Paul Craig Roberts

The federal government has announced that thousands of additional US soldiers are being sent to Liberia. General Gary Volesky said the troops would “stamp out” ebola. The official story is that combat troops are being sent to build treatment structures for those infected with ebola.

Why combat troops? Why not send a construction outfit such as an engineer battalion if it has to be military? Why not do what the government usually does and contract with a construction company to build the treatment units? “Additional thousands of troops” results in a very large inexperienced construction crew for 17 treatment units. It doesn’t make sense.

America’s Weaponization of Ebola
Could Ebola have escaped from a US bio-war laboratory?
Evidence of US Development and Testing of Airborne Ebola

Stories that don’t make sense and that are not explained naturally arouse suspicions, such as: Are US soldiers being used to test ebola vaccines and cures, or more darkly are they being used to bring more ebola back to the US?

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Stephen Lendman

Russia is geopolitical enemy No. 1. Not for wrongdoing. Or posing an existential threat. Or acting irresponsibly in any way. For defending its sovereign independence responsibly. Lawfully. Wanting other nations respecting it. Believing rule of law principles are inviolable. For Vladimir Putin, Sergey Lavrov and other officials telling it like it is. Expressing important views candidly, forthrightly and unambiguously.

Polar opposite duplicitous Western politicians. Especially Obama. A caricature of a leader. Arguably America's worst ever. A serial liar. A moral coward. A war criminal multiple times over. A shameless head of state. A deplorable one. A dangerous one. A lawless one. A ruthless one. Neo-liberal, reactionary, belligerent, pro-war, pro-monied interests, anti-democratic, anti-progressive, anti-populist, anti-labor and anti-social justice. A world-class thug. A threat to global peace at the most perilous time in world history.

Russia's Deputy Defense Minister Dmitry Rogozin commented. He explained Moscow's response to real existential threats. It's proud independence. Able to defend its interests effectively. Not about to roll over for Washington or other rogue Western partners. More on his remarks below.

Welcome to Cold War 2.0. The first one never ended. Since Soviet Russia's 1991 dissolution, Western policy remained hard-wired in place. Russia bashing persists. Intensely. Raging daily. Exceeding the worst of Soviet era levels. Daily vilifying a maliciously reinvented Evil Empire. It's back to the future. Unsurprisingly. Neocons infest Washington. Other Western capitals. Business as usual continues. At stake is world peace.

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Stephen Lendman

Ukraine's so-called government is a US-installed fascist dictatorship. It has no legitimacy whatever. Tyranny masquerades as democracy. None exists. Ordinary people have no say. Like in America. Monied interests run things in both countries. One fascist regime supports another. Sunday's snap parliamentary elections were farcical. Expect worse than ever business as usual going forward.

Sergey Lavrov is a world class diplomat. He combines candor and statesmanship with tactfulness, discretion, thoughtfulness and prudence. His comments warrant highlighting. He addressed post-electoral Ukraine. He did so for Moscow's Life News television and Izvestia. He believes Russia will recognize Ukraine's election results. Even though they fell short of international standards nationwide.

It's "critically important for Ukraine to obtain, at long last, a leadership that will not engage in petty infighting and drag the country from east to west and back again, but one that will address real Ukrainian problems, Lavrov said.

"Ukraine needs a government that will think how the nation should regain unity. It needs a government to guarantee an equal status to all Ukrainian citizens irrespective of the language they speak and political convictions they have." "No one should be victimised on political and other grounds, as has been the case until recently."

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Pepe Escobar

Silvio Santos cumprimenta Dilma Rousseff e Aécio Neves. (As fotos
são de Marcelo Parada, diretor do SBT.) (notícias da tv)

Sun, sex, samba, carnival and at least until the World Cup hammering by Germany, the "land of football". And don't forget "vibrant democracy". Even as it enjoys one of the highest soft power quotients around the world, Brazil remains submerged by cliches.

"Vibrant democracy" certainly lived up to its billing as President Dilma Rousseff of the ruling Worker's Party (PT) was re-elected this Sunday in a tight run-off against opposition candidate Aecio Neves of the Social Democracy Party of Brazil (PSDB).

Yet another cliche would rule this was the victory of "state-centric" policies against "structural reforms". Or the victory of "high social spending" against a "pro-business" approach - which implies business as the privileged enemy of social equality. Exit clichés. Enter a cherished national motto: "Brazil is not for beginners".

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Stephen Lendman

Survivors won't ever forget. Nor should they. Including Vietnamese sufferers. Permanently disabled US war veterans. Many on both sides enduring chronic illnesses. They want truth and full disclosure maintained. Nothing erased from history. Or reinvented to ignore what happened. One of history's greatest crimes. Nameless, faceless victims suffering to this day out of sight and mind understand best.

Pentagon commanders initiated it. A duplicitous 2015 50th anniversary commemoration. Honoring one of history's greatest crimes. Turning truth on its head. Orwell explained saying "(h)e who controls the past control the future. He who controls the present controls the past."

A Pentagon web site headlines "The United State of America Vietnam War Commemoration." Pentagon commanders glorify what demands condemnation. Providing "the American public with (so-called) historically accurate materials and interactive experiences that will help Americans better understand and appreciate the service of our Vietnam War veterans and the history of US involvement in the Vietnam War."

A Commemorative Partners Program "is designed for federal, state and local communities, veterans' organizations and other nongovernmental organizations to assist a grateful nation in thanking and honoring our Vietnam Veterans and their families." Thanking them for mass murder. Involvement in genocidal high crimes against peace. Making the world safe for monied interests. More on this below.

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Robert Parry

Official Washington treats whatever comes out of Russian President Putin’s mouth as the ravings of a lunatic, even when what he says is obviously true or otherwise makes sense, as the New York Times has demonstrated again.

When reading the New York Times on many foreign policy issues, it doesn’t take a savant to figure out what the newspaper’s bias is. Anything, for instance, relating to Russian President Vladimir Putin drips of contempt and hostility.

Rather than offer the Times’ readers an objective or even slightly fair-minded account of Putin’s remarks, we are fed a steady diet of highly prejudicial language, such as we find in Saturday’s article about Putin’s comments at a conference in which he noted U.S. contributions to chaos in countries, such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and Ukraine.

That Putin is correct appears almost irrelevant to the Times, which simply writes that Putin “unleashed perhaps his strongest diatribe against the United States yet” with his goal “to sell Moscow’s view that American meddling has sparked most of the world’s recent crises.”

Rather than address the merits of Putin’s critique, the Times’ article by Neil MacFarquhar uncritically cites the “group think” of Official Washington: “Russia is often accused of provoking the crisis in Ukraine by annexing Crimea, and of prolonging the agony in Syria by helping to crush a popular uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, Moscow’s last major Arab ally. Some analysts have suggested that Mr. Putin seeks to restore the lost power and influence of the Soviet Union, or even the Russian Empire, in a bid to prolong his own rule.”

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Paul Craig Roberts

UPDATE: Translation of Putin’s address at Valdai.

Today at the Valdai International Discussion Club meeting in Sochi, Russia’s President Putin correctly and justifiably denounced Washington for destabilizing the world in order to serve its own narrow and selfish interest and the interests of the private interest groups that control Washington at the expense of the rest of the world. It is about time a world leader denounced the thuggish neocon regime in Washington. Putin described Washington’s double standards with the Roman phrase: “What is allowed for God [the US] is not allowed for cattle [the rest of the world].” RT reports on Putin’s address here. RIA Novotsi reports here.

Curiously, the Russian media has not, at this time of writing (10/24/14), produced an English translation of Putin’s full remarks. Perhaps the Russian media do not realize the importance of Putin’s words. Too much of the Russian media is owned by foreign interests who use the access to Russian readers to attack and discredit the Russian government. It is amazing that the Russian government allows Washington’s propaganda within its own ranks. Perhaps Moscow accepts Washington’s propaganda among Russians in order to protect the broadcasts in the US of RT, RIA, and Voice of Russia. But the balance is uneven. The Russian broadcasts in the West report otherwise unreported news; they do not defame America.

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Robert Wenzel

America’s Weaponization of Ebola
Could Ebola have escaped from a US bio-war laboratory?

It has been my contention that the recent Ebola outbreak is likely the result of US military testing of Ebola gone awry. See: THE PAPER TRAIL: The US Government Involvement in Developing Ebola as a BioWeapon

Now more evidence has been brought to my attention of the alarming nature of the Ebola testing going on by the US military. Apparently, the military has created an airborne version of Ebola and tested it on monkeys.

A paper written by E. Johnson, N. Jaax, J. White, and P. Jahrling of US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, Frederick, Maryland was published in 1995 in the International Journal of Experimental Pathology. The abstract from the paper, Lethal experimental infections of rhesus monkeys by aerosolized Ebola virus, informs:

The potential of aerogenic infection by Ebola virus was established by using a head-only exposure aerosol system. Virus-containing droplets of 0.8-1.2 microns were generated and administered into the respiratory tract of rhesus monkeys via inhalation. Inhalation of viral doses as low as 400 plaque-forming units of virus caused a rapidly fatal disease in 4-5 days. The illness was clinically identical to that reported for parenteral virus inoculation, except for the occurrence of subcutaneous and venipuncture site bleeding and serosanguineous nasal discharge.

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Stephen Lendman

So-called Ukrainian democracy is pure fantasy. Tyranny masquerading as rule by the people. Sunday's snap unicameral Verkhovna Rada (parliamentary) elections reflected post-February coup business as usual. Ukraine is a US-installed fascist dictatorship. Its so-called government has no legitimacy whatever.

A previous article discussed whole families contesting for seats. Future deputies were known in advance. They're relatives of currently serving politicians. Including oligarch president Petro Poroshenko's son, Oleksiy. Running for the same Vinnitsa region's seat his father held previously. Assured of winning before voting began. According to Itar-Tass:

"…Ukraine’s political class is built on the foundation of nepotism and cronyism, as all the political forces display the tradition of nominating candidates on the grounds of kinship." "A closely controlled family affair with no legitimacy. Powerful interests control things Ordinary people have no say."

Stop NATO founder/editor Rick Rozoff calls Ukraine "a Nazi-like victory of US/NATO lawlessness." A US-led takeover of formerly sovereign Ukraine. Planned and executed by neocons and Zbigniew Brzezinski acolytes, says Rozoff. The driving force behind US unipolarity and quest for unchallenged global dominance.

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Anders Romelsjö

Vid parlamentsvalet i Ukraina fick västorienterade partier majoritet totalt och parlamentet får viss legitimitet. - DN skrev igår kväll

”Premiärminister Arsenij Jatsenjuk var den stora överraskningen i Ukrainas parlamentsval. Hans nybildade parti är nästan jämnstort med president Petro Porosjenkos enligt prognoser på söndagskvällen. Det mesta tyder på att de två partierna bildar en EU-vänlig regering."

Valdeltagandet var endast 50 %, och betydligt lägre i östra Ukraina. Tidigare i år förbjöds ett vänsterparti som i val under 2000-talet fått över 10 % av rösterna. Förre presidenten Janukovitjs ”Regionernas parti” var närmast utraderat. Det hela började i samband med statskuppen 22/2 då 72 ledamöter från Regionernas parti lämnade partiet under trycket av massvåld med beväpnade fascister utan riksdagen, radan. I dessa valtider vill man påminna om att Janukovits segrade vid presidentvalet 2010 med hela 69 % valdeltagande i ett val som den europeiska säkerhets- och samarbetsorganisationen OSSEs valobservatörer på plats berömde som en ”imponerande uppvisning i demokrati”.

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Paul Craig Roberts

Dear Friends,

Vladimir Putin’s remarks at the 11th meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club are worth more than a link in my latest column. These are the remarks of a humanitarian political leader, the like of which the world has not seen in my lifetime. Compare Putin to the corrupt war criminal in the White House or to his puppets in office in Germany, UK, France, Japan, Canada, Australia, and you will see the difference between a criminal clique and a leader striving for a humane and livable world in which the interests of all peoples are respected.

In a sane Western society, Putin’s statements would have been reproduced in full and discussions organized with remarks from experts such as Stephen F. Cohen. Choruses of approval would have been heard on television and read in the print media. But, of course, nothing like this is possible in a country whose rulers claim that it is the “exceptional” and “indispensable” country with an extra-legal right to hegemony over the world. As far as Washington and its prostitute media, named “presstitutes” by the trends specialist Gerald Celente, are concerned, no country counts except Washington. “You are with us or against us,” which means “you are our vassals or our enemies.” This means that Washington has declared Russia, China, India, Brazil and other parts of South America, Iran, and South Africa to be enemies.

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Les Visible

You got all kinds of evil running loose in these times. By definition, these are evil times, being as it is the Kali Yuga. The very worst of us profit without reserve and the best of us are hammered into the pavement. There's supposed to be some kind of justice in this but... those of us who are within the constraints of single lifetimes and lacking the panorama view of the realized, are hard pressed to see it. It's there somewhere. Of course, I'm speaking only for those of us that believe in something. For those of us that believe in nothing, except ones own blind, naked ignorance, the appearance of justice is nowhere to be seen. There's one thing we can certainly presume is true and that is that we will find out at some point, even if... in the cases of those who believe nothing, they find nothing. It might be that that is how it works; to each according to what they do or do not believe.

When one studies the case histories of after death experiences, there is a recurrent theme that is somewhat telling; unless one believes, as do no small number that all belief is an hallucination. This recurrent theme is that when people pass on, what they encounter is always specific to whatever faith they were followers of in life. They saw the icons specific to what they had believed. I don't know what that means or maybe I do but... that this is the case, well... one can go and look it up for themselves. Anyway... this is not what the posting is about. This is just one of those digressed intros in a pre-crime kind of a way. Let's take a look at some of the things that are happening today.

The unctious and odious psychopathic hypocrite, George Soros is at it again. As we know, this man has been a venomous liar and a 24 carat sonofabitch for as long as he has been here. He is a mass murderer who has performed murder in various countries around the world. At present he is accusing Vladmir Putin of precisely what his kindred in Israel are guilty of 24/7. Soros is the guy behind the color revolutions. As you probably know, people die in his color revolutions and all of his revolutions take place in those locations where the Zionist run American government wants them to take place. It's past arguing about that he's tied in with Robert Kagan and Kagan's wife, Victoria Neuland, in their vicious banker motivated assault upon a segment of the Ukrainian populace where white phosphorous is being used and mass graves are being discovered and where people have been locked in buildings and then buried alive. This is all true. This is past doubt AND people like Soros and Kagan and Neuland and a supporting cast of too many are behind these horrors. They are behind the majority of the world's ills. Their marching orders come out of the Devil's throne room, the country established for that very purpose.

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Wayne Madsen

President Barack Obama has received a torrent of criticism for dispatching U.S. troops and National Guardsmen to the Ebola-ravaged West African countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea to help control the spread of the highly-lethal Ebola-Zaire hemorrhagic virus. While Cuba has sent qualified doctors to the stricken region, Obama has responded with troops answering to the U.S. Africa Command in Stuttgart, Germany.

Evidence has recently surfaced in a 2009 U.S. embassy Berlin cable to the U.S. State and Defense Departments that German authorities hesitated to send hemorrhagic fever cultures to the suspected biological warfare laboratory at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) in Fort Detrick, Maryland because the Germans feared the Army might «weaponize» the cultures. The cable, classified as «Sensitive», is dated December 15, 2009 and states:

«German MFA [Ministry of Foreign Affairs] Deputy Head of Division for Export Control Markus Klinger provided the following non-paper to Econoff [Embassy Economics Officer], seeking additional assurances related to a proposed export of extremely dangerous pathogens to the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases. The Army's end use certificate provided to Germany is lacking an official seal. Klinger's deputy, Nancy Reck, noted that Germany had made two follow-up requests to the Army seeking assurances and clarifications related to this proposed export. The GOG [Government of Germany] seeks assurances from the USG [US Government] or US Army that the end use certificate and the information contained therein are legitimate and accurate».

The «non-paper» reference is to an «aide-memoire», what is known in the diplomatic world as a note without an author, source, or title that is used to prepare for negotiations. The following «non-paper», which was originally written in German, was translated by the embassy and sent to Washington:

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John Pilger

Across the political and media elite in Australia, a silence has descended on the memory of the great, reforming prime minister Gough Whitlam, who has died. His achievements are recognised, if grudgingly, his mistakes noted in false sorrow. But a critical reason for his extraordinary political demise will, they hope, be buried with him.

Australia briefly became an independent state during the Whitlam years, 1972-75. An American commentator wrote that no country had "reversed its posture in international affairs so totally without going through a domestic revolution". Whitlam ended his nation's colonial servility. He abolished Royal patronage, moved Australia towards the Non-Aligned Movement, supported "zones of peace" and opposed nuclear weapons testing.

Although not regarded as on the left of the Labor Party, Whitlam was a maverick social democrat of principle, pride and propriety. He believed that a foreign power should not control his country's resources and dictate its economic and foreign policies. He proposed to "buy back the farm". In drafting the first Aboriginal lands rights legislation, his government raised the ghost of the greatest land grab in human history, Britain's colonisation of Australia, and the question of who owned the island-continent's vast natural wealth.

Latin Americans will recognise the audacity and danger of this "breaking free" in a country whose establishment was welded to great, external power. Australians had served every British imperial adventure since the Boxer rebellion was crushed in China. In the 1960s, Australia pleaded to join the US in its invasion of Vietnam, then provided "black teams" to be run by the CIA. US diplomatic cables published last year by WikiLeaks disclose the names of leading figures in both main parties, including a future prime minister and foreign minister, as Washington's informants during the Whitlam years.

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Keith Jones

The Canadian state has enacted its National Anti-Terrorism Plan, which involves the coordinated mobilization of all sections of the national-security apparatus, including the military, in response to the shooting Wednesday morning of a soldier at the National War Memorial in downtown Ottawa and storming of the national parliament building by a gunman.

The soldier, 24 year-old Canadian Armed Forces Reservist Nathan Cirillo, succumbed to his injuries.

Soon after, security forces shot and killed a man armed with a rifle in what is being described as a wild shootout in the Hall of Honour. The hall, which is both a ceremonial hall and main corridor, accesses the rooms where the ruling Conservatives and Official Opposition New Democratic Party (NDP) were holding their weekly parliamentary caucus meetings. When the shooting erupted, both Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper and NDP leader Thomas Mulcair were at their respective party meetings.

Police-intelligence sources have identified the dead gunman as Michael Zehaf-Bibeau. He was reportedly under surveillance by Canada’s national security agencies and had had his passport confiscated to prevent him from traveling to the Middle East to link up with Islamist militia groups.

In the aftermath of the Parliament Hill attack, police mounted a massive security operation, saying they believed there had been multiple attackers. The media cited unconfirmed reports of multiple shooters and shots being fired at locations other than the War Memorial and Hall of Honour. From the parliament buildings, the police rapidly expanded a security perimeter, placing offices, shops and schools under lockdown, closing off streets to all vehicular and pedestrian traffic, and deploying heavily-armed SWAT teams.

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