Novichok Tales: Brit Fiction Rates Better Than Fact

THE SEDWILL POISONINGS – CABINET OFFICE, MI6, AND BBC DRAW 12 MILLION VIEWERS; NOVICHOK IS TOP OF THE POPS

by John Helmer, Moscow

@bears_with

June 18, 2020

By prime time television standards, the British Broadcasting Corporation’s (BBC) three-part invention of a Russian-made Novichok attack on Sergei and Yulia Skripal, and the death of Dawn Sturgess two years ago, has been a brilliant success. 

Twelve million people watched part or all of the series, which ran from Sunday through Tuesday, June 14 to 16. That was roughly one in every three souls watching television in the United Kingdom — 7,204,950 on Sunday evening; 6,242,220 on Monday, 6,165,250 on Tuesday.

Left Hanging: Lynchings or Suicides, Do Police Want to Know?

Speight of Black Men Found Hanged Sparks Fears of Wave of Racist Terror

by Alan Macleod  - MintPress News

June 19, 2020

As the nation grapples with long-simmering racial tensions reignited by the murder of George Floyd, a series of suspicious hanging deaths of black men is sparking fears of a new wave of anti-black terror.

Amid nationwide demonstrations that have brought racist violence to public attention, at least four black people have been found hanged in suspicious circumstances, sparking fears that the incidents mark a wave of lynchings, not seen for decades.

The cases are also bringing renewed attention to other recent hanging deaths involving people of color, including the 2019 death of a black transgender woman, Titi Gulley, and the June 15 death of a Hispanic man in Houston. Foul play is not suspected in the case of the Hispanic man, but police have reopened the investigation into the death of Gulley at the family’s request.

Canada the 'Not So Good' Revealed in Racist Policing

Canada’s political establishment inject racialist narrative into protests against police violence

by Roger Jordan  - WSWS

20 June 2020

The mass protests against police violence across Canada triggered by the brutal murder of George Floyd have been further fuelled by a steady stream of reports exposing the ruthless use of force by Canadian cops.

Chantel Moore and Rodney Levi, two indigenous people, were shot and killed by police in New Brunswick within eight days earlier this month. On June 4, an officer fired on Moore, 26, while allegedly carrying out a “wellness check” on the mother of one, who suffered from mental health problems. On Friday, June 12, Levi, a 48-year-old father of three, died after being gunned down at a barbecue after police were called.

Thus Spake BBC Drama: A Miracle in Salisbury

The Miracle of Salisbury

by Craig Murray

June 17, 2020

It turns out that the BBC really does believe that God is an Englishman. When the simple impossibility of the official story on the Skripals finally overwhelmed the dramatists, they resorted to Divine Intervention for an explanation – as propagandists have done for millennia.

This particular piece of script from Episode 2 of The Salisbury Poisonings deserves an induction in the Propaganda Hall of Fame:

Porton Down Man: I’ve got the reports from the Bailey house
Public Health Woman: Tell me, how many hits?
Porton Down Man: It was found in almost every room of the house. Kitchen, bathroom, living room, bedrooms. It was even on the light switches. We found it in the family car too. But his wife and children haven’t been affected. I like to think of myself as a man of science, but the only word for that is a miracle.

Backshooters: What Happened to America's White Hats?

Why Do American Police Keep Shooting People in the Back?

by TRNN

June 19, 2020

Despite promises of reform, police are still killing. PAR examines the case of Rayshard Brooks, shot in the back twice as he fled police, and speaks with James McLynas, who says his lack of law enforcement experience makes him the perfect candidate for sheriff.

My name is Taya Graham, and welcome to the Police Accountability Report. As I always say, and will continue to say, the point of this show is to hold police accountable. To do so, we go beyond the actions of individual officers and dissect the system that makes bad behavior not just acceptable, but encouraged.

Today, we’re going to take a look at a critical moment from the police killing of Rayshard Brooks, the 27-year-old man shot in the back by Atlanta police over the weekend. We’re going to examine a critical juncture at which police made a fateful decision and what it says about the state of American policing.

Empires Real and Imagined: The Sun That Never Set Rises Again

From Dodgy Dossiers to the Sacking of Whitlam: The British Empire Stands Exposed 

by Matthew Ehret - SCF

June 18, 2020

In my last article, I reviewed the case of Gough Whitlam’s firing at the hands of the Queen’s Governor General Sir John Kerr during a dark day in November 1975 which mis-shaped the next 45 years of Australian history. Today I would like to tackle another chapter of the story.

Queen Elizabeth II 

(The Whole World in her hands?)

I used to believe as many do, in a story called “the American Empire”. Over the last decade of research, that belief has changed a bit. The more I looked at the top down levers of world influence shaping past and present events that altered history, the hand of British Intelligence just kept slapping me squarely in the face at nearly every turn.

Ending White Supremacy in the Newsroom

What Journalism Needs Is Not More Diversity, but Less White Supremacy

by  Janine Jackson - FAIR

June 19, 2020

As police violence against Black people and those who would rise in their defense forces a national engagement—of a sort—with the reality of white supremacy in our institutions, the widening recognition that the batons and tear gas are just one part of it, that there is more than one way to choke the life out of a people, meant that it was just a matter of time before news media would need to acknowledge the call coming from inside the house. 

National Guard troops sent to quell protests in Washington, DC, 

following the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King 

(photo: Darryl Heikes via Bettmann Archive/Getty Images).

So we have the week just past—wherein we learned that numerous powerful media figures have not just tweeted, joked or dressed up as…but have enforced policies and practices and pay differentials that, deepbreath, do not reflect the values they now hold, they now understand to be deeply hurtful, they only wish they’d been alerted to sooner, they are taking time to reflect deeply upon, they are committed to doing better about going forward, they look forward to be challenged on, and about which, heaven only knows, they are listening.  

Reparations Ordered for Torture Victims of Guantánamo

Inter-American Commission on Human Rights’ Ground-Breaking Decision in the Case of Former Guantánamo Prisoner Djamel Ameziane

by Andy Worthington

18.6.20

Former Guantánamo Prisoner Djamel Ameziane and his response to a recent and important decision taken by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), criticizing the US for his treatment during 12 years in US custody (Image by the Center for Justice and International Law).

Djamel Ameziane, an ethnic Berber from Algeria who was imprisoned at Guantánamo for nearly 12 years, from February 2002 to December 2013, after an initial two month’s imprisonment at Kandahar air base in Afghanistan.

Big Reveal: CIA Acknowledge Vault 7 Release

CIA acknowledges its trove of cyber warfare tools was exposed by WikiLeaks in 2017

by Kevin Reed  - WSWS

19 June 2020

A newly-released 2017 internal review of security practices at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) confirms that the top secret agency had developed an arsenal of cyber espionage tools and would not have known about the massive “Vault 7” data hack of them had WikiLeaks not made it public.

Julian Assange speaking on the CIA Vault 7 data breach 

in March 2017 [Photo credit: WikiLeaks]

Vault 7 is the name given to a trove of hacked documents from the CIA’s Center for Cyber Intelligence (CCI) that were anonymously shared with WikiLeaks, which the online site began publishing information about on March 7, 2017. The hack obtained nearly the entire arsenal of espionage tools and the methods by which the CIA was conducting illegal electronic surveillance and cyber warfare around the world.

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Alan MacLeod, John Helmer, Janine Bandcroft June 18, 2020

This Week on GR

by C. L. Cook - Gorilla-Radio.com

June 18, 2020

Welcome to Gorilla Radio’s continuing efforts, NOT broadcast live from CFUV Radio in the basement of the Student Union Building at the University of Victoria, but emanating live-to-tape via Skype from our home-based … studios on this date, April 25th, 2020.

The latest attempt by lamentable Keystone coupster, Juan Guaido to crown himself King of Caracas cracked up on the rocks of a Venezuelan beach, where his army, a motley collection of hapless foreign mercenaries and disgruntled Venezuelan nationals was taken into custody by a combination of police and local fishermen. The entire latter day Bay of Pigs fiasco would have been laughable but for the eight men killed, and the potential mayhem those men had hoped to unleash on the already crisis-stricken country.

All that was made clear when the contract Guaido had taken out on elected president, Nicolas Maduro was made public by his accomplices at Silvercorp USA, the outfit hired and disgruntled by Juan’s failure to make good on payment promised.

Listen. Hear.

Dr. Alan MacLeod is an educator, essayist, and author whose research interests include media theory, propaganda, social media and South American politics. He’s a staff writer at Mintpress News, a contributor to Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, and author of the book, ‘Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting’. His recent article at the Grayzone is, ‘Guaidó’s mercenary hit contract on Venezuela’s Maduro mirrors official US bounty, authorizes death squad killings‘.

Alan MacLeod in the first half.

And; if I’m to follow to its logical conclusion the advice of the World Health Organization and, (quote) “limit [my] worry and agitation by lessening the time I spend watching or listening to media coverage I perceive as upsetting…” I’d be forced to in good conscience close shop too, putting an end to twenty-one years of Gorilla Radio’s dedication to (quote) “increasing agitation by presenting media designed to be upsetting”. And that I refuse to do; allowing the virus victory is not an option on my watch, as the grating saying goes.

So in this I take departure of the WHO, thank you. And, it appears I’m not alone in finding fault with they and their medical minions: The United States of America too is out of sorts with the UN agency, as is its ally, Australia the two leading a chorus of boos for the WHO’s failure to affix “proper” blame in the aftermath of the Covid-19 outbreak. All proving that, even in a World where everything is changed, some songs remain the same.

John Helmer’s a journalist, author, broadcaster, former political advisor to governments, and principal behind the news website, Dances with Bears. He’s also one of the most widely read Russia specialists in the business world for his news-breaking stories on Russian base and precious metals, diamonds, mining, shipping, insurance, food trade, and business policy. Helmer’s book titles include: ‘The Deadly Simple Mechanics of Society’, ‘The Jackal’s Wedding – American Power, Arab Revolt’, (co-authored with Claudia Wright), the political memoir, ‘The Man Who Knows Too Much About Russia’, and his latest, the two-plus year chronicle of the bizarre and completely unprecedented case of a Russian father and daughter disappeared by the British state for “their own protection”, ‘Skripal in Prison’. His recent article, ‘SKRIPAL SHOWDOWN, NOVICHOK PAYDAY — LONDON LAWYER THREAT TO CALL SERGEI AND YULIA SKRIPAL TO TESTIFY IN OPEN COURT FOR THE FIRST TIME’ continues presenting the upsetting facts behind the official Skripal fiction.

John Helmer and no men being islands in the Covid-19 stream in the second half.

And; long-time Gorilla Radio contributor, Janine Bandcroft will be here at the bottom of the hour with the Left Coast Events Bulletin of some of the good things to be gotten up to in and around our town in the coming week. But first, Alan MacLeod and the latest sad chapter in the sorry life of Juan Guaido, Venezuela’s little coupster that couldn’t.

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Thursday between 11-Noon Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, and on the internet at: http://cfuv.ca. He also serves as a contributing editor to the web news site, http://www.pacificfreepress.com. Check out the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.ca/

Ten Questions for BBC Skripal Scriptwriters

“Putin’s Gonna Get Me”

by Craig Murray

15 Jun, 2020 

 Shakespeare’s heirs at the BBC produced this deathless and entirely convincing line as the climax of the first episode of “The Salisbury Poisonings”, a three part piece of state propaganda on the Skripal saga, of which I watched Part 1 as it was broadcast last night. 

The other two parts are to be broadcast today and tomorrow, which unusual scheduling reflects the importance our masters place on this stirring tale of the resilience of the great British nation under attack by devilish foreigners. 

Skripals Star in BBC's Stranger Than Truth Fiction Series

BBC HIDES NEW SKRIPAL WITNESS — NICOLAS GENT REPORTS NO SKRIPAL BLOOD SAMPLES WERE RECEIVED AT PORTON DOWN BEFORE NOVICHOK WAS DISCOVERED AND ANNOUNCED

by John Helmer, Moscow

@bears_with

June 15, 2020

A British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) film, which started its three-part broadcast on Sunday, has exposed the chain of command in the town of Salisbury at the time Sergei Skripal (lead image, left) and Yulia Skripal were poisoned on March 4, 2018. That command was directed by a medical specialist working at the Porton Down compound less than nine miles from the park bench where the Skripals collapsed.

He gave the orders to the city’s public health officials depicted in the film, as well as to the police, paramedics and hospital personnel starring in the film. 

Ringing from Belmarsh: Assange and Varoufakis on Finance Post-Pandemic

Julian Assange just called. To talk about the pandemic’s effect on capitalism & politics!

by Yanis Varoufakis - Thoughts for the Post-2008 World

June 13, 2020

Julian called me a little earlier on, at 14.22 London time to be precise. From Belmarsh High Security Prison of course. This is not the first time but, as you can imagine, every time I hear his voice I feel honoured and moved that he should dial my number when he has such few and far between opportunities to place calls. 

 

“I want a perspective on world developments out there – I have none in here”, he said. Which, of course, placed a considerable burden on me to articulate thoughts on capitalism’s fate during this pandemic and the repercussions of it all on politics, geopolitics etc.