nations, led by the United States, seem determined to start a war with Russia. A sane person would recognize the terrible consequences of such a war and would do everything in their power to avoid it. In fact it appears that this is exactly what you are doing. In the face of an endless stream of lies and provocations you have managed to keep Russia from being drawn into a nuclear war.
Events surrounding the war in Ukraine are twisted to represent you as an aggressor when the facts clearly show otherwise. Neo-Nazi gangs commit atrocities against the citizens of Novorussia on a daily basis and they receive political and financial support from Western governments. The Ukrainian army has attacked Russian checkpoints and towns and regularly bombs refugees attempting to flee the country. Russia was blamed for the destruction of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17, even though the evidence suggests that the flight was shot down by the Ukrainian army. You offer humanitarian aid to the people of Luhansk and you are accused of smuggling weapons into Ukraine.
Why are you the target of these lies and provocations? The pathological criminals of the West are pushing for war with Russia because they need an external enemy. As long as the people are focused on “Russian aggression” they remain unaware of those truly responsible for the decline of the American economy and social system. In Europe, with its history of brutal wars sparked by arrogance and greed, European leaders have undergone a complete moral collapse and have naively fallen into line behind the USA’s policy of imperial aggression.
More than 68,000 people have signed the petition so far. Great to see so many from Eastern Europe, particularly from Poland and even Ukraine 🙂
Syrian Deputy Foreign and Expatriates Minister Fayssal Mikdad said the only danger which poses a threat to the region is the Zionist entity, affirming that there is no justification to have doubt about this, except the Israeli acts, its allies in Europe and its tools in the region which circulate that there are other dangers.
He added that all have become confirmed that the only side responsible for violating the principles of nuclear non-proliferation is Israel and the western countries which offered their capabilities to build Israel’s arsenal of chemical and nuclear weapon.
Mikdad went on to say that the cooperation showed by Syria and Iran in meeting the international community’s interests whether in relation to eliminating chemical weapons in Syria or to Iran’s coordination in the nuclear file confirms, once again, the true intentions of both countries which consider the use of such weapons an immoral matter that contradicts their religious values.
“Time has come for the international efforts to eliminate the Israeli arsenal of weapons of mass destruction,” Mikdad said, adding that what encourages Israel to boost its weapon programs is the stance of some Arab regimes who connive with this entity.
Source: Syrian Arab News Agency
Israel declared over the weekend that it is cutting off ties with the BBC to protest a repeat broadcast of a documentary about non-conventional weapons said to be in Israel.
The program was broadcast for the first time in March 2003 in Britain, and was rerun Saturday on a BBC channel that is aired all over the world. The boycott decision was made by Israel’s public relations forum, made up of representatives from the Prime Minister’s Office, the Foreign Ministry and the Government Press Office.
It was decided that government offices won’t assist BBC producers and reporters, that Israeli officials will not give interviews to the British network, and that the Government Press Office will make it difficult for BBC employees to get press cards and work visas in Israel.
Before the broadcast Saturday, Israeli officials tried to pressure the BBC to cancel the broadcast, saying that the program was biased and presented Israel as an evil dictatorship.
Against the Grain 