Stephen Lendman

Rogue terror states wage wars the same way. America does it. So does Israel. Kiev's illegitimate fascist government operates extrajudicially. Rule of law principles don't apply. Dirty war is waged on its own non-combatant men, women and children. Residential neighborhoods are bombed and shelled. Banned chemical and other terror weapons are used.

Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) member of parliament Miroslav Rudenko said:

"According to our soldiers' information, the Ukrainian forces are using chemical ammunition on DPR territory. Once a shell bursts, a gas affecting sense organs is emitted. We have this information."

In early June, Southeastern Ukrainian freedom fighters said Kiev forces attacked Semyonovka near Slaviansk with an unknown chemical weapon. On August 6, freedom fighters claimed "irrefutable evidence" of a weapon used similar to white phosphorous. It burns flesh to the bone. It keeps burning until entirely consumed or deprived of oxygen.

The Hague and Geneva Conventions categorically prohibit use of these type weapons. It doesn't matter. Kiev uses them against civilians. So does Israel. America uses banned chemical, biological and radiological weapons in all its wars. These countries kill and destroy indiscriminately. They commit daily crimes of war and against humanity.

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Stephen Lendman

America OKs mass murder. It permits flouting rule of law principles, norms and standards. America is a terror state. Criminality continues on an unprecedented scale.

Permanent war is official US policy. One country after another is ravaged and destroyed. Millions of corpses attest to America's barbarity. No nation in world history matches it. Obama exceeds the worst of his predecessors. He's a war criminal multiple times over.

Advancing America's imperium matters most. US hegemonic ambitions risk global war. So does its rage for full spectrum dominance over all land, surface and sub-surface sea, air, space, electromagnetic spectrum and information systems with enough overwhelming power to fight and win global wars against any adversary. International laws, treaties, conventions, standards and norms don't matter. Washington rules alone apply. Might v. right reflects them.

Obama's proxy war on Syria rages without end. Events in Ukraine reflect US-led NATO's drive East. Co-opting it into the Atlantic Alliance ensures encroaching on Russia's entire Western flank. US military strength on its borders cuts it off from Europe. Marginalizing, isolating and weakening it at the same time.

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Stephen Lendman

Donbass residents vote in the referendum on the status of the self-
proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic. (RIA Novosti / M. Blinov)

On Sunday, Donetsk and Lugansk residents voted. Democracy triumphed overwhelmingly. Both regions declared independence. Self-determination is inviolable. It's a universal right.

Not according to Washington. Reaction was as expected. It didn't surprise. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki lied calling both referendums "illegal." They reflect real democracy in action. "We do not recognize the illegal referendum that took place in portions of Donetsk and Luhansk over the weekend," she said. "It was illegal under Ukrainian law and an attempt to create further division and disorder in the country." "Its methodology was also highly suspect with reports of carousel voting, pre-marked ballots, children voting, voting for people who were absent, and even voting in Moscow and St. Petersburg."

Fact: Donetsk and Lugansk referendums were legal.
Fact: UN Charter provisions affirm self-determination.
Fact: Kiev's putschist government has no legitimacy.
Fact: Rule by coup d'état reflects lawlessness.
Fact: Sunday's electoral process was scrupulously open, free and fair.
Fact: Verifiable passports identified eligible voters.
Fact: Ukrainian ex-pat voting is commonplace.
Fact: In 2004, this writer personally witnessed Chicago Ukrainians queued in front of the city's consulate waiting to vote at the time.

Don't expect Psaki to explain. Her job is suppressing truth. It's lying for wealth, power and privilege. It's twisting facts to fit policy. It's supporting US lawlessness. It's endorsing what demands condemnation. Psaki ignored Kiev forces attacking Eastern Ukrainian cities. Waging lawless aggression. Murdering civilians in cold blood.

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Stephen Lendman

A previous article called Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov a world class diplomat. John Kerry is polar opposite. He represents the worst of America's dark side. He's vying for Washington's worst ever Secretary of State top dishonor. He's what Paul Craig Roberts calls a "two-bit punk." He's a war criminal multiple times over. Demagoguery punctuates his comments. It exceeds the worst of Cold War rhetoric. He's been caught red-handed numerous times in bald-faced lies. He disdains rule of law principles. He supports war. He deplores peace. He's indifferent to human suffering. He's a monument to wrong over right. He disgraces his country, position and humanity. He belongs in prison, not high office. On April 24, he bashed Russia irresponsibly. He did so recklessly. He did maliciously. Big Lies infested his rhetoric. He turned truth on its head.

Four parties in Geneva "agreed that all sides would refrain from violence, intimidation, and taking provocative actions," he said:

"We agreed that illegal groups would lay down their arms…We agreed to implement" objectives discussed. "From day one," he added, "the government of Ukraine started making good on its commitments - from day one." "From day one, Prime Minister Yatsenyuk has kept his word. He immediately agreed to help vacate buildings." "He suspended Ukraine's counterterrorism initiative over Easter, choosing de-escalation, despite Ukraine’s legitimate, fundamental right to defend its own territory and its own people."

Fact: Kiev putschists have no legitimacy whatever. They have no legal authority. They represent mob rule. Fact: "From day one," they violated agreed on Geneva terms. They did so straightaway. They deployed military forces and Right Sector thugs to Eastern Ukraine. They attacked nonviolent civilians. They committed cold-blooded murder. Fact: Yatsenyuk lied. He escalated conflict. Kiev buildings remain occupied illegally.

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Stephen Lendman

It could happen any time. Kiev putschists said "second stage" operations were launched. Strategy calls for "completely isolat(ing)" Slavyansk. It's a freedom fighting stronghold. Self-defense forces prepared. Coop-appointed presidential administration head Sergey Pashinsky said:

"The aim is to…localize the problem." Operations remain ongoing. Pashinsky lied saying "terrorists have placed their key strong points in kindergartens and hospitals."

He called what doesn't exist "classic terrorism." Freedom fighters denounced him. They called his accusations "ridiculous."

Journalist Graham Phillips said area troops built up. Snipers in forests are positioned. Slavyansk was encircled. Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) first deputy head General Vasily Krutov lied saying:

"We will not go the length of (civilian) casualties to storm the city. We understand that this may lead to many people coming to harm."

Freedom fighters brace for the worst. Fascists give no quarter. Armored vehicles positioned around Slavyansk. Troops with no insignia were spotted. Onslaught could follow any time. So could massacring city residents.

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Mike Head

US imperialism and its [European puppets] are seeking to redraw the European map, strategically and militarily encircling Russia in order to dismember the Russian Federation. The ultimate aim is to assert unchallenged US hegemony over the Eurasian landmass.

Seizing upon spreading protests and building occupations in eastern Ukraine in response to February’s Western-backed putsch in Kiev, the Obama administration is escalating its accusations, threats and provocations against Russia.

In the clearest sign of intensifying US involvement in the Ukraine crisis, the White House admitted—after vehement denials—that CIA Director John Brennan flew into Kiev over the weekend. Brennan arrived, under a false name, for discussions on how to further exploit the crisis that the US and its allies deliberately triggered by orchestrating the February coup.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov demanded an explanation about the nature of the undercover visit, and deposed Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych accused Brennan of ordering a crackdown on protests in the east of the country.

The CIA initially ridiculed these accusations as “completely false.” Yesterday, however, White House spokesman Jay Carney declared: “We don’t normally comment on the CIA director’s travel, but given the extraordinary circumstances in this case and the false claims being leveled by the Russians at the CIA, we can confirm that the director was in Kiev as part of a trip to Europe.”

Ludicrously, Carney told reporters that “senior level visits of intelligence officials are a standard means of fostering mutually beneficial security cooperation, including US-Russian intelligence collaboration.” He added that “to imply that US officials meeting with their counterparts is anything other than in the same spirit is absurd.”

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Paul Craig Roberts

The Obama regime has issued simultaneous threats to the enemy it is making out of Russia and to its European NATO allies on which Washington is relying to support sanctions on Russia. This cannot end well.

As even Americans living in a controlled media environment are aware, Europeans, South Americans, and Chinese are infuriated that the National Stasi Agency is spying on their communications. NSA’s affront to legality, the US Constitution, and international diplomatic norms is unprecedented. Yet, the spying continues, while Congress sits sucking its thumb and betraying its oath to defend the Constitution of the United States.

In Washington mumbo-jumbo from the executive branch about “national security” suffices to negate statutory law and Constitutional requirements. Western Europe, seeing that the White House, Congress and the Federal Courts are impotent and unable to rein-in the Stasi Police State, has decided to create a European communication system that excludes US companies in order to protect the privacy of European citizens and government communications from the Washington Stasi.

The Obama regime, desperate that no individual and no country escape its spy net, denounced Western Europe’s intention to protect the privacy of its communications as “a violation of trade laws.”

Obama’s US Trade Representative, who has been negotiating secret “trade agreements” in Europe and Asia that give US corporations immunity to the laws of all countries that sign the agreements, has threatened WTO penalties if Europe’s communications network excludes the US companies that serve as spies for NSA. Washington in all its arrogance has told its most necessary allies that if you don’t let us spy on you, we will use WTO to penalize you.

So there you have it. The rest of the world now has the best possible reason to exit the WTO and to avoid the Trans-Pacific and Trans-Atlantic “trade agreements.” The agreements are not about trade. The purpose of these “trade agreements” is to establish the hegemony of Washington and US corporations over other countries.

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Stefan Steinberg and Peter Schwarz

François Hollande, Bernard-Henri Lévy, Petro Poroshenko and
Vitali Klitschko. Poroshenko and Klitschko have in recent weeks
met with various European political leaders, who all support the
fascist coup in Ukraine, thus throwing democracy under the bus.

NATO continued its military build-up on the Russian border even as US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met in Paris Sunday evening to discuss the conflict over Ukraine. The meeting, involving four hours of “frank” talks, ended with no breakthrough and separate news conferences.

The two men met after Russian President Vladimir Putin indicated his readiness to make certain concessions. Last Friday he phoned US President Barack Obama in Saudi Arabia to discuss a “diplomatic resolution to the crisis.” On Sunday, Kerry dismissed Lavrov’s proposal for a Federal Ukraine that was not part of NATO, cynically declaring that was “up to the Ukrainians”—that is, the fascist-led regime in Kiev backed by Washington.

Kerry again rejected Russia’s annexation of the Crimea as “illegal and illegitimate” and accused Russia of massing troops on its border with Ukraine. Western governments are using the alleged Russian troop movements to justify the steady boosting of their military presence in the Baltic states. The former Soviet republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were admitted into NATO in 2004, but the military alliance did not previously deploy troops there in order not to provoke Russia. The three states have tiny armies, numbering between 5,000 and 12,000 each, and without any tanks or fighter jets. This is now being changed.

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Stephen Lendman

Inspectors from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical
Weapons (OPCW) at work at an undisclosed location in Syria

Nobel Committee members broke their own rules. Peace Prize nominations "may be submitted by any person who meets the nominat(ing) criteria." Candidates eligible to win "are those persons or organizations nominated by qualified individuals." Nominations "must be postmarked no later than February 1 each year. Nominations postmarked and received after this date are included in the following year's discussions."

On October 11, Nobel Committee members awarded the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) its 2013 Peace Prize. It reflects its involvement in destroying Syria's chemical weapons. It's unclear when OPCW was nominated. It was well beyond the February 1 deadlined. The organization has done little so far in Syria to deserve honoring. Its mandate has nothing to do with restoring peace. Doing so requires Obama calling off his dogs. It requires ending support for thousands of imported cutthroat killers. It demands ceasing what Washington intends to continue.

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Stephen Lendman

He called insurgents terrorists. He did so justifiably. He said Western countries lie. He's defending Syrian sovereignty, he stressed. More on what he said below.

He deplores war. He wants peaceful conflict resolution. He's defending Syria against foreign invaders. They're extremist insurgents. He voluntarily agreed to eliminate Syria's chemical weapons. International inspectors arrived last week.

Syria's working cooperatively with them to destroy its CW stockpile. According to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov:

"Throughout all these weeks since the moment Syria joined the Chemical Weapons Convention Damascus (it) has faultlessly cooperated with international inspectors. We are satisfied with the way the process is unfolding. We don't have any reasons to believe that the impeccable cooperation that the Syrian government has thus far demonstrated will change in any way."

Lavrov added that Russia will do everything possible to help facilitate the elimination of CWs in Syria. Security Council Resolution 2118 obligates both sides to cooperate fully. At issue is whether insurgents will comply.

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