Covert Geopolitics | The U.S. has invested substantial funds in Armenia, a nation with a treaty alliance with Russia. Samantha Power, Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), arrived in Yerevan shortly after the Nagorno-Karabakh ceasefire, pledging support for Armenia’s sovereignty. This article delves into how USAID is working with Armenia’s pro-Western prime minister to reshape the country. How Did We Reach This Point?

■ Tensions rise between Armenia, Russia (eurasianet)(george soros/open society = be warned!)
■ Russia scrambles as EU surges in Caucasus (M. K. BHADRAKUMAR)
■ L'Azerbaïdjan agresse le Haut-Karabakh : trahison finale de Pachinian (Karine Bechet-Golovko)

While the US role in looting Syria’s resources is well-documented, less is known about the complicity of Iraq's Kurdistan region in its transportation and distribution | Although the porous Iraqi-Syrian border stretches for over 600 kilometers, about half of it – in practice – is not subject to the authority of either state. Over the years, this lack of comprehensive border control has given rise to a number of security threats to both nations, not least the persistent presence of ISIS elements in border regions. ● From the Iraqi side, there has been a pro-active approach in countering this low-level terrorism with the establishment of two defensive lines by the Joint Operations Command, in addition to concrete barriers and watchtowers. ● Smuggling from Syria into Iraqi border towns is another salient feature of current border activities, and one which presents both a threat and an opportunity for the US-led international coalition whose forces operate on both sides of the border.

■ US Ramps Up Systematic Looting of Syrian Oil, Ships 35 Tankers Out of Country (07/17/23)
■ China [correctly] accuses US of oil theft (01/19/23)

Jeffrey Sachs is a well-known American economist, academic, and public policy analyst who has made significant contributions to the fields of sustainable development and economic development. He has held various prestigious positions throughout his career, including serving as the director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University and as a special advisor to the United Nations Secretary-General on the Millennium Development Goals. Sachs has authored numerous books and articles on topics related to economics, poverty reduction, and sustainable development. Website: jeffsachs.org

■ NATO Admits that Ukraine War is The War of NATO Expansion (09/30/23)

Seymour Hersh | The Biden administration has acknowledged neither its responsibility for the pipeline bombing nor the purpose of the sabotage | I do not know much about covert CIA operations—no outsider can—but I do understand that the essential component of all successful missions is total deniability. The American men and women who moved, under cover, in and out of Norway in the months it took to plan and carry out the destruction of three of the four Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea a year ago left no traces—not a hint of the team’s existence—other than the success of their mission. ● Deniability, as an option for President Joe Biden and his foreign policy advisers, was paramount. No significant information about the mission was put on a computer, but instead typed on a Royal or perhaps a Smith Corona typewriter with a carbon copy or two, as if the Internet and the rest of the online world had yet to be invented. The White House was isolated from the goings-on near Oslo; various reports and updates from the field were directly provided to CIA Director Bill Burns, who was the only link between the planners and the president who authorized the mission to take place on September 26, 2022. Once the mission was completed, the typed papers and carbons were destroyed, thus leaving no physical trace—no evidence to be dug up later by a special prosecutor or a presidential historian. You could call it the perfect crime.

■ Nord Stream Blast: Why the West Still Can't Name the Culprit (09/26/23)

Speaking at a press conference here on Friday, Blinken said the US has engaged directly with the Indian government on the issue and the most productive thing would be the completion of this investigation | The US is deeply concerned about the allegations raised by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau against India on the killing of a Khalistani separatist in Canada, Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said and Washington was "closely coordinating" with Ottawa on the issue and wants to see "accountability" in the case. ● Speaking at a press conference here on Friday, Blinken said the US has engaged directly with the Indian government on the issue and the most productive thing would be the completion of this investigation.

■ India’s Canadian riddle – To be, or not to be (M. K. BHADRAKUMAR)
■ US envoy confirms Canada received intelligence from Five Eyes partners before Justin Trudeau went public with allegations against India (The Telegraph Online)

Kit Klarenberg | This week marks the 60th anniversary of the military coup orchestrated by the CIA and MI6 that overthrew Iran’s then-Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddeq and his cabinet. | Working in tandem, British and American spies waged a devastatingly effective covert campaign using saboteurs, staged protests, false flag bombings, and assassinations, which ultimately put the reign of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi on a more brutal and dictatorial footing for the ensuing two and a half decades. ● The coup’s history is fairly well-known - not least because the CIA has openly admitted responsibility for the mass violence and upheaval that unseated Mosaddeq on that fateful day, and many documents outlining its cloak-and-dagger activities during this period are in the public domain. ● Yet, MI6’s central role remains largely unknown. Now, the sordid tale - or, what can be pieced together from an incomplete, thoroughly weeded archival record - must be told.

In the video below from the Russian Ministry of Defense, Russia just publicly accused Deep State actors and Big Pharma of manufacturing the COVID pandemic to take over the world. | They even listed Obama, Clinton, Biden, and Soros, of being the main “Ideologists” behind the plot. Below, a video from a Briefing by the Chief of Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Protection Troops of the Russian Armed Forces Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov: "Pentagon conducts uncontrolled dual-use research in circumvention of international obligations under the BTWC (Biological and Toxin Weapons Control Treaty)."Put succinctly, the Russian Military officially and publicly accuses the US of releasing bioweapons to create “crisis situations”, and claims the US is planning to do it again. This is the biggest story in human history, and yet it is somehow remaining largely unnoticed. UPDATE 11:22 AM EDT --Television stations all over Russia are carrying this bombshell accusation as a major leading news story. In this interview, Lt General Igor Kirillov goes even further in the accusation, saying the US is going to do it again.

Anatoly Antonov stressed that Moscow is in favor of the speedy repatriation of all Russian citizens held in American prisons | Russia is demanding that the US stop "hunting down" Russian nationals in third countries and is prioritizing the repatriation of all compatriots imprisoned in the US, Russian Ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov said. 💬 "Russia has always opposed Washington’s 'hunt' for Russians in third countries. It demands that this practice stop. However, the [US] Administration continues to live in a world of its own, built on their own rules while ignoring the interests of other countries. We will never agree with such an approach," the diplomat said on the Russian embassy's Telegram channel. "It is an absolute priority for us. This is why we consider speculation on this issue unacceptable. […] We fight for these people to get [them] back to their homeland, [back to] their families as soon as possible," he noted.

A candidate in Ecuador's forthcoming presidential election who has campaigned against corruption and gangs has been shot dead at a campaign rally. | Fernando Villavicencio, a member of the country's national assembly, was attacked as he left the event in the capital, Quito, on Wednesday. He is one of the few candidates to allege links between organised crime and government officials in Ecuador. A criminal gang called Los Lobos (The Wolves) has claimed responsibility. Los Lobos is the second-largest gang in Ecuador with some 8,000 members, many of whom are behind bars. The gang has been involved in a number of recent deadly prison fights, in which scores of inmates have been brutally killed.

Washington took issue with the PM’s neutral stance on Russia’s military operation in Ukraine | “People here and in Europe are quite concerned about why Pakistan is taking such an aggressively neutral position” on Ukraine, US Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs Donald Lu warns his Pakistani counterpart in the cable, blaming the PM alone for the offending policy. ● While Ambassador Asad Majeed Khan attempts to correct the American, pointing out that Pakistan’s position on Ukraine is shared across the government, Lu counters that it is the PM’s behavior that is the problem, but that “if the no-confidence vote against the Prime Minister succeeds, all will be forgiven in Washington.” “Otherwise, I think it will be tough going ahead,” he threatens, adding that Europe will follow the US’ lead in the “isolation of the prime minister.”

Intelligence agencies have been manipulating the online encyclopedia for more than a decade, Larry Sanger has claimed | Wikipedia is one of many tools used by the US liberal establishment and its allies in the intelligence community to wage “information warfare,” the site’s co-founder, Larry Sanger, has told journalist Glenn Greenwald. Speaking on Greenwald’s ‘System Update’ podcast, Sanger lamented how the site he helped found in 2001 has become an instrument of “control” in the hands of the left-liberal establishment, among which he counts the CIA, FBI, and other US intelligence agencies. “We do have evidence that, as early as 2008, that CIA and FBI computers were used to edit Wikipedia,” he said. “Do you think that they stopped doing that back then?”

■ ‘Special services’ control Western media – Kremlin (RT.com)

"The Biden administration’s role in both attacks was vital." | Legendary national security journalist Seymour Hersh has published a report this week alleging US intelligence helped the Ukrainians blow up the Kerch Bridge (or also, Crimean Bridge), which happened earlier this month and corresponded to President Putin refusing to renew the Black Sea Grain Initiative deal. ● What’s more is that Hersh’s sources described that the US assisted in the initial, larger Kerch Bridge explosion which had initially temporarily disabled it in October 2022. “The Biden administration’s role in both attacks was vital,” he wrote in a Thursday Substack investigative article. ● 💬 “Of course it was our technology,” an unnamed US official told Hersh, referring to the sea drone which detonated under the vital bridge on July 17. “The drone was remotely guided and half submerged–like a torpedo.” ● The source cited is said to be a US intelligence official who is speaking out anonymously “from the point of view of those in the American intelligence community who don’t feel they have the ear of President Joe Biden but should.”

The US president has asked CIA Director William Burns to play a direct role in his government | US President Joe Biden has tapped CIA Director William Burns to become a member of his cabinet, underscoring the official’s significant influence in the White House and his key role in American foreign policy. ● The president announced the decision on Friday, saying Burns has given the United States a “critical strategic advantage” and helped to tackle “our nation’s top national security challenges,” including dealings with Russia and China. ● Burns previously served as the US ambassador to Russia under President George W. Bush, and later held senior positions in the State Department during the Barack Obama administration, frequently dealing with Russia policy. In 2008, he penned a memo to his superiors warning that NATO membership for Ukraine would stoke “serious concerns about the consequences of stability in the region,” and potentially set off a “civil war” in the country. Citing several national security experts, the official said Ukraine was the most significant “destabilizing factor in US-Russian relations,” predicting a significant response by Moscow.

Glenn Greenwald | Project Mockingbird was the name of a secret CIA project that caused the Agency significant embarrassment when it was exposed in the mid-1970s as part of the Senate's Church Committee investigation. Its basic purpose was to covertly infiltrate and then influence the nation's largest media corporations by implanting agents and other methods for ensuring that corporate news in the United States served the agenda rather than undermining the agenda of U.S. foreign policy. ● Today, there's absolutely no need at all for Operation Mockingbird. That is because, as we previously reported, U.S. security state agents openly send their top operatives to get hired by television networks, which proudly tout the number of former CIA, FBI, NSA and Homeland Security operatives on their payroll to report the news to Americans. But it's not only corporate media outlets that are drowning in former operatives of the U.S. security state. These agencies have also utterly infiltrated Big Tech corporations, especially Google and Facebook, and especially among those positions that are responsible for censoring political content from these monopolistic platforms. In other words, at exactly the same time that a small army of security state operatives openly get hired by and help shape the propaganda that emanates from the country's largest media corporations, they are also dictating the boundaries of what citizens can say online, of what ideas and people can be heard and which ideas and people are prohibited. We'll show you the extent of this infiltration and what it means.

The discovery made by Russian authorities in the Donetsk Region shed light on what US government agencies have been up to in Ukraine over the past few years. | Information manuals, often trotted out as 'educational material' printed with the help of Western government agencies and NGOs, which instruct college students about the basics of political activism, were discovered by authorities in the city of Volnovakha that was earlier controlled by the Kiev regime until 2022 when it was liberated by Russian forces. ● A Ukrainian-language book entitled “Democracy: From Theory to Practice” teaches students how to organize small youth groups in order to engage in political 'activism'. The book, among other things, advised students to vigorously use popular social media platforms in order to maximize the effect of their activism.

William Van Wagenen | The Taliban has not once, but twice eradicated Afghanistan's poppy cultivation, the world's largest source of heroin. Despite western accusations, it has never been The Taliban behind the Afghan drug industry, but only ever the US and its allies, with billions in profits breezily laundered through the global financial system. | In the aftermath of the chaotic US and UK withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir warned in the Washington Post of the dangers of “ignoring one important consequence of the Taliban takeover: the coming boom in Afghanistan’s narcotics trade.” Mir then boldly predicted that, “in the next few years, a flood of drugs from Afghanistan may become a bigger threat than terrorism.” This projection of an international drug trade boom seemed plausible, considering the longstanding accusations that the Taliban funded their two-decade insurgency against the occupying forces by controlling opium production. In fact, it was believed that 95 percent of heroin used in Britain originated from Afghan opium. ● [W]estern displeasure towards the Taliban's efforts to dismantle the global heroin trade may seem perplexing at first glance. However, a closer examination of events in Afghanistan reveals a different perspective. Under the guise of the “War on Terror,” the 2001 US and UK invasion was driven in part by the desire to restore the heroin trade, which the Taliban had abruptly terminated just a year earlier. The western powers sought to reestablish the lucrative flow of billions of dollars that the heroin trade provided to their financial systems. In fact, “For 20 years, America essentially ran a narco-state in Afghanistan.”

■ Opium poppy harvest in Afghanistan at record high in 2014
■ Record levels of Heroin enters world market from Afghanistan
■ NATO helping boost Afghan heroin production: Russia
■ Over 20 Tons of [CIA's] Heroin Seized in Afghanistan
■ Connecting the Dots: Afghan Heroin, NATO, Azerbaijan Hub & Cargo Business
■ Afghan drugs: Opium price rises by 133%
■ Afghan opium poppy cultivation jumps

American media outlets are trying to make Russians rebel at Washington’s behest, the Foreign Intelligence Service has claimed | US authorities are urging the country’s media outlets to propagate falsehoods about Russia in a bid to undermine its stability amid the ongoing stand-off between Moscow and the West, the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) has claimed. In a statement on Monday, the agency quoted its director, Sergey Naryshkin, as saying that “the US State Department … basically dictates to the American media what exactly they should write and say,” adding that it “has finally turned into the ‘Ministry of Truth’.” The comment was an apparent reference to the fictional ministry tasked with falsifying historical events from George Orwell’s world-renowned dystopian novel ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’. ● The SVR, citing intelligence data, claimed that last month the department sent instructions to several major media holdings, including AT&T, Comcast Corporation, Graham Media Group, Nash Holdings, Newsweek Publishing and The New York Times Company, telling them to “reflect events in and around Russia in a distorted manner.” According to the agency, these outlets were tasked with convincing Russian citizens that there was a need for a “forceful struggle against the authorities, up to an armed rebellion.”

Some of the leaked documents shed light on Washington’s alleged spying efforts against key allies | Officials in several US-allied countries have scrambled to push back against the alleged revelations made in a leaked trove of classified Pentagon documents outlining Washington’s clandestine activities. Dozens of sensitive documents – which, according to the Wall Street Journal, began to emerge online as early as January but did not receive media attention until last week – focused on US war planning in Ukraine and provided a rare glimpse into Washington’s efforts to spy on both adversaries and allies. ● One of the documents claimed, as reported by the Washington Post, that last September, a Russian fighter jet almost shot down a British RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft over the Black Sea, which could have potentially sparked a direct conflict between NATO and Moscow. However, an unnamed British defense source told the Financial Times that “these reports contain inaccuracies and do not reflect what happened in international air space over the Black Sea

■ Leaked Pentagon files could be ‘deception’ operation – Moscow (RT.com)
■ 'Pentagon Leak' Reveals Defense Agency's 'Wild Card’ Scenarios in Ukraine Conflict (Sputnik News)
■ Pentagon leak exposes NATO special forces in Ukraine (RT.com)
■ Ukraine War Leaks & NS Parallels ("Ignasz Semmelweisz")

From late-night break-ins, to secretly installing devices to remotely monitor computer activity, to death threats and bizarre mind games meant to disorient and demoralize their targets, it seems little is off-limits when it comes to the push to neutralize the support network that’s cropped up around Assange since his imprisonment. | Activists, lawyers and journalists linked to WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange are being subjected to extensive surveillance and intimidation, an explosive new report has detailed. ● Individuals have been hacked, tracked, burglarized, threatened with death, and thrown in jails for years on dubious charges. And while the identity of the perpetrators has yet to be conclusively proven, victims say it’s clear who’s behind the campaign of harassment and spying: the Central Intelligence Agency.

Max Blumenthal and Esha Krishnaswamy | While claiming to defend democracy, Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky has outlawed his opposition, ordered his rivals’ arrest, and presided over the disappearance and assassination of dissidents across the country. | Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has framed his country’s war against Russia as a battle for democracy itself. In a carefully choreographed address to US Congress on March 16, Zelensky stated, “Right now, the destiny of our country is being decided. The destiny of our people, whether Ukrainians will be free, whether they will be able to preserve their democracy.” ● US corporate media has responded by showering Zelensky with fawning press, driving a campaign for his nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize and inspiring a flamboyant musical tribute to himself and the Ukrainian military during the 2022 Grammy awards ceremony on April 3. ● Western media has looked the other way, however, as Zelensky and top officials in his administration have sanctioned a campaign of kidnapping, torture, and assassination of local Ukrainian lawmakers accused of collaborating with Russia. Several mayors and other Ukrainian officials have been killed since the outbreak of war, many reportedly by Ukrainian state agents after engaging in de-escalation talks with Russia.

Yet There is Almost No Opposition or Outcry—Even When Sanctions are Increasingly Having a Boomerang Effect | The U.S. may try piously to defend sanctions as a ‘response to foreign tyranny,’ but they are really a pretext to steal foreign bank accounts and cripple commercial rivals of U.S. corporations. ● n November 14, the Biden administration announced yet another round of sanctions on Russia, targeting this time Russia’s military supply chains by imposing sanctions on 14 individuals and 28 entities that it said were part of a transnational network that procured technology to support Moscow in its invasion of Ukraine. ● One of the companies blacklisted was Milandr, a Russian microelectronics company that Washington says is part of Moscow’s military research and development structure. The sanctions additionally targeted several aviation-related companies and two individuals—Abbas Djuma and Tigran Khristoforovich Srabionov—who facilitated the Russian mercenary Wagner Group’s acquisition of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) from Iran, which have been used in the Ukraine War.

The CIA is working with an unnamed "NATO ally," according to Jack Murphy --Murphy was a former senior trainer and adviser to an Iraqi SWAT team --He said the CIA and Joe Biden are personally authorising missions | The CIA is combining with the spy service of a NATO ally in Europe to conduct covert sabotage operations inside Russia, according to new claims. The clandestine campaign is behind many unexplained explosions and fires that have hit strategic or prominent facilities in recent months, says US expert Jack Murphy, an eight-year Army Special Operations veteran. Separately other European intelligence services have allegedly been "running operatives into Russia to create chaos without CIA help," as has Ukraine. His claims follow as a new fire struck a shopping mall in Krasnodar region, in southern Russia, the latest in dozens of such incidents... Oil and gas facilities, railways, fuel depots, power plants and shopping malls have been hit across Russia by mysterious explosions, with rumours of sabotage.

Newly released docs show how the social media giant helped the US military “amplify certain messages” | Twitter executives have granted the US Defense Department special privileges to use the social media platform for its covert online influence campaigns for at least five years, newly released internal company communications show. ● Investigative journalist Lee Fang published the eighth batch of documents on Tuesday, after the company’s new owner, Elon Musk, authorized the release in an effort to provide transparency about Twitter’s past decision-making. 💬 “Despite promises to shut down covert state-run propaganda networks, Twitter docs show that the social media giant directly assisted the US military’s influence operations,” Fang wrote. The journalist was allowed to make requests for internal Twitter documents through an attorney, “meaning that the search results may not have been exhaustive.”

Ludmila Gladkaya. SB (Людмила Гладкая. СБ) | Spy network disguised as human rights volunteers uncovered by officers of the Interior Ministry's Main Directorate for Combating Organised Crime | Volunteers? Rats! or How foreign agents work. A network disguised as a volunteer human rights organization "Human Constant" was disclosed in Minsk by officers of the Main Department for Combating Organized Crime and Corruption of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The office was set up by the well-known supporter of extremism Anastasia Loika. Among the clients were anarchists, nationalists and other "regime spoilsmen". They collected information on Belarusians and sold it to foreign structures. There's a clear hand of Western intelligence agencies in the case. Now the investigation is handling the materials. (Translation: DeepL.com/)(MORE)