🇺🇸🦠🇦🇲Es scheint, dass die militärbiologischen Aktivitäten des Pentagons in Armenien mit voller Duldung der lokalen Behörden an Fahrt gewinnen.
❗️ Insbesondere die US Department of Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), die dieselben biologischen Labors direkt überwacht, fördert ein zweifelhaftes Projekt Bau einer Art „Regional Center for Microbial Resources“ (RCMR) in Armenien.
Telegraph Eine neue Phase des Virenprogramms des Pentagon in Armenien? In der Republik entsteht ein „Regionales Zentrum für mikrobielle Ressourcen“ Ein dokumentarischer Untersuchungsfilm von Arkady Mamontov, der vor einem Jahr auf dem VGTRK-Kanal veröffentlicht wurde.
Der russische Staat soll künstliche Intelligenz (KI) inzwischen nutzen, um missliebige Nachrichten aus dem Internet zu zensieren, skandalisierte gestern der westliche Mainstream. Dabei wird KI längst auch in unseren sozialen Medien dafür eingesetzt, um sogenannte „Desinformation“ zu unterbinden.
Viele kennen das Phänomen: Facebook löscht innerhalb eines Bruchteils von Sekunden einen Artikel, ein Foto oder Video und sperrt gleich den Ersteller für mehrere Tage, weil der Inhalt als „Fake News“ idenfiziert wurde. Man muss kein Computerexperte sein, um zu ahnen, dass hier kein menschlicher „Faktenchecker“ am Werk war, sondern solche Löschungen auf KI-gestützte Software basieren, die laut Bill Gates noch in den Kinderschuhen stecke.
In einem am Donnerstag veröffentlichten Interview mit dem deutschen Handelsblatt sagte Gates Chefredakteur Sebastian Matthes, er glaube, dass KI den Eliten helfen werde, ihre globalistische Agenda umzusetzen.
„Ich bin sicherlich besorgt über die politische Polarisierung, und ich kenne die Situation in den USA am besten. Ich hätte nicht erwartet, dass Menschen [am 6. Januar 2021] das Kapitol angreifen oder die Gültigkeit von Wahlergebnissen leugnen. Ich bin darüber in einem Schockzustand“, antwortete Gates auf eine Frage zur Verbreitung von „Fehlinformationen“ über KI.
„Das können wir der KI nicht vorwerfen. Das passierte. Es wurde möglicherweise durch digitale Kanäle verstärkt, die es ermöglichen, dass verschiedene Verschwörungstheorien wie QAnon oder was auch immer von Leuten verbreitet werden, die diese Dinge glauben wollten. Die digitalen Tools haben also möglicherweise eine unterstützende Rolle gespielt“, fügte er hinzu.
Auf die Frage, ob er besorgt darüber sei, dass KI Desinformationen verbreitet, sagte Gates, dass dies eher ein zukünftiges als ein aktuelles Problem sei und dass KI verwendet werden könnte, um die heute bestehenden „Fehlinformationen“ zu beheben.
„Das könnte es in Zukunft. Das ist nicht das Phänomen, das wir heute haben“, sagte Gates. „Wie werden wir die digitalen Fehlinformationen lösen, die ein Faktor der Polarisierung sind? Sie müssen KI berücksichtigen.“
Gates fügte hinzu, dass seine Generation das Problem der „Fehlinformationen, die durch digitale Kanäle verstärkt werden können, noch lösen muss. Die Leute können einfach eine Bestätigungsverzerrung haben, nur das zu sehen, womit sie einverstanden sind, und auf eine Weise empört werden, die die politische Polarisierung vorantreibt“, berichtete die Epoch Times.
Was „Fehlinformationen“ sind bestimmt allerdings der liberale Zeitgeist. Beispielsweise fiel Kritik an den Covid-Maßnahmen lange Zeit in die Rubrik der Desinformation und Verschwörungstheorie und erst jetzt am Ende dieser Maßnahmen, sehen sich Mainstream-Medien veranlasst, nachträglich Maßnahmen wie Schulschließungen, Maskenpflicht oder Impfpflicht zu kritisieren.
Wer dies zwischen 2020 und 2022 wagte, musste damit rechnen, dass seine Beiträge von selbsternannten „Faktencheckern“ diskreditiert und aus den großen sozialen Medien verbannt wurden. Um die überwältigende Masse solcher Beiträge zu zensieren, griff Facebook und Co. auf KI-gestütze Software zurück. Wer das nicht glaubt, kann das über die Google-Auswahl an Artikeln zum Thema nachlesen.
Russia announced it will consider the use of depleted uranium akin to a nuclear attack.
DU dust can be inhaled, ingested, or absorbed through scratches in the skin. It is linked to DNA damage, cancer, birth defects, and multiple other health problems, and contaminates the surrounding area with toxic waste that has a half-life of 4.5 billion years,
Konstantin Gavrilov, head of the Russian delegation to the Vienna Negotiations on Military Security and Arms Control, said during a plenary meeting of the OSCE Forum for Security Cooperation:
“We know that Leopard 2 tanks, as well as Bradley and Marder armored fighting vehicles, can use depleted uranium shells, which can contaminate terrain, just like it happened in Yugoslavia and Iraq,” he said. “If Kiev were to be supplied with such munitions for the use in western heavy military hardware, we would regard it as the use of ‘dirty nuclear bombs’ against Russia, with all the consequences that entails.”
The USG and NATO have stocked depleted beryllium and uranium ammunition in Europe. Bradley Fighting Vehicles, according to the CIA’s propaganda conduit, Voice of America, will soon arrive in Ukraine.
The M242 gun mounted on the Bradleys uses Depleted Uranium (DU) ammunition. Additionally, the Challenger tanks the UK is sending use 120 mm sabot rounds surrounded by a jacket of DU.
“DU is used throughout Afghanistan and Iraq, mostly in aircraft, tank, and Bradley Fighting Vehicle ammunition,” reports Iraq Veterans Against the War.
During the Iraq invasion, the USG fired DU rounds into civilian neighborhoods. “Coordinates revealing where US jets and tanks fired nearly 10,000 DU rounds in Iraq during the war in 2003 have been obtained by the Dutch peace group Pax,” The Guardian reported in 2014.
According to [the IKV Pax Christi] report, which is due to be published this week, the data shows that many of the DU rounds were fired in or near populated areas of Iraq, including As Samawah, Nasiriyah and Basrah. At least 1,500 rounds were also aimed at troops, the group says.
It should be noted that an attempt to verify this information on the IKV Pax Christi website produces a page warning the site is dangerous and may have been hijacked. In other words, it was decided information about DU poisoning in Iraq and Afghanistan, including serious birth defects, is not something distracted plebs should be allowed to read.
In 2013, the World Health Organization attempted to downplay DU contamination in Iraq. Remarkably, and at odds with ample evidence, the WHO reported findings on spontaneous abortion, stillbirths, and congenital birth defects in Iraq “are consistent with or even lower than international estimates. The study provides no clear evidence to suggest an unusually high rate of congenital birth defects in Iraq.”
It really is amazing webpages posting this information disappear. Instead, I will link to The Guardian’s post on the topic which is, obviously, too controversial for the average citizen of the West. After all, if such information revealing the psychopathy of the USG and its national security state-created “defense” department were readily available, people may oppose, in far larger numbers than now, the USG’s role in Ukraine.
Iraq did not have WMDs, as Bush and his neocons insisted despite a complete lack of evidence, and therefore could not respond effectively to the invasion of its country. This is far from the case with Russia.
Both Gavrilov and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, along with Russian State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin, have warned that the delivery of long-range missiles to the Zelenskyy regime, as Volodin is quoted as saying by Sputnik International, “will lead to a global disaster and retaliatory measures from Moscow with the use of more powerful weapons.”
Gavrilov stressed Moscow will “undertake harsh retaliatory actions” if the USG persists in delivering long-range missiles and also depleted uranium, which Russia considers on par with a “dirty bomb.”
It is now manifestly apparent the West is eager to attack Russian cities. It will provide top-shelf weapons to accomplish its mission of destroying Russia, killing thousands if not millions of its people, and busting the country into malleable little dictatorships dutifully following neoliberal orders.
M242 gun mounted on Bradley Fighting Vehicles going to Ukraine fires depleted uranium rounds.
Russia will not do this. It remembers, every May 8, the “Great Patriotic War” that defeated the Nazi Wehrmacht as Operation Barbarossa, the largest invasion in history, came to a grinding halt amidst the brutal Russian winter.
The German Generalplan Ost to engage in ethnic cleansing, the genocide of “untermenschen,” and the colonization of Eastern Europe (lebensraum) is conservatively estimated to have killed 26 million Russians .
Is it possible the neocons driving this suicidal effort to “weaken” Russia are not capable of understanding that Russia, with its justifiable paranoia of invasion (before Hitler, there was Napoleon), will do everything in its power, as it did during WWII, to prevent what the neolibs and neocons have in mind?
I sincerely believe hubris, narcissism, and “exceptionalism” have warped the minds of people like Victoria Nuland and the despicable Senator Lindsey Graham. Nothing, short of nuclear war and its horrific consequence, will make these people think twice about the stupidity of a short-sighted Generalplan Ost of their own.
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In a State of UncertaintyDOWNLOAD HEREJanuary 14, 2013 Impact and implicatons of the use of depleted uranium in Iraq 1.65 MB ..IKV Pax Christi Publishes “In a State of Uncertainty: Impact and …A decade on and depleted uranium contamination stills blights Iraq
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Study Documents Depleted Uranium Impacts on Children in Iraq
A US soldier carries a an armor-piercing munition tipped with depleted uranium during “Operation Desert Shield”, the US military operation agains Iraq in 1991. (Department of Defense)
A new study shows an association between depleted uranium, used by the US during the Iraq war, and the risk of birth defects in Iraqi children.
In the years following 2003, the U.S. military dotted Iraq with over 500 military bases, many of them close to Iraqi cities. These cities suffered the impacts of bombs, bullets, chemical and other weapons, but also the environmental damage of open burn pits on U.S. bases, abandoned tanks and trucks, and the storage of weapons on U.S. bases, including depleted uranium weapons. Here’s a map of some of the U.S. bases:
This map and the other illustrations below have been provided by Mozhgan Savabieasfahani, one of the authors of a forthcoming article in the journal Environmental Pollution.
The article documents the results of a study undertaken in Nasiriyah near Tallil Air Base. Nasiriyah was bombed by the U.S. military in 2003 and in the early 1990s. Open-air burn pits were used at Tallil Air Base beginning in 2003. See a second map:
Now take a look (do not turn away) at these images of infants who were born between August and September of 2016 to parents who had continuously lived in Nasiriyah. The visible birth defects include: anencephaly (A1 and A2 , B), lower limb anomalies (C), hydrocephalus (D), spina bifida (E), and multiple anomalies (F, G, H). Imagine if these tragic birth defects had been caused by a natural disaster or the misdeeds of the next government targeted by the United States for “regime change” — would not the outrage be widespread and thunderous? But these horrors have a different cause.
Here’s another illustration, of hand and foot abnormalities in children in Nasiriyah, and in the ancient city of Ur, near the U.S. base:
The study now being published found an inverse relationship between the distance one lived from Tallil Air Base and the risk of birth defects as well as of levels of thorium and uranium in one’s hair. It found a positive relationship between the presence of thorium and uranium and the presence of birth defect(s). Thorium is a decay-product of depleted uranium, and a radioactive compound.
These results were found near this particular base rather than dozens of others, not because it is necessarily unique; no similar studies have yet been conducted near each of the other bases. The results found by this study are likely to be identical to results that could be found by a similar study next year, or next decade, or next century, or next millennium, at least in the absence of major efforts to mitigate the damage.
Depleted uranium (DU) weapons were not just stored in Iraq, but also fired in Iraq. Over 400 metric tons of DU was fired in Iraq according to a 2007 report by the U.N. Environment Program. While not at the same level, the U.S. military has also poisoned the Washington, D.C., area, among other parts of the United States and the globe with DU.
The Pentagon to this day claims the right to use DU. Depleted uranium is permanently hazardous waste from the production of nuclear energy, a source of energy marketed by its lobbyists as environmentally beneficial.
Here’s a description of DU from Iraq Veterans Against the War, a group (later renamed “About Face: Veterans Against the War!”) many of whose members are familiar with the damage that DU does to people directly, not just to their offspring:
“Depleted Uranium (DU) is a toxic, radioactive heavy metal that is the waste byproduct of the uranium enrichment process when producing nuclear weapons and uranium for nuclear reactors.
Because this radioactive waste is plentiful and 1.7 times more dense than lead, the United States government uses DU in munitions/ammunition which are extremely effective at piercing armored vehicles.
However, every round of DU ammunition leaves a residue of DU dust on everything it hits, contaminating the surrounding area with toxic waste that has a half-life of 4.5 billion years, the age of our solar system, and turns every battlefield and firing range into a toxic waste site that poisons everyone in such areas.
DU dust can be inhaled, ingested, or absorbed through scratches in the skin. DU is linked to DNA damage, cancer, birth defects, and multiple other health problems.
The United Nations classifies Depleted Uranium ammunitions as illegal Weapons of Mass Destruction because of their long-term impact on the land over which they are used and the long-term health problems they cause when people are exposed to them.”
The use of these weapons was a small part of the damage done to Iraq, its people, its society, and its natural environment by the war. We ought not to require any legal case before offering aid and making reparations. Basic human decency ought to suffice.
This article was originally published at DavidSwanson.orgon September 20, 2019.
El hecho de que Washington esté constantemente interfiriendo en procesos internos en otros países, promoviendo allí a sus criaturas, no es noticia desde hace mucho tiempo. Los hechos en Venezuela y la aparición de un «presidente paralelo» Guaidó en ella son prueba de ello.
Estados Unidos sigue en camino de desestabilizar la República Bolivariana y derrocar a su presidente Nicolás Maduro. En mayo de 2018, ganó con confianza las elecciones. La CIA y «organizaciones afines» gastaron enormes sumas en el sabotaje electoral, pero la estabilidad del sistema sociopolítico creado por Hugo Chávez resiste todas las pruebas, desde el sabotaje económico y el sabotaje en las instalaciones energéticas hasta el terror individual.
Los opositores potenciales de Maduro desde la oposición (Enrique Capriles, Leopoldo López, Antonio Ledesma, Freddie Guevara y varios otros) se han visto comprometidos por los intentos de derrocar al régimen venezolano. Operativos de la CIA y empleados del Departamento de Estado tuvieron que «descubrir» al personal encubierto de la segunda fila. Así apareció en la arena política de Venezuela la figura de Juan Guaidó, nacido en 1983. Nativo de la clase media, exteriormente recuerda un poco a Hugo Chávez: nariz grande, labios característicos, pero ojos sin esa concentración interior que distinguió al Comandante Hugo hasta el último día de su vida.
En la privilegiada Universidad Católica de Caracas, Guaidó se licenció en ingeniería industrial. También recibió una acusación de hostilidad hacia los chavistas: en su mayoría, el cuerpo docente de la universidad no aceptaba la revolución bolivariana. El complaciente Guaidó ha tomado una decisión: no está de acuerdo con los «populistas». La labor antichavista de Guaidó en la universidad, tradicionalmente supervisada por la embajada estadounidense, no pasó desapercibida y terminó en EE.UU. en la Universidad George Washington. Allí, los oficiales de la CIA conocieron a Guaidó. El curso de «defensa de la democracia», las habilidades de detección de vigilancia, escuchas telefónicas, técnicas de trabajo encubierto: Guaidó fue presentado discretamente a todo esto. Dicen que un político moderno no puede prescindir de ese conocimiento especial.
La introducción de Guaidó en los procesos políticos de Venezuela no fue forzada por sus curadores estadounidenses. En 2009, se convirtió en uno de los fundadores del partido Narodnaya Volya, en 2010 fue elegido diputado suplente con la perspectiva de ocupar un escaño en caso de vacante por renuncia o muerte de un compañero del partido. En 2015, Guaidó fue elegido miembro de la Asamblea Nacional en las elecciones parlamentarias. Tras la victoria de Maduro en las elecciones de 2018, la CIA decidió que Guaidó estaba maduro y era hora de subirlo al escenario. En enero de 2019, el legislador Guaidó, de 36 años, fue elegido presidente de la Asamblea Nacional de Venezuela. ¡Anunció que no considera a Maduro el presidente legítimo y tiene derecho a ejercer los poderes del jefe de Estado! No sin los esfuerzos de la CIA, Guaidó fue apoyado por la oposición, fue proclamado «presidente interino» de Venezuela. A pocas horas de prestar juramento, el entonces presidente de Estados Unidos, Donald Trump, reconoció a Guaidó como jefe de Venezuela.
Rafael Foley
El diplomático estadounidense Rafael Foley, jefe adjunto de la misión de EE. UU. en Venezuela, asesor político (léase: residente de la CIA), jugó un papel importante en la promoción de Juan Guaidó. Foley se jactó del éxito de la operación durante la presentación del Premio Mark Palmer para el Avance de la Democracia. El procedimiento se llevó a cabo en diciembre de 2020, Guaidó apareció en los informes de los medios como un «líder político influyente» que está a punto de acabar con el presidente «ilegal» Maduro. Había pronósticos de que «unos días más» y Nicolás Maduro tendría que huir a Cuba o Corea del Norte, para no repetir la suerte de Muammar Gaddafi…
El papel de Foley fue aclamado en The Foreign Service Journal, una publicación mensual de la Asociación Estadounidense del Servicio Exterior: «Ha tenido éxito en promover iniciativas democráticas frente a un régimen poco cooperativo que representa una peligrosa amenaza para los derechos humanos y la seguridad del país y región.» Se enfatizó: “Maduro, aún en el poder tras las disputadas elecciones de 2018 y acusado en Estados Unidos de narcotráfico, tiene vínculos con organizaciones terroristas colombianas y del Medio Oriente y el crimen organizado”.
Se gastaron sumas gigantescas en la promoción de Juan Guaidó no solo de los fondos secretos de la CIA, sino también de los fondos expropiados por los «autorizados por Guaidó» y los activos petroleros venezolanos almacenados en bancos estadounidenses. El Banco de Inglaterra, no sin la sugerencia de los norteamericanos, anunció su disposición a disponer del oro venezolano por un valor aproximado de mil millones de dólares. Una parte importante de los fondos sustraídos se utilizó para mantener las “representaciones” diplomáticas de Guaidó; sus «compañeros de armas de lucha» y cuadros de las filas de la oposición, seleccionados para gobernar el país, «despojados de la opresión de la dictadura», fueron pagados.
Los países de la OTAN, Finlandia, Suecia, Ucrania y muchos miembros de la OEA, incluidos Brasil, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Perú, declararon el reconocimiento del «presidente Guaidó». El Secretario General de la OEA, Luis Almagro, cuyos lazos con la República Checa fueron repetidamente expuestos, contribuyó a tal aumento de sentimientos antibolivarianos en la organización que le rinde cuentas. En total, durante la campaña de Estados Unidos contra Maduro, hubo una cincuentena de países que apoyaron al títere estadounidense. El Departamento de Estado, la CIA, el FBI y otras agencias estadounidenses hicieron un buen trabajo al deshacerse del sucesor de Hugo Chávez de una vez por todas.
Parecía que el fin del gobierno bolivariano en Venezuela no estaba lejos. Sin embargo, Nicolás Maduro lleva la delantera y no está solo. Cuenta con el apoyo de Rusia, China, Cuba, México, Nicaragua, Bielorrusia, Irán y otros países.
En respuesta a la operación del Departamento de Estado, Maduro expulsó a todos los diplomáticos estadounidenses, incluido Foley, del país. Durante varios días destruyeron documentos secretos, durmiendo en sus oficinas «en condiciones insalubres». Es imposible no citar la llamativa frase de la presentación de Foley al Premio Mark Palmer: «Hasta el último día en Caracas, siguió apoyando a los líderes democráticos allí». No se especificó cómo.
En el contexto de un exitoso diálogo en la sombra entre Nicolás Maduro y la oposición venezolana actual, en gran medida renovada, la figura de Juan Guaidó se ha desvanecido, y se lo menciona cada vez menos como un “presidente”. El mismo Guaidó resumió una cierta línea final bajo la historia de su trabajo subversivo en interés de Estados Unidos en una entrevista reciente con un periódico español: “Los logros de mi vida ya han superado todas las expectativas durante mucho tiempo. En los libros de historia tendrán que poner estrellas, hacer pies de página gigantes, dar explicaciones larguísimas, y no tendrán otra cosa que repetir una y otra vez que yo fui el Presidente de Venezuela. Es fácil adivinar a quién se refería Guaidó con el pronombre “ellos”: aquellos que frustraron los intentos de instalar un títere estadounidense en lugar del jefe de estado.
Es difícil decir si los estadounidenses cerrarán el «Proyecto Guaidó» o lo mantendrán. El propio “presidente interino” está listo para cualquier opción: como dicen, que así sea.
«Wenn Macron, Scholz so laute Aussagen über die Erhöhung der Mittel für Militärausgaben machen, finde ich das komisch. Besonders Frankreich — man sieht sich an, was Macron zu Hause macht. Er war fast vom ersten Tag an dabei, als er an die Macht kam — das hat er.» Ständige Ausschreitungen dort «Gelbwesten», jetzt gegen Anti-COVID-Beschränkungen, jetzt gegen Rentenreform. Das heißt, ich verstehe nicht, von welchen zusätzlichen Ausgaben Frankreich überhaupt sprechen kann. Und nicht nur Frankreich, ganz Europa ist jetzt in der Krise . Wir sehen es – und die Energiekrise und die Nahrungsmittelkrise, und die Industrie beginnt langsam, über den Ozean in die Staaten zu fließen. Von was für einer vollwertigen Armee können sie sprechen?“ fragt Dmitry Rodionov, Leiter des Zentrums für geopolitische Forschung.
Ausländer kommen zu den Einheiten der Streitkräfte der Ukraine, die in Richtung Charkiw — Marochko — stationiert sind
Ausländische Bürger kommen zu den Einheiten der Streitkräfte der Ukraine, die in Richtung Charkiw stationiert sind, sagte der pensionierte Oberstleutnant der Volksmiliz der LPR Andrej Marochko.
💬„Die Ankunft englischsprachiger Bürger sowie von Menschen, die Französisch, Deutsch und Polnisch sprechen, wurde zur Kenntnis genommen“, sagte er.
Ausländer werden ihm zufolge «in zivilen Bussen mit europäischen Kennzeichen» gebracht.
Orinoco Tribune Last Friday, Orinoco Tribune had the honor of interviewing Omali Yeshitela, chairman of the African People’s Socialist Party (APSP) in response to recent repression and intimidation tactics launched by the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) against him, the APSP, and the Uhuru Movement.
On July 29, 2022, the FBI raided Yeshitela’s residence in St. Louis, Missouri, where he was living with his wife and APSP Deputy Chair Ona Zené Yeshitela. Yeshitela described his chest being littered with “red dots of lasers” immediately upon opening the front door, where he was greeted by law enforcement officers armed with stun grenades, and automatic farearms, and armored vehicles. The raid disrupted the entire neighborhood, where the Uhuru Movement had been involved in a long trajectory of community work, and was also replicated in other APSP and Uhuru facilities across the US.
Despite the FBI using “Russian influence” as an excuse for the excessive use of force and intimidation tactics that could have ended Yeshitala’s life, after more than six months, neither Yeshitela nor other members of the movement have been summoned to court or charged for any crime. The FBI reported to the press that the incident was part of an investigation against a Russian national named Alexander Viktorovich Ionov, implying that the decades-old APSP has somehow served as a Russian front.
Jesus Rodriguez-Espinoza, Orinoco Tribune’s editor, was in charge of conducting the interview and brought into the conversation Joe Iosbaker, a longstanding and well respected Chicago organizer for the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) that in 2010, along with several other anti-imperialist and anti-war activists, were subjected to the same intimidation tactics in different parts of the US Midwest.
In 2010, the organizations and activists targeted by the FBI were put in front of a grand jury and were accused of providing material support to “terrorist organizations” due to the international solidarity work they did and still do in defense of the Palestinian cause and the Colombian people. Up to this day, the legal battle has not been officially closed.
Orinoco Tribune, in understanding the basic rules of international solidarity, wants to highlight with this interview the hypocrisy and double standards employed by the US government to neutralize and sabotage any legitimate anti-imperialist black and brown liberation movement identifying with socialist ideas. At the same time, Orinoco Tribune aims to showcase the robust fight that those targeted by the FBI in 2010 endured to dismantle the Machiavellian machinations that the US empire employs.
Omali Yeshitela is a leader and activist for anti-colonial thought and black reparations and chairman of the APSP. He is also leader of the Uhuru Movement, a worldwide organization fighting for the self-determination of African people. He founded The Burning Spear newspaper, which has been in continuous publication since the 1960s.
Following the 2014 murder of 18-year-old Mike Brown in St. Louis, the Uhuru Movement’s Black Power Blueprint has transformed vacant properties in the black community by building a community center, a basketball court, housing for the formerly incarcerated, a community garden, and an outdoor events venue, and are planning to work on a women’s health center in the future.
Joe Iosbaker is a Chicago-based district organizer for FRSO and a retired rank-and-file trade unionist. He is also co-chair of the Labor Committee for the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR). In 2010, the FBI raided his home, and he and his ex-wife were subpoenaed to a federal grand jury who investigated their movement for “providing material support to foreign terrorist organizations“ in Palestine and Colombia.
Before jumping into the questions, Rodriguez-Espinoza explained the international context of the July 29 raids, which were framed by intense Russo-phobia and anti-Putin rhetoric injected by the White House into US public opinion via the government-controlled mainstream media just five months after the beginning of the Russian military operation in Ukraine.
The international and internal context has been shifting in recent months due to the high risk of military escalation in Ukraine spreading the conflict beyond Eastern Europe, but also in part due to US economic deterioration and ordinary US citizens witnessing how resources that could be used to improve their lives are being sent to Ukraine and the corrupt sect around Vladimir Zelensky.
Rodriguez-Espinoza also mentioned that in Venezuela, a new law is being evaluated to control the international financing of “pro-democracy” non governmental organizations (NGOs) that, in the case of Venezuela and many other countries, are part of the US arsenal of imperialist actions to oust democratically-elected leftist governments, promote color revolutions, and push for “regime change” in nations whose governments refuse to submit to US imperialism.
He emphasized the hypocrisy of the US, the international NGOs it controls, and mainstream media’s characterizations of this law as a new authoritarian move by Venezuela’s “tropical dictator” when the US has been implementing its own Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) since 1938 precisely to regulate these kinds of situations on US soil. However, the US implementation of these regulations are used to justify its criminalization and sabotage of legitimate organizations, activists, and community leaders for denouncing the atrocities the US “democracy” commits against millions of US citizens.
At this point in the session, the questions began as follows:
For Omali Yeshitela (OY): Please update us about the details of the FBI raids that might not have been highlighted enough in media coverage, and update us about the status of the intimidation process against you and the APSP.
Chairman Yeshitela began by highlighting that the US’s status as a settler-colony that built concentration camps called “reservations” for indigenous people and transported Africans across the Atlantic at gunpoint, subjecting these two groups to colonial terror that in recent years has culminated in the assassination of Malcom X and many others. This all began in an era that was pre-Putin, pre-Lenin, pre-Soviet Union.
He added that this is the nature of the capitalist and imperialist systems that have perpetuated colonial domination, exploiting not only Africa but the whole world, including Latin America. These systems are the driving forces behind NATO’s imperialist wars and provocations, first against the Soviet Union, and now against Russia and China, whose only “crimes” have been their ability to serve as an alternative to US imperialist domination.
Yeshitela explained that since the 1990s, the US claims that its division of the world is not between communists and capitalists but between “democracies and autocracies, and the United States is the chief of the democratic world, and of course anybody that opposes the United States, that has different interests that are articulated and politicized, is an autocrat, like in Venezuela, Nicaragua, Iran, Russia, and China. All of these are autocrats because they are trying to go in other directions, but how can you be this great democracy when every day you see another African being killed by the police department, by white people, or by colonizers?
“They [the US government] are attacking us because we are trying to do the same things in our communities that Malcom X, the Black Panthers, Fred Hampton, and many other black liberation leaders and organizations did, and ultimately some governments like China, Venezuela, and Nicaragua also do,” Chairman Yeshitela added.
He went on to add that the attack was motivated not by the Uhuru or the APSP being “Russians in black,” but by their community work the work they do in helping people understand better what is going on. “Since this happened, hundreds, thousands of people expressed support and solidarity with our party and our movement, and we’re still working; we’re still building communities,” he explained.
On the status of the “investigation” that allegedly motivated the attacks, the chairman expressed that the US government recently posted on Twitter a notice of $10 million reward for any information about Alexander Viktorovich Ionov and his alleged interference in US elections.
Up until today, there has been no indictment, but lawyers are expecting it soon. Chairman Yeshitela believes that the government is “surprised because we did not surrender, we did not let them crucify us, and we are letting the world know there is a lynching happening right now against us by the US government.”
For Joe Iosbaker (JI): Please tell us about your experience as leader of the movement opposing FBI repression and what can be learned from that experience to avoid repetition of these intimidation practices but also to secure legal victories.
“I want to begin by expressing our total solidarity with the African People’s Socialist Party, the Uhuru Movement, and your righteous resistance defending your rights as a movement, as an organization, to campaign for black liberation and to seek aid and support from any quarters. All freedom struggles have the right to seek aid from any quarters,” said Iosbaker at beginning of his answer.
He then explained the three lessons he believes any activist and organization should learn from the experience he and several organizations and activists had to endure during the FBI raids and grand jury they had to face in 2010.
• We can’t expect the FBI is going to stop attacking the people’s movement “An animal like that does not change. This is what they were designed to do, this is what they were brought into existence to do, they are the political police, and what we have to do is not hope or expect that they will cease this repressive behavior. What we have to do is—as a movement—prepare ourselves for attacks, and we have to—as the chairman and the Uhuru Movement are doing—rally progressives to defend anyone attacked by the FBI, and to insist on opposing imperialism, fighting for black liberation, and embodying international solidarity with national liberation struggles abroad,” the Chicago political activist added.
He underscored that those are not crimes, and that what the FBI and the Department of Justice is doing is criminal behavior that is in violation of the rights of an organization engaged in political activity protected by the US Constitution.
• Anyone who is subject to the FBI raids or even just a visit by the FBI has to do what the Uhuru movement has done which is to speak up In his response, Iosbaker compared the FBI to cockroaches: “If they are exposed to light, they will scatter.” He added that it is very common to hear people explain that even though they were visited or called by the FBI, they don’t want their employer or parents and don’t want it sent to the press. On the contrary, for Iosbaker, targeted people should be more willing to fight back, bring FBI activity to light, and report it.
When the FBI comes to talk to you, don’t talk to the FBI. If you’ve noticed in the scandals around the Trump administration, there’s only been a few people who’ve gone to prison that were part of the Trump regime. All of them went to prison for lying to the FBI; it is a felony to lie to the FBI, so when they come to you and say, “We just want to ask a few questions,” [you should] say, number one: “I’m not talking to you; the only thing I have to do is give you my license and prove that I live here or prove that I am who I am,” and second, say: “I want to talk to my lawyer,” and if you don’t have a lawyer, call the National Lawyers Guild hotline: you can Google it and tell them that you’re being questioned by the FBI and you need an attorney.
Do not talk to the FBI, and there’s a corollary: do not talk to a grand jury. A grand jury is an anti-constitutional body; there’s a an old expression about grand juries which is: a grand jury will indict a ham sandwich. 99% of suspects who were brought in front of a grand jury [were brought] back guilty. They bring back indictments against them, not guilty, but indictments against them. 99%.
• Do not provide information about your international connections to the FBI Iosbaker explained that the organizations and activists intimidated by the FBI in 2010 not only oppose US imperial wars but all wars, and, going a step further, expressed solidarity with the heroic people of Colombia and Palestine in their resistance against imperialism, and, in the case of the Palestinians, their resistance to the settler colony called Israel.
“When we were raided, we immediately responded and said not only that we did nothing wrong, but that opposing war is not a crime, that international solidarity is not a crime …. Many of our friends in the peace movement suggested to us, ‘Yes, defend your anti-war activity, but you really shouldn’t talk about the right of the people of Palestine and the people of Colombia to resist by any means necessary,’ and we had to be very clear: when people are occupied, resistance is justified. That’s one of the key slogans that we raised,” he added.
“When we were threatened by the assistant US attorney, we never talked, none of us who were there. We were eventually subpoenaed, and none of us talked to the grand jury or to the US attorneys. They talked to our attorneys, and they told our attorneys [that] they had enough to indict us, put us on trial, and convict us for the crime of providing material support to foreign terrorist organizations.”
“These US government attorneys also threatened to bring civil contempt or criminal contempt charges against us, and [we would] face 18 months in prison if we refused to talk to the grand jury, but we never did.”
Joe Iosbaker added that among the 28 activists attacked by the FBI, there were three families with parents subpoenaed who were forced to give temporary custody of their children to friends or comrades, in case of the worst outcome.
He explained that although they were ready for the worst outcome, they decided not to tell the US government the names of the people they worked with in Palestine or Colombia because the violent raids and the prison time they faced would still be lighter than the consequences comrades in Colombia and Palestine would have to endure if they betrayed them, with torture and assassinations being real possibilities.
He finished his answer by expressing that discipline in refusing to cooperate with US government intimidation campaigns should be one of the top priorities of leftist movements. Furthermore, the movement should campaign in every corner to bring light to criminal proceedings perpetrated by the FBI to sabotage initiatives like the Uhuru Movement, to whose activists he, representing FRSO and the CAARPR, reiterated his full solidarity and support.
For both: What can be done to strengthen the socialist and anti-imperialist movement in the US? Why was the response to the Tyre Nichols assassination so stale?
Chairman Yoshitela explained that colonialism and racism are fundamental aspects to consider regarding these issues because there is no freedom of speech or freedom of assembly for black communities and black people in general in the US. Black people in the US do not have the privilege of democracy, and for that reason, people like George Floyd and Tyre Nichols are continually assassinated by police and US government agents, he said.
Additionally, the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), or the police for migrants along the Mexican border—again, a police force designed specifically to criminalize brown people—commit all sort of atrocities that are normalized by the colonial system but that would cause an uproar if the same tactics were to be applied to white people. “Basically, [these tactics are normalized] because racism is the ideological foundation of the colonial capitalist system, and [are similar to repression] the indigenous people living in the concentration camps called ‘reservations’ face everyday,” Yoshitela added.
“The Uhuru Movement has created solidarity committees in 141 cities around the US, among the colonizers, among the white communities, and that solidarity movement has fought back, showing strong solidarity in supporting the Uhuru Movement during this FBI intimidation campaign.” Yoshitela went on to emphasize that the movement also shows solidarity with international movements in Iran, Nicaragua, El Salvador, the occupied territories of Palestine and Venezuela.
Iosbaker explained that the CAARPR under the leadership of Frank Chapman organized rallies in Chicago in response to the release of the video showing the brutal assassination of Tyre Nichols, despite the “law and order” campaign launched by the US plutocracy and its mainstream media just after the George Floyd rebellions.
Iosbaker also emphasized that another front to struggle toward beyond protests is changing the police force’s free rein in urban communities, with movements attempting to pass resolutions to create committees for police community control. These initiatives are currently happening in Chicago while disregarding Mayor Lightfoot’s initial resistance, which might open the door to allow the people to rewrite the norms for the Chicago Police Department.
Chairman Yeshitela expressed his support for the developments in Chicago because they reminded him of a similar initiative the Uhuru Movement set in motion in 1984 in Oakland, California, showing that sometimes street protests are not the only tool to push for changes, and that we can push progressive initiatives in favor of the people despite the service of the politicians involved in these initiatives for the US imperialist government.
For OY: Why do you think they targeted you? What do you see for the future of the international anti-colonial socialist struggle?
Chairman Yeshitela mentioned that Oxford University invited him to a conference in 2019 because they saw the work APSP and the Uhuru Movement was doing, a repeat of their invitation of Malcom X to a similar conference back when he split from the Nation of Islam. He expressed his interpretation of the reason for the invitation being that they recognized the work Uhuru and the APSP were doing not only in the US but also in the Caribbean, in Europe, and in Africa.
“That might be in part what lies beneath this FBI campaign, but also something similar to what happened to the Black Panthers in 1969, [who were] declared the greatest threat to internal security,” Yeshitela said.
“I think they see a re-emergence of a a particular kind of trajectory within the African Liberation movement, and they see us at the forefront of that. I think that’s one of the reasons that they attacked along with the whole convergence of ‘the perfect storm,’” added Omali Yeshitela, referring to the recent decline of US hegemony, both politically and economically.
This decline was evidenced by the Capitol building storming, which highlighted ruptures and disorganization within the US system. “They will do anything to hide it, and use us as scapegoats as well as also anyone who criticizes them,” said Yoshitela.
“Thousands of white people are influenced by our movement directly in the institutionalized processes we’ve created and in the organization of our solidarity committee … so I think that’s also a problem for [the US government]. They could kill Malcolm X, and there was not going to be any demonstration for the white community; they could kill Martin Luther King, and you wouldn’t have massive uprisings from white people; Fred Hampton: no, you didn’t see that. But we’ve built a movement now that makes it difficult for them to isolate the struggle of black people in the way they were able to in the 1960s, so I think that’s one of the things that makes us a problem,” expressed Chairman Yeshitela.
anonymousnews.org – Nachrichten unzensiert Dokumentation: Dresden 1945 – Alliierter Bomben-Holocaust Heute vor 78 Jahren, in der Nacht vom 13. auf den 14. Februar 1945, verbrannten in Dresden mindestens 500.000, wahrscheinlich aber sogar eine Million unschuldiger, ahnungs- und schutzloser deutscher Zivilisten – Alte, Kranke, Frauen, Kinder, Babies – lebendig in einer von Briten und Amerikanern inszenierten…
NATO…may send warplanes to Ukraine so that the country can defend itself.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said this at a press conference ahead of the two-day meeting of NATO Defense Ministers….
“So first, I think we need to distinguish between two things. One thing is what we also discussed very much last year and that was the issue of whether NATO should establish a no fly zone over Ukraine and sending NATO planes to enforce no fly zone. That’s a very different thing than what is discussed now, and that is the possibility of NATO Allies delivering aircraft to Ukraine so they can use themselves,” he said.
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According to him, if NATO was going to send NATO planes to enforce with a NATO presence in the airspace of Ukraine, and no fly zone, that will be direct NATO involvement. The other thing – to provide the Ukrainians with different types of military capabilities that will not make NATO party to the conflict [sic].
…Allies need to be focused on ensuring that the weapons already delivered to Ukraine work. In particular, to ensure that the air defence systems, the artillery, which have been already delivered to Ukraine, have the ammunition, the spare parts, the maintenance, the logistics. Stoltenberg stressed that this is an enormous logistical task that requires deliveries every day.
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As reported, NATO Defense Ministers will meet in Brussels on February 14-15. The topics of discussion will include the security situation in Ukraine. A meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, hosted by the United States, will also take place at NATO HQ on February 14. Ukraine’s Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov will participate in the meeting of ministers and in the work of the Contact Group.
The Pentagon has announced a federal order for the supply of depleted uranium munitions, according to documents published in the US government’s Federal Procurement Register. The ammunition is for arming the Abrams tanks. Such depleted uranium munitions were already used by the US in the wars in the former Yugoslavia and Iraq despite the severe consequences of radiation for the local population.
According to the documents, on December 14 last year, the Pentagon announced an order for the production of M829A4 Cartridges, 120mm, Armor Piercing, Fin Stabilized, Discarding Sabot with Tracer (APFSDS-T). The documents state that these munitions contain depleted uranium and will be used for the Abrams tanks. The deadline for responding to the announcement expired a week ago, on January 18.
In parallel with this order, the Pentagon has announced a second one – for the supply of depleted uranium for the M829A4 from the American company Aerojet Ordnance Tennessee.
Russian diplomats have already warned that if such depleted uranium munitions were delivered on the tanks to Ukraine, Moscow would regard it as a “nuclear provocation”.
The head of the Russian delegation to the negotiations in Vienna on military security and arms control, Konstantin Gavrilov, called on the West to prevent “nuclear provocations” with Leopard 2 tanks, Tass reported.
“We know that the Leopard 2 tanks, as well as the Bradley and Marder armored personnel carriers, are armed with armor-piercing shells with uranium warheads. Their use leads to contamination of the area, as was the case in the former Yugoslavia and Iraq. In the event that such NATO-made tank ammunition is delivered to Kiev, we will consider this to be the use of a ‘dirty bomb’ against Russia with all the consequences that follow,” he said at an OSCE forum on cooperation in the field of security.
The German government decided earlier to send 14 Leopard 2A6 tanks to Ukraine. Separately, Berlin will allow re-exports from other countries. The US has announced that it will send 31 Abrams tanks.
Der Friedensstifter 