lewrockwell--2020-02-19--They Are Coming To Take You Away (Ha, Ha, Ho, Ho)

“ I ’ ll be happy to see those men in clean white coats… they ’ re coming to take me away.
” – Napolean XIV Common Cold Symptoms Could Land You In Forced Quarantine Centers One minute you are enjoying a cruise on a majestic ocean liner off the coast of Japan and the next minute you are trapped onboard in a 2-week quarantine , then whisked away on an airliner to destinations unknown in the U.S. in yet another quarantine as other non-symptomatic passengers on-board the plane test positive for coronavirus infection .
A news report describes the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cruise passengers who had been kept onboard for a two-week quarantine off the coast of Japan , then boarded aircraft to return to the U.S. Fourteen ( 14 ) of these air evacuees were placed in onboard aircraft isolation chambers on specially rigged aircraft when it was found they tested positive for the coronavirus .
All were non-symptomatic vacationers ( meaning they were exposed to the coronavirus and developed their own natural antibodies ) .
They were flown to continental quarantine centers in the U.S. , in this instance , Texas and California @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ... Patrick Van Horne , Jas ... Best Price : $ 12.13 Buy New $ 14.63 One passenger said : “ It ’ s like a prison sentence for something I did not do .
They are holding us hostage for absolutely no reason.
” Another passenger said : “ You can not imagine .
Crazy or worst dream ever.
” The news report goes on to say 400 non-symptomatic passengers aboard the ocean liner had tested positive for the COVID-19 coronavirus .
Again , that would mean they had naturally developed antibodies @ @ @ @ @ @ @ own , without need for vaccination ( no vaccine is currently available ) .
Natural antibodies against SARS , another coronavirus , appear to be long lasting and may possibly last a lifetime .
So , the presumption is exposure to the COVID-19 coronavirus and production of memory antibodies would also produce life-long immunity from this coronavirus .
Life-long immunity may not be afforded by a synthetic vaccine .
But mysteriously , there is no more SARS coronavirus ( explained below ) .
When will this stop ?
In Great Britain , authorities @ @ @ @ @ @ @ quit work and self-quarantine themselves for two weeks if the virus spreads uncontrollably .
The whole country asked to stay indoors for a month ?
When will this quarantine mania stop ?
The coronavirus infects and then produces symptoms 3-5 days later ( the incubation period ) .
However , maybe a 2-week quarantine period is not long enough .
A recent study says the maximum incubation period is 24 days .
That is a long time to quarantine human populations .
These draconian quarantine measures are an overkill .
The COVID-19 coronavirus @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is infecting and killing no more people than what occurs in a common cold/flu season ( 2.5 % death rate among infected individuals ) .
For comparison , the 2017 flu season in the U.S. caused a reported 2 deaths per 100,000 .
It is obvious that flu viruses begin to produce symptoms in winter .
The flu viruses are always in circulation but it is the immune status of the individual , largely dictated by blood levels and liver storage of sunshine vitamin D. Sunlight if responsible for about 90 % of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ About 3 months of vitamin D is supposed to be stored in the liver and other fatty tissues of healthy adults in summertime in preparation for winter .
It is then transported to the kidneys to convert into its active form .
But in modern life , too much time is spent indoors , so vitamin D levels are particularly low in winter .
Modern medicine ignores this and revels in all the disease to treat .
Quarantine simply makes it impossible to obtain any natural sunlight and a concomitant decline in immunity @ @ @ @ @ @ @ D supplementation should be called for in northern countries .
Largely viral diseases spring up in winter and it is not the person-to-person transmission of these viruses that quarantine addresses , but the immune status of the individual that is paramount .
Viruses are evident in blood samples in summer but don ’ t generally convert to disease .
This is demonstrated by the complete lack of transmission of the COVID-19 coronavirus in other well-nourished countries .
Seasonal viral epidemics simultaneously erupt in cities in winter , not by person-to-person transmission .
If @ @ @ @ @ @ @ you will not acquire a cold or flu from a person sitting next to you on an airplane .
This is being demonstrated now with the COVID-19 coronavirus which is not spreading person-to-person .
There are ~200 viruses that are said to cause the common cold .
Coronaviruses are known to be nothing more than common-cold viruses .
An extensive report by researchers in Singapore , as published in 2016 , noted that coronaviruses are known to cause “ common cold infections ” and represent a third of the bouts of common cold @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have been in circulation in humans “ for a long time.
” Coronaviruses mainly produce common cold symptoms , but in immune-compromised subjects , pneumonia ( fluid-filled lungs ) may develop .
True , this is a mutated virus and the entire human population may not have specific antibodies against it .
But it appears the human immune system is doing its job in healthy adults .
The discovery of asymptomatic coronavirus is evidence .
If the human immune system were not up to the job of quelling foreign viruses and bacteria , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
A major question is whether innate mortal properties of the coronavirus or “ host immune factors ” are the most important component of this infectious disease .
The target groups for preventive or therapeutic treatment are diabetics , obese , aged and tobacco users .
However , paradoxically these high-risk populations are less likely to develop antibodies against this mutated coronavirus because of their weak immune systems and therefore may not benefit from vaccination .
If a new vaccine was composed of a “ live ” attenuated virus* , it may actually @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to hospitalization and treatment-induced death ( sepsis : hospital acquire blood infection or treatment error ) or even re-expose patients to the coronavirus transmitted by healthcare workers who are more likely to be non-symptomatic carriers of the virus ( all hospitalized patients and healthcare workers presumed to be vitamin D deficient due to the indoor work environment . )
*Live viruses are a misnomer .
Viruses are globs of genetic material that invade and replicate inside living cells .
By the way , “ live attenuated viruses ” may revert to a pathogenic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ other flu viruses in circulation during a typical wintertime flu season .
For example , there are a number of laboratory confirmed Type A & B flu/cold viruses in circulation in this 2019-2020 flu season , including H1N1 , H3N2 ) .
But in Hubei , it ’ s like there are no other viruses in circulation .
Only the COVID-19 coronavirus is being reported .
But patients would obviously have symptoms caused by other viruses which are at this point in time presumed to be COVID-19 .
It ’ s getting worse @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in reported coronaviral infections in early February 2020 was caused by a new policy that allowed physicians to diagnose suspected cases of the new COVID-19 coronavirus on the basis of chest x-rays alone rather than waiting for genetic tests for confirmation .
A strange footnote : the SARS coronavirus of 2003 has not been found in any blood samples since 2004 .
History.com reports , after 2003 , the only SARS cases came from isolated laboratory outbreaks where scientists were studying the SARS coronavirus ( SARS-CoV ) that causes the illness .
Once @ @ @ @ @ @ @ isolation and quarantines .
There are news reports circulating that China “ built ” the SARS virus and now a similar virus has escaped from the Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory , the designated lab in China for investigation and study of pathologic viruses .
Political Class Dismis ... Mr. James Ostrowski Best Price : $ 2.00 Buy New $ 10.00 A report issued by the South China University of Technology concluded “ the killer coronavirus probably originated from a laboratory in Wuhan , ” the epicenter of the epidemic .
The unexplained disappearance @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bioweapon .
Certain people appear to have had foreknowledge of the latest COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak .
World health officials plus a consortium of financial , news , security , airline and pharmaceutical representatives met at the Davos World Economic Forum in early December of 2019 for the specific purpose of mapping a response to a coronavirus epidemic .
I think it ’ s possible China does what other countries do under similar economic circumstances .
( Think 1982 Falkland Islands War with Britain when the economy of Argentina collapsed ) .
After coming @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the U.S. , China ’ s economy must have been on the state of collapse .
When events like this happen , countries usually contrive wars as a distraction .
But that is not always possible .
Now we see wildfires ( California , Australia ) in other unstable economies and an epidemic viral infection in China .
Do these events serve as political cover for a sour economy ?
What to do ?
In the meantime , whether some nefarious laboratory scientist is intentionally mutating a coronavirus or not , we have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cessation of smoking , limitation of alcohol ( except wine ) , control of blood sugar , go a long way towards maintaining a healthy immune system .
• Because the immune system over-responds and may send too many white blood cells to the lungs , which results in inflammation and fluid buildup ( pneumonia ) , it is important to learn that vitamin D and the red wine molecule resveratrol normalize the immune response .
• Vitamin D has been shown to be almost 10 times more effective than the flu shot @ @ @ @ @ @ @ inoculated with influenza vaccine to prevent one case of the flu while the number needed to treat patients to prevent 1 case of the flu with vitamin D is 4 .
• Physicians report almost immediate relief from cold and flu symptoms using 50,000 units of vitamin D for 3 days , followed by 10,000 IU/day in winter months .
• Colds usually last 6-7 days .
It is reported vitamin D induces resolution of cold symptoms within 48 to 72 hours .
• Colds and flu symptoms usually last 7-10 days , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ later the adaptive immune system .
The use of zinc acetate lozenges shorten the duration common colds by 6-7 days , which essentially is a cure .
Under the scenario described herein , one would hope they are exposed to the COVID-19 coronavirus and develop natural life-long antibodies and immunity .
Otherwise you will always be vulnerable to this pathogenic virus .

“I’ll be happy to see those men in clean white coats… they’re coming to take me away.” – Napolean XIV
Common Cold Symptoms Could Land You In Forced Quarantine Centers
One minute you are enjoying a cruise on a majestic ocean liner off the coast of Japan and the next minute you are trapped onboard in a 2-week quarantine, then whisked away on an airliner to destinations unknown in the U.S. in yet another quarantine as other non-symptomatic passengers on-board the plane test positive for coronavirus infection.
A news report describes the plight of 340 U.S. Diamond Princess ocean cruise passengers who had been kept onboard for a two-week quarantine off the coast of Japan, then boarded aircraft to return to the U.S. Fourteen (14) of these air evacuees were placed in onboard aircraft isolation chambers on specially rigged aircraft when it was found they tested positive for the coronavirus. All were non-symptomatic vacationers (meaning they were exposed to the coronavirus and developed their own natural antibodies). They were flown to continental quarantine centers in the U.S., in this instance, Texas and California. Left of Bang: How the ... Patrick Van Horne, Jas... Best Price: $12.13 Buy New $14.63 (as of 08:15 UTC - Details)
One passenger said: “It’s like a prison sentence for something I did not do. They are holding us hostage for absolutely no reason.” Another passenger said: “You cannot imagine. Crazy or worst dream ever.”
The news report goes on to say 400 non-symptomatic passengers aboard the ocean liner had tested positive for the COVID-19 coronavirus. Again, that would mean they had naturally developed antibodies against this alleged deadly coronavirus on their own, without need for vaccination (no vaccine is currently available).
Natural antibodies against SARS, another coronavirus, appear to be long lasting and may possibly last a lifetime. So, the presumption is exposure to the COVID-19 coronavirus and production of memory antibodies would also produce life-long immunity from this coronavirus. Life-long immunity may not be afforded by a synthetic vaccine. But mysteriously, there is no more SARS coronavirus (explained below).
When will this stop?
In Great Britain, authorities there said they may urge people to quit work and self-quarantine themselves for two weeks if the virus spreads uncontrollably. The whole country asked to stay indoors for a month? When will this quarantine mania stop?
Incubation period dictates duration of quarantine
The coronavirus infects and then produces symptoms 3-5 days later (the incubation period). However, maybe a 2-week quarantine period is not long enough. A recent study says the maximum incubation period is 24 days. That is a long time to quarantine human populations.
These draconian quarantine measures are an overkill. The COVID-19 coronavirus, as it is now called, is infecting and killing no more people than what occurs in a common cold/flu season (2.5% death rate among infected individuals). For comparison, the 2017 flu season in the U.S. caused a reported 2 deaths per 100,000.
It is obvious that flu viruses begin to produce symptoms in winter. The flu viruses are always in circulation but it is the immune status of the individual, largely dictated by blood levels and liver storage of sunshine vitamin D.
Sunlight if responsible for about 90% of the vitamin D in most people. About 3 months of vitamin D is supposed to be stored in the liver and other fatty tissues of healthy adults in summertime in preparation for winter. It is then transported to the kidneys to convert into its active form.
But in modern life, too much time is spent indoors, so vitamin D levels are particularly low in winter. Modern medicine ignores this and revels in all the disease to treat. Quarantine simply makes it impossible to obtain any natural sunlight and a concomitant decline in immunity would be predictable. Mass wintertime vitamin D supplementation should be called for in northern countries.
Largely viral diseases spring up in winter and it is not the person-to-person transmission of these viruses that quarantine addresses, but the immune status of the individual that is paramount. Viruses are evident in blood samples in summer but don’t generally convert to disease. This is demonstrated by the complete lack of transmission of the COVID-19 coronavirus in other well-nourished countries.
Seasonal viral epidemics simultaneously erupt in cities in winter, not by person-to-person transmission. If your immune system is optimally functioning, you will not acquire a cold or flu from a person sitting next to you on an airplane. This is being demonstrated now with the COVID-19 coronavirus which is not spreading person-to-person.
It’s just a mutated common cold virus
There are ~200 viruses that are said to cause the common cold. Coronaviruses are known to be nothing more than common-cold viruses. An extensive report by researchers in Singapore, as published in 2016, noted that coronaviruses are known to cause “common cold infections” and represent a third of the bouts of common cold in humans. Two strains of coronavirus have been in circulation in humans “for a long time.”
Coronaviruses mainly produce common cold symptoms, but in immune-compromised subjects, pneumonia (fluid-filled lungs) may develop.
True, this is a mutated virus and the entire human population may not have specific antibodies against it. But it appears the human immune system is doing its job in healthy adults. The discovery of asymptomatic coronavirus is evidence. If the human immune system were not up to the job of quelling foreign viruses and bacteria, humanity would have been eradicated long ago.
Virulence of virus or host immunity?
A major question is whether innate mortal properties of the coronavirus or “host immune factors” are the most important component of this infectious disease.
The target groups for preventive or therapeutic treatment are diabetics, obese, aged and tobacco users.
However, paradoxically these high-risk populations are less likely to develop antibodies against this mutated coronavirus because of their weak immune systems and therefore may not benefit from vaccination.
If a new vaccine was composed of a “live” attenuated virus*, it may actually induce symptoms of the disease, lead to hospitalization and treatment-induced death (sepsis: hospital acquire blood infection or treatment error) or even re-expose patients to the coronavirus transmitted by healthcare workers who are more likely to be non-symptomatic carriers of the virus (all hospitalized patients and healthcare workers presumed to be vitamin D deficient due to the indoor work environment.)
*Live viruses are a misnomer. Viruses are globs of genetic material that invade and replicate inside living cells.
By the way, “live attenuated viruses” may revert to a pathogenic form and cause disease.
There are other flu viruses in circulation during a typical wintertime flu season. For example, there are a number of laboratory confirmed Type A & B flu/cold viruses in circulation in this 2019-2020 flu season, including H1N1, H3N2). But in Hubei, it’s like there are no other viruses in circulation. Only the COVID-19 coronavirus is being reported. But patients would obviously have symptoms caused by other viruses which are at this point in time presumed to be COVID-19.
It’s getting worse; or is it?
The jump in reported coronaviral infections in early February 2020 was caused by a new policy that allowed physicians to diagnose suspected cases of the new COVID-19 coronavirus on the basis of chest x-rays alone rather than waiting for genetic tests for confirmation.
Strange footnote
A strange footnote: the SARS coronavirus of 2003 has not been found in any blood samples since 2004.
History.com reports, after 2003, the only SARS cases came from isolated laboratory outbreaks where scientists were studying the SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV) that causes the illness. Once again, officials contained these infections through isolation and quarantines.
There are news reports circulating that China “built” the SARS virus and now a similar virus has escaped from the Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory, the designated lab in China for investigation and study of pathologic viruses. Political Class Dismis... Ostrowski, Mr. James Best Price: $4.00 Buy New $9.50 (as of 09:20 UTC - Details)
A report issued by the South China University of Technology concluded “the killer coronavirus probably originated from a laboratory in Wuhan,” the epicenter of the epidemic. The unexplained disappearance of SARS may suggest it WAS a bioweapon.
Certain people appear to have had foreknowledge of the latest COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak. World health officials plus a consortium of financial, news, security, airline and pharmaceutical representatives met at the Davos World Economic Forum in early December of 2019 for the specific purpose of mapping a response to a coronavirus epidemic.
I think it’s possible China does what other countries do under similar economic circumstances. (Think 1982 Falkland Islands War with Britain when the economy of Argentina collapsed). After coming out of the tariff trade war with the U.S., China’s economy must have been on the state of collapse. When events like this happen, countries usually contrive wars as a distraction. But that is not always possible. Now we see wildfires (California, Australia) in other unstable economies and an epidemic viral infection in China. Do these events serve as political cover for a sour economy?
What to do?
In the meantime, whether some nefarious laboratory scientist is intentionally mutating a coronavirus or not, we have to protect ourselves. Weight control, cessation of smoking, limitation of alcohol (except wine), control of blood sugar, go a long way towards maintaining a healthy immune system.
Under the scenario described herein, one would hope they are exposed to the COVID-19 coronavirus and develop natural life-long antibodies and immunity. Otherwise you will always be vulnerable to this pathogenic virus.


Explaining Syria

The first week in February was memorable for the failed impeachment of President Donald Trump , the “ re-elect me ” State of the Union address and the marketing of a new line of underwear by Kim Kardashian .
Given all of the excitement , it was easy to miss a special State Department press briefing by Ambassador James Jeffreyheld on February 5th regarding the current situation in Syria .
Jeffrey is the United States Special Representative for Syria Engagement and the Special Envoy for the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIL .
Jeffrey has had a distinguished career in government @ @ @ @ @ @ @ positions under both Democratic and Republican presidents .
He has served as U.S .
Ambassador to both Turkey and Iraq .
He is , generally speaking , a hardliner politically , closely aligned with Israel and regarding Iran as a hostile destabilizing force in the Middle East region .
He was between 2013 and 2018 Philip Solondz distinguished fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy ( WINEP ) , a think tank that is a spin-off of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee ( AIPAC ) .
He is currently a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ expert.
” Professor John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago and Stephen Walt , academic dean at Harvard University ‘ s Kennedy School of Government , describe WINEP as “ part of the core ” of the Israel Lobby in the U.S .
They examined the group on pages 175-6 in their groundbreaking book The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy and concluded as follows : “ Although WINEP plays down its links to Israel and claims that it provides a ‘ balanced and realistic ’ perspective on Middle East issues , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fact , WINEP is funded and run by individuals who are deeply committed to advancing Israel ’ s agenda … Many of its personnel are genuine scholars or experienced former officials , but they are hardly neutral observers on most Middle East issues and there is little diversity of views within WINEP ’ s ranks.
” In early 2018 Jeffrey co-authored a WINEP special report on Syria which urged “ …the Trump administration [ to ] couple a no-fly/no-drive zone and a small residual ground presence in the northeast with intensified sanctions against @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
In doing so , Washington can support local efforts to stabilize the area , encourage Gulf partners to ‘ put skin in the game , drive a wedge between Moscow and Tehran , and help Israel avoid all-out war.
” Note the focus on Iran and Russia as threats and the referral to Assad and his government as a “ regime.
” And the U.S. presence is to “ help Israel.
” So we have Ambassador James Jeffrey leading the charge on Syria , from an Israeli perspective that is no doubt @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which explains why he has become Special Representative for Syria Engagement .
Jeffrey set the tone for his term of office shortly after being appointed by President Trump back in August 2018 when he argued that the Syrian terrorists were “ .
.
.
not terrorists , but people fighting a civil war against a brutal dictator.
” Jeffrey , who must have somehow missed a lot of the head chopping and rape going on , subsequently traveled to the Middle East and stopped off in Israel to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu @ @ @ @ @ @ @ received his marching orders during the visit .
Two months later James Jeffrey declared that he would like to see Russia maintain a “ permissive approach ” to allow the Israelis to attack Iranian targets inside Syria .
Regarding Iran ’ s possible future role in Syria he observed that “ Iranians are part of the problem not part of the solution.
” What Jeffrey meant was that because Israel had been “ allowed ” to carry out hundreds of air attacks in Syria ostensibly directed against Iran-linked targets , the practice should @ @ @ @ @ @ @ suspended nearly all of its airstrikes in the wake of the shoot down of a Russian aircraft in September 2018 , an incident which was caused by a deliberate Israeli maneuver that brought down the plane even though the missile that struck the aircraft was fired by Syria .
Fifteen Russian servicemen were killed .
Israel reportedly was deliberately using the Russian plane to mask the presence of its own attacking aircraft .
Russia responded to the incident by deploying advanced S-300 anti-aircraft systems to Syria , which can cover most of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Jeffrey was unhappy with that decision , saying “ We are concerned very much about the S-300 system being deployed to Syria .
The issue is at the detail level .
Who will control it ?
what role will it play ?
” And he defended his own patently absurd urging that Russia , Syria ’ s ally , permit Israel to continue its air attacks by saying “ We understand the existential interest and we support Israel ” because the Israeli government has an “ existential interest in blocking Iran from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ surface-to-surface missiles.
” Later in November 2018 James Jeffrey was at it again , declaring that U.S. troops will not leave Syria before guaranteeing the “ enduring defeated ” of ISIS , but he perversely put the onus on Syria and Iran , saying that “ We also think that you can not have an enduring defeat of ISIS until you have fundamental change in the Syrian regime and fundamental change in Iran ’ s role in Syria , which contributed greatly to the rise of ISIS in the first place in 2013 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but Jeffrey and the Israeli government actually believes that Damascus and Tehran were responsible for creating ISIS , the ambassador elaborated , blaming President Bashar al-Assad for the cycle of violence in Syria that , he claimed , allowed the development of the terrorist group in both Syria and neighboring Iraq .
He said “ The Syrian regime produced ISIS .
The elements of ISIS in the hundreds , probably , saw an opportunity in the total breakdown of civil society and of the upsurge of violence as the population rose up against @ @ @ @ @ @ @ regime , rather than try to negotiate or try to find any kind of solution , unleashed massive violence against its own population.
” Jeffrey ’ s formula is just another recycling of the myth that the Syrian opposition consisted of good folks who wanted to establish democracy in the country .
In reality , it incorporated terrorist elements right from the beginning and groups like ISIS and the al-Qaeda affiliates rapidly assumed control of the violence .
That Jeffrey should be so ignorant or blinded by his own presumptions to be unaware @ @ @ @ @ @ @ also interesting to note that he makes no mention of the U.S. invasion of Iraq , kneejerk support for Israel and the unrelenting pressure on Syria starting with the Syrian Accountability Act of 2003 and continuing with embrace of the so-called Arab Spring .
Most observers believe that those actions were major contributors to the rise of ISIS .
Jeffrey ’ s unflinching embrace of the Israeli and hardline Washington assessment of the Syrian crisis comes as no surprise given his pedigree , but in the same interview where he pounded Iran and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ re not about regime change .
We ’ re about a change in the behavior of a government and of a state.
” Some of James Jeffrey ’ s comments at last week ’ s press conference are similarly illuminating .
Much of what he said concerned the mechanics of relationships with the Russians and Turks , but he also discussed some core issues relating to Washington ’ s perspective on the conflict .
Many of his comments were very similar to what he said when he was appointed in 2018 .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ al-Nusra terrorists holed up in besieged Idlib province , saying “ We ’ re very , very worried about this .
First of all , the significance of Idlib – that ’ s where we ’ ve had chemical weapons attacks in the past… And we ’ re seeing not just the Russians but the Iranians and Hizballah actively involved in supporting the Syrian offensive… You see the problems right now in Idlib .
This is a dangerous conflict .
It needs to be brought to an end .
Russia needs to change @ @ @ @ @ @ @ We ’ re not asking for regime change per se , we ’ re not asking for the Russians to leave , we ’ re asking…Syria to behave as a normal , decent country that doesn ’ t force half its population to flee , doesn ’ t use chemical weapons dozens of times against its own civilians , doesn ’ t drop barrel bombs , doesn ’ t create a refugee crisis that almost toppled governments in Europe , does not allow terrorists such as HTS and particularly Daesh/ISIS emerge and flourish @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the things that that regime has done , and the international community can not accept that.
” Well , one has to conclude that James Jeffrey is possibly completely delusional .
The core issue that the United States is in Syria illegally as a proxy for Israel and Saudi Arabia is not touched on , nor the criminal role in “ protecting the oil fields ” and stealing their production , which he mentions but does not explain .
Nor the issue of the legitimate Syrian government seeking to recover its territory against @ @ @ @ @ @ @ terrorists .
Virtually every bit of “ evidence ” that Jeffrey cites is either false or inflated , to include the claim of use of chemical weapons and the responsibility for the refugees .
As for who actually created the terrorists , that honor goes to the United States , which accomplished that when it invaded Iraq and destroyed its government before following up by undermining Syria .
And , by the way , someone should point out to Jeffrey that Russia and Iran are in Syria as allies of its legitimate government @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Russia needs to change its policies.
” That is not correct .
It is the United States that must change its policies by getting out of Syria and Iraq for starters while also stopping the deference to feckless “ allies ” Israel and Saudi Arabia that has produced a debilitating cold war against both Iran and Russia .
Another good first step to make the U.S. a “ normal , decent country ” would be to get rid of the advice of people like James Jeffrey .
Reprinted with permission from The Unz @ @ @ @ @ @ @

The first week in February was memorable for the failed impeachment of President Donald Trump, the “re-elect me” State of the Union address and the marketing of a new line of underwear by Kim Kardashian. Given all of the excitement, it was easy to miss a special State Department press briefing by Ambassador James Jeffreyheld on February 5th regarding the current situation in Syria.
Jeffrey is the United States Special Representative for Syria Engagement and the Special Envoy for the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIL. Jeffrey has had a distinguished career in government service, attaining senior level State Department positions under both Democratic and Republican presidents. He has served as U.S. Ambassador to both Turkey and Iraq. He is, generally speaking, a hardliner politically, closely aligned with Israel and regarding Iran as a hostile destabilizing force in the Middle East region. He was between 2013 and 2018 Philip Solondz distinguished fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), a think tank that is a spin-off of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). He is currently a WINEP “Outside Author” and go-to “expert.”
Professor John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago and Stephen Walt, academic dean at Harvard University ‘s Kennedy School of Government, describe WINEP as “part of the core” of the Israel Lobby in the U.S. They examined the group on pages 175-6 in their groundbreaking book The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy and concluded as follows:
“Although WINEP plays down its links to Israel and claims that it provides a ‘balanced and realistic’ perspective on Middle East issues, this is not the case. In fact, WINEP is funded and run by individuals who are deeply committed to advancing Israel’s agenda … Many of its personnel are genuine scholars or experienced former officials, but they are hardly neutral observers on most Middle East issues and there is little diversity of views within WINEP’s ranks.”
In early 2018 Jeffrey co-authored a WINEP special report on Syria which urged “…the Trump administration [to] couple a no-fly/no-drive zone and a small residual ground presence in the northeast with intensified sanctions against the Assad regime’s Iranian patron. In doing so, Washington can support local efforts to stabilize the area, encourage Gulf partners to ‘put skin in the game, drive a wedge between Moscow and Tehran, and help Israel avoid all-out war.”
Note the focus on Iran and Russia as threats and the referral to Assad and his government as a “regime.” And the U.S. presence is to “help Israel.” So we have Ambassador James Jeffrey leading the charge on Syria, from an Israeli perspective that is no doubt compatible with the White House view, which explains why he has become Special Representative for Syria Engagement.
Jeffrey set the tone for his term of office shortly after being appointed by President Trump back in August 2018 when he argued that the Syrian terrorists were “. . . not terrorists, but people fighting a civil war against a brutal dictator.” Jeffrey, who must have somehow missed a lot of the head chopping and rape going on, subsequently traveled to the Middle East and stopped off in Israel to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It has been suggested that Jeffrey received his marching orders during the visit.
Two months later James Jeffrey declared that he would like to see Russia maintain a “permissive approach” to allow the Israelis to attack Iranian targets inside Syria. Regarding Iran’s possible future role in Syria he observed that “Iranians are part of the problem not part of the solution.”
What Jeffrey meant was that because Israel had been “allowed” to carry out hundreds of air attacks in Syria ostensibly directed against Iran-linked targets, the practice should be permitted to continue. Israel had suspended nearly all of its airstrikes in the wake of the shoot down of a Russian aircraft in September 2018, an incident which was caused by a deliberate Israeli maneuver that brought down the plane even though the missile that struck the aircraft was fired by Syria. Fifteen Russian servicemen were killed. Israel reportedly was deliberately using the Russian plane to mask the presence of its own attacking aircraft.
Russia responded to the incident by deploying advanced S-300 anti-aircraft systems to Syria, which can cover most of the more heavily developed areas of the country. Jeffrey was unhappy with that decision, saying “We are concerned very much about the S-300 system being deployed to Syria. The issue is at the detail level. Who will control it? what role will it play?” And he defended his own patently absurd urging that Russia, Syria’s ally, permit Israel to continue its air attacks by saying “We understand the existential interest and we support Israel” because the Israeli government has an “existential interest in blocking Iran from deploying long-range power projection systems such as surface-to-surface missiles.”
Later in November 2018 James Jeffrey was at it again, declaring that U.S. troops will not leave Syria before guaranteeing the “enduring defeated” of ISIS, but he perversely put the onus on Syria and Iran, saying that “We also think that you cannot have an enduring defeat of ISIS until you have fundamental change in the Syrian regime and fundamental change in Iran’s role in Syria, which contributed greatly to the rise of ISIS in the first place in 2013, 2014.”
As virtually no one but Jeffrey and the Israeli government actually believes that Damascus and Tehran were responsible for creating ISIS, the ambassador elaborated, blaming President Bashar al-Assad for the cycle of violence in Syria that, he claimed, allowed the development of the terrorist group in both Syria and neighboring Iraq.
He said “The Syrian regime produced ISIS. The elements of ISIS in the hundreds, probably, saw an opportunity in the total breakdown of civil society and of the upsurge of violence as the population rose up against the Assad regime, and the Assad regime, rather than try to negotiate or try to find any kind of solution, unleashed massive violence against its own population.”
Jeffrey’s formula is just another recycling of the myth that the Syrian opposition consisted of good folks who wanted to establish democracy in the country. In reality, it incorporated terrorist elements right from the beginning and groups like ISIS and the al-Qaeda affiliates rapidly assumed control of the violence. That Jeffrey should be so ignorant or blinded by his own presumptions to be unaware of that is astonishing. It is also interesting to note that he makes no mention of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, kneejerk support for Israel and the unrelenting pressure on Syria starting with the Syrian Accountability Act of 2003 and continuing with embrace of the so-called Arab Spring. Most observers believe that those actions were major contributors to the rise of ISIS.
Jeffrey’s unflinching embrace of the Israeli and hardline Washington assessment of the Syrian crisis comes as no surprise given his pedigree, but in the same interview where he pounded Iran and Syria he asserted oddly that “We’re not about regime change. We’re about a change in the behavior of a government and of a state.”
Some of James Jeffrey’s comments at last week’s press conference are similarly illuminating. Much of what he said concerned the mechanics of relationships with the Russians and Turks, but he also discussed some core issues relating to Washington’s perspective on the conflict. Many of his comments were very similar to what he said when he was appointed in 2018.
Jeffrey expressed concern over the thousands of al-Nusra terrorists holed up in besieged Idlib province, saying “We’re very, very worried about this. First of all, the significance of Idlib – that’s where we’ve had chemical weapons attacks in the past… And we’re seeing not just the Russians but the Iranians and Hizballah actively involved in supporting the Syrian offensive… You see the problems right now in Idlib. This is a dangerous conflict. It needs to be brought to an end. Russia needs to change its policies.”
He elaborated, “We’re not asking for regime change per se, we’re not asking for the Russians to leave, we’re asking…Syria to behave as a normal, decent country that doesn’t force half its population to flee, doesn’t use chemical weapons dozens of times against its own civilians, doesn’t drop barrel bombs, doesn’t create a refugee crisis that almost toppled governments in Europe, does not allow terrorists such as HTS and particularly Daesh/ISIS emerge and flourish in much of Syria. Those are the things that that regime has done, and the international community cannot accept that.”
Well, one has to conclude that James Jeffrey is possibly completely delusional. The core issue that the United States is in Syria illegally as a proxy for Israel and Saudi Arabia is not touched on, nor the criminal role in “protecting the oil fields” and stealing their production, which he mentions but does not explain. Nor the issue of the legitimate Syrian government seeking to recover its territory against groups that most everyone admits to be terrorists.
Virtually every bit of “evidence” that Jeffrey cites is either false or inflated, to include the claim of use of chemical weapons and the responsibility for the refugees. As for who actually created the terrorists, that honor goes to the United States, which accomplished that when it invaded Iraq and destroyed its government before following up by undermining Syria. And, by the way, someone should point out to Jeffrey that Russia and Iran are in Syria as allies of its legitimate government.
Ambassador James Jeffrey maintains that “Russia needs to change its policies.” That is not correct. It is the United States that must change its policies by getting out of Syria and Iraq for starters while also stopping the deference to feckless “allies” Israel and Saudi Arabia that has produced a debilitating cold war against both Iran and Russia. Another good first step to make the U.S. a “normal, decent country” would be to get rid of the advice of people like James Jeffrey.
Reprinted with permission from The Unz Review.
The Best of Philip Giraldi


lewrockwell--2020-02-19--Q: The Silent War Continues

Q: The Silent War Continues

We ’ re living in dramatic times that are difficult to understand .
One way to try to interpret them is through the cryptic clues provided by Q , which appear on an anonymous online forum and imply top-secret knowledge of upcoming events .
As I wrote in my article “ An Introduction to Q , ” “ Q ’ s followers believe that Q is a military intelligence operation , the first of its kind , whose goal is to provide the public with secret information… Q is a new weapon in the game of information warfare , bypassing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ communicate directly with the public.
” It ’ s interesting to note that shortly after my article was published here , American Thinker suffered a series of unprecedented hacking attempts .
Also noteworthy is that Twitter permanently shut down the account of Zero Hedge , a popular finance blog , two weeks after it posted my article .
President Trump continues to bring attention to Q , repeatedly retweeting Q followers , featuring Q fans in his ad campaign , and making a public display of a “ Q baby ” at a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump the obvious question : What do you think about Q ?
The Deep State : The Fa ... Mike Lofgren Best Price : $ 3.05 Buy New $ 11.03 Instead , the media keeps ratcheting up its attacks on Q and the ever-growing worldwide movement that Q inspires .
On February 9 , both the AP and New York Times published blistering anti-Q articles , claiming that Q promotes baseless , debunked far right conspiracies and accusing Q of inciting violence in deranged followers .
The day before this latest media ambush @ @ @ @ @ @ @ down 8kun , the message board on which Q posts .
Ron Watkins , 8kun ’ s administrator , tweeted , “ Attacks have been coming in all day .
Very sophisticated and expensive attacks ; the person paying for this likely has deep pockets.
” At the same time that 8kun was attacked , X22 Report , which covers Q postings , also was bombarded .
On its Twitter feed , the site wrote it was “ being attacked from 54 different countries using hundreds of different IP addresses , I have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ February 12 , in response to these events , Q posted , “ Highly sophisticated ‘ State-level ’ attacks [ v 8kun ] followed by FAKE NEWS attacks [ v Q ] the next day ?
Coordinated ?
Ask yourself a simple question – – why ?
It ’ s time to wake up.
” In almost 4,000 posts , Q has painted a disturbing , multi-faceted portrait of a global crime syndicate that operates with impunity .
In recent weeks , President Trump has grown more explicit about some of the syndicate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ National Governors Association , President Trump stated , in an almost casual , offhand manner , why the United States had recently upgraded its nuclear missile technology at great expense .
“ …we ’ re buying new , we have the super-fast missiles , tremendous number of the super-fast .
We call them super-fast where they ’ re four , five , six , or even seven times faster than ordinary missiles .
We need that because again , Russia has some .
I won ’ t tell you how they got it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Obama Administration when we weren ’ t doing it .
And that ’ s too bad .
It ’ s not good .
But that ’ s how it happened.
” The President ’ s lawyer , Rudy Giuliani , has also grown more specific in his accusations , tweeting “ The Biden Family Enterprise has been selling his office for years .
The corrupt media has been covering up .
It was handed to me and I had the courage to reveal it knowing the Swamp would try to destroy me .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ betraying it .
I will not stop .
”

We’re living in dramatic times that are difficult to understand. One way to try to interpret them is through the cryptic clues provided by Q, which appear on an anonymous online forum and imply top-secret knowledge of upcoming events.
As I wrote in my article “An Introduction to Q,” “Q’s followers believe that Q is a military intelligence operation, the first of its kind, whose goal is to provide the public with secret information… Q is a new weapon in the game of information warfare, bypassing a hostile media and corrupt government to communicate directly with the public.” It’s interesting to note that shortly after my article was published here, American Thinker suffered a series of unprecedented hacking attempts. Also noteworthy is that Twitter permanently shut down the account of Zero Hedge, a popular finance blog, two weeks after it posted my article.
President Trump continues to bring attention to Q, repeatedly retweeting Q followers, featuring Q fans in his ad campaign, and making a public display of a “Q baby” at a rally. Yet the media never asks Trump the obvious question: What do you think about Q?
The Deep State: The Fa... Lofgren, Mike Best Price: $2.15 Buy New $11.01 (as of 11:20 UTC - Details) Instead, the media keeps ratcheting up its attacks on Q and the ever-growing worldwide movement that Q inspires. On February 9, both the AP and New York Times published blistering anti-Q articles, claiming that Q promotes baseless, debunked far right conspiracies and accusing Q of inciting violence in deranged followers. The day before this latest media ambush, a massive cyber assault temporarily brought down 8kun, the message board on which Q posts. Ron Watkins, 8kun’s administrator, tweeted,
“Attacks have been coming in all day. Very sophisticated and expensive attacks; the person paying for this likely has deep pockets.”
At the same time that 8kun was attacked, X22 Report, which covers Q postings, also was bombarded. On its Twitter feed, the site wrote it was “being attacked from 54 different countries using hundreds of different IP addresses, I have never seen anything like it.”
On February 12, in response to these events, Q posted, “Highly sophisticated ‘State-level’ attacks [v 8kun] followed by FAKE NEWS attacks [v Q] the next day? Coordinated? Ask yourself a simple question – – why? It’s time to wake up.”
In almost 4,000 posts, Q has painted a disturbing, multi-faceted portrait of a global crime syndicate that operates with impunity. In recent weeks, President Trump has grown more explicit about some of the syndicate’s crimes. Speaking to the National Governors Association, President Trump stated, in an almost casual, offhand manner, why the United States had recently upgraded its nuclear missile technology at great expense. “…we’re buying new, we have the super-fast missiles, tremendous number of the super-fast. We call them super-fast where they’re four, five, six, or even seven times faster than ordinary missiles. We need that because again, Russia has some. I won’t tell you how they got it. They got it supposedly from the Obama Administration when we weren’t doing it. And that’s too bad. It’s not good. But that’s how it happened.”
The President’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, has also grown more specific in his accusations, tweeting “The Biden Family Enterprise has been selling his office for years. The corrupt media has been covering up. It was handed to me and I had the courage to reveal it knowing the Swamp would try to destroy me. I served my country. They are betraying it. I will not stop.”
Read the Whole Article


lewrockwell--2020-02-19--Julian Assange Must Be Freed, Not Betrayed

On Saturday , there will be a march from Australia House in London to Parliament Square , the centre of British democracy .
People will carry pictures of the Australian publisher and journalist Julian Assange who , on 24 February , faces a court that will decide whether or not he is to be extradited to the United States and a living death .
I know Australia House well .
As an Australian myself , I used to go there in my early days in London to read the newspapers from home .
Opened by King George V over a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and stone , chandeliers and solemn portraits , imported from Australia when Australian soldiers were dying in the slaughter of the First World War , have ensured its landmark as an imperial pile of monumental servility .
As one of the oldest “ diplomatic missions ” in the United Kingdom , this relic of empire provides a pleasurable sinecure for Antipodean politicians : a “ mate ” rewarded or a troublemaker exiled .
Known as High Commissioner , the equivalent of an ambassador , the current beneficiary is George Brandis , who as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s Race Discrimination Act and approved raids on whistleblowers who had revealed the truth about Australia ’ s illegal spying on East Timor during negotiations for the carve-up of that impoverished country ’ s oil and gas .
This led to the prosecution of whistleblowers Bernard Collaery and “ Witness K ” , on bogus charges .
Like Julian Assange , they are to be silenced in a Kafkaesque trial and put away .
Cypherpunks : Freedom a ... Julian Assange Best Price : $ 3.45 Buy New $ 8.99 Australia House @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s march .
“ I confess , ” wrote Lord Curzon , Viceroy of India , in 1898 , “ that countries are pieces on a chessboard upon which is being played out a great game for the domination of the world.
” ” We Australians have been in the service of the Great Game for a very long time .
Having devastated our Indigenous people in an invasion and a war of attrition that continues to this day , we have spilt blood for our imperial masters in China , Africa @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Europe and Asia .
No imperial adventure against those with whom we have no quarrel has escaped our dedication .
Deception has been a feature .
When Prime Minister Robert Menzies sent Australian soldiers to Vietnam in the 1960s , he described them as a training team , requested by a beleaguered government in Saigon .
It was a lie .
A senior official of the Department of External Affairs wrote secretly that “ although we have stressed the fact publicly that our assistance was given in response to an invitation by the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ order came from Washington .
Two versions .
The lie for us , the truth for them .
As many as four million people died in the Vietnam war .
When Indonesia invaded East Timor in 1975 , the Australian Ambassador , Richard Woolcott , secretly urged the government in Canberra to “ act in a way which would be designed to minimise the public impact in Australia and show private understanding to Indonesia.
” In other words , to lie .
He alluded to the beckoning spoils of oil and gas in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Minister Gareth Evans , were worth “ zillions ” .
In the genocide that followed , at least 200,000 East Timorese died .
Australia recognised , almost alone , the legitimacy of the occupation .
When Prime Minister John Howard sent Australian special forces to invade Iraq with America and Britain in 2003 , he – like George W. Bush and Tony Blair – lied that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction .
More than a million people died in Iraq .
WikiLeaks was not the first to call out the pattern @ @ @ @ @ @ @ every bit as rapacious as in Lord Curzon ’ s day .
The achievement of the remarkable publishing organisation founded by Julian Assange has been to provide the proof .
WikiLeaks has informed us how illegal wars are fabricated , how governments are overthrown and violence is used in our name , how we are spied upon through our phones and screens .
The true lies of presidents , ambassadors , political candidates , generals , proxies , political fraudsters have been exposed .
One by one , these would-be emperors have realised @ @ @ @ @ @ @ been an unprecedented public service ; above all , it is authentic journalism , whose value can be judged by the degree of apoplexy of the corrupt and their apologists .
For example , in 2016 , WikiLeaks published the leaked emails of Hillary Clinton ’ s campaign manager John Podesta , which revealed a direct connection between Clinton , the foundation she shares with her husband and the funding of organised jihadism in the Middle East – terrorism .
One email disclosed that Islamic State ( ISIS ) was bankrolled by the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from which Clinton accepted huge “ donations ” .
Moreover , as US Secretary of State , she approved the world ’ s biggest ever arms sale to her Saudi benefactors , worth more than $ 80 billion .
Thanks to her , US arms sales to the world – for use in stricken countries like Yemen – doubled .
Revealed by WikiLeaks and published in The New York Times , the Podesta emails triggered a vituperative campaign against editor-in-chief Julian Assange , bereft of evidence .
He was an “ agent of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the nonsensical “ Russiagate ” followed .
That WikiLeaks had also published more than 800,000 frequently damning documents from Russia was ignored .
On an Australian Broadcasting Corporation programme , Four Corners , in 2017 , Clinton was interviewed by Sarah Ferguson , who began : “ No one could fail to be moved by the pain on your face at [ the moment of Donald Trump ’ s inauguration ] … Do you remember how visceral it was for you ?
” Having established Clinton ’ s visceral suffering , the fawning @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” and the “ damage done personally to you ” by Julian Assange .
Clinton replied , “ He [ Assange ] is very clearly a tool of Russian intelligence .
And he has done their bidding.
” Ferguson said to Clinton , “ Lots of people , including in Australia , think that Assange is a martyr of free speech and freedom of information .
How would you describe him ?
” Again , Clinton was allowed to defame Assange – a “ nihilist ” in the service of “ dictators ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was “ the icon of your generation ” .
There was no mention of a leaked document , revealed by WikiLeaks , called Libya Tick Tock , prepared for Hillary Clinton , which described her as the central figure driving the destruction of the Libyan state in 2011 .
This resulted in 40,000 deaths , the arrival of ISIS in North Africa and the European refugee and migrant crisis .
For me , this episode of Clinton ’ s interview – and there are many others – vividly illustrates the division between false @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , when Julian Assange steps into Woolwich Crown Court , true journalism will be the only crime on trial .
I am sometimes asked why I have championed Assange .
For one thing , I like and I admire him .
He is a friend with astonishing courage ; and he has a finely honed , wicked sense of humour .
He is the diametric opposite of the character invented then assassinated by his enemies .
As a reporter in places of upheaval all over the world , I have learned to compare @ @ @ @ @ @ @ words and actions of those with power .
In this way , it is possible to get a sense of how our world is controlled and divided and manipulated , how language and debate are distorted to produce the propaganda of false consciousness .
When we speak about dictatorships , we call this brainwashing : the conquest of minds .
It is a truth we rarely apply to our own societies , regardless of the trail of blood that leads back to us and which never dries .
WikiLeaks has exposed this .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ maximum security prison in London facing concocted political charges in America , and why he has shamed so many of those paid to keep the record straight .
Watch these journalists now look for cover as it dawns on them that the American fascists who have come for Assange may come for them , not least those on the Guardian who collaborated with WikiLeaks and won prizes and secured lucrative book and Hollywood deals based on his work , before turning on him .
In 2011 , David Leigh , the Guardian ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ journalism students at City University in London that Assange was “ quite deranged ” .
When a puzzled student asked why , Leigh replied , “ Because he doesn ’ t understand the parameters of conventional journalism ” .
But it ’ s precisely because he did understand that the “ parameters ” of the media often shielded vested and political interests and had nothing to do with transparency that the idea of WikiLeaks was so appealing to many people , especially the young , rightly cynical about the so-called “ mainstream ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , once extradited , Assange would end up “ wearing an orange jumpsuit ” .
These were things , he said , “ that he and his lawyer are saying in order to feed his paranoia ” .
The current US charges against Assange centre on the Afghan Logs and Iraq Logs , which the Guardian published and Leigh worked on , and on the Collateral Murder video showing an American helicopter crew gunning down civilians and celebrating the crime .
For this journalism , Assange faces 17 charges of “ espionage ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Whether or not his prison uniform will be an “ orange jumpsuit ” , US court files seen by Assange ’ s lawyers reveal that , once extradited , Assange will be subject to Special Administrative Measures , known as SAMS .
A 2017 report by Yale University Law School and the Center for Constitutional Rights described SAMS as “ the darkest corner of the US federal prison system ” combining “ the brutality and isolation of maximum security units with additional restrictions that deny individuals almost any connection to the human @ @ @ @ @ @ @ shield this form of torture from any real public scrutiny.
” That Assange has been right all along , and getting him to Sweden was a fraud to cover an American plan to “ render ” him , is finally becoming clear to many who swallowed the incessant scuttlebutt of character assassination .
“ I speak fluent Swedish and was able to read all the original documents , ” Nils Melzer , the United Nations Rapporteur on Torture , said recently , “ I could hardly believe my eyes .
According to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a rape had never taken place at all .
And not only that : the woman ’ s testimony was later changed by the Stockholm Police without her involvement in order to somehow make it sound like a possible rape .
I have all the documents in my possession , the emails , the text messages.
” Keir Starmer is currently running for election as leader of the Labour Party in Britain .
Between 2008 and 2013 , he was Director of Public Prosecutions and responsible for the Crown Prosecution Service .
According @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Italian journalist Stefania Maurizi , Sweden tried to drop the Assange case in 2011 , but a CPS official in London told the Swedish prosecutor not to treat it as “ just another extradition ” .
In 2012 , she received an email from the CPS : “ Don ’ t you dare get cold feet !
!
!
” Other CPS emails were either deleted or redacted .
Why ?
Keir Starmer needs to say why .
At the forefront of Saturday ’ s march will be John Shipton , Julian ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his son is the antithesis of the collusion and cruelty of the governments of Australia , our homeland .
The roll call of shame begins with Julia Gillard , the Australian Labor prime minister who , in 2010 , wanted to criminalise WikiLeaks , arrest Assange and cancel his passport – until the Australian Federal Police pointed out that no law allowed this and that Assange had committed no crime .
While falsely claiming to give him consular assistance in London , it was the Gillard government ’ s shocking abandonment of its @ @ @ @ @ @ @ asylum to Assange in its London embassy .
In a subsequent speech before the US Congress , Gillard , a favourite of the US embassy in Canberra , broke records for sycophancy ( according to the website Honest History ) as she declared , over and again , the fidelity of America ’ s “ mates Down Under ” .
Today , while Assange waits in his cell , Gillard travels the world , promoting herself as a feminist concerned about “ human rights ” , often in tandem with that other right-on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that Australia could have rescued Julian Assange and can still rescue him .
In 2010 , I arranged to meet a prominent Liberal ( Conservative ) Member of Parliament , Malcolm Turnbull .
As a young barrister in the 1980s , Turnbull had successfully fought the British Government ’ s attempts to prevent the publication of the book , Spycatcher , whose author Peter Wright , a spy , had exposed Britain ’ s “ deep state ” .
We talked about his famous victory for free speech and publishing and I described @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the fraud of his arrest in Sweden and its connection with an American indictment that tore up the US Constitution and the rule of international law .
The WikiLeaks Files : T ... WikiLeaks Best Price : $ 4.18 Buy New $ 6.95 Turnbull appeared to show genuine interest and an aide took extensive notes .
I asked him to deliver a letter to the Australian government from Gareth Peirce , the renowned British human rights lawyer who represents Assange .
In the letter , Peirce wrote , “ Given the extent of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ basis of entirely false assumptions… it is very hard to attempt to preserve for [ Julian Assange ] any presumption of innocence .
Mr. Assange has now hanging over him not one but two Damocles swords , of potential extradition to two different jurisdictions in turn for two different alleged crimes , neither of which are crimes in his own country , and that his personal safety has become at risk in circumstances that are highly politically charged.
” Turnbull promised to deliver the letter , follow it through and let me know @ @ @ @ @ @ @ times , waited and heard nothing .
In 2018 , John Shipton wrote a deeply moving letter to the then prime minister of Australia asking him to exercise the diplomatic power at his government ’ s disposal and bring Julian home .
He wrote that he feared that if Julian was not rescued , there would be a tragedy and his son would die in prison .
He received no reply .
The prime minister was Malcolm Turnbull .
Last year , when the current prime minister , Scott Morrison , a former @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Assange , he replied in his customary way , “ He should face the music !
” When Saturday ’ s march reaches the Houses of Parliament , said to be “ the Mother of Parliaments ” , Morrison and Gillard and Turnbull and all those who have betrayed Julian Assange should be called out ; history and decency will not forget them or those who remain silent now .
And if there is any sense of justice left in the land of Magna Carta , the travesty that is the case against @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Or beware , all of us .
The Best of John Pilger

On Saturday, there will be a march from Australia House in London to Parliament Square, the centre of British democracy. People will carry pictures of the Australian publisher and journalist Julian Assange who, on 24 February, faces a court that will decide whether or not he is to be extradited to the United States and a living death.
I know Australia House well. As an Australian myself, I used to go there in my early days in London to read the newspapers from home. Opened by King George V over a century ago, its vastness of marble and stone, chandeliers and solemn portraits, imported from Australia when Australian soldiers were dying in the slaughter of the First World War, have ensured its landmark as an imperial pile of monumental servility.
As one of the oldest “diplomatic missions” in the United Kingdom, this relic of empire provides a pleasurable sinecure for Antipodean politicians: a “mate” rewarded or a troublemaker exiled.
Known as High Commissioner, the equivalent of an ambassador, the current beneficiary is George Brandis, who as Attorney General tried to water down Australia’s Race Discrimination Act and approved raids on whistleblowers who had revealed the truth about Australia’s illegal spying on East Timor during negotiations for the carve-up of that impoverished country’s oil and gas.
This led to the prosecution of whistleblowers Bernard Collaery and “Witness K”, on bogus charges. Like Julian Assange, they are to be silenced in a Kafkaesque trial and put away. Cypherpunks: Freedom a... Julian Assange Best Price: $3.45 Buy New $8.99 (as of 08:30 UTC - Details)
Australia House is the ideal starting point for Saturday’s march.
“I confess,” wrote Lord Curzon, Viceroy of India, in 1898, “that countries are pieces on a chessboard upon which is being played out a great game for the domination of the world.””
We Australians have been in the service of the Great Game for a very long time. Having devastated our Indigenous people in an invasion and a war of attrition that continues to this day, we have spilt blood for our imperial masters in China, Africa, Russia, the Middle East, Europe and Asia. No imperial adventure against those with whom we have no quarrel has escaped our dedication.
Deception has been a feature. When Prime Minister Robert Menzies sent Australian soldiers to Vietnam in the 1960s, he described them as a training team, requested by a beleaguered government in Saigon. It was a lie. A senior official of the Department of External Affairs wrote secretly that “although we have stressed the fact publicly that our assistance was given in response to an invitation by the government of South Vietnam”, the order came from Washington.
Two versions. The lie for us, the truth for them. As many as four million people died in the Vietnam war.
When Indonesia invaded East Timor in 1975, the Australian Ambassador, Richard Woolcott, secretly urged the government in Canberra to “act in a way which would be designed to minimise the public impact in Australia and show private understanding to Indonesia.” In other words, to lie. He alluded to the beckoning spoils of oil and gas in the Timor Sea which, boasted Foreign Minister Gareth Evans, were worth “zillions”.
In the genocide that followed, at least 200,000 East Timorese died. Australia recognised, almost alone, the legitimacy of the occupation.
When Prime Minister John Howard sent Australian special forces to invade Iraq with America and Britain in 2003, he – like George W. Bush and Tony Blair – lied that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. More than a million people died in Iraq.
WikiLeaks was not the first to call out the pattern of criminal lying in democracies that remain every bit as rapacious as in Lord Curzon’s day. The achievement of the remarkable publishing organisation founded by Julian Assange has been to provide the proof.
WikiLeaks has informed us how illegal wars are fabricated, how governments are overthrown and violence is used in our name, how we are spied upon through our phones and screens. The true lies of presidents, ambassadors, political candidates, generals, proxies, political fraudsters have been exposed. One by one, these would-be emperors have realised they have no clothes.
It has been an unprecedented public service; above all, it is authentic journalism, whose value can be judged by the degree of apoplexy of the corrupt and their apologists.
For example, in 2016, WikiLeaks published the leaked emails of Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager John Podesta, which revealed a direct connection between Clinton, the foundation she shares with her husband and the funding of organised jihadism in the Middle East – terrorism.
One email disclosed that Islamic State (ISIS) was bankrolled by the governments of Saudi Arabia and Qatar, from which Clinton accepted huge “donations”. Moreover, as US Secretary of State, she approved the world’s biggest ever arms sale to her Saudi benefactors, worth more than $80 billion. Thanks to her, US arms sales to the world – for use in stricken countries like Yemen – doubled.
Revealed by WikiLeaks and published in The New York Times, the Podesta emails triggered a vituperative campaign against editor-in-chief Julian Assange, bereft of evidence. He was an “agent of Russia working to elect Trump”; the nonsensical “Russiagate” followed. That WikiLeaks had also published more than 800,000 frequently damning documents from Russia was ignored.
On an Australian Broadcasting Corporation programme, Four Corners, in 2017, Clinton was interviewed by Sarah Ferguson, who began: “No one could fail to be moved by the pain on your face at [the moment of Donald Trump’s inauguration] … Do you remember how visceral it was for you?”
Having established Clinton’s visceral suffering, the fawning Ferguson described “Russia’s role” and the “damage done personally to you” by Julian Assange.
Clinton replied, “He [Assange] is very clearly a tool of Russian intelligence. And he has done their bidding.”
Ferguson said to Clinton, “Lots of people, including in Australia, think that Assange is a martyr of free speech and freedom of information. How would you describe him?”
Again, Clinton was allowed to defame Assange – a “nihilist” in the service of “dictators” – while Ferguson assured her interviewee she was “the icon of your generation”.
There was no mention of a leaked document, revealed by WikiLeaks, called Libya Tick Tock, prepared for Hillary Clinton, which described her as the central figure driving the destruction of the Libyan state in 2011. This resulted in 40,000 deaths, the arrival of ISIS in North Africa and the European refugee and migrant crisis.
For me, this episode of Clinton’s interview – and there are many others – vividly illustrates the division between false and true journalism. On 24 February, when Julian Assange steps into Woolwich Crown Court, true journalism will be the only crime on trial.
I am sometimes asked why I have championed Assange. For one thing, I like and I admire him. He is a friend with astonishing courage; and he has a finely honed, wicked sense of humour. He is the diametric opposite of the character invented then assassinated by his enemies.
As a reporter in places of upheaval all over the world, I have learned to compare the evidence I have witnessed with the words and actions of those with power. In this way, it is possible to get a sense of how our world is controlled and divided and manipulated, how language and debate are distorted to produce the propaganda of false consciousness.
When we speak about dictatorships, we call this brainwashing: the conquest of minds. It is a truth we rarely apply to our own societies, regardless of the trail of blood that leads back to us and which never dries.
WikiLeaks has exposed this. That is why Assange is in a maximum security prison in London facing concocted political charges in America, and why he has shamed so many of those paid to keep the record straight. Watch these journalists now look for cover as it dawns on them that the American fascists who have come for Assange may come for them, not least those on the Guardian who collaborated with WikiLeaks and won prizes and secured lucrative book and Hollywood deals based on his work, before turning on him.
In 2011, David Leigh, the Guardian’s “investigations editor”, told journalism students at City University in London that Assange was “quite deranged”. When a puzzled student asked why, Leigh replied, “Because he doesn’t understand the parameters of conventional journalism”.
But it’s precisely because he did understand that the “parameters” of the media often shielded vested and political interests and had nothing to do with transparency that the idea of WikiLeaks was so appealing to many people, especially the young, rightly cynical about the so-called “mainstream”.
Leigh mocked the very idea that, once extradited, Assange would end up “wearing an orange jumpsuit”. These were things, he said, “that he and his lawyer are saying in order to feed his paranoia”.
The current US charges against Assange centre on the Afghan Logs and Iraq Logs, which the Guardian published and Leigh worked on, and on the Collateral Murder video showing an American helicopter crew gunning down civilians and celebrating the crime. For this journalism, Assange faces 17 charges of “espionage” which carry prison sentences totalling 175 years.
Whether or not his prison uniform will be an “orange jumpsuit”, US court files seen by Assange’s lawyers reveal that, once extradited, Assange will be subject to Special Administrative Measures, known as SAMS. A 2017 report by Yale University Law School and the Center for Constitutional Rights described SAMS as “the darkest corner of the US federal prison system” combining “the brutality and isolation of maximum security units with additional restrictions that deny individuals almost any connection to the human world … The net effect is to shield this form of torture from any real public scrutiny.”
That Assange has been right all along, and getting him to Sweden was a fraud to cover an American plan to “render” him, is finally becoming clear to many who swallowed the incessant scuttlebutt of character assassination. “I speak fluent Swedish and was able to read all the original documents,” Nils Melzer, the United Nations Rapporteur on Torture, said recently, “I could hardly believe my eyes. According to the testimony of the woman in question, a rape had never taken place at all. And not only that: the woman’s testimony was later changed by the Stockholm Police without her involvement in order to somehow make it sound like a possible rape. I have all the documents in my possession, the emails, the text messages.”
Keir Starmer is currently running for election as leader of the Labour Party in Britain. Between 2008 and 2013, he was Director of Public Prosecutions and responsible for the Crown Prosecution Service. According to Freedom of Information searches by the Italian journalist Stefania Maurizi, Sweden tried to drop the Assange case in 2011, but a CPS official in London told the Swedish prosecutor not to treat it as “just another extradition”.
In 2012, she received an email from the CPS: “Don’t you dare get cold feet!!!” Other CPS emails were either deleted or redacted. Why? Keir Starmer needs to say why.
At the forefront of Saturday’s march will be John Shipton, Julian’s father, whose indefatigable support for his son is the antithesis of the collusion and cruelty of the governments of Australia, our homeland.
The roll call of shame begins with Julia Gillard, the Australian Labor prime minister who, in 2010, wanted to criminalise WikiLeaks, arrest Assange and cancel his passport – until the Australian Federal Police pointed out that no law allowed this and that Assange had committed no crime.
While falsely claiming to give him consular assistance in London, it was the Gillard government’s shocking abandonment of its citizen that led to Ecuador granting political asylum to Assange in its London embassy.
In a subsequent speech before the US Congress, Gillard, a favourite of the US embassy in Canberra, broke records for sycophancy (according to the website Honest History) as she declared, over and again, the fidelity of America’s “mates Down Under”.
Today, while Assange waits in his cell, Gillard travels the world, promoting herself as a feminist concerned about “human rights”, often in tandem with that other right-on feminist Hillary Clinton.
The truth is that Australia could have rescued Julian Assange and can still rescue him.
In 2010, I arranged to meet a prominent Liberal (Conservative) Member of Parliament, Malcolm Turnbull. As a young barrister in the 1980s, Turnbull had successfully fought the British Government’s attempts to prevent the publication of the book, Spycatcher, whose author Peter Wright, a spy, had exposed Britain’s “deep state”.
We talked about his famous victory for free speech and publishing and I described the miscarriage of justice awaiting Assange – the fraud of his arrest in Sweden and its connection with an American indictment that tore up the US Constitution and the rule of international law. The WikiLeaks Files: T... WikiLeaks Best Price: $4.18 Buy New $6.95 (as of 06:20 UTC - Details)
Turnbull appeared to show genuine interest and an aide took extensive notes. I asked him to deliver a letter to the Australian government from Gareth Peirce, the renowned British human rights lawyer who represents Assange.
In the letter, Peirce wrote, “Given the extent of the public discussion, frequently on the basis of entirely false assumptions… it is very hard to attempt to preserve for [Julian Assange] any presumption of innocence. Mr. Assange has now hanging over him not one but two Damocles swords, of potential extradition to two different jurisdictions in turn for two different alleged crimes, neither of which are crimes in his own country, and that his personal safety has become at risk in circumstances that are highly politically charged.”
Turnbull promised to deliver the letter, follow it through and let me know. I subsequently wrote to him several times, waited and heard nothing.
In 2018, John Shipton wrote a deeply moving letter to the then prime minister of Australia asking him to exercise the diplomatic power at his government’s disposal and bring Julian home. He wrote that he feared that if Julian was not rescued, there would be a tragedy and his son would die in prison. He received no reply. The prime minister was Malcolm Turnbull.
Last year, when the current prime minister, Scott Morrison, a former public relations man, was asked about Assange, he replied in his customary way, “He should face the music!”
When Saturday’s march reaches the Houses of Parliament, said to be “the Mother of Parliaments”, Morrison and Gillard and Turnbull and all those who have betrayed Julian Assange should be called out; history and decency will not forget them or those who remain silent now.
And if there is any sense of justice left in the land of Magna Carta, the travesty that is the case against this heroic Australian must be thrown out. Or beware, all of us.
Reprinted from JohnPilger.com.
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