Why Is Germany Integrity Initiative's 'Most Important Target'?

Damaging Ties: Why Germany is the Integrity Initiative's 'Most Important Target'

by Kit Klarenberg - Sputnik

January 8, 2019

On the afternoon of January 4 I was putting the finishing touches to a series of articles about the Integrity Initiative's activities in Germany, when hacking syndicate Anonymous released another tranche of files plucked from the organization's internal servers. The content was so explosive I was forced to put the multi-part project on hold.

The new trove included several highly incriminating files related to the poisoning of Sergei Skripal in March 2018, which raised a number of extremely serious questions about the shadowy British state and NATO-funded ‘think tank' and its connections with the affair. A few hours after publishing an article based on a precursory investigation of the documents, I received a curious email from political scientist Hannes Adomeit — the subject line 'Criminal Charges against Kit Klarenberg' — which made me somewhat glad I'd postponed my German series.

'Criminal Charges'

For several days, I'd been attempting to reach out to him and other individuals — prominent German politicians, businesspeople, military officials, academics and journalists — named in an ‘interim report' on the German cluster. It appeared Adomeit led the cluster, and had produced the write up for his Initiative paymasters in October 2018.

Responses to my enquiries were few, and Adomeit's email potentially shed light on why — he'd automatically moved my email to his 'trash' folder after seeing it'd been sent from an '@sputniknews.com' address.

"On second thought, however, I regretted it and asked my colleague Harold Elletson, whom you also contacted, for your address. I also retrieved it from the email you sent to Reporters without Borders board member Gemma Poerzgen.

"The reconsideration was spurred by your contacting other actual or potential members of the German cluster, and the point is to ask you how you succeeded in breaking into confidential communications — in this case the information that I met or was going to meet with Gemma Poerzgen in October of last year. This information was not made public in any way by either Ms. Poerzgen or me," he wrote.

Integrity Initiative's German Cluster Chief Hannes Adomeit Threatens 

Sputnik Journalist Kit Klarenberg with 'Criminal Charges'

He went on to say that if I'd obtained this content by hacking the systems of the Institute of Statecraft — the Initiative's parent organization — I would've breached section 202a of the German criminal code, and potentially faced a three-year prison term or fine as a result.

"I am fully determined to bring criminal charges against you for having gained such unauthorized access. Should you not be the person who obtained the confidential information illegally, I insist on providing me with the information as to how and/or from whom you received it," he concluded.

As I wasn't behind the hack, I wasn't intimidated by Adomeit's threats — in fact, his ominous missive was most welcome, for it confirmed the files were authentic, he has indeed been attempting to build a cluster in Germany, and some of his targets were apparently receptive to his advances (Poergzen has made clear to me she isn't among them though, as she "[doesn't] share their political analysis and standpoint").

© Sputnik /Integrity Initiative: Foreign Office Funded, Staffed by Spies, Housed by MI5? 

Moreover, it affirmed Elletson — a long-time MI6 operative — was Adomeit's "colleague". Ironically, engaging in intelligence activity for the intelligence service of a foreign power is contrary to section 99 of the German criminal code, punishable by up to five years in prison.

'Very Hard'

The Initiative's overseas clusters are comprised of individuals who "understand the threat posed to Western nations" by Russian "disinformation" and can be mobilized to influence government policy in support of the "Anglo-Saxon worldview", and a "tougher stance" towards the Russian state.

Germany is perhaps the key country of interest for the organization in this regard, and an internal ‘progress report on establishing national clusters' produced July 2018 — a month after its German cluster was founded, following a two-day meeting in London between Institute/Initiative representatives and Adomeit — makes clear why. The document's author states that due to the country's "special vulnerability to Russian influence", it's a "very hard as well as most important target".

In the aforementioned October 2018 ‘interim report' on the German cluster, in a section titled ‘Specifically German Conditions', Adomeit further elaborates on the significance of Germany to the Initiative, and why it's such a tough — and crucial — nut for the organization to crack.

"Russia is one [of], if not the most, divisive and contentious issue in German foreign policy debates…the Russian narrative on the origins of the crisis in Russia's relations with the West is widely accepted by German public opinion.

"Its main theses are after the end of the Cold War, the US simply replaced the Soviet Union by [sic] Russia, continued policies of containment, isolation and humiliation, [including] NATO expansion into areas considered vital to Russian interests and exerted pressure on Europe, including Germany, to tow the line of its anti-Russian policies," he writes.

As a result, there's a widespread feeling among the German population and political class the country "should not fall in line with the US approach" and "reject the demonization of Russia", which could "raise yet again the spectre of war in Europe".

German Cluster Chief Adomeit's Discussion of 

'Specifically German Conditions'

Deep State Connections

The June 2018 'progress report' states development of the German cluster was "based upon the work of a public relations specialist from the UK, partly resident in Berlin" — a reference to Elletson — through whom "all activities have been and will be coordinated".

The exactitudes of Elletson's MI6 career aren't clear, but it's evident prior to becoming Conservative MP for Blackpool North in 1992 (a seat he lost in 1997), he was an agency operative in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, using his work as a trade consultant as cover. His relationship with the organization didn't end after his election either, despite a long-standing convention in British politics that intelligence services not use MPs as agents — then-Prime Minister John Major waived the rule to allow him to continue his intelligence work while in parliament, which included visits to the now-former Yugoslavia during the Balkans war.

He's one of many individuals connected with the Institute and Initiative with an extensive intelligence service background — interestingly, Adomeit himself may potentially be another. In his discussion of ‘Specifically German Conditions', the political scientist dubs academic Peter W. Schulze "one of the most insidious advocates" of the idea the US has exerted pressure on Germany to "undercut its Ostpolitik".

I duly alerted Schulze — he was "not astonished" to learn of the admonition, as Adomeit "is a cold warrior of the old school, educated in many US defence and counterinsurgency institutions, like RAND, Defence College, Monterrey et al."

"I stand my ground. The change of paradigm in the EU and German politics occurred 2009/10 after Poland, the Baltics and Romania entered the EU and got support from Scandinavian countries and the UK to launch an attack on Russia, to drive the country out of Europe and the Ostpolitik of the SPD [Social Democratic Party]. Unfortunately, this move was and still is quite successful — the SPD neither understood the dimension nor consequences, or fought back.

"If you look at the present draft of the new SPD Ostpolitik, you'll observe a total break with the past, mainly due to a fundamental change in leadership positions to cadres which have no connection or understanding of the East," he added. 

Adomeit Discusses the Nature and Membership of the German Cluster

Agents of Influence

Whatever the truth of the matter, in his capacity as cluster 'coordinator' Elletson is said to have produced a study of "Russian influence in Germany", which was "circulated in senior German political circles, including the Chancellor's office".

The document — Russlands Informationskrieg in Deutschland: Wie Moskau die Meinung der Deutschen verandert (Russia's Information War in Germany: How Moscow is Changing German Public Opinion) — expands on the 'conditions' Adomeit despairs of elsewhere, as well as discussing the "major tools" allegedly used by the Kremlin to shape German perceptions.

Reading the 'study', what's immediately and palpably clear is it's in no way an empirical examination of any of its stated research topics — it's a highly prejudiced, polemical and at-times borderline literary disquisition, rampant with barely disguised contempt for Russia and Russians.

The paper, which fittingly commences with a likely apocryphal Vladimir Lenin quote, is also rife with references to 'Russlandversteher' (literally ‘Russia understanders', perhaps better understood as 'Russia sympathizers') — people who, Elletson writes, "gush with empathy for Russia and its President Vladimir Putin on talk shows, in journals and at dinner parties", and have a "general tendency to excuse Moscow and blame the West".

He provides numerous examples of such individuals, including Gabriele Krone-Schmalz (Moscow correspondent at the ARD TV network 1987 — 1992), Klaus von Dohnanyi (SPD Mayor of Hamburg 1981 — 1988, a city he dubs a "place d'armes" for Russlandversteher), Gerhard Schroder (SPD Chancellor of Germany 1998 — 2005), Sahra Wagenknecht (Die Linke MP since 2009), Bjoern Hoecke (AFD parliamentary group chair in the Thuringia state assembly) and Eckhard Cordes (head of the Eastern Commission of German Industry, Volvo board member).

However, beyond harboring views he believes insufficiently hostile to Russia, Elletson further claims this group are in fact an all-important facet of Russia's information warfare operations in the country — and have been actively "cultivated" by the Russian state to that end.

Evidence provided for such "cultivation" is invariably thin to non-existent. Individuals who have (or had) financial interests in Russia and/or Russian businesses, or are involved in some way with businesses that trade (or once traded with) Russia, are members of a Russo-German forum (political, industrial or otherwise), have appeared in the Russian media or spoken at an event convened by a Russian organization, or are members of an organization that hosted an event at which a Russian or Russians spoke, among other trivial and supremely tenuous 'connections', are all — for Elletson — Kremlin agents of influence.

MI6 Operative Harold Elletson Names 'Russlandversteher'

This paranoia even takes on a xenophobic character at points, with the MI6 operative noting certain Russlandversteher have Russian ancestry, grew up in former East Germany, or have relatives born there.

"An important factor in the dissemination of distortions and untruths has been Germany's large Russian-speaking community (almost 2.3 million, according to some estimates). They have roots in the former Soviet Union and many still watch Russian TV, listen to the radio or read newspapers. They often share stories on the Internet and, wittingly or unwittingly, help to spread Moscow's distorted versions of current events," he writes.

Beware of Trolls

One can spot a "cultivated" Russlandversteher, Elletson suggests, when they make statements in accordance with one the Kremlin's 21 alleged "key messages". These include: "Germany and Russia had a 'special relationship' and should return to it; Russia has legitimate interests and the West should respect them; the West deceived Russia over NATO expansion; 'Wikileaks' and Snowden show the West has not been open in its dealings with Germany; the Georgian crisis was the result of Georgian aggression; Russia has a legitimate claim to Crimea; the Ukrainian revolution was actually a coup d'etat; sanctions against Russia are counter-productive and will damage the German economy; the Syrian crisis cannot be solved without Russian support, which has been instrumental in stopping the spread of ISIS* [Daesh]."

In essence, any German who's remotely critical of NATO, the West, or prevailing Western global political narratives, or indeed government policy anywhere in the world negatively impacting Russia in any way — or who simply doesn't view Russia as invariably villainous — is a stooge of Putin. That these views may be an individual's legitimate opinions, or indeed may potentially have some value, is completely out of the question.

 Cluster Coordinator Harold Elletson Outlines 

Alleged Kremlin 'Key Messages'

Elletson claims these "key messages" also inexorably emanate from a vast army of "pro-Kremlin trolls" and bots on various social networks. However, despite stating "the extent of Russian efforts to influence opinion in Europe [via] false accounts on Facebook and Twitter" has been well-documented, he offers no evidence of any such ‘operations', in Germany or elsewhere, instead merely invoking the uncorroborated allegations of a few sources to that effect.

For instance, he quotes Ingo Mannteufel, German state broadcaster Deutsche Welle's ‘Head of Department' for Russia, as saying "with the help of social 'bots', false news and internet memes are spread…the flooding of reader forums on international media sites with pro-Kremlin comment is part of this."

In support of the statements, Elletson alleges the news outlet's Russian-language Facebook pages "have been repeatedly attacked" with posts by Russian-language accounts. Whether these "attacks" actually happened, or the accounts were automated, let alone government-run, isn't clear.

Likewise, remarks made by Adrian Chen in his 2015 profile of the Internet Research Agency make an appearance — "Russia's information war might be thought of as the biggest trolling operation in history, and its target is nothing less than the utility of the Internet as a democratic space," he wrote.

Elletson's referencing of Chen's incendiary comments is curious, given the journalist has strongly repudiated this analysis in recent years. For example, in February 2018, when allegations of Russian state-backed social media interference in the 2016 US Presidential election were reaching fever-pitch, he appeared on MSNBC to pour cold water on the idea such efforts had any impact whatsoever on the vote's outcome.

"It isn't all that effective…it's essentially a social media marketing campaign…run by people who [barely] grasp the English language, [without] a full understanding of who they're targeting and what they're targeting.

"The paranoia aspect, the idea there's this all-powerful propaganda machine, that anyone who's tweeting something you don't like or is causing trouble on the internet can be chalked up to Russia…is increasing in a worrying way. There's not a lot of people saying 'let's hold back, it's not that big of a deal'," he cautioned.

Elletson does concede such tactics are "not new" and Russia isn't unique in deploying them, noting "the Israelis developed a sophisticated operation, using trolls, to counter pro-Palestinian coverage in European media" — although the question of which other states are attempting to influence debate in Germany and elsewhere via online activities, and how, is left unasked and unanswered.

Nonetheless, despite this glaring evidentiary deficit, the MI6 operative feels confident concluding "false or distorted stories [in Russian] media, helpful comments, speeches and articles by well-placed 'Putin-versteher' and blogs, tweets or comments on the internet all help to create the Kremlin's 'information noise' and undermine arguments for German solidarity with NATO and the EU."

 Elletson Smears Rossotrudnichestvo and its Staff

That a paper of such dubious content, authored by an individual with no relevant academic credentials of any kind and a professional history involving espionage operations of an indeterminate nature directed against the very country he's writing about, was apparently circulated among "senior German political circles — including the Chancellor's office" — and in the process may have influenced powerful individuals, if not state policy itself, is troubling in the absolute extreme.

Still, the ‘report' is highly illuminating, for it demonstrates just how desperate the Initiative is to damage Russo-German relations. As Elletson himself acknowledges, the consequences of a "special relationship" between Russia and Germany would be "very serious", raising the possibility of "an end to Germany's ‘Westbindung', a severe blow to NATO and the transformation of the European Union into an eastward, as opposed to westward, leaning bloc".

These are prospects the organization — and by extension, the British government and NATO — cannot abide, so in order to degrade the deep and cohering bond between Russia and Germany, it intends to fight a vicious "information war" of its own in the country, and has sought to enlist a number of influential figures in Germany for the purpose. In my next article, I'll discuss who they are, and why they were such attractive targets for cluster enlistment — although key questions I and many others have about the Initiative are likely to remain unresolved for the foreseeable future.

Namely, why is a UK government-funded 'think tank', based in London and staffed overwhelmingly by individuals with backgrounds in military intelligence, seeking to meddle in the affairs of a foreign democracy, and what possible right does it have to do so?


*Daesh (aka Islamic state/ISIL/ISIS/IS) is a terrorist organization banned in Russia

Canada's Standing Rock? Raiding the Gidumt’en Checkpoint

Arrests at Gidumt’en Checkpoint, RCMP Raid Anticipated at Unist’ot’en Camp

by Unist'ot'en Camp

 

January 7, 2019

 

At approximately 2:51pm, RCMP and military forcefully breached a peaceful checkpoint on unceded Wet’suwet’en territory. Indigenous people were ripped from their homes by militarized police. There were at least 12 confirmed arrests, including an elder, and Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs were blocked from their own territories.

Gidumt’en Clan spokesperson Molly Wickham was arrested on her land. She, along with other arrestees, will not be released. They are being brought to Prince George to stand before a Justice of the Peace. 

 ***Arrest count according to eye witness accounts… exact numbers of arrests are still being confirmed*** 

 

 

The creation of the Gidumt’en Checkpoint was announced in the Wet’suwet’en feast hall, with the support of all chiefs present. Under ‘Anuc niwh’it’en (Wet’suwet’en law) all five clans of the Wet’suwet’en have unanimously opposed all pipeline proposals.

Article 10 of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples clearly states “Indigenous peoples shall not be forcibly removed from their land or territories.” Any removal of Wet’suwet’en peoples by the RCMP, or any other authoritarian forces, has directly violated UNDRIP and the Trudeau government’s promise to implement UNDRIP.

The RCMP have now installed a roadblock on the Wedzin Kwa (Morice River) Road, through Gidumt’en territory and the only access road to Unist’ot’en Camp, effectively cutting off communications, media, and supplies to those living there, including clients of the Healing Center.

Unist’ot’en Dark House member, Freda Huson said, “I am here in my home, on my land. I am not a criminal for protecting my most critical infrastructure which is my berries, my medicine, my water, my right to teach future Unist’ot’en generations how to live in right relationship with the land. Without water, no human will survive and these projects like TransCanada’s Coastal Gaslink threatens the water. We are the land, the land is us.”

At the time of this publication, the Unist’ot’en Camp is on high alert for a similar violent invasion of their checkpoint. The world is watching.

Please follow updates at Unist’ot’en Camp Facebook and Twitter

Donate to the Unist’ot’en Camp

Photos by Micheal Toledano

Gidimt’en Checkpoint Breached by Armed RCMP and Military, Communications Cut, Moving in to Unist’ot’en

 

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Elizabeth Vos, William Craddick, Janine Bandcroft January 10, 2019

This Week on GR

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

January 10, 2019

Fake News and rumours of Fake News continue to abound. Recent leaks detailing a UK government-funded program of media infiltration and propaganda dissemination has put fake news in a whole new context.

Anonymous, the shadowy trans-national association of hackers, has exposed the doings of the Institute for Statecraft and its so-called Integrity Initiative. They reveal "clusters" of politicians, military officials, and think tank academics recruited and retained to further the aims of the Institute and its masters.

Included in those clusters are prominent journalists working for, among others, Britain's Guardian newspaper, long regarded the standard-bearer for leftist media.

Listen. Hear.

The paper though has seen a curious transformation over the last few years, nowhere more evident than in its unabashedly biased coverage of Venezuela and incommunicado journalist, Julian Assange.

Elizabeth Vos is Co-Founder and Editor in Chief at Disobedient Media, a web news site focusing on the intersection of global politics, media, and technology. Her December expose, 'The Guardian’s Reputation In Tatters After Forger Revealed To Have Co-Authored Assange Smear' is a body-blow to that paper's already faltering credibility. (Full disclosure: Elizabeth and DM are staunch supporters of Julian Assange and WikiLeaks.)

Elizabeth Vos in the first half.

And; over the weekend cities across France were battlegrounds. For the eighth week in a row the so-called Gilets Jaunes, or Yellow Vest movement, has paralyzed both the country's avenues and political process, pitting the disgruntled citizenry against a Macron government whose failed economic policies are being attacked by all sides of the political spectrum; or so it would seem. Could it be there's a more sinister hand behind the protests; and if so, what might be the motive?

William Craddick is co-founder with Elizabeth Vos of Disobedient Media. He's a graduate of Pepperdine University School of Law, and holds a Bachelor's in International Relations from Wheaton College. Craddick has written numerous articles related to foreign policy and security, including propaganda operations, political corruption, the "Macron leaks", and creation of an EU Army.

William Craddick and 'Is Britain Involved with European "Yellow Vest" Protests?' in the second half.

And; Victoria-based activist 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, Elizabeth Vos and following Luke Harding and friends down the Guardian rabbit hole.

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.uvic.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/

Outrage at Canadian State Police Action Rallies International for Support Wet'suewt'en

RALLIES PLANNED INTERNATIONALLY IN SUPPORT OF WET’SUWET’EN AND DENOUNCE STATE VIOLENCE ON UNCEDED TERRITORY

by Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs

January 8, 2019

Yesterday militarized RCMP descended onto unceded Wet’suwet’en to enforce a colonial court injunction. Fourteen people were arrested including Gitdumden spokesperson Molly Wickham. One elder was released and 13 land defenders and supporters will be appearing in court in Prince George today.

Rallies in 55 cities across Canada and internationally will be taking place today Tuesday January 8, 2019 to express solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en defending their unceded lands from unwanted fracked gas development.

Rallies across Canada are being held in Bella Bella, Calgary, Chilliwack, Campbell River, Cortes Island, Courtenay, Duncan, Edmonton, Galiano Island, Guelph, Haida Gwaii, Halifax, Hamilton, Hazelton, Lillooet, Kitchener Waterloo, London, Mayne Island, Mi'kma'ki, Montreal, Nanaimo, Nelson, North Bay, North Okanagan, Old Massett, Ottawa, Peterborough, Powell River, Prince George, Regina, Rexton, Saskatoon, Sechelt, Sherbrooke, Six Nations, Smithers, Splatsin, Sudbury, Terrace, Thunder Bay, Toronto, Vancouver, Victoria, Winnipeg, White Horse, and Yellowknife. Rallies will take place internationally in Atlanta, Bellingham, Flagstaff, Milan, Minnesota, New York City, O'Odham Territory, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington.

Details for the rallies can be found at: https://www.facebook.com/events/2225649537692362/ and on Tuesday January 8, 2019 photos and video will be available through #wetsuwetenstrong #notrespass #thetimeisnow.

According to the Wet'suwet'en Access Point on Gitdumden territory, who issued the call for international solidarity,

“All Wet'suwet'en Clans have rejected the Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline because this is our home. Our medicines, our berries, our food, the animals, our water, our culture are all here since time immemorial. We are obligated to protect our ways of life for our babies unborn.”

“Canada knows that its own actions are illegal,” further states the Wet'suwet'en Access Point on Gitdumden territory.

“The Wet’suwet’en chiefs have maintained their use and occupancy of their lands and hereditary governance system to this date despite generations of legislative policies that aim to remove us from this land, assimilate our people, and ban our governing system.

“The hereditary chiefs of the Wet’suwet’en and the land defenders holding the front lines will never allow Wet’suwet’en sovereignty to be violated.”

- 30 -

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs
312 Main St, Suite 401, Vancouver, BC
V6A-2T2, Canada

Clayton Thomas-Muller - 350.org

Subject: An urgent request to support Indigenous land defenders

Date: January 7, 2019 at 4:01:53 PM PST


Friends,

As I write this, armed RCMP are instigating a confrontation with Indigenous land defenders on the unceded territory of the Wet’suwet’en Nation in Central B.C. to try to forcibly clear a path for a fracked gas pipeline. That means they plan to forcibly remove Indigenous land defenders at the Unist'ot'en Camp and Gidimt'en checkpoint.

All five clans of the Wet’suwet’en have unanimously opposed all pipeline proposals and have not provided free, prior, and informed consent for this project. Now, they’re asking all of us to stand in solidarity. There’s a support rally tomorrow, January 8th, near your city. Can you join in? Click here to see all the details. (Just click the link, scroll down, and click "see more" to find a listing of all events.)

In December, the B.C. Supreme Court issued a court injunction that authorizes the RCMP to trample over Indigenous rights to clear a path through the Wet'suwet'en Access Point on Gidimt'en territory and the Unist’ot’en homestead on Unist’ot’en territory -- and militarized RCMP forces are now mobilizing to enforce this colonial injunction.

This injunction allows TransCanada Corporation, the same company that’s behind Keystone XL, to forcefully expel land defenders standing in the way of construction for its Coastal GasLink project -- a 670-kilometer long pipeline that will carry fracked gas to the BC coast.

A fossil fuel company once again has the greenlight to bulldoze over Indigenous rights under Justin Trudeau’s watch despite his promises of reconciliation with Indigenous peoples. Let’s stand up and demonstrate our opposition to this injustice. Click here to find details about tomorrow’s rally in your area.

According to the Wet'suwet'en Access Point on Gitdumden territory, who issued the call for international solidarity, “All Wet'suwet'en Clans have rejected the Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline because this is our home. Our medicines, our berries, our food, the animals, our water, our culture are all here since time immemorial. We are obligated to protect our ways of life for our babies unborn.”

The Unist’ot’en Camp is a permanent Indigenous re-occupation of Wet’suwet’en land that has stood on Gilsteyu Dark House Territory for a decade. The Wet'suwet'en Access Point on Gitdumden territory was announced in the Wet’suwet’en feast hall in December 2018 with the support of all chiefs present to affirm that the Unist’ot’en Clan are not alone.

The expulsion of Indigenous peoples from their sovereign lands is an abhorrent violation of article ten of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples which Canada, under Trudeau, has pledged to uphold.

It is time to stand up and show your unwavering solidarity with Indigenous land defenders. Click here to join tomorrow’s solidarity rally in your area.

In respect and peace,

Clayton

PS - If you can, please consider making a donation to support Indigenous land defenders. For more background, click here.

"President" Bolton Reverses Trump, Sets Agenda in Syria

Bolton’s Syria Conditions Are Designed to Prevent U.S. Withdrawal

by Daniel Larison - The American Conservative

January 6, 2019

One of the reasons that I didn’t believe that U.S. withdrawal from Syria would really happen was the presence of Bolton and Pompeo on Trump’s national security team.

As committed Iran hawks, they have strong incentives to delay and undermine any withdrawal plan, and Bolton is already doing that with his current trip abroad to “reassure” regional clients.

It seems that they will pay lip service to the long-term goal of withdrawal, play along with the idea that U.S. forces will eventually leave, but then set so many conditions and create so many obstacles to withdrawal that it will never take place.

"Bolton continued his efforts to drag out withdrawal from Syria for as long as possible:

"President Trump’s national security adviser, John R. Bolton, rolled back on Sunday Mr. Trump’s decision to rapidly withdraw from Syria, laying out conditions for a pullout that could leave American forces there for months or even years."" 

Bolton’s conditions are designed to make withdrawal practically impossible for the foreseeable future.

Staying in Syria “until the last remnants of the Islamic State” are defeated commits U.S. forces to remain for a long time to come. When any group like this has been beaten, there are always going to be a few scattered members that survive. Going after those last few “remnants” isn’t a good reason to keep U.S. troops illegally in a country where they were never properly authorized to go.

The other condition that Bolton mentioned is even harder to fulfill.

Keeping U.S. forces around until Turkey pledges not to attack the YPG amounts to waiting forever, because Turkey’s government considers them terrorists and isn’t going to make a credible promise not to attack them.

Having set the protection of Kurdish forces as one of the key requirements for withdrawal, the administration can’t very well disregard it later on when it becomes obvious that the Turkish government won’t make any guarantees that can be trusted.

Unless he does something to repudiate it immediately, Trump is stuck with the Syria policy Bolton has created for him.

France and Britain: Of Yellow Vests and Color Revolutions

Is Britain Involved with European "Yellow Vest" Protests?

by William Craddick - Disobedient Media

December 3, 2018

Europe’s powder keg is growing dangerously close to an explosion as unrest spreads from France to surrounding mainland nations.

These protests are unified by many different factors such as dissatisfaction with mass migration and anger at economic failures blamed on President Emmanuel Macron. But most significantly, they are united by the use of yellow by those who have taken to the streets.

The “Yellow Vest” protests are in fact, a color revolution.

While color revolutions can morph into popular resistance movements, they are at their core professionally organized and instigated, sometimes at the state level.

In the case of Europe’s Yellow Revolution, the big winner, and also one of the only states to avoid unrest, is Great Britain.

I. Understanding Color Revolutions

Color revolutions are a strategy of fomenting unrest within a country with the ultimate goal of removing the state’s current regime from power. The term was popularized by the media in the early 2000’s to describe the wave of revolutions that broke out across the former Soviet Union and Balkans during that time period. However, color revolutions have been occurring for many decades prior in various locations around the world. Both China and Russia consider color revolutions to be a US and European method of fomenting regime change in hostile nations.

More recently, the Ukraine Maidan movement and Arab Spring could be considered color revolutions, as could the “Make America Great Again” movement in the United States. These operations are exceedingly intricate, requiring financial support, social conditioning, training and coordinated online and media information campaigns to successfully pull off.

Color revolutions are never entirely organic. They may benefit from pre-existing political strife, but at their core they are operations requiring extensive planning and meticulous execution.

II. Historic British Involvement With Color Revolutions And Protest Infiltration

Britain has a history of involvement not only with color revolutions but with systematic infiltration of protest movements by their law enforcement and intelligence services. In the current day, Britain is commonly perceived as a post-colonial power without significant influence when compared to rising stars such as China. As former NSC staff member Richard Levine has previously explained, Britain maintains some of the power and control it enjoyed during the British Empire through its influence over members of the Commonwealth of Nations (albeit in a reduced capacity).

Security magazine European Geostrategy ranked the UK as a “Global Power” second only to the United States in terms of its international reach. As Britain no longer overtly rules any of the nations in the Commonwealth, this influence must be maintained in part by infiltration and shadow networks.

Britain has in the recent past involved itself in fomenting and encouraging color revolutions in the Middle East. The UK was one of several members who became overtly involved in supporting the revolution against Muammar Gaddafi in Libya during the Arab Spring.

In addition to overt military support, British special forces were secretly deployed on the ground and blended with local Libyan forces as part of efforts to force a regime change in the country. This operation was not revealed until 2012, a year after Gaddafi’s death.

Embedding with foreign resistance groups in order to support and direct their campaigns has been part of the UK playbook since the Second World War. The United Kingdom has also infiltrated protest groups within Europe as well, often encouraging them to commit acts of violence in the process.

In 2009, the Guardian revealed that a British police officer had traveled to 22 different countries on a fake passport including Ireland, Iceland and Spain. Targeted movements included green, “anti-racist” and anarchist groups. Mark Kennedy was a member of the National Public Order Intelligence Unit, a secretive organization run by a private limited company which allows it to remain exempt from freedom of information laws and other public accountability checks and balances.

A database published by the Guardian on October 15th, 2018 revealed that British police had infiltrated 124 movements since the 1970’s.

III. Protests Bear Signs Of Professional Organization, Target Only Mainland European Nations

The Yellow Vest protests in France can be considered to be part of a “yellow” color revolution that has been professionally organized with the goal of exploiting European dissatisfaction with their current leadership. Although the protests have been painted as being the work of right-wing nationalist populists, reports from French media reveal a number of extremist left and anarchist organizations have embedded with the protests, as evidenced by the presence of anti-capitalist and anti-police slogans used in the protests and left behind as graffiti.

Given that the British have infiltrated such groups in the past, the chances for aggravation of violence are great, particularly since similarly infiltrated far-right groups have also become involved. The likelihood of conflict between such factions is serious.

The current protests are analogous to the Arab Spring in many ways. Much like in Libya where Gaddafi enjoyed British and Western support prior to his ousting, Macron was a favorite of the City of London where he raised more campaign funds than in 9 of France’s largest cities (Paris excluded).

France has seen unrest not only in the mainland, but also in their colony of Reunion where the military was deployed to calm violence and looting. But the protests are not limited to France and French territories. Yellow revolution inspired protests have been seen in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.

Much like in Libya, protestors calling for the resignation of the current ruling regime have little in common ideologically and a civil conflict between different groups once Macron is gone would be likely. French officials have also warned that the unrest is likely to provide opportunities to terror groups, much like what occurred in the aftermath of Gaddafi’s demise.

Extraordinarily, no British nationalists have called for “yellow vest” protests in the United Kingdom, even as they cheer events in France as a sign of the failure of globalism. Britain would be a natural location for such a movement considering that the completely inept government of Theresa May has directly defied the will of voters over Brexit, continued to introduce Orwellian censorship, and done almost nothing to allay public concerns over mass immigration.

In an event that has attracted little mainstream media attention, no commentary has focused on the fact that the current Yellow Revolution protests have targeted mainland European nations, most of whom are ideologically and geostrategically opposed to the United Kingdom. It is Britain who will emerge the winner of any destabilization in the European Union.

IV. A Country Known To Meddle May Be At It Again

The United Kingdom is no stranger to interfering in the affairs of Western states, even if it means directly meddling in the political processes of their allies. In 2016, British intelligence and Commonwealth interests, angered by policy positions of now-President Donald Trump, engaged in a systematic attempt to undermine an American presidential campaign.

A nation not afraid to jeopardize its “special relationship” with it’s closest ally would have no qualms doing the same to European neighbors with whom there are centuries of conflict, ill-will and hostile competition.

Europe may be “modern,” but below the gilded surface is a long history of internal conflict. If France is seeking to avoid greater chaos and instability, perhaps they would do well to look into the behavior of their neighbor.

Killing Unarmed Medics "Possibly a War Crime" Concludes New York Times

A NYT Investigation Examining the Killing of Medic Rouzan al-Najjar Concludes: “Possibly a War Crime” by IDF

by TRNN

January 7, 2019

The New York Times published an investigative report on December 30 titled A Day, A Life: When a Medic Was Killed in Gaza, Was It an Accident? That was a provocative title for the New York Times on the killing of a Palestinian medic, Rouzan al-Najjar. Al-Najjar was killed while caring for protesters on the Great March of Return in Gaza on June 1 of last year.

The Investigation by the NYT into the killing of 21-year-old paramedic Rouzan al-Najjar reveals: “. . . the shooting by (IDF-Sniper) appears to have been reckless at best, and possibly a war crime,.. for which no one has yet been punished.” 

We speak with James North of Mondoweiss

Red, White and Yellow? Will ‘Yellow Vest’ Protests Come to the United States?

What Would A Yellow Vest Movement Look Like In The United States?

by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers - Popular Resistance 

January 6, 2019

Newsletter - A truth about movements is, they move. They morph, evolve and move around a country or even around the globe. This occurs over months and often over years.

The US Occupy encampment era occurred ten months after the Arab Spring and six months after the Spanish Indignado movement – early versions of occupy.

It started in New York and then spread across the United States and to other countries.

It was a global revolt against the 1% that changed politics in the United States and continues to have impacts today.


Will ‘Yellow Vest’ Protests
Come to the United States?

The Yellow Vest (Gilets Jaunes) movement in France is having a major impact and gaining international attention, already spreading to other nations, with some nations like Egypt banning the sale of yellow vests to prevent the protest from spreading there. The movement is showing that disrupting business-as-usual gets results. Will it come to the United States? What form would it take here? What could spark the equivalent of the Yellow Vests in the US?

 Social Movements Create Global Waves Of Protest

It is common for a protest to develop in one part of the world and move to another country. This is even more common in modern times as the economy has become globalized and communication across different countries has become easier.

The US revolution against Great Britain was part of the Age of Enlightenment, which questioned traditional authority and emphasized natural rights of life, liberty, and equality as well as sought self-government and religious freedom. The French Revolution followed 13 years after the US in 1789. It led to political changes in the UK, Germany and across Europe. This coincided with the Great Liberator, Simon Bolivar, freeing colonies from the Spanish Empire including Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, Ecuador, and Peru. They became independent and briefly united as a single nation.

The democratic revolutions of 1848, known as the Springtime of Peoples, were part of a widespread revolutionary period that impacted 50 nations in Europe, beginning in France and spreading without any evident coordination. The issues were about democratic and worker rights, as well as human rights and freedom of the press. It led to the abolition of serfdom in some nations and ended monarchy in Denmark. The French monarchy was replaced by a republic, constitutions were created, and empires were threatened by countries seeking sovereignty.

In the era of Decolonization of Africa and Asia, 1945 and 1960, three dozen new states achieved autonomy or outright independence from their European colonial rulers. In Africa, a Pan-African Congress in 1945 demanded an end to colonization. There were widespread unrest and organized revolts in both Northern and sub-Saharan colonies. Protests, revolutions and sometimes peaceful transition ended the era of colonization.

The 1960s were an era of protest that peaked in 1968 around the world. Multiple issues came to the forefront including for labor rights and socialism, the feminist movement, protests against war and militarism, and against racism and environmental degradation. Protests occurred in the United States, Europe, the Soviet Bloc, Asia, and Latin America.

More recently, economic globalization and the Internet have accelerated global protests. An example of this is the anti-globalization movement itself. As corporations took control of trade agreements and began to write trade for transnational corporate profits, people around the world saw how this impacted their communities and fought back.

The Zapatista Uprising in Chiapas, Mexico on January 1, 1994, was an uprising that coincided with the beginning of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The Zapatista Army of National Liberation was an uprising by the indigenous, local population against being exploited by global trade. Their action was an inspiration to others and an anti-NAFTA movement developed in the United States, growing into an anti-globalization movement.

The 1997 financial crisis in Southeast Asia, followed by the International Monetary Fund restructuring the debt in ways that brought austerity, led to protests across the region in Korea, Indonesia, and Thailand against economic globalization and the undue influence of transnational capital.

These combined into the Battle for Seattle in 1999 at the World Trade Organization meetings where 50,000 people from the US and around the world protested on the streets of Seattle for four days shutting down the meetings. This was a movement of movements moment that united many single-issue groups into a force too powerful for the elites to overcome. WTO meetings since then have been met with mass protests as have IMF and other economic meetings. This evolved into making it very difficult to pass corporate trade agreements in the United States, e.g. the people stopped the Trans-Pacific Partnership and Trump will have difficulty getting NAFTA-2 approved. Join the campaign to stop Trump Trade’s NAFTA-2.

The Yellow Vest Movement

The French Yellow Vest movement is made up of working people who are protesting the unfair economy every Saturday. The 8th “Act,” held this Saturday, was larger than expected as the government and media were claiming the movement was dying down over the holidays, despite the movement saying they were not over and were just getting started.

The movement began as a protest against a gasoline tax, but it quickly became evident that this was just the final straw against a series of policies that have made people economically insecure. President Macron has aggressively pursued a neoliberal agenda on behalf of the wealthy, lowering their taxes while cutting social services.

Macron has responded with the elimination of the fuel tax, raising the minimum wage, and cutting taxes on pensioners, but they continue to call for the “president of the rich” to step down. Macron’s popularity is down into the twenties in polls, while a majority of French people want the Yellow Vest protests to continue. The movement is exposing contradictions in France that cannot be solved by the current economic and political systems.

Macron, while making concessions, has also called the protesters thugs and agitators. Police tactics have been aggressive and violent, in the face of mostly nonviolent protests. They arrested a Yellow Vest participant, Eric Drouet, who the media has labeled a “leader,” on flimsy charges of protesting without a permit, stoking more outrage. The media calls him a leader while saying the leaderless movement will fail because it lacks a leader. This reminds us of similar treatment during Occupy.

The movement has blown up political divides because there are people from the extreme left, extreme right and everywhere in-between participating. It includes young and old, male and female. It shows people uniting in a revolt over the unfair economic system and its impact on workers. They are also calling for participatory democracy by demanding citizen initiatives where people can vote on legislation, firing political appointees or even changing the constitution if they gather enough signatures. The Yellow Vests are showing system-wide problems that require both the economic and political systems to change.
 
Many of the problems the French people suffer are also felt in the United States. The US economy has been designed for the wealthy for decades and billionaire President Trump-era policies have made that reality worse. People never fully recovered from the 2008 economic collapse when millions lost houses and jobs, got lower income and higher debt.

The globalized economy that has been designed for transnational corporations has not served the people in the United States well. The fly-over states of the Midwest have been left hollowed out. Rural hospitals are closing as the economy disappears. In urban areas across the country, decades of neglect and lack of investment have created impoverished conditions. Racist and violent policing have been used to prevent rebellion and contain the unrest. People are struggling. Addiction and suicide rates are up. There is vast hopelessness and despair.

An economic collapse is on the horizon. As Alan Woods writes in New Year, New Crisis, “The question is not if it will happen, only when.” The US economy is dominated by Wall Street, which ended the year in crisis. Citigroup’s share price declined 30 percent from where it started the year, Goldman Sachs declined 35 percent, Morgan Stanley 24 percent, Bank of America 18 percent and JPMorgan had a 10% loss. Woods points to China’s economy slowing as is Germany’s and problems in other European nations all point to a global slow down, which those in power do not have tools to respond to as interest rates are already low and government debt is already high.

When the recession hits, the economic insecurity of the people will worsen. Like the people in France, the rich are getting obscenely richer and avoiding taxes by hiding billions offshore. And, the government is doing the opposite of what is needed, e.g. reducing taxes on the wealthy when there should be a millionaire’s tax of 70%, and blocking the Green New Deal.

And, when the economic crisis hits, people will blame Trump. Many voters supported him because he promised to break from a system that is designed to favor the wealthy. They will know from their own experience that he did the opposite. Stop Trumpism! will become an even louder rallying cry and a president whose popularity always hovered around 40% will find himself in polls at 30% or lower, as a presidential campaign kicks into high gear.

The economy is often the trigger event, as it was for Occupy, and we already know there are going to be mass teacher strikes in 2019, indeed plans to strike in LA are expected to escalate more broadly. The 40,000 people who lose their jobs as a result of four US General Motors factories closing could face losing their homes and have other economic stresses causing them to revolt. Congress refusing to take National Improved Medicare for All seriously when tens of thousands of people are dying every year simply because they are uninsured could light the spark.

People in the US might not be wearing yellow vests, but we know from other recent protest movements, people are willing to shut down streets and highways and stop business as usual. More may participate if a radicalizing moment ensues now that they have seen the model work in France.

There are many triggers that are likely to spark aggressive mass protests in 2019. Get ready.

Parliamentary Support for Racist Foreign Policies and the Canadian Taxpayer

Canada’s Political Parties Support for Racist Jewish National Fund

by Yves Engler - Dissident Voice

January 6th, 2019

An explosive CBC expose Friday on the Jewish National Fund should be the beginning of the end for this powerful organization’s charitable status. But, unless the NDP differentiates itself from the Liberals and Conservatives by standing up for Canadian and international law while simultaneously opposing explicit racism, the JNF may simply ride out this short bout of bad publicity.

According to a story headlined “Canadian charity used donations to fund projects linked to Israeli military”, the JNF has financed multiple projects for the Israeli military in direct contravention of Canada Revenue Agency rules for registered charities.

The CBC posted a JNF Israel webpage describing
Canadian-sponsored projects on Bat Galim Naval Base
and Palmachim Airbase in Israel. (KKL-JNF)

 The organization has also funded a number of projects supporting West Bank settlements, which Global Affairs Canada considers in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention. The story also revealed that the Canada Revenue Agency, under pressure from Independent Jewish Voices and other Palestine solidarity activists, began an audit of the state-subsidized charity last year.

After detailing the above, (which provoked hundreds of mostly angry comments from readers) the story notes that the “JNF has had strong relations with successive Conservative and Liberal governments.” The CBC published a picture of politicians congregated at the Prime Minister’s residence above the caption “Laureen Harper poses with JNF Gala honorees during a group visit to 24 Sussex Drive in 2015.”

But the JNF, like all good lobbyists, has hedged it political bets and the story could have noted that the social democratic opposition party was represented at this JNF gala as well and has dutifully supported the dubious “charity”. NDP MP Pat Martin spoke at the JNF event Harper organized to “recognize and thank the people that have helped to make JNF Canada what it is today.”

In 2016 NDP foreign critic Hélène Laverdière participated in a JNF tree planting ceremony in Jerusalem with JNF World Chairman Danny Atar and a number of its other top officials. The President of the Windsor-Tecumseh Federal NDP riding association, Noah Tepperman, has been a director of JNF Windsor since 2004 and has funded the organization’s events in London, Ontario.

In 2015 Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath published an ad in a JNF Hamilton handbook and offered words of encouragement to its fundraiser while Nova Scotia Premier Darrell Dexter planted a tree at a JNF garden in 2011. Manitoba NDP Premier Gary Doer was honoured at a 2006 JNF Negev Dinner in Winnipeg and cabinet minister Christine Melnick received the same honour in 2011. During a 2010 trip to Israel subsequent Manitoba NDP Premier Greg Selinger signed an accord with the JNF to jointly develop two bird conservation sites while water stewardship minister Melnick spoke at the opening ceremony for a park built in Jaffa by the JNF, Tel Aviv Foundation and Manitoba-Israel Shared Values Roundtable. (In 2017 Melnick won a B’nai Brith Zionist action figures prize for writing an article about a friend who helped conquer East Jerusalem and then later joined the JNF).

Besides NDP support for this dubious “charity”, the story ignored the JNF’s racist land-use policies.

The JNF owns 13 per cent of Israel’s land, which was mostly taken from Palestinians forced from their homes by Zionist forces in 1947-1948. It discriminates against Palestinian citizens of Israel (Arab Israelis) who make up a fifth of the population. According to a UN report, JNF lands are “chartered to benefit Jews exclusively,” which has led to an “institutionalized form of discrimination.”

Echoing the UN, a 2012 US State Department report detailing “institutional and societal discrimination” in Israel says JNF “statutes prohibit sale or lease of land to non-Jews.” Indicative of its discrimination against the 20% of Israelis who aren’t Jewish, JNF Canada’s Twitter tag says it “is the caretaker of the land of Israel, on behalf of its owners — Jewish people everywhere.”

Its parent organization in Israel — the Keren Kayemet LeYisrael — is even more open about its racism. Its website notes that,

“a survey commissioned by KKL-JNF reveals that over 70% of the Jewish population in Israel opposes allocating KKL-JNF land to non-Jews, while over 80% prefer the definition of Israel as a Jewish state, rather than as the state of all its citizens.” 

While such exclusionary land-use policies were made illegal in Canada seven decades ago, that’s the JNF’s raison d’être.

An organization that recently raised $25 million for a Stephen Harper Bird Sanctuary, JNF Canada has been directly complicit in at least three important instances of Palestinian dispossession.

In the late 1920s JNF Canada spearheaded a highly controversial land acquisition that drove a 1,000 person Bedouin community from land it had tilled for centuries and in the 1980s JNF–Canada helped finance an Israeli government campaign to “Judaize” the Galilee, the largely Arab northern region of Israel.

Additionally, as the CBC mentioned, JNF-Canada built Canada Park on the remnants of three Palestinian villages Israel conquered in 1967.

A map the JNF shows to nine and ten-year-olds at Jewish day schools in Toronto encompasses the illegally occupied West Bank and Gaza, effectively denying Palestinians the right to a state on even 22 percent of their historic homeland.

Similarly, the maps on JNF Blue Boxes, which are used by kids to raise funds, distributed in recent years include the occupied West Bank. The first map on the Blue Box, designed in 1934, depicted an area reaching from the Mediterranean into present-day Lebanon and Jordan.

The JNF is an openly racist organization that supports illegal settlements and the Israeli military. Many NDP activists understand this. The party’s MPs now have a choice: If they stand for justice and against all forms of racism, for the rule of international law and fairness in the Canadian tax system, they will speak up in Parliament to keep this story alive. The NDP needs to set itself apart from the Liberals and Conservatives by following up on the CBC’s revelations to demand the Canada Revenue Agency rescind the JNF’s charitable status.

Yves Engler is co-author of Stop Signs: Cars and Capitalism on the Road to Economic, Social and Ecological Decay. His latest book is Left, Right: Marching to the Beat of Imperial Canada.

Read other articles by Yves.

Integrity Initiative and the Skripal Narrative

How the Integrity Initiative Spun the West's Improbable Skripal Narrative

by 21st Century Wire

January 5, 2019

One of the biggest and most under-reported stories of 2018 was also one of the most dazzling propaganda operations ever conducted in modern history.

The narrative went something like this: a retired former Russian spy and UK double agent, Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were having lunch in a sleepy Wiltshire town, before being brutally poisoned by an alleged “military grade chemical weapon” known as Novichok. What followed was a textbook, state-managed media operation.

Incredibly, within only 48 hours, the UK government had already attributed blame to the Russian Federation and its president, Vladimir Putin.

The motive: no apparent reason, just Putin being mean. “There’s no logic in it; it doesn’t make sense, and I don’t think it needs to make sense, because essentially what the media is doing is propagandizing the population in favor of the madman theory. That’s critical to do when you’re trying to start aggression against a country,” said Moon of Alabama at the time.

How can the state and the mainstream media coordinate in a way that would make the inconceivable become the accepted ‘official’ western consensus reality narrative? Enter the British government-funded anti-Russian propaganda effort ironically named, the Integrity Initiative. A bona fide deep sate agency working under the guise of an anodyne ‘think tank,’ this clandestine government-media complex network not only helped craft the mainstream Skripal Affair narrative, but it also coordinated and organized attacks against any dissenting persons in the alternative press and on social media who dared to challenge their ‘official’ western propaganda line.

The level of Kafkaesque corruption in this government-funded psy-op is simply breathtaking…

RT International reports…

"The Integrity Initiative, a UK-funded group exposed in leaked files as psyop network, played a key role in monitoring and molding media narratives after the poisoning of double agent Sergei Skripal, newly-dumped documents reveal."

Created by the NATO-affiliated, UK-funded Institute for Statecraft in 2015, the Integrity Initiative was unmasked in November after hackers released documents detailing a web of politicians, journalists, military personnel, scientists and academics involved in purportedly fighting “Russian disinformation.” The secretive, government-bankrolled “network of networks” has found itself under scrutiny for smearing UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn as a Kremlin stooge – ostensibly as part of its noble crusade against anti-Russian disinformation.

Now, new leaks show that the organization played a central role in shaping media narratives after Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were mysteriously poisoned in Salisbury last March. It’s notable that many of the draconian anti-Russia measures that the group advocated as far back as 2015 were swiftly implemented following the Skripal affair – even as London refused to back up its finger-pointing with evidence.

‘Operation Iris’

Days after the Skripals were poisoned, the Institute solicited its services to the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, offering to “study social media activity in respect of the events that took place, how news spread, and evaluate how the incident is being perceived” in a number of countries. After receiving the government’s blessing, the Integrity Initiative (II) launched ‘Operation Iris,’ enlisting “global investigative solutions” firm Harod Associates to analyze social media activity related to Skripal.

However, Harod’s confidential report did more than just parse social media reactions to the Skripal affair: It compiled a list of alleged “pro-Russia troll accounts” accused of “bombarding the audience with pro-Kremlin propaganda and disinformation relevant to the Skripal case.”

Among those who found themselves listed as nefarious thought-criminals were Ukrainian-born pianist Valentina Lisitsa, and a gentleman from Kent who goes by Ian56 on Twitter.

Pushing a narrative

Another document, dated March 11, 2018 – and titled “Sergei Skripal Affair: What if Russia is Responsible?” – contains a “narrative” of the Skripal incident, which blames Russia and President Vladimir Putin personally, as well as containing a number of recommended actions. These included boycotting the 2018 World Cup, starting campaigns to boycott the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to Germany, blocking Russian access to the SWIFT international banking system, and banning “RT TV and Sputnik from operating in the UK.”

Other suggestions included propaganda directed at British Muslims “to publicize what has been happening with their Muslim brethren in Crimea since the Russian invasion [sic]” and getting members of parliament to publicize the “threat Russia poses.”

It’s not clear who the document was drawn up for, but it may have been provided to II-affiliated journalists in the UK and other countries. This would certainly explain the evidence-deficient echo chamber that emerged in the aftermath of Skripal’s poisoning – which the UK and its allies unanimously blamed on Moscow.

Ahead of its time?

One of the more intriguing revelations from the fresh leaks is a document from 2015, in which Victor Madeira of the Institute for Statecraft proposes a series of measures targeting Russia, including mass expulsion of diplomats along the lines of 1971’s Operation Foot.

Coincidentally, more than 100 Russian diplomats were expelled from 20 Western countries in an apparently show of solidarity with the UK following the Skripal attack. At the time, UK Prime Minister Theresa May welcomed what she said was “the largest collective expulsion of Russian intelligence officers in history.”

Former MP George Galloway noted that the documents, written long before the Salisbury events, also call for the arrest of RT and Sputnik contributors (such as himself), adding: “Makes you think…”

A curious connection

The new trove of hacked documents also revealed an unexplained link between the II and Skripal himself – a connection made all the more noteworthy by the group’s central role in coordinating an evidence-free campaign to blame and punish Moscow for the alleged nerve-agent attack.

A document from July 2018 contains contact details for Pablo Miller, Skripal’s MI6 recruiter, handler and (conveniently) neighbor in Salisbury. Miller, it seems, had been invited to a function hosted by the Institute.

It’s not clear to what degree Miller is or was involved with the group, but his appearance on an Integrity Initiative guest list adds another layer of mystery to a coordinated campaign which sought to impose punishments on Moscow that were drawn up years in advance.

READ MORE RUSSIAGATE NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Russiagate Files

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El Regresso: OAS's Almagro Calling Again for Intervention in Nicaragua

Luis Almagro calls for foreign intervention in Nicaragua (again) 

by Wales Nicaragua  Cymru

January 5, 2019

Even over the holidays things didn’t calm down for Nicaragua. During the break the Secretary-General of the Organisation of American States, Luis Almagro, (center left) has tried to begin proceedings against Nicaragua under the Inter-American Democratic Charter.

He cited Article 20 of the Charter, which states it can be activated when a “member state produces an alteration in the constitutional order that seriously harms democratic order” (see here for a typical report on the story, which was taken from Associated Press coverage).

Nicaragua’s Foreign Minister, Denis Moncada Colindres, responded immediately, writing to his fellow Ministers in the OAS.

He said:

“The Inter-American Democratic Charter does not empower Secretary General Luis Almagro to support coup groups against the State and the legally constituted Government of Nicaragua, as Mr Luis Almagro has done in violation of the Charter of the OAS….”.

A full radio interview with Denis Moncada is available here on a US public radio station.

The aim of the move by Almagro is not to expel Nicaragua from the OAS (though that is possible), but to speed up the sanctions against Nicaragua proposed by the United States in the recently signed off NICA Act.

Nicaragua clashed with Almagro earlier this autumn, when the OAS Secretary General called for military intervention in Venezuela.

His remarks came days after US Senator Marco Rubio (who has been the main cheerleader for the Nicaraguan opposition during the attempted coup) called for military action to remove President Maduro, and also called for the international community to ‘asphyxiate the dictatorship which is being installed in Nicaragua” (see here).

Almagro’s remarks were widely condemned, even as he tried to say he had been misquoted. However he still drew criticism for his increasingly hawkish views (see here for a response from the OAS Ambassador from Antigua and Barbuda – No Vigilante Action in the Americas).

The Nicaraguan opposition visited Washington this autumn after Almagro’s military intervention comments. Violeta Granera, an ex-vice presidential candidate with the PLI and a former minister in the Bolanos Government 2000-7, joined fellow Liberal Jose Pallais (a former deputy Foreign Minister during the Chamorro Government 1990-97) to lobby Alamagro to activate the Democratic Charter (see here).

The pair are no strangers to Almagro, or indeed in calling for the activation of the Democratic Charter. In 2016, three days before the presidential elections which Daniel Ortega won with over 70% of the vote, the pair travelled to Washington to meet with Almagro. On his return Jose Pallais said their dialogue with the OAS was “the first step before the activation’ of the Democratic Charter” (see here).

The OAS meeting will take place next week. Almagro’s call can expect support from Trump’s United States and the Brazilian government led by President Jair Bolsonaro, widely described as a fascist.

The US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, travelled to Brazil on Jan 2 to attend Bolsanaro’s inauguration. Their agenda, and indeed the agenda of Almagro, is clear. Pompeo said Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua were countries that do not share the democratic values that unite the United States and Brazil.

“We have an opportunity to work alongside each other against authoritarian regimes,” he said at a news conference (see here).