veteranstoday--2020-09-14--VT Classic: We’re all CIA Assets! What can be done, a personal story

[ Editor ’ s note : The more things change on the surface , the more they stay the same .
Perhaps a useful question would be , how can you have a liberal democracy without it being derailed by popular arts that are rooted in a profane culture , with its consistent goal of social disintegration and reinvention ?
Will there be an era when the ‘ barbarians ’ take over , as Americans are molded by covert methods and can not seem to fathom how bad things can get ?
To the WWII generation , the raucous 1960s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the older gen attempted to push back with their “ America–Love it or Leave it ” slogan , parrying the youth liberation movement and civil rights .
Now seemed like a good moment to revisit a VT Classic by Paul Fitzgerald and Elizabeth Gould-Fitzgerald , where they examine the tension between war and peace . ]
“ Of course the people don ’ t want war .
But after all , it ’ s the leaders of the country who determine the policy , and it ’ s always a simple matter to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s a democracy , a fascist dictatorship , or a parliament , or a communist dictatorship .
Voice or no voice , the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders .
That is easy .
All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked , and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism , and exposing the country to greater danger .
It works the same way in any country.
” — Hermann Goering , Nazi Reichsmarshall , Luftwaffe-Chief and founder of the Gestapo , at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 1960s West Coast Music Scene We had written an article about mind control that included the role of a top-secret CIA research project known as Project MK-ULTRA .
MK-ULTRA operated from the early 1950s through the1960s by using Americans , ( without their consent ) as guinea pigs in an illicit research project to alter mental states and brain function .
The project remained secret for two decades until 1975 when the Church Committee Hearings revealed the CIA ’ s illegal activities .
We knew that MK-ULTRA was involved in experiments in sensory @ @ @ @ @ @ @ really got our attention back then was the confirmation that MK-ULTRA had infiltrated the New Age anti-Vietnam War Movement to undermine its legitimacy which included the widespread distribution of psychedelic drugs .
As teenagers growing up in the 1960s , the San Francisco and Laurel Canyon music scenes and the antiwar movement were synonymous .
A new age was dawning and our generation wanted to believe that we could keep war from becoming part of it .
What we didn ’ t know until recently was how much influence military intelligence and the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was an organic outgrowth of popular sentiment .
Before bands such as The Mothers of Invention , The Byrds , The Mamas and The Papas and The Doors became famous ; the songwriters , musicians and singers who would form those bands flocked from all over North America to Laurel Canyon .
What was strange about this sudden migration of musical talent to Laurel Canyon was the absence of a music industry in the area at the time .
What it did have though was Vito Paulekas and the Freaks ; a regular @ @ @ @ @ @ @ starting in 1964 .
Paulekas became well known for supplying a corps of wildly frenzied dancers to stir up interest in the new Laurel Canyon bands and is credited with their early success .
Having materialized a musical revolution out of thin air , he has also been credited as the inspiration for the Hippie movement , its fashion and its free love communal lifestyle .
Another oddity of the Laurel Canyon phenomenon was that a large percentage of the artists who arrived descended from America ’ s most influential ruling families , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ were somehow connected to high ranking military personnel or intelligence operatives .
One example of this unusual confluence of talent is Frank Zappa , ( Mothers of Invention ) who spent his youth at the Edgewood Arsenal Chemical Biological Center where his father worked as a chemical warfare specialist .
It also happens that the Edgewood Arsenal was connected to MK-Ultra ’ s chemical mind control program .
Major Floyd Crosby , father of David Crosby ( Crosby , Stills and Nash ) was an Annapolis graduate and WWII military intelligence officer descended @ @ @ @ @ @ @ family , the Van Rensselaers .
Crosby ’ s mother ’ s family the Van Cortlandts started their American adventure in 1637 .
And then there were The Doors .
According to Wikipedia , keyboardist Ray Manzarek served in “ the highly selective Army Security Agency as a prospective intelligence analyst in Okinawa and then Laos ” in the run up to the Vietnam War .
The Doors producer for their first five albums , Paul Rothchild also served a stint in the same elite Military Intelligence Corps in 1959 .
When the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Lights The most enigmatic of all , Jim Morrison , was the son of U.S. Navy Admiral George Morrison .
In August of 1964 , U.S. warships , under Admiral Morrison ’ s command , claimed to have been attacked while patrolling Vietnam ’ s Tonkin Gulf .
Although the claim was false , it resulted in the U.S. Congress passing the Tonkin Gulf Resolution , which provided the pretext for an immediate escalation of American involvement in the emerging Vietnam quagmire .
Morrison never spoke publicly of his father ’ s role @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that was used to deceive the American people into accepting a war against Vietnam .
More intriguing still was Morrison ’ s apparent lack of interest in music until he suddenly transformed himself into one of the most glorified rock stars of all time !
Along with becoming the Door ’ s lead singer , Morrison also played a major role in forming the band ’ s identity .
He chose the band ’ s name from one of his favorite books , Aldous Huxley ’ s The Doors of Perception .
It @ @ @ @ @ @ @ doors ” opened through the use of psychedelic drugs .
Not so coincidentally it also happens that Huxley was a key player behind MK-Ultra as one of the original promoters of the use of psychedelic drugs for social control .
In a letter to George Orwell in 1949 Huxley described their use as “ more efficient…than prisons.
” As an avowed acolyte of the Greek god Dionysus and the Dionysian Mysteries – the most famous religious rites of ancient Greece – Morrison reveled in the use of drugs , drink and frenzied dancing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Greek god he almost named the band after him , until settling on The Doors .
MKUltra ’ s objectives had much in common with the Dionysian Mysteries and with Jim Morrison ’ s philosophy of life who once said of his own behavior “ I believe in a long , prolonged , derangement of the senses in order to obtain the unknown.
” Morrison was also described by those who knew him as a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde .
The Doors Manager Paul Rothchild explained it this way , “ You @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as the erudite , poetic scholar or the kamikaze drunk.
” Given his lineage , the question remains ; was Jim Morrison in control of his own mind ?
In view of current New Cold War plans to mount a full scale global war against China and Russia , Americans need to look back and reconsider the turning points that brought our country to this crossroads .
How did we as Americans come from being so much against war in Vietnam in the 1960s into preparing for a world war against just about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Laurel Canyon scene the only operation subtly sabotaging the legitimacy of the anti-war movement by co-opting its message ?
Or was the CIA responsible for another popular piece of counter-culture showmanship intended to permanently wrap the anti-war movement and public dissent in a beaded cloak of freaked out hippies , communal sex and acid trips on LSD ?
The 1950s and 60s saw the United States in direct competition with the Soviet Union not only for military superiority but also for the world ’ s hearts and minds .
With an emphasis @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Cultural Cold War waged by Washington embraced a broad swath of cultural activities that were intended to outshine anything done by its communist rival .
Given the nature of this cultural competition in literature , music and the arts , is it so surprising that the American intelligence community should have had a hand in the creation of uninhibited performance , free from the rules and strictures of the past ?
A successful psychological warfare campaign to break down traditional patterns of behavior would require a willingness to participate and the blueprint @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by the CIA ’ s Psychological Strategy Board ’ s comprehensive doctrine for social control known as PSB D-33/2 .
With an emphasis on the strange and the avant-garde , the CIA began bringing artists , writers and musicians into what was known as its “ Freedom Manifesto ” .
The CIA would come to view the entire program , beginning with the 1950 Berlin conference , to be a landmark in the Cold War , not just for solidifying the CIA ’ s control over the non-communist left and the West ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for enabling the CIA to secretly disenfranchise Europeans and Americans from their own political culture in such a way they would never really know it .
As historian Christopher Lasch wrote in 1969 of the CIA ’ s secret co-optation of America ’ s non-communist left , “ The modern state … is an engine of propaganda , alternately manufacturing crises and claiming to be the only instrument that can effectively deal with them .
This propaganda , in order to be successful , demands the cooperation of writers , teachers , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ time-servers but as ‘ free ’ intellectuals capable of policing their own jurisdictions and of enforcing acceptable standards of responsibility within the various intellectual professions.
” While declaring itself as an antidote to communist totalitarianism , one internal CIA critic of the program , PSB officer Charles Burton Marshall , viewed PSB D-33/2 itself as frighteningly totalitarian , interposing “ a wide doctrinal system ” that “ accepts uniformity as a substitute for diversity , ” embracing “ all fields of human thought — all fields of intellectual interests , from anthropology and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” He concluded : “ That is just about as totalitarian as one can get.
” The evidence that the birth of the psychedelic 1960s West Coast New Age music scene was guided by the invisible hand of military and intelligence operatives is well documented .
But what about the American Tribal Love-Rock Musical HAIR that swept the world from its debut in 1968 after opening to rave reviews on Broadway ?
We lived our personal experience with HAIR when we became a part of the Boston production in 1970 while college students @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the anti-war movement and we waved the banner every night for a year before sold-out audiences .
To us , the Vietnam War was nothing more than what Daniel Ellsberg described as a neocolonial enterprise repeating France ’ s mistakes .
America ’ s Winter Soldiers applauded our efforts and joined us on stage to celebrate our right to dramatize the undoing of American society by the terror being inflicted on Southeast Asia .
Boston ’ s old guard wanted the production shut down .
The challenge went all the way to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ failed but in the end our victory was not what it appeared .
HAIR was a worldwide phenomenon with original casts in every major U.S. city and nineteen productions outside North America .
Its main theme was strongly anti-war and was shared by the millions of Americans who watched and participated in it .
Every HAIR cast was local to the city it performed in and established new standards for racial diversity unheard of at the time .
Almost 50 years on we still receive letters from people whose lives were profoundly changed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ war and its impact on human beings personal in ways that nothing else could .
But that impact and the anti-war momentum it had accrued was soon lost and within a short time channeled away from the universal peace we believed was possible .
Was HAIR ’ s popularity just a fluke ; the beneficiary of some temporary anti-war fad ?
Or was it part of a cultural cold war experiment to influence public opinion that succeeded beyond expectations and was then made to go away ?
A post-Vietnam 1977 revival at the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 1750 consecutive performances from 1968 to 1972 was attacked by the New York Times as “ too far gone to be timely ; too recently gone to be history or even nostalgia.
” With its antiwar message derided and dismissed as reminiscent of “ something of the old battles re-fought quality of an American Legion reunion , ” and with President Carter ’ s Russophobic National Security Advisor , Zbigniew Brzezinski taking over foreign and national security policy at the Carter White House , the new message was clear .
The antiwar movement @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Washington in 1977 and never would be .
When the film version of HAIR by Czechoslovakian New Wave director Milos Forman was released in March of 1979 – completely rewritten and fundamentally detached from the original Broadway version – the show ’ s passionate and prominent anti-war theme was gone .
With LBJ , Richard Nixon and Vietnam disposed of ; the West ’ s endless war against Russia could be put back on the fast track .
By the time Ronald Reagan was elected president in 1980 , the anti-Vietnam War movement @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” and cured with an unprecedented World War II size defense budget that transformed the U.S. from a creditor to a debtor nation .
The earmarks of a PSB D-33/2 cultural operation are hidden in plain sight .
HAIR may even have been used as a prototype for the so called color revolutions and Arab Springs that followed in the breakdown of the old Soviet bloc .
Alongside authors Jim Rado and Jerry Ragni the celebrity arm of the non-communist left was well represented at our February 22 , 1970 HAIR opening night @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and Mary ’ s Peter Yarrow and the Broadway show ’ s executive producer Bertrand Castelli ; a member of Europe ’ s cultural cold war elite that hobnobbed with the likes of Jean Cocteau and Pablo Picasso .
Yarrow ’ s famous song , “ Puff , the Magic Dragon ” became the anthem of the pot smoking 60s hippie movement and whether by design or coincidence his Ukrainian born father Bernard was a charter member of the CIA ’ s European cultural front organization known as the National Committee for a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ War II in the OSS ( with distinction ) and after joining no less than Sullivan and Cromwell , the Dulles brothers ‘ law firm , Bernard helped to found the CIA-funded Radio Free Europe and became its senior vice president .
Along with numerous members of the early 1960s music scene who wound up in Laurel Canyon , Peter Yarrow played an early and active role in the civil rights and peace movements .
He even acted as referee between the Old Left ’ s Pete Seeger and the New Left at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Dylan decided to move from “ folk ” music to rock and roll .
In a famous confrontation over what many considered Dylan ’ s sellout , Seeger threatened sound engineer and future Doors ’ Manager Paul Rothchild that he would cut the cable with an axe if he didn ’ t turn off “ that ” distortion ; but the distortion stayed .
Following Vietnam , Yarrow transferred his antiwar activism to the issue of Soviet Jewry and their emigration to Israel – a major component of the rising neoconservative agenda .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ the 1980s the issue had become a key platform of the Reagan administration to use against any détente with the Soviet Union .
As for HAIR , stripped of its antiwar message , it was reduced to being the poster child of a 1960s debauched hedonism .
Or as Bertrand Castelli , the executive producer of the original Broadway production labelled a revival in 2008 , “ It ’ s though everything in ‘ Hair ’ turned into a nightmare , … “ Everything that was joyful and harmless became dangerous and ugly.
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ ugly is not the way we remember our year-long experience with HAIR .
Nuclear war and Vietnam were dangerous and ugly and in the intervening 50 years that danger and ugliness has returned to haunt us .
If HAIR was part of a top secret psychological warfare campaign to energize the youth of America and the world to political action in the pursuit of peace , flowers , freedom and happiness it succeeded .
But if the ultimate objective of this Hobbesian campaign was to then crush that freedom and numb us to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a haze of disease , opioid addiction and suicide , it too has succeeded .
At the time , HAIR ’ s success helped us believe that we had changed our future for the better .
The war ended , the troops came home and life resumed .
But we now accept that as of 2018 that new age we sought was nothing more than an illusion .
President Eisenhower warned us what would happen if our country dedicated itself to war .
War makes you mad .
Endless war puts you in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is no escape .
The madness of that war on the world has come full circle and is now in our schools , parks , bars and homes .
It was of course always there as part of our nature , but we have given in to it .
We have given in to that part of our nature that should have matured and been processed but instead has remained aloof and separate from our humanity .
That part of our nature has remained unlearned and untamed .
We are the victims of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ change it .
Through various means the CIA did succeed in redirecting the American peoples ’ anti-war sentiment towards accepting permanent war ( clearly illustrated by the longest war ever in American history in Afghanistan ) .
People don ’ t want war , nobody does , but people can easily be brought to the bidding of their leaders by instilling fear or denouncing the pacifists for exposing the country to danger , no matter where or when and works the same way in any country .
The false narratives that control our @ @ @ @ @ @ @ them with the deep knowledge and acceptance of what we have actually lived through .
As the past finally becomes prologue ; we can imagine the genuine future we truly want and start to make it happen !
Paul Fitzgerald and Elizabeth Gould are the authors of Invisible History : Afghanistan ’ s Untold Story , Crossing Zero The AfPak War at the Turning Point of American Empire and The Voice .
Visit their websites at invisiblehistory and grailwerk

“Of course, the people don’t want war. But after all, it’s the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it’s always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it’s a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposehe country to greater danger. It works the same way in any country.” — Hermann Goering, Nazi Reichsmarshall, Luftwaffe-Chief and founder of the Gestapo, at the Nuremberg trials
– First published 6 December 2018 –
by Paul Fitzgerald and Elizabeth Gould
The CIA and the 1960s West Coast Music Scene
We had written an article about mind control that included the role of a top-secret CIA research project known as Project MK-ULTRA. MK-ULTRA operated from the early 1950s through the 1960s by using Americans, (without their consent) as guinea pigs in an illicit research project to alter mental states and brain function.
The project remained secret for two decades until 1975 when the Church Committee Hearings revealed the CIA’s illegal activities. We knew that MK-ULTRA was involved in experiments in sensory deprivation and sexual abuse. But what really got our attention back then was the confirmation that MK-ULTRA had infiltrated the New Age anti-Vietnam War Movement to undermine its legitimacy which included the widespread distribution of psychedelic drugs.
As teenagers growing up in the 1960s, the San Francisco and Laurel Canyon music scenes and the antiwar movement were synonymous. A new age was dawning and our generation wanted to believe that we could keep war from becoming part of it. What we didn’t know until recently was how much influence military intelligence and the CIA had informing what we believed was an organic outgrowth of popular sentiment.
The Laurel Canyon Connection
Before bands such as, The Mothers of Invention, The Byrds, The Mamas, and The Papas and The Doors became famous; the songwriters, musicians, and singers who would form those bands flocked from all over North America to Laurel Canyon. What was strange about this sudden migration of musical talent to Laurel Canyon was the absence of a music industry in the area at the time.
What it did have though was Vito Paulekas and the Freaks; a regular feature of the Sunset Boulevard club scene starting in 1964. Paulekas became well known for supplying a corps of wildly frenzied dancers to stir up interest in the new Laurel Canyon bands and is credited with their early success. Having materialized a musical revolution out of thin air, he has also been credited as the inspiration for the Hippie movement, its fashion and its free love communal lifestyle.
Another oddity of the Laurel Canyon phenomenon was that a large percentage of the artists who arrived descended from America’s most influential ruling families came with military or intelligence backgrounds or were somehow connected to high-ranking military personnel or intelligence operatives.
One example of this unusual confluence of talent is Frank Zappa, (Mothers of Invention) who spent his youth at the Edgewood Arsenal Chemical Biological Center where his father worked as a chemical warfare specialist. It also happens that the Edgewood Arsenal was connected to MK-Ultra’s chemical mind control program.
Major Floyd Crosby, father of David Crosby (Crosby, Stills and Nash) was an Annapolis graduate and WWII military intelligence officer descended from a prominent New York elite founding family, the Van Rensselaers. Crosby’s mother’s family the Van Cortlandt’s started their American adventure in 1637.
And then there were The Doors. According to Wikipedia, keyboardist Ray Manzarek served in “the highly selective Army Security Agency as a prospective intelligence analyst in Okinawa and then Laos” in the run-up to the Vietnam War. The Doors producer for their first five albums, Paul Rothchild also served a stint in the same elite Military Intelligence Corps in 1959.
When the Music’s Over Turn out the Lights
The most enigmatic of all, Jim Morrison, was the son of U.S. Navy Admiral George Morrison.
In August of 1964, U.S. warships, under Admiral Morrison’s command, claimed to have been attacked while patrolling Vietnam’s Tonkin Gulf. Although the claim was false, it resulted in the U.S. Congress passing the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, which provided the pretext for an immediate escalation of American involvement in the emerging Vietnam quagmire.
Morrison never spoke publicly of his father’s role in creating the “false flag” that was used to deceive the American people into accepting a war against Vietnam.
More intriguing still was Morrison’s apparent lack of interest in music until he suddenly transformed himself into one of the most glorified rock stars of all time!
Along with becoming the Door’s lead singer, Morrison also played a major role in forming the band’s identity.
He chose the band’s name from one of his favorite books, Aldous Huxley’s The Doors of Perception. It turns out that Huxley’s “doors” opened through the use of psychedelic drugs. Not so coincidentally it also happens that Huxley was a key player behind MK-Ultra as one of the original promoters of the use of psychedelic drugs for social control. In a letter to George Orwell in 1949, Huxley described their use as “more efficient…than prisons.”
As an avowed acolyte of the Greek god Dionysus and the Dionysian Mysteries – the most famous religious rites of ancient Greece – Morrison reveled in the use of drugs, drink, and frenzied dancing. Morrison was so enamored of this Greek god he almost named the band after him, until settling on The Doors.
MKUltra’s objectives had much in common with the Dionysian Mysteries and with Jim Morrison’s philosophy of life who once said of his own behavior “I believe in a long, prolonged, derangement of the senses in order to obtain the unknown.” Morrison was also described by those who knew him as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The Doors Manager Paul Rothchild explained it this way, “You never knew whether Jim would show up as the erudite, poetic scholar or the kamikaze drunk.” Given his lineage, the question remains; was Jim Morrison in control of his own mind?
In view of current New Cold War plans to mount a full-scale global war against China and Russia, Americans need to look back and reconsider the turning points that brought our country to this crossroads.
How did we as Americans come from being so much against the war in Vietnam in the 1960s into preparing for a world war against just about everyone on the planet today?
Was the Laurel Canyon scene the only operation subtly sabotaging the legitimacy of the anti-war movement by co-opting its message?
Or was the CIA responsible for another popular piece of counter-culture showmanship intended to permanently wrap the anti-war movement and public dissent in a beaded cloak of freaked out hippies, communal sex, and acid trips on LSD?
The 1950s and 60s saw the United States in direct competition with the Soviet Union not only for military superiority but also for the world’s hearts and minds. With an emphasis on “freedom of expression”, the Cultural Cold War waged by Washington embraced a broad swath of cultural activities that were intended to outshine anything done by its communist rival.
Given the nature of this cultural competition in literature, music, and the arts, is it so surprising that the American intelligence community should have had a hand in the creation of uninhibited performance, free from the rules and strictures of the past? A successful psychological warfare campaign to break down traditional patterns of behavior would require a willingness to participate and the blueprint had already been laid out in 1953 by the CIA’s Psychological Strategy Board’s comprehensive doctrine for social control known as PSB D-33/2. With an emphasis on the strange and the avant-garde, the CIA began bringing artists, writers and musicians into what was known as its “Freedom Manifesto”.
The CIA would come to view the entire program, beginning with the 1950 Berlin conference, to be a landmark in the Cold War, not just for solidifying the CIA’s control over the non-communist left and the West’s “free” intellectuals, but for enabling the CIA to secretly disenfranchise Europeans and Americans from their own political culture in such a way they would never really know it.
As historian Christopher Lasch wrote in 1969 of the CIA’s secret co-optation of America’s non-communist left,
“The modern state … is an engine of propaganda, alternately manufacturing crises and claiming to be the only instrument that can effectively deal with them. This propaganda, in order to be successful, demands the cooperation of writers, teachers, and artists not as paid propagandists or state-censored time-servers but as ‘free’ intellectuals capable of policing their own jurisdictions and of enforcing acceptable standards of responsibility within the various intellectual professions.”
While declaring itself as an antidote to communist totalitarianism, one internal CIA critic of the program, PSB officer Charles Burton Marshall, viewed PSB D-33/2 itself as frighteningly totalitarian, interposing “a wide doctrinal system” that “accepts uniformity as a substitute for diversity,” embracing “all fields of human thought — all fields of intellectual interests, from anthropology and artistic creations to sociology and scientific methodology.” He concluded: “That is just about as totalitarian as one can get.”
The evidence that the birth of the psychedelic 1960s West Coast New Age music scene was guided by the invisible hand of military and intelligence operatives is well documented. But what about the American Tribal Love-Rock Musical HAIR that swept the world from its debut in 1968 after opening to rave reviews on Broadway?
We lived our personal experience with HAIR when we became a part of the Boston production in 1970 while college students. HAIR was on the front lines of the anti-war movement and we waved the banner every night for a year before sold-out audiences. To us, the Vietnam War was nothing more than what Daniel Ellsberg described as a neocolonial enterprise repeating France’s mistakes.
America’s Winter Soldiers applauded our efforts and joined us on stage to celebrate our right to dramatize the undoing of American society by the terror being inflicted on Southeast Asia. Boston’s old guard wanted the production shut down. The challenge went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Their effort failed but in the end, our victory was not what it appeared.
HAIR was a worldwide phenomenon with original casts in every major U.S. city and nineteen productions outside North America. Its main theme was strongly anti-war and was shared by the millions of Americans who watched and participated in it. Every HAIR cast was local to the city it performed in and established new standards for racial diversity unheard of at the time.
Almost 50 years on, we still receive letters from people whose lives were profoundly changed by the performance. HAIR made the war and its impact on human beings personal in ways that nothing else could. But that impact and the anti-war momentum it had accrued was soon lost, and within a short time channeled away from the universal peace we believed was possible.
Was HAIR’s popularity just a fluke; the beneficiary of some temporary anti-war fad?
Or was it part of a cultural cold war experiment to influence public opinion that succeeded beyond expectations and was then made to go away?
A post-Vietnam 1977 revival at the Biltmore Theatre where it had run for 1750 consecutive performances from 1968 to 1972 was attacked by the New York Times as “too far gone to be timely; too recently gone to be history or even nostalgia.”
With its antiwar message derided and dismissed as reminiscent of “something of the old battles re-fought quality of an American Legion reunion,” and with President Carter’s Russophobic National Security Advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski taking over foreign and national security policy at the Carter White House, the new message was clear. The antiwar movement would not be coming to power in Washington in 1977 and never would be.
When the film version of HAIR by Czechoslovakian New Wave director Milos Forman was released in March of 1979 – completely rewritten and fundamentally detached from the original Broadway version – the show’s passionate and prominent anti-war theme was gone. With LBJ, Richard Nixon and Vietnam disposed of; the West’s endless war against Russia could be put back on the fast track.
By the time Ronald Reagan was elected president in 1980, the anti-Vietnam War movement had been reduced to a “Syndrome” and cured with an unprecedented World War II size defense budget that transformed the U.S. from a creditor to a debtor nation.
The earmarks of a PSB D-33/2 cultural operation are hidden in plain sight. HAIR may even have been used as a prototype for the so-called color revolutions and Arab Springs that followed in the breakdown of the old Soviet bloc. Alongside authors Jim Rado and Jerry Ragni, the celebrity arm of the non-communist left was well represented at our February 22, 1970 HAIR opening night in the presence of Peter, Paul and Mary’s Peter Yarrow and the Broadway show’s executive producer Bertrand Castelli; a member of Europe’s cultural cold war elite that hobnobbed with the likes of Jean Cocteau and Pablo Picasso.
Yarrow’s famous song, “Puff, the Magic Dragon” became the anthem of the pot-smoking 60s hippie movement, and whether by design or coincidence his Ukrainian-born father Bernard was a charter member of the CIA’s European cultural front organization known as the National Committee for a Free Europe.
Having served during World War II in the OSS (with distinction) and after joining no less than Sullivan and Cromwell, the Dulles brothers‘ law firm, Bernard helped to found the CIA-funded Radio Free Europe and became its senior vice president.
Along with numerous members of the early 1960s music scene who wound up in Laurel Canyon, Peter Yarrow played an early and active role in the civil rights and peace movements. He even acted as referee between the Old Left’s Pete Seeger and the New Left at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival when Bob Dylan decided to move from “folk” music to rock and roll.
In a famous confrontation over what many considered Dylan’s sellout, Seeger threatened sound engineer and future Doors’ Manager Paul Rothchild that he would cut the cable with an ax if he didn’t turn off “that” distortion; but the distortion stayed.
Following Vietnam, Yarrow transferred his antiwar activism to the issue of Soviet Jewry and their emigration to Israel – a major component of the rising neoconservative agenda. Through Yarrow’s leadership, by the 1980s the issue had become a key platform of the Reagan administration to use against any détente with the Soviet Union.
As for HAIR, stripped of its antiwar message, it was reduced to being the poster child of a 1960s debauched hedonism. Or as Bertrand Castelli, the executive producer of the original Broadway production labeled a revival in 2008, “It’s though everything in ‘Hair’ turned into a nightmare, …
“Everything that was joyful and harmless became dangerous and ugly.”
Everything must be rethought
Dangerous and ugly is not the way we remember our year-long experience with HAIR. Nuclear war and Vietnam were dangerous and ugly and in the intervening 50 years, that danger and ugliness have returned to haunt us.
If HAIR was part of a top-secret psychological warfare campaign to energize the youth of America and the world to political action in the pursuit of peace, flowers, freedom, and happiness it succeeded. But if the ultimate objective of this Hobbesian campaign was to then crush that freedom and numb us to the growing danger of permanent war in a haze of disease, opioid addiction, and suicide, it too has succeeded.
At the time, HAIR’s success helped us believe that we had changed our future for the better. The war ended, the troops came home and life resumed. But we now accept that as of 2018 that new age we sought was nothing more than an illusion.
War is Insane, Endless War is Suicide
President Eisenhower warned us what would happen if our country dedicated itself to war. War makes you mad. Endless war puts you in a hell of madness from which there is no escape. The madness of that war on the world has come full circle and is now in our schools, parks, bars, and homes.
It was of course always there as part of our nature, but we have given in to it. We have given in to that part of our nature that should have matured and been processed but instead has remained aloof and separate from our humanity. That part of our nature has remained unlearned and untamed. We are the victims of our own design and therefore we can change it.
Through various means, the CIA did succeed in redirecting the American peoples’ anti-war sentiment towards accepting permanent war (clearly illustrated by the longest war ever in American history in Afghanistan).
To paraphrase Hermann Goering’s 1946 observation:
People don’t want war, nobody does, but people can easily be brought to the bidding of their leaders by instilling fear or denouncing the pacifists for exposing the country to danger, no matter where or when and works the same way in any country.
Our only course is to step outside today’s war narrative and see where we are in the paradigm.
The false narratives that control our thinking will fall away as we replace them with the deep knowledge and acceptance of what we have actually lived through. As the past finally becomes prologue; we can imagine the genuine future we truly want and start to make it happen!
Paul Fitzgerald and Elizabeth Gould are the authors of Invisible History: Afghanistan’s Untold Story, Crossing Zero The AfPak War at the Turning Point of American Empire and The Voice. Visit their websites at invisiblehistory and grailwerk .com
Copyright © 2018 Fitzgerald & Gould All rights reserved


veteranstoday--2020-09-14--Trump: The ‘Frenemy’ of the Islamic World

In the Republican primaries of the 2016 US presidential elections , Mitt Romney severely castigated Trump , calling him a phony and a fraud .
When Trump was elected president , he dangled the carrot of the secretary of state appointment to Romney , invited him to a dinner in an upscale New York restaurant , made him eat his words and fawn all over Trump like a servile toady .
But later , he gave the second most coveted appointment in the US bureaucratic hierarchy to oil executive Rex Tillerson .
Romney felt humiliated to the extent that in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ impeachment proceedings were initiated against him in the Senate in February , Romney became the only US senator in the American political history who voted against his own Republican Party president .
Trump is a typical Shylock of a Wall Street belonging to the American libertarian movement .
Although his alt-right agenda has been scuttled by the deep state , his views regarding global politics and economics are markedly different from the establishment Democrats and Republicans pursuing neocolonial world order masqueraded as globalization and free trade .
Besides the admission that Trump knew @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the outbreak , Bob Woodward has made several other startling revelations [ 1 ] in his book “ Rage ” set to be released on September 15 .
President Donald Trump boasted that he protected Saudi Arabia ’ s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman from congressional scrutiny after the assassination of Saudi dissident and Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi , who was brutally murdered at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018 .
“ I saved his ass , ” Trump said in 2018 , according to the book .
“ I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ him alone .
I was able to get them to stop.
” When Woodward pressed Trump if he believed the Saudi crown prince ordered the assassination himself , Trump responded : “ He says very strongly that he didn ’ t do it .
Bob , they spent $ 400 billion over a fairly short period of time , ” Trump said .
“ And you know , they ’ re in the Middle East .
You know , they ’ re big .
Because of their religious monuments , you know , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have the oil , but they also have the great monuments for religion .
You know that , right ?
For that religion , ” the president noted .
“ They wouldn ’ t last a week if we ’ re not there , and they know it , ” he added .
Despite the crass insensitivity , one must give credit to Trump for his fairly accurate interpretation of the Middle East ’ s politics and pragmatic relations of the business world .
The $ 400 billion he alluded to was likely @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the US defense production industry during his maiden overseas visit to Saudi Arabia in May 2017 .
By virtue of their physical possession of the holy places of Islam – Mecca and Medina – the Saudi kings are the de facto caliphs of Muslims .
The title of the Saudi king : “ Khadim-ul-Haramain-al-Shareefain ” ( the servant of the house of God ) , makes him the vicegerent of God on Earth ; and the title of the caliph of Muslims is not limited to a single nation state , the Saudi @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Islam , the Muslim Ummah .
The Shia Muslims have their Imams and Ayatollahs ( religious authorities ) , but it is generally assumed about Sunni Islam that it discourages the authority of clergy .
In this sense , Sunni Islam is closer to Protestantism , at least theoretically , because it prefers an individual and personalized interpretation of scriptures and religion .
Although this perception might be true for educated Sunni Muslims , on the popular level of the masses of developing Islamic countries , the House of Saud plays the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pope plays in Catholicism .
Left to their own resources , the Persian Gulf ’ s petro-monarchies lack the manpower , the military technology and the moral authority to rule over forcefully suppressed and disenfranchised Arab masses , not only the Arab masses but also the South Asian and North African immigrants of the Gulf states .
One-third of the Saudi Arabian population is composed of immigrants .
Similarly , more than 75 % of UAE ’ s population is also comprised of expats from Pakistan , Bangladesh , India and Sri Lanka @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , including Kuwait , Qatar , Bahrain and Oman , also have a similar proportion of immigrant workers from the developing countries .
Unlike the immigrants of the Western countries , however , who hold the citizenship status , the Gulf ’ s immigrants have lived there for decades and sometimes for generations , and they are still regarded as unentitled foreigners .
Seemingly , the Western powers support the Gulf ’ s autocrats because it has been a firm policy principle of the Western powers to promote “ political stability ” in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ democracy .
They are mindful of the ground reality that the mainstream Muslim sentiment is firmly against Western military presence and intervention in the Middle East region .
In addition , the Western policymakers also prefer to deal with small cliques of Middle Eastern strongmen rather than cultivating a complex and uncertain relationship on a popular level of the masses of the Middle East , certainly a myopic approach which is the hallmark of so-called pragmatic politicians and statesmen .
In this reciprocal relationship , the US provides security to the ruling families @ @ @ @ @ @ @ weapons and troops ; and in return , the Gulf ’ s petro-sheikhs contribute substantial investments to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars to the Western economies in the time of global recession , when most manufacturing has been outsourced to China .
All the recent wars and conflicts aside , the unholy alliance between the Western powers and the Wahhabi-Salafis of the Gulf petro-monarchies is much older .
The British stirred up uprising in Arabia by instigating the Sharifs of Mecca to rebel against the Ottoman rule during the First @ @ @ @ @ @ @ collapsed , the British Empire backed King Abdul Aziz ( Ibn-e-Saud ) in his struggle against the Sharif of Mecca Hussein bin Ali because he was demanding too much of a price for his loyalty , the unification of the whole of Arabia , including the Arabian peninsula , Levant , Iraq and the Gulf Emirates , under his suzerainty as a price for rebelling against the Ottoman Empire in the First World War .
As a consequence , Western powers dumped him , imposed Sykes-Picot Agreement dividing Arabs into small states at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their support to nomadic Sauds of Najd .
King Abdul Aziz defeated the Sharifs and united his dominions into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932 with the support of the British .
However , by then the tide of British Imperialism was subsiding and the Americans inherited the former possessions and the rights and liabilities of the British Empire .
At the end of the Second World War on 14 February 1945 , President Franklin D. Roosevelt held a historic meeting with King Abdul Aziz at Great Bitter Lake in the Suez @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the foundations of an enduring alliance which persists to this day .
During the course of that momentous Great Bitter Lake meeting , among other things , it was decided to set up the United States Military Training Mission ( USMTM ) to Saudi Arabia to “ train , advise and assist ” the Saudi Arabian Armed Forces .
Aside from USMTM , the US-based Vinnell Corporation , which is a private military company based in the US and a subsidiary of the Northrop Grumman , used over a thousand Vietnam War veterans @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Arabian National Guards ( SANG ) which is not under the authority of the Saudi Ministry of Defense and acts as the Praetorian Guards of the House of Saud .
In addition , the Critical Infrastructure Protection Force , whose strength is numbered in tens of thousands , is also being trained and equipped by the US to guard the critical Saudi oil infrastructure along its eastern Persian Gulf coast where 90 % of 266 billion barrels of Saudi oil reserves are located .
Furthermore , the US has deployed tens of thousands @ @ @ @ @ @ @ numerous military bases in the Persian Gulf that include al-Dhafra airbase in Abu Dhabi , al-Udeid airbase in Qatar and a naval base in Bahrain where the Fifth Fleet of the US Navy is based .
Nauman Sadiq is an Islamabad-based attorney , columnist and geopolitical analyst focused on the politics of Af-Pak and Middle East regions , neocolonialism and petro-imperialism .

By Nauman Sadiq for VT Islamabad
In the Republican primaries of the 2016 US presidential elections, Mitt Romney severely castigated Trump, calling him a phony and a fraud.
When Trump was elected president, he dangled the carrot of the secretary of state appointment to Romney, invited him to a dinner in an upscale New York restaurant, made him eat his words and fawn all over Trump like a servile toady. But later, he gave the second most coveted appointment in the US bureaucratic hierarchy to oil executive Rex Tillerson.
Romney felt humiliated to the extent that in Trump’s vulnerable moment, when impeachment proceedings were initiated against him in the Senate in February, Romney became the only US senator in the American political history who voted against his own Republican Party president.
Trump is a typical Shylock of a Wall Street belonging to the American libertarian movement. Although his alt-right agenda has been scuttled by the deep state, his views regarding global politics and economics are markedly different from the establishment Democrats and Republicans pursuing neocolonial world order masqueraded as globalization and free trade.
Besides the admission that Trump knew coronavirus was deadly yet he deliberately downplayed the outbreak, Bob Woodward has made several other startling revelations [1] in his book “Rage” set to be released on September 15.
President Donald Trump boasted that he protected Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman from congressional scrutiny after the assassination of Saudi dissident and Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was brutally murdered at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018.
“I saved his ass,” Trump said in 2018, according to the book. “I was able to get Congress to leave him alone. I was able to get them to stop.”
When Woodward pressed Trump if he believed the Saudi crown prince ordered the assassination himself, Trump responded: “He says very strongly that he didn’t do it. Bob, they spent $400 billion over a fairly short period of time,” Trump said.
“And you know, they’re in the Middle East. You know, they’re big. Because of their religious monuments, you know, they have the real power. They have the oil, but they also have the great monuments for religion. You know that, right? For that religion,” the president noted. “They wouldn’t last a week if we’re not there, and they know it,” he added.
Despite the crass insensitivity, one must give credit to Trump for his fairly accurate interpretation of the Middle East’s politics and pragmatic relations of the business world. The $400 billion he alluded to was likely the unprecedented arms package he availed for the US defense production industry during his maiden overseas visit to Saudi Arabia in May 2017.
By virtue of their physical possession of the holy places of Islam – Mecca and Medina – the Saudi kings are the de facto caliphs of Muslims. The title of the Saudi king: “Khadim-ul-Haramain-al-Shareefain” (the servant of the house of God), makes him the vicegerent of God on Earth; and the title of the caliph of Muslims is not limited to a single nation state, the Saudi king wields enormous influence throughout the commonwealth of Islam, the Muslim Ummah.
The Shia Muslims have their Imams and Ayatollahs (religious authorities), but it is generally assumed about Sunni Islam that it discourages the authority of clergy. In this sense, Sunni Islam is closer to Protestantism, at least theoretically, because it prefers an individual and personalized interpretation of scriptures and religion. Although this perception might be true for educated Sunni Muslims, on the popular level of the masses of developing Islamic countries, the House of Saud plays the same role in Sunni Islam that the pope plays in Catholicism.
Left to their own resources, the Persian Gulf’s petro-monarchies lack the manpower, the military technology and the moral authority to rule over forcefully suppressed and disenfranchised Arab masses, not only the Arab masses but also the South Asian and North African immigrants of the Gulf states.
One-third of the Saudi Arabian population is composed of immigrants. Similarly, more than 75% of UAE’s population is also comprised of expats from Pakistan, Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka.
The rest of the Gulf States, including Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman, also have a similar proportion of immigrant workers from the developing countries. Unlike the immigrants of the Western countries, however, who hold the citizenship status, the Gulf’s immigrants have lived there for decades and sometimes for generations, and they are still regarded as unentitled foreigners.
Seemingly, the Western powers support the Gulf’s autocrats because it has been a firm policy principle of the Western powers to promote “political stability” in the energy-rich Middle East instead of representative democracy. They are mindful of the ground reality that the mainstream Muslim sentiment is firmly against Western military presence and intervention in the Middle East region.
In addition, the Western policymakers also prefer to deal with small cliques of Middle Eastern strongmen rather than cultivating a complex and uncertain relationship on a popular level of the masses of the Middle East, certainly a myopic approach which is the hallmark of so-called pragmatic politicians and statesmen.
In this reciprocal relationship, the US provides security to the ruling families of the Gulf Arab States by providing weapons and troops; and in return, the Gulf’s petro-sheikhs contribute substantial investments to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars to the Western economies in the time of global recession, when most manufacturing has been outsourced to China.
All the recent wars and conflicts aside, the unholy alliance between the Western powers and the Wahhabi-Salafis of the Gulf petro-monarchies is much older. The British stirred up uprising in Arabia by instigating the Sharifs of Mecca to rebel against the Ottoman rule during the First World War.
After the Ottoman Empire collapsed, the British Empire backed King Abdul Aziz (Ibn-e-Saud) in his struggle against the Sharif of Mecca Hussein bin Ali because he was demanding too much of a price for his loyalty, the unification of the whole of Arabia, including the Arabian peninsula, Levant, Iraq and the Gulf Emirates, under his suzerainty as a price for rebelling against the Ottoman Empire in the First World War.
As a consequence, Western powers dumped him, imposed Sykes-Picot Agreement dividing Arabs into small states at loggerheads with each other, and lent their support to nomadic Sauds of Najd. King Abdul Aziz defeated the Sharifs and united his dominions into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932 with the support of the British. However, by then the tide of British Imperialism was subsiding and the Americans inherited the former possessions and the rights and liabilities of the British Empire.
At the end of the Second World War on 14 February 1945, President Franklin D. Roosevelt held a historic meeting with King Abdul Aziz at Great Bitter Lake in the Suez Canal onboard USS Quincy, and laid the foundations of an enduring alliance which persists to this day. During the course of that momentous Great Bitter Lake meeting, among other things, it was decided to set up the United States Military Training Mission (USMTM) to Saudi Arabia to “train, advise and assist” the Saudi Arabian Armed Forces.
Aside from USMTM, the US-based Vinnell Corporation, which is a private military company based in the US and a subsidiary of the Northrop Grumman, used over a thousand Vietnam War veterans to train and equip 125,000 strong Saudi Arabian National Guards (SANG) which is not under the authority of the Saudi Ministry of Defense and acts as the Praetorian Guards of the House of Saud.
In addition, the Critical Infrastructure Protection Force, whose strength is numbered in tens of thousands, is also being trained and equipped by the US to guard the critical Saudi oil infrastructure along its eastern Persian Gulf coast where 90% of 266 billion barrels of Saudi oil reserves are located.
Furthermore, the US has deployed tens of thousands of American troops in aircraft carriers and numerous military bases in the Persian Gulf that include al-Dhafra airbase in Abu Dhabi, al-Udeid airbase in Qatar and a naval base in Bahrain where the Fifth Fleet of the US Navy is based.
Citations:
[1] Trump boasted that he protected Saudi Crown Prince:
https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-woodward-i-saved-his-ass-mbs-khashoggi-rage-2020-9
About the author:
Nauman Sadiq is an Islamabad-based attorney, columnist and geopolitical analyst focused on the politics of Af-Pak and Middle East regions, neocolonialism and petro-imperialism.


veteranstoday--2020-09-14--A Vote for Trump is a vote for Terrorism, But then everyone knows that…

Gordon Duff is a Marine combat veteran of the Vietnam War .
He is a disabled veteran and has worked @ @ @ @ @ for decades .
Gordon is an accredited diplomat and is generally accepted as one of @ @ @ @ @ .
He manages the world ’ s largest private intelligence organization and regularly consults with @ @ @ @ @ has traveled extensively , is published around the world and is a regular guest on @ @ @ @ @ than “ several ” countries .
He is also a trained chef , wine enthusiast @ @ @ @ @ specializing in historical weapons and restoration .
Business experience and interests are in energy and @ @ @

*
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About VT - Policies & Disclosures - Comment Policy In fact, intentional disinformation is a disgraceful scourge in media today. So to assuage any possible errant incorrect information posted herein, we strongly encourage you to seek corroboration from other non-VT sources before forming an educated opinion.
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veteranstoday--2020-09-14--No Retaliation Assassination for Soleimani, Iran

[ Editor ’ s Note : This silly assassination story that came out yesterday had Israeli Intel fingerprints on it ; going to the well one more time to see if Trump will take the bait to give Netanyahu a freebie “ preventive strike ” on Iran if he feels it would boost him in the polls .
I have long editorialized that there is nothing that Trump would not do if he felt it would save him and his family from the army of prosecutors that will be wanting to talk to them if he loses the election .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ on the target list is so improbable that Gordon and I would have the military guys who pitched this as a concern dropping their pants so they could get the fraternity paddle treatment to knock some sense into them .
This should disappear from the news in a day .
I have a feeling that we are going to see a constant fear porn stream from the Trump team .
It ’ s already been reported that they are outspending Biden on the Internet .
I read that they already have a ton @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they have accumulated more polling in the last four years .
This past month ’ s actions show they are betting the farm that fear will get voters ’ attention in this cycle .
The Biden camp then will have the flip side of that in their favor , the voters who are ‘ fearful ’ of four more years .
Both candidates are going to bang the drum that the other guy will be a disaster for America… Jim W. Dean ] Iran has vehemently dismissed a US report that Tehran planned @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for American assassination of General Qassem Soleimani .
The outright rebuttal by Iran ’ s Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeid Khatibzadeh on Monday came after Politico news website claimed that Iran had sought to assassinate US Ambassador to South Africa Lana Marks .
Khatibzadeh said the “ biased and agenda-driven ” report published in the American media outlet cited the statements of a seemingly US government official in an effort to make it appear true .
“ We advise American officials to stop resorting to hackneyed and outworn methods to create Iranophobic atmosphere on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The article claimed to be based on US intelligence reports , allegedly seen by a US government official and another official familiar with the documents , stating that Marks had likely been chosen due to her closeness to US President Donald Trump .
Khatibzadeh said , “ The Islamic Republic of Iran , as a responsible member of the international community , has demonstrated its continued adherence to the principles and customs of international diplomacy.
” “ In contrast , it is the United States and the current regime in the White @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , has shown its disregard for basic diplomatic principles and become a pariah regime in the international arena with numerous actions outside the internationally-accepted methods and norms , including • None the design and execution of dozens of assassination plans and military and intelligence interventions , • None the cowardly assassination of General Qassem Soleimani , the glorious commander of the fight against terrorism.
” On January 3 , the United States used an armed drone to assassinate General Soleimani along with Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis , the second-in-command of Iraq ’ s Popular @ @ @ @ @ @ @ number of their companions , outside Baghdad airport .
Iran responded to the terrorist act with a volley of ballistic missiles fired at at two US bases in Iraq , which left about 110 American troops injured .
Khatibzadeh said , “ The Islamic Republic of Iran , as it has repeatedly stated , will continue to pursue international legal action in connection with the criminal and cowardly assassination of General Soleimani at all levels , and will neither forgive nor forget this terrorist act.
” The spokesman said baseless allegations such as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ part of the Trump administration ’ s counter-intelligence campaign against Iran.
” “ The US regime ’ s resort to anti-Iranian accusations and lies in the run-up to the US presidential election , and at the same time its pressure to abuse UN Security Council mechanisms to increase pressure on the Iranian people , was predictable .
“ Nevertheless , such moves and news fabrications , probably to continue in the future , will certainly remain futile , adding to Washington ’ s long list of ongoing failures against the Islamic Republic @ @ @ @ @ @ @

[ Editor’s Note: This silly assassination story that came out yesterday had Israeli Intel fingerprints on it; going to the well one more time to see if Trump will take the bait to give Netanyahu a freebie “preventive strike” on Iran if he feels it would boost him in the polls.
I have long editorialized that there is nothing that Trump would not do if he felt it would save him and his family from the army of prosecutors that will be wanting to talk to them if he loses the election.
That the Iranians would put a woman on the target list is so improbable that Gordon and I would have the military guys who pitched this as a concern dropping their pants so they could get the fraternity paddle treatment to knock some sense into them.
This should disappear from the news in a day. I have a feeling that we are going to see a constant fear porn stream from the Trump team. It’s already been reported that they are outspending Biden on the Internet.
I read that they already have a ton of voter profiling from 2016, and they have accumulated more polling in the last four years. This past month’s actions show they are betting the farm that fear will get voters’ attention in this cycle.
The Biden camp then will have the flip side of that in their favor, the voters who are ‘fearful’ of four more years. Both candidates are going to bang the drum that the other guy will be a disaster for America… Jim W. Dean ]
– First published 14 September 2020, on PressTV –
Iran has vehemently dismissed a US report that Tehran planned to kill a US diplomat in retaliation for American assassination of General Qassem Soleimani.
The outright rebuttal by Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeid Khatibzadeh on Monday came after Politico news website claimed that Iran had sought to assassinate US Ambassador to South Africa Lana Marks.
Khatibzadeh said the “biased and agenda-driven” report published in the American media outlet cited the statements of a seemingly US government official in an effort to make it appear true.
“We advise American officials to stop resorting to hackneyed and outworn methods to create Iranophobic atmosphere on the international arena,” he said.
The article claimed to be based on US intelligence reports, allegedly seen by a US government official and another official familiar with the documents, stating that Marks had likely been chosen due to her closeness to US President Donald Trump.
Khatibzadeh said, “The Islamic Republic of Iran, as a responsible member of the international community, has demonstrated its continued adherence to the principles and customs of international diplomacy.”
US warmongers have always used gullible “journalists” to sell their folly. Under Bush they used them to sell the $7 trillion Iraq War. Now they are at it again, using Politico to peddle lies. US media needs to be vigilant so as not to be used by politicians. pic.twitter.com/Z2epLBieXT — Saeed Khatibzadeh (@SKhatibzadeh) September 14, 2020
“In contrast, it is the United States and the current regime in the White House that, especially in recent years, has shown its disregard for basic diplomatic principles and become a pariah regime in the international arena with numerous actions outside the internationally-accepted methods and norms, including
the design and execution of dozens of assassination plans and military and intelligence interventions, withdrawal from numerous international agreements, violation of territorial integrity and the cowardly assassination of General Qassem Soleimani, the glorious commander of the fight against terrorism.”
On January 3, the United States used an armed drone to assassinate General Soleimani along with Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the second-in-command of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) and a number of their companions, outside Baghdad airport.
Iran responded to the terrorist act with a volley of ballistic missiles fired at at two US bases in Iraq, which left about 110 American troops injured.
Iran issues arrest warrant for Trump, US officials over top IRGC general’s assassination Iran issues an arrest warrant for Trump and many other American officials over the assassination of General Qassem Soleimani.
Khatibzadeh said, “The Islamic Republic of Iran, as it has repeatedly stated, will continue to pursue international legal action in connection with the criminal and cowardly assassination of General Soleimani at all levels, and will neither forgive nor forget this terrorist act.”
The spokesman said baseless allegations such as the one published in the Politico are “part of the Trump administration’s counter-intelligence campaign against Iran.”
“The US regime’s resort to anti-Iranian accusations and lies in the run-up to the US presidential election, and at the same time its pressure to abuse UN Security Council mechanisms to increase pressure on the Iranian people, was predictable.
“Nevertheless, such moves and news fabrications, probably to continue in the future, will certainly remain futile, adding to Washington’s long list of ongoing failures against the Islamic Republic of Iran,” he added.


veteranstoday--2020-09-15--Russia Will Prevent the US and Saudi Arabia Dividing Syria with Force

Currently , Saudi Arabia has set up a first military unit inside Syria , sharing a base with the US .
Our sources say that Saudi vehicles moving in and out of Syria are likely to be targeted with the help of Russian intelligence .
Currently , Saudi Arabia has set up a first military unit inside Syria , sharing a base with the US .
Our sources say that Saudi vehicles moving in and out of Syria are likely to be targeted with the help of Russian intelligence .
A high level Russian delegation met recently with President Assad @ @ @ @ @ @ @ further understand the importance and implications of the meeting , Steven Sahiounie at MidEastDiscourse reached out to Andrey Ontikov , a Special Correspondent at Izvestia daily newspaper , in Moscow and a political commentator specializing in the Middle East .
Steven Sahiounie ( SS ) : Recently , the Russian foreign minister , Sergei Lavrov , and a delegation were in Damascus for a high level meeting .
What was the outcome of this meeting ?
Andrey Ontikov ( AO ) : To my mind those negotiations demonstrate a change in priorities of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ see that most of Syrian territories are free from terrorists .
Meanwhile Damascus is facing other threats and challenges .
First of all , these are problems in the economy due to western sanctions and Caesar Act recently adopted in the US .
And Moscow is ready to help Damascus .
It was no coincidence that Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov headed the Russian delegation .
And among the issues discussed were joint projects in various fields .
Another challenge for Syria is the continued US-presence in areas east of Euphrates and at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Washington helps the Kurds in every possible way in creating the so-called autonomous region .
In other words , we are talking about supporting separatism in Syria , which poses a threat to the country ’ s territorial integrity .
Of course , Russia will try to prevent this .
We see this at least in the recent meeting between Qadri Jamil and Ilham Ahmed , which took place in Moscow .
They signed a memorandum of cooperation .
I think that the Russian Foreign Ministry has played an important role here .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ the central Syrian authorities and the Kurds and , in addition , intends to protect the rights of the Kurds in every possible way , but within the framework of a united Syria .
Of course , all this does not mean that Moscow is abandoning the fight against terrorism .
This threat persists primarily in Idlib , but also in other parts of Syria .
Thus , the global goals remain the same : the restoration of Syrian sovereignty throughout the country and ensuring security there .
SS : As part of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a political solution to the Syrian crisis , there have been a series of meetings to draft a new constitution , including a recent meeting .
How is the current status on this process ?
AO : The process is progressing slowly .
But it was difficult to expect otherwise .
Still , there are a lot of contradictions between the parties , besides , there is a strong foreign influence on some participants in the dialogue .
However , it is important to understand that the situation is not in a deadlock @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that there were no significant advances until the beginning of 2018 .
But in January 2018 , Russia hosted the Syrian National Dialogue Congress in Sochi .
And thus the process of creating a constitutional committee was launched .
Now this committee has been formed and started to work .
As officials in Moscow point out , it would be wrong to set a time frame for its work .
Ultimately , the Syrians need a constitution that will ensure the functioning of the state and the rights of various groups of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ difficulties that remain on the battlefield and in the political plane , it seems to me that progress is obvious .
The main thing is that some countries that find themselves outside the process do not create artificial obstacles .
SS : What is the Russian role in the Syrian Mediterranean gas-field ?
AO : It can be said that gas in the Eastern Mediterranean is one of the main reasons for the current stage in the Libyan conflict .
It is no secret that in November 2019 , Turkey signed an agreement @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Government in Tripoli .
This has become a serious challenge for the countries that are members of the East Mediterranean Gas Forum and are going to build a gas pipeline to Europe .
Therefore , it is important for Ankara that the current government remains in Tripoli , under which the agreements will not be denounced .
This is the reason for the ongoing escalation , sending Turkish military and Syrian militants to Libya .
Russia , for its part , has been making efforts for a long time to resolve the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ also ready to mediate in the conflict between Turkey and Greece , since it has good relations with both countries .
In any case , it is important for Moscow to overcome the conflict and stabilize the situation in the region .
SS : There are tensions between the Russian military , who are in Syria legally , and the US military who are an occupation force in Eastern Syria .
How do you see this situation ?
AO : I have already mentioned that Russia insists on the withdrawal of US troops @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for separatist tendencies .
And it will do everything to achieve these goals .
At the same time , the Americans , apparently , will arrange provocations against the Russian military .
And we have already seen them many times .
The goal is to impose their own rules of the game in that part of Syria and to force Russia to retreat .
So far , these attempts have been unsuccessful .
Be that as it may , Moscow is somewhat limited in methods .
It can not enter into an open @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fought against terrorists .
It can only act by diplomatic methods , exert informational pressure on the United States itself , promote dialogue between the Kurds and Damascus , and so on .
At the same time , Syria itself has slightly more opportunities .
In particular , the country ’ s authorities often talk about popular resistance against external occupiers .
And it seems to me that developing the partisan movement could bring good results along this path .
In fact , we already see how the local population east of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ American presence .
In any case , if the Syrians manage to make the presence of the United States in Syria unprofitable for Washington , then it will immediately withdraw its troops .
Russia will contribute to this in every possible way .
SS : There is Russian and Turkish cooperation in Idlib , Syria .
The agreement was supposed to result in a safe passage way on the M4 Highway from Latakia to Aleppo , but this has never been achieved .
What is the reason for this failure , and can @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are indeed problems .
But , as is the case with the constitutional committee , the situation is not at a standstill .
We see how Idlib is gradually being freed from terrorists .
Who could imagine a year ago that free movement on the M4 would in principle be discussed ?
Nevertheless , the work here must be very clear , based on compromises .
After all , Russia and Turkey have their own interests , often opposite .
Therefore , it is necessary to look for common ground .
Somewhere to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ force .
This work continues .
And I am convinced that it will be completed .

Currently, Saudi Arabia has set up a first military unit inside Syria, sharing a base with the US. Our sources say that Saudi vehicles moving in and out of Syria are likely to be targeted with the help of Russian intelligence.
Steven Sahiounie is a journalist and political commentator
A high level Russian delegation met recently with President Assad in Damascus. In an effort to further understand the importance and implications of the meeting, Steven Sahiounie at MidEastDiscourse reached out to Andrey Ontikov, a Special Correspondent at Izvestia daily newspaper, in Moscow and a political commentator specializing in the Middle East.
Steven Sahiounie (SS): Recently, the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, and a delegation were in Damascus for a high level meeting. What was the outcome of this meeting?
Andrey Ontikov (AO): To my mind those negotiations demonstrate a change in priorities of Russian policy in Syria. Now we see that most of Syrian territories are free from terrorists. Meanwhile Damascus is facing other threats and challenges. First of all, these are problems in the economy due to western sanctions and Caesar Act recently adopted in the US. And Moscow is ready to help Damascus. It was no coincidence that Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov headed the Russian delegation. And among the issues discussed were joint projects in various fields.
Another challenge for Syria is the continued US-presence in areas east of Euphrates and at the Al-Tanf base. We see that Washington helps the Kurds in every possible way in creating the so-called autonomous region. In other words, we are talking about supporting separatism in Syria, which poses a threat to the country’s territorial integrity. Of course, Russia will try to prevent this. We see this at least in the recent meeting between Qadri Jamil and Ilham Ahmed, which took place in Moscow. They signed a memorandum of cooperation. I think that the Russian Foreign Ministry has played an important role here. Russia also intends to facilitate dialogue between the central Syrian authorities and the Kurds and, in addition, intends to protect the rights of the Kurds in every possible way, but within the framework of a united Syria. Of course, all this does not mean that Moscow is abandoning the fight against terrorism. This threat persists primarily in Idlib, but also in other parts of Syria. Thus, the global goals remain the same: the restoration of Syrian sovereignty throughout the country and ensuring security there.
SS: As part of the UN resolution 2254, to find a political solution to the Syrian crisis, there have been a series of meetings to draft a new constitution, including a recent meeting. How is the current status on this process?
AO: The process is progressing slowly. But it was difficult to expect otherwise. Still, there are a lot of contradictions between the parties, besides, there is a strong foreign influence on some participants in the dialogue. However, it is important to understand that the situation is not in a deadlock. I would like to remind you that there were no significant advances until the beginning of 2018. But in January 2018, Russia hosted the Syrian National Dialogue Congress in Sochi. And thus the process of creating a constitutional committee was launched. Now this committee has been formed and started to work. As officials in Moscow point out, it would be wrong to set a time frame for its work. Ultimately, the Syrians need a constitution that will ensure the functioning of the state and the rights of various groups of the population. So in light of the difficulties that remain on the battlefield and in the political plane, it seems to me that progress is obvious. The main thing is that some countries that find themselves outside the process do not create artificial obstacles.
SS: What is the Russian role in the Syrian Mediterranean gas-field?
AO: It can be said that gas in the Eastern Mediterranean is one of the main reasons for the current stage in the Libyan conflict. It is no secret that in November 2019, Turkey signed an agreement on the division of maritime zones with the Government in Tripoli. This has become a serious challenge for the countries that are members of the East Mediterranean Gas Forum and are going to build a gas pipeline to Europe. Therefore, it is important for Ankara that the current government remains in Tripoli, under which the agreements will not be denounced. This is the reason for the ongoing escalation, sending Turkish military and Syrian militants to Libya. Russia, for its part, has been making efforts for a long time to resolve the situation in Libya peacefully. Moscow is also ready to mediate in the conflict between Turkey and Greece, since it has good relations with both countries. In any case, it is important for Moscow to overcome the conflict and stabilize the situation in the region.
SS: There are tensions between the Russian military, who are in Syria legally, and the US military who are an occupation force in Eastern Syria. How do you see this situation?
AO: I have already mentioned that Russia insists on the withdrawal of US troops from Syria and the stop of support for separatist tendencies. And it will do everything to achieve these goals. At the same time, the Americans, apparently, will arrange provocations against the Russian military. And we have already seen them many times. The goal is to impose their own rules of the game in that part of Syria and to force Russia to retreat. So far, these attempts have been unsuccessful. Be that as it may, Moscow is somewhat limited in methods. It cannot enter into an open confrontation with the Americans, as it fought against terrorists. It can only act by diplomatic methods, exert informational pressure on the United States itself, promote dialogue between the Kurds and Damascus, and so on. At the same time, Syria itself has slightly more opportunities. In particular, the country’s authorities often talk about popular resistance against external occupiers. And it seems to me that developing the partisan movement could bring good results along this path. In fact, we already see how the local population east of the Euphrates from time to time oppose the American presence. In any case, if the Syrians manage to make the presence of the United States in Syria unprofitable for Washington, then it will immediately withdraw its troops. Russia will contribute to this in every possible way.
SS: There is Russian and Turkish cooperation in Idlib, Syria. The agreement was supposed to result in a safe passage way on the M4 Highway from Latakia to Aleppo, but this has never been achieved. What is the reason for this failure, and can it be achieved?
AO: There are indeed problems. But, as is the case with the constitutional committee, the situation is not at a standstill. We see how Idlib is gradually being freed from terrorists. Who could imagine a year ago that free movement on the M4 would in principle be discussed? Nevertheless, the work here must be very clear, based on compromises. After all, Russia and Turkey have their own interests, often opposite. Therefore, it is necessary to look for common ground. Somewhere to act by diplomatic methods, somewhere by force. This work continues. And I am convinced that it will be completed.
*


veteranstoday--2020-09-15--Judge Rules Alleged Israeli Spy Chad Wolf, now DHS Head, Holding office illegally for Trump

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VT: After 9/11, DHS was set up to turn control of all American security apparatus to what the lazy call ‘the deep state.’ After all, they captured the presidency and needed DHS created to rig elections and rein in the CIA and FBI. (scroll down)
By 2005, Chertoff, the Israeli sent to run DHS, had brought in former KGB and Stasi chiefs to mold DHS into a nightmare agency made up of brownshirt thugs and illiterates.
Trump has illegally placed Chad Wolf in charge in order to serve as maitre d for the Kosher Nostra’s occupation of the US and to rig another election on behalf of the enemies of the people of the United States.
New York Attorney General Letitia James, one of the plaintiffs, welcomed the ruling and called Wolf a man with “no authority and no business sitting in the chair of the acting secretary of Homeland Security.”


veteranstoday--2020-09-15--Is There Alien Life On Venus?

Is There Alien Life On Venus?

Health Editor ’ s Note : Phosphine has been detected in the acidic clouds of Venus .
On earth phosphone is produced by bacteria which live in environments with little to no oxygen .
The James Clerk Maxwell Telescope in Hawaii has confirmed the presence of phosphine by using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array ( ALMA ) radio telescope located in Chili .
Phosphine is an atom with three hydrogen atoms attached and is toxic for humans .
Humans have been looking for signs of life beyond earth for a long time .
Venus has an atmosphere that has oxygen @ @ @ @ @ @ @ phosphine to exist Venus should be hostile to phosphine .
Its surface and atmosphere are rich in oxygen compounds that would rapidly react with and destroy phosphine .
Phosphine is being created and just as quickly destroyed….why ?
…..Carol ATTENTION READERS Due to the nature of independent content , VT can not guarantee content validity .
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Potential Sign of Alien Life on Venus
A tantalizing sign of potential life beyond Earth, scientists said they have detected in the harshly acidic clouds of Venus a gas called phosphine that indicates microbes may inhabit Earth’s inhospitable neighbor https://t.co/NXA0Dfe9p6
Health Editor’s Note: Phosphine has been detected in the acidic clouds of Venus. On earth phosphone is produced by bacteria which live in environments with little to no oxygen. The James Clerk Maxwell Telescope in Hawaii has confirmed the presence of phosphine by using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) radio telescope located in Chili.
Phosphine is an atom with three hydrogen atoms attached and is toxic for humans. Humans have been looking for signs of life beyond earth for a long time. Venus has an atmosphere that has oxygen compounds which should not be inviting for phosphine to exist
Venus should be hostile to phosphine. Its surface and atmosphere are rich in oxygen compounds that would rapidly react with and destroy phosphine. Phosphine is being created and just as quickly destroyed….why?…..Carol


veteranstoday--2020-09-15--Discovery of Possible Antibody That ‘Neutralizes’ Coronavirus

Health Editor ’ s Note : This newly discovered antibody ( biomolecule ) is 10 times smaller than a regular sized antibody .
The drug Ab8 which is a potential prevention against SARS-CoV-2 has been tested in mice and hamsters and since it does not bind with human cells , hopefully it will not cause negative side-effects in humans .
Ab8 has the potential to be used as a therapy to treat COVID-19 but also as a prevention against contracting the virus .
This biomolecule neutralizes coronavirus .
Ab8 sounds hopeful as we continue to see hundreds of new cases @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and thousands all over the planet .
We need a workable plan to stop this pandemic and hopefully Ab8 will be an important tool in the anti-COVID-19 tool box…..Carol ATTENTION READERS Due to the nature of independent content , VT can not guarantee content validity .
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Scientists at University of Pittsburgh Make Huge Discovery
Health Editor’s Note: This newly discovered antibody (biomolecule) is 10 times smaller than a regular sized antibody. The drug Ab8 which is a potential prevention against SARS-CoV-2 has been tested in mice and hamsters and since it does not bind with human cells, hopefully it will not cause negative side-effects in humans.
Ab8 has the potential to be used as a therapy to treat COVID-19 but also as a prevention against contracting the virus. This biomolecule neutralizes coronavirus.
Ab8 sounds hopeful as we continue to see hundreds of new cases of COVID-19 every day in the U.S. and thousands all over the planet. We need a workable plan to stop this pandemic and hopefully Ab8 will be an important tool in the anti-COVID-19 tool box…..Carol


veteranstoday--2020-09-18--Trump Announces ‘Herd Immunity’ Plan, 2-3 Million Americans to Die (No, this isn’t a joke)

The UK’s original plan to deal with the coronavirus by achieving “herd immunity” within the population, would have been “catastrophic” and caused “a lot of death,” President Donald Trump has said.
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veteranstoday--2020-09-18--Monstrous: Trump White House Penned Fake CDC/COVID Testing Protocols Endangering Millions of America

Monstrous: Trump White House Penned Fake CDC/COVID Testing Protocols Endangering Millions of Americans

Daily Beast : The baffling guidance published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last month advising against COVID-19 testing for those who have been exposed to the virus if they do not have symptoms was penned by Trump administration officials and published against the objections of CDC doctors , The New York Times reports .
CDC scientists reportedly did not approve the recommendation that was put out via the agency ’ s website , as they normally would with medical matters , and they objected to its message after its publication .
Political staffers from the Department of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , according to the Times .
One federal official told the Times , “ That was a doc that came from the top down , from the HHS and the task force .
That policy does not reflect what many people at the CDC feel should be the policy.
” Admiral Brett Giroir , testing coordinator for the CDC , reportedly said he did not know how or why the document skirted scientific review .
Public health experts have largely maintained throughout the coronavirus pandemic that the United States needs to conduct more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at The New York Times

Daily Beast: The baffling guidance published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last month advising against COVID-19 testing for those who have been exposed to the virus if they do not have symptoms was penned by Trump administration officials and published against the objections of CDC doctors, The New York Times reports.
Breaking NYT: A heavily criticized recommendation from the CDC last month about who should be tested for the coronavirus was not written by CDC scientists and was posted to the agency's website despite their serious objections. https://t.co/fMOyxAmTUg
https://twitter.com/CT_Bergstrom/status/1306733850849017858?s=20
CDC scientists reportedly did not approve the recommendation that was put out via the agency’s website, as they normally would with medical matters, and they objected to its message after its publication. Political staffers from the Department of Health and Human Services penned the memo, according to the Times.
The Trumpsters aren’t satisfied just ignoring science; now they’re hijacking science agencies like the CDC and replacing their reports with propaganda. This is staggering news. The CDC staff should resign en masse, especially Director Robert Redfield.https://t.co/txNFsIUThv — Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) September 18, 2020
One federal official told the Times, “That was a doc that came from the top down, from the HHS and the task force. That policy does not reflect what many people at the CDC feel should be the policy.” Admiral Brett Giroir, testing coordinator for the CDC, reportedly said he did not know how or why the document skirted scientific review.
Trump is using the CDC logos to publish bogus testing guidelines that did not come from the CDC. pic.twitter.com/NJDU59zR9a — Resistance Fighter 🆘 🇺🇸 🍑 USAF Senior NCO (@gamefish42) September 18, 2020
Public health experts have largely maintained throughout the coronavirus pandemic that the United States needs to conduct more testing, not less.
CDC scientists reportedly did not approve the recommendation that was put out via the agency’s website, as they normally would with medical matters, and they objected to its message after its publication https://t.co/MXkkzWUy3f — The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) September 18, 2020
Read it at The New York Times


veteranstoday--2020-09-17--Giuliani Partners, Parnas, Furman and Coreia, Charged with Defrauding Investors to Fund Trump Campai

Giuliani Partners, Parnas, Furman and Coreia, Charged with Defrauding Investors to Fund Trump Campaign Coffers

Daily Beast : Lev Parnas and David Correia , former associates of Rudy Giuliani who were at the heart of President Donald Trump ’ s impeachment scandal , were charged Wednesday with conspiring to defraud investors via an insurance company titled “ Fraud Guarantee.
” VT has been told that Devin Nunes worked with Parnas extensively through Derek Harvey.
, his aide .
“ The records show that Parnas , who Rudy Giuliani used to communicate with Ukrainian officials , texted with Rep. Devin Nunes ’ aide , Derek Harvey , extensively throughout 2019 .
And the messages provide key @ @ @ @ @ @ @ aware of and involved in Trump ’ s efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate former vice president Joe Biden .
The texts show Parnas arranged calls between Harvey and Ukranian prosecutors who were giving Giuliani information about Biden .
They also show that Harvey met with Parnas and Giuliani at the Trump International Hotel in Washington in May 2019 .
In December , House Democrats released records showing calls between Nunes and Parnas , but Nunes said then that he couldn ’ t remember ever speaking with Parnas .
“ From 2012 to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to financial partners and embezzled the money invested in Fraud Guarantee for their own personal use and for political donations .
Prosecutors say they duped investors out of more than 2 million dollars .
The company never began operations , according to the Department of Justice , and Parnas and Correia even allegedly went so far as to say they themselves were not taking salaries .
Each is also charged with lying to the Federal Elections Commission and falsifying records .
Their trial is scheduled for February 2021 .
Parnas , Correia , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to violate political donation regulations .
The indictment returned Wednesday adds to those charges .

Both Trump and Giuliani claim they never met these guys. I believe them.
Daily Beast: Lev Parnas and David Correia, former associates of Rudy Giuliani who were at the heart of President Donald Trump’s impeachment scandal, were charged Wednesday with conspiring to defraud investors via an insurance company titled “Fraud Guarantee.”
VT has been told that Devin Nunes worked with Parnas extensively through Derek Harvey., his aide.
“The records show that Parnas, who Rudy Giuliani used to communicate with Ukrainian officials, texted with Rep. Devin Nunes’ aide, Derek Harvey, extensively throughout 2019. And the messages provide key new evidence that Nunes’ team was aware of and involved in Trump’s efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate former vice president Joe Biden.
The texts show Parnas arranged calls between Harvey and Ukranian prosecutors who were giving Giuliani information about Biden. They also show that Harvey met with Parnas and Giuliani at the Trump International Hotel in Washington in May 2019.
In December, House Democrats released records showing calls between Nunes and Parnas, but Nunes said then that he couldn’t remember ever speaking with Parnas. “ (Newsweek: Devin Nunes has said he now remembers a phone call he had with Rudy Giuliani and his indicted associate Lev Parnas, a month after the House Intelligence Committee released call logs involving the trio. The California Rep. told Fox News on Wednesday night that he “just didn’t know the name” when the data was first released, noting that his office was “dealing with people every day.”) SDNY prosecutors say a grand jury has returned a superseding indictment with additional counts in the case against former Rudy Giuliani associates Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman https://t.co/4n2Ep7atIv Prev: https://t.co/7qH8oE8q0s pic.twitter.com/jtCiHF8DBv — Zoe Tillman (@ZoeTillman) September 17, 2020 From 2012 to 2019, the two allegedly misrepresented themselves to financial partners and embezzled the money invested in Fraud Guarantee for their own personal use and for political donations. Now, we know that Parnas, Fruman, Giuliani, et al. were on Dmitry Firtash's payroll attacking U.S. democracy, also trying to keep him out of court through Bill Barr. Was Firtash also the Foreign National-1 donor in the original indictment? https://t.co/AxVClvsSBE — Eric Garland (@ericgarland) September 17, 2020 Prosecutors say they duped investors out of more than 2 million dollars. The company never began operations, according to the Department of Justice, and Parnas and Correia even allegedly went so far as to say they themselves were not taking salaries. Each is also charged with lying to the Federal Elections Commission and falsifying records. Lev Parnas, an associate of Rudy Giuliani who helped collect dirt on President Trump’s rivals, is facing new federal charges of duping investors. https://t.co/ySemYSi5I6 — The New York Times (@nytimes) September 17, 2020 Their trial is scheduled for February 2021. Parnas, Correia, and others were previously charged with conspiracy to violate political donation regulations. The indictment returned Wednesday adds to those charges. IT’S OFFICIAL. The Alliance has launched, and we are ready to shape the post-Trump GOP and to #REPAIR our country. pic.twitter.com/lk3KRDjWPu — #REPAIR (@RepairRepublic) September 17, 2020 *