Andrey Sushentsov | Washington appears desperate to prevent Ukraine from being associated, in any way, with the horrific murderous rampage in the Russian capital | The United States of America is trying to control and manipulate the media and political interpretation of the tragic terrorist attack in Moscow last month. In the Western information space, Washington is forming a narrative to try to distract attention from its proxy, Ukraine. ■ At certain points, ISIS was a useful tool for the Americans in Syria. There is published evidence suggesting that the US operated in parallel with the terrorist group against the Syrian government. The fact that Washington was ready to offer a coherent version of events from the first minutes after the attack in Moscow is in itself extremely paradoxical.

Nafeez Ahmed | US State Department documents show just how involved America is – and how they coached Israeli officials on how to undermine findings and defend themselves | Secret US State Department documents reveal how senior Israeli figures involved in the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) campaign in Gaza, Operation Swords of Iron, played key roles in IDF military doctrines justifying the use of “disproportionate force” against civilians, with the knowledge and support of senior US Government officials. ■ The documents show that US officials have known for over a decade that a deliberate IDF policy of using disproportionate violence against civilians could result in targeting of civilian aid convoys, but worked to conceal this, creating a climate of impunity that has led to what many UN experts consider genocide in Gaza. ■ As early as 2010, in the wake of Operation Cast Lead’s destruction of significant swathes of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure, US officials were privately told by independent Israeli legal and human rights experts that the IDF was incapable of conducting meaningful reforms to avoid breaches of international humanitarian law and that only “international pressure” on the Israeli Government could hold the IDF’s “senior leadership accountable”.

Julian Assange speaking in 2011: "The goal is to use Afghanistan to wash money out of the tax bases of the US and Europe through Afghanistan and back into the hands of a transnational security elite. The goal is an endless war, not a successful war" #Afghanistan pic.twitter.com/Hg3qVzABBg

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) August 18, 2021

■ Julian Assange Gave America the Ugly Truth (The Free Press)

The US and its allies received an unpleasant surprise in 2022 after the Solomon Islands signed a security pact with China, ripping a hole in Washington’s “Island Chain Strategy” for “containing” Beijing. As a local election looms, a Sputnik inquiry based on expert analysis and insider testimony reveals how the US Empire plans to strike back.
■ Residents of the Solomon Islands will go to the polls for general elections on April 17 to elect a new parliament and prime minister, with the vote expected to determine the country’s future both domestically and vis-à-vis the escalating security competition between the US and China in the Pacific region.
■ Manasseh Sogavare, a veteran Solomon Islands politician who has served as the island nation's prime minister for a total of about 11 years through four nonconsecutive terms going back to the year 2000, is running for reelection. Sogavare began to display an independent streak in foreign affairs in 2018-2019, when the Solomons signed on to China's Belt and Road Initiative, and ditched diplomatic ties with Taiwan in favor of formal relations with the People's Republic.
■ In November 2021, violent riots triggered by the Taiwan/PRC recognition switch saw an attempt by protestors to storm parliament and oust Sogavare, with rioters setting fire to a police station, burning down businesses and looting the Chinatown district in Honiara, the Solomons' capital. Sogavare blamed “foreign powers” for the unrest, accusing outside forces of feeding rioters “false and deliberate lies about the switch.”

Kit Klarenberg | Contrary to their mainstream portrayal, as inspired purely by religious fundamentalism, Daesh are primarily guns for hire. | Within just 24 hours of the horrific mass shooting in Moscow’s Crocus City Hall on March 22nd, which left at least 137 innocent people dead and 60 more critically wounded, US officials blamed the slaughter on ISIS-K, Daesh’s South-Central Asian branch. For many, the attribution’s celerity raised suspicions Washington was seeking to decisively shift Western public and Russian government focus away from the actual culprits - be that Ukraine, and/or Britain, Kyiv’s foremost proxy sponsor. ● Full details of how the four shooters were recruited, directed, armed, and financed, and who by, are yet to emerge. The savage interrogation methods to which they have been, and no doubt continue to be subjected are concerned with prising this and other vital information from them. The killers may end up making false confessions as a result. In any event, they likely have no clue who or what truly sponsored their monstrous actions.

Mick Hall | A former New Zealand prime minister says Washington is the likely culprit behind a signals intelligence system that, according to a report, existed for nearly a decade without the government knowing. | New Zealand’s public should be deeply concerned over revelations its security state facilitated a suspected U.S. intelligence operation capable of supporting military actions for nearly a decade without the New Zealand government’s knowledge, a constitutional lawyer says. ● A report has revealed that a signals intelligence system embedded in the country’s Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) ran from 2012 to 2020 without ministerial knowledge or approval after a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed in secret. The GCSB is the equivalent of the GCHQ in Britain and the NSA in the U.S. It collects, assesses and produces reports on foreign intelligence for other New Zealand agencies.The GCSB operates a satellite monitoring station at Waihopia near Blenheim and a radio receiving station at Tangimoana at Foxton, both capable of collecting foreign and domestic intelligence. ● A report by the country’s Inspector-General of Intelligence Brendan Horsley released last Thursday found that an unnamed country had used the infrastructure to intercept and decode messages that could be used to support “military actions by foreign partners.” Former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said the agency behind the scheme likely belonged to the U.S. The report makes it clear senior staff working on signals intelligence system memos of understanding were aware of how politically significant it was and the potential legal implications it posed.

Foreign Office Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said it is the sovereign decision of Pakistani government to move forward on Pakistan and Iran gas pipeline project. | She expressed these words while responding to the queries of the media persons regarding yesterday’s US congressional hearing, at her weekly news briefing in Islamabad today. She made it clear that at this point, there is no room for any discussion or waiver from any third party for the construction of the pipeline inside Pakistan’s territory. She said Pakistan has also conveyed to the US authorities the importance of this project for its energy security.

“The Biggest Corporation You’ve Never Heard Of” | How does one corporation — a mammoth British transnational corporation at that — provide so many critical services throughout the USA’s Military-Industrial Complex and yet very few have ever heard of them? ● In view of its sheer size, scope of operations, and far-reaching penetration of both the American and British national security states, it’s inconceivable that SERCO has remained so conveniently under the radar for so many years. ● Just how much “Bringing service to life” does SERCO do here in the United States? The following is a truncated list of their affiliations in and around the U.S. Federal Government and Armed Services. Their website is quoted as follows: “Skilled resources and a global presence to execute any CONUS or OCONUS* task”. (*OCONUS = Outside [the] contiguous United States)

John Miles | NATO has always allowed the United States to control Europe’s military policy. Now it’s dictating its energy policy, too. | [...] Investigative journalist Dan Lazare joined Sputnik’s The Critical Hour program on Wednesday to comment on the US ally’s report.

💬 “It's just absolutely farcical,” said the iconoclastic author. “I don't know how much longer this can go on. I mean, Denmark investigated, came up with a conclusion, and everybody knows it was obviously sabotage – that was obvious from the very start. And [Denmark] refrains from pointing a finger at a likely culprit.” ● “And the reason, of course, is the likeliest culprit – in fact, I'm 100% convinced that it is the culprit – is the United States,” he claimed. “But, Denmark, Sweden, everybody is afraid to say it. It's extraordinary.”

Sweden, likewise a US ally, ended its own investigation into the Nord Stream disaster earlier this month, also without commenting on the culprit of the sabotage. Lazare said the United States’ guilt is obvious, but frequently ignored in order to safeguard relations between the US and Europe. That dynamic is playing to the benefit of far-right parties across the continent who are the only ones willing to openly acknowledge the US role in the act, according to Lazare.

■ Sweden ends Nord Stream sabotage probe, hands evidence to Germany (aNews)[February 07,2024]
■ Seymour Hersh: A YEAR OF LYING ABOUT NORD STREAM (09/27/23)
■ Nord Stream Blast: Why the West Still Can't Name the Culprit (09/26/23)

Chris Hedges | Julian Assange will make his final appeal this week to the British courts to avoid extradition. If he is extradited it is the death of investigations into the inner workings of power by the press. | If Julian Assange is denied permission to appeal his extradition to the United States before a panel of two judges at the High Court in London this week, he will have no recourse left within the British legal system. His lawyers can ask the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) for a stay of execution under Rule 39, which is given in “exceptional circumstances” and “only where there is an imminent risk of irreparable harm.” But it is far from certain that the British court will agree. It may order Julian’s immediate extradition prior to a Rule 39 instruction or may decide to ignore a request from the ECtHR to allow Julian to have his case heard by the court. [...] Julian’s “crime” is that he published classified documents, internal messages, reports and videos from the U.S. government and U.S. military in 2010, which were provided by U.S. army whistleblower Chelsea Manning. This vast trove of material revealed massacres of civilians, torture, assassinations, the list of detainees held at Guantanamo Bay and the conditions they were subjected to, as well as the Rules of Engagement in Iraq. Those who perpetrated these crimes — including the U.S. helicopter pilots who gunned down two Reuters journalists and 10 other civilians and severely injured two children, all captured in the Collateral Murder video — have never been prosecuted.

Big Pharma’s Tested ‘Secret Bioweapon Program to Target Slavic DNA’ in Mariupol – Expert | When conducting human tests, Big Pharma did not think twice before using hospitals in certain developing countries, which don’t have “rigorous controls” for such actions, William Jones, a former White House correspondent and a non-resident fellow of the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, told Sputnik. ● Sputnik has obtained a trove of documents indicating that rheumatological drugs had been allegedly tested for several years on psychiatric patients of a hospital in the city of Mariupol at the request of major Western pharmaceutical corporations and with the assistance of Ukrainian officials. The documents contain information pertaining to such companies as Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Celltrion, Novatris International AG, Merck KGaA, and a branch of Samsung that produces medical equipment. The tests were carried out while the Kiev regime held Mariupol until May 2022, when Russia took over the city.

Finland has supported Ukraine since 2022 on various levels, from humanitarian aid to military aid packages worth €1.8 billion | Finland's newly elected President Alexander Stubb has said that he will continue to support Ukraine. "I would like to continue the line of [outgoing President] Sauli Niinisto," Stubb said at a press briefing, answering a question on his position on Ukraine. The broadcast was carried by Finnish media. Finland has supported Ukraine since 2022 on various levels, from humanitarian aid to military aid packages worth €1.8 billion. Stubb was elected Finland's 13th president in a runoff election on February 11 and will be inaugurated on March 1.

■ Former Finnish premier Stubb reveals his CIA-contacts as Plame and Lavery (UMV-LEHTI)
■ Do Russians know everything about Alexander Stubb’s cooperation with the CIA? (UMV-LEHTI)
■ Mad Rush Into NATO: Is Finland's President-Elect Racing to Confront Russia? (Ekaterina Blinova)
■ Kremlin skeptical about Finland’s president-elect (RT.com)(12 Feb, 2024)

Rheumatological drugs had been allegedly tested for several years on patients of the Mariupol hospital's psychiatric ward at the request of major Western pharmaceutical companies and with the assistance of Ukrainian officials, according to documents seen by Sputnik. | These documents were discovered by builders in the basement of hospital No. 7 in Mariupol during its restoration. ● The documents belonged to the psychiatric ward of the hospital and were drafted in 2008-2016. According to the initial inspection of the documents, it can be seen that certain drugs with numbers and without proper titles were tested on humans. ● The primary purpose of the research was to evaluate the effectiveness of the drug in relation to the proportion of patients who achieved the response according to the criteria of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR).

Such companies like Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Celltrion, Novatris International AG, IQVIA, Sanofi, Galapagos NV, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, AbbottLaboratories, Covance, Merck KGaA, CentocorBiopharmaceutical and a branch of Samsung that produces medical equipment were mentioned in the documents.

What was described by the Pentagon as a "logistics support base" turns out to be a secret drone base for long-range surveillance of fighters in neighboring Syria and Iraq and for conducting airstrikes. | The Pentagon calls the US base in Jordan, Tower 22, a “logistics support base” - however, in reality, the area in which three US troops were killed last month is more than what it seems. ● The Intercept reported that Tower 22 is secretly a drone base for long-range surveillance of whom the US perceives as "insurgents" in neighboring Syria and Iraq and to conduct airstrikes, according to two US military sources, while it also represents a staging facility for special operations forces and is a medevac helicopter home base. ● Talking to The Intercept, an Air Force airman, whose unit was recently stationed at the base, said,
💬 “To call Tower 22 a logistics support base is complete bullshit,” as logistics was only a minor part - or a disguise - to merely deliver food and fuel to the nearby al-Tanf base. “The main purpose of Tower 22 is to operate drones to spy on insurgents in Iraq and Syria, for targeting purposes,” the airman added, noting, “The main objective I witnessed was taking out targets.”

■ US approves plan for strike on Iranian targets (02/02/24)

We all know the story of bin Laden and Al Qaeda, the story that was repeated ad nauseam in the days, weeks and months after the catastrophic, catalyzing events of 9/11. So often was that story repeated that the hypnotized public forgot that it was, at base, just that: a story. . . .

Warsaw fed “disinformation” to investigators and tried to blame the blasts on Russia, European officials have said | Polish officials withheld evidence and attempted to stall an international probe into the bombing of the Nord Stream gas pipelines, making investigators “suspicious of Warsaw’s role and motives,” the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. ● The Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas lines – which linked Russia with Germany under the Baltic Sea – were destroyed in a series of explosions near the Danish island of Bornholm in September 2022. A joint inquiry by Germany, Denmark, and Sweden is ongoing, with investigators theorizing that a Ukrainian team rented a yacht in Germany from a Polish company, which they used to transport explosives to the blast sites. ● When the investigators chased these leads in Poland, they found themselves stonewalled by government officials and law enforcement agents, the Journal reported, citing sources within the investigation.

■ New Polish Chapter in CIA’s Nord Stream Cover Story Signals Growing US-EU Split (Sputnik News)

The outline of the massacre’s initial falsification and suppression, followed by its eventual disclosure, is cobbled from My Lai: Vietnam, 1968, and the Descent into Darkness (Oxford, 2017), a thorough retreatment of the infamous Vietnam War atrocity by Howard Jones, | Has the voluminous, careful study in the literature devoted to the My Lai massacre left something out? It’s not a matter of omissions, the historian argues, but that the record is replete with conflicting interpretations. To tell the “full story” required Jones to reorder events in their “proper sequence,” he says. His other reasons for taking us back to Pinkville are equally vague, and casually embedded among several floating asides in the author’s Acknowledgments. His debts are many, but foremost among them Jones recognizes his Vietnamese-American graduate assistant who “emphasized the importance of incorporating the Vietnamese side into the narrative and remaining objective in telling the story.”

Larry Johnson | CTIL Files #1: US And UK Military Contractors Created Sweeping Plan For Global Censorship In 2018, New Documents Show. Michael Shellenberger, Alex Gutentag and Matt Taibbi produced a blockbuster report on November 28 that I neglected to cover at the time. My bad. The report exposes a genuine conspiracy — i.e., the Censorship Industrial Complex aka CIC. It is not a theory. It is a fact. | There is an active partnership between the U.S. Government’s security and intelligence agencies and the private sector that is engaged in information warfare against the American people. Michael Shellenberger provided a succinct explanation of this conspiracy in his written testimony to the U.S. Congress. The CIC is the mechanism that this combination of private and public entities are using to fabricate lies about a whole host of issues, such as the war in Ukraine, Donald Trump inciting an insurrection and Israel fighting terrorists who behead babies.

Suspects behind the incidents in front of the Belgrade City Assembly were questioned at the High Public Prosecutor's Office, and seven persons pleaded guilty. | After the hearing, the seven suspects admitted their guilt and concluded an agreement on the recognition of criminal offenses with suspended prison sentences and fines, which agreements will be forwarded to the High Court in Belgrade for a decision on confirmation. [...] Criminal charges have been filed against all the suspects for the aforementioned crimes, in connection with which evidentiary proceedings will be conducted in a shortened procedure, after which the prosecution will decide whether to file indictments against the suspects or to suspend the proceedings.

■ Serbia riots: Hypocritical Western ‘rules-based order’ in action (Nebojsa Malic)

The use of techniques applied during the Maidan coup in Ukraine was “obvious,” according to the Foreign Ministry’s spokeswoman | Attempts by protestors to storm the Belgrade city administration building on Sunday were part of a plot by Western countries to overthrow the Serbian government, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said. ● Thousands of pro-Western demonstrators attempted to break into government buildings in the capital on Sunday evening following the victory of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) over the pro-EU Serbia Against Violence (SPN) coalition in parliamentary elections. ● Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has labeled the protests an attempted color revolution – a term used to describe movements funded and organized by Western countries, usually the US, aimed at toppling world leaders opposed to Washington’s interests. [...] The spokeswoman stated that “the only possible reaction” to the weekend’s election results was strict adherence to the letter and spirit of Serbia’s constitution and respect for the choice of its people.

■ Serbia thanks Russia for ‘color revolution’ warning (RT.com)

The Creech 14 | May 10, 2009 ("CreechAFB") | The armed drones, MQ-1 Predators and MQ-9 Reapers: Sanitized Remote-Control Death. | In 2009 President Barack Obama dramatically escalated the CIA’s secret air war in Pakistan and the U.S. military occupation of Afghanistan. Relying heavily on unmanned drones for surveillance and air strikes, armed drones and drone-assisted gunships have raised death and destruction to a new level. Soaring civilian casualties demand a public discussion of the legality and morality of drone warfare. ● A drone is a remote-control spy plane that can also launch bombs to kill people. Variously called an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), Unmanned Air System (UAS) or Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA), today the focus is on the Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle (UCAV). As drone technology races toward robotic weaponry, the UCAV is the lethal multi-mission drone of future warfare.

■ Another war crime in Afghanistan: US massacres nine children in air strike (03/05/11)

According to Maria Zakharova, Ukraine has lost its state independence and is being maintained by Western colonizers | [...] Ten years ago "skillful instigators, trained by American and European instructors, brought crowds to street protests with promises of a 'better European' life, visa-free travel to EU countries, democracy, freedom of speech, human rights and the fight against corruption," she pointed out. "In reality, those were well-orchestrated and staged mass riots aimed at overthrowing the legitimate government," Zakharova said. [...] The events were triggered by the government's decision to postpone the planned signing of the Association Agreement with the European Union in order to analyze how it might affect the Ukrainian economy, Zakharova reiterated. "This important aspect is deliberately hushed by Western and Ukrainian propagandists," she pointed out. "Meanwhile, it is the key to understanding the tragic situation we are currently witnessing. Ten years ago, the postponement of the signing of the Association Agreement with the EU wrecked the West's plans to detach Ukraine from Russia and destroy the historically established economic, humanitarian, cultural, spiritual, family and kinship ties that have united our countries and peoples for centuries," the diplomat explained.

■ B связи с 10-летием начала украинского «евромайдана» (М.В.Захаровой)(Telegram)
■ Zelensky Is Desperate To Preemptively Discredit Potentially Forthcoming Protests Against Him (Andrew Korybko)

Dmitry Medvedev (Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council) | Somoza may be a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch. (a phrase attributed to Franklin Delano Roosevelt)
   ● U.S. lawmakers are derailing funding for Israel's and Ukraine's military spending for this year. The reasons are technical and... not quite technical. It is clear that everything will resume in the new year. However, it is an important symptom of the development of the disease.
   ● If the story with Israel is obviously technical, because this country is more important to the U.S. Congress than its own, the Ukrainian regime is more complicated. As has been repeatedly noted in this channel, America easily betrays "its sons of bitches" when they become useless. It seems that this period is definitely coming for Kiev. And it's not just the Republicans and Democrats squabbling on the eve of the U.S. presidential election. They're just fed up. They are fed up - they eat too much money, steal wildly and do not achieve military success. Plus, the Israeli-Palestinian mess happened. In short, support for the "son of a bitch" is nearing its inevitable end. Not overnight, of course.
   ● There will be a lot of money, and schizoid incantations about democracy, and bravura assurances of the coming victory on earth, and false beliefs in alliance for all times, and so on and so forth. But the situation is clear: the time to go to oblivion for the next American " son of a bitch" is coming.
   ● The problem is that this Bandera spawn never realized who he [really] is...(DeepL + LanguageTool)

■ US support for Ukraine is 'nearing inevitable end,' Medvedev says (TASS)

The Russian president claims the Association Agreement effectively called for the destruction of all of the country's industry | The EU-Ukraine Association Agreement essentially envisaged the death of all Ukrainian industry, Russian President Vladimir Putin has claimed. The ratification of the accord was put on hold in late 2013 by then-President Viktor Yanukovich, which sparked the Maidan coup that led to his overthrow. ● The new Ukrainian government signed the agreement in 2014. Speaking to reporters on Friday, Putin said: 💬 “If you read what the EU proposed to Ukraine, this is what is apparently being realized now – this was tantamount to the destruction of all key industries that the Soviet Ukraine once prided itself on.” The president added that “we now see exactly that there’s nothing left there already.” According to Putin, Yanukovich was weighing Kiev’s options and simply postponed the ratification of the agreement with the EU in 2013.

Crimean parliament speaker Vladimir Konstantinov told Sputnik, commenting on a recent report by an American newspaper, that the intelligence services of three countries were behind the two deadly attacks on the Crimean Bridge. | On Monday, the news agency reported, citing sources, that naval drones used by Kiev in July to strike the bridge that links Crimea to mainland Russia were developed by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and other Western intelligence services. 💬 "The strike on the bridge is a well-planned, well-calculated operation, including with the help of military aircraft and reconnaissance drones. As in the first terrorist attack, three countries took part in this [the second attack] — besides the SBU [the Ukrainian Security Service], without the CIA and MI6 [the UK Secret Intelligence Service], this could not have been carried out. They won't trick us with tales about their innocence," Konstantinov emphasized. The intelligence services of the United States and United Kingdom are accomplices in the crimes committed by Kiev, he added. ● Konstantinov also described the Washington Post's investigation as misinformation, adding that Ukraine had long lost its independence and acts on direct instructions of Western countries. ● The Crimean Bridge has been a target of Ukrainian attacks since the start of Russia's military operation. Last October, a truck bomb exploded on the bridge, killing the driver and four civilians and damaging the bridge. Ukraine initially denied having anything to do with the bombing, but later acknowledged the attack was carried out by its security service. In July, Ukraine attacked the bridge with sea drones, killing a couple who were driving across when the bridge was bombed and injuring their teenage daughter. The bridge was damaged as a result of the strike.