Those Whom the United States Seeks to Destroy, They First Call Hitlerites

Hilary Clinton, echoing Canada's Stephen Harper, the Pipsqueak of the North, has accused Russia's President Putin of Hitlerism, a claim she later tried to downplay, saying:

The claims by President Putin and other Russians that they had to go into Crimea and maybe further into Eastern Ukraine because they had protect the Russia minorities,” Clinton said Wednesday, “that is reminiscent of claims that were made back in the 1930s when Germany under the Nazis kept talking about how they had to protect German minorities in Poland, in Czechoslovakia, and elsewhere throughout Europe.

First, Putin and the Russians have not "gone into Crimea" except, if at all, in accordance with the terms of the lease agreement they have with the Government of Ukraine, which permits Russia to station up to 25,000 troops in the Crimean Peninsula, a tiny portion of Ukrainian territory and home to Russia's Black Sea naval base since 1783.

Second, Germany's pre-World War II claim to territory in Czechoslovakia and Poland were consistent with the principle of national self-determination that was supposed to underlie the post-World War 1 settlement enshrined in the treaty of Versailles. But, whereas state boundaries were supposed to reflect the ethnic makeup of the various regions of Europe, millions of Germans were excluded from Germany by the Versailles Treaty even when, as in the Sudeten region of Czechoslovakia and in Danzik, Poland, they made up the great majority of the population.

Clinton specifically mentions German claims on the Sudetenland. But under an agreement of the European powers, the Munich agreement, which was accepted by the government of Czechoslovakia, the Sudetenland was ceded by Czechoslovakia to Germany. There was, thus, nothing specifically Hitlerite, certainly nothing criminal or even illegal in Germany's acquisition of former German territory with a population comprising mainly ethnic Germans.

What was a war crime was Hitler's subsequent invasion and occupation of the remainder of Czechoslovakia, and his invasion of Poland. But there has been nothing whatever in the actions of the Russian government that could be considered, in that sense, Hitlerite. Therefore, when Hilary Clinton and the foolish Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper accuse Putin of Hitlerism, while supporting an illegitimate and unelected government in Kiev, they prove themselves to be ignorant, stupid or thoroughly mendacious. That Clinton compares Putin with Hitler, notwithstanding Putin's avowed commitment to the territorial integrity of Ukraine, while she proclaims support for an illegitimate Government in Kiev brought to power by US-funded Neo-Nazis, truly pushes the boundaries of hypocrisy.

Compounding the hypocrisy is that Clinton, like Stephen Harper, had no hesitation in supporting bloody US/NATO wars against Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya: wars justified by trumped up charges relating to 9/11, weapons of mass destruction, or on the basis of the fraudulent claim of responsibility to protect. These unnecessary and bloody wars of aggression have resulted in the deaths of, at a minimum, hundreds of thousands, while creating millions of refugees.

See also:

Xinhua: Commentary: The West's fiasco in Ukraine

Nicolas Bonnai: How Russia is meddling with the dark side of the West

Aangirfan: 'NATO TROOPS SHOT BOTH SIDES IN UKRAINE' - REPORT

German-Foreign-Policy.com: A Broad-Based Anti-Russian Alliance

Moscow Times: Will there be war in Ukraine?

RT: Ukraine: Snipers target police in Maidan Square

Voice of Russia: Ukrainian MP says NATO sniper could kill Kiev protester

Jerusalem Post: In Kiev, an Israeli army vet led a street-fighting unit

Seumas Milne: The clash in Crimea is the fruit of western expansion

How the Ukraine crisis ends

By Henry Kissinger

 Washington Post, March 5, 2014: Public discussion on Ukraine is all about confrontation. But do we know where we are going? In my life, I have seen four wars begun with great enthusiasm and public support, all of which we did not know how to end and from three of which we withdrew unilaterally. The test of policy is how it ends, not how it begins.

Far too often the Ukrainian issue is posed as a showdown: whether Ukraine joins the East or the West. But if Ukraine is to survive and thrive, it must not be either side’s outpost against the other — it should function as a bridge between them.

 Russia must accept that to try to force Ukraine into a satellite status, and thereby move Russia’s borders again, would doom Moscow to repeat its history of self-fulfilling cycles of reciprocal pressures with Europe and the United States.

The West must understand that, to Russia, Ukraine can never be just a foreign country. Russian history began in what was called Kievan-Rus. The Russian religion spread from there. Ukraine has been part of Russia for centuries, and their histories were intertwined before then. Some of the most important battles for Russian freedom, starting with the Battle of Poltava in 1709 , were fought on Ukrainian soil. The Black Sea Fleet — Russia’s means of projecting power in the Mediterranean — is based by long-term lease in Sevastopol, in Crimea. Even such famed dissidents as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Joseph Brodsky insisted that Ukraine was an integral part of Russian history and, indeed, of Russia.

The European Union must recognize that its bureaucratic dilatoriness and subordination of the strategic element to domestic politics in negotiating Ukraine’s relationship to Europe contributed to turning a negotiation into a crisis. Foreign policy is the art of establishing priorities.

The Ukrainians are the decisive element. They live in a country with a complex history and a polyglot composition. The Western part was incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1939, when Stalin and Hitler divided up the spoils. Crimea, 60 percent of whose population is Russian, became part of Ukraine only in 1954 , when Nikita Khrushchev, a Ukrainian by birth, awarded it as part of the 300th-year celebration of a Russian agreement with the Cossacks. The west is largely Catholic; the east largely Russian Orthodox. The west speaks Ukrainian; the east speaks mostly Russian. Any attempt by one wing of Ukraine to dominate the other — as has been the pattern — would lead eventually to civil war or breakup. To treat Ukraine as part of an East-West confrontation would scuttle for decades any prospect to bring Russia and the West — especially Russia and Europe — into a cooperative international system.

Ukraine has been independent for only 23 years; it had previously been under some kind of foreign rule since the 14th century. Not surprisingly, its leaders have not learned the art of compromise, even less of historical perspective. The politics of post-independence Ukraine clearly demonstrate that the root of the problem lies in efforts by Ukrainian politicians to impose their will on recalcitrant parts of the country, first by one faction, then by the other. That is the essence of the conflict between Viktor Yanu­kovych and his principal political rival, Yulia Tymo­shenko. They represent the two wings of Ukraine and have not been willing to share power. A wise U.S. policy toward Ukraine would seek a way for the two parts of the country to cooperate with each other. We should seek reconciliation, not the domination of a faction.

Russia and the West, and least of all the various factions in Ukraine, have not acted on this principle. Each has made the situation worse. Russia would not be able to impose a military solution without isolating itself at a time when many of its borders are already precarious. For the West, the demonization of Vladimir Putin is not a policy; it is an alibi for the absence of one.

Putin should come to realize that, whatever his grievances, a policy of military impositions would produce another Cold War. For its part, the United States needs to avoid treating Russia as an aberrant to be patiently taught rules of conduct established by Washington. Putin is a serious strategist — on the premises of Russian history. Understanding U.S. values and psychology are not his strong suits. Nor has understanding Russian history and psychology been a strong point of U.S. policymakers.

Leaders of all sides should return to examining outcomes, not compete in posturing. Here is my notion of an outcome compatible with the values and security interests of all sides:

1. Ukraine should have the right to choose freely its economic and political associations, including with Europe.

2. Ukraine should not join NATO, a position I took seven years ago, when it last came up.

3. Ukraine should be free to create any government compatible with the expressed will of its people.

Wise Ukrainian leaders would then opt for a policy of reconciliation between the various parts of their country. Internationally, they should pursue a posture comparable to that of Finland. That nation leaves no doubt about its fierce independence and cooperates with the West in most fields but carefully avoids institutional hostility toward Russia.

4. It is incompatible with the rules of the existing world order for Russia to annex Crimea. But it should be possible to put Crimea’s relationship to Ukraine on a less fraught basis. To that end, Russia would recognize Ukraine’s sovereignty over Crimea. Ukraine should reinforce Crimea’s autonomy in elections held in the presence of international observers. The process would include removing any ambiguities about the status of the Black Sea Fleet at Sevastopol.

These are principles, not prescriptions. People familiar with the region will know that not all of them will be palatable to all parties. The test is not absolute satisfaction but balanced dissatisfaction. If some solution based on these or comparable elements is not achieved, the drift toward confrontation will accelerate. The time for that will come soon enough.

© 2014 Tribune Media Services

Nato Snipers in Kiev and planned false-flag attacks on the Ukrainian military

One thing I’m sure of is that media accounts available in the United States are so tainted by anti-Russia and U.S. nationalist and capitalist interests that we have no idea of what is really happening in Ukraine.

It is clear that the U.S. involvement is not “out of the blue,” but part of an ongoing campaign to increase NATO power and Western economic penetration of the countries surrounding Russia, stimulating for some Russians reminders of the previous trauma of being attacked by the Nazis and others through the Ukraine, where pro-fascist, anti-communist and anti-Semitic sentiments ran strong and welcomed foreign interventions.

Rabbi Michael Lerner: Ukraine, What is Really Happening

If the United States has a secret weapon in the drive for global hegemony, it is surely the globe-encircling, 24/7 system for catapulting the propaganda, a system so much part of the daily experience of most people that few any longer make a distinction between the message of the media and the reality the media claim to reflect.

It is in such a world that US is able, as Putin remarked on Tuesday, to conduct foreign policy as if:

... they’re in a lab and they’re running all sorts of experiments on the rats without understanding consequences of what they’re doing.

Which is why the media are not headlining this intercepted conversation between Estonian Foreign Minister, Urmas Paet and High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Catherine Ashton:



The key exchange occurs just after 8 minutes and, as transcribed by Zero Hedge, is as follows:

Paet:

All the evidence shows that people who were killed by snipers from both sides, policemen and people from the streets, that they were the same snipers killing people from both sides. ... Some photos that showed it is the same handwriting, the same type of bullets, and it is really disturbing that now the new coalition they don't want to investigate what exactly happened. So there is now stronger and stronger understanding that behind the snipers, it was not Yanukovych, but it was somebody from the new coalition.

Ashton:

I think we do want to investigate. I mean, I didn’t pick that up, that’s interesting. Gosh.

Paet:

It already discreditates (sic) this new coalition.

In addition, Paet states that all new government members have a "dirty past," and that members of parliament have been intimidated and beaten up by agents of the government.

So while the people behind the war crimes appear once again to be the folks in Washington, DC, Canada's Pipsqueak, Neocon, Stephen Harper, and his minion Baird, squeak on about Putin being the New Hitler. But the above leaked conversation leaves little room for doubt as to the kind of people Harper and the US Empire are backing in Kiev.

Aangirfan reports that the recorded telephone conversation was "uploaded to the web by officers of Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) loyal to ousted President Viktor Yanukovich who hacked Paet’s and Ashton’s phones."

Aangirfan also reports the claim by journalist Alexander Zhilin that the new government in Ukraine is preparing false flag attacks on its own military.

In light of the new revelations abou the sniper killings in Kiev, which the Western media were so quick to blame on Yanukovych, Pravda asks:

Who in the United States of America wants a Secretary of State/President who either lies through his teeth or else is so gullible that he just accepts and repeats what he is told?

Actually, it's clear that they're both liars, their lips often move.

And here's another story you'll not likely see in the MSM, an account of the role of disaffected Tartars and Neo-Nazis backed by Turkish intelligence intent on repeating in provincial capitals of Eastern Ukraine the takeover of government seen in Kiev.

And speaking of the US media, economist, author, journalist and former US Deputy Secretary to the Treasure, Paul Craig Roberts, summed it up this way:

...the American media, since the final years of the Clinton regime, is a propaganda ministry for the government. We no longer have independent print or TV media, they are owned by five large firms. They are no longer run by journalists, they are run by former government officials and corporate advertising executives. And the value of the firms is they have federal broadcast licenses. They can’t go against the government because they wouldn’t be able to retain their licenses. So, the free and dispersed independent American media ceased to exist around 1997.

f you noticed, in the American media there is no challenge from the print or TV media to the government’s interpretation of what is happening in Ukraine or Syria, or anywhere. So, it is essentially a propaganda ministry. I’m the former editor of the Wall Street Journal and I can no longer recognize the American media as a media. It has nothing in common with the media that I had a permanent position in.

And on the "revolution" in Ukraine, Roberts said:

... Washington is embarrassed ... it lost control of the coup and ... these fanatical ultranationalists have come to the forefront, and have provoked the secession movements in Crimea and the eastern Ukraine, which are the traditional Russian provinces that Khrushchev stuck into Ukraine in the 1950es. These are not traditional Ukrainian territories.

And... when these Russian-speaking areas see the threats being issued from Kiev, see the ban on the use of the Russian language in any official way, see the destruction of war memorials that celebrate the liberation of Ukraine by the Russian troops from the Nazis, when they see these hostile actions, it scares them, they don’t want these people coming in and threatening them the way that videos showed this ultranationalists threatening the American stooges that Washington intended to put in as the government.

You could see these videos where these Nazi-type thugs go in and shout, and scream at the alleged government in Kiev and drag people by their neckties, and slap them around, and carry brandish AK-47s – this is not a very amenable picture for people in the Crimea and eastern Ukraine to accept. They don’t want any of that and they are saying – we really are Russians and we want to go back to where we belong. That is just a natural response to this type of brutal behavior on the part of these ultranationalists.

...Ukraine ... was part of Russia for 200 years and half of Ukraine was always part of Russia. So, the whole thing is madness and when the country behaves [in] this reckless [way], it is a serious thing. It is like the fools who took the world to the WW I.

POSTSCRIPT:
I said above that the media weren't headlining the leaked conversation between Paet and Ashton. Well, in fact, one outlet, the Guardian, driven by the need to safeguard its reputation as a radical organ, no doubt, has covered it now, but nothing from the NY Times (Carlos Slim, Prop.) or WaPo (Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com, Prop.). The Guardian's coverage offers an amusing reaction from the US State Department. The embarrassing information revealed in the hacked phone call is deftly finessed.

Asked about the emergence of a second embarrassing phonecall, a spokesperson for the US state department said: "As I said around the last unfortunate case, this is just another example of the kind of Russian tradecraft that we have concerns about."

The only matter for embarrassment, apparently, is that they were hacked. That the killings were the work of Mighty Mouse, Steven Harper's Ukrainian Nazi friends in Kiev is a matter of no account. LOL.

PPS:
The story is now covered by the Daily Mail, with this descriptive headline: "Was 'massacre' which started Ukraine revolution ordered by the new leaders? Leaked tape says Maidan snipers were NOT under control of ousted president but opposition which drove him from power."

See also:

Global Research: Leaked Telephone Conversation: Ukraine Sniper Killings of “Opposition Protesters” Ordered by “Opposition Leaders”, Blamed on Yanukovych

UTube: George Galloway: US approach to Ukraine "ludicrous, nonsensical"

RiaNovosti: 5,500 Ukrainian Soldiers Defect to Serve an Independent Crimea

Voice of Russia: Three anti-aircraft missile regiments of Ukraine's Armed Forces join Crimean side

PressTV: Protesters retake Donetsk government building

Washingtons Blog: Estonian Foreign Minister Accuses NEW Ukranian Government of Being Behind Sniper Attacks Which Led to Ouster of OLD Ukranian Government

William F. Engdahl: Ukraine: Secretive Neo-Nazi Military Organization Involved in Euromaidan Snyper Shootings

ABC.az: Ukraine semi-officially accused NATO block in killing its citizens during disturbances in Kiev

Voltairenet: Russia opens criminal case against new Ukrainian leader on terrorism charges

Ukraine Hypocrisy

Craig Murray, a former UK diplomat, sacked for being drunk in charge of  the UK's Uzbek embassy,  accuses Britain's left of hypocrisy for approving Russia's "invasion" of Ukraine while condemning US/UK/Nato invasions of Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, etc.

...the final extraordinary outbreak of hypocrisy is on the British left. Russian military invasion of Ukraine is approved by them, because it is an invasion by Russia, and not an invasion by the West.

Sounds reasonable except that:

(a) it is open to question whether Russia has, in fact, invaded Ukraine (a claim Russia denies), for although there are Russian troops in Ukraine, Russia has a treaty right to station up to 25,000 military personnel on Ukrainian soil in Crimea; and

Shock and Awe: How US/Nato does invasions. Source

(b) there is a difference of no slight significance between the non-violent presence of Russian troops on Ukrainian soil and Shock and Awe inflicted by volleys of Tomahawk cruise missiles and B1 stealth bombers, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of thousands in multiple countries and the creation of millions of refugees.

And there's one other difference worth noting. All major US/UK/Nato invasions or threatened invasions have been justified in the name of bringing democracy to an oppressed people subjugated by a new Hitler — Saddam, Gaddhafi, Ahmadinejad, Assad, whoever.

Terrorizing Crimean citizens: Russians in Ukraine. Source

But in Ukraine, Russia's response has been provoked by a violent unconstitutional coup against a  democratic government that was effected by self-declared Hitlerites funded by the United States.

Murray's argument is thus an application of the principle that offense is the best defense: it is pure humbug in the defense of hypocrisy.

But for a brilliant and much more comprehensive review of Western hypocrisy on the subject of international law and intervention in the affairs independent sovereign states, see Robert Parry's razor sharp critique of the American NeoCons and their media backers, in particular, the Jeff Bezos (Amazon.com, Prop.) owned Washington Post.

See also:

David Stockman: Memo to Obama: This Was Their Red Line!

Consortium News: America’s Staggering Hypocrisy

Global Research: Ukraine Transition Government: Neo-Nazis in Control of Armed Forces, National Security, Economy, Justice and Education

Consortium News: What Neocons Want from Ukraine Crisis 

Reuters: Putin: military force would be 'last resort' in Ukraine

Itar-Tass: Russia's Foreign Ministry: Threats of US Secretary of State against Russia unacceptable

WUFYS: The U.S. has Installed a Neo-Nazi Government in Ukraine 

China PeopleDaily: Commentary: West should work with, not against, Russia in handling Ukraine crisis

Did Nato Troops Shoot Both Sides During Kiev Protests?

From Aangirfan:
 

"According to veteran US intelligence sources", the terrorist snipers in Ukraine come from the fascist militia known as UNA-UNSO (shown above) which works for NATO.

UNA-UNSO, according to veteran US intelligence sources, is part of NATO's 'Gladio' organization.

UNA-UNSO was involved in the the Chechen War, the break up of Yugoslavia, and the 2008 war in Georgia.

Gladio was responsible for the terrorism in Italy, Greece, Belgium and other parts of Europe.

Ukraine: Secretive Neo-Nazi Military Organization Involved in Euromaidan Sniper Shootings. /
OUR SECRET GOVERNMENT / Gladio-style terror in Istanbul, New York, Jakarta, / Michael Ledeen, Gladio and 9 11.  

Read more

Want to Know What Russia Wants in Ukraine? Listen to What Russia Says

What Russia wants in Ukraine is seen by some to be a matter for profound speculation, but why speculate when the Russians have stated clearly what it is they want, why they want it, and how they hope to get it. 

As stated by President Putin last week and reiterated by Foreign Minister Lavrov in Geneva on Saturday, Russia aims to protect the lives and regional interests of Russians and the Russian speaking population of Ukraine from the "violence of ultra-nationalists" who have usurped power in Kiev, who advocate terrorism against Russian targets, and who among their first acts in power, repealed the language law protecting the civil rights of Russian-speakers and other minorities (and here) who account for more than one-third of Ukraine's population.

To this  end, Russia’s Permanent Representative in the United Nations Organisation Vitaly Churkin stated at a meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Saturday that what is needed is:

to bring the situation back on political track and in [a] constitutional framework; and

to return to the February 21 agreement providing for consultation and agreement on constitutional amendments followed by new elections in December 2014.

Consistent with these requirements, Russia has agreed to Merkel’s proposal for a Ukraine ‘fact-finding’ mission.

But, obviously, the idea of a fact-finding mission will go nowhere.The globalist, US hegemonists don’t want no facts, they just want regime change, Ukraine loaded with billions in IMF loans, the imposition of austerity upon an already impoverished Ukrainian population and unobstructed access for international capital to Ukraine’s resources and cheap labor.

A fact-finding inquiry would ask awkward questions about the $5 billion that Assistant US Secretary of State, Victoria Nuland, Boasted the US had invested in subversion of the Ukrainian government, about who funded the violent Fascist agitators in Kiev, and about who was responsible for the fatal shootings in Kiev that reportedly killed or injured many police officers as well as agitators.

No. We don't wanna go there. And what's worst about Merkel's proposal is that if Germany and Russia can sort out the problem in Ukraine between themselves, what need is there for NATO, the UN and America's New World Order?

Germany’s been occupied for 70 years now, but with a good working relationship with Russia, what’s the US gonna do when Germany asks them to go fuck themselves, I mean, leave?

And maybe the Brits, with over 100 US military bases on their territory, used among other things, for drone strikes and mass spying, would like an end to American occupation too — in fact wouldn’t all of Europe?

Yes, America's five-billion-dollar intervention in Ukraine may yet turn out to have been their worst investment, precipitating a collapse in American world influence to match the implosion of the Soviet Union in 1990.

Meantime, Stephen Harper, the Mighty Mouse of the North, who mistakes the national aptitude for ice hockey with global political clout, has recalled Canada's ambassador to Russia and warned Putin that if he doesn't back off, he'll huff and puff some more.

See also:

Stephen Cohen, professor emeritus of Russian Studies at New York University and of politics at Princeton University explains what drives Russian actions and how Western intervention may lead to a disastrous outcome:



RT: Crimean air base pledges allegiance to local authorities

RT: Russia calls for legitimate Ukrainian gov't as West allies with neo-nazis


RT: Rebel Government in Kiev Betrays Its Own Supporters: Appoints Oligarchs to Govern the East

Voice of Russia: Crimean Authorities Confirm Takeover of Military Units

WUFYS: America's Neo-Nazi Ukrainian allies

Above links mainly from WhatReallyHappened.com, currently the best aggregator of English-language news on Ukraine.

Ukraine Update, March 2, 2014

Boiling Frogs: Glenn Greenwald’s Boss, Billionaire Omidyar, Co-Funded Ukraine Revolution Groups with US Government

CNN: "The Ukrainian Military Is In A VERY Bad Position Vis--à--Vis Russia Right Now"

RT: Five top military, security commanders take oath to Crimea

Ray McGovern: Ukraine: One ‘Regime Change’ Too Many?

RT: Russia warns Ukraine: use force against Ukraine civilians, a war crime

Club Orlov: Reichstag Fire in Kiev

Prof Michel Chossudovsky: The U.S. has Installed a Neo-Nazi Government in Ukraine

Eric Margolis: "F*** Europe"

The US media is barraging Russia and Putin with a drumfire of negative stories. The Sochi Olympics have come in for relentless, petty attacks and low-minded carping.

Anyone who knows Russia should be in awe that the normally bumbling, disorganized Ruskis managed to get their Olympic sites finished more or less on time – and that they still remain standing. Russians usually lose a lot of early battles, but they usually end up winning wars.

So what if Russia spent billions on the Sochi Olympics. Who is Washington to criticize Moscow after pouring over $2 trillion into the stupid wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and now Syria, with nothing to show but huge debts, armies of refugees, and graveyards?

Eric Margolis: The Road to War

RT: 675,000 Ukrainians pour into Russia as ‘humanitarian crisis’ looms

Voice of Russia: Ukraine launches treason case against Navy chief who surrendered

Jonathan Levy: The Ukraine Crisis – It’s the Intermarium Plan Again

Polskie Radio: Germany, France and Poland warn Ukraine to avoid deepening regional conflict

RT: Ukrainian troops dispatched to Crimea switch sides

“Today the majority of the Ukrainian armed forces deployed in Crimea passed to the side of the authorities of the Crimean autonomous region. The transition was absolutely peaceful, without a single shot fired either by the military or by the forces of self-defense,” an unnamed source told RIA Novosti news agency. The source added that some of the servicemen also ran away, while some submitted letters of resignation. The local military have not been paid for many months, the source also told RIA Novosti.

Telegraph: Ukraine: Putin's Crimea aim is to make the West look weak

CTV News: Harper tells Putin to back off

Or we'll, um, well, we'll huff and puff some more.

Times of India: Ukraine puts army on high combat alert as Putin prepares to ‘invade’

EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton urged Moscow not to send troops!

 The Independent: We don't want a war with Russia

War with Russia would be a dumb war to end all dumb wars

Voice of Russia: Canada says recalling ambassador from Russia for consultations, withdraws from G8 in Sochi

Wow: America's pipsqueak sidekick roars.

But since Harper insults Russia whenever an opportunity arises, the impact of these latest crude gestures may be somewhat blunted.

PressTV: 'Israeli army vet led Ukraine militia unit'

DeWelle: Russia gains Crimean foothold

William Engdahl: The Rape of Ukraine: Phase Two Begins

About those Ukrainian Naztis
... Ever since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 the crack-para-military UNA-UNSO members have been behind every revolt against Russian influence. The one connecting thread in their violent campaigns is always anti-Russia. The organization, according to veteran US intelligence sources, is part of a secret NATO “GLADIO” organization, and not a Ukraine nationalist group as portrayed in western media.

Andew McKillop: BOILING OVER: PUTIN AND THE FLASH MOB EMPIRE

WSJ: At U.N., Russia Defends Ukraine Intervention

Amid heightened fears of war between Russia and Ukraine, Ms. Power said the U.S. "applauds the remarkable restraint of the Kiev government." 

Kyiv Post: Ukraine finds its forces are ill-equipped to take back Crimea from Russia

Steve Sailer: Which Sergei Aksenov is which in Crimea?

Steve Sailer: Neo-Trotskyism: Globalism in All Countries

Zero Hedge: Obama And Putin Held Phone Conversation

RT: Ukrainian Navy flagship takes Russia’s side

Ukraine’s Navy flagship, the Hetman Sahaidachny frigate, has reportedly refused to follow orders from Kiev, and come over to Russia’s side and is returning home after taking part in NATO operation in the Gulf of Aden flying the Russian naval flag. ...

RT: Up to 143,000 Ukrainians requested asylum in Russia in two weeks

RT: Leader of US-backed Ukrainian Naztis calls for terrorism in Russia

EuroNews: Ukraine: Violent clashes in Kharkiv leave dozens injured

Zero Hedge: Ukraine Acting President Calls Emergency Meeting Of Security Chiefs; Russia Threatens To Cut Off The Gas

Zero Hedge: Pro-Russian Protesters Storm Kharkiv City Administration Building; Russian Flags Hoisted Across East Ukraine

Zero Hedge: Russia vs Ukraine: The Infographic

Aangirfan: 'NATO TROOPS SHOT BOTH SIDES IN UKRAINE' - REPORT

Global Research: Ukraine and the “Politics of Anti-Semitism”: The West Upholds Neo-Nazi Repression of Ukraine’s Jewish Community

RIANovosti: Russia Hurries to Issue Passports for Ukraine’s Former Riot Police

Blacklisted News: Rabbi advises Kiev Jews to Leave Country

Blacklisted News: ISRAELI MILITIA AMONG MANY GROUPS FIGHTING FOR KIEV

Anti-War.com: Look Who the US Is Siding With in Ukraine, Egypt, and Syria

Ukrainian National News: Entire Ukrainian Navy Resigns: Report Unconfirmed By Ukrainian Ministry Of Defense

Novinite: New Ukraine Leadership Vows to Expel Russian Fleet from Crimea

Channel News Asia: Over 10,000 protest in Ukraine's pro-Russia city of Donetsk

RT: US-backed Nazis Turn Against Rebel Ukrainian Government


ZeroHedge: Officers Of 76th Russian Shock Troops Division Operating In Ukraine

RT: Ukraine's fascists threaten Russia with nukes

Daily Mail: Bloody clashes on the streets of Ukraine

YahooNews: Russia's upper house to demand recall of Moscow ambassador to U.S.

NYTimes: Kremlin Prepares for Military Intervention

Ha'aretz: On Ukraine, Putin holds all the cards and dictates the timetable

CounterPunch: Dr. Strangelove Over Ukraine

The Daily Beast: Europe's Neo-Nazi scum swarming to Kiev

Prof. Frances Boyle, Interview: Ukraine was a Playbook CIA Coup d’état

Eric Draitser: Ukraine’s Sickness …and Europe’s Cure

RT: The Nazi Coup in Ukraine

Jean-Paul Leonard: The dirty War on Ukraine

Telegraph: Russia admits that it has moved troops in Ukraine
"... in full accordance with the foundation Russian-Ukrainian agreement on the Black Sea Fleet," the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

Daily Mail: Ukraine may invoke 1984 UK/US treaty to defend borders

LiveLeak: Crimea: video of Russian combat helicopters over Crimea

RTE News: Reports of Russian troops landing in Crimea

WUFYS: Yanukovich speaks

The Spec.com: Ukraine asks for intervention as Russian troops take control of two airports

Forbes Magazine: Washington's Man Yatsenyuk Setting Ukraine Up For Ruin

South China Morning Post: China sues Ukraine for breach of US$3b loan-for-grain agreement

Asia Times, Pepe Escobar: Carnival in Crimea

Pravda: EU prepares poisoned loan for Ukraine

DebkaFile: Russian marines, paratroops seize Crimean airports. Moscow’s creeping invasion continues

CNSNews: Russia seeks Access to Bases in Eight Countries for Its Ships and Bombers

Mike Shedlock: Inside Ukraine: Mish Reader Who Speaks Ukrainian and Russian Challenges Western Media View of Events

Reaping the Ukrainian Whirlwind: Tyranny in Kiev, Russian Nukes 90 Miles off America's Southern Shore

As in Libya and Syria, so also in Ukraine, the West has aided and abetted a bunch of scum to do their dirty work, which is overthrowing the legitimate, and in the case of Ukraine, democratically elected, government of an independent sovereign state. Some details are provided by Paul Craig Roberts, former US Deputy Treasury Secretary, former Wall Street Journal Editor, Distinguished scholar, etc., etc. in his piece yesterday about the gun-toting Neo-Nazi thugs who've taken over in Kiev:

To the extent that government exists in post-coup Ukraine, it is laws dictated by gun and threat wielding thugs of the neo-Nazi, Russophobic, ultra-nationalist, right-wing parties. Watch the video of the armed thug, Aleksandr Muzychko, who boosts of killing Russian soldiers in Chechnya, dictating to the Rovno regional parliament a grant of apartments to families of protesters. http://rt.com/news/radical-opposition-intimidating-techniques-882/ 

Read about the neo-nazis intimidating the Central Election Commission in order to secure rule and personnel changes in order to favor the ultra-right in the forthcoming elections. Thug Aleksandr Shevchenko informed the CEC that armed activists will remain in CEC offices in order to make certain that the election is not rigged against the neo-nazis. What he means, of course, is the armed thugs will make sure the neo-nazis win. If the neo-nazis don’t win, the chances are high that they will take power regardless.

Members of President Yanukovich’s ruling party, the Party of Regions, have been shot, had arrest warrants issued for them, have experienced home invasions and physical threats, and are resigning in droves in hopes of saving the lives of themselves and their families. The prosecutor’s office in the Volyn region (western Ukraine) has been ordered by ultra-nationalists to resign en masse. Jewish synagogs and Eastern Orthodox Christian churches are being attacked.

But the response of the Obama administration has been to utter warnings to Russia against interfering in this wonderful transformation of a constitutional republic into a Fascist tyranny.Well, I guess that's understandable. As US Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland has boasted the US spent $5 billion on the subversion of Ukraine, so naturally, now, they're not gonna allow anyone to spoil their enjoyment of it with negative comments.

For Ukraine, however, the financial consequences of the coup are dire. Russia has frozen the $15 billion in aid that it had promised the former government of Ukraine and unless there is a restoration of the legitimate government and adherence with the agreement on new elections reached by EU mediation between the legitimate government and opposition parties, Russia will  presumably insist on Ukraine paying the full European price for natural gas, not the knock-down price previously offered.

Meantime US Secretary of State, John  Kerry has offered the rebel government in Kiev $1 billion, but not cash, just a loan, or rather not a loan, just a loan guarantee, which reveals clearly what the Americans actually think of the scoundrels they've put in power in Ukraine, and how much they actually care about the people of Ukraine, i.e., fuck all.

Russian Meridian class spy ship CCB-175 Viktor Leonov, docked, on
February 26, 2014, at Havana harbor. Source.

Meantime, Russia has announced the pending completion of agreements with Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and other countries to establish Russian military bases in those countries. That means Russian war ships with radar listening systems and nuke-tipped missiles within 100 miles of the Florida coast. But apparently Obama doesn't give a toss.

But in that case, why was it, again, we had the great Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962, when we were led to believe that the world faced the imminent threat of Armageddon because the Ukrainian Chairman of the Soviet Communist Party, Nikita Kruschev, had begun construction of a nuclear missile base in Cuba? If it doesn't matter to America having nuke missiles and missile carrying warships, including subs, based so close to home, why did it matter then?

In fact, Obama is in the same position as Kennedy in 1962. Then the US had placed nuclear-tipped Jupiter missiles on Russia's border in Turkey. Krushchev's Cuban missiles were the response. While maintaining that Russia had backed down, in fact it was America that backed down by removing its missiles from Turkey and also Italy on the understanding that Russia would abandon the Cuban missile base.

Today, America has place missiles in Poland on Russia's border in direct contravention of the gentleman's agreement reached between Ronald Reagan and Michael Gorbachev. Russia is now responding with missiles on America's doorstep. If Obama thinks that doesn't matter he is more of a fool than generally supposed.

America the arrogant, the indispensable, the nation whose capitalist control, and degenerate code of ethics must be imposed upon the entire world, now appears on a collision course with reality. If the brutal, hypocritical  and stupid course of US/Nato action does not result in extremely brutal consequences the world will be lucky.

Meantime, Canada, America's pipsqueak sycophant, is rushing its inconsequential and uncharismatic Foreign Minister, Baird, to Kiev to give moral support to the Neo-Nazi backed insurrectionist regime.

Ukraine: Just One Step in the Assimilation of Eurasia by the New World Order

Canspeccy.wordpress.com, February 22, 2014: In the Weekend National Post, Baron Conrad Black of Crossharbour in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, Neocon, ex-con, ex-Canadian, ex-member of the Order of Canada, former media tycoon, etcetera, etcetera, explains the place of Ukraine in the New World Order project for the assimilation of Eurasia:

The West must always resist oppression, and must now embrace and assist its friends in Ukraine, not only from compassion for them, but to bring closer the adherence of Holy Mother Russia to the West and to stretch the West from the Americas across the Eurasian land mass to the Far East and Australasia.

Social Nationalists (Svoboda) with chains and cobble stones in Kiev. Source

Forget the motherhood phrases about resisting oppression, about assisting friends, about compassion, and what you have is a statement of New World Order policy, which is the unrelenting assimilation of the former Soviet Empire in successive slices. First the Soviet satellites were assimilated by the EU and Nato, then the Baltic states, then the Balkans, now is the turn of Ukraine, to be followed most likely by Belarus, and then the Caucuses, and on, and on.

How is this to be accomplished? By a new kind of imperialism as spelled out years ago in a newspaper article by Tony Blair’s then foreign policy advisor, Robert Cooper.

The most logical way to deal with chaos, and the one employed most often in the past, is colonisation. But this is unacceptable to postmodern states. Empire and imperialism are words that have become a form of abuse and no colonial powers are willing to take on the job, though the opportunities – perhaps even the need – for colonisation is as great as it ever was in the nineteenth century. Those left out of the global economy risk falling into a vicious circle. Weak government means disorder and that means falling investment.

All the conditions for imperialism are there, but both the supply and demand for imperialism have dried up. And yet a world in which the efficient and well-governed export stability and liberty seems eminently desirable.

What is needed is a new kind of imperialism, one compatible with human rights and cosmopolitan values: an imperialism which aims to bring order and organisation but which rests today on the voluntary principle.

We already have voluntary imperialism of the global economy through institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank. These multilateral institutions provide help to states wishing to find their way back into the global economy and into the virtuous circle of investment and prosperity. In return they make demands which, they hope, address the political and economic failures that have contributed to the original need for assistance.

Again, forget the self-justifying imperialist verbiage about, for example, “The most logical way to deal with chaos,” which assumes that which has to be demonstrated, namely, that one country or imperialist block has the right, let alone the responsibility, to determine the future of another. And forget the crocodile tears about weak government meaning falling investment, which actually refers to the profit opportunities currently denied to international finance, which drives the NWO. Then you have a plain statement of the new imperialist strategy, which is to provoke, within target states, a popular demand, or at least the appearance of a popular demand, for “human rights and cosmopolitan values,” which is to say, promotion of homosexuality and every other form of non-reproductive recreational sex, pornography and Western atheistic decadence, to be undertaken in parallel with the covert multi-billion-dollar financing of opposition groups headed by fifth columnists with an eye to the main chance.

Other tactics include provoking the legitimate authorities to violence against agitators, if necessary using sharpshooters to kill demonstrators and police* to excite the mob to a state of hysteria and the police or military to a state of trigger-happy anger.

Then, if all else fails, resort is made to the NWO standby policies of economic blockade such as cost half a million children’s lives in Iraq under the Clinton administration, and R-2-P, the alleged responsibility to protect allegedly oppressed people, a totally non-existent principal of international law, deployed to justify murderous aerial bombardment of any government that remains standing after prolonged internal subversion from abroad, e.g., Saddam’s Iraq, Gaddhafi’s Libya, or Assad’s Syria.

The Ukraine now teeters on the edge of chaos created by US-led NWO order intervention. Dupes of the propaganda believe they are campaigning for independence, an independence they laughably hope to achieve by submitting to the undemocratic rule of the European Union.

The bureaucratic class in the Ukraine no doubt expects that membership of the EU will net them greatly increased real incomes and index-linked pensions, as for some it may. But for the mass of Ukrainians, assimilation will mean austerity and mass unemployment, as in Greece, Italy, and Spain, while for international finance it will provide the long-awaited opportunity to buy up Black Sea water front for pennies on the dollar, take over the resources of the Crimea, and the rich agricultural land of Ukraine. In addition, the best and the brightest, including those lovely girls displaying themselves in naked protest in Berlin and elsewhere, will get their EU passports, which means never having to return home again.

There is, however, a downside to this phase of the war for global hegemony. Ukraine has for hundreds of years been an integral part of Russia, Kiev being the founding capital of Russia in the Tenth Century. Eastern Ukraine is Russian-speaking with a large Russian minority, and is home to Russia’s Black Sea naval base of Sevastapol (now under lease from Ukraine). Moreover, Russia remains a great nation still in possession of a potentially world-destroying nuclear arsenal, and a government intent on maintaining its own sphere of interest in Eurasia. Thus the drive for global empire can be pursued only at the risk of world war.
###
And as Patrick Buchanan notes, the campaign against the legitimate, democratically elected government of Ukraine is undermining whatever credibility the US may once have had within its own sphere of influence as a champion of democracy, freedom and decency. This is evident in the decision of Little Iceland to abandoned the quest for EU membership, in the inclination of Hungarians now to look to Russia as a counter to the suffocating denial of freedom under the globalist yoke, and in the desire of the majority of citizens in Britain, Ireland, Netherlands and France to escape from EU control.

*Early reports by the New York Times, the BBC and others said a number of police had been killed as well as demonstrators during violent protests in Kiev’s Independence Square. But all mention of police killed seems to have been scrubbed from most subsequent Western media reports.

PostScript: Confessions Of the Maidan Snipers
.
See also:

From Hungary, the Mouksa Underground on the Benefits of EU Membership: There’s No Solution Except Revolution

Eric Draitser: Ukraine’s Sickness and Europe’s Cure: Neo-Liberalism and Neo-Fascism Join Hands

SCGNews: Washington’s Role in the Ukrainian Coup & How it May Spin Out of Control

James Corbett Interview with Paul Craig Roberts: How often does the US have to be wrong? They have no diplomatic skills. All they can do is lie.

Global Research: How the Politically Correct, Diversity-loving West Brought Jew-hating Nationalists to Power in Ukraine

WSWS: Western-backed Coup in Ukraine Brings Fascists to Power

Andrei Malgin: Forget Kiev. The Real Fight Will Be for Crimea
 
Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya: The Road to Moscow Goes Through Kiev: A Coup d’Etat That Threatens Russia

Andrew Higgins: Ukrainian Protesters See Too Many Familiar Faces in Parliament After Revolution

Pepe Escobar: Will NATO annex Ukraine?

Who Rules?

Commenting on our post Cecil Rhodes' secret society for Anglo-Saxon global empire and Alex Jones--Master of Misdirection Alan Hopkins argues that Alex Jones' claim that the Rhodes – Milner Group, which "gave birth to South Africa would ... shape the entire World," is essentially correct.

Specifically, Hopkins asserts, if I understand him correctly, that members of the Rhodes – Milner Group were duped by one of their members who went on to devise a new plan for the domination of the World which is now being put into effect.

This is an interesting hypothesis and I should be glad of any clarification that Alan Hopkins or anyone else can provide showing the connection between the Rhodes-Milner Group, which promoted the idea of a global federation of democratic states, and the powers behind the presently unfolding system of global corporate control mediated by pseudo-democratic processes performed by puppets of the money power.

In the meantime, Jon Rappoport's Who really runs things in America? provides fascinating insight into the power and objectives of the Tri-lateral Commission (TC) founded by Zbigniew Brzezinski and David Rockefeller.

Concerning objectives, Rappoport quotes Brzezinski:

[The] nation state as a fundamental unit of man’s organized life has ceased to be the principal creative force. International banks and multinational corporations are acting and planning in terms that are far in advance of the political concepts of the nation state.

A statement that perhaps accounts for the genocidal promotion of mass immigration and multi-culturalism by European nation states ruled by globalist tools such as Blair, Cameron, Sarkozy, Berlusconi, Barroso, who it may be assumed, take their direction from those international banks and multinational corporations that Brzezinski refers to.

Concerning the power of members of the TC, Rappoport notes:

Obama appointed eleven of them to posts in his administration. [And note that according to Rappoport, altogether there are only 87 TC members resident in the United States.]

Keep in mind that the original stated goal of the TC was to create “a new international economic order.” Knowing that you have to break eggs to make an omelette, consider how the following TC members, in key Obama posts, can help engender further national chaos; erase our sovereign national borders; and install binding international agreements that will envelop our economy and money in a deeper global collective: a new world order:

Tim Geithner, Treasury Secretary;

James Jones, National Security Advisor;

Paul Volker, Chairman, Economic Recovery Committee;

Dennis Blair, Director of National Intelligence.

All Trilateralists.

In the run-up to his inauguration after the 2008 presidential election, Obama was tutored by the co-founder of the Trilateral Commission, Zbigniew Brzezinski.

In Europe, the financially embattled nations of Greece and Italy brought in Lucas Papademos and Mario Monti as prime ministers. Both men are Trilateral members, and Monti is the former European chairman of the Trilateral Commission.

In the US, since 1973, author Wood counts eight out of 10 US Trade Representative appointments, and six out of eight World Bank presidencies, as American Trilateral members.

... other noteworthy Trilateral members: George HW Bush; Bill Clinton; Dick Cheney; Al Gore. The first three men helped sink the US further into debt by fomenting wars abroad; and Gore’s cap and trade blueprint would destroy industrial economies, while vastly increasing the numbers of people in Third World countries who have no access to modern sources of energy.

Does all this offer a clue as to why the US economy has failed to recover from the Wall Street debacle of 2008, why the federal bailout was a handout to super-rich criminals, and why Obama took actions which prevented a recovery?

A closer look at Tim Geithner’s circle of economic advisers reveals the chilling Trilateral effect: Paul Volker; Alan Greenspan; E. Gerald Corrigan (director, Goldman Sachs); and Peter G Peterson (former CEO, Lehman Brothers, former chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations). These men are all Trilateral members.

How many foxes in the hen house do we need, before we realize their Trilateral agenda is controlling the direction of our economy?

Continue reading: Who really runs things in America?

See also: 

CanSpeccy: The New World Order: What Is It? Who Wants It?
 

America's Hidden Government

The Pseudo-War on Terror: How the US Has Protected Al Qaeda "Enemies"

By Peter Dale Scott

The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol. 11, Issue 40, No. 2, October 7, 2013: Before World War Two, American government, for all of its glaring faults, served as a model for the world of limited government, having evolved a system of restraints on executive power through its constitutional arrangement of checks and balances. All that changed with America’s emergence as a dominant world power, and further after the Vietnam War.

Since 9/11, above all, constitutional American government has been overshadowed by a series of emergency measures to fight terrorism. The latter have mushroomed in size and budget, while traditional government has been shrunk. As a result we have today what the journalist Dana Priest has called:

two governments: the one its citizens were familiar with, operated more or less in the open: the other a parallel top secret government whose parts had mushroomed in less than a decade into a gigantic, sprawling universe of its own, visible to only a carefully vetted cadre – and its entirety…visible only to God.

More and more, it is becoming common to say that America, like Turkey before it, now has what Marc Ambinder and John Tirman have called a deep state behind the public one.2 And this parallel government is guided in surveillance matters by its own Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, known as the FISA court, which according to the New York Times “has quietly become almost a parallel Supreme Court.”3 Thanks largely to Edward Snowden, it is now clear that the FISA Court has permitted this deep state to expand surveillance beyond the tiny number of known and suspected Islamic terrorists, to any incipient protest movement that might challenge the policies of the American war machine.

Most Americans have by and large not questioned this parallel government, accepting that sacrifices of traditional rights and traditional transparency are necessary to keep us safe from al-Qaeda attacks. However secret power is unchecked power, and experience of the last century has only reinforced the truth of Lord Acton’s famous dictum that unchecked power always corrupts. It is time to consider the extent to which American secret agencies have developed a symbiotic relationship with the forces they are supposed to be fighting – and have even on occasion intervened to let al-Qaeda terrorists proceed with their plots.

For indeed it is certain that on various occasions U.S. agencies have intervened, letting al-Qaeda terrorists proceed with their plots. This alarming statement will be dismissed by some as “conspiracy theory.” Yet I will show that this claim does not arise from theory, but from facts, about incidents that are true even though they have been systematically suppressed or under-reported in the American mainstream media.

I am describing a phenomenon that occurred not just once, but repeatedly, almost predictably. We shall see that, among the al-Qaeda terrorists who were first protected and then continued their activities were

1) Ali Mohamed, identified in the 9/11 Commission Report (p. 68) as the leader of the 1998 Nairobi Embassy bombing;

2) Mohammed Jamal Khalifa, Osama bin Laden’s close friend and financier while in the Philippines of Ramzi Yousef (principle architect of the first WTC attack) and his uncle Khalid Sheikh Mohammed

3) Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, identified in the 9/11 Commission Report (p. 145) as “the principal architect of the 9/11 attacks.”

4) Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi. two of the alleged 9/11 hijackers, whose presence in the United States was concealed from the FBI by CIA officers for months before 9/11.4

It might sound from these citations that the 9/11 Commission marked a new stage in the U.S. treatment of these terrorists, and that the Report now exposed those terrorists who in the past had been protected. On the contrary, a principal purpose of my essay is to show that

1) one purpose of protecting these individuals had been to protect a valued intelligence connection (the “Al-Qaeda connection” if you will);

2) one major intention of the 9/11 Commission Report was to continue protecting this connection;

3) those on the 9/11 Commission staff who were charged with this protection included at least one commission member (Jamie Gorelick), one staff member (Dietrich Snell) and one important witness (Patrick Fitzgerald) who earlier had figured among the terrorists’ protectors.

In the course of writing this essay, I came to another disturbing conclusion I had not anticipated. This is that a central feature of the protection has been to defend the 9/11 Commission’s false picture of al-Qaeda as an example of non-state terrorism, at odds with not just the CIA but also the royal families of Saudi Arabia and Qatar. In reality, as I shall show, royal family protection from Qatar and Saudi Arabia (concealed by the 9/11 Commission) was repeatedly given to key figures like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged “principal architect of the 9/11 attacks.”

Continue reading

So What If Jesus Never Existed?

To those with the intellect of a precocious adolescent — people like Richard Dawkins or John Cleese — the validity of religious belief is determined by the answers to such questions as, did Jesus really exist or was he a figure of myth, if he lived, was he born of a virgin, did he walk on water, raise the dead, or reappear in the flesh after the Crucifixion.

But the significance and value of religious belief has nothing to do with historical fact. What matters is whether the teachings of Buddha or Confucius, Moses or Mohammed, Jesus or Joseph Smith are true.

Should we forgive our enemies or kill them, is the Kingdom of Heaven within, and should we listen to the still small voice of conscience, should we refrain from lies, theft, blasphemy, and adultery, or indulge the natural passions of lust, pride, hate, and jelousy?

Recognizing the true and difficult question about religion, makes  nonsense of the atheist's childish questions. Of course religious practice is nothing but fancy dress, glorious music, stunning architecture, beguiling verbiage and breathtaking works of art. But the function of religious practice is to instil true morality in the hearts of all mankind.

So the most significant question about religion is not the historical validity or scientific credibility of the narrative deployed by this church or that to convey its moral teachings, but the truth of that morality. The point was made with devastating simplicity by Bishop Despmond Tutu when asked how he dealt with an apparent contradiction in biblical teachings.

"Whatever," he said, "is not in the spirit of Christ, I reject. I reject it absolutely."

Which is to say that the kingdom of God is within in you and you should be ruled by the still small voice of conscience.

This is the essence of Christ's teaching, a teaching that the atheist loathes but dare not attack.

See also:

CanSpeccy: The Rationality of Christian Faith

Aangirfan: The Bible

Israel's Psychopathic Premier

Information Clearing House, October 02, 2013: - Iranian missiles will hit New York in “three to four years”. A nuclear Iran is like “50 North Koreas”.

This could be the sound of a deranged, dangerous sociopath, or this could be the sound of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu addressing the UN General Assembly.

Compare for yourself. Last week we had Iranian President Hassan Rouhani calling for the world to surf a WAVE (as in World Against Violence and Extremism).

This week we had Bibi saying that was a “cynical” and “totally hypocritical honey trap”.

In the world according to Netanyahu, “Ahmadinejad was a wolf in wolf’s clothing. Rouhani is a wolf in sheep’s clothing.” Rouhani tried to present himself as “pious”, but he’s always been involved with “the terror state of Iran”. He’s like “a serial killer going to court dressed in clerical attire and giving testimony to his nature as an ‘ethical’ and ‘religious’ man.”

Ranting aside, Bibi did change his game. Now it’s not silly cartoons and begging the US to bomb Iran virtually on a weekly basis. Now it’s Iran’s “military nuclear program” that must be shut down – a program, by the way, that the alphabet soup of US intelligence agencies says does not exist.

And this after Netanyahu told US President Barack Obama to forget – forever - UN Security Council resolution 242, which determined total Israeli withdrawal from all lands occupied after the 1967 war.

Is Blogger My Friend?

Blogger is a free service provided by Google that allows people like CanSpeccy to self-publish whatever they like at no charge. The software is well designed and spares one most of the effort associated with managing an independent Web site.

It is reasonable, however, to assume that Google provides this service not as an expression of community spirit, but solely to generate revenue for Google, which it may do in various ways, including the placement of Google ads on participating blogs.

The opportunity to earn advertising revenue is not one of which all, or even many, bloggers seem to avail themselves. In part this reluctance may be due to the fact that unless you have a readership equivalent to that of the National Enquirer, it takes a time equal to the age of the universe before your ad earnings reach the minimum payout value of one hundred dollars.

In addition, Google's adsense software seems clueless at finding appropriate ads to associate with particular blogposts. You write piece denouncing the Illumnati, the US Federal Reserve and the international bankers plot and Adsense will append and ad for, say, Rothschild's Private Wealth Management, which totally demolishes one's revolutionary cred. — as may well be the intention..

Then there is the question of Google and the NSA. For all one knows, Google is paid to pass ones most intimate blogged thoughts to the US Government's most clandestine spy agency in return for cold hard cash. Admittedly, NSA could just read my blog, but they're probably too busy, so if Google does it for them, that's not being so friendly.

But what really puzzles me is why Google does nothing to prevent multiple hits from vampirestat.com, adsensewatchdog.com, zombiestat.com, secretsearch.com and and other sites that have been described as:

worthless scumbag referrer spam-bots. Automated, unattended software programs [that] generate supposed “hits” on your site. They do not represent any human visitors and are not of any interest whatsoever. Do not visit the referring sites, because there is a high probability of malware …

Why, I would like to know, does Blogger not block these sites, which can make nonsense of one’s usage states? If anyone can offer clarification about this — Sergey Brin? Larry Page? — I’d be glad to hear from them.

In the meantime, I'm reserving judgement on whether Blogger is my friend.

Will Israel Assassinate Obama for Letting Slip the Chance to Smash Syria?

Robert Fisk reports in the Independent that The Free Syrian Army is holding talks with Assad's senior staff with a view to rejoining the Government side.

This is terrible news for Israel's Netenyahu, who wants Iran's ally, Syria, demolished now so that  America can then be driven to war with Iran.

And it reflects badly on US President Obama. Everything was set for a NATO bombardment of Syria. Assad helpfully gassed his own people, so the US claims, just as the UN inspectors arrived, thus providing Obama and the Coalition of the Willing, i.e., only France, the righteous justification they needed for the destruction of a nation.

But Barmy blinked. A large majority of Americans opposed an American assault on Syria and, perhaps hoping to avoid the fate of Britain's Phoney Blair, the great warmonger and faker of intelligence who became the man most hated by his own countrymen, President Hopey Changey turned the question of war or peace over to Congress. Let those paid agents of AIPAC take the flack for another criminal war of aggression, he must have thought.

Obama's prayer, a written prayer,
stuck in Jerusalem's Western wall.

Then Putin stepped in and produced a deal on chemical weapons that the Coalition of the Killing could not refuse, and which convinced many Americans that Pooters is quite a bit sharper than  Bam.

After that, perhaps wishing not to be outdone by Putin, O'Bomber turns total peacemaker and talks on the phone to the Zionist incarnation of the Devil, Iran's President Rouhani. And talks in Farsi, for God's sake, prompting NutterYahoo to demand that America quit futzing about and  attack Iran without further delay.

So what happens now? Will Obama go on to prove that American interests trump Israel's in the determination of American foreign policy?

Or will the Zionists kill him, as some have previously urged, confidant that the Zionist shill, Biden, will prove a more trustworthy agent of Israel?

Obama has to be aware of the risk he is running, as his Jerusalem prayer makes clear.

On the outcome of this standoff between Obama and Netenyahoo, I'm with the Peace Prize winner: vivre Obama.

But then I'm kind of naive:

Image source.

See also: 



AP: US dialogue with Iran neutralizes Israeli threat to take military action

Yahoo News: Iran's Foreign Minister Says Netanyahu a Liar

Arutz Sheva: Op-Ed: Dempsey's Bombshell: No US Attack on Iran, Ever

The Jewish Daily Forward: Iran Scores Breakthrough Meeting With US Lawmakers as Diplomatic Thaw Builds