Khatyn Massacre Repeated in Odessa Olga SHEDROVA | 04.05.2014 | 11:09

Khatyn was a village in Belarus, the Minsk region. On March 22, 1943, the entire population of the village was massacred by Nazi. Hitting people with butts of rifles, they made old men, invalids, and even women with little babies and children get up from their beds. The inhabitants were driven from their houses and into a shed, which was then covered with straw and set on fire. It blazed immediately. Children were crying while dying of excessive smoke. Adults tried to save them. Dozens of human bodies pushed the front doors break open. With clothes of fire the victims stricken by awe tried to rush away but fascists raked them with fire in cold blood. 149 died, including 75 children younger than 16. The village was then looted and burned to the ground. Volodya Yaskevych his sister Sonya and Sasha Zhelobkovich saved themselves escaping to the woods. Viktor Zhelobkovich, a seven-year-old boy, survived the fire in the shed under the corpse of his mother. Another boy, 12-year-old Anton Baranovsky, was left for dead due to a leg wound. On May 2, 2014 the tragedy was repeated in the Ukrainian port city of Odessa. Around 15 hundred Pravy Sector militants and football hoodlums attacked the tent camp of anti-government protesters. Molotov cocktails were tossed. The tent camp was burnt to the ground. Many anti-Kiev protesters eventually hid inside the local House of Trade Unions. The first floor of the Trade Unions building was soon engulfed in flames. The people inside appeared to be trapped. Dozens eventually burnt alive or suffocated to death. To escape the fire and smoke, people were hanging out of windows and sitting on windowsills. In sheer desperation, some of them eventually jumped to the ground. Many of those who managed to escape the fire were then brutally beaten by Neo-Nazi. They used sticks against their victims. The actions were accompanied by the national hymn of Ukraine… As soon as firefighters put down the fire, Nazi broke inside to loot the dead. According to various estimations, the death toll was around 50, including 38 burnt alive. Western historians believe that Khatyn was burnt by German soldiers taking revenge for the death of an officer. The documents tell otherwise. It was Schutzmannschaft battalion 118, which consisted mostly of Ukrainian chasteners who were German collaborators. In September 1942 the unit was transferred to Belarus, where an over 45 thousand strong (almost a half of the whole partisan resistance movement on the territory of the Soviet Union) partisan force was fighting fascists. The Soviet partisans were members of a resistance movement which fought a guerilla war against the Axis occupation of the Soviet Union during WWII. The Battalion was manned by Ukrainian former Soviet Army deserters, the so-called Bukovina Kuren (Bukovinian Battalion, the biggest paramilitary unit), which took part in the massacre of Babi Yar, as well as the battalions Nachtigall and Roland. Nachtigall Battalion, officially known as Special Group Nachtigall, was formed in March-April 1941 to be manned by OUN (Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists) members headed by Stepan Bandera, the hero of contemporary Ukrainian Neo Nazi. Theodor Oberländer, later to become Federal Minister for Displaced Persons and War Victims in the Federal Republic of Germany, was the top commanding officer on the German side. Oberleutnant Hans-Albrecht Herzner was placed in military command of the Battalion. On the Ukrainian side, the commander was Captain Roman Shukhevych, another idol of Ukrainian radicals. The Roland Battalion (Bataillon Ukrainische Gruppe Roland) was officially known as Special Group Roland. Organized and commanded by Richard Yary of the OUN, the unit was named after E. Konovaletz and S. Petliura. Approximately 350 Bandera's OUN followers were trained at the Abwehr training center at Seidersgorf under command of the former Poland Army major Yevhen Pobiguschiy. With the experience of punitive actions in Belarus and Ukraine, the personnel joined later the Ukrainian Insurgent Army responsible for the massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia. The ‘heroes” of those days have followers today. 71 years ago Ukrainian chasteners burnt live civilians in Khatyn. Nowadays the tragedy was repeated in Odessa, where Nazi regularly demonstrate holding torches and waving posters with Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevych. On May 2, they made people get inside one building to burn them alive. Belonging to different generations, fascists resort to the very same true-and-tried tactics. http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2014/05/04/khatyn-massacre-repeated-in-odessa.html

Kiev Murders Civilians with Orwellian Western Collusion Finian CUNNINGHAM | 04.05.2014 | 00:00

The second military assault by pro-Kiev forces on cities and towns in the east and south of Ukraine this weekend was delivered with much greater firepower than a previous crackdown last month – and with a commensurately much greater death toll. This time it seems that Washington has given renewed military impetus to the Kiev regime in the form of CIA-backed neo-Nazi paramilitaries operating alongside regular Ukraine forces – and also, very possibly, from the covert involvement of US mercenaries. Yet, all the while, the Western governments and their lockstep news media broadcast Orwellian reports of an «anti-terrorist operation» conducted by the «Ukrainian government» – even though the latter is an unelected fascist junta that came to power through a murderous coup earlier this year. At least 10 pro-Russian residents from the eastern town of Kramatorsk, near Slavyansk, were reportedly shot dead at the weekend. The mayor of Slavyansk, Vyacheslav Ponomarev, told Russian media that the victims were unarmed civilians who had been part of a human chain to block the advance of Kiev forces when the latter opened fire. Elsewhere, up to 40 pro-Russian protesters were also killed after a building they were occupying in the southern port city of Odessa was deliberately set ablaze… In this second military offensive launched by the junta in Kiev there was evidently a determination to ramp up the firepower with deadly results. Ground troops from the Ukrainian national army were backed up with helicopters that reportedly opened fire on checkpoints and residential areas around the city of Slavyansk. Two army helicopters were shot down by civilian self-defense units with the loss of one pilot and the capture of another. More sinisterly, there are several reports that working alongside the Ukraine regular forces were armed cadres of the neo-Nazi Right Sector paramilitaries that brought the Kiev regime to power in the violent coup in February. Right Sector paramilitaries were reliably reported to be among the forces advancing on Kramatorsk and Slavyansk this weekend. The same paramilitary group, which has been given official state security status by their leaders in the Kiev regime, was prominent in the clashes with pro-Russian protesters in Odessa and are accused of torching the Trade Union building, which resulted in dozens of deaths this weekend. Undeterred by the murderous mayhem unleashed by the Western-backed junta in Kiev, Washington said it supported the «security operation». Even more sinister is the reported involvement of foreign mercenaries collaborating in the assault that Kiev labels an «anti-terrorist crackdown». Russian media over the weekend reported claims by self-defense activists in Slavyansk that they had intercepted radio transmissions among the Kiev forces, detecting English-speaking personnel. There were also reports of other foreign military personal with accents identified as being from NATO member Baltic countries. These latest reports have not been verified but they are consistent with earlier sightings and video footage purporting to show the presence of US-backed mercenaries in Kiev and the eastern city of Donetz during March. Moscow has said that it has evidence that up to 300 mercenaries from the US-based private security firms Blackwater (renamed Academi) and a subsidiary, known as Greystone, are active in Ukraine. Even the rightwing British Daily Mail reported on those videos, posted on the internet, showing military personnel armed with American M14 carbines among civilian protesters in Donetz. The paper quoted a Western security expert who said the personnel had the appearance of «American mercenaries, not Russian soldiers». It is well established since the American-led occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan that the US government has increasingly relied on private mercenary outfits like Academi and Greystone for covert military operations. This affords Washington «plausible denial» of illegal intervention and obviates repercussions of international law for the American government when these mercenaries commit crimes such as homicide, as they notoriously were caught doing in Iraq. The latter scandal was part of the reason why disgraced Blackwater had to re-brand itself as Academi and various other offshoots such as Greystone. By the way, these US-based firms recruit former Special Forces from all over the world. So, the involvement of ex-troops from the Baltic countries is not at all anomalous. Ultimately, these firms closely function for Washington’s political agenda, with their board of directors including arch-neocon hawk John Ashcroft, the former attorney general under the George W Bush administration. The latest deadly assault by Kiev military forces on pro-Russian or federalist dissenters in the east and south of Ukraine raises the following disturbing scenario: Washington is stepping up its regime-change operation in Ukraine by integrating the national army with CIA-backed neo-Nazi paramilitaries and US covert mercenaries. Compare the first military crackdown ordered by Kiev against protesters in eastern Ukraine last month. That offensive was launched days after the American CIA director John Brennan secretly visited Kiev on the weekend of April 12-13 to hold private discussions with the leaders of the Western-backed junta, including self-proclaimed Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and the president, Oleksandr Turchynov. Washington was forced to acknowledge the CIA boss was in Kiev only after news of the clandestine rendezvous was leaked to Russian media. That first military assault ended as an embarrassing fiasco for Kiev. Members of the Ukrainian army dispatched to quell protests in the eastern cities largely disobeyed orders by refusing to open fire on civilians designated as terrorists by the junta. There was a minor deadly clash in Kramatorsk where four protesters were reportedly shot dead. But in the main, the offensive ordered by Kiev fizzled into a retreat or capitulation by soldiers on the ground. Dozens of soldiers laid down their weapons, handed over their Armored Personnel Carriers, and were generally warmly received by the civilians. Then, about two weeks after Brennan’s stealth visit to Kiev and days after the failed crackdown, US Vice President Joe Biden turns up in the Ukrainian capital in a show of support for the regime. That was April 22. Biden seems to have been given the «Ukraine file» since he has taken an inordinate personal involvement in supporting the Maidan protests which sparked last November against the incumbent elected President Viktor Yanukovych. It was Biden who phoned Yanukovych days before he was forced out of office by the fascist Svoboda and Right Sector paramilitaries on February 22 to say «game over». The week after Biden’s visit to Kiev we then see the second crackdown. Oddly, days before the second crackdown, the unelected president in Kiev, Oleksandr Turchynov, was saying that loyalist forces had «lost control» of dissenting regions to the east and south. His downbeat assessment indicated that remnants of the Ukraine military and police were not capable of carrying out the crackdown ordered by Kiev – or least incapable on their own. Biden’s visit points to a spine-stiffening mission to Kiev, where previously the CIA director John Brennan had not achieved the desired result. It seems significant that the second military assault launched by the Kiev junta has thus shown more deadly resolve in its execution. Tragically, the number of dead over the weekend testifies to that, and the danger is that the death toll will only increase in the coming days with the Kiev junta warning that «the anti-terrorist operation» is to continue despite the carnage of the weekend. Washington, which has invested $5 billion over the past 20 years in implementing regime change in Ukraine, seems to have yanked the strings tighter on its puppets in Kiev, demanding a much stiffer military response to crush the anti-Kiev protests it the east and south. The apparent integration of regular Ukrainian military with CIA-backed neo-Nazi paramilitaries and covert American mercenaries is consistent with this renewed Washington-led regime change effort. The greater covert intervention by Washington in Ukraine is also consistent with the unprecedented build-up of NATO forces in the region. The latter has to be seen as a concerted campaign of state-sponsored intimidation, just as shooting civilians on the street is. Meanwhile, against this consistent picture of Washington-led regime change in Ukraine, Western mainstream media continue to allege Russian interference and subversion. For weeks, the Western media have been chortling about «little green men» allegedly sent by Moscow to destabilize Ukraine in a dastardly plan to annex eastern regions. And yet these puerile claims fail to be substantiated beyond snickers and innuendo about «little green men». American ambassador to the UN told an emergency meeting of the Security Council on Friday: «There is horrible violence in eastern Ukraine and that violence is coming – as it has been for weeks now – from Russian-directed agents and paramilitaries and their associates». Within hours of Power uttering these words, without any supporting facts, Western-backed neo-Nazi paramilitaries and its fascist junta were responsible for killing more than 50 people across Ukraine. The Washington Post reported over the weekend on the White House meeting between President Barack Obama and German leader Angela Merkel: «President Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Friday that broad new economic sanctions would be imposed on Russia if its threat to eastern Ukraine disrupts the country’s presidential election later this month». Again, divorced from fact and reality, the Western governments and their servile media accuse Russia of threats against Ukraine, when the opposite is true. It is Washington and its allies that are threatening Ukraine and its neighbour Russia, with subversion, regime change and relentless aggression. And yet Britain’s ambassador to the UN Mark Lyall Grant has the audacity to accuse Russia of «breathtaking hypocrisy». Russia’s description of events in Ukraine as a Western-orchestrated crisis is backed with evidence, facts, motive and coherent analysis. What has the West offered to support its claims beyond bombast, falsified claims (faked NATO photos for example that the New York Times had to retract), and, never mind hypocrisy, «breathtaking irrationality»? The Kiev junta is murdering people with Western collusion, and with utterly twisted Orwellian propaganda they are calling it «anti-terrorism» and «defense against Russian aggression». http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2014/05/04/kiev-murders-civilians-with-orwellian-western-collusion.html

Tags: CIA European Union Ukraine US

Obama Prepares to Smash BRICS During His Last Few Years in Office by Wayne Madsen 05.05.2014 | 00:00

The buildup of NATO air and ground forces along the borders of Russia in eastern Europe and President Barack Obama’s American power-influencing trip to Asia have a single purpose. The seen and unseen forces who dictate policy to their political puppets in Washington, London, Paris, Brussels, Berlin, and other vassal capital cities have decided to smash BRICS – the emergent financial power bloc encompassing Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.  Bilateral and multilateral discussions among the five emerging economic powers aimed at decoupling BRICS economies from the U.S. dollar as a reserve and trading currency have met with the only power Washington can muster on behalf of itself and its foundering allies – military force. The problems between Ukraine and Russia over Crimea and federalism within Ukraine are a mask designed to cover Obama’s true intentions, which are the smashing of the BRICS as a viable alternative to the neo-colonialist financial systems of the West and subsuming the economies of the BRICS to the whims of the United States and the ever-teetering European Union. The G-8, which suspended Russia from membership, and the World Trade Organization, of which Russia is now a member, never had a thing to do with free trade and common economic policies. These contrivances, formed in the back rooms by the bankers of the Trilateral Commissions and Bilderberg Group, were always about unipolar domination of the world by a single superpower. Since the end of World War II and the collapse of the once-dominant British Empire, that superpower has been the United States. Not only are the BRICS countries shedding their dependency on the U.S. dollar as a trading and reserve currency, thus making the U.S. fiat currency backed by the manipulative practices of the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank, even more worthless than it already is, but Russia and China are already trading in the ruble and the yuan, their respective currencies.  There are plans for the embryonic Eurasian Economic Union, a counter to the bloated and corrupt European Union, to adopt a dollar- and euro-free monetary unit called the «altyn» by 2025. These plans have sent the Western globalists and bankersinto nervous fits and, as a result, we see the buildup of U.S. and Western military forces on the Russian borders in Europe and in China’s waters in the Far East. The neo-conservatives who dominate the policymaking apparatuses in Washington, London, Brussels, Paris, and Berlin have concocted a risky method to smash the BRICS. What U.S. intelligence and its Western counterparts are planning for the BRICS is the very same thing that the West accuses Russia of doing in Ukraine: financing separatist groups with the intent of peeling away at the national integrity of the BRICS nations. As far as Western intelligence agencies are concerned, the BRICS have two choices: remain committed to the BRICS as an alternative to Western domination and face the breakup of their nation-states or throw in the towel and agree to surrender themselves to the dictates of the Central Intelligence Agency, the centurions for Wall Street, and the «company’s» junior partners in London, Paris, and Berlin.  As the G7 and EU tighten the sanctions screws on Russia, there is renewed talk about the status of the Russian Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad, a special economic zone of Russia nestled between two NATO countries, Poland and Lithuania. Kaliningrad, once part of Germany’s eastern province of East Prussia, is the home to Russia’s Baltic fleet. There are elements within Germany and NATO that would like to see Russia not only lose its Black Sea fleet headquarters in Crimea but its Baltic Sea fleet in Kaliningrad. The Baltic Times, which adheres to the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty/George Soros/CIA line of thinking, has already published an article suggesting that NATO blockade Kaliningrad, or Konigsberg as it is increasingly being called in the Western propaganda media, unless Russia withdraws from Crimea. The following was published on the Baltic Times website on April 28: «Why not block Kaliningrad from the Baltic Sea and station troops around its entire border? This would cut off Kaliningrad from Russia giving NATO a strong card to play in demanding that the Crimea be returned to the Ukraine and to halt all Russian efforts to invade the east of the country». Al Jazeera, a «news» network dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood princely potentates if Qatar, put forth the notion that the West could seek the return of Kaliningrad to Germany by invalidating the ters of the Potsdam Agreement of 1945 signed between the leaders of the USSR, the United States, and Great Britain. Kaliningrad is not the only part of the Russian Federation being eyed by NATO imperialists and their fellow travelers in countries like Finland and Turkey. The Finns are looking at Karelia, which it lost to the USSR after Finland allied with Nazi Germany. The pan-Turkic nationalists in Turkey are closely watching events in the Caucasus majority Muslim autonomous republics, as well as deep interior republics like Tatarstan and Bashkortostan. There is no doubt that pan-Turkic nationalists have long provided weapons and other support to Chechen, Dagestani, Ingush, and other Muslim terrorist groups operating in the Caucasus region of Russia. Meanwhile, in Asia, it was no coincidence that Obama’s war dance through Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, and Malaysia was coupled with another Uighur Muslim terrorist attack in China’s majority Muslim Xinjiang-Uighur Autonomous Region. Uighur terrorists, who receive financing from the CIA and propaganda support from the Uighur service of Radio Free Asia, stabbed railway passengers at the train station in the region’s capital of Urumqi. The terrorists set off a bomb between the railway station and a bus stop, killing three and wounding at least 80. In March, a similar slashing attack at a rail station in Yunnan province in southern China killed 29. The Urumqi attack followed by a few hours the visit of President Xi Jinping to the Xinjiang region. There is no doubt that the CIA, and Obama, who is merely a puppet, as were his mother, stepfather, and maternal grandparents, for the intelligence agency, are carrying out a scheme to break the backs of the BRICS members by supporting separatists and irredentists within each of the BRICS states.  India, with its multitude of ethnic groups, religions, and languages, has always been a favorite target for CIA operations to support secessionists. CIA operations have concentrated on Sikhs in Punjab, Muslims in Kashmir, and Tamils in southern India. In South Africa, the Cape Party, a new party, the funding for which is murky at beast, is demanding that the South African Western Cape province become the Cape Republic. The party has petitioned the United Nations’ Committee of 24 to declare the province a non-self-governing territory of South Africa, eligible for independence. If South African intelligence were to examine this party’s financing, the fingerprints of the CIA would be clearly identifiable.  After U.S. relations with Brazil soured after revelations of U.S. National Security Agency spying on President Dilma Rousseff and senior Brazilian officials, there have been renewed calls for independence for three southern Brazilian states, Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, and Parana as the «Republic of the Pampas». The movement gained popularity among white Europeans in the three states in the early 1990s, particularly among descendants of German and Jewish immigrants holding racist views, but died off after true opposition leaders came to power in Brazil. However, with U.S. Brazilian relations at an all-time low and U.S. hostility toward BRICS, the secessionists are reappearing with new impetus. By trying the smash BRICS, Washington and its lackeys are playing with fire. And, keeping in mind that Russia, China, and India are nuclear weapons powers, and Brazil is reportedly emerging as one, the West is playing «Russian roulette» with a nuclear trigger. Wayne MADSEN Investigative journalist, author and syndicated columnist. Has some twenty years experience in security issues. As a U.S. Naval Officer, he managed one of the first computer security programs for the U.S. Navy. He has been a frequent political and national security commentator on Fox News and has also appeared on ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera, and MS-NBC. He has been invited to testify as a witness before the US House of Representatives, the UN Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and an terrorism investigation panel of the French government. A member of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) and the National Press Club. Lives in Washington, D.C. Republishing is welcomed with reference to Strategic Culture Foundation on-line journal www.strategic-culture.org.

Tags: BRICS Brazil China India Russia US Obama

OSCE Chairman-in-Office Didier Burkhalter to arrive in Moscow to discuss Ukraine News | 05.05.2014 | 00:01

Swiss President Didier Burkhalter, who is currently Chairman-in-Office of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), is expected to come to Moscow next Wednesday, May 7, for a discussion of the situation in Ukraine, the Kremlin press service said Sunday night following a telephone conversation between President Vladimir Putin and Germany’s Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel, “Putin and Merkel pointed out the importance of efficacious international measures and, in the first place, the ones steered by the OSCE, to scale down the tensions in Ukraine,” the report said. “In this connection, the President of the Swiss Confederation, Didier Burkhalter, arrives in Moscow May 7 in the capacity of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office,” the press service said. ITAR-TASS

"A Failed State Ruled by Fascists: A Part of “Pivot to Asia” Strategy to Dismember Russia" Counter Punch

A Failed State Ruled by Fascists: A Part of “Pivot to Asia” Strategy to Dismember R.

EDITOR'S CHOICE | 05.05.2014 | 08:00

“A Russophobic, Failed State Ruled by Fascists: Obama’s New Ukraine” “While Russia has been making efforts to de-escalate and resolve the crisis, the Kiev regime has chosen to launch airstrikes on peaceful residential areas, literally destroying the last hope for preserving the Geneva accords.” Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesman “The crisis in Ukraine is not the result of ‘Russian aggression,’ but of a criminal strategy by the US and its European allies to install a hostile regime on Russia’s borders in Ukraine and, ultimately, dismember Russia itself.” Johannes Stern, NATO boosts military build-up against Russia as protests spread in east Ukraine, World Socialist Web Site It’s all part of the US “pivot to Asia” strategy to encircle and (eventually) dismember Russia in order to seize vital resources and control the flow of energy to China. Washington wants to reduce Ukraine to Mad Max-type pandemonium to justify establishing NATO bases on Russia’s perimeter. It’s all part of the plan to control Central Asia and rule the world. Fighting broke out on Friday in the eastern Ukrainian city of Slavyansk when Kiev’s coup government deployed military helicopters to fire on the city while troops and armored vehicles stormed checkpoints. At the time this article went to press, two helicopters had been shot down killing at least two pilots while one was captured. In an impassioned statement on Russian TV, Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, appealed to allies in the EU to do whatever they could to persuade Ukrainian authorities to call off the operation and stop the violence. “We are calling on the European capitals, the United States of America to give an assessment of the current events and are of course calling on those carrying out airstrikes on residential areas to…immediately end the punitive operation and any violence against its own people…” So far, there has been no response from Washington although it’s clear that the Obama administration had a hand in organizing the crackdown. Not only were the State Department and CIA directly involved in the putsch that removed democratically-elected president Viktor Yanukovych from office, but Washington has also been implicated in punitive operations directed against ethnic Russian protestors in east Ukraine. Both CIA Director John Brennan and Vice President Joe Biden visited Kiev just hours before two previous crackdowns were ordered by imposter-Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk. As Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov blandly noted, It’s clear that Washington is “calling the shots”. On Thursday, it looked like violence might be avoided when coup-President Oleksandr Turchynov said that he had lost control of the situation. In an exasperated message to the media, Turchnov said, “It is hard to accept but it’s the truth, but the majority of law enforcers in the east are incapable of performing their duties.” Turchynov was referring to the fact that Ukrainian troops have refused to attack their own countrymen. The mutiny has reportedly spread from elite airborne units to local police who sympathize with the protestors. The only group that’s willing to carry out Washington’s proxy war is the Right Sector neo-Nazis who helped topple the Yanukovych government. Just last week, members of this openly fascist party, commemorated “the perpetrators of the massacre of Yanova Dolina,” where “600 Poles were murdered by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) in what is now Bazaltovoye. The massacre marked the beginning of ethnic cleansing in what is now western Ukraine, where tens of thousands of Poles were killed within a few months.” (World Socialist Web Site) These are Obama’s new allies in America’s war against Russia. Now check this out from Reuters: “The International Monetary Fund warned that if Ukraine lost territory in the east it would have to redesign a $17 billion bailout of the country, probably requiring additional financing.” (Ukraine attacks rebel city, helicopter shot down, Reuters) Tell me, dear reader, when was the last time you heard of the IMF threatening to withhold funds if a political leader didn’t wage war on his own people? Anyone with half a brain can see that the IMF is just acting on orders from the White House. This is Obama’s war. His fingerprints are all over the policy. Obama is determined to draw Russia into a bloody guerilla war that leaves Ukraine in the same condition as Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and now Syria. Here’s a clip from the New York Times: “Through stealth and misdirection, and in defiance of Western sanctions, Russia has managed to achieve its immediate goal of what Western and Ukrainian officials believe is rendering Ukraine so chaotic that it cannot guarantee order, mend its teetering economy or elect new leaders to replace Mr. Turchynov.” (Not Getting Through to Mr. Putin, New York Times) Putin wants a “chaotic” failed state on Russia’s border? Have you ever read such nonsense in your life? Putin didn’t topple the Ukrainian government. The US State Department did. (Victoria Nuland’s hacked phone calls prove it.) And Putin didn’t violate the Geneva agreement less than 24 hours after the deal was signed by launching a crackdown on civilian protestors in the east. That was US-puppet Yatsenyuk. Nor did Putin deploy the military to surround cities, cut off their water supplies and deploy helicopter gunships to fire missiles at civilian infrastructure and terrorize the local population. That was the work of Obama’s fascist junta in Kiev. Putin had nothing to do with any of the trouble in Ukraine. It’s all part of the US “pivot to Asia” strategy to encircle and (eventually) dismember Russia in order to seize vital resources and control the flow of energy to China. Washington wants to reduce Ukraine to Mad Max-type pandemonium to justify establishing NATO bases on Russia’s perimeter. It’s all part of the plan to control Central Asia and rule the world. Putin has acted as peacemaker throughout the crisis, but Obama is determined to provoke the Russian president by attacking and killing ethnic Russians. Consider the statement by Russia’s Foreign Ministry following the helicopter incident on Friday morning: “As we have warned many times before, the use of the army against its own people is a crime and is leading Ukraine to catastrophe…By supporting the organizers of the Kiev coup in their strategy of violently putting down protests, the US and EU are taking on a huge responsibility, essentially closing the door to a peaceful solution to the crisis.” (Putin says Geneva agreement no longer viable after Ukrainian military action, Guardian) It’s clear now that Obama merely used the Geneva agreement to buy time to move troops and military hardware to Poland and the Balkans. It’s also clear that Obama invited German Chancellor Angela Merkel to Washington so that it would appear that Europe is united behind the US in its proxy war on Russia. But what does Obama hope to achieve by stirring up this hornet’s nest? He knows that Putin cannot afford to back down on Crimea, so what’s the point? And, more importantly, what is Ukraine going to look like when Washington is finished using it as a staging-ground for its geopolitical landgrab? Here’s an insightful piece by Russian academic, Andrei Fursov, who thinks he knows what Obama wants and explains the impact the policy is going to have on Ukraine for years to come. “The Americans need controlled chaos and civil war…Moreover, it is clear that this country (post-coup Ukraine) is intended to be absolutely anti-Russian, nationalist, Banderite and neo-Nazi. So the dual goal of establishing this anti-Russian state is to constantly apply pressure on the Russian Federation… As Bismarck (said) ‘We must cultivate among the Ukrainians, a people whose consciousness is altered to such an extent, that they begin to hate everything Russian.’ … Thus we are talking about a historical psy-op, an information-psychological sabotage, whose purpose is to establish Russophobic Slavs… They are the means to separate Ukraine from Russia and to oppose Russia as a kind … totalitarian empire. This was all devised under the Galician Project, on which the intelligence services of Austro-Germany and Kaiser German worked, followed by the intelligence service of the Third Reich, later – CIA and BND… Banderastan, if that’s what Ukraine is fated to become, as designed by the puppet-masters across the ocean, is to be an oligarchic, terroristic, Russophobic state…An oligarchic Banderite…oligarchy is the ideal vehicle for external control. Clearly, this will suit both the oligarchs and the West.” (Battleground Ukraine: A Comprehensive Summary, Zero Hedge) So, there it is: Divide and rule. We saw the Bush administration pull it off with the Shia and Sunnis in Iraq, and now Obama wants to do the same with the Ukrainians and Russians. Same strategy, different continent. This is Obama’s plan for the “New Ukraine” a fascist-ruled failed state that follows Washington’s directives and puts pressure on Russia thorough endless provocations, belligerence, and war. Ukraine will be Washington’s pit bull in the East, separating Moscow from crucial sources of revenue and thwarting efforts at greater EU-Russia economic integration. This is how Washington hopes to insert itself into Eurasia, to improve its prospects in the Great Game, and to establish global hegemony into the next century. (Note: “Banderite” refers to Stepan Bandera, who was a Ukrainian nationalist leader who collaborated with the Nazis. Bandera headed the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) According to the World Socialist Web Site: “The Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) carried out numerous massacres of the Polish population in western Ukraine…The UPA served as a military executive organ of the OUN. It was founded in the spring of 1943 and recruited primarily from Nazi collaborators who were previously active in the SS.”) MIKE WHITNEY lives in Washington state. He is a contributor to Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion (AK Press). Hopeless is also available in a Kindle edition. He can be reached at fergiewhitney@msn.com. counterpunch.org

Positive News: Moscow and Tehran Answer America

Moscow and Tehran Answer America

Nikolai BOBKIN | 02.05.2014 | 00:00

American strategists are obsessed with the idea of a cold war with the Kremlin without having any understanding of how it might end. The White House's efforts to make Russia out as the guilty party in what is happening in Ukraine is not receiving support in the international community. Only U.S. satellites are on Washington's side; even in NATO countries there is no unity on the national level. The Americans' references to anti-Russian decisions from the European Commission may be disregarded; there the terms are dictated by around thirty commissioners appointed by the Council of Europe to whose opinions the leading countries of the Old World have never listened. U.S. policy on Ukraine is incompatible with the interests of a large number of states, including one of the leaders of the Middle East – Iran. Several days ago at the traditional Friday prayers at Tehran University, the Iranian religious leader Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami called American intervention an «act of aggression». «U.S. intervention in events in Ukraine has put this state on the brink of war», declared Ayatollah Khatami. His assessment reflects the position of Iran's leadership, although the U.S. continually attempts to depict Iran as a country which is supposedly endeavoring to use the disagreements between Russia and America in its own interests. Falsehoods are being spread about Tehran's willingness drop oil prices to the detriment of Russia's interests and replace Russian gas in Europe. Washington is genuinely frightened by the possibility of responsive measures from the Kremlin in the area of Iran and is attempting to prevent Moscow from decisively turning away toward Tehran. Many believe that this could be the most effective response to U.S. attempts to establish its diktat in the Middle East. A strategic alliance between Russia and Iran could force Washington to feel the consequences of its Ukrainian scheme far beyond Eastern Europe. This is not a matter of some kind of «geopolitical revenge» against America; it is more appropriate here to speak of Russia consistently protecting its national interests jointly with a state which has a need to rid itself of the diktat of the U.S. And probably the first thing which Moscow could do here is to remove the White House's mechanism for putting pressure on Tehran by disrupting the American system of sanctions against Iran. After all, Russia only signed the UN Security Council sanctions; it considers the unilateral restrictions adopted by the U.S. and the European Union to be unlawful. Now the Kremlin has confirmed this constant position with a specific step toward Tehran. Russia and Iran have finished negotiations on shipments of Russian goods in exchange for Iranian oil. The contract could amount to a total of 20 billion dollars. There are plans to buy 500,000 barrels of Iranian oil per day. And the deal struck between Russia and Iran does not violate the international sanctions imposed on Tehran, which in and of itself evoked a near-hysterical reaction from Washington.  After reports of the deal appeared, Press Secretary Jay Carney stated that the White House intends to pursue sanctions against Tehran and Moscow if the deal goes through. «We are very crystal clear that anything like such an agreement between Russia and Iran might have potential sanctionable action and would likely create tremendous rifts within the P5+1 which would make coming to a comprehensive agreement [on Iran's nuclear program] all the more difficult if not impossible,» said a U.S. State Department official. In fact, the opposite is true. Russia and Iran are negotiating the oil deal regardless of the position of the U.S. in order to make it more difficult for the Obama administration to impose the new sanctions against Tehran which are being prepared by Congress. The Kremlin is rejecting calls from the U.S. not to sign the oil-for-goods contract with Iran. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov stated that the expansion of Russian-Iranian trade is «a natural process, and it carries no elements of political or economic challenge to anyone whatsoever.» He described the U.S. approach as the creation of «artificial barriers» to the development of Russian-Iranian cooperation. The White House says, in reference to Ukraine's potential membership in NATO, that President Putin wants to create a «new world order» denying the principle that «countries are...free to choose their alliances». Returning to the Cold War era, Washington is demanding that NATO countries increase defense spending and transform themselves into a tougher military union with a clear-cut orientation against Russia. The American scenario has already been written: accepting Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia and Azerbaijan as NATO members and deploying U.S. troops and aviation in Poland and the Baltic states. In establishing a military blockade around Russia and creating new footholds on Russia's borders, Washington is defending its «freedom to choose its alliances», while pointing out to Moscow that it must not engage in military and technical cooperation with Iran.  For this reason alone, Russia's return to full-scale military and technical cooperation with Iran is absolutely legitimate. The resurrection of the deal for supplying S-300 systems to Iran could be the beginning of this. After all, in this case, as with the oil-for-goods contract, Russia would not be in violation of Security Council Resolution 1929 dated June 9, 2010, which was the cause for suspending the execution of Russia's obligations to supply S-300 systems to Iran. The restrictions contained in this resolution do not apply to the shipments of S-300s, as these surface-to-air systems are defensive, and their sale to Iran does not violate any international agreements. At one time Washington expressed its appreciation to Russia for its «restraint» in not implementing the contract for the delivery of S-300s to Iran. State Department representative Philip Crowley noted that the resolution urges all countries to show caution and restraint in the sale of any arms. He agreed, however, that the sale of S-300s is not prohibited by the Security Council decision. It turns out that Moscow  broke off its military cooperation with Tehran at that time in exchange for America's appreciation.  Perhaps the time has now come to «work on fixing mistakes» with regard to cooperation with the United States on the Afghan agenda as well. Tehran believes that continued U.S. and NATO military presence in Afghanistan could have negative consequences both for that country and for the region as a whole. It is hard not to agree with the Iranians' arguments that Afghanistan could be used by the U.S. to regulate the threat level to states bordering on Afghanistan to its own advantage. All the more so since the Afghans themselves do not wish to sign a colonial agreement with the Americans, who want to remain in the country for long years to come. Now, when NATO has declared that it is suspending military cooperation with Russia, it makes sense to abandon interaction with NATO on Afghanistan, as such interaction is not significant to Russia. NATO is in no hurry to abandon its transit hub in Ulyanovsk for deployment of men and cargo to Afghanistan, but Moscow could make a decision on this on its own initiative at any time it sees fit… Keep in mind that neither the thaw in relations between Washington and Tehran nor the concessions of the new Iranian diplomacy at negotiations on Iran's nuclear program have changed  the position of the U.S. in rejecting Iran's participation in the Syrian peace process. Iran is among the greatest influences on the crisis in Syria. Nevertheless, while it remains in the foreground of Syrian events, Tehran has been pushed out of international efforts to settle the conflict. This was an attempt on Washington's part to provoke Iran and irritate Moscow. In the new conditions, the alliance of Russia and Iran could very well compete with the United States, which depends on cooperation with international terrorism. This year V. Putin plans to visit Iran. Besides the further development of regional partnership, it is expected that Russia and Iran could come to a «Big Agreement» on cooperation based on a new agenda for bilateral relations. Iran is interested in further cooperation with Russia in the field of atomic energy. Preparations for the Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea require a breakthrough on the highest level. Both sides are interested in joint projects in Iran's oil and gas sector, in space exploration and in the development of transportation infrastructure. The main thing now is to stop determining the depth and scale of bilateral collaboration with a backward glance at Washington. As the Persian proverb says, «dogs may bark, but the caravan goes on». http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2014/05/02/moscow-and-tehran-answer-america.html

Tags: NATO Iran Russia Ukraine US

ARD: Ukraine-Desinformation Beschwerde wegen Verletzung des NDR-Staatsvertrags

http://www.rationalgalerie.de/kritik/-haupt-ueberschrift--2.html

Studie von Prof. Verleger über Einstellungen zum Nahostkonflikt vorgelegt

http://othersite.org/rolf-verleger-antisemit-oder-vorurteilslos-und-interessiert-die-konstanz-jenaer-studie-zu-einstellungen-zum-nahostkonflikt-2/

"Russlandpolitik der USA gescheitert" - Kriegsgefahr durch US-Politik! TAZ- Interview mit Stephen F. Cohen

Es wird Zeit aufzustehen und sich gegen die vom Westen geschaffene Kriegsgefahr zu organisieren! Sagt NEIN zur Brandstifterei! Das taz-interview lässt die bundesdeutsche mediale  Hetze gegen Putin und Russland außer Acht. Dagegen müssen wir uns wenden!

 Tageszeitung "taz" vom 2. 05.2014
http://www.taz.de/Russland-Forscher-ueber-die-Ukrainekrise/!137733/

IM INTERVIEW:

STEPHEN F. COHEN

Der 76-Jährige ist einer der bekanntesten Russlandforscher der USA. Er hat sich auf Russland seit der Oktoberrevolution und auf die russisch-US-amerikanischen Beziehungen spezialisiert. Zahlreiche Bücher über den Stalinismus und Russland nach dem Ende der Sowjetunion hat er veröffentlicht und ist Kommentator in linken US-Medien. Er ist Professor emeritus der Unis New York und Princeton. Kürzlich beklagte er in der Wochenzeitung The Nationdie „Dämonisierung von Putin“ in den US-Medien. Cohen lebt in New York.

"Baiting the Russian Bear" from Bruce Gagnon

Stop Baiting the Russian Bear! (I. Eckert)

 Bruce Gagnon, a concerned US- citizen and peace activist, writes:

"I am as distressed as I’ve ever been having watched a 24 minute video yesterday from Odessa, Ukraine as fascist Right Sector thugs set fire to a union hall where unarmed anti-Kiev protesters had taken refuge.

You can see the video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVXm9nnY-AQ

You have to be patient watching the video because it is obvious that a lot of the time the photographer was trying to be discreet as he filmed the pro-western nationalists attacking the people inside the union hall.  At one point the photographer runs around to the backside of the building and films police authorities standing around talking but taking no action to stop the carnage that killed more than 40 people.

What struck me the most was that during the entire 24 minutes of watching this video I never heard or saw any signs of fire trucks.  Odessa is a big city and surely must have fire departments.  Only near the end of the video did we finally see some police begin to move in but by then the fire was well under way and people were leaping out of windows.  Who had the power to stop fire trucks from responding?

What we know is that Right Section fascist thugs were bussed in from around Kiev and they marched through the streets of Odessa.  There was a protest camp set up outside of the union hall where anti-Kiev protests were happening.  As the fascists descended on the union hall many of the anti-Kiev protesters ran inside the building for safety.  The pro-Kiev nationalists, supported by the US-EU, then began throwing Molotov cocktails into the building.

Never during the 24-minute video did I see any of the nationalists outside the union hall taking cover.  Clearly they were not being shot at.  But you do see at least one man on the ground firing his gun at those inside the building.

The news media in the US have responded by saying it is “unclear” who caused the fire.  You can see a short video about media whitewashing this story at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1tykLCTVlw

I read one testimony this morning from someone who tried to help rescue those burned inside the building.  He wrote: 

Hello, my name is Igor R., I am 39, I live in town of Odessa. During 15 years I work as a doctor on the ambulance.

Yesterday, as you know, a frightful tragedy happened in our cities, one people put to death other. Put to death cruelly - burned living. Not because they were drunk, not for the inheritance of grandmother, but because they do not divide the political looks of nationalists. First they were beating people unmercifully, cruelly, and burned them alive after.

As a doctor I rushed to give help to the one who could be rescued, but I was stopped by pro Ukrainian Nazi radicals, who did not let me walk up to the injured. One of them pushed away me rudely, promising, that soon me and other Jews of Odessa are going to meet the same fate. 

I saw a fellow which could be rescued, if I was able to take him away to the hospital, but all persuasions ended with me getting hit in the face so hard that I lost my glasses. 

For 15 years I saw a great deal very much, but yesterday I wanted to cry, not from pain not from humiliation, but from a weakness. What occurred yesterday didn't even have place during fascist occupation in my town in WWII. I wonder, why the whole world is keeping silent?

The US backed ‘government’ in Kiev largely came to power because the Right Sector fascists used these same violent tactics in the coup d’état a couple of months ago.  The now famous "Fuck the EU" quote from US State Department operative Victoria Nuland (wife of Bush-Cheney era neocon Robert Kagan) was direct evidence of the deep involvement and interference of the US in Ukraine.  This whole story just reeks of hypocrisy and arrogance on the part of the US.

Victoria Nuland was also caught last December saying "we've invested $5 billion" in the Ukraine project.... that part picks up at the 7:25 mark in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2y0y-JUsPTU

Note the ExxonMobil and Chevron logos on the stage next to Nuland ... and remember that the oil-i-garchy wants Russian natural gas and oil supplies.  Add it up, mix in the usual modus operandi, stir and what you get is chaos, instability and regime change.

What is Russia to do?  Roll over and watch themselves get more NATO ‘missile defense’ bases on their borders and fascists appointed to the 'new government' cabinet in Ukraine?  More than 27 million people were killed during Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union during WW II.  The Russians are hyper-sensitive to fascists coming to power on their immediate borders - especially when the US-NATO are calling the shots.

In recent days there have been reports from eastern Ukraine that not only Right Sector fascists have been attacking unarmed protesters but also that black-clad mercenaries (Blackwater?) have been filmed chasing down the anti-fascist protesters. 

The US knew that Russia would have to react, that is why we've witnessed massive corporate media demonization of Putin during the past year or so.  It helps make it easier for the American people to swallow another one of our interventions.

This intervention though could lead to nuclear war.

The time is long past for peace activists to speak out opposing the Obama administration and NATO baiting the Russian bear."

No Bruce, it is never too late!!!  We must call louder! We must not panic. We must also trust the Russians to act wisely and not allow themselves to be drawn into a new war, not speak about a nuclear war. Irene

Bruce K. Gagnon

Coordinator

Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space

PO Box 652

Brunswick, ME 04011

(207) 443-9502

globalnet@mindspring.com

www.space4peace.org

http://space4peace.blogspot.com/  (blog)