Beirut

So who blew up Beirut ?
The chances of 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate ( NH NO ) accidentally blowing up in Beirut at this particular time do not seem to me to be high .
The MSM love coincidences .
Intelligence analysts do not .
With every respect to those of my colleagues taking a different view I ’ m not thinking nuclear , nor the Israelis .
Ammonium nitrate is a fertilizer .
It ’ s not actually an explosive , which is why readers in Georgia are unlikely to hear conversations along the lines of ‘ Hot @ @ @ @ @ @ @ blown up by his fertiliser last night ’ ’ Dang , that just keeps happening , that ’ s the third this week ’ ’ We need to find a replacement for that ammonium nitrate ’ ‘ Darn tootin ’ ’ .
It ’ s a constituent of a number of explosives , including amatol , invented by us in the First World War and put to good use in depth charges and the like .
It ’ s also the main ingredient of ANFO , a widely used commercial explosive .
These @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Even ANFO is a tertiary explosive , that is to say you need both a detonator and a primer .
Ammonium nitrate is actually quite stable at normal temperatures , which is why you don ’ t see farmers being blown into the air as you drive through Georgia .
( I ’ ve driven right across the state and not once did I see a farmer blown up . )
Naïve journalists , if that is not a tautology with respect , might say ‘ but wot about the fire ?
’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ off .
The question , however , then becomes ‘ who started the fire ?
’ I ’ m not a great believer in spontaneous combustion .
Somebody wanted the Lebanese government to resign .
It ’ s also difficult to believe that 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate was stored in Beirut accidentally .
There might have been a legitimate reason for seizing the stuff in the first place , but why keep it in such a volatile place for so long ?
It ’ s not as though there isn ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ there was a dispute about ownership the sale proceeds could have been placed in escrow .
I ’ m fairly comfortable with the idea that the stuff was still in the warehouse .
That brings me onto alternative explanations for the big bang in Beirut .
The explosive yield is certainly consistent with a mini-nuke .
Beirut has been estimated at between 1 and 2 kilotons , which is big , albeit not the biggest ever recorded .
( That dubious honor belongs to the port of Halifax , blown up by our @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which was about 3KT . )
There is an overlap between the yields of large conventional explosions and small nuclear blasts .
The mushroom cloud we saw at Beirut is certainly typical of a nuclear detonation , but powerful conventional blasts can produce mushroom clouds as well , as the sinking of the IJN Yamato confirmed .
A nuclear blast will typically produce four main effects , aside from a loud noise of course : blast , fire , radiation and electromagnetic pulse ( EMP ) .
Fall-out from a ground–burst is usually @ @ @ @ @ @ @ dirty .
I ’ m not hearing anything about an EMP at Beirut , nor are there any reports of radiation sickness , which I would expect , not least with a ground-burst .
The heat signature may also have been a bit low for a nuke .
As presently advised I ’ m not thinking nuclear .
I ’ m also very dubious about those videos showing missiles or drones .
Videos and photos can easily be faked and in a high-stakes blame game like this hostile intel agencies will be involved @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ?
If a missile or aircraft had been involved it would have been caught on radar or satellite .
I ’ m inclined to go with the Pentagon on this one .
The boys seem to think that there was a stockpile of ammonium nitrate in the warehouse and that it was set off by an IED .
Who did it ?
You can forget the Israelis .
I ’ m well aware that a concerted effort is being made to blame them , but I ’ m not buying .
For starters @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The IDF have always emphasised precision .
A large explosion in a densely populated area , with a high risk of collateral casualties , would be a first for Israel .
I ’ m not leaving out of account the loss of civilian life at Qana in the Lebanon in 2006 , but as I reveal in Spyhunter that was down to Hezbollah gassing the victims .
No Israeli aircraft was anywhere near Qana at the time .
My experience of exposing the war crime at Qana leads me to question accusations @ @ @ @ @ @ @ all accusations against the Israelis are false .
It doesn ’ t follow that people who accuse Israel are anti-semitic .
Some are , sadly , but many simply fall for sophisticated anti-Israeli propaganda , Qana being a classic example .
Hezbollah and Iran are far more credible culprits than Israel .
Applying the cui bono principle it ’ s difficult to see what Israel had to gain from the collapse of the Lebanese government .
There appears to have been tensions between the outgoing government and Hezbollah , however .
Then there @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to consider .
That nice man Binny Netanyahu , the Israeli PM , ( just in case there are any journalists reading this ) now leads a broad coalition .
For an operation on this scale he would have to consult Blue and White leader Benny Gantz .
( I ’ m not sure why they named their party like a shipping line . )
Benny is a soldier and shares the true soldier ’ s instinctive aversion to massacres of civilians .
Hezbollah massacre civilians all the time , however .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ number of points .
I would like to know precisely what triggered the explosion .
I ’ d also like firmer information on who exactly ordered this nonsense .
It ’ s not impossible that it may turn out to have been an accident after all – Lebanon is not exactly a well-governed country .
However I think it highly unlikely .
Somebody wanted a big hole in Beirut .
Sadly they got what they wanted .
I respectfully agree with President Trump that there is a question mark over Kamala Harris ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Should the Democrats cheat their way to victory in November ( very frankly I can ’ t see them winning a clean contest ) , her eligibility will be important , as Dick Morris emphasised this week in one of his illuminating lunchtime alerts .
Sadly , it ’ s unlikely that Joe Biden would make it through even a first term .
He might not snuff it , but as his mental decline accelerates the 25th Amendment would come into play .
I ’ m not much impressed by the argument that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ before putting Senator Harris on the ticket .
Barack Obama , the first non-citizen to have become POTUS , was no 1 on their ticket twice .
I ’ m not even sure that everybody on the DNC actually knew where their candidate was born .
There ’ s no doubt that Kamala Harris was born in the United States , or at any rate California .
The issue is her dual nationality by descent from her Jamaican father , Professor Donald Harris .
By reason of Article 2 of the Jamaican Constitution @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The issue then becomes whether a dual national fulfils the constitutional requirement of being a natural-born citizen .
Constitutional scholars are divided on the point .
It can ’ t turn on whether you ’ re a Democrat or a Republican , although in practice it might .
My guess is that the Supreme Court would uphold the right of an American-born dual citizen to serve as President , but the law is not entirely clear .
There ’ s no point abusing the President for raising the point , which is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ t enter into it .
The issue of whether or not a dual national is eligible to serve as President is a point of constitutional law .
Barack Obama wasn ’ t the only ineligible candidate in the 2008 race , by the way .
John McCain wasn ’ t eligible either – he was born in Panama .
Since his father was serving in the military in the Canal Zone at the time that was kind of tough on him , or would have been had he not been a German agent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they say in Texas , the lawah is the lawah .
I would not be at all surprised to learn that the President had consulted the Attorney-General , who is a good lawyer , with respect , before his tweet .
The President is known for his thoughtful and carefully considered tweets .
I don ’ t think that race is going to be an issue with Senator Harris .
It ’ s her politics which may drag the ticket down , with respect .
If the Democrats had put say James Earl @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in 2008 they would have won by a landslide .
Moreover both would have won enormous respect .
( I ’ m fairly convinced that Morgan Freeman was one of the motorcycle cops in Live and Let Die , which if right would have made him the first Bond actor to have become Vice-President ! )
The quality of an individual does not depend upon their race or color , but that works both ways .
Just because you ’ re black doesn ’ t necessarily make you a wise or honorable person @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
( John Major and Tony Blair are white . )
I respectfully commend to all y ’ all a series of recent tweets by Dr Simone Gold ( @ drsimonegold ) .
She has some very sensible things to say about HCQ , the use of which to treat Covid-19 is apparently now supported by some 50 studies .
For Dr Gold to have been terminated from her employment , as apparently she was , for expressing a genuine medical opinion is an outrage .
You don ’ t fire medical men @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , even if you disagree with it , or they turn out to be wrong .
As it happens Dr Gold is right .
I hope she writes a book !
Respectful congratulations to President Lukashenko on his landslide win in the presidential election .
I ’ m well aware that assorted troublemakers , the EU , the DVD and George ‘ von ’ Soros are not as happy about the outcome as I am , but tough .
He won fair and square .
The count seems to have been generally fair @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ballots .
Belarus is known for its sensible approach to capital punishment and human rights .
They do human rights in Kiev , but they don ’ t make fetish of it .
After a lengthy interlude I ’ ve resumed my series of reviews of the Bond movies !
Please don ’ t write in and complain that I ’ ve already done Octopussy , or that my views have changed .
All y ’ all should realise that I haven ’ t quite reached the level of sophistication of compiling a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ again on ITV in Britain this afternoon , was the penultimate movie starring the late , great Sir Roger Moore as 007 .
Sir Roger , of course , is my favorite Bond .
It was also one of the first in the series to feature an entirely new plot – only the title comes from the works of the murdered Ian Fleming .
Roger Moore was getting on a bit by the time he made Octopussy , but what he lacks in athleticism he more than makes up for in charm and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s ever been a better-dressed actor !
It ’ s not the best Bond movie by any means , but it ’ s still a watchable and highly entertaining intelligence yarn .
The support cast is strong , led by Maud Adams and Douglas Wilmer , MI6 ’ s arts adviser .
( The auction scene at Sotheby ’ s is very well done ! )
The chases are hilarious and the Indian locations exotic .
The dramatic finale on the Beech 18 is superbly done .
Bernard Lee , sadly , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ made , indeed he wasn ’ t well enough to appear in the preceding movie in the series , For Your Eyes Only .
Robert Brown stands in for him , although it ’ s not entirely clear whether he ’ s the new M , or just acting in M ’ s absence .
Desmond Llewellyn is on his usual form as Q , indeed we see more of him in Octopussy than we usually do .
The movie ’ s premise – that the really dangerous nuke is the one inserted @ @ @ @ @ @ @ score is up to usual standards , and at times is haunting .
Watching it again , it still retains the engaging mix of drama , style and humor that attracted me in the first place .
I had a pleasant vacation , I ’ m pleased to say , which included a day out on the delightful Swanage steam railway .

So who blew up Beirut? The chances of 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate (NH 4 NO 3 ) accidentally blowing up in Beirut at this particular time do not seem to me to be high. The MSM love coincidences. Intelligence analysts do not. With every respect to those of my colleagues taking a different view I’m not thinking nuclear, nor the Israelis.
Ammonium nitrate is a fertilizer. It’s not actually an explosive, which is why readers in Georgia are unlikely to hear conversations along the lines of ‘Hot diggety, I see Billy Bob got blown up by his fertilizer last night’ ’Dang, that just keeps happening, that’s the third this week’ ’We need to find a replacement for that ammonium nitrate’ ‘Darn tootin’’.
It’s a constituent of a number of explosives, including amatol, invented by us in the First World War and put to good use in-depth charges and the like. It’s also the main ingredient of ANFO, a widely used commercial explosive. These are all explosive compounds, however. Even ANFO is a tertiary explosive, that is to say, you need both a detonator and a primer.
Ammonium nitrate is actually quite stable at normal temperatures, which is why you don’t see farmers being blown into the air as you drive through Georgia. (I’ve driven right across the state and not once did I see a farmer blown up.)
Naïve journalists, if that is not a tautology with respect, might say ‘but wot about the fire?’ Wot indeed. Ammonium nitrate can cook off. The question, however, then becomes ‘who started the fire?’ I’m not a great believer in spontaneous combustion. Somebody wanted the Lebanese government to resign. It’s also difficult to believe that 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate was stored in Beirut accidentally.
There might have been a legitimate reason for seizing the stuff in the first place, but why keep it in such a volatile place for so long? It’s not as though there isn’t a market for ammonium nitrate. If there was a dispute about ownership the sale proceeds could have been placed in escrow.
I’m fairly comfortable with the idea that the stuff was still in the warehouse. That brings me onto alternative explanations for the big bang in Beirut.
A nuke?
The explosive yield is certainly consistent with a mini-nuke. Beirut has been estimated at between 1 and 2 kilotons, which is big, albeit not the biggest ever recorded. (That dubious honor belongs to the port of Halifax, blown up by our community partner the Hun in 1917, which was about 3KT.) There is an overlap between the yields of large conventional explosions and small nuclear blasts.
The mushroom cloud we saw at Beirut is certainly typical of a nuclear detonation, but powerful conventional blasts can produce mushroom clouds as well, as the sinking of the IJN Yamato confirmed.
A nuclear blast will typically produce four main effects, aside from a loud noise of course: blast, fire, radiation and electromagnetic pulse (EMP). The fall-out from a ground–burst is usually more severe – ground-bursts tend to be dirty.
I’m not hearing anything about an EMP at Beirut, nor are there any reports of radiation sickness, which I would expect, not least with a ground-burst. The heat signature may also have been a bit low for a nuke. As presently advised I’m not thinking nuclear.
I’m also very dubious about those videos showing missiles or drones. Videos and photos can easily be faked and in a high-stakes blame game like this hostile intel agencies will be involved. Where’s the radar imagery? If a missile or aircraft had been involved it would have been caught on radar or satellite.
I’m inclined to go with the Pentagon on this one. The boys seem to think that there was a stockpile of ammonium nitrate in the warehouse and that it was set off by an IED.
Who did it?
You can forget the Israelis. I’m well aware that a concerted effort is being made to blame them, but I’m not buying. For starters, it’s not their style. The IDF has always emphasized precision. A large explosion in a densely populated area, with a high risk of collateral casualties, would be a first for Israel.
I’m not leaving out of account the loss of civilian life at Qana in Lebanon in 2006, but as I reveal in Spyhunter that was down to Hezbollah gassing the victims. No Israeli aircraft was anywhere near Qana at the time. My experience of exposing the war crime at Qana leads me to question accusations of war crimes against Israel. Nearly all accusations against the Israelis are false.
It doesn’t follow that people who accuse Israel are anti-semitic. Some are, sadly, but many simply fall for sophisticated anti-Israeli propaganda, Qana being a classic example.
Hezbollah and Iran are far more credible culprits than Israel. Applying the cui bono principle it’s difficult to see what Israel had to gain from the collapse of the Lebanese government. There appears to have been tensions between the outgoing government and Hezbollah, however.
Then there’s the internal situation in Jerusalem to consider. That nice man Binny Netanyahu, the Israeli PM, (just in case there are any journalists reading this) now leads a broad coalition. For an operation on this scale, he would have to consult Blue and White leader Benny Gantz. (I’m not sure why they named their party like a shipping line.) Benny is a soldier and shares the true soldier’s instinctive aversion to massacres of civilians. Hezbollah massacre civilians all the time, however.
The jury’s still out on a number of points. I would like to know precisely what triggered the explosion. I’d also like firmer information on who exactly ordered this nonsense. It’s not impossible that it may turn out to have been an accident after all – Lebanon is not exactly a well-governed country. However, I think it highly unlikely. Somebody wanted a big hole in Beirut. Sadly they got what they wanted.
Senator Kamala Harris
I respectfully agree with President Trump that there is a question mark over Kamala Harris’s eligibility to serve as Vice-President.
Should the Democrats cheat their way to victory in November (very frankly I can’t see them winning a clean contest), her eligibility will be important, as Dick Morris emphasized this week in one of his illuminating lunchtime alerts. Sadly, it’s unlikely that Joe Biden would make it through even a first term. He might not snuff it, but as his mental decline accelerates the 25th Amendment would come into play.
I’m not much impressed by the argument that the Democrats will have done their homework before putting Senator Harris on the ticket. Barack Obama, the first non-citizen to have become POTUS, was no 1 on their ticket twice. I’m not even sure that everybody on the DNC actually knew where their candidate was born.
There’s no doubt that Kamala Harris was born in the United States, or at any rate California. The issue is her dual nationality by descent from her Jamaican father, Professor Donald Harris. By reason of Article 2 of the Jamaican, Constitution Kamala became a Jamaican Citizen at birth.
The issue then becomes whether a dual national fulfills the constitutional requirement of being a natural-born citizen. Constitutional scholars are divided on the point. It can’t turn on whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican, although in practice it might. My guess is that the Supreme Court would uphold the right of an American-born dual citizen to serve as President, but the law is not entirely clear.
There’s no point abusing the President for raising the point, which is properly arguable. Race simply doesn’t enter into it. The issue of whether or not a dual national is eligible to serve as President is a point of constitutional law.
Barack Obama wasn’t the only ineligible candidate in the 2008 race, by the way. John McCain wasn’t eligible either – he was born in Panama. Since his father was serving in the military in the Canal Zone at the time that was kind of tough on him, or would have been had he not been a German agent, like his father, but as they say in Texas, the lawah is the lawah.
I would not be at all surprised to learn that the President had consulted the Attorney-General, who is a good lawyer, with respect, before his tweet. The President is known for his thoughtful and carefully considered tweets.
I don’t think that race is going to be an issue with Senator Harris. It’s her politics that may drag the ticket down, with respect. If the Democrats had put say James Earl Jones and Morgan Freeman on their ticket in 2008 they would have won by a landslide. Moreover, both would have won enormous respect. (I’m fairly convinced that Morgan Freeman was one of the motorcycle cops in Live and Let Die, which if right would have made him the first Bond actor to have become Vice-President!)
The quality of an individual does not depend upon their race or color, but that works both ways. Just because you’re black doesn’t necessarily make you a wise or honorable person, any more than being white does. (John Major and Tony Blair are white.)
Hydroxychloriquine
I respectfully commend to all y’all a series of recent tweets by Dr Simone Gold (@drsimonegold). She has some very sensible things to say about HCQ, the use of which to treat Covid-19 is apparently now supported by some 50 studies.
For Dr Gold to have been terminated from her employment, as apparently she was, for expressing a genuine medical opinion is an outrage. You don’t fire medical men and women for expressing a professional opinion, even if you disagree with it, or they turn out to be wrong. As it happens Dr Gold is right. I hope she writes a book!
Belarus
Respectful congratulations to President Lukashenko on his landslide win in the presidential election. I’m well aware that assorted troublemakers, the EU, the DVD and George ‘von’ Soros are not as happy about the outcome as I am, but tough. He won fair and square. The count seems to have been generally fair, with a low percentage of mail-in ballots.
Belarus is known for its sensible approach to capital punishment and human rights. They do human rights in Kiev, but they don’t make a fetish of it.
This week’s movie review: Octopussy (1983, dir. John Glen)
After a lengthy interlude, I’ve resumed my series of reviews of the Bond movies! Please don’t write in and complain that I’ve already done Octopussy, or that my views have changed. All y’all should realize that I haven’t quite reached the level of sophistication of compiling a list!
Octopussy, which was aired again on ITV in Britain this afternoon, was the penultimate movie starring the late, great Sir Roger Moore as 007. Sir Roger, of course, is my favorite Bond. It was also one of the first in the series to feature an entirely new plot – only the title comes from the works of the murdered Ian Fleming.
Roger Moore was getting on a bit by the time he made Octopussy, but what he lacks in athleticism he more than makes up for in charm and sophistication. I also doubt that there’s ever been a better-dressed actor!
It’s not the best Bond movie by any means, but it’s still a watchable and highly entertaining intelligence yarn. The supporting cast is strong, led by Maud Adams and Douglas Wilmer, MI6’s art adviser. (The auction scene at Sotheby’s is very well done!)
The chases are hilarious and the Indian locations exotic. The dramatic finale on the Beech 18 is superbly done. Bernard Lee, sadly, had passed by the time Octopussy was made, indeed he wasn’t well enough to appear in the preceding movie in the series, For Your Eyes Only. Robert Brown stands in for him, although it’s not entirely clear whether he’s the new M, or just acting in M’s absence.
Desmond Llewellyn is on his usual form as Q, indeed we see more of him in Octopussy than we usually do. The movie’s premise – that the really dangerous nuke is the one inserted covertly – is entirely credible. The score is up to usual standards, and at times is haunting. Watching it again, it still retains the engaging mix of drama, style and humor that attracted me in the first place.
I had a pleasant vacation, I’m pleased to say, which included a day out on the delightful Swanage steam railway.


veteranstoday--2020-08-17--ProPublica: University of North Carolina COVID Lab Cited for “Risk of Accidents” (pure coincidence?)

The U.S .
Response to COVID-19 ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power .
Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they ’ re published .
The mouse infected with a lab-created type of SARS coronavirus was squirming upside down , dangling by its tail as a scientist carried it to a weighing container one day in February 2016 .
But the mundane task turned dangerous in seconds inside the North Carolina laboratory , which has drawn scrutiny for its partnership on similar research with China ’ s Wuhan Institute of Virology .
In @ @ @ @ @ @ @ enough that the experiment was taking place inside a biosafety level 3 lab , the second-highest security level , which was layered in high-tech equipment designed to keep dangerous pathogens from escaping .
Or that the scientist was covered head-to-toe in gear to protect against infection : a full-body Tyvek suit , boot covers and double gloves , plus a powered air-purifying respirator .
As she carried the mouse , it climbed up its tail and bit her hard , breaking through the gloves and plunging its teeth — and potentially the virus @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , instead of quarantining to wait for signs of infection , the scientist was allowed to go about her life in public for the next 10 days , wearing a surgical mask and reporting her temperature twice daily , newly obtained records show .
While no one is suggesting that UNC created the virus that causes COVID-19 , alone or with the Wuhan lab , such near misses highlight the potential risks of an infected lab worker exposing the public even in the most secure and respected research facilities as they search for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ declined to publicly disclose key details about the incidents , including the names of viruses involved , the nature of the modifications made to them and what risks were posed to the public , contrary to National Institutes of Health guidelines .
“ The University notified the proper oversight agencies about the incidents and took corrective action as needed , ” UNC said in a statement , noting that its research has contributed to promising treatments for COVID-19 .
“ It is absolutely critical to understand what viruses exist in nature and how @ @ @ @ @ @ @ nature of the safety breaches at UNC are particularly important now as the origins of COVID-19 , which has killed more than 775,000 people worldwide and infected 21.7 million others , continue to elude public health officials and other investigators .
President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have publicly speculated , without offering proof , that a lab in Wuhan , the Chinese city where COVID-19 cases first appeared , may be responsible for the current coronavirus pandemic .
While that theory is dismissed by many as political blame-shifting and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ concerned for years about the potential for a lab accident to cause a pandemic .
Richard Ebright , a molecular biologist at Rutgers University who has testified before Congress on lab safety issues , said the series of incidents with coronaviruses at UNC gives fuel to the possibility that this pandemic , or one in the future , could originate as a lab accident .
Since 2007 , the U.S. Government Accountability Office , the investigative arm of Congress , has repeatedly warned that the proliferation of high-containment biosafety level 3 and level @ @ @ @ @ @ @ around the world is increasing the risk of dangerous viruses , bacteria or toxins being intentionally or unintentionally released from the facilities .
Over the years , Congress has held multiple hearings examining numerous serious incidents in elite U.S. labs , including mishaps with anthrax , deadly smallpox and Ebola viruses and dangerous strains of avian influenza .
In April , the Office of the Director of National Intelligence issued a public statement that while the U.S. intelligence community agrees with widespread scientific consensus that the COVID-19 virus was not human-made or genetically @ @ @ @ @ @ @ organizations have not ruled out a lab accident as the source of the outbreak .
“ The IC will continue to rigorously examine emerging information and intelligence to determine whether the outbreak began through contact with infected animals or if it was the result of an accident at a laboratory in Wuhan , ” the statement said .
Questions about a potential lab accident have focused on two large infectious disease labs in Wuhan : The Wuhan Institute of Virology and the Wuhan Center for Disease Control and Prevention .
The Chinese government @ @ @ @ @ @ @ do with the pandemic .
“ It is unfortunate that we have been targeted as a scapegoat for the origin of the virus , ” Wang Yanyi , director of the Wuhan Institute of Virology said in an interview this month with NBC News .
The Wuhan Institute of Virology is China ’ s first research facility to operate biosafety level 4 labs , the highest safety level , which are built with special design features and equipment to prevent the most dangerous pathogens from getting out .
The institute has specialized in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ led by virologist Shi Zhengli , who has been nicknamed the “ Bat Woman ” for her team ’ s pursuit of specimens of wild SARS-like viruses in bat caves .
In July , Shi fired back at White House speculation about the institute , telling Science magazine that the institute had never had contact with or studied the virus that causes COVID-19 until Dec. 30 , 2019 , when it first received samples from patients who were sickened with an unknown type of pneumonia .
“ U.S .
President Trump ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ institute totally contradicts the facts , ” she told Science .
Researchers like Shi and the team of scientists at UNC are attempting to determine which of the many coronaviruses that currently only infect animals have the potential to mutate in ways that would allow them to jump to humans , allowing for advance development of treatments and vaccines .
The February 2016 safety breach at the UNC ’ s high-containment laboratories drew scrutiny at the time from concerned federal health officials , records show .
In its aftermath , UNC officials provided @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Control and Prevention , though neither the university nor the CDC will say what they were about .
The university deleted the virus name from incident reports it released in response to a public records request .
Federal lab safety officials at the NIH confirmed in an emailed response to questions from ProPublica that the 2016 incident , as well as several others where UNC redacted the pathogen name from reports , involved types of “ SARS-associated Coronavirus.
” But the NIH , which oversees experiments involving genetically modified viruses and bacteria , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the nature or genetic composition of the lab-created viruses .
NIH , CDC and UNC officials declined to explain the potential risks to the public of the 2016 incident or why the researcher wasn ’ t quarantined until it was known she wasn ’ t infected .
NIH said it is each research institution ’ s responsibility to assess the risks of an incident and respond to it appropriately .
While the researcher did not get sick , the case underscores the concerns that have been raised about the potential for a lab @ @ @ @ @ @ @ natural or human-made — into the surrounding community and beyond .
It also illustrates how potentially infected lab workers could be allowed to move about in a city and the efforts that labs make to keep details of such safety breaches secret .
Records show that during the five years before the pandemic began , at least six UNC researchers were required to undergo medical monitoring following four incidents where they were potentially exposed to what the NIH now confirms were types of lab-created SARS coronaviruses .
In addition , two other UNC @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of their potential exposure to a type of lab-created MERS coronavirus .
The monitoring involved reporting temperatures or any symptoms to university medical officials twice daily .
In each case , the reports indicate these workers were allowed to go about their lives while waiting for symptoms to appear .
As the world has learned in recent months , it ’ s possible for people without symptoms to be infected with the coronavirus and unknowingly spread disease to others .
Safety incidents at UNC have continued in the wake of the pandemic as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ scientists worldwide studying the new SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 .
On April 21 , a UNC researcher wearing full-body protective gear was bitten on their index finger while weighing a mouse infected with a genetically altered form of the SARS-CoV-2 virus adapted to grow in mice .
In contrast to the 2016 mouse mishap , the researcher bitten this spring was told to self-quarantine at home for 14 days , records show .
The local Health Department was also notified about the incident .
UNC officials declined to be interviewed and did @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to them in writing .
Research at UNC ’ s biosafety level 3 labs has come under scrutiny in the past because of controversial coronavirus experiments its scientists have done with partners at the Wuhan Institute of Virology .
In November 2015 , UNC scientists published a research paper detailing how they had created a lab-made hybrid coronavirus with the potential to infect people .
Their experiments involved inserting part of a coronavirus called SHC014-CoV found in Chinese horseshoe bats into a SARS virus to see if the lab-made hybrid virus — called @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cells .
It could .
And it prompted the research team — which included scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology — to warn in their paper of the risks that the SHC014 coronavirus and others circulating in bat populations have to potentially emerge as a threat to humans .
At UNC , a senior author of the paper was Ralph Baric , an epidemiology professor and international expert on coronaviruses .
UNC said Baric was unavailable for an interview , but it noted the virus in the experiment was “ a very @ @ @ @ @ @ @ causes COVID-19 .
The potential risks posed by creating a virus not found in nature prompted criticism at the time from some scientists .
The paper added to an ongoing international debate over risks and benefits of creating genetically modified pathogens that are potentially more dangerous than what ’ s found in nature , what ’ s known as “ gain of function ” research .
“ If the virus escaped , nobody could predict the trajectory , ” Simon Wain-Hobson , a virologist at the Pasteur Institute in Paris , told Nature @ @ @ @ @ @ @ published .
UNC officials would not say whether the 2016 mouse-bite incident , which occurred three months after the paper was published , involved a SARS chimera virus like the one in the 2015 paper .
Experts who reviewed the incident reports at ProPublica ’ s request said it is difficult to gauge the risks of UNC ’ s coronavirus incidents because the university removed key details about the nature of the viruses involved .
“ There is no reason for the public not to be informed about the nature of biological agents @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” said Gregory Koblentz , director of the biodefense graduate program at George Mason University , who noted that the research is not classified and will eventually be published in scientific journals .
“ Making these reports public ensures accountability for the labs and funders and encourages them to learn from mistakes and reduce risk of them occurring , ” Koblentz said .
UNC is required as a condition of its federal research funding to release to the public on demand certain safety records , including incident reports , about its work with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a complaint about UNC ’ s removal of the virus names , NIH said it contacted UNC “ to remind them of their obligations.
” But UNC still didn ’ t release the pathogen names and genetic modifications it removed from the records .
While UNC wouldn ’ t discuss the 2016 incident , in its statement to ProPublica the university emphasized that the research for the 2015 paper was approved by NIH , that it followed all safety protocols and that it was deemed a “ low-risk ” experiment because of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ It is because of our early work that the United States was in a position to quickly find the first successful treatment for SARS-CoV-2 , ” the university said in its statement .
Research by UNC scientists has contributed to the development of a drug called EIDD-2801 , which shows promise in preventing lung damage from COVID-19 .
The source of the current pandemic remains unknown .
Many scientific experts believe the virus that causes COVID-19 emerged in nature and is the result of people being exposed to bats or another type of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Experts who have studied the virus ’ s genetic sequence have said it doesn ’ t appear to be genetically engineered .
Coronaviruses have jumped from animals to humans before .
In 2002 , the SARS coronavirus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome emerged possibly from bats in southern China to set off an international epidemic that was extinguished in 2003 through public health measures .
In 2012 , the MERS coronavirus that causes Middle East respiratory syndrome was first identified in people sickened in Saudi Arabia and other countries in and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ been linked to exposure to camels .
But for the COVID-19 virus causing the current pandemic , more study is needed to know where and how the virus jumped from animals to humans .
“ There have been extensive discussions about why the virus is almost certainly a naturally occurring strain , but the origin of the outbreak can only be determined — if it can ever be determined — by going through that more medical chain and examining those records , ” said Gigi Kwik Gronvall , a senior scholar at the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ While rare , outbreaks that spread from labs to people or animals in the surrounding environment have happened .
A lab accident or mishap with a vaccine trial are considered to be likely explanations for how a strain of flu that appeared to have been genetically frozen in time since the 1950s emerged and infected people around the world in 1977-78 .
In 2004 , a small outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome was traced by Chinese authorities and the World Health Organization to lab workers at the National Institute of Virology Laboratory @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Control in Beijing , where experiments were conducted using live and inactivated SARS coronavirus .
And in 2007 , leaking drainage pipes at a vaccine research facility in England were blamed for an outbreak of foot and mouth disease among cattle .
For now , a team of experts from the World Health Organization is investigating the pandemic ’ s origins , with a focus on understanding the animal hosts for COVID-19 and how the disease jumped between animals and humans .
“ Identifying the origin of emerging viral disease has proven complex @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” the WHO said in a statement last month .
“ The process is an evolving endeavor which may lead to further international scientific research and collaboration globally .
”

The U.S. Response to COVID-19
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More voices indicate that coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 was engineered. Question was Fort Dietrich, UNC, Wuhan, or other – where was it engineered and who did it? Intentional application or accident? I want to know who their insurance company and coverage is! https://t.co/6o3Dsbht5R — CatherineAustinFitts (@TheSolariReport) April 17, 2020
The mouse infected with a lab-created type of SARS coronavirus was squirming upside down, dangling by its tail as a scientist carried it to a weighing container one day in February 2016. But the mundane task turned dangerous in seconds inside the North Carolina laboratory, which has drawn scrutiny for its partnership on similar research with China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology.
"[D]uring the 5 years before the pandemic.., 6 UNC researchers were required to undergo medical monitoring following 4 incidents where they were..exposed to..SARS coronavirus"https://t.co/RTRRDqBlTr — Richard H. Ebright (@R_H_Ebright) August 17, 2020
In that moment, it wasn’t enough that the experiment was taking place inside a biosafety level 3 lab, the second-highest security level, which was layered in high-tech equipment designed to keep dangerous pathogens from escaping. Or that the scientist was covered head-to-toe in gear to protect against infection: a full-body Tyvek suit, boot covers and double gloves, plus a powered air-purifying respirator.
As she carried the mouse, it climbed up its tail and bit her hard, breaking through the gloves and plunging its teeth — and potentially the virus — into her ring finger.
Then, instead of quarantining to wait for signs of infection, the scientist was allowed to go about her life in public for the next 10 days, wearing a surgical mask and reporting her temperature twice daily, newly obtained records show.
While no one is suggesting that UNC created the virus that causes COVID-19, alone or with the Wuhan lab, such near misses highlight the potential risks of an infected lab worker exposing the public even in the most secure and respected research facilities as they search for treatments and vaccines.
The university has declined to publicly disclose key details about the incidents, including the names of viruses involved, the nature of the modifications made to them and what risks were posed to the public, contrary to National Institutes of Health guidelines.
“The University notified the proper oversight agencies about the incidents and took corrective action as needed,” UNC said in a statement, noting that its research has contributed to promising treatments for COVID-19. “It is absolutely critical to understand what viruses exist in nature and how they could affect human health.”
The nature of the safety breaches at UNC are particularly important now as the origins of COVID-19, which has killed more than 775,000 people worldwide and infected 21.7 million others, continue to elude public health officials and other investigators.
Read More
Here Are Six Accidents UNC Researchers Had With Lab-Created Coronaviruses There have been mouse bites and spills and other mishaps during experiments involving genetically altered coronaviruses at a high-security lab at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have publicly speculated, without offering proof, that a lab in Wuhan, the Chinese city where COVID-19 cases first appeared, may be responsible for the current coronavirus pandemic. While that theory is dismissed by many as political blame-shifting and anti-China rhetoric, credible scientists have been concerned for years about the potential for a lab accident to cause a pandemic.
Richard Ebright, a molecular biologist at Rutgers University who has testified before Congress on lab safety issues, said the series of incidents with coronaviruses at UNC gives fuel to the possibility that this pandemic, or one in the future, could originate as a lab accident.
Since 2007, the U.S. Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, has repeatedly warned that the proliferation of high-containment biosafety level 3 and level 4 labs in the United States and around the world is increasing the risk of dangerous viruses, bacteria or toxins being intentionally or unintentionally released from the facilities. Over the years, Congress has held multiple hearings examining numerous serious incidents in elite U.S. labs, including mishaps with anthrax, deadly smallpox and Ebola viruses and dangerous strains of avian influenza.
In April, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence issued a public statement that while the U.S. intelligence community agrees with widespread scientific consensus that the COVID-19 virus was not human-made or genetically modified, federal spy agencies and security organizations have not ruled out a lab accident as the source of the outbreak.
“The IC will continue to rigorously examine emerging information and intelligence to determine whether the outbreak began through contact with infected animals or if it was the result of an accident at a laboratory in Wuhan,” the statement said.
Questions about a potential lab accident have focused on two large infectious disease labs in Wuhan: The Wuhan Institute of Virology and the Wuhan Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The Chinese government has said the labs had nothing to do with the pandemic.
“It is unfortunate that we have been targeted as a scapegoat for the origin of the virus,” Wang Yanyi, director of the Wuhan Institute of Virology said in an interview this month with NBC News.
The Wuhan Institute of Virology, China’s first research facility to operate biosafety level 4 labs. (Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images)
The Wuhan Institute of Virology is China’s first research facility to operate biosafety level 4 labs, the highest safety level, which are built with special design features and equipment to prevent the most dangerous pathogens from getting out. The institute has specialized in the study of bat coronaviruses, research led by virologist Shi Zhengli, who has been nicknamed the “Bat Woman” for her team’s pursuit of specimens of wild SARS-like viruses in bat caves.
In July, Shi fired back at White House speculation about the institute, telling Science magazine that the institute had never had contact with or studied the virus that causes COVID-19 until Dec. 30, 2019, when it first received samples from patients who were sickened with an unknown type of pneumonia. “U.S. President Trump’s claim that SARS-CoV-2 was leaked from our institute totally contradicts the facts,” she told Science.
Researchers like Shi and the team of scientists at UNC are attempting to determine which of the many coronaviruses that currently only infect animals have the potential to mutate in ways that would allow them to jump to humans, allowing for advance development of treatments and vaccines.
The February 2016 safety breach at the UNC’s high-containment laboratories drew scrutiny at the time from concerned federal health officials, records show. In its aftermath, UNC officials provided repeated updates to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, though neither the university nor the CDC will say what they were about. The university deleted the virus name from incident reports it released in response to a public records request. Federal lab safety officials at the NIH confirmed in an emailed response to questions from ProPublica that the 2016 incident, as well as several others where UNC redacted the pathogen name from reports, involved types of “SARS-associated Coronavirus.” But the NIH, which oversees experiments involving genetically modified viruses and bacteria, did not provide any further details about the nature or genetic composition of the lab-created viruses.
NIH, CDC and UNC officials declined to explain the potential risks to the public of the 2016 incident or why the researcher wasn’t quarantined until it was known she wasn’t infected. NIH said it is each research institution’s responsibility to assess the risks of an incident and respond to it appropriately.
After the researcher was bitten by the infected mouse, university officials initially discussed “options for isolation” of the scientist during the incubation period for the lab-created virus, the incident reports show. Instead, they allowed her to remain in public, only requiring that she wear a surgical mask and report her temperature twice daily.
While the researcher did not get sick, the case underscores the concerns that have been raised about the potential for a lab accident to unleash a dangerous virus — natural or human-made — into the surrounding community and beyond. It also illustrates how potentially infected lab workers could be allowed to move about in a city and the efforts that labs make to keep details of such safety breaches secret.
Records show that during the five years before the pandemic began, at least six UNC researchers were required to undergo medical monitoring following four incidents where they were potentially exposed to what the NIH now confirms were types of lab-created SARS coronaviruses. In addition, two other UNC researchers had to undergo medical surveillance because of their potential exposure to a type of lab-created MERS coronavirus. The monitoring involved reporting temperatures or any symptoms to university medical officials twice daily.
In each case, the reports indicate these workers were allowed to go about their lives while waiting for symptoms to appear. As the world has learned in recent months, it’s possible for people without symptoms to be infected with the coronavirus and unknowingly spread disease to others.
Safety incidents at UNC have continued in the wake of the pandemic as the university’s researchers have joined scientists worldwide studying the new SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19.
On April 21, a UNC researcher wearing full-body protective gear was bitten on their index finger while weighing a mouse infected with a genetically altered form of the SARS-CoV-2 virus adapted to grow in mice. In contrast to the 2016 mouse mishap, the researcher bitten this spring was told to self-quarantine at home for 14 days, records show. The local Health Department was also notified about the incident.
UNC officials declined to be interviewed and did not answer questions about the incidents sent to them in writing.
Research at UNC’s biosafety level 3 labs has come under scrutiny in the past because of controversial coronavirus experiments its scientists have done with partners at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
In November 2015, UNC scientists published a research paper detailing how they had created a lab-made hybrid coronavirus with the potential to infect people. Their experiments involved inserting part of a coronavirus called SHC014-CoV found in Chinese horseshoe bats into a SARS virus to see if the lab-made hybrid virus — called a chimera — could efficiently infect human cells.
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It could. And it prompted the research team — which included scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology — to warn in their paper of the risks that the SHC014 coronavirus and others circulating in bat populations have to potentially emerge as a threat to humans. At UNC, a senior author of the paper was Ralph Baric, an epidemiology professor and international expert on coronaviruses. UNC said Baric was unavailable for an interview, but it noted the virus in the experiment was “a very different strain” than the one that causes COVID-19.
The potential risks posed by creating a virus not found in nature prompted criticism at the time from some scientists. The paper added to an ongoing international debate over risks and benefits of creating genetically modified pathogens that are potentially more dangerous than what’s found in nature, what’s known as “gain of function” research.
“If the virus escaped, nobody could predict the trajectory,” Simon Wain-Hobson, a virologist at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, told Nature at the time the UNC paper was published.
UNC officials would not say whether the 2016 mouse-bite incident, which occurred three months after the paper was published, involved a SARS chimera virus like the one in the 2015 paper.
Experts who reviewed the incident reports at ProPublica’s request said it is difficult to gauge the risks of UNC’s coronavirus incidents because the university removed key details about the nature of the viruses involved.
“There is no reason for the public not to be informed about the nature of biological agents involved in lab research and accidents,” said Gregory Koblentz, director of the biodefense graduate program at George Mason University, who noted that the research is not classified and will eventually be published in scientific journals.
“Making these reports public ensures accountability for the labs and funders and encourages them to learn from mistakes and reduce risk of them occurring,” Koblentz said.
UNC is required as a condition of its federal research funding to release to the public on demand certain safety records, including incident reports, about its work with genetically modified viruses. After ProPublica filed a complaint about UNC’s removal of the virus names, NIH said it contacted UNC “to remind them of their obligations.” But UNC still didn’t release the pathogen names and genetic modifications it removed from the records.
While UNC wouldn’t discuss the 2016 incident, in its statement to ProPublica the university emphasized that the research for the 2015 paper was approved by NIH, that it followed all safety protocols and that it was deemed a “low-risk” experiment because of the strain of coronavirus being studied.
“It is because of our early work that the United States was in a position to quickly find the first successful treatment for SARS-CoV-2,” the university said in its statement. Research by UNC scientists has contributed to the development of a drug called EIDD-2801, which shows promise in preventing lung damage from COVID-19.
The source of the current pandemic remains unknown. Many scientific experts believe the virus that causes COVID-19 emerged in nature and is the result of people being exposed to bats or another type of animal that are natural carriers of it. Experts who have studied the virus’s genetic sequence have said it doesn’t appear to be genetically engineered.
Coronaviruses have jumped from animals to humans before. In 2002, the SARS coronavirus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome emerged possibly from bats in southern China to set off an international epidemic that was extinguished in 2003 through public health measures. In 2012, the MERS coronavirus that causes Middle East respiratory syndrome was first identified in people sickened in Saudi Arabia and other countries in and near the Arabian Peninsula. It has been linked to exposure to camels.
But for the COVID-19 virus causing the current pandemic, more study is needed to know where and how the virus jumped from animals to humans.
“There have been extensive discussions about why the virus is almost certainly a naturally occurring strain, but the origin of the outbreak can only be determined — if it can ever be determined — by going through that more medical chain and examining those records,” said Gigi Kwik Gronvall, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.
While rare, outbreaks that spread from labs to people or animals in the surrounding environment have happened.
A lab accident or mishap with a vaccine trial are considered to be likely explanations for how a strain of flu that appeared to have been genetically frozen in time since the 1950s emerged and infected people around the world in 1977-78.
In 2004, a small outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome was traced by Chinese authorities and the World Health Organization to lab workers at the National Institute of Virology Laboratory of China’s Center for Disease Control in Beijing, where experiments were conducted using live and inactivated SARS coronavirus. And in 2007, leaking drainage pipes at a vaccine research facility in England were blamed for an outbreak of foot and mouth disease among cattle.
For now, a team of experts from the World Health Organization is investigating the pandemic’s origins, with a focus on understanding the animal hosts for COVID-19 and how the disease jumped between animals and humans.
“Identifying the origin of emerging viral disease has proven complex in past epidemics in different countries,” the WHO said in a statement last month. “The process is an evolving endeavor which may lead to further international scientific research and collaboration globally.”
Filed under:


veteranstoday--2020-08-17--More COVID Censorship! M.D. Suspended from NextDoor.com

Editor ’ s note : Many good issues are brought up here but the assertion of a .0006 death rate based on a Montana study is misleading and fake .
Current COVID death rates , against those infected , is .0559 or 5.59 percent or “ close to 6 out of one hundred , including kids and those who never get sick .
Proof : Otherwise a good article with one dangerous lie that might cause some to do harm to themselves and their families and our country .
This week ’ s False Flag Weekly News ( watch it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ features numerous stories on corona madness & censorship : The governor of New Mexico wants to make masks and distancing permanent ; Melbourne cops have free rein to enter private homes ; the UK may lock down obese people ; ethicists are floating a proposal to dose Americans with magic mushrooms to get them to accept masking/distancing/lockdowns ; and Facebook has removed more than 7 million posts on COVID in an attempt to enforce orthodoxy .
Here is another crazy corona censorship story .
Sachi Kuhananthan , MD , a retired physician from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ‘ s health and nutrition section a little over a month ago .
His posts were well-received , garnering unanimously positive comments and becoming among the most popular items on the site—until August 13 , when he posted a brief article entitled “ Scams and Lies Related to COVID19.
” Hours after posting the article , Dr. Kuhananthan discovered that his post had been removed and his account had been suspended for four days , allegedly for “ violating terms of service.
” Dr. Kuhananthan immigrated to the US from Sri Lanka in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for freedom of expression .
Now , he says , “ All of a sudden I am feeling like I am living in Russia or North Korea.
” Here is an updated version of Dr. Kuhananthan ’ s post , featuring minor editing but preserving the gist of his argument .
Since the remedy for bad speech is better speech—not censorship—feel free to argue against him in the comments section .
Please be specific about any alleged flaws in his arguments .
Our government has reserved and is paying for at least 700 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ population is 330 million .
Why are we ordering so many ?
Are we going to vaccinate cats and dogs also ?
Who is making the money ?
( 2 ) The media repeatedly cites “ expert ” claims that 2 % of Americans ( about six million people ) are infected .
Are they ignorant or lying ?
I estimate that between 25 million and 72 million Americans are already infected .
( 3 ) JAMA ( Journal of the American Medical Association ) has a recent article where it claims that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bad as 1918 Spanish flu .
Bunch of nonsense .
The Spanish flu killed 50 million worldwide .
I expect 2 to 4 million will die from COVID19 worldwide .
In 1918 the world population was one third of the current population .
Therefore the COVID19 fatality rate is only one percent of that of Spanish flu .
Why are our government and AMA lying and misinforming the public ?
Profit motive ?
You decide .
( 1 ) Board certified in internal medicine and emergency medicine until retirement ; MS in Physiology @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Illinois , Champaign-Urbana .
( 2 ) Also note that by the time a vaccine becomes available a large number will have already been infected .
Already-infected people will not need the vaccine .
If we assume that 100 million get naturally infected , the remaining 230 million will need the vaccine .
That ’ s 700+ million doses for 230 million people .
Even if we assume that two doses are needed for each person , we need only 460 million doses .
Also note that to achieve herd immunity we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to 80 percent of the population—possibly much less .
That means fewer than 200 million will need to be vaccinated .
Therefore 400 million doses will be plenty if we have to give two doses for each person .
( 3 ) Up to 80 percent are asymptomatic and the reported positives of about 6 million will give a figure of 30 million total real infections .
I am assuming they have tested only patients with symptoms .
One can also estimate the actual number of infections by counting deaths and multiplying by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which I estimate could be as low as one in five hundred based on studies I have read .
The lowest fatality rate reported was 0.28 percent based on a study of a German town .
The total deaths of 165,000 multiplied by 500 leads to the figure of 60 million total infections .
If the 165,000 death figure represents a 20 % undercount as a JAMA study argues , total infections would be around 72 million .
A study in Montana found a .6 percent ( 1 in 175 ) fatality rate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ infections nationwide .
A New York study found a .5 % fatality rate , which would translate to about 30 million infections nationwide .
Note that fatality rates have gone down with the average age of people who contact COVID and are expected to continue dropping .
If these numbers are anywhere near correct , herd immunity may not be nearly as far off as alarmist “ experts ” have stated or implied .
That would mean that Dr. Fauci ’ s claim that we can only reach herd immunity after an “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ exaggerated—but enormously profitable to the pharmaceutical-industrial complex .

This week’s False Flag Weekly News (watch it above, click HERE for links) features numerous stories on corona madness & censorship: The governor of New Mexico wants to make masks and distancing permanent; Melbourne cops have free rein to enter private homes; the UK may lock down obese people; ethicists are floating a proposal to dose Americans with magic mushrooms to get them to accept masking/distancing/lockdowns, and Facebook has removed more than 7 million posts on COVID in an attempt to enforce orthodoxy.
Here is another crazy corona censorship story.
– Kevin Barrett, VT Editor
Sachi Kuhananthan, MD, a retired physician from El Paso, began posting on nextdoor.com‘s health and nutrition section a little over a month ago. His posts were well-received, garnering unanimously positive comments and becoming among the most popular items on the site—until August 13, when he posted a brief article entitled “Scams and Lies Related to COVID19.” Hours after posting the article, Dr. Kuhananthan discovered that his post had been removed and his account had been suspended for four days, allegedly for “violating terms of service.”
Dr. Kuhananthan immigrated to the US from Sri Lanka in part because of America’s reputation for freedom of expression. Now, he says, “All of a sudden I am feeling like I am living in Russia or North Korea.”
Here is an updated version of Dr. Kuhananthan’s post, featuring minor editing but preserving the gist of his argument. Since the remedy for bad speech is better speech—not censorship—feel free to argue against him in the comments section. Please be specific about any alleged flaws in his arguments.
Scams and Lies Related to COVID19
by Sachi Kuhananthan, MD(1)
Our government has reserved and is paying for at least 700 million doses of COVID19 vaccines. Our population is 330 million. Why are we ordering so many? Are we going to vaccinate cats and dogs also? Who is making the money?(2)
The media repeatedly cites “expert” claims that 2% of Americans (about six million people) are infected. Are they ignorant or lying? I estimate that between 25 million and 72 million Americans are already infected. (3)
JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) has a recent article where it claims that the fatality rate for Covid19 is as bad as 1918 Spanish flu. Bunch of nonsense. The Spanish flu killed 50 million worldwide. I expect 2 to 4 million will die from COVID19 worldwide. In 1918 the world population was one-third of the current population. Therefore the COVID19 fatality rate is only one percent of that of Spanish flu.
Why are our government and AMA lying and misinforming the public? Profit motive? You decide.
(1) Board certified in internal medicine and emergency medicine until retirement; MS in Physiology and four-year residency from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana.
(2) Also note that by the time a vaccine becomes available a large number will have already been infected. Already-infected people will not need the vaccine. If we assume that 100 million get naturally infected, the remaining 230 million will need the vaccine. That’s 700+ million doses for 230 million people. Even if we assume that two doses are needed for each person, we need only 460 million doses.
Also, note that to achieve herd immunity we need to vaccinate at most only 60 to 80 percent of the population—possibly much less. That means fewer than 200 million will need to be vaccinated. Therefore 400 million doses will be plenty if we have to give two doses for each person.
(3) Up to 80 percent are asymptomatic and the reported positives of about 6 million will give a figure of 30 million total real infections. I am assuming they have tested only patients with symptoms. One can also estimate the actual number of infections by counting deaths and multiplying by the inverse of the fatality rate, which I estimate could be as low as one in five hundred based on studies I have read. The lowest fatality rate reported was 0.28 percent based on a study of a German town. The total deaths of 165,000 multiplied by 500 lead to the figure of 60 million total infections. If the 165,000 death figure represents a 20% undercount as a JAMA study argues, total infections would be around 72 million.
A study in Montana found a .6 percent (1 in 175) fatality rate which would yield around 25 million total infections nationwide. A New York study found a .5% fatality rate, which would translate to about 30 million infections nationwide. Note that fatality rates have gone down with the average age of people who contact COVID and are expected to continue dropping.
If these numbers are anywhere near correct, herd immunity may not be nearly as far off as alarmist “experts” have stated or implied. That would mean that Dr. Fauci’s claim that we can only reach herd immunity after an “enormous” death toll may be grossly exaggerated—but enormously profitable to the pharmaceutical-industrial complex.
Editor’s note from Gordon Duff:
Many good issues are brought up here but the assertion of a .0006 death rate based on a Montana study is misleading and fake. Current COVID death rates, against those infected, is .0559 or 5.59 percent or “close to 6 out of one hundred, including kids and those who never get sick. Proof:
Otherwise a good article with one dangerous lie that might cause some to do harm to themselves and their families and our country.


veteranstoday--2020-08-18--Michele Obama at DNC

Michele Obama at DNC

Due to the nature of independent content , VT can not guarantee content validity.We ask you toso a clear comprehension @ @ @ @ @ media is understood and given its proper place in the world of news , opinion @ @ @ @ @ by author exclusively .
Expressed opinions are NOT necessarily the views of VT , other @ @ @ @ @ , sponsors , partners or technicians .
Some content may be satirical in nature .
@ @ @ @ @ responsibility of author and NOT VT .

We are told our current first lady was introduced to Trump by Jeffrey Epstein. Her real history and we have much of it, is an old story. We won’t be telling it. All that remains is a few frames of video.
The real first lady is Ivanka.
Only recently, she told 40 million Americans who are starving and facing eviction to “find something new.”
Excerpts from Michelle Obama’s 2020 DNC Speech
Good evening, everyone. It’s a hard time, and everyone’s feeling it in different ways. And I know a lot of folks are reluctant to tune into a political convention right now or to politics in general. Believe me, I get that. But I am here tonight because I love this country with all my heart, and it pains me to see so many people hurting.
I’ve met so many of you. I’ve heard your stories. And through you, I have seen this country’s promise. And thanks to so many who came before me, thanks to their toil and sweat and blood, I’ve been able to live that promise myself.
That’s the story of America. All those folks who sacrificed and overcame so much in their own times because they wanted something more, something better for their kids.
There’s a lot of beauty in that story. There’s a lot of pain in it, too, a lot of struggle and injustice and work left to do. And who we choose as our president in this election will determine whether or not we honor that struggle and chip away at that injustice and keep alive the very possibility of finishing that work.
I am one of a handful of people living today who have seen firsthand the immense weight and awesome power of the presidency. And let me once again tell you this: the job is hard. It requires clear-headed judgment, mastery of complex and competing issues, devotion to facts and history, a moral compass, and an ability to listen—and an abiding belief that each of the 330,000,000 lives in this country has meaning and worth.
A president’s words have the power to move markets. They can start wars or broker peace. They can summon our better angels or awaken our worst instincts. You simply cannot fake your way through this job.
As I’ve said before, being president doesn’t change who you are; it reveals who you are. Well, a presidential election can reveal who we are, too.
And four years ago, too many people chose to believe that their votes didn’t matter. Maybe they were fed up. Maybe they thought the outcome wouldn’t be close. Maybe the barriers felt too steep. Whatever the reason, in the end, those choices sent someone to the Oval Office who lost the national popular vote by nearly 3,000,000 votes.
In one of the states that determined the outcome, the winning margin averaged out to just two votes per precinct—two votes. And we’ve all been living with the consequences.
When my husband left office with Joe Biden at his side, we had a record-breaking stretch of job creation. We’d secured the right to health care for 20,000,000 people. We were respected around the world, rallying our allies to confront climate change. And our leaders had worked hand-in-hand with scientists to help prevent an Ebola outbreak from becoming a global pandemic.
Four years later, the state of this nation is very different. More than 150,000 people have died, and our economy is in shambles because of a virus that this president downplayed for too long. It has left millions of people jobless. Too many have lost their health care; too many are struggling to take care of basic necessities like food and rent; too many communities have been left in the lurch to grapple with whether and how to open our schools safely.
Internationally, we’ve turned our back, not just on agreements forged by my husband, but on alliances championed by presidents like Reagan and Eisenhower.
And here at home, as George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and a never-ending list of innocent people of color continue to be murdered, stating the simple fact that a Black life matter is still met with derision from the nation’s highest office.
Because whenever we look to this White House for some leadership or consolation or any semblance of steadiness, what we get instead is chaos, division, and a total and utter lack of empathy.
Empathy: that’s something I’ve been thinking a lot about lately. The ability to walk in someone else’s shoes; the recognition that someone else’s experience has value, too. Most of us practice this without a second thought. If we see someone suffering or struggling, we don’t stand in judgment. We reach out because, “There, but for the grace of God, go I.” It is not a hard concept to grasp. It’s what we teach our children.
And like so many of you, Barack and I have tried our best to instill in our girls a strong moral foundation to carry forward the values that our parents and grandparents poured into us. But right now, kids in this country are seeing what happens when we stop requiring empathy of one another. They’re looking around wondering if we’ve been lying to them this whole time about who we are and what we truly value.
They see people calling the police on folks minding their own business just because of the color of their skin. They see an entitlement that says only certain people belong here, that greed is good, and winning is everything because as long as you come out on top, it doesn’t matter what happens to everyone else. And they see what happens when that lack of empathy is ginned up into outright disdain.
They watch in horror as children are torn from their families and thrown into cages, and pepper spray and rubber bullets are used on peaceful protestors for a photo-op.
Sadly, this is the America that is on display for the next generation. A nation that’s underperforming not simply on matters of policy but on matters of character. And that’s not just disappointing; it’s downright infuriating because I know the goodness and the grace that is out there in households and neighborhoods all across this nation.
And I know that regardless of our race, age, religion, or politics when we close out the noise and the fear and truly open our hearts, we know that what’s going on in this country is just not right. This is not who we want to be.
So what do we do now? What’s our strategy? Over the past four years, a lot of people have asked me, “When others are going so low, does going high still really work?” My answer: going high is the only thing that works because when we go low when we use those same tactics of degrading and dehumanizing others, we just become part of the ugly noise that’s drowning out everything else. We degrade ourselves. We degrade the very causes for which we fight.
But let’s be clear: going high does not mean putting on a smile and saying nice things when confronted by viciousness and cruelty. Going high means taking the harder path. It means scraping and clawing our way to that mountain top.
Going high means standing fierce against hatred while remembering that we are one nation under God, and if we want to survive, we’ve got to find a way to live together and work together across our differences.
So let me be as honest and clear as I possibly can. Donald Trump is the wrong president for our country. He has had more than enough time to prove that he can do the job, but he is clearly in over his head. He cannot meet this moment. He simply cannot be who we need him to be for us. It is what it is.
Now, I understand that my message won’t be heard by some people. We live in a nation that is deeply divided, and I am a Black woman speaking at the Democratic Convention. But enough of you know me by now. You know that I tell you exactly what I’m feeling.
You know I hate politics. But you also know that I care about this nation. You know how much I care about all of our children.
So if you take one thing from my words tonight, it is this: if you think things cannot possibly get worse, trust me, they can; and they will if we don’t make a change in this election.
Look, we have already sacrificed so much this year. So many of you are already going that extra mile. Even when you’re exhausted, you’re mustering up unimaginable courage to put on those scrubs and give our loved ones a fighting chance. Even when you’re anxious, you’re delivering those packages, stocking those shelves, and doing all that essential work so that all of us can keep moving forward.
Even when it all feels so overwhelming, working parents are somehow piecing it all together without child care. Teachers are getting creative so that our kids can still learn and grow. Our young people are desperately fighting to pursue their dreams.
And when the horrors of systemic racism shook our country and our consciences, millions of Americans of every age, every background rose up to march for each other, crying out for justice and progress.
This is who we still are: compassionate, resilient, decent people whose fortunes are bound up with one another. And it is well past time for our leaders to once again reflect our truth.
So, it is up to us to add our voices and our votes to the course of history, echoing heroes like John Lewis who said,
“When you see something that is not right, you must say something. You must do something.”
That is the truest form of empathy: not just feeling, but doing; not just for ourselves or our kids, but for everyone, for all our kids.
PBS KIDS — Mondays with Michelle Obama, reading a children’s story
[ Note: No one is interested in reflections about the former FLOTUS’ children or proclivities since it’s just more stooge nonsense, which seems to be the only thing some can focus on. Peabrained comments are duly sent to comment purgatory. If and when the character assassins actually add a substantive insight on policy, well, the world waits. ]


veteranstoday--2020-08-18--NEO – UAE takes over the Middle East peace process, sort of

by Vladimir Odintsov , …with New Eastern Outlook , Moscow , …and the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences , a research institution for the study of the countries and cultures of Asia and North Africa .
[ Editor ’ s Note : Oh my , Crown Prince Al Nahyan may have learned the hard way about making deals with unsavory characters like Trump and Bibi .
The latter has already bailed out on a the key part of ‘ the peace deal ’ , suspending the annexation of the West Bank .
“ There is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sovereignty , our sovereignty in Judea and Samaria , in full coordination with the United States , ” Netanyahu said adding that “ Israel will have comprehensive peace agreements with other Arab countries without returning to the 1967 borders…The annexation is just delayed but not suspended.
” The settler groups fried Bibi when they learned that he had swapped annexation of the West Bank for building a bridge through Dubai to the rest of the Arab world .
There is no word from the Prince on this ‘ change ’ in the deal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ spot .
The deal also included giving Muslims the rights to visit the Holy places , including the Dome that Israeli police and soldiers are chasing Palestinian Muslims away from whenever they choose .
Trump is also in a spot as he played the role of the Grand Overseer on the deal .
If Bibi tells the Prince to fuck off it he does like Bibi ’ s change , will Bibi do the same with Trump after he was campaigning today making political history .
He was telling the evangelical crowd that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they can all go there and die together someday .
I suspect they cheered this news… Jim W. Dean ] Jim 's Editor ’ s Notes are solely crowdfunded via PayPal Jim 's work includes research , field trips , Heritage TV Legacy archiving & more .
Thanks for helping .
Click to donate > > The United Arab Emirates is a unique country .
Within just a few decades , it has turned from a poor region living off meager commercial pearling to becoming one of the leaders of the international negotiation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and authoritative state .
Today , the UAE is a major producer of hydrocarbons , holding one of the leading places in the world ranking oil-exporting countries , and actively participates in the international negotiation process to achieve sustainable and just peace in the Middle East .
As a federation of seven constituent monarchies , the UAE follows the ideology of strict Sunni Islam .
Since 1981 , Abu Dhabi has been a member and one of the founders of the GCC ( Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the countries of the Arabian Peninsula .
It has close partnerships with Saudi Arabia in the Syrian , Libyan , and other the Middle East in dealing with crises .
The close relationship between the UAE and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia ( KSA ) can be evidenced by Abu Dhabi ’ s support of Riyadh ’ s military intervention in Yemen in 2015 to support the president of Yemen Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi , and taking the side of KSA in 2016-2017 in Qatar-Iran conflict .
The alliance between the UAE and the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ personal relationship of their Сrown Princes : Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan , the heir to the throne and the de facto ruler of the UAE , is considered a “ godfather ” and “ mentor ” Mohammed bin Salman , the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia , who helped the latter come to power in the KSA and exerted a strong influence on him .
Both rulers are the main supporters of Abdel Fattah el-Sisi , President of Egypt , and the Lybisn Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar , having similar views @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Brotherhood ( banned in the Russian Federation – ed. )
.
The UAE ’ s foreign policy is based on diplomacy and negotiation down pledged by Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan , the founding father and the Union ’ s first President , including the need to comply with the principle of non-interference in the sovereign affairs of other states , and the obligations to neighboring countries and the international community they committed themselves to maintain peace , stability , and security for all in the region .
To this end , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ partnership and dialogue between countries , which allows the UAE to conduct an effective , balanced policy and maintain broad ties with the international community .
These features of the UAE ’ s foreign policy explain Abu Dhabi ’ s desire to develop closer ties with its neighbors on the Arabian Peninsula through the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf ( GCC ) , to conduct an active dialogue with world and regional leaders , in the light of developments in Palestine , Israel , Iraq , Iran , Libya @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
While advocating an equitable and lasting solution to the conflict in the Middle East , the UAE believes that peace can not be achieved under the Israeli occupation of Palestinian and other Arab territories , supporting the end of the Israeli occupation and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital , within the framework of an agreement based on the Arab peace initiative .
The Middle East peace settlement problem and the brutal ongoing Arab-Israeli conflict have kept many countries in suspense for decades and have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Therefore , the agreement on the full normalization of relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates reached recently following a telephone conversation between US President Donald Trump , Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Crown Prince of the United Arab Emirates ( the de facto ruler of the country ) , Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan , attracted special attention from the international community .
Thus , as a result of the diplomatic steps taken by Abu Dhabi , Israel agreed for the first time in a quarter of a century @ @ @ @ @ @ @ country — the UAE .
The price of the upcoming signing of the package of documents was the decision of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to postpone the earlier declared Declaration of Israel ’ s sovereignty over the West Bank : Israel will not declare sovereignty over the entire West Bank , and Muslims will be able to freely visit the Holy sites of Jerusalem .
T he parties also agreed to continue the settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict with other countries of the Persian Gulf .
As Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the agreements reached , Israel refused to Annex the Palestinian territories .
Delegations from Israel and the United Arab Emirates are expected to meet soon to sign bilateral agreements on investment , tourism , direct flights , security , telecommunications , and other issues .
An exchange of Ambassadors and Embassies between Israel and the UAE is also expected .
At the same time , the UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash stressed that the Emirati Embassy will not be opened in Jerusalem until the Israelis sign peace agreements with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , he particularly drew attention to the fact that by making peace with Israel , the UAE “ dismantled the time bomb that threatened the two-state solution.
” Thus , the UAE becomes the first state of the Gulf to have diplomatic relations with Israel , and the third Arab state : Egypt concluded a peace treaty with Israel in 1979 , followed by Jordan in 1994 .
Mauritania recognized Israel in 1999 but ended relations in 2009 due to the war in the Gaza strip .
As for the reaction of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it is ambiguous .
Israeli settlers living in the West Bank speak of a betrayal of their interests .
President of Egypt Abd al-Fattah al-Sisi has already commented on the announcement of the normalization of relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates , saying that this is a step towards stabilizing the region and its prosperity .
President of Palestine Mahmoud Abbas officially condemned the tripartite agreement between Israel , the United Arab Emirates , and the United States and called for an emergency meeting of the League of the Arab States @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reject the agreement .
According to Hossein Amir-Abdollahian , current Special Aide to the President of the Islamic Parliament ( Ali Larijani ) of Iran in International Affairs , this step is considered a strategic mistake in the Islamic Republic .
Taking into account the US mediation in reaching this agreement , Donald Trump might , without any doubt , record this as an asset in the course of the recently escalated presidential election struggle in the United States .
Considering that peace between Israel and the Palestinians has remained almost the only @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , on the background of active promotion of the image of the Democratic nominee for Vice-President Kamala Harris as the supporters of the US-Israeli partnership .
Trump , of course , can now demonstrate that he is the greatest friend for Israel in Washington .

by Vladimir Odintsov, …with New Eastern Outlook, Moscow,…and the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, a research institution for the study of the countries and cultures of Asia and North Africa.
[ Editor’s Note: Crown Prince Al Nahyan may have learned the hard way about making deals with characters like Trump and Bibi. The latter has already bailed out on a key part of ‘the peace deal’, suspending the annexation of the West Bank.
“There is no change to my plan to extend sovereignty, our sovereignty in Judea and Samaria, in full coordination with the United States,” Netanyahu said adding that “Israel will have comprehensive peace agreements with other Arab countries without returning to the 1967 borders…The annexation is just delayed but not suspended.”
The settler groups fried Bibi when they learned that he had swapped annexation of the West Bank for building a bridge through Dubai to the rest of the Arab world.
There is no word from the Prince on this ‘change’ in the deal. Bibi has him in a tight spot. The deal also included giving Muslims the right to visit the Holy places, including the Dome that Israeli police and soldiers are chasing Palestinian Muslims away from whenever they choose.
Trump is also in a spot, as he played the role of the Grand Overseer on the deal. If Bibi tells the Prince to fuck off if he doesn’t like Bibi’s change, will Bibi do the same? Trump said that he made Jerusalem the capitol for the Evangelicals, while he told the Zios he gave it to them. Donald’s ‘say anything to get a cheer’ addiction is turning into a self immolation, which might be a good thing, actually.
He was telling the evangelical crowd that he really gave Jerusalem to them, so they can all go there and die together someday. I suspect they cheered this news… Jim W. Dean ]
Jim's Editor’s Notes are solely crowdfunded via PayPal
Jim's work includes research, field trips, Heritage TV Legacy archiving & more. Thanks for helping. Click to donate >>
Jerusalem – The Great Dome and the Wailing Wall in Occupied Palestine
– First published … August 17, 2020 –
The United Arab Emirates is a unique country. Within just a few decades, it has turned from a poor region living off meager commercial pearling to becoming one of the leaders of the international negotiation process — a financially independent, stable, and authoritative state.
Today, the UAE is a major producer of hydrocarbons, holding one of the leading places in the world ranking oil-exporting countries, and actively participates in the international negotiation process to achieve sustainable and just peace in the Middle East.
As a federation of seven constituent monarchies, the UAE follows the ideology of strict Sunni Islam. Since 1981, Abu Dhabi has been a member and one of the founders of the GCC (Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf) — the main regional organization of the countries of the Arabian Peninsula. It has close partnerships with Saudi Arabia in the Syrian, Libyan, and other the Middle East in dealing with crises.
The close relationship between the UAE and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) can be evidenced by Abu Dhabi’s support of Riyadh’s military intervention in Yemen in 2015 to support the president of Yemen Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, and taking the side of KSA in 2016-2017 in Qatar-Iran conflict.
The alliance between the UAE and the KSA is largely due to the close personal relationship of their Сrown Princes: Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the heir to the throne and the de facto ruler of the UAE, is considered a “godfather” and “mentor” Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, who helped the latter come to power in the KSA and exerted a strong influence on him.
Both rulers are the main supporters of Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, President of Egypt, and the Lybisn Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, having similar views on the need to fight the Muslim Brotherhood (banned in the Russian Federation – ed.).
The UAE’s foreign policy is based on diplomacy and negotiation down pledged by Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the founding father and the Union’s first President, including the need to comply with the principle of non-interference in the sovereign affairs of other states, and the obligations to neighboring countries and the international community they committed themselves to maintain peace, stability, and security for all in the region.
To this end, Abu Dhabi purposefully contributes to a supporting partnership and dialogue between countries, which allows the UAE to conduct an effective, balanced policy and maintain broad ties with the international community.
These features of the UAE’s foreign policy explain Abu Dhabi’s desire to develop closer ties with its neighbors on the Arabian Peninsula through the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC), to conduct an active dialogue with world and regional leaders, in the light of developments in Palestine, Israel, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Yemen, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.
While advocating an equitable and lasting solution to the conflict in the Middle East, the UAE believes that peace cannot be achieved under the Israeli occupation of Palestinian and other Arab territories, supporting the end of the Israeli occupation and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, within the framework of an agreement based on the Arab peace initiative.
The Middle East peace settlement problem and the brutal ongoing Arab-Israeli conflict have kept many countries in suspense for decades and have given unprecedented urgency to international relations.
Therefore, the agreement on the full normalization of relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates reached recently following a telephone conversation between US President Donald Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Crown Prince of the United Arab Emirates (the de facto ruler of the country), Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan, attracted special attention from the international community.
Thus, as a result of the diplomatic steps taken by Abu Dhabi, Israel agreed for the first time in a quarter of a century to fully normalize relations with an Arab country — the UAE.
The price of the upcoming signing of the package of documents was the decision of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to postpone the earlier declared Declaration of Israel’s sovereignty over the West Bank: Israel will not declare sovereignty over the entire West Bank, and Muslims will be able to freely visit the Holy sites of Jerusalem. T
he parties also agreed to continue the settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict with other countries of the Persian Gulf. As Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed told the media, as part of the agreements reached, Israel refused to Annex the Palestinian territories.
Delegations from Israel and the United Arab Emirates are expected to meet soon to sign bilateral agreements on investment, tourism, direct flights, security, telecommunications, and other issues. An exchange of Ambassadors and Embassies between Israel and the UAE is also expected.
At the same time, the UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash stressed that the Emirati Embassy will not be opened in Jerusalem until the Israelis sign peace agreements with the Palestinians. At the same time, he particularly drew attention to the fact that by making peace with Israel, the UAE “dismantled the time bomb that threatened the two-state solution.”
Thus, the UAE becomes the first state of the Gulf to have diplomatic relations with Israel, and the third Arab state: Egypt concluded a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, followed by Jordan in 1994. Mauritania recognized Israel in 1999 but ended relations in 2009 due to the war in the Gaza strip.
As for the reaction of the Israelis and Arabs to the agreement, it is ambiguous. Israeli settlers living in the West Bank speak of a betrayal of their interests.
President of Egypt Abd al-Fattah al-Sisi has already commented on the announcement of the normalization of relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, saying that this is a step towards stabilizing the region and its prosperity.
President of Palestine Mahmoud Abbas officially condemned the tripartite agreement between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States and called for an emergency meeting of the League of the Arab States and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to reject the agreement.
According to Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, current Special Aide to the President of the Islamic Parliament (Ali Larijani) of Iran in International Affairs, this step is considered a strategic mistake in the Islamic Republic.
Taking into account the US mediation in reaching this agreement, Donald Trump might, without any doubt, record this as an asset in the course of the recently escalated presidential election struggle in the United States.
Considering that peace between Israel and the Palestinians has remained almost the only unfulfilled campaign promise given by Donald Trump, on the background of active promotion of the image of the Democratic nominee for Vice-President Kamala Harris as the supporters of the US-Israeli partnership. Trump, of course, can now demonstrate that he is the greatest friend for Israel in Washington.
Vladimir Odintsov, political observer, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.