# entry

guid: http://risingtidefoundation.net/?p=7291
title: The Post war US-China Alliance that Nearly Was
author: ;Matthew Ehret
link: https://risingtidefoundation.net/2025/02/10/henry-wallaces-wartime-vision-for-us-china-relations/
hash: ��YW�W�{��>��9
tags: #Asia #Dialogue of Cultures #History #USA #Geopolitics #new silk road
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
[unable to retrieve full-text content]By Matthew Ehret In these times, it is worth revisiting a bygone time in which a leading American political figure embraced a US-Russia-China alliance: Henry A. Wallace, Agricultural Secretary from 1933-1941, and US Vice-President from 1941-1944. After his government service, Wallace passionately upheld a new vision of the post-war world that included the East. As... <div data-sanitized-class="link-more"><a href="https://risingtidefoundation.net/2025/02/10/henry-wallaces-wartime-vision-for-us-china-relations/">Read More</a></div>


guid: http://risingtidefoundation.net/?p=12307
title: The Forgotten Multi-Polar Traditions of the USA: The UN Charter Revisited
author: ;Matthew Ehret
hash: �R��!$�L�Ms�[h�
tags: #History #USA #Geopolitics
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
[unable to retrieve full-text content]By Matthew Ehret From the drafting of the UN Charter in 1941, the formulation of the Bretton Woods system in 1944, to the UN Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, there is no doubt that there is very little that America has not directly influenced over the past 75 years. While this leadership is undeniable,... <div data-sanitized-class="link-more"><a href="https://risingtidefoundation.net/2025/02/10/the-forgotten-multi-polar-traditions-of-the-usa-the-un-charter-revisited/">Read More</a></div>

link:
https://risingtidefoundation.net/2025/02/10/the-forgotten-multi-polar-traditions-of-the-usa-the-un-charter-revisited/


guid: https://risingtidefoundation.net/?p=16327
title: An Electric Challenge to Critics of the USA
author: ;Matthew Ehret
link: https://risingtidefoundation.net/2025/02/10/an-electric-challenge-to-critics-of-the-usa/
hash: �I����,����E�2�0
tags: #History #Symposium #The American System #Geopolitics
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
<div><img src="https://i0.wp.com/risingtidefoundation.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/feature-image.jpg?resize=1200%2C807&amp;ssl=1" data-sanitized-class="ff-og-image-inserted"></div><p>It has become common place to look at the western world and see only its blemishes. Obviously, imperial behavior spread over decades of American foreign policy has not helped this problem.</p>
<p>While it is of vital importance to acknowledge the ugliness, corruption and malevolent deeds conducted under the banner of “the United States of America”, it is far more important to recognize that a higher goodness also exists within America which has invoked some of the greatest leaps into progress, liberty for all humanity and anti-imperialism the world has ever seen.</p>
<p>In this week’s Rising Tide Foundation lecture, historian Anton Chaitkin introduces a lesser-appreciated side of the United States with a comprehensive overview of the greatest humanist traditions led by scientist/statesman Benjamin Franklin and the many statesmen who followed in his footsteps leading up through the 19th and 20th centuries. This lecture will take us through the battles which republican forces for progress waged against the Wall Street/City of London financial centers who desired, like ancient Zeus, to keep the fire of electricity, and other creative discoveries from benefiting the peasants, remaining forever in the hands of the elites.</p>
<p>Were the United States to re-discover it’s moral fitness to survive the coming storms in our modern age, then it is because these forgotten traditions were revived alongside other nations of the earth desirous of a prosperous and peaceful future.</p>
<figure data-sanitized-class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div data-sanitized-class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"><iframe loading="lazy" title="An Electric Challenge to Critics of the USA [Anton Chaitkin Lecture]" width="1000" height="563" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MPcNtrbBUQg?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin">[embedded content]</iframe></div>
</figure><h2 data-sanitized-class="wp-block-heading">Subscribe to our Telegram channel at: t.me/RisingTideFoundation.</h2>

<p><strong>Supplementary recent research by Anton on the Wall Street London fight to crush the USA and Thomas Edison, see the following documents:</strong></p>
<p><a href="https://larouchepub.com/eiw/public/2015/eirv42n01-20150102/38-60_4201.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Click to access 38-60_4201.pdf</a></p>
<p><a href="https://larouchepub.com/eiw/public/1996/eirv23n07-19960209/eirv23n07-19960209_052-8_the_real_thomas_edison.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Click to access eirv23n07-19960209_052-8_the_real_thomas_edison.pdf</a></p>
<p><a href="https://larouchepub.com/eiw/public/1990/eirv17n39-19901012/eirv17n39-19901012_013-house_of_morgan_the_bank_that_at.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Click to access eirv17n39-19901012_013-house_of_morgan_the_bank_that_at.pdf</a></p>
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guid: https://risingtidefoundation.net/?p=15198
author: ;Matthew Ehret
hash: �-t�pD��h
tags: #Biogeochemistry #Science #Geopolitics
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
title:
The End of Closed System Geopolitics and the Rise of Open System Development- Vernadsky’s Law for the 21st Century

content:
<h2 data-sanitized-class="wp-block-heading">By Matthew Ehret</h2>
<p>It has become popular today among the scientific community, to proclaim as a matter of fact, that the universe is ultimately governed by death and decay on the large scale and randomness on the microscale.</p>
<p>While it is rare that this chilling popular theory is explicitly stated in such direct terms as I lay out, the very idea of Big Bang Cosmology so prevalent among modern scientists demands that death be the dominant feature of reality. This theory postulates that since there is much much more non-living material in the universe than there is living material, and since all of this only arose from a cold infinite ocean of nothingness 13.7 billion years ago, that we will once again return to that ‘natural’ state of equilibrium at some point in the distant future. Not only this, but the Big Bang theory also forces us to presume certain other absurdities as unquestionable… such as the belief that the universe itself being bounded in time, must also be bounded in space with external physical limits outside of which nothingness embraces us from all sides. If this were true, then how could nothing create something, let alone contain “something”?</p>
<figure data-sanitized-class="wp-block-image size-large"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="600" height="582" data-attachment-id="11843" data-permalink="https://risingtidefoundation.net/big-bang-model-idiotic/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/risingtidefoundation.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/big-bang-model-idiotic.jpg?fit=600%2C582&amp;ssl=1" data-orig-size="600,582" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="big-bang-model-idiotic" data-image-description data-image-caption data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/risingtidefoundation.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/big-bang-model-idiotic.jpg?fit=300%2C291&amp;ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/risingtidefoundation.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/big-bang-model-idiotic.jpg?fit=600%2C582&amp;ssl=1" src="https://i0.wp.com/risingtidefoundation.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/big-bang-model-idiotic.jpg?resize=600%2C582&amp;ssl=1" alt data-sanitized-class="wp-image-11843"><figcaption data-sanitized-class="wp-element-caption">A typical model of the universe</figcaption></figure><p>By imposing such boundaries in space and time onto the universe and implying that all energy which currently exists in the universe was created ex nihilo at a starting “moment”, then it also means that we are destined for an ultimate heat death as the closed system called “the universe” winds down into states of increased boredom, statistical predictability, chaos and ultimately… Death.</p>
<p>Well, let us treat that question with a higher question: Who ever proved that entropy and the 2<sup>nd</sup> law of thermodynamics is something which can be put onto the entire universe? Who ever proved that random genetic mutations on the very small cause the appearance of macro changes in evolutionary time?</p>
<p>When we start looking at transcendental concepts like LIFE, MIND, or MORALITY contained in the scientific work and life of the great Russian biogeochemist Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky, we tend to find that entropy breaks down in the most devastating manner.</p>
<figure data-sanitized-class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div data-sanitized-class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"><iframe loading="lazy" title="The End of Closed System Geopolitics and the Rise of Open System Development- Vernadsky's Discovery" width="1000" height="563" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/r8b24Mo6qEg?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin">[embedded content]</iframe></div>
</figure><h2 data-sanitized-class="wp-block-heading"><strong>The Biosphere as a State of Anti-Entropy</strong></h2>
<p>Let’s start with Vernadsky’s approach to life.</p>
<p>Rather than seeing any evidence that living matter began at low entropy in a closed system within the pre-Cambrian epoch 500 million years ago and moved via randomized mutations into states of increasing heat death/high entropy (aka: diminishing potentials for change)… we see just the opposite to be the case.</p>
<figure data-sanitized-class="wp-block-image size-large"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="592" height="501" data-attachment-id="15205" data-permalink="https://risingtidefoundation.net/mass-extinctions-vernadsky/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/risingtidefoundation.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/mass-extinctions-vernadsky.jpg?fit=592%2C501&amp;ssl=1" data-orig-size="592,501" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="mass-extinctions-vernadsky" data-image-description data-image-caption data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/risingtidefoundation.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/mass-extinctions-vernadsky.jpg?fit=300%2C254&amp;ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/risingtidefoundation.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/mass-extinctions-vernadsky.jpg?fit=592%2C501&amp;ssl=1" src="https://i0.wp.com/risingtidefoundation.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/mass-extinctions-vernadsky.jpg?resize=592%2C501&amp;ssl=1" alt data-sanitized-class="wp-image-15205"></figure><p>Observations show us that life has evolved from relatively boring single celled organisms to ever more differentiated and complex systems of self organization both creating and consuming ever higher states of energy to perform work. Not only that but one of the most embarrassing aspects of the Darwinian effort to interpret evolution of life in slow gradualist terms, is that the theory simply cannot account for the obvious states of non-linear leaps from lower to higher states of life emerging from non-life, and from unconscious life to conscious life and from conscious life to self-conscious thinking life. And while cynics look only at the periodic mass extinctions scattered across the fossil records, where entire systems of life were wiped out, the true scientist observes that a higher process of creation of new systems is at play always moving towards expressing ever greater degrees of freedom of action and complexity towards the expression of human life.</p>
<p>The great Russian biogeochemist Vladimir Vernadsky (1863-1945) noted in his famous 1926 book <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4612-1750-3_2">The Biosphere</a> that the biosphere (the thin envelop over the face of the globe which shapes and is shaped by living matter) was not a closed system defined by entropy as Darwinians assumed, but rather an open system shaped by the intersection of cosmic radiation and internal radiations emanating from within the earth stating:</p>
<p><em>“The biosphere may be regarded as a region of transformers that convert cosmic radiations into active energy in electrical, chemical, mechanical, thermal, and other forms. Radiations from all stars enter the biosphere, but we catch and perceive only an insignificant part of the total. The existence of radiation originating in the most distant regions of the cosmos cannot be doubted. Stars and nebulae are constantly emitting specific radiations, and everything suggests that the penetrating radiation discovered in the upper regions of the atmosphere by Hess originates beyond the limits of the solar system, perhaps in the Milky Way, in nebulae, or in stars …The importance of this will not be clear for some time, but this penetrating cosmic radiation determines the character and mechanism of the biosphere.”</em></p>
<p>In a later essay titled the <a href="https://21sci-tech.com/Articles_2012/Spring-Summer_2012/05_Species_Matter.pdf">Evolution of Species and Living Matter</a> (1928), Vernadsky proves that the biosphere is not only cosmic in nature, but a singular process directed by flow of creative disequilibrium towards ever higher states of anti-entropy and creation… not death, homogenization or decay. Vernadsky writes <em>“the creation resulting from the evolution of new living forms, adapts itself to new forms of existence, augments the ubiquity of life, and enlarges its domain. Life penetrates thus, the regions of the biosphere where it had not earlier had access.”</em></p>
<p>Zeroing in on the mechanism driving this growth which he described in detail as the increased biogenic migration of atoms through the biosphere, Vernadsky stated: <em>“we see how, in the course of geological epochs, new forms of life appear. Their occurrence leads… to an acceleration of atomic current through living matter, and also provokes, within atoms, new manifestations, unknown of until now, along with the appearance of new modes of displacement”.</em></p>
<p>This increased current/flow of matter through the biosphere’s system becomes enshrined as Vernadsky’s second biogeochemical principle which also defines the creation of new stable ecosystems which greater powers of transmitting atoms than previous extinct systems:</p>
<p>“This biogeochemical principle which I will call the second biogeochemical principle can be formulated thus: The evolution of species, leading to the creation of new, stable, living forms, must move in the direction of an increasing of the biogenic migration of atoms in the biosphere…”</p>
<p>For anyone confused by this idea, simply consider the different metabolic patterns of reptiles compared with the newer forms of life characterized by mammals. While mammals require more food input for their survival, their bodily power of converting food into energy is magnitudes greater than more primitive reptiles while mammals also have greater freedom of mobility, heat regulation and even emotional expression compared to their cold blooded brethren.</p>
<p>Vernadksy boldly takes aim at the random mutation theory of Darwinian evolution by asserting that the evidence of directionality in the flow of living matter towards ever greater degrees of complexity implies a higher law of a creative nature.</p>
<p>“[This second biogeochemical principle] indicates, in my opinion, with an infallible logic, the existence of a determined direction, in the sense of how the processes of evolution must necessarily take place…. All theories of evolution must take into consideration the existence of this determined direction of the process of evolution, which, with the subsequent developments in science, will be able to be numerically evaluated. It seems impossible to me, for several reasons, to speak of evolutionary theories without taking into account the fundamental question of the existence of a determined direction, invariable in the processes of evolution, in the course of all the geological epochs. Taken together, the annals of paleontology do not show the character of a chaotic upheaval, sometimes in one direction, sometimes in another, but of phenomena, for which the development is carried out in a determined manner, always in the same direction, in that of the increasing of consciousness, of thought, and of the creation of forms augmenting the action of life on the ambient environment.”</p>
<p>When humanity appeared onto the scene, a new phenomenon began expressing itself in a form which the great Russian academician <a href="https://risingtidefoundation.net/vladimir-vernadsky/">Vladimir Vernadsky (1863-1945)</a> described as the Noosphere (as opposed to the lithosphere and biosphere). Vernadsky understood this new geological force to be driven by human creative reason, and devoted his life to teaching the world that the law of humanity must accord with the law of nature stating:</p>
<p><em>“The noösphere is a new geological phenomenon on our planet. In it, for the first time, man becomes a large-scale geological force. He can, and must, rebuild the province of his life by his work and thought, rebuild it radically in comparison with the past. Wider and wider creative possibilities open before him. It may be that the generation of our grandchildren will approach their blossoming”.<a href="https://risingtidefoundation.net/2025/02/10/the-end-of-closed-system-geopolitics-and-the-rise-of-open-system-development-vernadskys-law-for-the-21st-century/#_ftn1"><strong>[1]</strong></a></em></p>
<p>In Vernadsky’s mind, neither the noosphere, nor the biosphere obeyed a law of mathematical equilibrium or statis, but was rather governed by an asymmetrical harmony and progress from lower to higher states of organization. It was only by coming to understand the principles of nature that mankind became morally and intellectually fit to improve upon nature by turning deserts green, harnessing the power of the atom or applying scientific progress to health and agriculture. Some of his most important insights were published in his <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/137170364/Scientific-Thought-as-a-Planetary-Phenomenon-V-I-Vernadsky">Scientific Thought as a Planetary Phenomena</a> (1938), <a href="https://21sci-tech.com/Articles_2012/Spring-Summer_2012/05_Species_Matter.pdf">Evolution of Species and Living Matter</a> (1928) <a href="https://21sci-tech.com/translations/The_Noosphere.pdf">Some Words About the Noosphere</a> (1943), and <a href="http://21sci-tech.com/Articles_2012/Spring-Summer_2012/04_Biospere_Noosphere.pdf">The Transition of the Biosphere to the Noosphere</a> (1938).<a href="https://risingtidefoundation.net/2025/02/10/the-end-of-closed-system-geopolitics-and-the-rise-of-open-system-development-vernadskys-law-for-the-21st-century/#_ftn2">[2]</a></p>
<p>Despite the lasting contributions made by Vernadsky to human knowledge, here we sit, 76 years after the end of WW2 tolerating an unscientific policy of mass decarbonization which threatens to radically undermine civilization for countless generations.</p>
<hr data-sanitized-class="wp-block-separator has-css-opacity"><figure data-sanitized-class="wp-block-image size-large"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1000" height="563" data-attachment-id="15206" data-permalink="https://risingtidefoundation.net/cones-evolution-extinctions/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/risingtidefoundation.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/cones-evolution-extinctions.png?fit=1920%2C1080&amp;ssl=1" data-orig-size="1920,1080" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="cones-evolution-extinctions" data-image-description data-image-caption data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/risingtidefoundation.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/cones-evolution-extinctions.png?fit=300%2C169&amp;ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/risingtidefoundation.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/cones-evolution-extinctions.png?fit=1000%2C563&amp;ssl=1" src="https://i0.wp.com/risingtidefoundation.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/cones-evolution-extinctions.png?resize=1000%2C563&amp;ssl=1" alt data-sanitized-class="wp-image-15206"></figure><p>At a certain point in evolutionary history, a new phenomenon appeared which forever altered these biospheric mechanisms: The creative, reasoning power of humanity. Vernadsky described it as “the noosphere” for the Greek word for “mind” and likened it to a cosmological force saying: <em>“The noosphere is the last of many stages in the evolution of the biosphere in geological history. The course of this evolution only begins to become clear to us through a study of some of the aspects of the biosphere’s geological past.”</em></p>
<p>After introducing this phenomenon, not as a negligible process outside of nature, but as an integral part of nature and the universe, Vernadsky raises a paradox: “Here a new riddle has arisen before us. Thought is not a form of energy. How then can it change material processes?”</p>
<p>Without answering this philosophical paradox directly, Vernadksy describes the effect of a bending of physical space time which is a function of creative thought’s application to scientific and technological progress saying:</p>
<p>“As for the coming of the noösphere, we see around us at every step the empirical results of that “incomprehensible” process. That mineralogical rarity, native iron, is now being produced by the billions of tons. Native aluminum, which never before existed on our planet, is now produced in any quantity. The same is true with regard to the countless number of artificial chemical combinations (biogenic “cultural” minerals) newly created on our planet. The number of such artificial minerals is constantly increasing. All of the strategic raw materials belong here. Chemically, the face of our planet, the biosphere, is being sharply changed by man, consciously, and even more so, unconsciously. The aerial envelope of the land as well as all its natural waters are changed both physically and chemically by man.”</p>
<figure data-sanitized-class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div data-sanitized-class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"><iframe loading="lazy" title="The End of Closed System Geopolitics and the Rise of Open System Development- Vernadsky's Discovery" width="1000" height="563" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/r8b24Mo6qEg?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin">[embedded content]</iframe></div>
</figure><p><a href="https://risingtidefoundation.net/2025/02/10/the-end-of-closed-system-geopolitics-and-the-rise-of-open-system-development-vernadskys-law-for-the-21st-century/#_ftnref1">[1]</a> Some Words About the Noosphere by V.I. Vernadsky, 1943, republished in 21<sup>st</sup> Century Science and Technology, Spring 2005 <a href="https://21sci-tech.com/translations/The_Noosphere.pdf">TS5467.SP05 (21sci-tech.com)</a> </p>
<p><a href="https://risingtidefoundation.net/2025/02/10/the-end-of-closed-system-geopolitics-and-the-rise-of-open-system-development-vernadskys-law-for-the-21st-century/#_ftnref2">[2]</a> To access all of these referenced works by Vernadsky, visit: <a href="https://risingtidefoundation.net/vladimir-vernadsky/">https://risingtidefoundation.net/vladimir-vernadsky/</a></p>
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guid: https://risingtidefoundation.net/?p=27931
title: Egypt, Moses and the Mysteries: Schiller’s “Veiled Image at Sais”
author: ;Matthew Ehret
hash: �U�d@��|����
tags: #Uncategorized
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content:
<h2 data-sanitized-class="wp-block-heading">By David Gosselin</h2>
<blockquote data-sanitized-class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
<p><em>“For, he who with an impure hand removes<br>That mystic veil and sacred covering,<br>‘He’ said the Godhead, will behold the Truth.”<br></em>— “The Veiled Image at Sais”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In Friedrich Schiller’s “The Veiled Image at Sais,” an overly zealous youth guided by a naïve curiosity believes himself ready to <em>unveil</em> the sacred Truth<em>.</em> After having his entreaties rejected by an ancient Egyptian hierophant, the boy decides to break into the temple and try to unveil the <em>Truth</em> for himself.</p>
<p>As in the case of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFvjrHlcGs8">Adam and Eve</a> prematurely eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil while still in the infancy of mankind, an inevitable reckoning with irreversible consequences ensues.</p>
<p>The poem ends on a cautionary note for anyone seeking shortcuts to <em>Truth</em>.</p>
<h2 data-sanitized-class="wp-block-heading"><strong>The Veiled Image at Sais</strong></h2>
<p><em>By Friedrich Schiller</em></p>
<p>Struck by a burning thirst for knowledge, a youth<br>Travelled across ancient Egyptian lands<br>—to Sais—to breach the secrets of its priests;<br>He eagerly made all the needed grades,<br>But still relentlessly kept climbing higher<br>—The hierophant could barely tame the boy.<br>“What good is one small part without the whole?”<br>Exclaimed the eager youth, without a pause.<br>“For, can the Truth be really more or less?<br>The way you speak of Truth is as if it<br>Were nothing more than a mere earthly sum,<br>As if a question of just more or less.<br>Surely, it’s something whole and without parts;<br>The Truth is pure and indivisible!<br>Remove one note and harmony dissolves,<br>Remove one color and the rainbow fades,<br>And nothing will be known, so long as that<br>One color, or one note, remains absent.</p>
<p>While the priest and the eager youth conversed,<br>They stood amid the precincts of a temple<br>Where a strange statue stood silent and veiled.<br>It captured the excited boy’s attention,<br>And so he turned towards the wise old priest<br>And asked, “What lies hidden beneath the veil?”<br>“Truth,” answered the old priest. “What!” said the boy,<br>“The Truth alone is all I care about,<br>And you would think of hiding it from me?”</p>
<p>“Only the Godhead can answer to that,”<br>Said the Egyptian priest. <a>“And let no man<br>Reach for that veil,” he said, “Until I do;<br>For, he who with an impure hand removes<br>That mystic veil and sacred covering,<br>‘He’ said the Godhead, will behold the Truth.”</a><br>“How strange! And have you never tried to lift<br>The veil yourself, you who worship the Truth?”<br>“I never have, I never felt the need.”<br>“Could it be that only a thin veil stands<br>Between me and the Truth of things?” he asked.<br>“And a divine decree,” rejoined the old priest,<br>“The weight is heavier than you might think;<br>Though it may seem light to the hand—heavy—<br>So heavy can it weigh upon the mind.”<br>Lost in his thoughts, the youth made his way home,<br>But he now burned with a desire to know.<br>Restless, sleepless, tossing around in bed,<br>He rolled for hours, until at last the clock<br>Struck midnight and he rose, and quietly<br>Found himself drawn by a powerful force.<br>He climbed the walls, then after one more spring,<br>He found himself beneath the sacred dome.</p><p>Behold! The child in utter solitude,<br>Stood amid nothing but the deathly silence,<br>A silence broken only by the echo<br>Of every step he took across the vault.<br>And through the aperture of the high dome,<br>The quiet moon rained down her pallid beams<br>Just on the place where shining in the light,<br>The statue stood, concealed by its long veil.<br>The boy began to walk towards the form:<br>Hesitant, he moved his impious hand<br>Towards the statue, and then suddenly,<br>A chill ran down his spine; an unseen hand<br>Repulsed the boy, “What do you want,” echoed<br>A tortured voice within his shaken breast.<br>“Would you dare profane the Holiest One?”<br>“It’s true, declared the oracle, ‘Let none<br>Venture to raise the veil until I do.’<br>But did he not say Truth as well would rise?<br>Whatever it may be, I’ll raise the veil.”<br>And then he said, “I will behold the Truth!”<br>“Behold!”<br>His own words echoed back in mocking tone.</p><p>And with that word he cast the veil away.<br>What form his harrowed eyes met I don’t know,<br>But when the warm, fresh morning’s breeze returned,<br>The priests found a pale and unconscious boy<br>Lying before the pedestal of Isis.<br>He never shared what he had seen that night,<br>From that day on his happiness had fled;<br>Deep sorrow brought him to an early grave.<br>When pressed by questioners, he only said,<br>“Woe unto him, who comes to Truth through guilt:<br>Delight will forever be lost to him.”</p>
<p><em>Translation © David B. Gosselin</em></p>
<h2 data-sanitized-class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Reflections and Commentary</strong></h2>
<p>Was our young truth seeker really guided by a love of Truth, or merely by a puerile desire to possess the object of his infatuation, with little appreciation for what it might entail or exact? While he was eager to have his demands met, the boy may have underestimated Truth’s demands on him.</p>
<p>As in the case of any serious relationship whose requirements may far outweigh one’s abilities or expectations, Schiller’s poem offers us a dramatic rendering of the most demanding and tribulating of all relationships: our relationship with <em>Truth</em>.</p>
<p>The priest cautioned the youth to “Let no man lift the veil until I do,” but his cautionary words were of no avail. Schiller’s enigmatic poem begs the question: is man ever ready to wrestle with divine wisdom? If so, how should he go about it; if not, how should he guard against its crushing revelations?</p>
<p>The “Veiled Image at Sais” offers at least a hint:</p>
<blockquote data-sanitized-class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
<p><em>“For, he who with an impure hand removes<br>That mystic veil and sacred covering,<br>‘He’ said the Godhead, will behold the Truth.”</em></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Not unlike the story of Daedalus warning his son Icarus not to fly too close to the sun, Schiller’s work presents the story of a boy whose curiosity was undeterred by even the wisest counsel. The poem highlights the fate of a passionate but ultimately foolish inquirer whose intentions, while not motivated by any ill-will or a lust for power, were arguably just as misguided as those of a reckless upstart or clumsy thief—and perhaps more fatal.</p>
<p>In his eagerness to lift the veil, the boy treats the sacred Truth as though it were something he could possess. But was our young wannabe initiate really guided by a love of Truth, or merely by an infantile desire to possess the object of his longing, without paying much mind to what <em>Truth</em> would desire from him? After all, how much control will one really have once he breaches the sacred temple and lifts the veil?</p>
<p>For the man who exits the temple is never the same as the one who enters it.</p>
<h2 data-sanitized-class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Moses and the Secrets of Egypt</strong></h2>
<figure data-sanitized-class="wp-block-image size-large"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1000" height="563" data-attachment-id="27933" data-permalink="https://risingtidefoundation.net/2025/02/10/egypt-moses-and-the-mysteries-schillers-veiled-image-at-sais/sais-02/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/risingtidefoundation.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/sais-02.jpg?fit=1430%2C804&amp;ssl=1" data-orig-size="1430,804" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="sais 02" data-image-description data-image-caption data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/risingtidefoundation.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/sais-02.jpg?fit=300%2C169&amp;ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/risingtidefoundation.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/sais-02.jpg?fit=1000%2C563&amp;ssl=1" src="https://i0.wp.com/risingtidefoundation.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/sais-02.jpg?resize=1000%2C563&amp;ssl=1" alt data-sanitized-class="wp-image-27933"></figure><p>Further insight into the question of Egypt, ancient history and the illusive “mysteries” can be found in Schiller’s historical study “The Mission of Moses.” Published in 1790, it presents research and ideas Schiller would have originally delivered in the form of a lecture during his time teaching at Jena University.</p>
<p>Schiller begins by acknowledging the debt modern Western civilization owes to the revelations of Mosaic law.</p>
<blockquote data-sanitized-class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
<p>“Indeed, in a certain sense it is irrefutably true that we owe the Mosaic religion a large part of the enlightenment we enjoy today. For through them a precious truth, which reason, left to itself, would have discovered only after a slow development, the doctrine of the one God, was temporarily spread among the people and maintained among them as an object of blind faith until it could finally mature into a concept of reason in the brighter minds. As a result, a large part of the human race was spared all the sad, misleading paths to which belief in polytheism must ultimately lead, and the Hebrew constitution received the exclusive advantage that the religion of the wise did not stand in direct contradiction to the popular religion, as was the case with the enlightened pagans[…]”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Schiller suggests that Moses’ revelatory wisdom indicated he was likely an initiate of the Ancient Egyptian mysteries. A Hebrew whose people had been enslaved by a corrupted Egyptian society would by a twist of fate become an Egyptian-educated Jew who would have been privy to the highest Egyptian mysteries, and thus have been in the position to spread this wisdom in a new revelatory form among his own downtrodden people.</p>
<p>Schiller writes:</p>
<blockquote data-sanitized-class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
<p>“Here the great hand of Providence, which unravels the most tangled knot by the simplest means, must move us to admiration – but not that providence which interferes with the economy of nature through unfathomable miracles, but through that which gives nature itself an economy which prescribes the achievement of extraordinary things in the quietest possible manner. A born Egyptian lacked the necessary invitation and favor of the Hebrews to proclaim himself as their Savior. A mere Hebrew must have lacked the strength and spirit for this undertaking. So what course did fate choose? It took a Hebrew, but snatched him early from his brute people, and gave him the enjoyment of Egyptian wisdom; and so a Hebrew, Egyptian-educated, became the instrument by which that nation escaped from slavery.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As far as the story of Moses’ upbringing goes, Schiller writes:</p>
<blockquote data-sanitized-class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
<p>“The Pharaoh’s daughter adopted him and gave him the name Moses because he had been rescued from the water. So from a child of a slave and a victim of death, he became the son of a king’s daughter and as such shared in all the advantages that the children of kings enjoyed. The priests, to whose order he belonged at the very moment when he was incorporated into the royal family, now undertook his education, and instructed him in all the Egyptian wisdom which was the subsequent property of their class. Indeed, it is probable that they did not withhold any of their secrets from him, since a passage by the Egyptian historian Manetho describes Moses as an apostate of the Egyptian religion and a priest who had escaped from Heliopolis, leading us to suspect he had reached the rank of Egyptian priest.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Moses’ insights also indicate he was intimately acquainted with the original Egyptian lore and wisdom <em>before</em> they were fully corrupted by a degenerate Egyptian priesthood:</p>
<blockquote data-sanitized-class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
<p>“In order, therefore, to determine what Moses might have received in this school, and what role the education he received under the Egyptian priests may have played in his subsequent legislation, we must enter into a closer investigation of this institution and what was taught and practiced in it, hearing the testimony of ancient writers. The apostle Stephen already informs us that he was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. The historian Philo says that Moses was initiated by the Egyptian priests into the philosophy of symbols and hieroglyphs, as well as into the mysteries of the sacred animals. This very testimony is confirmed by several, and once one has cast a glance at what were called the Egyptian mysteries, a remarkable resemblance will emerge between these mysteries and what Moses subsequently did and ordained.</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote data-sanitized-class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
<p>“The worship of God among the oldest peoples, as is well known, very soon passed into polytheism and superstition, and even among those generations whom Scripture tells us to be worshipers of the true God, the ideas of the Supreme Being were neither pure nor noble, nor anything less founded as a clear, rational insight. But as soon as the classes were separated through the better organization of civil society and the establishment of a proper state and the concern for divine things became the purview of a special class, as soon as the human spirit received leisure through freedom from all distracting worries to devote itself entirely to contemplating itself and surrender to nature, and as soon as clearer views were finally been taken into account concerning the the physical economy of nature, Reason finally triumphed over those primitive errors, and the idea of ​​a Supreme Being was refined. The idea of ​​a general connection of things inevitably led to the concept of a single Supreme Understanding, and where should that idea have germinated rather than in the head of a priest? Since Egypt was the first cultivated state known to history, and the oldest mysteries were originally written in Egypt, it was here in all probability that the first idea of ​​the unity of the Supreme Being occurred in a human mind. The happy discoverer of this soul-elevating idea then selected capable subjects from those around him, to whom he imparted this sacred treasure, and so it was inherited from one thinker to another – for who knows how many? – generations, until it finally became the property of a well-organized caste capable of understanding and developing it further.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Of course, contemplating the true nature of a divine and single Creator in a more than superficial way is no small task. So Schiller observes:</p>
<blockquote data-sanitized-class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
<p>“But since a certain amount of knowledge and a certain training of the mind are required to correctly grasp and apply the idea of ​​a single God, since belief in divine unity necessarily brings with it contempt for polytheism, which was the dominant religion, it was soon realized that it would be imprudent and even dangerous to spread this idea publicly and generally. Without first overthrowing the traditional gods of the state and showing them in their ridiculous nakedness, one could not promise acceptance of this new doctrine. But one could neither foresee nor hope that each of those whom the old superstition was ridiculed would immediately be able to rise to the pure and difficult idea of ​​truth. Furthermore, the entire civil constitution was based on this superstition; if this were to collapse, all the pillars on which the entire edifice of the state was supported would be torn down at the same time. And it was still very uncertain whether the new religion that was put in its place would be capable of supporting the entire edifice.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The dangers of haphazardly propounding the nature of the true God before fanaticism-prone masses had to be considered by the defenders of genuine wisdom and eternal truth. As a result, hieroglyphics became instrumental in both concealing and preserving a deeper meaning, even if it meant misleading the uninitiated in the process—at least until more favorable conditions arose for a general uplifting of the human condition.</p>
<p>Schiller writes:</p>
<blockquote data-sanitized-class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
<p>“Hieroglyphics were chosen, a descriptive pictorial script that hid a general concept in a collection of sensual symbols and was based on a few arbitrary rules that had been agreed upon. Since these enlightened men knew from idolatry how powerfully the imagination and senses can influence young hearts, they had no hesitation in using this device of deception to the advantage of the truth. So they brought the new concepts into the soul with a certain sensual solemnity, and through all sorts of measures appropriate to this purpose, they put the mind of their apprentice in a state of passionate movement that would make it receptive to the new truth. The purifications that the person to be initiated had to carry out were of this kind: washing and sprinkling, wrapping themselves in linen clothes, abstaining from all sensual pleasures, tension and elevation of the spirit through singing, significant silence, alternation between darkness and light, and the like.”</p>
</blockquote>
<h2 data-sanitized-class="wp-block-heading"><strong>What Were the Mysteries?</strong></h2>
<figure data-sanitized-class="wp-block-image size-full"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="448" height="251" data-attachment-id="27934" data-permalink="https://risingtidefoundation.net/2025/02/10/egypt-moses-and-the-mysteries-schillers-veiled-image-at-sais/sais-03/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/risingtidefoundation.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/sais-03.jpg?fit=448%2C251&amp;ssl=1" data-orig-size="448,251" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="sais 03" data-image-description data-image-caption data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/risingtidefoundation.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/sais-03.jpg?fit=300%2C168&amp;ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/risingtidefoundation.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/sais-03.jpg?fit=448%2C251&amp;ssl=1" src="https://i0.wp.com/risingtidefoundation.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/sais-03.jpg?resize=448%2C251&amp;ssl=1" alt data-sanitized-class="wp-image-27934"></figure><p>Ancient City of Memphis – Art by <a href="https://www.artstation.com/raphael-lacoste">Raphael Lacoste</a>)</p>
<p>“The Veiled Image at Sais” may in a <em>veiled</em> way allude to Schiller’s own understanding of the mysteries of Egypt and origins of Mosaic Law, as well as how such sacred wisdom could have been corrupted over time by bad actors.</p>
<p>As far as the content of the mysteries is concerned, Schiller writes:</p>
<blockquote data-sanitized-class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
<p>“The ceremonies, associated with those mysterious images and hieroglyphs, and the hidden truths which lay hidden in these hieroglyphs and were prepared by those customs, were collectively understood under the name of the Mysteries. They had their seat in the temples of Isis and Serapis and were the model, subsequently supporting the mysteries in Eleusis and Samothrace, and in more recent times the order of Freemasons was formed.</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote data-sanitized-class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
<p>“It seems beyond doubt that the content of the most ancient mysteries in Heliopolis and Memphis, while in their uncorrupted states, was unity of God and refutation of paganism, and that the immortality of the soul was propounded therein. Regardless of which of these important insights were part of it, they called themselves observers or epopts because the recognition of a previously hidden truth can be compared with the transition from darkness to light, perhaps also because they really and actually looked at the newly recognized truths in sensory images.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The beliefs of the Epopts are described as follows:</p>
<blockquote data-sanitized-class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
<p>“The Epopts recognized a single, highest cause of all things, a primal force of nature, the essence of all beings, which was the same as the Demiurgos of the Greek sages. Nothing is more sublime than the simple grandeur with which they spoke of the Creator of the world. In order to distinguish him in a very decisive way, they didn’t give him a name at all. A name, they said, is merely a need for distinction; He who is alone has no need of a name, because there is no one with whom he could be confused. Under an old statue of Isis one read the words: “I am what is there,” and on a pyramid at Sais one found the ancient, strange inscription: “I am everything that is, that was, and that will be; no mortal man has lifted my veil.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>However, in the case of the Egyptian mysteries (as opposed to Moses’ mission) Schiller’s poem may also point to the ways in which true divine wisdom may be concealed or distorted, sometimes for noble reasons, some craven, and others outright evil.</p>
<blockquote data-sanitized-class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
<p>“But as unworthy members gradually forced their way into the circle of initiates, as the institution lost its initial purity, what was initially only a mere emergency aid, namely the secret, was gradually turned into the purpose of the institution, and thus supplanted by superstition. In order to purify the people and make them capable of receiving the truth, they sought their own advancement by misleading the people more and more and plunging them ever deeper into superstition. Priestly arts now took the place of those innocent, pure intentions, and the very institution that was supposed to preserve and carefully spread knowledge of the true and one God began to become the most powerful means of promoting the opposite, finally degenerating into a full-blown school of idolatry. Hierophants, in order not to lose control over minds and to always keep expectations tense, found it useful to hold off the revelation for longer and longer, which would forever remove all false expectations, and to restrict access to the sanctuary through all sorts of theatrical means to make trials more difficult. At last the key to the hieroglyphs and secret figures was completely lost, and now these were taken for the truth itself, which they were initially only intended to envelop.”</p>
</blockquote>
<h2 data-sanitized-class="wp-block-heading"><strong>The Mystery of Mysteries?</strong></h2>
<figure data-sanitized-class="wp-block-image size-full"><img data-recalc-dims="1" loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="567" height="351" data-attachment-id="27936" data-permalink="https://risingtidefoundation.net/2025/02/10/egypt-moses-and-the-mysteries-schillers-veiled-image-at-sais/sais-05/" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/risingtidefoundation.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/sais-05.jpg?fit=567%2C351&amp;ssl=1" data-orig-size="567,351" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta='{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}' data-image-title="sais 05" data-image-description data-image-caption data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/risingtidefoundation.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/sais-05.jpg?fit=300%2C186&amp;ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/risingtidefoundation.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/sais-05.jpg?fit=567%2C351&amp;ssl=1" src="https://i0.wp.com/risingtidefoundation.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/sais-05.jpg?resize=567%2C351&amp;ssl=1" alt data-sanitized-class="wp-image-27936"></figure><p>From the Double Temple of Isis and Serapis in Rome: Nilus, the river god of Egypt’s Nile, with cornucopia, wheatsheaf, sphinx, and crocodile</p>
<p>As the need for Moses’ intervention in Egypt made clear, sacred knowledge can often be corrupted, and its promise is often used as the favorite tool of a special “magician” class and gnostic priesthood whose aim is always to keep populations <em>mystified</em> in order to preserve its own worldly power.</p>
<p>Schiller describes the various tricks used to mystify initiates in ancient times, which parallel the kinds of techniques found in, say, modern-day Scientology, Masonic and Satanic lodges, and whole medley of “mystery” across time:</p>
<blockquote data-sanitized-class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
<p>“Inside the temple, the person to be initiated was presented with various sacred devices that expressed a secret meaning. Among these was a sacred chest, which was called the coffin of Serapis, and which in its origins was perhaps intended to be a symbol of hidden wisdom, but later, when the institution degenerated, it was used to perform “magic” tricks used by a deceptive priesthood. Carrying this chest around was the privilege of the priests or a special class of servants of the sanctuary, who were therefore also called <em>kistophors</em>. No one but the Hierophant was allowed to uncover this box or even touch it. One who had the audacity to open it is said to have suddenly gone mad.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But as Schiller recognized both in the times of Ancient Egypt and in his own days (as depicted in his story “The Ghost Seer”), the promise of secret knowledge, hidden wisdom or “gnosis” has always been one of the chief spiritual and psychological tools of power used by an “Elect” to manipulate populations and maintain control over the minds of people. Assuming one is prepared and wishes to lift the veil, he must without exception be ready to skip the many <em>magical</em> tricks and games of the magicians, ancient or modern, who have every reason to conceal and distort eternal truths for the sake of preserving their own temporal interests.</p>
<p>In conclusion, our young protagonist seemed to believe the Truth was something he could possess, perhaps exemplifying what Schiller referred to as “the vain, childish pride of wanting to exclusively possess the deity.” However, perhaps the reality is no one can possess <em>Truth</em>. Having once entered in its inner sanctums, one must choose to let Her possess him or face the fated consequences of prematurely breaching the temple. The fate of those who choose to bite off more than they can chew is already widely known.</p>
<h2 data-sanitized-class="wp-block-heading"><strong><em>David Gosselin</em></strong><em> is a poet, researcher, and translator in Montreal, Canada. He is the founding editor of </em><a href="https://thechainedmuse.substack.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><em>The Chain​ed Muse</em></a><em>. His personal Substack is </em><a href="https://ageofmuses.substack.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><em>Age of Muses</em></a><em>, where he publishes historical deep-dives, original poetry and a variety of writings for a new renaissance.</em></h2>
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guid: https://risingtidefoundation.net/?p=27942
title: Leibniz’s Theodicy of the Best of All Worlds- F. Uwe Alschner
author: ;Matthew Ehret
hash: ث�t�y�;4���tn`
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<div><img src="https://i0.wp.com/risingtidefoundation.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Leibniz-Theodicy-feature-2.jpg?fit=800%2C464&amp;ssl=1" data-sanitized-class="ff-og-image-inserted"></div><p>This Rising Tide Foundation presentation sheds light on the figure of Gottfried Leibniz (philosopher-scientist-statesman) as a cultural warrior of the 17-18th century who’s discoveries in science, economics and epistemology provide the gateway to many of the solutions plaguing humanity today. The plots, intrigues and the conspiracies of the oligarchy to thwart Leibniz’s work were also explored.</p>
<figure data-sanitized-class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div data-sanitized-class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"><iframe loading="lazy" title="Leibniz's Theodicy of the Best of All Worlds- F. Uwe Alschner" width="1000" height="563" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/frQSchYd86Q?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin">[embedded content]</iframe></div>
</figure><p>Speaker bio: Uwe Alschner is an Investigative Journalist and Historian writing about past and present. He was a contributor to Vera Sharav’s documentary “Never Again Is Now Global”. His substack is here, and his previous RTF lecture Schiller’s Aesthetical Letters in the Context of Confucian and Platonic Philosophy <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gd21XEBbYRI&amp;t=635s">can be watched here.</a></p>
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guid: https://risingtidefoundation.net/?p=27896
title: Reflections on Ideal Science and Art: Schiller’s “Archimedes and the Student”
author: ;Matthew Ehret
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<h2 data-sanitized-class="wp-block-heading">By David Gosselin</h2>
<p>In “Archimedes and the Student,” Friedrich Schiller offers a cautious reminder to all those living through times in which “<em>Utility</em> is the great idol of the age, to which all powers are supposed to be a slave and to which all talents are to pay homage.” For in these times, Schiller says, “The spiritual merit of art has no weight in this crude balance, and deprived of all encouragement, it disappears from the noisy market of the century.” While artists and scientists will always have to recognize and contend with the forces of utility, they need never worship it, or pay it homage, and they must ultimately serve as the creative bulwark against all such idol worship.</p>
<p>If artists and scientists are forced to worship utility and its many needy sisters, whether under the rule of some twenty-first century dystopian Technate<a href="https://ageofmuses.substack.com/p/reflections-on-ideal-science-and#_ftn1">[1]</a> and its technocratic prelates or at the altar of “efficiency” and Scientism, the fruits of true science and art are bound to rot on the vine, if said vines even remain fruitful, or aren’t altogether uprooted in favor of simulated flavors.</p>
<p>Thus, in his second letter on aesthetic education Schiller describes the function of <em>ideal art</em>, as opposed to those forms of artistic expression which ultimately operate under “the pressing need of matter.” Rather than bow down under the “tyrannical yoke” of utility, ideal art is neither its hostage nor its pupil, but a guide and teacher for the age, to draw its pupils upwards, rather then downwards in the worship of idols.</p>
<p>Schiller identified how <em>ideal</em> art’s borders found themselves narrowed by the utilitarian concerns of his age, including by those interested in reaping the fruits of modern science and technological progress. In this way, he revisits his theme from a scientific perspective, in the person of Archimedes of Syracuse. Thus, “Archimedes and the Student” is a poem about <em>ideal</em> science.</p>
<figure data-sanitized-class="wp-block-image"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto%2Cq_auto%3Agood%2Cfl_progressive%3Asteep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F79a8d412-0de5-4e1d-b69b-02e295898f69_1280x880.jpeg?ssl=1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" src="https://i0.wp.com/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456%2Cc_limit%2Cf_auto%2Cq_auto%3Agood%2Cfl_progressive%3Asteep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F79a8d412-0de5-4e1d-b69b-02e295898f69_1280x880.jpeg?w=1000&amp;ssl=1" alt title></a>
<figcaption data-sanitized-class="wp-element-caption"><a href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F46733a14-b0ee-4f50-b2ea-63abef6521af_1280x880.jpeg">Cicero Discovering the Tomb of Archimedes (1805) by Benjamin West</a></figcaption></figure><p>Archimedes was the last great living representative of the Classical Greek scientific tradition, until he was murdered by a Roman soldier during Rome’s siege of Syracuse in 212 0r 211 BCE. The murder of the great mathematician and inventor symbolized the death of the great Classical Greek scientific tradition stretching back to its early Ionian origins. While Rome would make use of many innovations and engineering feats to expand its empire later on, the spirit of pure science embodied by the likes of an Archimedes or Archytas had passed. It would not be until the time of the Italian Golden Renaissance that we would see this same creative spirit flourish with renewed fire, as we’ll see in our upcoming “Secrets of the Renaissance” series.</p>
<p>Notably, Archimedes was famous for his many mechanical innovations and visionary trinkets. However, the sagely architect was reputed to have only viewed his mechanical designs as the worldly incarnations of a more divine source.</p>
<figure data-sanitized-class="wp-block-image"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto%2Cq_auto%3Agood%2Cfl_progressive%3Asteep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb3c390f9-02c1-4d2e-9f0e-87d02dca2eaf_468x377.jpeg?ssl=1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" src="https://i0.wp.com/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456%2Cc_limit%2Cf_auto%2Cq_auto%3Agood%2Cfl_progressive%3Asteep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb3c390f9-02c1-4d2e-9f0e-87d02dca2eaf_468x377.jpeg?w=1000&amp;ssl=1" alt title></a>
<figcaption data-sanitized-class="wp-element-caption"><a href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff146ca7b-93ad-43c4-bb7a-edaf858ef007_1024x824.jpeg">A painting of the Claw of Archimedes by Giulio Parigi, taking the name “iron hand” literally, 1599-1600</a></figcaption></figure><p>Rather than echoing the crude mechanistic view of science as some kind of precise art aimed at generating immediate practical gains for oneself, the state, or business enterprise, Schiller adopts the Classical Greek spirit of science as typified by Archimedes the mathematician-architect-inventor. In him Schiller saw a sage whose inquiries and discoveries he never felt compelled to make under the threat of chains or demands of the world, but rather for the love of knowledge and desire to acquaint himself with the beauty of the <em>kosmos </em>itself. That higher love, in truth, is what made his many intricate designs possible in the first place.</p>
<p>Schiller’s poem reads as follows:</p>
<p><strong>Archimedes and the Student</strong></p>
<p>An inquisitive youth once met Archimedes the sage,<br>“Instruct me in the ways,” he said, “Of your most divine art,<br>which has borne so many a fruit for our own Syracuse,<br>And its great parapets and mighty battlements preserved!”<br>“You call this art divine? She is,” replied the master,<br>“But she was so, my son, before she served our fatherland.<br>If fruits are all you want from her, these mortals, too, afford;<br>But to court this goddess, seek not the woman in her.”</p>
<p><em>Translation © David B. Gosselin</em></p>
<p><strong>Original.</strong></p>
<p>Zu Archimedes kam ein wißbegieriger Jüngling,<br>»Weihe mich,« sprach er zu ihm, »ein in die göttliche Kunst,<br>Die so herrliche Frucht dem Vaterlande getragen<br>Und die Mauren der Stadt vor der Sambuca<a href="http://www.zeno.org/Literatur/M/Schiller,+Friedrich/Gedichte/Gedichte+(1789-1805)/Archimedes+und+der+Sch%C3%BCler#Fu%C3%9Fnoten_1"><sup>1</sup></a> beschützt!«<br>»Göttlich nennst du die Kunst? Sie ists,« versetzte der Weise,<br>»Aber das war sie, mein Sohn, eh sie dem Staat noch gedient,<br>Willst du nur Früchte von ihr, die kann auch die Sterbliche zeugen;<br>Wer um die Göttin freit, suche in ihr nicht das Weib.«</p>
<p>Schiller’s poem offers an insightful and biting variation on a theme echoed throughout many of his thought-poems, namely, the importance of approaching art, science and all higher domains of knowledge with a quasi-religious reverence, rather than for merely self-seeking or purely worldly i.e mortal aims. Rather than seeking to narrow and reduce one’s notions to make them more amenable to easy human understanding, we should be willing to expand and elevate our own conceptual powers, thereby allowing ourselves to become vehicles for ideals that aren’t merely earth<em>-bound</em>, but transcendent and immortal.</p>
<figure data-sanitized-class="wp-block-image"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto%2Cq_auto%3Agood%2Cfl_progressive%3Asteep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3c9c7da7-52db-43ae-824e-136f150dbcfd_288x343.png?ssl=1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" src="https://i0.wp.com/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456%2Cc_limit%2Cf_auto%2Cq_auto%3Agood%2Cfl_progressive%3Asteep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3c9c7da7-52db-43ae-824e-136f150dbcfd_288x343.png?w=1000&amp;ssl=1" alt title></a>
<figcaption data-sanitized-class="wp-element-caption"><a href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa7ef48c8-8adc-4f0e-b6e3-9af67a0db98e_800x955.png">Mirrors placed as a parabolic reflector to attack upcoming ships</a></figcaption></figure><p>As Frances Yates notes in her book, <em>Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition</em>, which takes an interest in the rediscovery of Greek science in the Renaissance:</p>
<blockquote data-sanitized-class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
<p>The Greeks with their first class mathematical and scientific brains made many discoveries in mechanics and other applied sciences but they never took whole-heartedly, with all their powers, the momentous step which western man took at the beginning of the modern period of crossing the bridge between the theoretical and the practical, of going all out to apply knowledge to produce operations. Why was this? It was basically a matter of the will. Fundamentally, the Greeks did not want to operate. They regarded operations as base and mechanical, a degeneration from the only occupation worthy of the dignity of man, pure rational and philosophical speculation.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Schiller makes similar observations in his fifteenth letter on the aesthetic education of man. There, he discusses the notion of divine <em>play</em> in respect to science as that state in which man finds himself when freedom and necessity, Beauty and Truth, are seamlessly wed:</p>
<blockquote data-sanitized-class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
<p>But this proposition is only unexpected in science; it has lived and acted in the art and feeling of the Greeks ages ago, its most distinguished masters; but they transferred to Olympus what should have been realized on the earth. Guided by the truth of this proposition, they let the seriousness and toil which furrow the cheeks of the mortals to vanish from the brows of the blessed gods, as well as the trifling pleasure which smoothes the empty visage. They freed the eternally contented beings from the chains of every function, every duty, every care, and made <em>idleness</em> and <em>indifference</em> the envied fortune of the gods: merely a more human name for the freest and most sublime existence. Both the material compulsion of natural laws and the spiritual compulsion of moral laws were lost in their higher concept of necessity, which embraced both worlds simultaneously, and from the unity of these two necessities true freedom first emerged.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In terms of science proper, the many “quantitative” arts derived from scientific inquiry provide myriad quantifiable benefits to a state and its citizens, but a genuine appreciation for the true drama that is the history of science reminds us that these “quantitative methods,” which would be elaborated and refined in the post-Renaissance world, were but the fruit of a sacred art which depended on the “qualitative” aspects of hypothesis-formation, imagination and creativity itself—which only freely emerge in <em>play</em>. So Schiller says, man <em>“is only wholly man, where he plays.”</em></p>
<figure data-sanitized-class="wp-block-image"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto%2Cq_auto%3Agood%2Cfl_progressive%3Asteep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa408095f-df05-412c-9ac2-00ff9a1f73af_468x253.jpeg?ssl=1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" src="https://i0.wp.com/substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456%2Cc_limit%2Cf_auto%2Cq_auto%3Agood%2Cfl_progressive%3Asteep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa408095f-df05-412c-9ac2-00ff9a1f73af_468x253.jpeg?w=1000&amp;ssl=1" alt title></a>
<figcaption data-sanitized-class="wp-element-caption"><a href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8c7a3149-8d85-4770-b8d0-86cbd8921df8_320x173.jpeg">A wall painting from the Uffizi Gallery, Stanzino delle Matematiche, in Florence, Italy, shows the Greek mathematician Archimedes’ mirror burning Roman military ships. Painted in 1600 by Gieulio Parigi. (Image credit: Giulio Parigi)</a></figcaption></figure><p>Schiller’s corpus is replete with notable warnings against trying to approach subjects of a divine nature with a baser mechanical spirit or childish (as opposed to <em>playful</em>) self-interest, as most of the world is inclined to do. In “The Veiled Image at Sais,” Schiller reminds us:</p>
<blockquote data-sanitized-class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
<p>“And let no man<br>Reach for that veil,” he said, “Until I do;<br>For, he who with an impure hand removes<br>That mystic veil and sacred covering,<br>‘He’ said the Godhead, will behold the Truth.”</p>
<p><strong>Original.</strong></p>
<p>»Kein Sterblicher, sagt sie,<br>Rückt diesen Schleier, bis ich selbst ihn hebe.<br>Und wer mit ungeweihter, schuld’ger Hand<br>Den heiligen, verbotnen früher hebt,<br>Der, spricht die Gottheit« – »Nun?« – »Der sieht die Wahrheit.«</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In the case of “The Veiled Image of Sais,” the subject is divine Truth itself, and the sorts of unimagined troubles encountered by one who too eagerly seeks to breach its mysterious gates, a theme which also re-emerges in Schiller’s remarkable short story, “The Ghost Seer.” In the case of “Archimedes and the Student,” the divine subject is science, personified by Archimedes, the last of the great Classical Greek scientific minds.</p>
<p>Returning to Archimedes’ student, we can observe that while our inquisitive young friend may be under the impression that if he can successfully woo the goddess and play his cards right, he can get something out of it—some benefit. But whilst science may often be abstracted in the feminine, our sage playfully chides the boy, “seek not the woman in her.” (suche in ihr nicht das Weib).</p>
<p>To the degree he thinks he can approach his subject in some mortal manner, or that this goddess behaves in ways familiar to the mortal world, the student will be surprised and dumbfounded, and likely only grow bitter as the goddess remains unyielding to his charms withholds her own.</p>
<p>After all, the muses of science are not much different than the muses of art, as any sound creative mind knows. As Schiller writes in his poem “The Singer’s Farewell”:</p>
<blockquote data-sanitized-class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
<p>The Muse is mute, with blushing virgin cheeks<br>She bows her head, and modestly draws near,<br>Then takes a step to hear you speak a word;<br>She hopes, but never looks ahead with fear.<br>Not for eyes drawn to gold and glinting things,<br>The Good’s approval is all she desires;<br>Only a soul trembling at Beauty’s touch<br>May win the honored role of crowning her.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And here, one is forced to reckon with the idea that one’s conceptual powers, that is, one’s creativity, are inextricably wound up in his moral and spiritual constitution. Those positivism-addled minds which insist on science being reduced to nothing but purely quantitative considerations inevitably blind themselves to the higher reality which allows the fruits of discovery to blossom. Thus, by distinguishing the worldly benefits of science from the “divine art” which engenders them, Schiller brings attention to the subjective state of mind which the scientist must be willing to ascend to if he wishes to truly serve this “goddess,” rather than simply pay homage to idols, or himself.</p>
<hr data-sanitized-class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"><p><a href="https://ageofmuses.substack.com/p/reflections-on-ideal-science-and#_ftnref1">[1]</a> The region over which a technocratic society would operate using thermodynamic energy accounting instead of a price system (money) method.</p>
<p><strong><em>David Gosselin</em></strong><em> is a poet, researcher, and translator in Montreal, Canada. He is the founding editor of </em><a href="https://thechainedmuse.substack.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><em>The Chain​ed Muse</em></a><em>. His personal Substack is </em><a href="https://ageofmuses.substack.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><em>Age of Muses</em></a><em>, where he publishes historical deep-dives, original poetry and a variety of writings for a new renaissance.</em></p>
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guid: https://www.uncaptured.media/p/israels-citizenship-law-is-based
title: Israel’s Citizenship Law is Based on a Huge Lie
author: ;Dan Cohen
link: https://www.uncaptured.media/p/israels-citizenship-law-is-based
hash: �JI��3~'�<Y��R
content:
<div><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/youtube/w_728,c_limit/-9BhGICHA6s" data-sanitized-class="ff-og-image-inserted"></div><p><span>Important interview and this is the bit that stuck most with me:</span></p>
<p><span>The US, France, Japan and any other country is the country of its citizens.</span></p>
<p><span>Israel, on the other hand, is the country of the Jewish people. If you are Jewish, Israel is your country even if you are not a citizen of it.</span></p>
<p><span>If you are an Israeli citizen but are not Jewish, Israel is not your country!</span></p>
<p><span>To the best of my knowledge, there is currently no other country like that anywhere on planet Earth (but happy to be corrected).</span></p>
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guid: https://www.uncaptured.media/p/israels-phyrric-victory-in-lebanon
title: Israel&amp;#039;s Pyrrhic victory in Lebanon
author: ;Dan Cohen
link: https://www.uncaptured.media/p/israels-phyrric-victory-in-lebanon
hash: �$��!� ��Y��z+
content:
<p>For Benjamin Netanyahu, Friday went perfectly.</p>
<p>Hours after the Israeli prime minister delivered a defiant speech to a mostly empty audience at the United Nations General Assembly, warplanes launched a massive attack on a block of residential buildings in the southern Beirut neighborhood of Dahiye.</p>
<p>Netanyahu’s office released a picture of him ordering the strike by telephone from New York, a statement meant to reinforce his image as a defiant leader of a country embattled and alone in a region dominated by ruthless enemies who act as proxies of Iran.</p>
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<p><span>In reality, the attack – branded Operation New Order – was possible only because of blanket support from the United States, which provided the</span> <a href="https://www.mako.co.il/news-military/036814c74a0e1910/Article-2d7c18da0873291026.htm" rel>83 one ton bunker buster bombs</a> <span>Israel used to reduce an entire block to smoldering rubble – a radical departure from the “targeted assassination” policy Israel had used to kill leaders of resistance groups in previous decades. </span></p>
<p>Hezbollah confirmed the death of its longtime secretary general Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Saturday morning.</p>
<p>Rumors of Nasrallah’s death elated the Israeli public, from Netanyahu’s staunchest critics on the left, to his most fervent supporters on the right. </p>
<p>Several videos showed Israelis celebrating the assassination of Nasrallah.</p>

<p><span>Source:</span> <a href="https://twitter.com/DrEliDavid/status/1839797946155442569" rel>https://twitter.com/DrEliDavid/status/1839797946155442569</a></p>

<p>Source: https://t.me/amitsegal/38317</p>

<p>Source: https://t.me/amitsegal/38322</p>

<p>Source: https://t.me/amitsegal/38323</p>
<p>Media pundits celebrated on live television, clinking cups of wine and saying cheers.</p>

<p>Ha’aretz journalist Chaim Levinson, careful to avoid praising Netanyahu, congratulated Israel’s minister of defense and chief of staff on X, writing “Well done to Galant, well done to Hertzi Halevi,” using a diminutive nickname for the latter. He also joked that he “Hopes that Hezbollah will learn lessons and enact term limits.”</p>


<p>While the assassination of Hassan Nasrallah is a tactical success for Israel, a major boost for the Netanyahu government’s image domestically and among its allies, and delivered an undoubtedly powerful psychological blow to the axis of resistance and its supporters, the feelings of elation the Israeli population is experiencing are sure to be short-lived.</p>
<p><span>Hezbollah has already</span> <a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-821191" rel>announced</a> <span>some replacements for at least one of its leadership positions, and the killings do nothing to address Hezbollah’s missile arsenal, which it has only partially deployed.</span></p>
<p><span>They do, however, prolong the displacement of the residents of northern Israel – the exact problem that the Netanyahu government</span> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/17/israel-war-goals-netanyahu-hamas-gaza-palestine" rel>pledged</a> <span>to solve when they escalated against Lebanon earlier this month, and ensures that more Israeli settlements in the north will be damaged by Hezbollah’s firepower.</span></p>
<p><strong>Brewing economic crisis</strong><span> </span></p>
<p><span>The same day that Israel launched the attack that killed Nasrallah, Moody’s credit rating agency</span> <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/moodys-hits-israel-with-2-notch-credit-downgrade-as-fighting-with-hezbollah-intensifies/" rel>downgraded</a> <span>Israel’s rating for the second time in its history. The first downrating, which came in February amid the Gaza war, lowered Israel’s credit rating one notch, from A1 to A2. The latest downrating kicked Israel’s rating down two notches, from A2 to Baa1 – described as “Lower medium grade.” Israel’s rating now hovers just two notches above “Non-investment grade speculative”, and the report maintains a negative outlook. Moody’s assessment was apparently written before the strikes that killed Nasrallah, suggesting an updated rating could be even lower.</span></p>
<p>“With heightened security risks (a social consideration), we no longer expect a swift and strong economic recovery as in previous conflicts,” Moody’s wrote. “In turn, a delayed and slower economic recovery in combination with a more prolonged and broader military campaign will more persistently impact public finances, further pushing out the prospect of a stabilization of the public debt ratio, compared to our earlier projections.”</p>
<p>“In our view, the significant escalation in geopolitical risk also points to diminished quality of Israel’s institutions and governance which have not fully mitigated actions detrimental to the sovereign’s credit metrics,” the rating agency cautions.</p>
<p><strong>Israel’s brain drain</strong></p>
<p><span>Meanwhile, newly-published Israeli government</span> <a href="https://www.themarker.com/allnews/2024-09-22/ty-article/.premium/00000192-192a-dc8b-a7b6-5f6f8d710000?gift=92386bf535ce42858634f3eae5284e72" rel>data</a> <span>show an unprecedented increase in emigration from Israel. </span></p>
<p>In 2023, as the Netanyahu government pushed for a controversial judicial overhaul that would have stripped power from Israel’s supreme court and attorney general and concentrated it in the ultra-right wing Knesset, 55,300 Israelis emigrated from the country, a record 46.4% increase from the previous year. </p>
<p>Preliminary data for the year 2024 shows an even more striking increase. According to the Israeli government, 40,600 people left the country for at least 275 days (just under ten months), an increase of 58.9% from the previous year. This period stretches back to the last quarter of 2024, which coincides with the October 7 attack. In other words, Israel’s population outflow was already at a record level prior to October 7, and skyrocketed even more in the first months of the war. As the war has expanded in 2024, this outflow is very likely to have at least maintained, and probably exacerbated. </p>
<p>This emigrant population is more highly educated than the general Israeli population, indicating a brain drain phenomenon is in full swing. Among emigres aged 20-90, 53.7% had 13 years of schooling or more, compared to 44.2% among the total population for the same age cohort.</p>
<p>While the killing of Nasrallah gives Netanyahu and the Israeli public a temporary jolt of militaristic and nationalistic ecstasy, it does nothing to address the fact that Israel is hemorrhaging its educated population, has failed to achieve any of its goals in Gaza while sacrificing prisoners of war and captives, is facing a severe economic crisis from which it is unlikely to recover, remains surrounded by an array of highly motivated and capable resistance forces, and remains dependent on a declining imperial power that is in the throes of internal political chaos as an election nears.</p>
<p>In short, the killing of Hasan Nasrallah is a Pyrrhic victory.</p>

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guid: https://www.uncaptured.media/p/palestine-and-the-forgotten-jewish
title: Palestine and the Forgotten Jewish October 7 Revolt
author: ;Dan Cohen
link: https://www.uncaptured.media/p/palestine-and-the-forgotten-jewish
hash: ���$�y�\V���c=�
content:
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</a>
<figcaption data-sanitized-class="image-caption"><span>A memorial of the October 7, 1944 revolt at the ruins of Birkenau’s Crematorium 4 Source:</span> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonderkommando_Revolt_in_Auschwitz#/media/File:Four4ruine.jpg" rel>Wikipedia</a></figcaption></figure></div>
<p>For more than a year, the Jewish prisoners of Birkenau, the largest extermination camp in the Auschwitz industrial murder complex, meticulously prepared for an uprising against their Nazi oppressors.</p>
<p>Their revolt, the only to ever take place at Auschwitz, would become a footnote in the vast history of World War 2 and the Nazi genocide in Europe, but today it holds an uncanny historical parallel.</p>
<p><span>They gathered materials, improvised weapons, and smuggled and stored explosives. Against all odds, they</span> <a href="https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/sonderkommando-uprising-auschwitz-birkenau" rel>planned</a> <span>to cut the death camp’s power supply, cutting communications among the SS officers and disabling the electric fence, and then to break through it and lead an escape.</span></p>
<p><span>The attack would be initiated by 200 men of the</span> <em>Sonderkommando</em> <span>“special work unit", Jewish slaves who were forced by Nazis to escort other Jews arriving on trains, undress them, walk them to the gas chambers, and after their murders, shave hair from their corpses, remove gold teeth and crematoria, burn their bodies in crematoria, grind their bones to dust, and then scatter the ashes to cover up the crime. The Sonderkommando</span> <span>were forced to partake in the extermination of their own people, strangers and loved ones alike.</span></p>
<p>“I have wanted to live through it to take a revenge for the death of my father, my mother, my beloved sister Nella,” a Greek Jew working at Birkenau’s Crematorium II wrote in a letter discovered decades later.</p>
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<figcaption data-sanitized-class="image-caption"><span>Sonderkommando in Auschwitz-Birkenau, August 1944. Source:</span> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonderkommando_Revolt_in_Auschwitz#/media/File:Auschwitz_Resistance_280_cropped.jpg" rel>Wikipedia</a></figcaption></figure></div>
<p>Four women had smuggled small amounts of gunpowder from the explosives factory they worked in and delivered it to the Sonderkommando, which they planned to use to destroy the crematoria. </p>
<p>The revolt had been delayed by months, but as the gassing at Birkenau came to an end, the Sonderkommando understood that they were slated to be murdered.</p>
<p>On October 7, 1944, the moment arrived. </p>
<p>The camp’s SS ordered the senior Sonderkommando men at Crematorium IV to prepare lists for “evacuation” to another camp, which they suspected meant they would be killed.</p>
<p>One hour before the planned 2 p.m. attack, the SS Staff Sergeant began to announce roll call for the prisoners who would be “transported.” As the Sonderkommando ignored his orders and threats, a Jew named Chaim Neuhof stepped forward. As the SS man reached for his gun, Neuhof shouted the word “Hurrah” and struck the Nazi’s head with a hammer, collapsing him to the ground. The other prisoners began to attack SS troopers with stones, knives, iron poles, axes, picks and crowbars, wounding several more.</p>
<p>Amid the uprising, several Sonderkommando men rushed into Crematorium IV’s barracks and set the mattresses on fire. The smuggled explosives they had stashed in the walls ignited, burning the building down.</p>
<p>Some prisoners cut through the death camp’s fence and escaped into the surrounding forest after having killed three SS men and wounding several more.</p>
<p>The prisoners of Crematorium II saw the dark smoke from the flames of Crematorium IV billowing into the sky and launched their own attack. They threw Nazis into the ovens and killed two SS men, then they cut through the fence to the women’s camp. They all escaped, making their way to the Polish village of Rajsko, where they hid in a granary.</p>
<p>It didn’t take long for the SS to locate the escaped prisoners. The Nazis set fire to the granary, killing everyone inside. Those who escaped from Crematorium IV into the nearby forest fought until they were overcome. Some 250 Jews, including the Sonderkommando resistance leadership, were killed in the uprising.</p>
<p>An SS investigation discovered the names of the four women who had smuggled the explosives: Regina Safirsztajn, Estera Wajcblum, Ala Gertner, and Róża Robota. The women were tortured for weeks and hanged in front of Birkenau’s prisoners. As the Nazis placed a noose around Robota’s neck, she erupted with a final cry of defiance: “Sisters, revenge!” </p>
<p>Exactly 79 years later, the Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip, often referred to as an open-air concentration camp, carried out their own uprising against their oppressors.</p>
<p>Like Birkenau’s Jewish prisoners, the Palestinian resistance carefully planned the uprising, though over a period of at least 10 years. They too used basic weaponry, which they had developed through their own ingenuity.</p>
<p>Like their 1944 Jewish homologues, the Palestinians also tore through the enclosures of their concentration camp. Even the Israeli occupation’s layered system of hi-tech fences, sensors, and barriers could not contain the Palestinian resistance. With basic Ak-47s and rocket-propelled grenades, they attacked and laid siege to military bases and settlements with the goal of bringing as many captives back into Gaza as possible, to be used to win the release of their imprisoned comrades (and civilians) and extract concessions from Israel. </p>
<p><span>Israel, shocked by the Palestinians’ bold and well-planned assault, enacted the</span> <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/how-israel-killed-hundreds-its-own-people-7-october/49216" rel>Hannibal Directive</a><span>, launching a frenzy of machine gun, helicopter, and tank attacks on its own settlements and vehicles heading to Gaza, killing untold hundreds of both Israeli captives and Palestinian militants.</span></p>
<p><span>At the same time, it began a military campaign of mass destruction and genocide against the Gaza Strip and its inhabitants – whom defense minister Yoav Gallant</span> <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/defense-minister-announces-complete-siege-of-gaza-no-power-food-or-fuel/" rel>called</a> <span>“human animals.” </span></p>
<p>Unlike the Nazi Holocaust, the Zionist genocide of Gaza has been documented and witnessed in real time by all of humanity via social media and smartphones. There remains no doubt across the world about the scale of the mass-murder and destruction that Israel has carried out.</p>
<p>With full backing from the Biden administration and consensus across the Israeli political spectrum, the Netanyahu government has expanded its war into Lebanon, where it has applied its strategy of complete annihilation and the targeting of civilians to both Beirut and the country’s south.</p>
<p>Yet unlike the Jewish uprising of October 7, 1944, which ultimately failed, the Palestinian attack of October 7, 2023 appears to have triggered an existential crisis in Israel, from which it cannot escape. The collapse of the State of Israel and its Zionist national ideology no longer appears to be a question of “if”, but a matter of “when.”</p>
<p>While some may shudder at the bloody images of the Hamas attack, there can be no doubt that, after 75 years of colonization, 56 years of occupation, 16 years of siege, and no diplomatic or political track to advance their cause, the Palestinians of Gaza were left with no choice but armed struggle. They, like the Jews of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, chose to fight for their lives and liberty, rather than to accept the fate that their oppressors had planned for them.</p>
<p>In due time, October 7, 2023 will come to be understood as the beginning of the Palestinian revolution and will be widely celebrated alongside the Russian, Chinese, Vietnamese, Algerian, Cuban, and Haitian Revolutions, among others, as a morally justified liberation struggle against an oppressor.</p>
<p>The only question is how many more will die in that process.</p>

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guid: https://www.uncaptured.media/p/us-authorizes-cia-mercenaries-to
title: US authorizes CIA mercenaries to run biometric concentration camps in Gaza Strip
author: ;Dan Cohen
link: https://www.uncaptured.media/p/us-authorizes-cia-mercenaries-to
hash: E��*s���d�7���L
content:
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<p>The Biden administration has approved the deployment of 1,000 CIA-trained private mercenaries as part of a joint U.S.-Israeli plan to turn Gaza’s apocalyptic rubblescape into a high-tech dystopia.</p>
<p>Starting with Al-Atatra, a village in the northwestern Gaza Strip, the plan calls to build what the Israeli daily Ynet calls “humanitarian bubbles” – turning the remains of villages and neighborhoods into tiny concentration camps cut off from their environs and surrounded and controlled by mercenaries.</p>
<p><span>This comes as Israel carries out daily massacres and ethnic cleansing in northern Gaza, enacting the proposal known as</span> <a href="https://mondoweiss.net/2024/10/what-is-the-generals-plan-israels-ongoing-ethnic-cleansing-of-northern-gaza-explained/" rel>The Generals’ Plan</a><span>,</span> <a href="https://www.ynetnews.com/article/sju3uabba" rel>originally</a> <span>crafted by former national security chief Giora Eiland to turn Gaza into “a place where no human being can exist.”</span></p>

<p>The plan, approved by White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, calls for the Israeli military to clear out pockets of Palestinian resistance, which it has failed to achieve, demonstrated by the recent killing of Israeli Colonel Ehasn Daksa, the highest ranking officer to lose his life in the year long war.</p>
<p><span>48 hours after stamping out resistance, they plan to erect separation walls around the neighborhood, forcing its residents, and no one else, to enter and exit using biometric identification under the CIA contractors’ control. Those who do not accept the biometric regime would be</span> <a href="https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/revealed-the-gaza-aid-plan-that-could-have-prevented-tragedy/" rel>refused</a> <span>humanitarian aid.</span></p>
<p><span>This plan, first</span> <a href="https://x.com/shlomieldar/status/1848358452122603809" rel>reported</a> <span>by Israeli journalist Shlomi Eldar, allocates $90 million for the residents to rebuild their homes, and calls to appoint a “local sheikh” to the position of "head of the council.”</span></p>
<p><span>The plan is a 21st century reboot of Washington’s infamous, failed Strategic Hamlet Program during its war in Vietnam in the 1960s, updated with a modern biometric program the US military-industrial complex has</span> <a href="https://www.rand.org/pubs/reprints/RP1194.html" rel>incorporated</a> <span>into its operations since, in particular, the beginning of the so-called “War or Terror.” (The U.S. has even created a little known agency called the Defense Forensics and Biometrics Agency to advance this).</span></p>

<p><strong>‘Uber for war zones’</strong></p>
<p><span>The company at the forefront of this plan is called Global Delivery Company, described in its</span> <a href="https://youtu.be/CmI87bZe4DU?si=7HTW_1vii4C6PTik" rel>promotional materials</a> <span>as a “Uber for war zones.” Israeli-American businessman Moti Kahana owns it and employs several top Israeli and American military intelligence officials, including retired U.S. Navy Captain Michael Durnan, retired U.S. Special Forces captain Justin Sapp, former Israeli military intelligence division head Yossi Kuperwasser, and former Israeli military chief intelligence officer David Tzur.</span></p>

<p><span>Kahana has played a key role in the dirty war against Syria in the 2010s and</span> <a href="https://youtu.be/5sfIl1XWhYM?si=cxJXjn6-0tywk0Xq" rel>worked</a> <span>with the CIA-backed</span> <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/syria-war-israel-charity-amaliah-fsa-idf-syrian-civilians-women-children-medical-treatment-a7469421.html" rel>Free Syrian Army</a> <span>to provide food and medical care to militants and civilians alike. GDC has also been involved in Ukraine, where it</span> <a href="https://www.jpost.com/international/article-749887" rel>collaborated</a> <span>with the Zionist organization, the American Joint Distribution Committee, to operate a refugee camp in Romania near its border with Ukraine. He has also been in negotiations to free the former Israeli military intelligence officer Elizabeth Tsurkov, who was</span> <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/what-we-know-about-elizabeth-tsurkov/38166" rel>detained</a> <span>in Iraq in 2023.</span></p>
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<figcaption data-sanitized-class="image-caption"><span>Moti Kahana on left. Source:</span> <a href="https://twitter.com/motikahana/status/1434982481992822786" rel>X</a></figcaption></figure></div>
<p><span>Kahana’s Gaza plan has been in the works since at least February, 2024. He</span> <a href="https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/revealed-the-gaza-aid-plan-that-could-have-prevented-tragedy/" rel>presented</a> <span>the plan to establish these electronic cantons – what</span> <em>Jewish News</em> <span>referred to as “gated communities” – to the White House, State Department, and Defense Department, as well as Netanyahu. U.S. officials did not respond. While the Israeli military had agreed, the Israeli prime minister shot it down. “What’s the rush?” he quipped.</span></p>
<p><span>The Israeli military has also been in</span> <a href="https://www.jewishpress.com/news/israel/idf/privatize-israel-contacted-us-security-company-to-monitor-the-netzarim-corridor/2024/08/15/" rel>talks</a> <span>with Kahana to deploy its mercenaries to secure the Netzarim corridor, which bisects the Gaza Strip.</span></p>
<p>The GDC’s CIA mercenaries would be in full control of humanitarian aid, thereby supplanting Hamas and ending its governance, they figure, achieving a long-term goal of the Israeli war.</p>
<p>“If the pilot goes through successfully, it will be the model for the rehabilitation of Gaza and will result in the suppression of Hamas's civilian control in the Strip,” notes Eldar.</p>
<p><span>The plan resembles a proposal published in the U.S. Department of Defense’s top journal, written by Likudnik think tanker Omer Dostri, who was</span> <a href="https://jewishinsider.com/2024/08/omer-dostri-benjamin-netanyahu-spokesman-joe-biden/" rel>appointed</a> <span>as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesperson in August 2024. </span></p>

<p>As I reported at the time, Dostri’s plan laid out four options for Gaza's future: 1) an installed collaborator regime, 2) the renewal of Palestinian Authority administration, 3) an international or regional mandate in Gaza, or 4) a long-term direct Israeli military occupation, which he described as the optimal choice.</p>
<p>However, as Hamas has maintained its civil control throughout Gaza and Israel has failed to defeat armed resistance groups, the Netanyahu government is relying on the U.S. to do its bidding.</p>
<p>The latest plan appears to be a combination of various elements from Dostri’s paper, involving a long-term Israeli military occupation in combination with an international mandate. While the proposal called for the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, or Saudi Arabia to assume civilian control over the Gaza Strip, that has failed to materialize, prompting the United States to approve deployment of CIA contractors.</p>
<p>While Israel has forced thousands of Palestinian civilians to march south, Gaza’s still formidable armed resistance may stifle these plans.</p>

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guid: https://www.uncaptured.media/p/join-my-new-subscriber-chat
title: Join my new subscriber chat
author: ;Dan Cohen
link: https://www.uncaptured.media/p/join-my-new-subscriber-chat
hash: �c?aK��P��� -
content:
<p>Today I’m announcing a brand new addition to my Substack publication: Uncaptured Media subscriber chat.</p>
<p>This is a conversation space exclusively for subscribers—kind of like a group chat or live hangout. I’ll post questions and updates that come my way, and you can jump into the discussion.</p>
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<p><strong><span>Get the Substack app by clicking</span> <a href="https://substack.com/app/app-store-redirect" rel>this link</a> <span>or the button below.</span></strong> <span>New chat threads won’t be sent sent via email, so turn on push notifications so you don’t miss conversation as it happens. You can also access chat</span> <a href="https://open.substack.com/pub/uncaptured/chat" rel>on the web</a><span>.</span></p>
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guid: https://www.uncaptured.media/p/dan-cohen-discusses-us-plans-for
title: Dan Cohen discusses U.S. plans for Gaza concentration camps with Kim Iversen
author: ;Dan Cohen
link: https://www.uncaptured.media/p/dan-cohen-discusses-us-plans-for
hash: ��6x\$�#U�-�_�
content:
<div><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/youtube/w_728,c_limit/HPNiUPaaLnM" data-sanitized-class="ff-og-image-inserted"></div><p><span>Hey Dan,</span></p>
<p><span>I have seen you on Redacted and I think you are probably right about the training ground in this horrible warzone scenario and that the camps and zones coming on time to all of us…</span></p>
<p><span>Please watch and please check this if it’s true?</span></p>
<p><span>Foerster, Heinz von, ed. Conference on Cybernetics (8th: 1951: New York, N.Y.) Cybernetics: Circular Causal and Feedback Mechanisms in Biological and Social Systems: Transactions of the Eighth Conference March 15-16, 1951. New York, N.Y. New York: Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation, 1952.</span></p>
<p><span>• This is but one of a series.</span></p>
<p><span>McCulloch, Warren Sturgis. Collected works of Warren S. McCulloch. Edited by Rook McCul- loch; with a preface by Heinz von Foerster; and contributions by M.A. Arbib... [et al.]. Salinas, Calif., U.S.A.: Intersystems Publications, 1989.</span></p>
<p><span>• Master of thinking out of the box.</span></p>
<p><span>Meadows, Dennis L., Donella Meadows, and others. The Limits to Growth. A Report for the Club of Rome's “Project on the Predicament of Mankind”. New York: Universe Books, 1972.</span></p>
<p><span>• Brought SD into the headlines, tried to save the world.</span></p>
<p><span>Nicolis, Gregoire, and Ilya Prigogine. Exploring Complexity: an Introduction. New York: W.H. Freeman, 1989.</span></p>
<p><span>• Direct from the masters of self-organization.</span></p>
<p><span>Club of Rome's "Predicament Of Mankind" project at MIT (1970 - 1972)</span></p>
<p><span>Club of Rome is an organization of intellectuals and business leaders whose goal is a critical discussion of pressing global issues. The Club of Rome was founded in 1968 at Accademia dei Lincei in Rome, Italy. It consists of one hundred full members selected from current and former heads of state and government, UN administrators, high-level politicians and government officials, diplomats, scientists, economists, and business leaders from around the globe. It stimulated considerable public attention in 1972 with its report titled: The Limits to Growth.</span></p>
<p><span>Dennis Meadows was director of the Club of Rome's "Predicament Of Mankind" project at MIT, which constructed the world model The Limits to Growth publication was based on.</span></p>
<p><span>Dennis Meadows Interview (2017) co-author of Club of Rome's Limits To Growth</span></p>
<p><span>   • Dennis Meadows: Earth ..</span></p>
<p><span><a href="https://youtu.be/VqDnUhoRAoM?feature=shared" target="_blank" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" data-sanitized-class="linkified">https://youtu.be/VqDnUhoRAoM?feature=shared</a></span></p>
<p><span><a href="https://julimination.wordpress.com/2023/12/07/one-earth-one-family-and-one-future-one-digital-public-infrastructure-" target="_blank" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" data-sanitized-class="linkified">https://julimination.wordpress.com/2023/12/07/one-earth-one-family-and-one-future-one-digital-public-infrastructure-</a></span></p>
<p><span><a href="https://julimination.wordpress.com/2024/01/27/state-of-fear-why-politicized-science-is-dangerous-2/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" data-sanitized-class="linkified">https://julimination.wordpress.com/2024/01/27/state-of-fear-why-politicized-science-is-dangerous-2/</a></span></p>
<p><span>2/</span></p>
<p><span><a href="https://julimination.wordpress.com/2024/05/03/covid-plans-include-family-separation-and-involuntary-quarantine-in-camps-2/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" data-sanitized-class="linkified">https://julimination.wordpress.com/2024/05/03/covid-plans-include-family-separation-and-involuntary-quarantine-in-camps-2/</a></span></p>
<p><span><a href="https://julimination.wordpress.com/2024/10/09/north-carolina-disaster-opens-door-for-lithium-land-grab/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" data-sanitized-class="linkified">https://julimination.wordpress.com/2024/10/09/north-carolina-disaster-opens-door-for-lithium-land-grab/</a></span></p>
<p><span>Fema in north Carolina have camps being set up and moving to emergency centers they used in war time moments in locations across US</span></p>
<p><span><a href="https://rumble.com/v5j3yb9-exposed-lady-in-nc-goes-to-fema-camp-and-this-happens-video.html?e9s=src_v1_ucp" target="_blank" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" data-sanitized-class="linkified">https://rumble.com/v5j3yb9-exposed-lady-in-nc-goes-to-fema-camp-and-this-happens-video.html?e9s=src_v1_ucp</a></span></p>
<p><span><a href="https://rumble.com/v5j3xm3-fema-exposed-activating-emergency-klls-event-in-us.html?e9s=src_v1_ucp" target="_blank" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" data-sanitized-class="linkified">https://rumble.com/v5j3xm3-fema-exposed-activating-emergency-klls-event-in-us.html?e9s=src_v1_ucp</a></span></p>
<p><span><a href="https://youtu.be/ZH_Skm-OkZs" target="_blank" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" data-sanitized-class="linkified">https://youtu.be/ZH_Skm-OkZs</a></span></p>
<p><span>U.N. Taking Over City Councils Across America</span></p>
<p><span>2009 <a href="https://youtu.be/BCpSQH6zhh0?feature=shared" target="_blank" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" data-sanitized-class="linkified">https://youtu.be/BCpSQH6zhh0?feature=shared</a></span></p>
<p><span>2011 Stacy Lynne educates „We Are Change Colorado“ about the International Council on LOCAL Environmental Initiatives(ICLEI). An arm of the United Nations Agenda 21 and how they are using "GREENWASHING" to take over America.</span></p>
<p><span><a href="https://youtu.be/_1q_YdTMVQg?feature=shared" target="_blank" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" data-sanitized-class="linkified">https://youtu.be/_1q_YdTMVQg?feature=shared</a></span></p>
<p><span>Wat happens to her after she goes viral with the information about agenda21?</span></p>
<p><span><a href="https://youtu.be/hsyw3NtTFLE?feature=shared" target="_blank" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" data-sanitized-class="linkified">https://youtu.be/hsyw3NtTFLE?feature=shared</a></span></p>
<p><span>Common Core Expose by Stacy Lynne</span></p>
<p><span><a href="https://youtu.be/AXWP0OpQtxw?feature=shared" target="_blank" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" data-sanitized-class="linkified">https://youtu.be/AXWP0OpQtxw?feature=shared</a></span></p>
<p><span><a href="https://youtu.be/TxYYXez7rsg?feature=shared" target="_blank" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" data-sanitized-class="linkified">https://youtu.be/TxYYXez7rsg?feature=shared</a></span></p>
<p><span><a href="https://rumble.com/v2olqwt-depopulationfema-camps-compiled-2015-documentary-agenda-21.html?e9s=rel_v2_pr" target="_blank" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" data-sanitized-class="linkified">https://rumble.com/v2olqwt-depopulationfema-camps-compiled-2015-documentary-agenda-21.html?e9s=rel_v2_pr</a></span></p>
<p><span>Have you ever see a burning tree from inside out?</span></p>
<p><span><a href="https://julimination.wordpress.com/2024/06/30/burn-back-better/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" data-sanitized-class="linkified">https://julimination.wordpress.com/2024/06/30/burn-back-better/</a></span></p>
<p><span><a href="https://julimination.wordpress.com/2023/09/12/maui-and-the-lack-of-humanity-update/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" data-sanitized-class="linkified">https://julimination.wordpress.com/2023/09/12/maui-and-the-lack-of-humanity-update/</a></span></p>
<p><span><a href="https://rumble.com/v3bp2u2-fema-caught-maui-fires-watch-this.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" data-sanitized-class="linkified">https://rumble.com/v3bp2u2-fema-caught-maui-fires-watch-this.html</a></span></p>
<p><span>No lie in the world, even if it is told so nobly, has the right to be declared the only truth with a targeted PR campaign and by a million repetitions! And certainly not if it produces intentional collateral damage to these extents and abuses innocent children for political purposes!</span></p>
<p><span><a href="https://rumble.com/v51hlsc-if-ever-there-was-a-time-for-humanity-to-wake-up-now-is-the-time-vandana-sh.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" data-sanitized-class="linkified">https://rumble.com/v51hlsc-if-ever-there-was-a-time-for-humanity-to-wake-up-now-is-the-time-vandana-sh.html</a></span></p>
<p><span>Respect Me&amp;You &amp; PlanetBlue 🕊</span></p>
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guid: https://www.uncaptured.media/p/disgraced-cia-director-looks-to-cash
title: Disgraced CIA director Looks to Cash-In on Gaza Concentration Camps
author: ;Dan Cohen
link: https://www.uncaptured.media/p/disgraced-cia-director-looks-to-cash
hash: ֹ �*k獪�n(�2
content:
<p><span>Since the first months of the war, retired U.S. Army general and</span> <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2015/04/23/politics/david-petraeus-sentencing/index.html" rel>disgraced</a> <span>former CIA director David Petraeus has been leading a push for Israel to turn the Gaza Strip into a series of concentration camps – what he calls “gated communities.”</span></p>
<p><span>He has made numerous appearances at think-tank conferences, penned</span> <a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/israel/israel-war-regime-change-repeating-americas-mistakes-david-petraeus" rel>articles</a><span>, and given interviews to top U.S.</span> <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/10/23/david-petraeus-israel-gaza-strategy-sinwar/" rel>foreign policy</a> <a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/israel/israel-war-regime-change-repeating-americas-mistakes-david-petraeus" rel>publications</a> <span>to promote the concept of a counterinsurgency strategy similar to the one that he led in Iraq.</span></p>

<p><span>“We’re going to create gated communities – essentially. It’s an accurate description, but with much more effective walls. In fact, we would tell them – I said ‘Look, you know it costs a lot of money to be in a gated community in Florida, and we’re going to give it to you for free here in Fallujah,’” he joked at a September 24</span> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/live/XPNNs2khrP8?si=6e7-er40iVP5Ptsv" rel>appearance</a> <span>at Rice University’s Baker Institute, eliciting audible laughs from the audience.</span></p>
<p>Petraeus explained that this would involve transforming the Gaza Strip’s tiny territory into a grid of walled off neighborhoods, cleansed of resistance and accessible to residents only with biometric identification cards that would allow CIA mercenary guardians to identify Hamas members.</p>
<p>“The way we’re going to do this is we’re going to come from the north and go a mile into the territory, put an east-west wall,” he explained. “Do it in a single night, we used to put walls up in many locations that length every single night. Put a couple north-south walls, you have three or four gated communities… And then repeat the process. You cut entry control points in, you control those very carefully, you cut them in from Israel as well.” </p>
<p>“Rinse and repeat, you just keep doing this,” he said, noting that an even more intensified version would be applied to the densely populated Gaza City. “You're gonna have to slice this up in different ways.”</p>
<p>This would pave the way for an international force to occupy Gaza – what Petraeus calls “peace.”</p>
<p><span>“If that's done, then you'll see Arab forces willing to come in,” he argued in an October 23 Foreign Policy</span> <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/10/23/david-petraeus-israel-gaza-strategy-sinwar/" rel>interview</a><span>. “You could bring in Palestinian security forces that are trained and equipped by the United States and the Jordanians at the International Police Training center. You'll see NGOs and international organizations in there. And only if there is security can you do what I've laid out, and only then is there a better future for the Palestinian people with the possibility that Palestinians in Gaza can live side by side with their Israeli neighbors in peace.”</span></p>
<p><span>Petraeus was more candid in a December 2023</span> <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2023/12/01/transcript-gen-david-h-petraeus-us-army-ret-co-author-conflict/" rel>interview</a> <span>with Washington Post columnist David Ignatius.</span></p>

<p>“There's a lot of talk about an international force that eventually would have Arab participation, initially might be a kind of coalition of the willing: Scandinavian nations, other nations that are prepared to go in, but they're going to need to have very tough rules of engagement. They're going to need to shoot people.”</p>
<p>“Exactly,” Petraeus replied.</p>
<p>While Petraeus portrays the concentration camps as benevolence towards Palestinians, he stands to reap financial benefits from such an arrangement. </p>
<p>Since 2013, he has been a partner at the behemoth private investment firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts &amp; Co., known as KKR, and is chairman of its Global Institute.</p>

<p><span>KKR financial</span> <a href="https://fskkrcapitalcorp.gcs-web.com/static-files/26b7704f-94c1-40ab-967b-5732e86a11ea" rel>disclosures</a> <span>show that it has invested heavily in Constellis, which is the private security firm that Mordechai “Moti” Kahana, the Israeli-American owner of Global Delivery Company, who heads the plan, has contracted for design and implementation.</span></p>
<p><a href="https://www.constellis.com/" rel>Constellis</a> <span>is the current iteration of the notorious mercenary outfit Blackwater (later renamed Academi) and counts several other similar companies among its assets, including Triple Canopy Olive Group and The Development Initiative, Centerra, AMK9, OMNIPLEX, Strategic Social and Edinburgh International. Its promotional video on Youtube shows an image of the Al-Aqsa compound in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem, although there is no evidence that the company is active there.</span></p>

<p>In recent days, Kahana has revealed more details of the plan in a series of interviews.</p>

<p>Speaking to Israeli army radio on October 22, Kahana said that he brought the proposal to the Netanyahu government on October 8, 2023, the day after the Hamas attack on southern Israel. He later arranged a meeting between Israeli officials and an American general who took part in the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, whom he does not identify but is presumably Petreaus.</p>
<p><strong>Counterinsurgency doctrine</strong></p>
<p>Kahane explains that he took the biometric concentration camp concept from the U.S. experience in Iraq, where Petraeus played a leading role.</p>
<p>Indeed, the U.S. military, facing an Iraqi insurgency, walled off neighborhoods in cities including Baghdad, Fallujah, and Ramadi, among others, in order to pacify the population and control territory.</p>

<p>According to former U.S. Marine Matthew Hoh, who deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan and worked in the State Department and Pentagon, this strategy is called “population control” and is a fundamental aspect of counterinsurgency doctrine. He traces this strategy back to the British occupation of Malaysia and notes how it has failed to achieve its stated goals of stamping out resistance in nearly every case, including Iraq and Afghanistan.</p>
<p>Ironically, the U.S. leaned on Israel’s expertise honed in its occupation of Palestinian territory. Hoh recalls that Israel provided his company with armored D-9 bulldozers, which were used to create massive dirt berms around Iraqi cities as part of the population control strategy.</p>
<p>Kahane was also sure to portray the concentration camps in the most benevolent light possible.</p>
<p>“It’s not a ghetto, whoever wants to get in or get out, no problem,” he said..” You clean the neighborhood, you just make sure that whoever returns to the neighborhood goes through biometric check, doesn’t carry arms, and this way there is no problem with starting to live normal lives in that neighborhood.”</p>
<p><span>Kahana reiterated in an</span> <a href="https://www.ynet.co.il/news/article/yokra14123716" rel>interview</a> <span>with the Israeli media outlet</span> <em>Ynet</em> <span>that “very soon all of Gaza will want to look like this.” </span></p>


<p><strong>‘War addicts’</strong></p>
<p><span>The man tasked with designing the concentration camp archipelago is Justin Sapp, a recently retired U.S. army colonel whose resumé boasts of leading a CIA paramilitary unit that spearheaded the 2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. He was repeatedly deployed there and across the Middle East throughout his three decade career before joining the private sector as a</span> <a href="https://badgersix.org/the-team/sapp/" rel>consultant</a> <span>for Constellis.</span></p>
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<figure><a target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F06da4d14-65f4-49cb-a31f-a920705456a3_1440x959.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM" rel data-sanitized-class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img">
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<figcaption data-sanitized-class="image-caption"><span>Justin Sapp, on the bottom right, leading a CIA paramilitary Afghanistan in 2001:</span> <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/JSOCarchive/comments/y685y3/cias_team_alpha_more_info_in_the_comment/" rel>Reddit</a></figcaption></figure></div>

<p>By using multiple layers of contractors, there is no mechanism for reporting abuses or crimes, all but guaranteeing legal immunity for the company’ personnel.</p>
<p>“In the military, you have a chain of command through which things can be reported,” Hoh says. “Within contracting companies, there’s no such thing. So the likelihood of anything actually being exposed or known is very limited.”</p>
<p>As for the CIA mercenaries to be sent, Kahana explained that they are all former special forces from the U.S., British, French, and Kurdish militaries. The British will lead, headed by an MI6 figure only identified as “David.” All of them have at least 25 years of experience and are, as he described them, “war addicts.”</p>
<p><strong>‘A new sheriff has arrived’</strong></p>
<p>Asked how his company would respond to attempts to pillage aid from GDC delivery trucks, Kahana said a first team would use crowd-control methods including firing rubber bullets, spraying water, and shooting in the air. If those fail, a second team will be brought in, which he implied will kill Palestinians who resist its authority.</p>
<p>“If something happens, we will convey the message to the residents of Gaza: You don't want to mess with us. They will understand that a new sheriff has arrived in the city,” he boasted before returning to softer language. “But what is important is that there is food, a bakery, and a kindergarten. Let's prepare for the day after in Gaza.”</p>
<p>“They can dress it up and say this is a way of making sure that the insurgents, the terrorists – whatever they want to call them – they can find them and grab them and separate them from the population,” Hoh explained. But the reality is that it’s the way of making sure the population knows that you're in control and you're trying to dominate and subjugate them. That's essentially what the Israelis would be doing here.”</p>
<p><span>Kahana emphasizes that despite the insistence of top Israeli officials (like Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich), Israeli soldiers, who are specialists in “cleaning,” should not be tasked with distributing aid because they are more likely to kill Palestinian civilians. He recalls the February 29th</span> <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/palestinians-seeking-food-aid-killed-israel-starves-gaza" rel>flour massacre</a> <span>when Israeli forces killed at least 112 civilians and injured 760 more as they awaited in the pre-dawn hours to receive food aid.</span></p>
<p>“The IDF now entered and tried to do it several months ago,” Kahana said.  “And little children – you distribute candies – they jump on those trucks, I’m not talking about the thieves, I’m talking about the citizens, they jump on those trucks, and try to steal the aid for various reasons. Now, what does the IDF do? It defends itself. The IDF defends itself – 100 people were killed, and that’s not good for anybody in the world.”</p>
<p><span>However, contractors in Iraq were notoriously trigger-happy and carried out grisly killings of civilians. Most famous was the 2007 killing</span> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/23/us/blackwater-verdict.html" rel>Nisour Square massacre</a> <span>in which Blackwater mercenaries opened fire on a crowded intersection, killing 17 Iraqis.</span></p>
<p><span>Former Biden administration official Jeremy Konyndyk, who now is president of Refugees International, criticized the plan in</span> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/oct/22/israel-mulls-using-private-security-contractors-to-deliver-aid-to-gaza" rel>comments</a> <span>given to</span> <em>The Guardian</em><span>.</span></p>
<p>“There’s a reason that humanitarians don’t operate this way,” he said. “The US, during the peak ‘war on terror’ era, occasionally experimented with military contractors and this kind of militarized aid delivery, and it was always a disaster… U.S.-funded contractors that took an armed security approach got hit a lot because they were seen as combatants.”</p>
<p><strong>Will Netanyahu agree?</strong></p>
<p>While Petraeus insists that the concentration camp plan is in the interest of Gaza’s Palestinians, he admitted that it benefits Israel, which continues to suffer unprecedented casualties to its enlisted army and reserves, with 771 killed and more than 11,000 injured since Oct. 7, 2023.</p>
<p>“Right now, despite requests from the Israeli Defense Force chief of staff and the minister of defense for such a vision, it has not been forthcoming,” Petraeus remarked at the Rice University event.</p>
<p><span>Although the Biden administration and top Israeli military figures have, according to Kahana, approved of the concentration camp plan, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains quiet. This is likely due to his desire to avoid any kind of ceasefire, a hidden agenda which even U.S. Senator Chris Murphy has</span> <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/netanyahu-power-avoiding-gaza-ceasefire-chris-murphy" rel>acknowledged</a><span>. National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who are key allies in his coalition, have</span> <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz55y6k0p5go" rel>threatened</a> <span>to pull out and collapse the government if Netanyahu were to agree to a ceasefire. This would jeopardize a 2023</span> <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/23/middleeast/israel-judicial-reforms-prime-minister-law-intl/index.html" rel>law</a> <span>guaranteeing him legal immunity from numerous corruption charges and could put him behind bars.</span></p>
<p><span>Instead of Netanyahu himself publicly rejecting it, low-ranking Likud MK Amit Halevi</span> <a href="https://t.me/amithalevi/445" rel>attacked</a> <span>the foreign-run concentration camp concept as an unacceptable affront to Israeli sovereignty.</span></p>
<p><span>“The idea that a foreign entity will be entrusted with our security is national bankruptcy,” he</span> <a href="https://t.me/amithalevi/444" rel>wrote</a> <span>on Telegram. “The introduction of foreign security forces to deal with national security matters in the territories of our homeland will severely damage Israel's sovereignty, set a very dangerous precedent and make it very difficult for the IDF soldiers to deal with the threat that will undoubtedly grow in these places.”</span></p>
<p>As the Israeli military commits daily massacres and suffers unprecedented casualties with no strategy and no end in sight, its leadership, which is reliant on the U.S., is desperate for an offramp. However, with Netanyahu at the helm, his personal interests appear to come first, spelling a likely quicker doom for the State of Israel. </p>

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guid: https://www.uncaptured.media/p/drone-captures-haitian-police-execution
title: Drone Captures Haitian Police Execution of an Innocent Man
author: ;Dan Cohen
link: https://www.uncaptured.media/p/drone-captures-haitian-police-execution
hash: \�����!��Uj'�
content:
<div><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1200,h_600,c_fill,f_jpg,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd0d60752-98dc-47df-b150-d8cd49fbf05c_1242x1220.png" data-sanitized-class="ff-og-image-inserted"></div><p>Watch the full video:</p>

<p>On the morning of Sat., Nov. 9, 2024, officers of the Haitian National Police (PNH) in an armored car, without provocation, shot, robbed, and then ran over the body of a man who had willingly stopped to talk to them near the intersection of Rue des Casernes and Avenue Jean-Jacques Dessalines (Grande Rue) in downtown Port-au-Prince.</p>
<p>In the shocking video, the victim first approaches the black, armored car – emblazoned with the identifier COB-9 – in a manner that suggests he bore no enmity for or fear of the officers inside. After relaxedly communicating with them as he stood about four feet from the vehicle’s half-opened door, the man was suddenly shot in the stomach by an officer inside the vehicle. As the victim fell backwards onto the road, a hooded police officer emerged from the armored car with his rifle. The wounded man attempted to flee, but the cop shot him to death, splattering the victim’s blood all over the road’s pavement.</p>
<p>The armored car then began to drive away, but then the shooter again got out of the vehicle, walked over to the prone corpse, and removed an item from the victim’s pants’ pocket. As the police vehicle backs up, the masked cop casually tosses the stolen item into the armored car, climbs back in, and the vehicle drives away. The armored car soon returns and purposefully drives over the legs of the victim’s corpse.</p>

<p><span>This ghastly scene was filmed by a drone operated by the</span> <em>Viv Ansanm</em> <span>(Live Together) coalition of armed groups which is battling the combined forces of the PNH and the Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission, a UN-sanctioned mercenary force of about 430 mostly Kenyan cops paid for primarily by Washington.</span></p>
<p>The killing is emblematic of massacres occurring on a vast scale in recent months throughout metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince, as police officers – usually from armored cars –  kill Haitian civilians, men and women, young and old, without reason, warning, provocation, or cause, according to dozens of witnesses and news reports.</p>
<p>A PNH officer explained to France24 in May that they operate under the assumption that there are no civilians in impoverished neighborhoods.</p>
<p><span>“We don't need to know if they're armed or not. We just fire,” he</span> <a href="https://twitter.com/dancohen3000/status/1795954617483678105" rel>remarked</a><span>.</span></p>
<p><span>In the spring and early summer, in an area called Maïs Gâté near the Health Ministry (MSPP) and the Port-au-Prince International Airport, the PNH began duping the bodies of dozens of unidentified victims, mostly young men – two, three, and four at a time – according to numerous reports which</span> <em>Haïti Liberté</em> <span>received. Witnesses and</span> <em>Haïti Liberté</em> <span>reporters were too frightened to take photographs or video of the dumping ground, out of fear they would end up in it, but word of the killing field soon spread and the dumping there was stopped.</span></p>

<p><span>This spring, the</span> <em>Viv Ansanm</em> <span>released another drone video of a young man emerging from a police vehicle in which he was apparently being held. As he unhurriedly walked away from the car, the officers shot him in the back from the vehicle, killing him.</span></p>

<p><span>On Jun. 29, in a long on-line recording, Jeff “Gwo Lwa” Larose of the</span> <em>Viv Ansanm</em> <span>affiliate in Canaan, condemned the PNH for indiscriminately gunning down residents of his neighborhood and other communities. The victims included market women and innocent pedestrians walking along the roads, he said. He claimed the cops were wantonly sowing terror in many poor neighborhoods.</span></p>
<p>In a declaration the same day, Haitian journalist Ralph Laurent of “Tele Live Tanbou Verite A” said:</p>
<blockquote readability="36">
<p><span>“Before the Kenyan mercenaries arrived in the land of Jean-Jacques Dessalines this month, a bunch of foreign and local mercenaries spent more than three months murdering young women and young men in our various neighborhoods, accusing them of being ‘gang members.’ Remember, if your National ID card is marked Delmas 2, Delmas 4, Delmas 6 until at least Delmas 24, UTAG-10 [the PNH’s Anti-Gang Unit] and other mercenaries condemn you to death. After they kill you, they stuff you inside a their tank. If you are a woman, they rape you before they shoot you, and they do this even if you are a man because they have gays among them too. After that, they smash your head and burn your body. When UTAG-10 eats us like this, the police already have several media lined up to say that we are criminals ... and also to make us believe that</span> <em>Viv Ansanm</em> <span>murdered us.</span></p>
<p><span>         For example: A UTAG-10 armored car and other invisible mercenaries shot at a public transportation bus last month in the Fontamara area. At least six passengers died on the spot. Although there were among the victims some who filmed the scene on the spot and confirmed that it was a [PNH] armored car that carried out the massacre, just like Delmas 60, 95 and 103,</span> <em>Radio Tele Métronome</em><span>, which I always respect, declared that it was the</span> <em>Viv Ansanm</em> <span>thugs who fired on the bus and killed the passengers...</span></p>
<p>         Popular neighborhood people, my message to you, ... is that the criminal mercenaries of Kenya and [the PNH] UTAG-10... will massacre outside of your neighborhoods...  Don't let the Kenyan mercenaries and PNH criminals who are armed tools of the embassies in [Haiti] destroy our bodies...  Let the world see that the plan was indeed a genocide in our neighborhoods...”</p>
</blockquote>
<p><span>On Sep. 30, 2024, a UN</span> <a href="https://documents.un.org/doc/undoc/gen/n24/243/73/pdf/n2424373.pdf" rel>panel of experts presented their report</a> <span>to the UN Security Council in which they stated that in only three months, from Jan. 1 to Mar. 31, 2024, “590 civilians unrelated to gangs were killed or injured during police operations against gangs. There have been also reports of extrajudicial executions by police officers in the areas of Cité Soleil, Drouillard, and Vincent in the commune of Port-au-Prince.”</span></p>
<p>Meanwhile, the PNH Inspector General has “opened 23 investigations of alleged human rights violations committed by the police, [but] so far none of those cases have been concluded.”</p>
<p><span>As Jake Johnston, a researcher specializing on Haiti at the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) noted in</span> <a href="https://x.com/JakobJohnston/status/1852036970894999962" rel>an Oct. 31 tweet</a><span>: “Lost amid the focus on combating Haiti's armed groups has been the increase in extrajudicial killings by police.”</span></p>
<p><span>The PNH is</span> <a href="https://www.uncaptured.media/p/ex-us-special-envoy-for-haiti-dan" rel>trained and funded</a> <span>by the U.S., which has sent numerous tactical and armored vehicles, including the one the killer cop rode inside. Just five days before the killing took place, the U.S.</span> <a href="https://www.state.gov/united-states-delivers-additional-equipment-for-the-haitian-national-police-and-multinational-security-support-mission-in-haiti/" rel>delivered</a> <span>its most recent shipment of armored personnel carriers, which was sent to support the MSS troops.</span></p>
<p>Today’s latest video dramatically shows the terrible and arbitrary carnage being unleashed through “extrajudicial killings” and cold-blooded murder against Haitian civilians by the very “forces of order” which claim to be protecting their lives and security.</p>

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guid: https://www.uncaptured.media/p/israel-headed-for-collapse-warns
title: "Israel Headed For Collapse", Warns Blacklisted Israeli Official Ofer Cassif
author: ;Dan Cohen
link: https://www.uncaptured.media/p/israel-headed-for-collapse-warns
hash: 6h�o9���>��J:
content:
<div><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/youtube/w_728,c_limit/AvFi6MMsiHE" data-sanitized-class="ff-og-image-inserted"></div><p><span>I am heartened that individual Israelis like Mr. Cassif even exist, much less continue to try to counterbalance that lunatic extreme Zionist right so prominent there -- and here in the US. His clear message that the current Israeli govt. and its policies is bad for everyone -- Israelis, Palestinians, and Americans makes so much sense. Kudos to him and to you Dan for the interview.</span></p>
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<p>Expand full comment</p>
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guid: https://www.uncaptured.media/p/dan-cohen-addresses-the-un-security
title: Dan Cohen Addresses the UN Security Council: Hands off Haiti
author: ;Dan Cohen
link: https://www.uncaptured.media/p/dan-cohen-addresses-the-un-security
hash: q� S� ���UG�*�
content:
<div><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/youtube/w_728,c_limit/LuytjsTZZ1w" data-sanitized-class="ff-og-image-inserted"></div><p>I had the honor to speak at the UN Security Council on Monday, November 20 regarding U.S. plans for a UN military intervention in Haiti.</p>
<p>Watch my speech or read the text below:</p>


<p>Distinguished members of the council,</p>
<p><span>I am an investigative journalist and documentary filmmaker, one of the few independent journalists to report from Haiti in recent years. My most recent film is titled</span> <em>Haiti: Intervention versus Revolution</em><span>.</span></p>

<p>The UN Security Council is being asked to approve deployment of another so-called “peace-keeping” mission to Haiti. Let us recall that Haiti has been under US and UN occupation for 21 of the last 30 years, from 1994 to 2000 by UNMIH, UNSMIH, UNTMIH, and MIPONUH, and from 2004 to 2019 by MINUSTAH and MINUJUSTH. However, those two plus decades of occupation never achieved their stated goals. In fact, UN soldiers, under the familiar pretext of “combating gangs”, in one operation that became emblematic of their conduct, wantonly fired some 22,000 bullets into the slum of Cite Soleil, killing residents in their ramshackle houses. These UN troops were also responsible for crimes against the Haitian people, from the introduction of cholera to the rape of children, for which they were never held accountable. Now, the Haitian people are being asked once again to let UN troops occupy their nation.</p>
<p>Yet it is clear that there is another agenda at play. The United States’ government, my government, seeks to impose its will on Haiti, with or without the approval of this council. </p>
<p>Don’t take my word for it. In December 2021, China and Russia voted to limit the Security Council mandate for U.S. trainers to the Haitian National Police to only 9 months rather than the 12 months that Washington sought. This outraged U.S. Senator Robert Menendez, then the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. During a briefing to his committee, Menendez rhetorically asked a State Department official: “Why do you think China and Russia stopped us?”. He answered his own question, saying “They want total unrest in the hemisphere, that’s their whole purpose in this hemisphere, is creating instability.”  He added, “At some point we have to think about how we circumvent that.”</p>
<p>In 2023, Washington indeed found a way to circumvent the UN Security Council when it was prevented from once again using this body, as it did in 1994 and 2004, to further its interventionist goals in Haiti. It concocted the Multinational Security Support mission or MSS, which U.S. representative to the UN, Jeffrey Jeffrey DeLaurentis, called “a new way of preserving global peace and security.”</p>
<p>Indeed, the United States has enacted legislation known as the Global Fragility Act, which might be better described as the Crumbling Empire Act. This bipartisan legislation, signed into law by President Trump in 2019 and continued under the Biden administration, seeks to combine military force and soft power to push back against the growing influence of China and Russia, which Washington, still applying its long-discredited imperial Monroe Doctrine, sees as a threat. Haiti is the pilot case for this new strategy, which the U.S. openly stated it seeks to apply to so-called fragile states around the world, beginning with Libya, Mozambique, Papua New Guinea, and Benin, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Guinea, and Togo in West Africa.</p>
<p>This intervention assumes that the Haitian people are incapable of solving their own problems, an insulting notion to those who know Haitian history. An intervention would be, first and foremost, a violation of Haitian sovereignty. But even more so, it would empower and support the forces which have carried out the most heinous acts of violence in Haiti today.</p>
<p>My outlet, Uncaptured Media, in collaboration with Haiti Liberte, recently published footage we obtained of a Haitian National Police officer summarily executing an unarmed civilian, picking his pocket, and then running over his corpse with an armored vehicle provided by the United States, ostensibly to fight gangs. This is not an isolated incident. A September 30 report by the Panel of Experts established pursuant to Security Council resolution 2653 addressed to the Security Council’s President noted that “From 1 January to 31 March 2024, 590 civilians unrelated to gangs were killed or injured during police operations against gangs.” The document cited reports that police officers had carried out extrajudicial executions as seen in the footage we published.</p>

<p>One must also note that the Kenyan police forces sent to Haiti under the auspices of the MSS have an abysmal human rights record going back decades.</p>
<p><span>A 2009</span> <a href="https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/657905" rel>report</a> <span>by the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions</span></p>
<p><span>Philip Alston found “death squads operating on the orders of senior police officials” killed ​1,113 people following Kenya’s December 2007 elections. Little has changed since then. Even the U.S. State Department’s</span> <a href="https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Kenya-2018.pdf" rel>Kenya 2018 Rights Report</a> <span>noted “unlawful and politically motivated killings; forced disappearances; torture; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions.”</span></p>
<p>Any UN operation would work hand in glove with these corrupt and murderous Haitian and Kenyan police officers.</p>
<p>The proposed UN intervention, like that of the MSS, is a violation of Haitian law and the UN Charter. Haiti has no elected government, but a regime effectively appointed by the outgoing U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken. Interim president Leslie Voltaire, who most recently requested UN military intervention, has zero legal authority, like former Prime Ministers Ariel Henry, Garry Conille, and now Didier Fils-Aimé . Not one of them has ever been elected nor holds any respect or legitimacy outside of Washington DC and this building. That such an illegal intervention is even being considered is an insult and affront to the Haitian people.</p>
<p>From my numerous visits to Haiti in recent years, it is clear that the overwhelming majority of the Haitian people do not want another intervention. In 2023, as this council considered whether to bless the MSS, Haitian popular organizations hung banners across main thoroughfares in Port-au-Prince saying no to intervention and reminding the population of the cholera outbreak it introduced.</p>
<p>The only sector of the Haitian population that supports an intervention are the tiny few who stand to benefit from it, who disproportionately live outside of the country, and who profit from the status quo of controlled chaos. They are the corrupt oligarchs who funded the armed groups to do their bidding and have now lost control of them, and those who Washington’s soft power arms like USAID and the National Endowment for Democracy have groomed as its preferred future leaders of Haiti.</p>
<p>For anyone who naively believes that foreign armed intervention would benefit the Haitian people, one only needs to examine the results of previous interventions, and remember the old adage, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”</p>
<p>In fact, this proposed intervention could be worse. Haiti is awash in military-grade weapons imported from the United States, thanks to lax gun laws and porous borders. An intervention would meet stiff armed resistance and would cause bloodshed to the Haitian population and among UN troops. Haiti’s history is marked by its resistance to foreign invasions from its glorious 1804 revolution to today.</p>
<p>Haitian sovereignty must be respected, but first re-established by the Haitian people themselves. Let Haitians, not foreign bodies, choose their leaders and their future.</p>
<p>Thank you.</p>

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guid: https://www.uncaptured.media/p/how-zionism-confuses-cons-and-co
title: How Zionism Confuses, Cons and Co-opts, with Rabbi Yaakov Shapiro
author: ;Dan Cohen
link: https://www.uncaptured.media/p/how-zionism-confuses-cons-and-co
hash: s�ɧ�1v��p����
content:
<div><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/youtube/w_728,c_limit/c13fKfvsiyc" data-sanitized-class="ff-og-image-inserted"></div><p><span>Sorry, but all Zionist crimes against Palestine are committed by jews. In trying to be woke and save jews from taking responsibility for the nation they created and funded and insist is part of their Jewish identity, you are only making the problem worse.</span></p>
<p><span>There are some anti-zionist jewish groups in America but they are a very tiny part of the mainstream jewish population - and importantly without political and financial power. Until millions of US jews become anti-zionist and step up to oppose Israel, their nation will continue committing genocide.</span></p>
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guid: https://antonchaitkin.substack.com/p/on-this-anniversary-of-the-jfk-assassination
author: ;Anton Chaitkin
link: https://antonchaitkin.substack.com/p/on-this-anniversary-of-the-jfk-assassination
hash: :/��ڂg��~��+s
title:
On this Anniversary of the JFK Assassination: Keep Trump Safe for Regime Change to Pull Back from World War

content:
<div><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:best,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fantonchaitkin.substack.com%2Ftwitter%2Fsubscribe-card.jpg%3Fv%3D-1560552167%26version%3D9" data-sanitized-class="ff-og-image-inserted"></div><p><strong>Next Monday, I will hold a Zoom session, entitled “Understanding the Transatlantic Threat to Trump’s Life.”</strong></p>
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<p><strong>Monday, November 25, 2024, at 7 PM Eastern Time.</strong></p>
<p>This emergency zoom session will be for paid subscribers …</p>

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guid: https://antonchaitkin.substack.com/p/the-pattern-in-our-history-warns-4cf
author: ;Anton Chaitkin
link: https://antonchaitkin.substack.com/p/the-pattern-in-our-history-warns-4cf
hash: �X2�ˣ���>M��8�
title:
The Pattern in Our History Warns Us: The Danger of Assassination Comes from the Transatlantic Regime.

content:
<div><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:best,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fantonchaitkin.substack.com%2Ftwitter%2Fsubscribe-card.jpg%3Fv%3D-1560552167%26version%3D9" data-sanitized-class="ff-og-image-inserted"></div><h3 data-sanitized-class="subtitle">By Anton Chaitkin; Copyright Anton Chaitkin</h3><div dir="auto" data-sanitized-class="body markup">
<p>Tonight, in an emergency Zoom session with paid subscribers, I will present the pattern from history showing that the danger of assassination comes from the transatlantic regime.</p>
<p>Let me briefly introduce the nature of the grave danger we face.</p>
<p>A transatlantic regime now controls the governments of America, Britain, most of Western Europe, the British domi…</p>
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guid: https://antonchaitkin.substack.com/p/the-pattern-in-our-history-warns-1d6
author: ;Anton Chaitkin
link: https://antonchaitkin.substack.com/p/the-pattern-in-our-history-warns-1d6
hash: �\��Dr��:��f?�
title:
The Pattern in Our History Warns Us: The Danger of Assassination Comes from the Transatlantic Regime.

content:
<div><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:best,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fantonchaitkin.substack.com%2Ftwitter%2Fsubscribe-card.jpg%3Fv%3D-1560552167%26version%3D9" data-sanitized-class="ff-og-image-inserted"></div><h3 data-sanitized-class="subtitle">Use the link below to participate in the Session</h3><div dir="auto" data-sanitized-class="body markup">
<p>By Anton Chaitkin; Copyright Anton Chaitkin</p>
<p>At 7 P.M Eastern time tonight, in an emergency Zoom session with paid subscribers, I will present the pattern from history showing that the danger of assassination comes from the transatlantic regime.</p>
<p>Let me briefly introduce the nature of the grave danger we face.</p>
<p>A transatlantic regime now controls the governme…</p>
</div>

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guid: https://antonchaitkin.substack.com/p/eight-dying-presidents-and-the-transatlantic
title: Eight Dying Presidents and the Transatlantic Regime -- the Present Danger.
author: ;Anton Chaitkin
link: https://antonchaitkin.substack.com/p/eight-dying-presidents-and-the-transatlantic
hash: 4��ț���J ��*�
content:
<div><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:best,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fantonchaitkin.substack.com%2Ftwitter%2Fsubscribe-card.jpg%3Fv%3D-1560552167%26version%3D9" data-sanitized-class="ff-og-image-inserted"></div><h3 data-sanitized-class="subtitle">Last night's emergency session was evidently hacked, blowing the meeting apart and effectively preventing my presentation.</h3><div dir="auto" data-sanitized-class="body markup">
<p>By Anton Chaitkin; Copyright Anton Chaitkin</p>
<h4 data-sanitized-class="header-anchor-post"><strong>Message from Anton Chaitkin: Last night (11/25/2024) the perfectly reliable Zoom platform failed. I was prepared to blow the whistle on the threat of assassination of the President-elect, and show from history the character of the threat and the identity of the perpetrators.</strong></h4>
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<h4 data-sanitized-class="header-anchor-post"><strong>Under the circumstances,</strong> <em>I am going …</em></h4>
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guid: https://antonchaitkin.substack.com/p/a-song-for-the-holidays
title: A Song for the Holidays
author: ;Anton Chaitkin
link: https://antonchaitkin.substack.com/p/a-song-for-the-holidays
hash: ��2]�\2~�ry�\�
content:
<div><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1200,h_600,c_fill,f_jpg,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F17165f4c-74de-4c5f-9549-a3fb6fac886e_1280x853.jpeg" data-sanitized-class="ff-og-image-inserted"></div><h3 data-sanitized-class="subtitle">By Anton Chaitkin; Copyright Anton Chaitkin</h3><div dir="auto" data-sanitized-class="body markup">
<p>Note from Anton Chaitkin:</p>
<p><span>A family Thanksgiving has given me a short respite from my race to finish production of Volume Two of</span> <em>Who We Are</em><span>. Target date for publishing is Christmas.</span></p>
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<p>Anton’s Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.</p>
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</div>
</div>
<p>In place of history this week, I have …</p>
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guid: https://www.uncaptured.media/p/watch-the-syria-deception-al-qaeda
title: Watch "The Syria Deception: Al-Qaeda Goes to Hollywood"
author: ;Dan Cohen
link: https://www.uncaptured.media/p/watch-the-syria-deception-al-qaeda
hash: ��"aƕ�~Y] ���z
content:
<div><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1200,h_600,c_fill,f_jpg,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3c61019c-2ca3-440a-b5f5-c4e96b75dc1d_2756x1746.png" data-sanitized-class="ff-og-image-inserted"></div><p>In order to affect regime change in Syria, the U.S. government and its media organs carried out the most sophisticated and expensive propaganda campaign in history.</p>
<p>I documented several aspects of it in the 2018 mini-documentary, “The Syria Deception: Al-Qaeda Goes to Hollywood.”</p>
<p><span>The documentary’s relevance has been renewed as the same imperialist forces are now collapsing the Syrian state while Washington’s media organs give the foreign-sponsored extremist organizations attacking Syria a</span> <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/06/middleeast/syria-hts-al-jolani-profile-intl/index.html" rel>makeover</a><span>.</span></p>

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guid: https://antonchaitkin.substack.com/p/to-regain-self-government-make-america
title: To Regain Self-Government, Make America Intelligent Again
author: ;Anton Chaitkin
link: https://antonchaitkin.substack.com/p/to-regain-self-government-make-america
hash: �߮� 8F������
content:
<div><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1200,h_600,c_fill,f_jpg,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F738a1010-6a8d-4a96-9e0f-7b43997661d6_320x180.jpeg" data-sanitized-class="ff-og-image-inserted"></div><h3 data-sanitized-class="subtitle">By Anton Chaitkin; Copyright Anton Chaitkin</h3><div dir="auto" data-sanitized-class="body markup">
<h2 data-sanitized-class="header-anchor-post">To Regain Self-Government, Make America Intelligent Again</h2>
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<p>By Anton Chaitkin; Copyright Anton Chaitkin</p>
<p>Assume that the President-elect survives to his inauguration on January 20.</p>
<p>Assume, further, that war has not been so escalated as to render the incoming President powerless to interfere.</p>
<p>Then the administration’s urgent mission will be to restore Constitut…</p>
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guid: https://www.uncaptured.media/p/syrian-revolutionaries-figures-welcome
title: Syrian "Revolutionaries" Welcome Israel as it Invades Country They Claim to Have Liberated
author: ;Dan Cohen
link: https://www.uncaptured.media/p/syrian-revolutionaries-figures-welcome
hash: �цm��}�!)�]�I
content:
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<figure><a target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Faf7a58fb-5627-4c90-afc7-ea3ad047d635_1248x615.png" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM" rel data-sanitized-class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img">
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<p>On December 8, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham leader Abu Mohammed Al-Jolani walked through the cool Damascus air, before prostrating himself in prayer.</p>

<p>Al-Jolani and his band of Turkish-backed insurgents had just conquered the Syrian cities of Aleppo, Homs, Hama and Damascus, the seat of Bashar Al-Assad’s government.</p>
<p>Their lightning offensive faced little resistance from Syria’s military forces, which inexplicably retreated, leaving observers on all sides shocked by the sudden collapse of an army that had spent more than a decade successfully defending against an array of foreign-backed mercenaries and extremist groups.</p>

<p>Around the same time as Al-Jolani strode through Damascus, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared in an outpost on Mount Hermon in the occupied Golan Heights that retreating Syrian forces had just evacuated.</p>
<p>“This collapse is a direct result of our forceful action against Hezbollah and Iran, Assad’s main supporters,” Netanyhahu boasted, which “set off a chain reaction of all those who want to free themselves from this tyranny and its oppression.”</p>

<p>Indeed, the Syrian state’s sudden collapse represents a major victory for Israel in its war against the regional array of counter-hegemonic forces known as the “Axis of Resistance.”</p>
<p>Al-Jolani’s HTS, which terrorized Syrian religious minorities and imposed a strict Wahhabist interpretation of Islamic law in its stronghold of Idlib, is now set to take over areas of Syria formerly under the control of the Assad government, while others remain under the control of U.S.-backed Kurdish separatists and the U.S. military itself.</p>
<p><span>While Israeli officials have sought in the past to downplay the</span> <a href="https://macleans.ca/news/world/why-israel-is-saving-syrian-rebels/" rel>well-documented</a> <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/syrian-rebel-leader-thanks-pm-for-standing-by-wounded/" rel>links</a> <span>between Israel and opposition forces in Syria, with Assad out of power, the veil is now being lifted.</span></p>
<p><span>Speaking with</span> <em>Jewish Insider</em><span>, Brigadier General (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser, former Israeli military intelligence chief and Director General of Israel’s Strategic Affairs Ministry , now a senior research fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs and the Misgav Institute for National Security,</span> <a href="https://jewishinsider.com/2024/12/israel-syria-assad-damascus-russia-turkey/" rel>admitted</a> <span>that the danger from putschist forces in Syria to Israel “exaggerated.”</span></p>
<p>“Their first mission is to stabilize Syria, and Israel is not the central question they are addressing,” he added.</p>
<p><span>Kuperwasser appears to be downplaying what are, in reality, positive relations between the new Syrian regime and Israel. On Monday, Dec. 9, Israel occupation forces</span> <a href="https://x.com/ytirawi/status/1866144626119184679" rel>patrolled</a> <span>the southern Syria village of Quneitra in a non-armored vehicle, demonstrating the total comfort they enjoy.</span></p>

<p><span>Days before, a Syrian “rebel”</span> <a href="https://x.com/angeloinchina/status/1865683637531971864" rel>appeared</a> <span>on Israel’s national television channel Kan 11 to encourage Israeli investment and friendly relations.</span></p>
<p>Tel Aviv university lecturer Dina Lisnyansky remarked that because of relations between Israel and Turkey, HTS may see “Israel not as a potential enemy but as a potential ally to a new Syria.”</p>
<p>HTS is heavily backed by NATO member Turkey whose leader, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has fiercely condemned Israel for its ongoing genocide in Gaza and claimed to have cancelled trade agreements, but continues to export goods and Azerbaijani oil, fueling Israel’s war machine.</p>

<p><span>The Times of Israel</span> <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/syrian-rebel-commander-urges-israel-to-support-uprising-strike-iran-backed-forces/" rel>published</a> <span>an interview with a “rebel commander” of the Free Syrian Army – a loosely affiliated patchwork of militias that have long served as what analyst Sam Heller in 2017</span> <a href="https://tcf.org/content/commentary/america-already-lost-covert-war-syria-now-official/" rel>called</a> <span>a “weapons farm for larger Islamist and jihadist factions” – who fought alongside HTS in Aleppo.</span></p>
<p>“We are open to friendship with everyone in the region – including Israel. We don’t have enemies other than the Assad regime, Hezbollah, and Iran. What Israel did against Hezbollah in Lebanon helped us a great deal. Now we are taking care of the rest,” the commander told them, dismissing concerns about HTS’s radical ideology.</p>
<p>Asked if he is in contact with any Israeli officials, he declined to comment. “I will only say that we are thankful to Israel for its strikes against Hezbollah and against the Iranian infrastructure in Syria, and we hope that after the fall of Assad, Israel will plant a rose in the Syrian garden and will support the Syrian people, for the benefit of the region.”</p>
<p>He then called on Israeli warplanes to launch more attacks.</p>
<p>“Israel should consider striking forces backed by Iran wherever it sees them. We are trying to block them on the roads and ambush them, but Israel should also act from the air.”</p>
<p><span>However, Israel has focused on bombing Syria itself, wiping out military infrastructure including the country’s air force, naval fleet and air defenses, to ensure the beleaguered country can not defend itself, and</span> <a href="https://x.com/swilkinsonbc/status/1865801146050199582" rel>killing civilians</a> <span>in the process.</span></p>
<p>Nedal Al-Amari, an opposition figure who cheered on the HTS takeover, complained that Israel continued to bomb after Assad’s departure.</p>
<p><span>“There is no excuse for Israel to target the newly liberated territories now,” he</span> <a href="https://x.com/nedalalamari/status/1865886351419121825" rel>wrote</a> <span>on X. “In the new Syria, we are not a hostile country, and therefore Israel must stop these strikes.”</span></p>
<p><span>“I'm one of the people who defended Israel’s right to destroy Hezbollah because it is a threat to the entire region, I will now stand with all my strength against this Israeli advancement in Syria,” he</span> <a href="https://x.com/nedalalamari/status/1866090448621580332" rel>added</a> <span>in another post, seemingly unaware that Israel had just obliterated Syria’s military capabilities.</span></p>
<p><span>Israeli plans do not stop as destroying Syria’s military. Settler leader Daniella Weiss has opened a social media</span> <a href="https://x.com/suryashelno" rel>account</a> <span>called “Syria Is Ours”, dedicated to expanding the Greater Israel project into the newly conquered territory.</span></p>
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</a></figure></div>
<p><span>If Israel has a rival in post-Assad Syria, Israel’s so-called “experts” believe it is Qatar, which has long been a</span> <a href="https://www.thetimes.com/article/qatar-funnelled-millions-of-dollars-to-nusra-front-terrorists-in-syria-x5rnbsr3l" rel>patron</a> <span>of HTS, formerly known as the Al-Nusra Front.</span></p>
<p>“Before Qatar gets in and invests economically and ideologically, we have to try to create as many connections as possible with all of the factions,” Lisnyansky said.</p>
<p>Kuperwasser anticipates “positive potential” among the various factions vying for power in Syria that seek to be “good neighbors to Israel.”</p>
<p>“What happens next is a big question… There is negative and positive potential. Whether the positive potential is realized depends on [Israel’s] caution and the cleverness with which we act,” he added.</p>
<p><span>At the Atlantic Council, which serves as NATO’s unofficial think tank, former U.S. intelligence officer Jonathan Panikoff</span> <a href="https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/experts-react/experts-react-rebels-have-toppled-the-assad-regime-whats-next-for-syria-the-middle-east-and-the-world/" rel>wrote</a> <span>that Israel should “seek out a quiet, private engagement with emerging leaders.</span></p>
<p>“If Israel wants to better ensure its security in the north, it should reach private, serious agreements with a new Syrian government that the country won’t be used to transfer weapons to Hezbollah to rebuild the group.”</p>
<p>While Turkey, Israel, and Qatar jockey for position in the chaos of post-Assad Syria, Mordechai Kedar, an influential Israeli academic, urged Saudi Arabia to invade Qatar and depose the ruling family as a prelude to collapsing Iran.</p>
<p><span>“Today, after the oppressed Syrian people have proven their ability to successfully confront the axis of evil, it is time to implement the Saudi plan to invade the State of Qatar to expel the Al Thani family and rid the world of their evil. Iran will sit idly by as it did nothing to save Sinwar, Nasrallah and Assad. Iran is finished, and it is time to eliminate its lackeys,” he</span> <a href="https://x.com/kedar_mordechai/status/1865650113013858783" rel>wrote</a> <span>on X.</span></p>
<p>With the black flag of Al-Qaeda flying over Damascus, a long-standing neoconservative dream is realized, providing the U.S. with a renewed pretext for its illegal occupation, and driving the region into further disarray. With Israel swallowing up more land, the elation among Assad’s opponents will likely be short-lived.</p>

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guid: https://www.uncaptured.media/p/western-intelligence-agencies-prepare
title: Western Intelligence Agencies Prepare for Sham ‘Justice’ Operations Against Former Assad Officials
author: ;Kit Klarenberg
link: https://www.uncaptured.media/p/western-intelligence-agencies-prepare
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<figcaption data-sanitized-class="image-caption"><span>Hayat Tahrir al-Sham militants drag a toppled statue of former Syrian president Hafez al-Assad following the government’s fall. Source:</span> <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nbc4i.com%2Fnews%2Fu-s-world%2Fsyrian-government-falls-to-fast-moving-rebels-ending-50-years-of-iron-rule-by-the-assad-family%2F&amp;psig=AOvVaw3huC6Zu1UvImdIrLqw2R4O&amp;ust=1734100823858000&amp;source=images&amp;cd=vfe&amp;opi=89978449&amp;ved=0CBgQjhxqFwoTCMiompC7oooDFQAAAAAdAAAAABAU" rel>NBC</a></figcaption></figure></div>
<p><span>In the immediate wake of the Syrian government’s abrupt collapse, much remains uncertain about the country’s future. While longtime leader Bashar Assad has</span> <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/live/cwy8xzxe0w7t" rel>sought refuge</a> <span>in Moscow, most of his government and its military, security, and intelligence apparatus</span> <a href="https://apnews.com/article/syria-insurgents-aleppo-iran-iraq-militia-12341a6c15a772e207a1b5513c11f8fd" rel>remains in Damascus</a><span>. Calls for reconciliation between officials and the predominantly foreign “opposition” abound, but the prospect of show trials for state apparatchiks is high. After all, elements of Anglo-American intelligence have been planning for such an eventuality since before the Syrian civil war even started.</span></p>
<p><span>In</span> <a href="https://syrianobserver.com/EN/resources/35872/whos_who_mapping_of_documentation_groups_in_syria.html" rel>May 2011</a><span>, just weeks after the crisis began, the Commission for International Justice and Accountability (CIJA) was birthed by shadowy NATO state contractors,</span> <a href="https://www.ark.international/" rel>ARK</a> <span>and</span> <a href="https://www.tsamota.com/" rel>Tsamota</a><span>. Its first act was to train handpicked Syrian “investigators, lawyers, and activists in basic international criminal and humanitarian law…enabling [them] to link state and non-state actors to underlying criminal acts.” Dedicated “teams of investigators according to their regions” - including Aleppo, Hama, Homs, and Idlib - were created, “and equipped with field investigative kits.”</span></p>

<p><span>Their objective was to gather evidence of alleged war crimes committed by Syrian government forces, in support of a “domestic justice process in a future transitional Syria.” We must ask ourselves how such a project came to be before the Syrian army was</span> <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-syria-ambush/syria-to-send-in-army-after-120-troops-killed-idUKTRE7553AI20110606" rel>formally deployed</a> <span>by Damascus, in response to the</span> <a href="https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/02/rfk-jr-why-arabs-dont-trust-america-213601/" rel>foreign-fomented crisis</a> <span>that commenced in mid-March 2011 particularly given that bringing officials to trial in a “future transitional Syria” was wholly contingent on all-out regime change.</span></p>
<p>The timing of CIJA’s launch is a palpable indication that foreign actors were laying foundations for that overthrow outcome from the very first days of Syria’s “peaceful revolution,” before full-blown civil war had erupted. Given their affiliations, ARK and Tsamota were well-placed to know in advance of Western governments’ designs to forcefully topple the Assad government. Fourteen years later, with the Syrian state in ruins, it may be time for their dormant, long-standing plan to at last be activated.</p>
<p><strong>‘Regime Change’</strong></p>
<p><span>Founded by</span> <a href="https://thegrayzone.com/2021/04/07/bbc-white-helmets-mayday-uk-intelligence/" rel>MI6 journeyman</a> <span>Alistair Harris, ARK, “</span><a href="https://www.ark.international/who-we-are" rel>an international development company</a><span>,” was one of a</span> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/03/how-britain-funds-the-propaganda-war-against-isis-in-syria" rel>constellation of contractors</a><span>, staffed by military and intelligence veterans, employed by British intelligence at a cost of many millions to conduct covert</span> <a href="https://thegrayzone.com/2020/09/23/syria-leaks-uk-contractors-opposition-media/" rel>psychological warfare</a> <span>campaigns in Syria, from the initial days of the crisis. The aim was to destabilize Assad’s government, convince the domestic population, international bodies, and Western citizens that genocidal CIA and MI6-backed militant groups pillaging the country were a “moderate” alternative, and deluge media the world over with pro-opposition propaganda.</span></p>
<p>Under this operation’s auspices, ARK founded and ran numerous ostensibly independent opposition media outlets targeting Syrians of all ages, while tutoring and equipping countless local “citizen journalists”, teaching them “camera handling, lighting, sound, interviewing, filming a story…video and sound editing…voice-over, scriptwriting,” and “graphics and 2D and 3D animation design.” The firm’s students were also instructed in practical propaganda theory, such as “target audience identification, media narrative analysis and monitoring, behavioral identification/understanding, campaign planning, behavioral change, and how communications can influence it.”</p>
<p><span>The media operation represented a highly-evolved and modernized version of the U.S. government’s program in the 1980s to train Afghan mujahideen to document or manufacture Soviet crimes, as Dan Cohen reported for</span> <em>Behind The Headlines</em><span>.</span></p>

<p>Such was ARK’s intimate proximity with anti-Assad elements that it boasted in leaked submissions to the Foreign Office of being entrusted by Western governments to develop a dedicated Office for Syrian Opposition Support. This entity identified the most promising groups for the proxy war’s sponsors to finance, in turn “[helping] present them to international donors, and provide access to networks that could deliver assistance.” These efforts intensified “as the conflict deepened and it became apparent that regime change would not occur in the short term.”</p>
<p><span>Tsamota’s primitive</span> <a href="https://www.tsamota.com/" rel>official website</a> <span>describes the company as “a security and justice sector consultancy which provides rule of law, forensics and natural resources advisory services,” working in “in politically, legally, socially and logistically challenging environments” for Western governments. The firm is not a likely candidate for holding government officials anywhere accountable for war crimes. Tsamota has since its inception</span> <a href="https://www.responsiblejewellery.com/wp-content/uploads/RJC-HRE-Security-and-Human-Rights-Webinar-19March2015.pdf" rel>offered guidance</a> <span>to major corporations on how to maximize profits in the Global South, while limiting their local and international legal liabilities.</span></p>
<p><span>In 2013, Tsamota director William Wiley gave a</span> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200513095127/https://www.mineafrica.com/documents/16%20-%20Tsamota%20Ltd.pdf" rel>scandalous presentation</a> <span>to Canadian consortium MineAfrica Inc. where he set out a series of hypothetical scenarios in which mining companies operating in countries such as the Congo and Mali employed private security firms to crack down on striking workers or deal with “local militias” interfering with their operations. Wiley outlined a number of means by which companies could be insulated from repercussions of heavy-handed responses to such incidents, up to and including murder.</span></p>
<p><span>That presentation described Tsamota as composed of “experts” drawn from “national police, military and intelligence forces.” Wiley is no exception,</span> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/12/syria-truth-smugglers-bashar-al-assad-war-crimes" rel>having served</a> <span>in the Canadian military for almost two decades. Subsequently, he turned to</span> <a href="https://cijaonline.org/who-we-are/william-h-wiley" rel>international law</a><span>, among other things,</span> <a href="https://www.syriapropagandamedia.org/entrepreneurial-justice-operations-related-to-the-syrian-conflict-role-of-the-commission-for-international-justice-and-accountability-and-other-businesses-controlled-by-william-wile#alistair-harriss-biography" rel>overseeing</a> <span>the trial of Saddam Hussein from October 2005 - December 2006 for crimes against humanity. Mainstream accounts acknowledge Wiley</span> <a href="https://www.dfi.dk/en/english/crime-crimes" rel>was imposed</a> <span>on the former Iraqi leader’s defense team without consent - a major breach of basic legal norms - by the U.S. embassy in Baghdad’s Regime Crimes Liaison Office.</span></p>
<p><span>After capture, Hussein was initially interrogated by the CIA. Contemporaneous media reports note there was</span> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110207021018/http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,107552,00.html" rel>significant concern</a> <span>within the Agency that “their questioning could become public during his eventual trial,” raising issues around “how to conduct the questioning and record the conversations.” The reasons why were unstated, although a likely explanation would be that Washington wished to avoid awkward disclosures in court about Hussein’s</span> <a href="https://archive.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/history/2003/0410saddam.htm" rel>long-running relationship</a> <span>with the CIA, and active</span> <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2013/08/26/exclusive-cia-files-prove-america-helped-saddam-as-he-gassed-iran/" rel>U.S. complicity</a> <span>in many of the most heinous crimes of which he was accused.</span></p>
<p><span>To say the least, this was a sensitive role. Even prominent Iraqi supporters of the U.S. invasion and occupation charged that Baghdad’s “interim” puppet government</span> <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3684052.stm" rel>was seeking</a> <span>“show trials followed by speedy executions” of Hussein et al. to boost its credibility. That Wiley was entrusted with this mission speaks volumes about his reliability from Washington’s perspective. It also raises obvious questions about the nature of his relationship with the CIA, and whether that bond influenced CIJA’s creation half a decade later.</span></p>
<p><strong>‘Moving Documents’</strong></p>
<p>A series of leaked ARK files on CIJA’s activities authored in the years immediately following its creation make grand claims about its achievements. One declares the Commission “innovated in the field of transitional justice…aiding the collection of evidence to document war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other violations of International Humanitarian Law” in Syria. Another states its work represented “a landmark development in international justice: the contemporaneous gathering of evidence of violations of international humanitarian law conducted by regime forces”:</p>
<p>“[CIJA], through expert training, effective equipment provision and a commitment to the truth were able to ensure that when the conflict ends, the raw material of a post-conflict war crimes process is ready for trial, in turn providing a key contribution to truth telling, reconciliation and the future of Syria.”</p>
<p><span>Elsewhere, ARK boasted how CIJA had seized thousands of kilograms of “contemporaneous documentation”, hundreds of thousands of pages of “evidential material” and thousands of videos from Syria, “all of which had to be hand carried” out of the country. Cut to February 2021, and</span> <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-12-03/syrian-war-crimes-evidence-strongest-since-nuremberg-trials/10577206" rel>Commission chair</a> <span>Stephen Rapp, a U.S.</span> <a href="https://www.law.georgetown.edu/national-security-center/who-we-are/leadership-staff/stephen-j-rapp/" rel>diplomatic warhorse</a><span>, bragged to</span> <em>CBS</em> <span>about the sheer volume of evidence that CIJA had collected.</span> <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/syria-civil-war-60-minutes-2021-02-24/" rel>He claimed</a> <span>the paper trail exposed a systematic strategy of Assad government-directed executions of opposition activists, along with ensuing coverups:</span></p>
<p>“Now we have 800,000 pages of original documents, signed and sealed with original signatures going all the way up to Assad, that document this whole strategy…We see reports back about ‘well, we’ve got a real problem here, there are too many corpses stacking up, somebody’s gonna have to help us with that’...Everything is handled in this sort of totalitarian system where they frankly think they can get away with things...they were almost stupid…they created evidence.”</p>
<p><span>If such damning, incontrovertible proof</span> <em>was</em> <span>bagged at any stage by CIJA, it has never emerged publicly. Still, throughout the Syrian dirty war, the Commission enjoyed glowing profiles in Western media, while providing journalists and human rights groups with multiple scoops</span> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/11/world/middleeast/syria-torture-prisons.html" rel>supposedly exposing</a> <span>Syrian government atrocities. At no point did any mainstream reporter or NGO question, let alone raise concerns about, the manner in which the Commission garnered the material upon which its cases against government officials in Damascus was “hand carried” out of the country.</span></p>
<p><span>CIJA chief Wiley</span> <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-investigator/prosecution-cases-primed-for-syria-trial-despite-lack-of-court-idUSKBN0IJ1VT20141030/" rel>acknowledged</a> <span>in 2014 that his organization smuggled evidence from Syria by working with every opposition group “up to but excluding Jabhat al-Nusra and Islamic State.” However, a</span> <a href="https://thegrayzone.com/2019/06/19/commission-for-international-justice-and-accountability-cija-syria-al-qaeda/" rel>2019 investigation</a> <span>by</span> <em>The Grayzone</em> <span>amply indicates that CIJA was frequently in extremely close quarters with both groups. Moreover, they were paid handsomely for their assistance in securing documentation. This included material seized in Raqqa after its January 2014</span> <a href="https://www.wsj.com/video/life-inside-the-isis-home-base-of-raqqa-syria/AA8CB9E3-B6A9-49AB-A2C9-F8E843413B85" rel>capture</a> <span>by ISIS, right when the ultra-extremist group</span> <a href="https://www.newamerica.org/future-security/reports/how-raqqa-became-capital-isis/raqqa-isis-capital/" rel>was massacring</a> <span>Alawite and Christian religious minorities.</span></p>
<p><span>In a 2016</span> <em>New Yorker</em> <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20190614043530/https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/04/18/bashar-al-assads-war-crimes-exposed" rel>profile</a> <span>of CIJA, Wiley detailed the practical hassles and financial drain inherent in “moving documents [over] international borders” and opposition-controlled “checkpoints,” while relying on “rebel groups and couriers for logistical support.” He described how bundles of government files “typically” arrived at the Commission’s offices “in a dizzying array of crappy suitcases.” Wiley lamented, “we burn enormous sums of money moving this stuff.”</span></p>
<p><span>Accordingly, CIJA received tens of millions of dollars for its efforts from a variety of Western governments, including those at the forefront of the Syrian dirty war. However, despite the vast windfall, the Commission’s work produced zero prosecutions for many years. This changed in late 2019, when Anwar Raslan and Eyad Gharib, two former members of Damascus’ General Intelligence Directorate,</span> <a href="https://www.ecchr.eu/nc/en/press-release/with-the-first-criminal-trial-worldwide-on-torture-in-syria-german-courts-to-set-international-prescedent/" rel>were indicted</a> <span>in Germany for crimes against humanity.</span></p>
<p><strong>‘Many Contradictions’</strong></p>
<p><span>Raslan headed the Directorate’s domestic security unit, while Gharib was one of his departmental subordinates. The pair defected to the opposition in December 2012. Raslan and his family fled to Jordan, where</span> <a href="https://www.justiceinfo.net/en/44207-they-felt-too-safe-how-two-syrian-agents-ended-up-on-trial-in-germany.html" rel>he played</a> <span>“an active and visible role in the Syrian opposition.” He was part of the</span> <a href="https://syriaaccountability.org/inside-the-raslan-trial-an-interrogators-job-is-to-interrogate/" rel>opposition delegation</a> <span>to the Geneva II conference on Syria in January 2014. In July that year, Raslan was granted asylum in Germany.</span></p>
<p><span>After fleeing Syria, Raslan told numerous lurid tales of abuse and atrocities perpetrated by his unit, and the Assad government more widely, during his 20 years of state service. He claimed his defection was spurred after learning that an apparent opposition attack in Damascus which he was charged with investigating was, in fact, staged by security forces.</span> <a href="https://lesjours.fr/obsessions/la-traque-anwar-raslan/ep3-deserteur/" rel>Significant doubts</a> <span>about his accounts, and whether his defection was principled or just cynical opportunism, have been raised in many quarters.</span></p>
<p><span>In a perverse irony, Raslan’s propensity to be a loudmouth was his undoing. His assorted post-defection claims provided grounds for arrest by German authorities and were used against him and Gharib in their prosecutions. These legal actions heavily relied on documents seized by CIJA, including Central Crisis Management Cell</span> <a href="https://cja.org/what-we-do/litigation/colvin-v-syria/pleadings/ewan-brown-exhibits/" rel>records</a><span>. This unit was created in March 2011 by Damascus to manage responses to mass rioting that erupted this December. These documents have been</span> <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/04/18/bashar-al-assads-war-crimes-exposed" rel>widely described</a> <span>as the “linchpin” of the Commission’s case against “the Syrian regime.”</span></p>
<p><span>Yet, as this journalist has</span> <a href="https://www.kitklarenberg.com/p/syrian-dirty-wars-secret-origins" rel>previously exposed</a><span>, the Central Crisis Management Cell files in fact show the Assad government explicitly and repeatedly instructed security forces to protect peaceful protesters, prevent violence, and keep the situation under control. The documents also show that, all along, sinister, unseen forces systematically murdered police officers, soldiers, pro-government figures, and demonstrators to foment catastrophe, in a manner eerily similar to many CIA/MI6 regime-change operations, old and new.</span></p>
<p><span>In February 2021, Gharib was</span> <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/german-court-hands-down-historic-syrian-torture-verdict/a-56670243" rel>found guilty</a> <span>of aiding and abetting crimes against humanity. He received a four-and-a-half year prison sentence. A year later, Raslan</span> <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-59949924" rel>was given</a> <span>life for crimes including mass torture, rape, and murder. The pair were not convicted for personally perpetrating these horrors but for serving in the General Intelligence Directorate at the time they were allegedly committed. “Expert” witness evidence provided at their trials left much to be desired.</span></p>
<p><span>For example, judges and prosecutors alike</span> <a href="https://syriaaccountability.org/inside-the-raslan-trial-the-first-insider-witness-testifies/" rel>were disquieted</a> <span>at “many contradictions” in the testimony of “P3”, a Syrian government operative who purportedly worked in a security service “mail department” and was central to Gharib’s conviction. P3 professed to seeing sensitive documents “related to the transfer of corpses” of opposition activists “to burial sites.” They “provided contradictory information” in statements to German police and the court and were “visibly nervous” while testifying. All along, their chagrined attorney sat nearby “putting his hands behind his head.”</span></p>
<p><span>Meanwhile, during</span> <a href="https://syriaaccountability.org/inside-the-raslan-trial-torture-an-insider-witness-and-facebook/" rel>Raslan’s prosecution</a><span>, “P4” - a nameless individual who claimed to have been detained in a Syrian prison but bribed his way out - testified that he saw 500,000 corpses buried via a “bulldozer and a truck” next to his house, in an area which was previously “a desert.” Reports of the trial indicate there “was a feeling” among those present in court, including “the public,” that these numbers were greatly “exaggerated.”</span></p>
<p><strong>‘False documents, irregular invoicing, and profiteering’</strong></p>
<p><span>The sense that Gharib and Raslan were prosecuted because they were within easy reach, and CIJA needed</span> <em>something</em> <span>to show for all its well-remunerated efforts, is unavoidable. The Commission had</span> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200917210105/https://ec.europa.eu/anti-fraud/media-corner/news/24-03-2020/olaf-unravels-fraud-among-partners-rule-law-project-syria_en" rel>strong grounds</a> <span>to be anxious about failing to fulfill its founding objective. In March 2020, the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) formally accused the organization of “submission of false documents, irregular invoicing, and profiteering” relating to an EU “Rule of Law” project it ran in Syria.</span></p>
<p><span>Fast forward to today, and</span> <em>The Guardian</em> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/dec/10/syria-fall-of-assad-regime-justice-atrocities-war-crimes-icc" rel>reports that</a> <span>“the abrupt implosion of the infrastructure of state terror” in Syria “has made available a huge volume of evidence.” The outlet quoted CIJA chief William Wiley at some length. He compared Assad’s fall to “a situation much like Germany in 1945 or Iraq in 2003,” with “a sudden availability of all state records” making prosecution of state officials a sure thing.</span></p>
<p>“It’s a very unusual situation, and its suddenness creates challenges and opportunities in simply dealing with the material,” Wiley said. “If there’s any security intelligence guy that rocks up in Europe, there’s typically going to be enough material already to hand.”</p>

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guid: https://antonchaitkin.substack.com/p/harding-fights-for-the-constitution
title: Harding Fights for the Constitution
author: ;Anton Chaitkin
link: https://antonchaitkin.substack.com/p/harding-fights-for-the-constitution
hash: b�x5���t�����#
content:
<div><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1200,h_600,c_fill,f_jpg,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F754f34fa-4bb3-488a-815f-79642741917b_2542x2557.jpeg" data-sanitized-class="ff-og-image-inserted"></div><h3 data-sanitized-class="subtitle">By Anton Chaitkin; Copyright Anton Chaitkin</h3><div dir="auto" data-sanitized-class="body markup">
<h1 data-sanitized-class="header-anchor-post">Harding Fights for the Constitution</h1>
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<p>By Anton Chaitkin; Copyright Anton Chaitkin</p>
<p>It is time to revive the name and vindicate the memory of Warren G. Harding, the Republican President of the United States, 1921-1923.</p>
<p>Harding fought for his country and for civilization. He died fighting for national sovereignty, for improved living standards, and for peace.</p>
<p>He…</p>
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guid: https://www.uncaptured.media/p/syrian-rebels-hand-over-weapons-to
title: Syrian "Rebels" Hand Over Weapons to Israeli Occupation
author: ;Dan Cohen
link: https://www.uncaptured.media/p/syrian-rebels-hand-over-weapons-to
hash: �g�J�z��&�#�s�
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<p>In the wake of the Syrian government’s collapse, the Israeli military has moved to destroy all military installations and weapons caches that could be used for defensive or offensive purposes. Now, Israel is getting help from local collaborators it has long groomed.</p>

<p>A video report published by Israel’s Channel 12 shows militants loading boxes of weapons collected from southern Syria into Israeli vehicles to be transported to Israeli territory.</p>
<p>“Hundreds of ammunition boxes, mortars, bombs grenades and many weapons – that’s the loot that Israeli army forces now collect inside Syria,” the presenter describes.</p>
<p>Israeli soldiers then show crates, canisters and grenades of “chemical substance” designed to irritate skin. The soldiers take no precautions when handling the weapons, indicating that they are not highly dangerous or lethal.</p>
<p>The presenter then states that the Israeli occupation forces plan to stay for the long term, or as long as international considerations allow.</p>

<p><span>Israel has been involved with the Syrian regime change project since its earliest days. In May 2011, Israeli singer Amir Benayoun</span> <a href="https://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Israeli-song-becomes-Syrian-oppositions-soundtrack" rel>produced</a> <span>Arabic-language songs that would become celebrated as anthems by the anti-government movement. Benayoun later</span> <a href="https://x.com/dancohen3000/status/1268985852916621312" rel>composed</a> <span>a song called "Ahmed loves Israel", written from the perspective of a Palestinian who wants to murder Jewish babies.</span></p>
<p><span>In southern Syria, Israel funded and armed anti-government forces, and provided them with</span> <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2014/06/11/exclusive-israel-is-tending-to-wounded-syrian-rebels/" rel>medical care</a> <span>in</span> <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/syrian-rebel-leader-thanks-pm-for-standing-by-wounded/" rel>field hospitals</a> <span>before sending them back to battle.</span></p>
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<figure><a target="_blank" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8783a94d-c092-4d40-a66a-b46d8cb81708_640x400.jpeg" data-component-name="Image2ToDOM" rel data-sanitized-class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img">
<div data-sanitized-class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8783a94d-c092-4d40-a66a-b46d8cb81708_640x400.jpeg" width="640" height="400" data-attrs='{"src":"https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/8783a94d-c092-4d40-a66a-b46d8cb81708_640x400.jpeg","srcNoWatermark":null,"fullscreen":null,"imageSize":null,"height":400,"width":640,"resizeWidth":null,"bytes":null,"alt":"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits an IDF field hospital for treatment of wounded from the civil war in Syria, in Ramat ha Golan, Northern Israel. February 18, 2014. (photo credit: Kobi Gideon /GPO/FLASH90)","title":null,"type":null,"href":null,"belowTheFold":true,"topImage":false,"internalRedirect":null,"isProcessing":false}' alt="Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits an IDF field hospital for treatment of wounded from the civil war in Syria, in Ramat ha Golan, Northern Israel. February 18, 2014. (photo credit: Kobi Gideon /GPO/FLASH90)" title="Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits an IDF field hospital for treatment of wounded from the civil war in Syria, in Ramat ha Golan, Northern Israel. February 18, 2014. (photo credit: Kobi Gideon /GPO/FLASH90)" loading="lazy" data-sanitized-class="sizing-normal"></picture>
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<figcaption data-sanitized-class="image-caption"><span>Netanyahu meets with a wounded Syrian militant being treated in an Israeli hospital. Source:</span> <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/syrian-rebel-leader-thanks-pm-for-standing-by-wounded/" rel>Times of Israel</a><span>.</span></figcaption></figure></div>
<p><span>Israel did not only forge relationships with so-called “moderate rebels.” When Islamic state fighters opened fire on an Israeli military patrol, defense minister Moshe Ya’alon announces that the terrorist group</span> <a href="https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/middle-east/isis-israel-defence-force-apology-attack-unit-golan-heights-defense-minister-moshe-ya-alon-a7700616.html" rel>apologized</a> <span>to Israel.</span></p>
<p>Ya’alon later stated that he prefers ISIS to Iran in Syria.</p>
<p><span>“In Syria, if the choice is between Iran and the Islamic State, I choose the Islamic State,” he</span> <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/yaalon-i-would-prefer-islamic-state-to-iran-in-syria/" rel>remarked</a> <span>in 2016.</span></p>
<p>With Israel deepening its occupation of the Golan Heights, its long term relationship with militants is paying off and ensuring that Syria will be incapable of defending itself, regardless of who is in power.</p>

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guid: https://antonchaitkin.substack.com/p/a-history-guide-for-american-nationalists
title: A History Guide for American Nationalists
author: ;Anton Chaitkin
link: https://antonchaitkin.substack.com/p/a-history-guide-for-american-nationalists
hash: ��=z�~�� �݀�{�
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<div><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1200,h_600,c_fill,f_jpg,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb526e061-61bd-43c3-a3b6-83a1ca331ddf_1113x583.png" data-sanitized-class="ff-og-image-inserted"></div><h3 data-sanitized-class="subtitle">By Anton Chaitkin; Copyright Anton Chaitkin.</h3><div dir="auto" data-sanitized-class="body markup">
<h3 data-sanitized-class="header-anchor-post">A History Guide for American Nationalists</h3>
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<p>By Anton Chaitkin; Copyright Anton Chaitkin.</p>
<p>The American people await the incoming presidency with hopes and fears.</p>
<p>Supporters hope Donald Trump will avert nuclear war, stop censorship, and restore the economy.</p>
<p>Opponents fear he will destroy civilization.</p>
<p>The new President can meet the needs of the whole people only…</p>
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guid: https://antonchaitkin.substack.com/p/war-and-betrayal-or-the-good-neighbor
title: War and Betrayal, or the Good Neighbor
author: ;Anton Chaitkin
link: https://antonchaitkin.substack.com/p/war-and-betrayal-or-the-good-neighbor
hash: � Pwv;2VDh����_�
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<div><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1200,h_600,c_fill,f_jpg,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe6f8c069-0c6f-4451-a215-a67efc03352b_576x864.jpeg" data-sanitized-class="ff-og-image-inserted"></div><h3 data-sanitized-class="subtitle">Trump’s Supreme Test Will Come Quickly</h3><div dir="auto" data-sanitized-class="body markup">
<p>Trump’s Supreme Test Will Come Quickly:</p>
<h1 data-sanitized-class="header-anchor-post">War and Betrayal, or the Good Neighbor</h1>
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<p>By Anton Chaitkin; Copyright Anton Chaitkin</p>
<p>The recent US presidential election was a referendum in which voters rejected permanent war.</p>
<p>Americans share the choice of peace with the great majority of mankind.[1] This point of view is not left-wing or right-wing. People know that …</p>
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guid: https://www.uncaptured.media/p/syria-psyop-theater-inside-the-sednaya
title: Syria Psyop Theater: Inside the Sednaya Jihad Incubator
author: ;Dan Cohen
link: https://www.uncaptured.media/p/syria-psyop-theater-inside-the-sednaya
hash: b�h�/b:�)�
content:
<p>Since the Syria crisis began in 2011, a loose coalition of Western propaganda organs, intelligence-linked NGOs, and billionaire-funded human rights organizations have collaborated to produce a selective and highly distorted narrative of events, using evidence-free claims to portray former president Bashar Al-Assad as a genocidal dictator who imprisoned, mass murdered, buried, and cremated hundreds of thousands of innocent victims while downplaying and omitting the armed opposition’s atrocious human rights record, including by ISIS and Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, (formerly known as Jabhat al-Nusra, Syria’s Al-Qaeda affiliate), which now rules much of Syria.</p>
<p><span>This is the latest chapter in a nearly 15 year foreign-sponsored dirty war that has been characterized not only by displacement, destruction, and death, but by one of the most</span> <a href="https://www.uncaptured.media/p/watch-the-syria-deception-al-qaeda" rel>deceptive propaganda campaigns</a> <span>in history to rebrand Al-Qaeda as a benevolent force in Syria.</span></p>
<p>Following the Syrian government’s collapse, media outlets seized on Sednaya prison, located outside of Damascus. Sednaya is one of ten prisons which held not only non-violent political prisoners and innocents caught up in the highly corrupt Syrian security apparatus’ lumbering bureaucracy, but also militants loyal to the Islamic state, HTS, and an ever-shifting alliance of Islamist armed groups.</p>
<p>Prior to 2011, Sednaya prison had served as a de facto incubator for what would become Syria’s most violent terrorist groups, including Ahrar al-Sham and Jabhat al-Nusra.</p>
<p><span>In 2004 and 2005, around 700 Syrian jihadists, who had returned after battling U.S. forces in Iraq, were captured and imprisoned in Sednaya. In 2008, the prisons inmates</span> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/06/world/middleeast/06syria.html" rel>rioted</a><span>, taking hostage numerous officials and guards before security forces killed nine prisoners. They later</span> <a href="https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/former-prisoners-fight-in-syrian-insurgency-a-927158.html" rel>killed</a> <span>the prison’s warden.</span></p>
<p><span>When the Syrian crisis broke out in 2011, Western human rights groups</span> <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/press-release/2011/03/syria-must-release-all-prisoners-conscience-after-human-rights-lawyer-freed/" rel>pressured</a> <span>the Assad government to grant them amnesty. It complied, releasing what The</span> <em>New York Times</em> <span>later</span> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/11/world/middleeast/syria-torture-prisons.html" rel>described them as</a> <span>“Saydnaya Prison’s most radical long-term prisoners, Islamists who would later lead rebel groups”. Assad’s acceding to these demands did not satiate the foreign-backed opposition, which</span> <a href="https://naharnet.com/stories/en/7434-syria-opposition-demands-regime-change-not-amnesty" rel>sought nothing less than regime change</a><span>.</span></p>
<p><span>“We were told by brothers with lots of experience [in jihad], who had spent a lot of time in Sednaya, that upon our release we should sit and not work,” Abu Othman</span> <a href="https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/06/al-qaeda-iraq-syria-108214/" rel>recalled</a> <span>about the 2011 amnesty. “Just sit and wait.”</span></p>
<p>Within weeks, Abu Othman and hundreds of other militants released from Sednaya had mobilized to begin a violent campaign, targeting civilians and state security personnel alike to overthrow the government.</p>
<p><span>“Many of today’s Ahrar al-Sham leaders belong to the ‘Sednaya generation’ of Islamists who spent the latter part of the 2000s in Sednaya Prison,”</span> <a href="https://carnegieendowment.org/middle-east/diwan/2014/02/who-and-what-was-abu-khalid-al-suri-part-ii?lang=en" rel>noted</a> <span>Carnegie Endowment analyst Aron Lund in 2014.</span></p>
<p><a href="https://s.telegraph.co.uk/graphics/projects/isis-jihad-syria-assad-islamic/index.html" rel>Among</a> <span>those imprisoned were:</span></p>
<p>-Amr ‘Abu Atheer’ al-Absi, the Islamic state’s top kidnapper and recruiter of European jihadists.</p>
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<p><span>-Zahran Alloush, who commanded Jaysh al-Islam, was accused of</span> <a href="https://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-syria-rebel-death-20151225-story.html" rel>kidnapping</a> <span>Syrian human rights lawyer Razan Zaitouneh, and was one of Syria’s most dangerous terrorists until his death in 2015.</span></p>
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<p>-Abu Khaled al-Suri, co-founder of Ahrar al-Sham.</p>
<p><span>-</span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/21/world/middleeast/isis-recruitment-killer-hassan-aboud.html" rel>Hassan Al Aboud</a><span>, co-founder Ahrar al Sham and</span> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/18/world/middleeast/hassan-aboud-an-isis-commander-dies-from-battlefield-wounds.html" rel>Islamic state</a> <span>member.</span></p>
<p>-Al Aboud’s brother, Abu Shadi.</p>
<p><span>-</span><a href="http://held/" rel>Ahmed Abu Issa</a><span>, founder of Suqour al-Sham, which carried out</span> <a href="https://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2014/05/american_reportedly.php" rel>joint suicide bomb attacks</a> <span>with Jabhat al-Nusra. Among the attackers was</span> <a href="https://www.ibtimes.com/moner-mohammad-abu-salha-american-suicide-bomber-says-he-was-being-watched-fbi-us-1671912" rel>American citizen</a> <span>Moner Mohammad Abu-Salha.</span></p>
<p><span>-</span><a href="https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/06/al-qaeda-iraq-syria-108214/" rel>Abu Othman</a><span>, long time al-Qaeda and Jabhat al-Nusra member.</span></p>
<p>When Al-Jolani was dispatched by ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi from Iraq to establish an Islamic State branch in Syria, he made contact with the former Sednaya prisoners and began to form Jabhat al-Nusra, the group that, 13 years and two name changes later, would collapse the Syrian state.</p>
<p><strong>Faux humanitarian concerns</strong></p>
<p>While there is no doubt that Sednaya housed many violent criminals and terrorists, others were imprisoned on dubious charges by elements exploiting the long-standing Emergency Law and corruption in order to settle political and personal scores.</p>
<p>However, Sednaya’s violent Islamist prisoners were erased by human rights groups that published sensationalist and evidence-free reports, often prioritizing a preconceived political agenda over factual accuracy.</p>
<p><span>Amnesty International published a</span> <a href="https://www.amnestyusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Human-Slaughterhouse-Mass-Hangings-and-Extermination-at-Saydnaya-Prison-Syria.pdf" rel>report</a> <span>in 2019 titled</span> <em>Human Slaughterhouse</em><span>, alleging that tens of thousands of Syrians were executed in mass hangings at Sednaya and other prisons. However, the report contained no evidence, instead saying it “estimates that between 5,000 and 13,000 people were extrajudicially executed at Saydnaya between September 2011 and December 2015” – what it calls "extermination.” The bodies, it alleged, were buried in a small cemetery named Najha and a mass grave in Qatana.</span></p>
<p>The authors relied only on interviews conducted outside of Syria, mostly in southern Turkey, where the foreign-sponsored Syrian opposition based its operations.</p>
<p>Many of the interviews were furnished to Amnesty International by NGOs funded by Wwestern governments and billionaires, including SNHR and the Commission for International Justice and Accountability.</p>
<p><span>As Kit Klarenberg reported for</span> <em>Uncaptured Media</em><span>, CIJA is an organization created by NATO state contractors at the outset of the Syrian conflict that paid huge sums to have “evidence” of Syrian government crimes smuggled out of Al-Qaeda and ISIS-controlled territory, but was found by the European Anti-Fraud Office to have engaged in “submission of false documents, irregular invoicing, and profiteering.” Nonetheless, his conviction was</span> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/jan/13/jailing-former-syrian-secret-police-officer-anwar-raslan-germany-first-step-justice" rel>hailed</a> <span>as a “step towards justice” against the Assad government.</span></p>

<p><span>Despite the exaggerated claims about Sednaya, President Bashar Al-Assad in 2022 granted</span> <a href="https://www.newarab.com/news/syria-frees-60-prisoners-presidential-amnesty-monitor" rel>amnesty</a> <span>to 60 prisoners, including some who had been convicted on terrorism charges, excluding those whose actions led to death.</span></p>
<p><strong>Prison break</strong></p>
<p><span>A</span> <a href="https://x.com/R_rty45/status/1865867256259113435" rel>handwritten list</a> <span>of Sednaya’s prisoners has circulated on social media, apparently taken when HTS freed their comrades. Social media users posted a</span> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1137962884673731&amp;id=100053800899663&amp;_rdr" rel>digital version</a> <span>too, with many comments from users searching for their family members.</span></p>
<p><span>Among the escapees, according to the list, were Saleh Mazen Bekdash And Omar Maddhi Asaad, who had car-bombed in 2013 an elderly Kurdish communist whose car was adorned with former president Hafez Al-Assad’s photo.</span> <em>Uncaptured Media</em> <span>is withholding the murdered man’s identity in order to protect his surviving family members, who remain in Syria.</span></p>
<p><strong>Whitewashing the black flag</strong></p>
<p><span>As HTS militants flung Sednaya’s doors open, a disinformation campaign was rolled out in the Western press and on social media. This propaganda amounted to a whitewashed, highly exaggerated, and outright deceptive campaign, similar to the Israeli government’s</span> <a href="https://twitter.com/UncapturedNews/status/1722962515951313356" rel>propaganda offensive</a> <span>to distort the nature of Hamas’ October 7 attack, which served to justify the ongoing genocide and motivate the soldiers carrying it out. This time, the narrative painted a simplistic, black and white picture, where anyone inside Syrian government prisons was an innocent victim of “dictator” Bashar al-Assad.</span></p>
<p><span>What the</span> <em>New York Times</em> <span>in 2015</span> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/21/world/middleeast/isis-recruitment-killer-hassan-aboud.html" rel>called</a> <span>the “infamous jail near Damascus where the government warehoused those it considered Sunni extremists,”</span> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/08/world/middleeast/syria-prisons-sednaya-assad.html" rel>became</a> <span>in 2024 “a symbol of human rights abuses under his rule.”</span> <em>The Times</em> <span>documented in 2022 how Islamic state fighters had attacked prisons in order to free their fellow militants in both Syrian government and</span> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/21/world/middleeast/isis-prison-syria-jail.html" rel>Kurdish-held territory</a><span>, but now those Islamist militants were heralded as “</span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/09/world/middleeast/syria-sednaya-prison-damascus.html" rel>rebel fighters</a><span>” and “</span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/10/world/middleeast/sednaya-prison-syria.html" rel>conquering rebels</a><span>” who were merely searching for their family members.</span></p>
<p><span>While media outlets were careful to de-emphasize the radical and violent nature of some of the inmates, a CBS News</span> <a href="https://youtu.be/YYIrcN-HIFs?si=WZv-QuDU5SW1Pgkx" rel>report</a> <span>from an eastern Syria prison containing ISIS fighters, including many foreigners, noted that prison guards have been careful to not allow the inmates to find out that the Syrian government was toppled because it could be “dangerous” – suggesting they would be inspired by the former al-Qaeda affiliate’s takeover of Syria.</span></p>
<p><span>It was not only the prisoners’ character that became a key piece of propaganda, but their numbers too. In 2009, Human Rights Watch</span> <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2009/07/04/syria-disclose-fate-detainees" rel>estimated</a> <span>that Sednaya held 1,500 inmates. However, amid the chaos, absurd and evidence-free claims that</span> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20241219190725/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/12/09/sednaya-military-prison-liberation-syria-bashar-assad-rebel/" rel>100,000</a> <span>to 150,000</span> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20241219190725/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/12/09/sednaya-military-prison-liberation-syria-bashar-assad-rebel/" rel>prisoners</a> <span>were held in Sednaya prison spread like wildfire.</span></p>
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<figcaption data-sanitized-class="image-caption"><span>Source:</span> <a href="https://x.com/AWN_English/status/1865879189498552732" rel>X</a></figcaption></figure></div>
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<figcaption data-sanitized-class="image-caption"><span>Source:</span> <a href="https://x.com/KintsugiMuslim/status/1865907490405089507" rel>X</a></figcaption></figure></div>
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<figcaption data-sanitized-class="image-caption"><span>Source:</span> <a href="https://x.com/warfareanalysis/status/1865836796380315878" rel>X</a></figcaption></figure></div>
<p><span>However, the Turkey-based Association for Detainees and the Missing in Saydnaya Prison, which is fervently anti-Assad,</span> <a href="https://x.com/sednayamissing/status/1866408807900876859" rel>published</a> <span>a document saying there were 4,300 detainees, 1,483 of which were held under charges of terrorism and military tribunals.</span></p>
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<p><a href="https://x.com/manisha_bot/status/1865666322975334515" rel>Videos</a> <span>said to show women and child prisoners liberated from Sednaya went viral on social media, promoted by outlets like the UK publication</span> <em><a href="https://metro.co.uk/2024/12/09/inside-syrias-slaughterhouse-prison-22149961/" rel>The Metro</a></em> <span>and</span> <em>The Guardian</em> <span>“open source investigations lead” Manisha Ganguly. Think tank</span> <a href="https://x.com/hxhassan/status/1865663666865008715" rel>Hassan Hassan</a><span>, editor in chief of the</span> <a href="https://newlinesinstitute.org/about/funding/" rel>U.S. government-funded</a> <span>New Lines Institute,</span> <a href="https://x.com/ThomasVLinge/status/1865651582190366833" rel>Thomas Van Linge</a><span>, also a New Lines writer, and self-declared Zionist Avi Bitterman</span> <a href="https://x.com/AviBittMD" rel>promoted</a> <span>the footage too. However, an</span> <a href="https://verify-sy.com/en/details/10583/The-Exit-of-Women-from-Sednaya-Prison:-Investigation-Reveals-the-Fabrication-of-the-Narrative-and-Concealed-Theft-and-Vandalism" rel>investigation</a> <span>from Verify-Sy showed that the footage was of opposition militants storming and ransacking a children’s charity, and that only men were imprisoned in Sednaya.</span></p>
<p>As family members of disappeared prisoners combed through Sednaya to search for their missing family members, propagandists claimed to show a machine used to execute and dispose of prisoners.</p>
<p><span>“Iron execution press in #SednayaPrison,” wrote Qusay Noor, a longtime propagandist</span> <a href="https://x.com/dancohen3000/status/1866140846019739702" rel>associated</a> <span>with terrorist groups Faylaq al-Rahman and Jaysh al-Islam. “After he is hanged, they put him in the press and press him to become like paper. His body and bones are crushed. There are blood channels under the press.”</span></p>
<p><span>However, social media users</span> <a href="https://x.com/Anonymostw/status/1865931113115340874" rel>pointed out</a> <span>that the supposed murder machine is likely to be a veneer press, used for laminating wood.</span></p>
<p><span>Within days, Syrians reported encountering violent criminals,</span> <a href="https://x.com/Ostensiblay/status/1871679930708418890" rel>including</a> <a href="https://x.com/thesyrianlions/status/1871563680921645476" rel>rapists</a><span>, who had been released.</span></p>
<p><span>None of these outlets mentioned that HTS itself has long run prisons in Idlib province, which it has occupied since 2015. A UN</span> <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/CoISyria/A-HRC-31-CRP1_en.pdf" rel>report</a> <span>noted that the group held civilian men and women, as well as Syrian soldiers, whom they tortured and executed. HTS also employs makeshift religious courts where summary executions of prisoners is common.</span></p>
<p>The report notes “women and children being separated from their male relatives and being held in squalid conditions, with little food. They were forced to pray. The former detainees described hearing men screaming while being beaten by members of Jabhat Al-Nusra. Both also heard Government soldiers being brought into the prison and pleading for their lives before being executed by shooting.”</p>
<p><span>Protesters in Idlib have</span> <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/4/2/anti-assad-syrians-lead-protests-against-prison-torture-rebel-group" rel>called</a> <span>HTS prisons “slaughtershouses”, but media and human rights groups have avoided using this term, in sharp contrast to Amnesty International’s infamous characterization of Sednaya.</span></p>
<p><strong>Cancel culture queen</strong></p>
<p><span>Among the outlets participating in this propaganda campaign is</span> <em>The Free Press</em><span>, a neoconservative outlet run by Bari Weiss. It published a video report from inside the Sednaya prison, which was emptied of all prisoners in the immediate aftermath of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s ouster.</span></p>
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<figcaption data-sanitized-class="image-caption"><span>Source:</span> <a href="https://twitter.com/TheFP/status/1867628254011547688" rel>X</a></figcaption></figure></div>
<p><span>Weiss is a member of the Intellectual Dark Web, a loosely affiliated group of pseudo-intellectuals that was formed amid the “cancel culture” phenomenon, and include pro-Israel figures like Eric Weinstein, then a manager of tech billionaire Peter Thiel’s investment firm, his brother Brett, who</span> <a href="https://twitter.com/dancohen3000/status/1721896598303838305" rel>denounced</a> <span>calls for a ceasefire as Israel slaughtered men, women, and children in Gaza.</span></p>
<p><span>As a pro-Israel student activist at Columbia university, Weiss</span> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/01/education/panels-report-on-faculty-at-columbia-spurs-debate.html" rel>pressed</a> <span>for the firing of Palestinian-American professor Joseph Massad. Upon graduation, she began climbing up the Zionist media ladder, first at</span> <em>Tablet Magazine</em><span>, then onto the</span> <em>Wall Street Journal</em><span>, where she worked with neoconservative Bret Stephens. Weiss followed Stephens to the</span> <em>New York Times</em><span>, where she became a columnist. After three years, Weiss resigned as a protest against “wokeness”, claiming to be a victim of cancel culture herself.</span></p>
<p><span>Following the October 7 Hamas attack, Weiss served as a</span> <a href="https://x.com/bariweiss/status/1731398568370725161" rel>stenographer</a> <span>for the Israeli government’s mass propaganda campaign, taking the cancel culture she made a career railing against to lethal proportions.</span></p>
<p><span>When Refaat Alareer, a world renowned professor, writer, and poet in Gaza poked fun on X at macabre Israeli propaganda which</span> <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-12-04/ty-article-magazine/.premium/hamas-committed-documented-atrocities-but-a-few-false-stories-feed-the-deniers/0000018c-34f3-da74-afce-b5fbe24f0000" rel>falsely claimed</a> <span>that Hamas militants had burned an Israeli baby in an oven, Weiss wrongly</span> <a href="https://twitter.com/dancohen3000/status/1732889169121206680" rel>accused</a> <span>him of joking about burning an Israeli baby, singling him out as Israel carried out its genocidal military campaign.</span></p>
<p><span>Alareer, flooded with death threats on X, wrote in a</span> <a href="https://twitter.com/itranslate123/status/1719150855021064671" rel>post</a> <span>that “If I get killed by Israeli bombs or my family is harmed, I blame Bari Weiss @bariweiss and her likes. Many maniacal Israeli soldiers already bombing Gaza take these lies and smears seriously and they act upon them.”</span></p>
<p><span>Weeks later, Israeli airstrikes indeed targeted Alareer, killing him and several of his family members in what the Euromed Human Rights Monitor</span> <a href="https://euromedmonitor.org/en/article/6014/Israeli-Strike-on-Refaat-al-Areer-Apparently-Deliberate" rel>called</a> <span>an "apparently deliberate” attack.</span></p>
<p><strong>The Israel lobby</strong></p>
<p><em>The Free Press</em><span>’s Sednaya video was done in collaboration with the Center for Peace Communications, a New York-based nonprofit founded by Joseph Braude, a neoconservative Iraqi-American who</span> <a href="https://josephbraude.com/biography/" rel>works</a> <span>closely with the U.S. government. CPC’s board of directors include pro-Israel former U.S. diplomat Dennis Ross and Jonathan Schanzer, senior vice president of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies,</span> <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/watch-film-israel-lobby-didnt-want-you-see/25876" rel>described</a> <span>by former Israeli military-intelligence officer Sima Vaknin-Gil as an Israeli government asset.</span></p>
<p>The video, titled “Tour of Assad’s Slaughterhouse,” showed the now emptied cells of Sednaya prison, with a description of summary executions and torture methods, falsely claiming that women and children were imprisoned inside. The video also repeated the claim that the veneer press was used to flatten human remains and that bodies were also burned in crematoriums.</p>
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<figcaption data-sanitized-class="image-caption"><span>Source:</span> <a href="https://x.com/TheFP/status/1867628254011547688" rel>X</a></figcaption></figure></div>
<p><span>The video then shows men breaking down walls into what they claim is an underground section of the prison. This video reinforced claims promoted in Western media outlets like the</span> <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2dx3ekpr59o" rel>BBC</a><span>, which reported that the White Helmets (a propaganda operation funded by the</span> <a href="https://www.usaid.gov/syria/press-releases/mar-28-2023-qatar-fund-development-qffd-and-united-states-agency-international-development-usaid-cooperate-support-white-helmets-northwest-syria" rel>U.S.</a><span>,</span> <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-funding-for-white-helmets-in-syria-in-response-to-escalation" rel>U.K.</a> <span>and Qatari governments that has participated in</span> <a href="https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/w/white-helmets-group-members-admit-to-staging-chemical-attacks-in-syria-russian-study-finds" rel>staged</a> <span>massacres and public executions) sent five “specialised emergency teams" to rescue prisoners. A video of a White Helmets member with a rescue dog searching through piles of rubble for an entrance to a secret entrance went viral.</span></p>
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<figcaption data-sanitized-class="image-caption"><span>Source:</span> <a href="https://x.com/clashreport/status/1866148150580318402" rel>X</a></figcaption></figure></div>
<p>This was accompanied by cartoons showing a vast underground complex below a prison, which also went viral on social media platforms, including X, Instagram and Facebook, gardening</p>
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<figcaption data-sanitized-class="image-caption"><span>Source:</span> <a href="https://twitter.com/Bernadotte22/status/1866171199426072703%20/photo/1" rel>X</a></figcaption></figure></div>
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<div data-sanitized-class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd48e0cc6-7ecb-452b-ad43-6aff708d4fcb_946x1368.png" width="302" height="436.7188160676533" data-attrs='{"src":"https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/d48e0cc6-7ecb-452b-ad43-6aff708d4fcb_946x1368.png","srcNoWatermark":null,"fullscreen":null,"imageSize":null,"height":1368,"width":946,"resizeWidth":302,"bytes":1706809,"alt":null,"title":null,"type":"image/png","href":null,"belowTheFold":true,"topImage":false,"internalRedirect":null,"isProcessing":false}' alt loading="lazy" data-sanitized-class="sizing-normal"></picture>
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<figcaption data-sanitized-class="image-caption"><span>Source:</span> <a href="https://x.com/Aarafzabeers/status/1866326028085289281" rel>X</a></figcaption></figure></div>
<p><span>Similarly, an image said to be of a man emerging from Sednaya’s underground complex went</span> <a href="https://perma.cc/MVW8-D2K6" rel>viral</a><span>, garnering millions of impressions on X,</span> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1120894176268004&amp;id=100050422962532&amp;_rdr" rel>Facebook</a> <span>and other platforms.</span></p>
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<div data-sanitized-class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa8bd6f71-a28d-48d8-b22c-1a1fdd92fe20_942x990.png" width="340" height="357.3248407643312" data-attrs='{"src":"https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/a8bd6f71-a28d-48d8-b22c-1a1fdd92fe20_942x990.png","srcNoWatermark":null,"fullscreen":null,"imageSize":null,"height":990,"width":942,"resizeWidth":340,"bytes":957038,"alt":null,"title":null,"type":"image/png","href":null,"belowTheFold":true,"topImage":false,"internalRedirect":null,"isProcessing":false}' alt loading="lazy" data-sanitized-class="sizing-normal"></picture>
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<figcaption data-sanitized-class="image-caption"><span>Source:</span> <a href="https://twitter.com/lakiss_nancy/status/1865896084192575912" rel>X</a></figcaption></figure></div>
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<div data-sanitized-class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp"><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2d581854-1031-4bfc-b437-bad0f001cf79_1922x1034.png" width="490" height="263.50961538461536" data-attrs='{"src":"https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/2d581854-1031-4bfc-b437-bad0f001cf79_1922x1034.png","srcNoWatermark":null,"fullscreen":null,"imageSize":null,"height":783,"width":1456,"resizeWidth":490,"bytes":1543478,"alt":null,"title":null,"type":"image/png","href":null,"belowTheFold":true,"topImage":false,"internalRedirect":null,"isProcessing":false}' alt loading="lazy" data-sanitized-class="sizing-normal"></picture>
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<figcaption data-sanitized-class="image-caption"><span>Source:</span> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/abdulahaj1/p/DDV1hIKoOcP/" rel>X</a></figcaption></figure></div>
<p><span>In reality, the image was taken from an AI-generated</span> <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@sanzaruu/video/7444179749049535776?_r=1&amp;_t=ZS-8s47vIlH1jr" rel>video</a> <span>posted to Tiktok on December 3.</span></p>

<p><span>The claim was</span> <a href="https://pak.i-verify.org/viral-image-said-to-be-of-syrian-prisoner-freed-from-underground-tunnel-after-govts-fall-is-from-ai-generated-video/" rel>debunked</a> <span>by iVerify, a project of the Centre for Excellence in Journalism at the Institute of Business Administration University in Karachi, Pakistan.</span></p>
<p><span>An image of an emaciated prisoner went viral, though it was</span> <a href="https://twitter.com/rosemag_3/status/1865919909416337793/" rel>taken</a> <span>at Ho Chi Minh Wax Museum in Vietnam.</span></p>
<p><span>A BBC</span> <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/live/cj90138ejrdt" rel>update</a> <span>included a statement from the ADMSP which said that "There is no truth to the presence of detainees trapped underground, and the information contained in some press reports is inaccurate.” The White Helmets too confirmed that there were no prisoners underground.</span></p>
<p><span>Days after the report was debunked,</span> <em>The Free Press</em> <span>continued to promote the deception.</span></p>
<p><span>The video report also interviews Fadi Abdulghany, head of the dubious and opaque NGO Syrian Network for Human Rights. This organization, while working with Western governments, media outlets and human rights groups, has</span> <a href="https://x.com/BenjaminNorton/status/912374815121698817" rel>scrubbed information</a> <span>from its website admitting that it is funded by “states”, a fact glossed over by</span> <em>The Free Press</em><span>’s propaganda piece. SNHR has</span> <a href="https://thegrayzone.com/2019/06/14/syrian-network-for-human-rights-opposition-snhr/" rel>downplayed</a> <span>deaths committed by ISIS and Al-Qaeda in the Syrian conflict and openly called for foreign military intervention.</span></p>
<p>Abdulghany claimed that 96,000 people were forcibly disappeared and 40,000 imprisoned but provided no evidence.</p>
<p><span>An X account called HamasAtrocities</span> <a href="https://x.com/HamasAtrocities/status/1869811907189977394" rel>posted</a> <span>a video claiming to show prisoners “found deep in the dungeons of the Sednaya prison in Damascus.”</span></p>
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<figcaption data-sanitized-class="image-caption"><span>Source:</span> <a href="https://x.com/HamasAtrocities/status/1869811907189977394" rel>X</a></figcaption></figure></div>
<p><span>However, the video was taken from a Persian-language</span> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DDolRvEIhIA/" rel>Instagram account</a> <span>that aggregates content.</span></p>

<p><span>Days later, CNN’s Clarissa Ward filmed what appeared to be a prisoner found lying under a blanket inside Sednaya, unaware that HTS had freed his fellow prisoners days before. However, an</span> <a href="https://verify-sy.com/en/details/10562/Did-CNN-Fabricate-the-Story-of--Freeing-a-Prisoner-from-a-Secret-Jail--#" rel>investigation</a> <span>from Verify-Sy found that the prisoner was a Syrian intelligence officer who had been jailed for taking bribes.</span></p>
<p><span>It was not the first time Ward has produced shady propaganda in Syria. In 2017: she</span> <a href="https://thegrayzone.com/2017/07/06/cnn-al-qaeda-propagandist-bilal-abdul-kareem-syria/" rel>hired</a> <span>American Al-Qaeda propagandist Bilal Abul Kareem to produce a documentary in Idlib province. CNN then obscured his role to cover its tracks, irking Abdul Kareem.</span></p>
<p><span>Ward</span> <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/clarissa-ward-war-reporting-conflict-zones-intelligence-matters/%5D" rel>told</a> <span>former CIA director Michael Morell in 2021 that she was so incensed by the U.S. not overthrowing Assad that she wrote angry emails to then deputy national security advisor Ben Rhodes chastising the Obama administration for not doing enough, although it carried out the most expensive intelligence operation in history to overthrow Assad.</span></p>
<p>The U.S. government in 2017 alleged that the Assad government had built a crematorium in Sednaya, distributing satellite photos labeled “probable crematorium” to back its claim.</p>
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<p><span>“The attempt to cover up mass murders in the Assad crematorium is reminiscent of the 20th century’s worst offenses against humanity,”</span> <a href="https://usun.usmission.gov/statement-from-ambassador-nikki-haley-on-atrocities-committed-by-the-assad-regime-in-syria/" rel>said</a> <span>then-ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, likening Syria to Nazi Germany.</span></p>
<p><span>Acting Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs Stuart Jones</span> <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-39926914" rel>assured</a> <span>reporters that evidence of the crematorium would be presented to the world. However, the U.S. government never did present evidence, and since Western reporters have had access, none have bothered to verify Washington’s incendiary claims.</span></p>
<p><strong>Weiss turns to Al-Qaeda to smear Hamas</strong></p>
<p><span>The Sednaya disinformation piece was not</span> <em>The Free Press</em><span>’s only foray into pro-Al-Qaeda propaganda.</span></p>
<p><span>In October, as Israel attempted to undo the PR disaster resulting from its</span> <a href="https://twitter.com/dancohen3000/status/1847012848423104833" rel>publication</a> <span>of the last moments of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar,</span> <em>The Free Press</em> <span>published a video interviewing three residents of Idlib, in northwestern Syria.</span></p>
<p><span>Idlib fell from Syrian government control in 2015 and is firmly under the control of HTS, headed by the notorious terrorist Ahmed Hussein al-Shar’a, better known by his</span> <em>nom de guerre</em> <span>Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, for whom the U.S. government</span> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20240304120028/https://www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field-offices/washingtondc/news/press-releases/up-to-10-million-reward-offered-for-information-on-the-leader-of-the-al-nusrah-front" rel>had offered</a> <span>a $10 million reward.</span></p>
<p><span>Al-Jolani was dispatched from Iraq to Syria in by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in order to found Jabhat al-Nusra as the Islamic state’s Syrian branch but betrayed Al-Baghdadi and swore fealty to then-Al Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahiri. Al-Jolani consolidated power in Idlib province,</span> <a href="https://x.com/aaronjmate/status/1170837060233678848" rel>described</a> <span>by Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL Brett McGurk as the “largest Al-Qaeda safe haven since 9/11.” Jabhat al-Nusra officially broke ties with al-Qaeda and rebranded under the name Jabhat Fatah al-Sham (Front for the Conquest of the Levant), and then to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (Organization for the Liberation of the Levant). However, the U.S. Office of Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) profile of HTS</span> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20241203000705/https://www.odni.gov/nctc/terrorist_groups/hts.html" rel>notes</a> <span>that Jolani “broke with al-Qa‘ida in 2016 because of strategic disagreements,” rather than ideological ones. Journalist Jenan Moussa’s 2017 documentary</span> <em><a href="https://youtu.be/a9NyL78kDUQ?si=EDq7Ky5cJpfDyyoN" rel>Undercover in Idlib</a></em><span>, which documented the total dominance there of al-Qaeda, demonstrated that the break with al-Qaeda was indeed, as the ODNI noted, only cosmetic.</span></p>
<p><span>The UN Human Rights Office</span> <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2020/07/rampant-human-rights-violations-and-war-crimes-war-torn-idlib-faces-pandemic?LangID=E&amp;NewsID=26044" rel>reported</a> <span>that HTS “detained, tortured, and executed civilians expressing dissenting opinions, including journalists”, and that “female media workers were doubly victimized, as the terrorist group continued to systematically discriminate against women and girls, including by denying their freedom of movement.”</span></p>
<p>“HTS, moreover, indiscriminately shelled densely populated civilian areas, spreading terror amongst civilians living in Government-held areas,” the report added. “Women, men and children that we interviewed faced the ghastly choice of being bombarded or fleeing deeper into HTS controlled areas where there are rampant abuses of human rights and extremely limited humanitarian assistance.”</p>
<p>“The acts by HTS members amount to war crimes,” said Commissioner Karen Koning AbuZayd.</p>
<p><span>Amnesty International Syria specialist Diana Seeman</span> <a href="https://archive.org/details/BBCNEWS_20180103_231500_Newsnight/start/1860/end/1920" rel>noted</a> <span>in a 2018 BBC interview that HTS carried out numerous war crimes including, “summary killing of civilians, especially activists, human rights defenders, beheading, and the stoning of women.”</span></p>
<p>In 2020, American Al-Qaeda propagandist Bilal Abdul Kareem was imprisoned by HTS, held in solitary confinement for six months, threatened with beatings, and frequently heard torture.</p>
<p><span>“Almost every day of every week, I had to listen to the screams of torture just a few metres away from me. Everyone in the prisons can always hear the torture,” he</span> <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/exclusive-bilal-abdul-kareem-breaks-silence-over-hts-detention-syria" rel>told</a> <em>Middle East Eye</em><span>.</span></p>
<p><span>Al-Jolani, then furnished an</span> <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/interview/abu-mohammad-al-jolani/" rel>interview</a> <span>with</span> <em>PBS</em><span>, claim that there was no torture.</span></p>
<p>“Just to sum up the whole thing: Abu Mohamed al-Jolani, point blank, he lied,” Abdul Kareem insisted.</p>
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<figcaption data-sanitized-class="image-caption"><span>Source:</span> <a href="https://twitter.com/TheFP/status/1848023173347860628" rel>X</a></figcaption></figure></div>
<p>In this repressive environment, the fervent Zionist Weiss found ideological allies against the Palestinian resistance movement of Hamas.</p>
<p>“In my view, he got what he deserves,” remarked one Idlib man on Sinwar’s killing.</p>
<p>“He was on the side of Assad, the regime we are against,” another man explained.</p>
<p><strong>A hidden agenda</strong></p>
<p>The collaboration highlights the tacit alliance between Zionism and Al-Qaeda, both of which Washington supports in order to destabilize and promote regime change wars against governments in the Middle East that pursue a foreign policy independent of U.S. interests.</p>
<p><span>Indeed, throughout the Syrian dirty war, Israel played a key role in</span> <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/israel-gives-secret-aid-to-syrian-rebels-1497813430" rel>arming</a> <a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/syrian-army-finds-israeli-made-weapons-in-is-hideouts-507668" rel>jihadist</a> <span>militants and</span> <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2014/06/11/exclusive-israel-is-tending-to-wounded-syrian-rebels/" rel>providing</a> <span>them with medical care. Netanyahu even</span> <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-israel-ready-to-take-in-wounded-syrians-from-aleppo/" rel>met</a> <span>with opposition militants receiving medical treatment in Israeli hospitals before they were sent back to Syria to continue fighting. In 2018, Israel</span> <a href="https://apnews.com/article/f4bc2498dac44641a301da509c4283e2" rel>evacuated</a> <span>the White Helmets from Syria.</span></p>
<p><span>Moti Kahane, the Israeli-American businessman whose firm is seeking to run</span> <a href="https://www.uncaptured.media/p/us-authorizes-cia-mercenaries-to" rel>biometric concentration camps</a> <span>in the Gaza Strip in collaboration with former CIA director</span> <a href="https://www.uncaptured.media/p/disgraced-cia-director-looks-to-cash" rel>David Petraeus</a><span>, was a longtime supporter of the CIA-backed Free Syrian Army, a collection of rival factions that contained many former Al-Qaeda and ISIS fighters and</span> <a href="https://tcf.org/content/commentary/america-already-lost-covert-war-syria-now-official/" rel>served</a> <span>as a “larger Islamist and jihadist factions, including Syria’s al-Qaeda affiliate.”</span></p>

<p>When the FSA attacked Kurds in 2019, Kahane publicly denounced them.</p>

<p>As the recent HTS offensive unfolded, so-called "opposition activists" appeared on Israel’s public broadcaster to profess their support for Israel.</p>
<p><span>"We love Israel and have never been its enemies, because Israel is not hostile to those who are not hostile to her,” they</span> <a href="https://x.com/ActiveMeasures8/status/1864046758722216178" rel>said</a><span>.</span></p>
<p>This was the first in a series of statements from HTS-aligned figures who welcomed Israel’s bombing of their country.</p>

<p><span>While the video compares Sednaya with Nazi Germany and Rwanda, it makes no mention of the Israeli prison Sde Teiman, where guards starve, torture, gang rape, burn, amputate limbs from, and murder Palestinian detainees, around 9,500 of whom are held in Israel’s prison archipelago, including hundreds of women and children,</span> <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/08/israels-escalating-use-torture-against-palestinians-custody-preventable" rel>according</a> <span>to the United Nations. The Israeli human rights group B’Tselem published a</span> <a href="https://www.btselem.org/press_releases/20240805_welcome_to_hell" rel>report</a> <span>entitled “Welcome to Hell,” saying that “Sde Teiman is only the tip of the iceberg.”</span></p>
<p><span>Amnesty International, which deemed Sednaya the “human slaughterhouse”, is tepid in its reporting on Sde Teiman. It avoids such characterizations, instead calling its July 2024</span> <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/07/israel-must-end-mass-incommunicado-detention-and-torture-of-palestinians-from-gaza/" rel>report</a> <span>“Israel must end mass incommunicado detention and torture of Palestinians from Gaza.” The BBC’s December 9</span> <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c938lxengy9o" rel>report</a> <span>borrowed Amnesty’s “slaughterhouse” title for Sednaya, while its August 5</span> <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2yylgze4ro" rel>article</a> <span>only referred to “abuse” in its headline.</span> <em>The New York Times</em> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/14/world/middleeast/syria-sednaya-prison-assad-atrocities.html" rel>report</a> <span>on Syria’s prison was titled “</span><em>Syria Shudders as Assad’s Prison Atrocities Come Into the Light”</em> <span>while it used softer language to describe Sde Teiman, titling its</span> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/06/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-detention-base.html" rel>article</a> <em>“Inside the Base Where Israel Has Detained Thousands of Gazans.”</em></p>
<p><em>The Jerusalem Post</em> <a href="https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-834884" rel>seized</a> <span>on the propaganda campaign too in order to discredit popular protests against the Gaza genocide and justify Israeli conduct.</span></p>
<p><span>“Assad’s regime represents dehumanization on a mass scale, yet the global response has been indifferent at best. Those who claim to champion human rights on the world stage remain conspicuously quiet,” wrote Zina</span> <a href="https://www.jpost.com/author/zina-rakhamilova" rel>Rakhamilova</a> <span>“While the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza is a legitimate concern, anyone with a moral compass can discern the difference between a war initiated by a terror organization and crimes against humanity like those we are now uncovering in Syria.”</span></p>
<p><span>The</span> <em>Times of Israel</em><span>, which has published calls for</span> <a href="https://www.vox.com/2014/8/1/5959635/heres-the-full-text-of-the-deleted-time-of-israel-post-backing" rel>genocide</a> <span>and</span> <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/israel-needs-lebensraum-says-blog-major-national-newspaper-1996635" rel>lebensraum</a><span>,</span> <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/former-syrian-prisoners-return-to-death-dormitory-in-assads-notorious-jail/" rel>described</a> <span>Sednaya as a “death dormitory.”</span></p>
<p>As HTS consolidated power and Western media outlets that had published deceptive reports about Syria now had access to the country, the propaganda campaign has reached a new level.</p>

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guid: https://antonchaitkin.substack.com/p/martin-luther-king-invoked-americas
author: ;Anton Chaitkin
link: https://antonchaitkin.substack.com/p/martin-luther-king-invoked-americas
hash: �yJ�����R��Q��
title:
On the Eve of His Murder, Martin Luther King Invoked America’s Nationalist Heritage to Challenge the System

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<div><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1200,h_600,c_fill,f_jpg,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fef70a739-f342-42bb-b43c-01de4febdcfa_680x650.jpeg" data-sanitized-class="ff-og-image-inserted"></div><h3 data-sanitized-class="subtitle">by Anton Chaitkin; Copyright Anton Chaitkin</h3><div dir="auto" data-sanitized-class="body markup">
<h2 data-sanitized-class="header-anchor-post">On the Eve of his Murder, Martin Luther King Invoked America’s Nationalist Heritage to Challenge the System</h2>
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<p>By Anton Chaitkin; Copyright Anton Chaitkin</p>
<p>At the end of March, 1968, Dr. King was in the final stages of arrangements to lead a Poor People’s campaign, that would disrupt Washington until its demands were met.</p>
<p>In a Christian sermon in Washington’s …</p>
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guid: https://antonchaitkin.substack.com/p/remaining-awake-through-a-great-revolution
title: Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution
author: ;Anton Chaitkin
link: https://antonchaitkin.substack.com/p/remaining-awake-through-a-great-revolution
hash: �x�j e�t�Z��xL
content:
<div><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1200,h_600,c_fill,f_jpg,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2b5f7c5c-3854-4b76-8242-9a65325ba544_600x289.png" data-sanitized-class="ff-og-image-inserted"></div><div data-sanitized-class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-alignItems-center pc-position-absolute pc-reset header-anchor-parent">
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<p>By Anton Chaitkin. Copyright Anton Chaitkin</p>
<p>When Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his sermon in the nation’s capital on March 31, 1968, the coup d’état was in full swing.</p>
<p>President Kennedy had been murdered in 1963. King himself would be assassinated four days after the sermon. The President’s brother, Senator Ro…</p>

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guid: https://www.uncaptured.media/p/syria-psyop-theater-mass-graves-mass
title: Syria Psyop Theater: Mass Graves, Mass Deceptions
author: ;Dan Cohen
link: https://www.uncaptured.media/p/syria-psyop-theater-mass-graves-mass
hash: 6������e��7����A
content:
<p><em><span>Read part 1</span> <a href="https://www.uncaptured.media/p/syria-psyop-theater-inside-the-sednaya" rel>here</a><span>.</span></em></p>
<p>For over a decade of color revolutions and destabilization plots in West Asia and North Africa, U.S. government officials with their allied NGOs and media outlets have summoned the spectre of mass graves to justify their interventionist policies.</p>
<p><span>“As President, I refused to wait for the images of slaughter and mass graves before taking action,” President Barack Obama declared in a March 2011</span> <a href="https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2011/03/28/remarks-president-address-nation-libya" rel>speech</a> <span>justifying Operation Odyssey Dawn, the U.S. airstrikes that led to the deposal and grisly murder of Libyan president Moammar Qadaffi.</span></p>
<p><span>“Why batter Colonel Qaddafi and not intervene on the side of the opposition in Yemen, Bahrain, perhaps even Syria?,”</span> <a href="https://www.economist.com/lexingtons-notebook/2011/03/28/the-birth-of-an-obama-doctrine" rel>The Economist</a> <span>wondered.</span></p>

<p><span>From the earliest days of the Syrian crisis, Western media began to disseminate anonymously-sourced and unverified claims of mass graves, particularly in the cities of</span> <a href="https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2011/05/12/more-stick-than-carrot" rel>Homs</a> <span>and</span> <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-13423418" rel>Deraa</a><span>, while ignoring the presence of armed opposition groups and their killings of Syrian police and military personnel.</span></p>
<p><span>Father Frans van der Lugt, a Dutch Jesuit priest who had spent decades in Syria before being murdered by armed opposition groups in 2014,</span> <a href="https://www.kitklarenberg.com/p/syrian-dirty-wars-secret-origins" rel>wrote</a> <span>that “From the start I saw armed demonstrators marching along in the protests, who began to shoot at the police first. The violence of the security forces has been a reaction to the brutal violence of the armed rebels.”</span></p>
<p>“The opposition of the street is much stronger than any other opposition. And this opposition is armed and frequently employs brutality and violence, only in order to blame the government,” he wrote in another report.</p>
<p>This sort of vital information was rarely included in reports, certainly not by mainstream media outlets and billionaire-funded human rights groups.</p>
<p><span>In June 2011, a Human Rights Watch report</span> <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2011/06/01/weve-never-seen-such-horror/crimes-against-humanity-syrian-security-forces" rel>alleged</a><span>, based on interviews with “more than 50” anonymous Syrians and “Jordanian nationals” (some conducted by phone), that multiple mass graves existed in Deraa. The only tangible evidence provided was a</span> <a href="https://youtu.be/monI7Twd6U0?si=M69Qq5LYMAaG3ewJ" rel>video</a> <span>produced by the Turkey-based opposition-affiliated Sham News Network, which received</span> <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2012/05/28/tech/web/shaam-news-syria/index.html" rel>glowing coverage from CNN</a><span>, of a shallow grave dug with a single corpse and three body bags visible. A single source, who was not in Syria, claimed the bodies were of his family members. The report failed to substantiate its claims, noting that “While we did our best to verify the names and circumstances of the killings with witnesses and family members, this was not always possible due to restrictions on access and communications in Syria.”</span></p>
<p>The only documented mass grave of the Syrian government is in the southern Damascus neighborhood of Tadamon.</p>
<p><span>Tadamon was a</span> <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2013/12/02/world/meast/syria-damascus-suburb-pleitgen/index.html" rel>front line</a> <span>in the first years of the Syrian war, with the Syrian military and Palestinian faction</span> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/06/world/middleeast/Syria.html" rel>Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command</a> <span>fighting against a collection of armed groups which journalist Charles Glass</span> <a href="https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2013/12/05/syria-way-genocide/?srsltid=AfmBOop-9OUhWu5AlUgmbAM0SMyL4OyFwdLoTG2yyk1hmiPzWWGSRTTb" rel>identified</a> <span>as “troops from the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and its erstwhile allies the Nusra Front, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), and other extreme Salafist militias.” The armed opposition was so brutal that, according a The New York Times</span> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/25/world/middleeast/a-hired-killer-in-syria-reconsiders-his-role.html" rel>report</a><span>, Jabhat Al-Nusra militants captured an Alawaite family in Tadamon and forced a brother to rape his sister at gunpoint.</span></p>
<p><span>The anti-government armed groups, according to a March 2013 Amnesty International</span> <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/mde240082013en.pdf" rel>report</a><span>, executed anyone they suspected of being informants for the Syrian government, and dumped their bodies into a “a large hole dug for the foundations of a building in Souk al-Talata,” called the “hole of death.” Among the victims was Palestinian refugee Ali al-Zamel. When the Syrian military temporarily regained control of the neighborhood around September 2012, it recovered bodies from the hole, but Jabhat al-Nusra once again ousted Syrian government forces in 2013.</span></p>
<p><span>However, this opposition mass grave was ignored while a a Syrian military intelligence mass grave was featured in an exposé jointly-published by the U.S. government-funded</span> <a href="https://newlinesmag.com/reportage/how-a-massacre-of-nearly-300-in-syria-was-revealed/" rel>New Lines Institute</a><span>,</span> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/27/massacre-in-tadamon-how-two-academics-hunted-down-a-syrian-war-criminal" rel>The Guardian</a><span>, and Al Jumhuriyah, a staunchly pro-opposition Germany-based outlet,</span> <a href="https://www.arabculturefund.org/Grantees/9537" rel>funded</a> <span>by the German and Norwegian governments, Open Society Foundation and Ford Foundation, among others, through a</span> <a href="https://www.flipsnack.com/arabculturefund/afac-annual-report-2023-english/full-view.html" rel>cultural institution</a><span>. The exposé was done in collaboration with two researchers at the University of Amsterdam, one of whom wrote that she posed as a fervent support of the Assad government in order to lure an intelligence officer who participated in the massacre to confess his participation, and said it was done in “revenge,” apparently for the killing of his brother.</span></p>
<p>The report found that a small group of Syrian military intelligence officers executed 41 people in a mass grave, set their bodies alight, and then covered up their crime.</p>
<p><span>When the reports were published in 2022, the Syrian government</span> <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220531-syria-regime-detains-chief-suspect-in-tadamun-massacre/" rel>arrested</a> <span>the confessed perpetrator, Amjad Yousef.</span></p>
<p><strong>Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham and ISIS mass graves</strong></p>
<p>While Western media focus on the Syrian military’s mass grave in Tadamon, they have omitted the overwhelming majority of documented mass graves made by anti-government terrorist groups in Tadamon and throughout the country in territory that opposition forces had held.</p>
<p><span>In late 2011, Jabhat al-Nusra (which would go on to become Hayat Tahrir al-Sham), Ahrar al-Sham, Jaish al-Islam, and Jaish al-Fatah began to use the Idlib province’s Al-Habat quarry as a mass grave, according to a 2021</span> <a href="https://scm.bz/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/The-Mass-Grave-Al-Ahm-Hole.pdf" rel>report</a> <span>by the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression. Militants threw into the</span> <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/place/35%C2%B059'49.9%22N+36%C2%B038'11.2%22E/@35.9948079,36.6377067,3857m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m4!3m3!8m2!3d35.997201!4d36.636445?entry=ttu&amp;g_ep=EgoyMDI0MTIxMS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D" rel>quarry</a> <span>Syrian soldiers, members of government-allied militias, people accused of collaboration with the government, people accused of apostasy, adultery, or homosexuality, and Shia Muslim residents of the village of Foua and Kefraya (condemned as “infidels”), earning it the title “the Al-Ahm death hole.”</span></p>
<p>Video uploaded by the “Idlib Special Operations Brigade”, a faction of the CIA-backed Free Syrian Army, shows militants with captured Syrian soldiers in a truck who, according to the report, were then killed and dumped in the mass grave.</p>

<p>By 2015, the Al-Ahm “death hole” contained at least 110 bodies, and by 2017, 30 more victims had been thrown in. While some had already been executed, others were thrown in alive, or blindfolded and told to run for freedom, only to fall to their death.</p>
<p>HTS reportedly ceased using the pit to dispose of its victims and began to use it as a garbage landfill for all of Idlib province, which it governed. However, the report documents further cases in 2020.</p>

<p><span>In 2011, anti-government militias</span> <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-06-13/syria-troops-storm-town-mass-grave-found/2755880" rel>dumped</a> <span>the “mutilated bodies of 10 security agents whose hands, head and feet had been cut off” in a mass grave in Jisr al-Shughur in Idlib province. “At least four of the bodies were beheaded or struck on the head with an ax,”</span> <a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/jun/12/syrian-army-regains-control-restive-border-town/" rel>according</a> <span>to an Associated Press reporter.</span></p>
<p><span>In November 2013, Jabhat al-Nusra and ISIS</span> <a href="https://youtu.be/bHpZdGbZnks?si=8_aIdiSscyUwfO9r" rel>attacked</a> <span>the ancient Chrisitan city of Sadad, ransacking the city, desecrating churches, and taking a man as a</span> <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2013/11/19/syria-opposition-abuses-during-ground-offensive" rel>human shield</a> <span>before they</span> <a href="https://www.indcatholicnews.com/news/23532" rel>murdered</a> <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/hundreds-christian-fighters-scramble-defend-syrian-town-isis-advance-336227" rel>46</a> <span>Syrian men, women, and children and dumped their bodies in two mass graves.</span></p>

<p>"What happened in Sadad is the most serious and biggest massacre of Christians in Syria in the past two and a half years... 45 innocent civilians were martyred for no reason, and among them several women and children, many thrown into mass graves. Other civilians were threatened and terrorized. 30 were wounded and 10 are still missing,” Archbishop Selwanos Boutros Alnemeh said.</p>
<p><span>After the Syrian government’s army expelled Islamic state forces from Palmyra in 2016, they discovered a mass grave that</span> <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-35950517" rel>contained</a> <span>40 bodies.</span></p>
<p><span>The greatest concentration of mass graves was in eastern Syria, where ISIS held territory for years, from Raqqa to</span> <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-46544924" rel>Albu Kamal</a> <span>and around Deir Ezzor.</span></p>
<p>In 2017, the U.S.-led anti-ISIS coalition, with U.S.-backed Kurdish forces fighting under the banner of the Syrian Democratic Forces, expelled ISIS from Raqqa, leveling 80% of the city. First responders and residents began to uncover mass graves there too.</p>
<p><span>Unlike the White Helmets, who are lavishly</span> <a href="https://www.usaid.gov/syria/press-releases/oct-25-2024-International-Donor-Group-Praises-the-White-Helmets-for-Decade-of-Extraordinary-Humanitarian-Efforts-in-Syria" rel>funded</a> <span>by the U.S., UK, and Qatar and were once called the “</span><a href="https://x.com/MaxBlumenthal/status/857043935293620224" rel>Islamic state fire brigade</a><span>” by ISIS prisoner journalist John Cantlie, Raqqa’s first responders received little funding from the U.S. government.</span></p>
<p><span>According to a July 2018 Human Rights Watch</span> <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/07/03/syria-mass-graves-former-isis-areas" rel>report</a> <span>on the mass graves, the U.S. was hesitant to allocate funds to exhuming graves there because it did not want to offend Ankara, which considers Kurdish groups to be terrorists.</span></p>
<p>“One of the issues reported is that some international organizations are unwilling or reluctant to support local authorities for fear of alienating Syrian government authorities in Damascus or to jeopardize their relations with Turkey, both of which are hostile to the local authorities,” HRW wrote.</p>
<p>Despite having no training or experience and little equipment, they organized themselves from the Raqqa Civilian Council and volunteered to exhume human remains of civilians and fighters killed by ISIS and by anti-ISIS forces, hoping to help bring closure to families missing their loved ones, the report stated.</p>

<p>By July 2018, they had found nine graves in Raqqa, with “each one estimated to have dozens, if not hundreds, of bodies, making exhumations a monumental task,” said Priyanka Motaparthy, then HRW’s acting emergencies director.</p>
<p>However, the paltry support was insufficient for the job.</p>
<p>“If workers continue to exhume the graves without adequate technical training, equipment, and support, families may lose the opportunity to accurately identify the remains of their loved ones. Evidence regarding crimes in the area, including ISIS crimes, may be lost,” the HRW report added.</p>
<p>Despite its limitations, the teams managed to excavate 22 mass graves in the Raqqa environs, discovering 5,656 bodies, and 522 in northeast Deir Ezzor from 2018 to 2019.</p>
<p><span>A 2020</span> <a href="https://www.icmp.int/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/icmp-gr-mena-065-6-w-doc-stocktaking-missing-persons-in-north-east-syria.pdf" rel>report</a> <span>by The International Commission on Missing Persons, titled “The Missing in North East Syria: a Stocktaking.” There, residents and researchers began to uncover mass graves, from which 3,797 human remains were exhumed.</span></p>
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<p>In January and February 2019, they exhumed 793 human remains in Raqqa’s Panorama Park “believed to contain a large number of bodies killed by the Global Coalition, including ISIS fighters.”</p>
<p>The Al Fakhikha Grave south of Raqqa City was exhumed from January to June of 2019 and contained 673 bodies.</p>
<p>Al Tala’a Camp Grave, south of Raqqa City, is the largest documented mass grave, containing 815 bodies. Excavation began in June 2019 and lasted until September 18.</p>
<p>The most shocking mass grave, which is believed to contain thousands of bodies, is in the Al-Houta gorge, which had been a popular hiking and tourist destination north of Raqqa city, near the town of Hammam al-Turkman.</p>
<p><span>According to</span> <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/05/04/abyss#_ftn5" rel>Human Rights Watch</a><span>, a terrorist group known as the al-Qadsiya Brigade, led by a local man named Faysal al-Ballo, attacked and overcame a Syrian government checkpoint in July 2013. The brigade had originally pledged allegiance first to Ahrar al-Sham, then to the Free Syrian Army, and finally to Jabhat Al-Nusra. The fighters executed at least 16 Syrian soldiers, the celebratory aftermath of which is shown in the video below, and then reportedly dumped their bodies in the Al-Houta gorge. This practice was continued by ISIS, which dumped bodies of hundreds of Syrian military personnel, religious minorities including members of the Muslim Ismaili sect, and anyone accused of collaborating with the enemy.</span></p>

<p><span>According to the ICMP report, under the command of a security chief whose</span> <em>nom de guerre</em> <span>was “Abu Yasser al-Iraqi,” ISIS killed members of the CIA-backed Free Syrian Army, at least 20 government soldiers, and Kurdish YPG fighters.</span></p>
<p>They not only disposed of dead bodies by the car-full into the gorge but also employed sadistic methods of murder, sometimes throwing people alive to their deaths, executing victims at the edge to allowing their bodies to fall in, or having victims “brought blindfolded and told to run to their deaths, under the pretense that they were being released and running to their salvation,” the same practice used as the Al-Ahm “death hole.” The report does not give a specific number of victims but believes it to be in the thousands.</p>
<p>When local residents complained to ISIS authorities of the stench and possibility of diseases from decomposing remains, ISIS dumped crude oil into the gorge and burned it.</p>
<p><span>Human Rights Watch</span> <a href="https://youtu.be/iOW-aMUYNNs?si=Ftg7D1MDCiQbimYx" rel>published</a> <span>footage of militants executing prisoners and throwing bodies into the gorge, which a researcher had obtained from a worker at a computer repair shop who found the footage on a computer left by an ISIS militant and clandestinely sent it to the group.</span></p>

<p><span>In 2020, Human Rights Watch also</span> <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/05/04/abyss" rel>documented</a> <span>the Al-Houta mass grave, with its researchers flying a drone into the depths of the gorge and revealing three corpses in pools of oil at its bottom.</span></p>

<p><strong>‘Lack of political will’ to investigate HTS/ISIS mass graves</strong></p>
<p>Any hopes that the families who had lost loved ones might have had of finding their missing relatives were dashed by the October 2019 Turkish-backed invasion of Kurdish-held areas in northeastern Syria, greenlighted by the Trump administration. Since then, the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army has held the area. There have been no attempts to recover the bodies from the gorge nor international pressure to begin such a process, whether on the SNA itself or its Turkish sponsors, which have long supported the HTS and ISIS terrorists that dumped the bodies in the gorge.</p>
<p><span>“The families of the missing who spoke with Human Rights Watch said they had hoped that the territorial defeat of ISIS would quickly lead to information about their loved ones. However, a series of delays and an apparent lack of political will placed significant obstacles in their path,” HRW wrote in its</span> <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2020/02/11/kidnapped-isis/failure-uncover-fate-syrias-missing" rel>report</a><span>, entitled “Kidnapped by ISIS Failure to Uncover the Fate of Syria’s Missing.”</span></p>
<p>In 2019, HRW again noted that there were no efforts from the various forces, mostly foreign, to investigate these mass graves.</p>
<p>“At the time of writing, the extent of the control by the Syrian government, Turkey, NES, and the US-led coalition in former ISIS-held areas remains unclear, making it more difficult for families to identify who to speak to and recovery efforts more precarious… Regardless of who currently controls these areas, these developments highlight the urgency with which authorities should act on any leads available to learn what became of those missing at the hands of ISIS,” the report stated. “Thus far, authorities on the ground have not coordinated or systematized the limited local efforts to take up this issue.”</p>
<p><strong>Legacy media ignore documented mass graves, promote evidence-free claims of Syrian government-filled mass graves</strong></p>
<p>While mass graves in former al-Nusra and Islamic state-held territory in eastern Syria generated little interest in Western media, these outlets have promoted specious claims of mass graves perpetrated by the Syrian government.</p>
<p><span>The New York Times in 2022 published a</span> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/16/world/middleeast/mass-graves-syria-war-crimes.html" rel>report</a> <span>entitled “Mass Graves Identified in Syria Could Hold Evidence of War Crimes.” This misleadingly titled article contained no evidence of mass graves, relying instead on grainy and vague satellite photos of a field, described as a “suspected” grave, and an image of the Najha cemetery.</span></p>
<p>This was packaged with interviews from four Syrian men, two of whom were in Germany, another in Lebanon, and another in Syria. The Times granted them all anonymity for “fear of retribution by the Syrian government” despite the fact that all but one of them had left Syria.</p>
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<figcaption data-sanitized-class="image-caption">Caption: The New York Times published this aerial photograph of the Najha cemetery, claiming it was a mass grave.</figcaption></figure></div>
<p><span>One of the men who was interviewed participated in a trial against Anwar Raslan, a Syrian government official who defected to the opposition and was granted asylum in Germany. There, he gave lurid accounts about mass-torture in government prisons but was then convicted of crimes against humanity and sentenced to life in prison despite</span> <a href="https://lesjours.fr/obsessions/la-traque-anwar-raslan/ep3-deserteur/" rel>significant doubts</a> <span>about his testimony, and the</span> <a href="https://cijaonline.org/news/2020/11/19/cija-testifies-in-case-of-anwar-ruslan" rel>participation</a> <span>of the CIJA.</span></p>
<p>The New York Times, however, ignored those details and offered no evidence to support its allegations of mass graves or whom might have been buried in the graves, admitting that, “The Times could not independently corroborate all the details in their accounts, including the total numbers of bodies they recalled seeing.”</p>
<p>Another one of the men interviewed appeared masked in the U.S. Congress, calling himself “the gravedigger,” spinning lurid tales of mass murder and pressing to ramp up sanctions on Syria.</p>
<p><span>His March 2022 congressional testimony was</span> <a href="https://www.ushmm.org/genocide-prevention/blog/a-message-to-america-from-a-gravedigger-in-syria" rel>promoted by The Holocaust Memorial Museum</a><span>, which had on its board ex-U.S. government official</span> <a href="https://nacla.org/news/2023/12/01/call-conscience-committee-takes-aim-elliott-abrams" rel>Elliot Abrams</a><span>. He oversaw massacres in Latin America and was convicted of unlawfully withholding information from Congress in the Iran-Contra scandal.</span></p>

<p><span>The “gravedigger” character appeared in Congress again in June 2022 and</span> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/live/N_Is4ohpRFI?si=__Pfwkyz3HUXc_VK" rel>April 2023</a><span>, and in numerous media outlets including a September 2022</span> <a href="https://youtu.be/lmmsLJhrmPE?si=Lq0fchHC9xMjH-6x" rel>Vice</a> <span>interview. Each time, however, the “gravedigger” appears to be a different person.</span></p>
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<p><span>The New York Times also referenced a Human Rights Watch</span> <a href="https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/report_pdf/syria1215web_0.pdf" rel>report</a> <span>that cited two anonymous defectors, interviewed in Lebanon and Turkey, who claimed to have served at military hospitals. The Times did not clarify if they relied on the same sources that HRW relied on.</span></p>
<p>“The two defectors Human Rights Watch interviewed who served at military hospitals said that soldiers transported the bodies to mass graves located on military land in the greater Damascus area, including near the Najha cemetary, near the Third Brigade military base, and near the Dhamir military airport. Human Rights Watch was not able to confirm these claims.”</p>
<p><span>While the Times alleged Qutayfah to be the largest mass grave, it was not mentioned in the 2017 Amnesty International “Human slaughterhouse”</span> <a href="https://www.amnestyusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Human-Slaughterhouse-Mass-Hangings-and-Extermination-at-Saydnaya-Prison-Syria.pdf" rel>report</a> <span>that first claimed the Assad government was “exterminating” tens of thousands of prisoners and burying them in mass graves.</span></p>
<p><strong>Staging a mass grave?</strong></p>
<p>Outside of Damascus, graves may have been tampered with to produce the desired imagery.</p>
<p><span>Multiple reports documented an alleged mass grave in Adra, located near Damascus, which was being exhumed by the White Helmets, who have participated in numerous summary executions themselves and have demonstrated their capability to</span> <a href="https://x.com/dancohen3000/status/1394742294629265418" rel>stage scenes</a><span>.</span></p>
<p><span>A</span> <a href="https://youtu.be/Pnk7ImrhnVA?si=kz6jRFqNepN_t6l6" rel>report</a> <span>by Turkish-state media outlet TRT showed the White Helmets at work, finding several bags of human remains in crypts. Correspondent Randolph Nogel made no effort to investigate and stated that they were all victims of Assad. However, an AFP</span> <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20241225-syria-rescuers-activist-say-site-outside-damascus-believed-to-be-mass-grave" rel>report</a> <span>casually suggested that the graves were tampered with. According to Diab Serriya, co-founder of the Turkey-based Association of Detainees and Missing Persons of Sednaya Prison, “the bags of bones were probably brought from other graves" and "probably this grave contains detainees but also former regime or opposition fighters killed in battle.”</span></p>
<p><span>Neither report notes that Jabhat al-Nusra and other terrorist groups</span> <a href="https://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-syria-adra-20140925-story.html" rel>overran Adra in December 2013</a> <span>and</span> <a href="https://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-syria-adra-20140925-story.html" rel>massacred Syrians soldiers and civilians from religious minority groups</a><span>.</span></p>
<p><strong>Assad falls and the narrative takes hold</strong></p>
<p><span>The “gravedigger” was accompanied by Mouaz Mustafa, head of the Syrian Emergency Task Force, a regime-change outfit funded by the</span> <a href="https://x.com/MaxBlumenthal/status/1864014565647798628" rel>U.S. Agency for International Development</a><span>. Since the earliest days of the crisis, Moustafa has played a central role. In 2013, he arranged for and accompanied neoconservative senator John McCain to illegally enter Syria to</span> <a href="https://youtu.be/IbfsTcJCKDE?si=SXaCDrrzIK0n7imz" rel>meet</a> <span>with anti-government militants who had</span> <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/10089697/John-McCain-denies-he-knowingly-posed-with-with-rebel-kidnappers-in-Syria.html" rel>kidnapped 11 Lebanese Shia pilgrims</a><strong>.</strong></p>
<p><span>As soon as the Syrian government collapsed, Moustafa</span> <a href="https://www.wunc.org/2024-12-09/for-mouaz-moustafa-the-fall-of-the-assad-regime-is-an-emotional-victory" rel>met</a> <span>with Biden administration national security adviser Jake Sullivan – who infamously wrote that “</span><a href="https://wikileaks.org/clinton-emails/emailid/23225" rel>AQ [al-Qaeda] is our on side in Syria</a><span>” – and then headed to Damascus along with his staffer Celine Kasem.</span></p>
<p>Moustafa apparently furnished multiple western media outlets with access to the alleged mass graves and interviews.</p>
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<p><span>Days later, Channel 4, a British state-funded media outlet, published a</span> <a href="https://youtu.be/eevV8cuxpJY?si=cLt4UhNItCFKX-bc" rel>report</a> <span>called “True scale of Assad’s slaughter revealed at Syrian mass grave,” showing what it claims are two mass graves in Qutayfah, east of Damascus, including one in which “around 150 thousand people may have been buried.”</span></p>
<p>The report contained no evidence and relied on drone footage of the open field that the New York Times alleged is a mass grave in its 2022 report using satellite photos and claims from the Syrian Emergency Task Force. The Channel 4 report also contains testimony from figures who claimed to have witnessed the disposal of bodies.</p>
<p>At a formal cemetery, the town’s former mayor, Mohammed Abdel Magid, estimates 300 to 400 bodies were dumped in a mass grave. The Channel 4 report additionally interviews a man named Esam Saad, who claimed to have been involved in covering up bodies.</p>
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<figcaption data-sanitized-class="image-caption">The Shamalia cemetery is allegedly “ground zero” for the “industrial scale burying of corpses”</figcaption></figure></div>
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<figcaption data-sanitized-class="image-caption">An alleged mass grave in the Shamalia cemetery, what the reporter called “the biggest mass grave in the 21st century” (at 0:38)</figcaption></figure></div>
<p>The report also featured Moustafa, who speculated that his uncle may be buried there.</p>
<p><span>On December 17, Reuters</span> <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/least-100000-bodies-syrian-mass-grave-us-advocacy-group-head-says-2024-12-17/" rel>reported</a> <span>that “a mass grave outside of Damascus contained the bodies of at least 100,000 people killed by the former government of ousted President Bashar al-Assad,” explicitly referencing Moustafa.</span></p>
<p>"One hundred thousand is the most conservative estimate" Moustafa claimed. "It's a very, very extremely almost unfairly conservative estimate."</p>
<p>However, Reuters was forced to admit that it was “unable to confirm Moustafa's allegations.”</p>
<p><span>A separate Reuters video</span> <a href="https://youtu.be/F-OmrrUuR98?si=vkDiZrKNXhyVJ1An" rel>report</a> <span>visited the Najha cemetery, which the 2022 New York Times article flippantly described as a mass grave without providing evidence. Reuters shows a neatly dug trench that appears to have been recent, but there are no human remains or any other evidence visible to prove their claim.</span></p>
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<figcaption data-sanitized-class="image-caption"><span>A trench next to the Najha cemetery, what the New York Times and Reuters state is a mass grave. No evidence is visible. Source:</span> <a href="https://youtu.be/F-OmrrUuR98?si=5p7L0dDSUhH5chAK" rel>Reuters</a></figcaption></figure></div>
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<p><span>A man looks inside a hole dug under a marked grave, what Reuters reported is a “mass grave.” No evidence is visible. Source:</span> <a href="https://youtu.be/F-OmrrUuR98?si=5p7L0dDSUhH5chAK" rel>Reuters</a></p>
<p><span>The X account Levant_24_</span> <a href="https://x.com/Levant_24_/status/1869004868175700031" rel>published</a> <span>images of Najha cemetery taken the same day that Reuters visited (evidenced by the armed man visible in both the video and photos), incorrectly describing it as located in Qatana and claiming it to be a mass grave of 100,000 of Assad’s victims.</span></p>
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<p><span>A</span> <a href="https://youtu.be/qpGINupJYtc?si=GnEElF6xGb4LsOZT" rel>report</a> <span>from Qatari-state media Al Jazeera also interviewed Qutayfah’s former mayor and a man named Issam Ali Saad who identified himself as the owner of a construction business. He said that the Syrian government borrowed his machinery to bury tortured prisoners in Qutayfah. Also interviewed was a man named Abdo Sheikh, who identified himself as the graveyard’s keeper and claimed the government buried around 100 people there, a fraction of the amount alleged by the former mayor in the Channel Four report, identifying all of them as innocent civilians. This report too shows no evidence of its claims.</span></p>
<p><span>The Free Press, a neoconservative outlet run by Zionist cancel-culture queen Bari Weiss, published another</span> <a href="https://youtu.be/PovQlfyztzU?si=RZf6MlYi1mjLZqza" rel>video</a> <span>entitled</span> <em>“Exclusive: Syria's Largest Mass Grave</em><span>,” produced by the Center for Peace Communications. This outlet also interviewed Saad on the same day (as evidenced by his clothing) but identified him as a gravedigger (it is possible but seems unlikely that he is both.) The report alleged that 200,000 victims were buried in Qutayfah but, like all other reports, showed no evidence.</span></p>
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<figcaption data-sanitized-class="image-caption">Caption: Al Jazeera and The Center for Peace Communications both interviewed the same man on the same day, one calling him the owner of a construction business, and the other calling him a gravedigger.</figcaption></figure></div>
<p><span>Al Jazeera also published a</span> <a href="https://youtu.be/4dGOHVFoptQ?si=YSQSooRm0VotynLJ" rel>report</a> <span>from a cemetery in Homs, claiming it to be a mass grave. The report contains footage of preparation for a mass grave but insists that the Assad government lied that some were Syrian soldiers. The report shows what it says is the cemetery register of bodies delivered from the military hospital but does not investigate the identities of any of those in the graves.</span></p>
<p><strong>Hailing the mass murderers, memory-holing their mass graves</strong></p>
<p>Since the Assad government’s ouster, the former opposition forces that used rape as a weapon of war, carried out summary executions, and threw thousands of bodies into mass graves have been transformed into heroic forces.</p>
<p><span>“When rebels overran portions of Tadamon early in the civil war, the district became an emblem of the resistance. Then when evidence emerged of mass killings, it seemed to encapsulate the sadism of Assad’s security forces,” Nabih Bulos</span> <a href="https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2024-12-19/syria-massacre-rumored-hanging-assad-tadamon-rebels-justice" rel>wrote</a> <span>in the Los Angeles Times, making no mention of the atrocities carried out by HTS of any of its allied armed groups.</span></p>
<p><span>In the immediate aftermath of the coup, Democracy Now hosted Human Rights Watch researcher Hiba Zayadin in a</span> <a href="https://youtu.be/zh5N7WotuIs?si=fIJuH6kh77ZzAc4z" rel>segment</a> <span>entitled “</span><em>Mass Graves Discovered as Syrian Families Seek Answers to Loved Ones' Disappearances Under Assad</em><span>.” Zayadin spoke at length about the Tadamon massacre as Democracy Now showed drone shots of the Qutayfah field alleged to be a mass grave. However, she made no mention of the HTS “death hole” mass grave in Tadamon, or any of the other numerous mass graves in Syria, many of which were documented by HRW itself, that could not be attributed to the Assad government but to its opponents.</span></p>
<p><span>Similarly, the U.S. government-funded PBS Newshour published a</span> <a href="https://youtu.be/FsJ0jx9mkM4?si=wYa3PkY5IXAFbagr" rel>report</a> <span>from correspondent Simona Foltynon on alleged mass graves. She visited an alleged Assad government massacre site and a rubble-covered area that she claimed was actually a mass grave where “countless souls perished in summary executions” carried out by the Syrian government. The only evidence shown is a single mandible on top of a street. The rest of the human remains, she alleged, were buried under the rubble after the Syrian military blew up the area to cover the evidence.</span></p>
<p>Foltyn interviewed a man identified as a neighborhood resident who claims to have witnessed heavy “massacres,”but also admits that the neighborhood was the “front line in the fight for Damascus,” although neither Foltyn nor the man interviewed mention the extremist nature and shocking brutality of the armed opposition groups. Like HRW’s Zayadin, Foltyn made no mention of the HTS’s “death hole” mass grave in Tadamon or any other mass graves the new HTS regime or ISIS were responsible for throughout the country.</p>
<p><strong>Executing a long standing plan</strong></p>
<p>At the center of the supposed evidence collection is CIJA, the aforementioned organization that paid huge sums to have false documents smuggled out of Al-Qaeda and ISIS-controlled territory.</p>
<p><span>CIJA’s</span> <a href="https://cijaonline.org/who-we-are/stephen-rapp" rel>chair</a> <span>is Stephen Rapp, a former U.S. congressman appointed by the Obama administration as Ambassador-at-large for Global Justice. The position was</span> <a href="https://2009-2017.state.gov/j/gcj/c53694.htm" rel>created</a> <span>by former secretary of state Madeleine Albright, who famously</span> <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/watch-madeleine-albright-saying-iraqi-kids-deaths-worth-it-resurfaces-1691193" rel>justified</a> <span>the killing of half a million Iraqi babies.</span></p>
<p><span>“We really haven’t seen anything quite like this since the Nazis,” Rapp</span> <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/syrian-mass-graves-expose-machinery-death-under-assad-top-prosecutor-says-2024-12-17/" rel>said</a> <span>following visits to the alleged mass graves in Qutayfah and the Najha cemetery. In a CNN interview, he called the Assad government’s crimes “The worst atrocities of the 21st century,”</span> <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/13/Tv/video/amanpour-rapp" rel>likening</a> <span>them to the Holocaust.</span></p>
<p><span>Rapp is an overtly political actor and has been a vociferous supporter of regime change in Syria, appearing at a 2014</span> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/live/tLEQkuvT8O0?si=9C12ntJO3lyAFDpt" rel>Atlantic Council event</a> <span>called “Making the Case Against Assad.”</span></p>
<p><span>More recently, Rapp</span> <a href="https://youtu.be/ZHMsj_0ZkXw?si=t84xRHcyBSEPdyau" rel>defended</a> <span>Israel from international criticism, saying that evaluation of its actions in Gaza is “extremely complex,” denied the extermination of Palestinians there amounts to genocide, and admitted he advised Israel to feign internal investigation as a “magic bullet” to avoid international prosecution.</span></p>
<p><span>The Washington Post, like virtually all top legacy media outlets, published a</span> <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/12/24/syria-mass-graves-assad/" rel>report</a> <span>on Assad’s alleged mass graves in Qutayfah and Najha too, entitled “</span><em>Mass graves shed a light on Assad’s ‘killing machine’”</em><span>. Authors Loveday Morris and Suzan Haidamous noted that the alleged mass graves “will provide evidence for future war crimes trials.”</span></p>
<p><span>CIJA’s public relations figure Nerma Jelacic stated in an</span> <a href="https://youtu.be/qpGINupJYtc?si=oVLyvT2Ef5Da5sr2" rel>interview</a> <span>with Al Jazeera</span></p>
<p><span>that the alleged mass graves “are being ransacked by a variety of actors for a variety of reasons” – a similar excuse was given for the</span> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/28/world/middleeast/oct-7-attacks-hamas-israel-sexual-violence.html" rel>lack of forensic evidence for allegations of Hamas mass rape</a> <span>on October 7, 2023 – but insists prosecutions will go on using the already discredited evidence in Europe.</span></p>
<p><span>Two days after the Assad government was overthrown, the ICMP, funded by the UK and Germany specifically for its Syria project, produced a</span> <a href="https://icmp.int/news/syrias-disappeared-justice-must-be-secured-for-hundreds-of-thousands-of-victims-and-survivors-of-the-assad-regime/" rel>report</a> <span>called “</span><em>Syria’s Disappeared: Justice Must be Secured for Hundreds of Thousands of Victims and Survivors of the Assad Regime</em><span>,” using hyper-politicized language and making no mention of the HTS and ISIS mass graves throughout the country.</span></p>
<p><span>The ICMP’s work on Syria was collected in a</span> <a href="https://www.icmp.int/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/pcg-016-1-W-doc-addressing-the-issue-of-mass-graves-in-syria.pdf" rel>document</a> <span>called “</span><em>Addressing the Issue of Mass Graves in Syria”</em> <span>by its Policy Coordination Group (PCG) for Syria’s Missing and Disappeared, a project specifically funded by the UK and Germany.</span></p>
<p><span>Ironically, the report’s only evidence was of the HTS and ISIS mass graves. The document referenced its 2020 report on HTS and ISIS mass graves but tacked on the aforementioned New York Times</span> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/16/world/middleeast/mass-graves-syria-war-crimes.html" rel>article</a> <span>that failed to provide evidence for its allegations, and a</span> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20191024214500/https://www.aljumhuriya.net/ar/content/22258778" rel>report</a> <span>from Al Jumhuriya that details, similar to the ICMP report, mass graves in Raqqa under HTS (then called Jabhat al-Nusra) and ISIS.</span></p>
<p><span>It is not only Rapp, CIJA, and ICMP that are involved in the whitewash. A United Nations investigative team known as the “International, Impartial, and Independent Mechanism for Syria”</span> <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2024/12/24/un-investigative-team-says-syrias-new-authorities-very-receptive-to-probe-of-assad-war-crimes-00195983" rel>stated</a> <span>that the new HTS Syrian government is receptive to prosecuting Assad government officials but made no mention of HTS or ISIS mass graves.</span></p>
<p>Clearly, a nefarious and deceptive political agenda seeks to whitewash the new ISIS-in-suits HTS regime rather than bring closure to long suffering families, provide a semblance of justice, and build towards a better future. Instead these “human rights” outfits and the mainstream media cherrypick and distort reports on mass graves, as Syria spirals into another civil war.</p>

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guid: https://antonchaitkin.substack.com/p/a-short-break
title: A Short Break
author: ;Anton Chaitkin
link: https://antonchaitkin.substack.com/p/a-short-break
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<div><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1200,h_600,c_fill,f_jpg,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F14f8adb0-49c3-4609-bb79-44241dec719d_605x605.png" data-sanitized-class="ff-og-image-inserted"></div><h3 data-sanitized-class="subtitle">By Anton Chaitkin; Copyright Anton Chaitkin</h3><div dir="auto" data-sanitized-class="body markup">
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guid: https://www.uncaptured.media/p/exposed-danny-shaw-admits-gun-trafficking
title: EXPOSED: Danny Shaw admits gun trafficking charges "not 100% truthful"
author: ;Dan Cohen
link: https://www.uncaptured.media/p/exposed-danny-shaw-admits-gun-trafficking
hash: �pG� y�CSqz�¦�
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<p>In a secretly recorded meeting, former professor Danny Shaw admitted that his public claims that journalists Dan Cohen and Kim Ives as well as American Communist Party (ACP) executive committee members Haz Al-Din and Kyle Pettis plotted to traffic weapons to Haiti were “not 100% truthful” and were intended to harm their reputations.</p>
<p>“I was definitely trying to take them out, I just fucked up. I just didn’t do it artfully and 100% truthful, and that looked very bad,” Shaw said.</p>

<p>ACP member Zachariah Primiano recorded the meeting under the direction of the party’s Director of Personnel Kyle Pettis. It not only fully debunks Shaw’s slanderous allegations against Cohen, Ives, Al-Din, and Pettis but is clear evidence of the disgraced former professor’s deceit and intent to defame them in a COINTELPRO-style smear campaign aimed at destroying the ACP from within. The meeting was held at former ACP and Midwestern Marx member Daniel Gutierrez’s apartment in Queens, NY on January 21, and was also attended by Christopher Prewitt and Shuvu Bhattarai.</p>

<p><span>On January 17, Shaw published on X (formerly known as Twitter), Instagram, and his personal website a series of written articles and a video resigning from the ACP. While Shaw spends the majority of the 43-minute video denouncing Haz Al-Din and doxxing him by revealing his true identity (Ali Hammoud), he alleges that he witnessed, on a Zoom call, his then-comrades Al-Din and Pettis with his former colleagues Cohen and Ives, discussing plans to traffic weapons to armed groups in Haiti, particularly to Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier, leader of the Viv Ansanm Political Party, whom Cohen and Ives have repeatedly interviewed and profiled in their written and</span> <a href="https://youtu.be/m7JVDvP1Ldk?si=VVf9C6RF33Zc8G3C" rel>video</a> <a href="https://youtu.be/LO6CMvSP2rw?si=6C6GbQCD8fHUSFso" rel>reports</a> <span>and in their documentary series</span> <em><a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIZsIsrPzocnRmfws3v41-UBWTHSu_agt" rel>Another Vision: Inside Haiti’s Uprising</a></em><span>.</span></p>
<p>“Ali, Kyle, Dan Cohen, and Kim Ives began to coordinate arms trafficking with sketchy foreign actors and oligarchs to the paramilitary factions in Haiti,” Shaw said.</p>
<p><span>In another</span> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20250117150905/https://www.profdannyshaw.com/on-the-cultishness-and-liberalism-of-ali-haz-hammoud-the-acp-executive-board/" rel>post</a> <span>titled “</span><em>On the Cultishness and Liberalism of Ali “Haz” Hammoud &amp; the ACP Executive Board</em><span>”, Shaw alleges that “On November 1st, I was tricked into coming to a sit-down with Dan Cohen and Kim Ives so they could send more guns to Haiti through Haz.”</span></p>
<p>Far from being ambushed, Shaw had been pressuring Cohen for a public debate while rebuffing numerous requests from his ACP comrades to participate in a private meeting with Cohen and Ives to clarify and resolve his political differences with them.</p>
<p>Shaw speculates that Hammoud and Pettis are working on behalf of the U.S. government. “I felt deceived and trapped. The question that went through my head was: Are these federal agents or just ultra leftists who do the bidding of the federal government?” Shaw wrote.</p>
<p>Shaw also falsely claims that Cohen, Ives, Al-Din, and Pettis disparaged the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) and the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) and that he repeatedly objected to such deprecation, but that the four men just ridiculed him.</p>
<p>“I raised every objection. They laughed and laughed at me, at the PSL, at Black Alliance For Peace &amp; other groups who they said were ‘liberals’ and ‘humanitarians’ like me and actually cared about the masses. Why would Cohen and Ives take advantage of someone like Ali Hammoud, who has zero experience as a leader? I was forced to contact my lawyers and submit a sworn affidavit of this reckless adventurism that put me and the entire party at risk,” he wrote.</p>
<p>As he gorged himself on mango chicken and banana fritters, washed down by beet and celery juice, Shaw vacillated between overconfidence, bitterness, and spinning out more lies to his fellow plotters. By the end, he was audibly worried that his plot against his former comrades and colleagues had failed and there would be fallout.</p>
<p>Shaw’s allegations were an attempt to mount a coup against the ACP leadership.</p>
<p>The smear job was coordinated with Brianna “Bree” Barry, who resigned from the party on December 7, and John Molera, who was the party’s official attorney until he publicly resigned on the same day as Shaw. Shaw confesses that Molera helped co-write his articles, in which he doxxed Al-Din’s legal name. This violates legal confidence and could get Molera disbarred.</p>
<p>The allegations were uncritically promoted by professors Daniel Tutt and Colin Bodayle. Tutt is a George Washington University lecturer who is affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America, an unofficial affiliate of the Democratic Party, and brands himself as a “public critic” of the ACP. Bodayle is a graduate assistant at Villanova University.</p>
<p><span>Shaw’s hit job was also cheered on by</span> <a href="https://x.com/jonnysocialism/status/1881077496726290780" rel>Jonathan Meade</a><span>, who uses the X account @jonnysocialism, and Andrew Saturn, both of whom are members of the Socialist Party of America. Saturn describes himself in his X bio as a “federal appointee.”</span></p>
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<p><span>Molera, a licensed attorney, had begun investigating Meade and Saturn for potential links to intelligence agencies, according to ACP leadership, but began to receive online harassment and</span> <a href="https://archive.is/2024.12.05-030648/https://x.com/homomaxxxxxxing/status/1864462460234694910?s=46" rel>death threats</a><span>. He then suddenly turned against the ACP, culminating in his public resignation, which he coordinated with Shaw. Molera has since deactivated his X account and left DDGeopolitics, a channel where he had planned to launch a show.</span></p>
<p>Tutt told Cohen in a January 24 phone call that he suspected that Saturn is a federal agent. When Cohen asked Tutt why he objectively allies with people he suspects to be operating on the U.S. government’s behalf against the ACP, Tutt insisted that his criticism is different from theirs. He also stated that the ACP is worse than the Democratic Party.</p>
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<audio src="https://www.uncaptured.media/api/v1/audio/upload/6edc51e2-2899-4c03-94a1-a3e87914bee6/src" preload="none" controls="controls">Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade.</audio><p><span>Alternative media personality Fiorella Isabel of</span> <em>The</em> <em>Convo Couch</em> <span>also promoted the defamation, privately insisting to Cohen that ACP Executive Board member Jackson Hinkle is an FBI agent, although providing no evidence.</span></p>
<p>Back at the meeting, asked for evidence of the weapons trafficking allegations, Shaw admitted that he has none.</p>
<p>“The most I have is screenshots of Ali Hamoud preparing for the meeting, but it would have been him and Dan Cohen [who] were back channeling. I can't access that. The Zoom recording Ali Hamoud promised me.”</p>

<p>On January 21, the ACP sent a cease and desist letter to Shaw.</p>
<p>That evening, Shaw published a second video claiming to offer a “clarification and apology” but repeating the same allegations against Cohen, Ives, Al-Din, and Pettis. Shaw insisted that a recording of the November 1 meeting be made public and called for all parties to be subjected to polygraph tests, visibly smirking at his own suggestion, while reiterating the lie that the other men plotted to traffic guns through “Russian contacts.”</p>

<p>In the meeting at Gutierrez’ house, Shaw boasts that his “apology” was “mad slick.”</p>
<p>Even as he boasted of his duplicitous behavior, Shaw was aware that his smear campaign had backfired, although still posturing as a victim.</p>
<p>“These two journalists have completely mistreated me and the Haitian people, so I’ve tried to take them down too, but I just… I bit off more than I can chew.”</p>
<p>“My biggest mistake, right, like I told the comrades yesterday – any victory, small victories are ours – any mistakes, I take full responsibility. By dragging in the two journalists with the gun thing, it’s spiraled out of control,” he repeated, explaining that “it’s distracted from the work at hand” of destroying the ACP.</p>
<p>However, Shaw hoped to use Tutt as an intermediary to negotiate with with Cohen and Ives in order to isolate the ACP.</p>
<p>Tutt called Shaw during the meeting, suggesting that he fully retract his posts and accusations, based on the advice of a “lawyer” he had consulted.</p>
<p>When Cohen asked Tutt who the “lawyer” is, Tutt insisted that he is “a buddy of mine from college” who “doesn't even practice law.”</p>
<p>In the phone call with Tutt, Shaw remained defiant and insisted that he separate his conflict with ACP executives Al-Din and Pettis from that with Cohen and Ives.</p>

<p>Even as Tutt attempted to help Shaw, the group of conspirators denigrated their allies. Shaw said that talking to Tutt is like talking to Gargamel, the villain from the Smurfs children’s show, while Guttierez called Bodayle a “little wimpier.” The two then agree that Bree Barry is “a little bit of a loose cannon” and “individualistic.”</p>

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<figcaption data-sanitized-class="image-caption">Caption: Danny Shaw compared professor Daniel Tutt to Gargamel, the villain from The Smurfs cartoon.</figcaption></figure></div>
<p>Shaw, worried that he and Tutt will be unable to negotiate their way out of conflict with Cohen and Ives, became audibly distressed by his plot’s failure and began to beg for divine intervention.</p>

<p>“I think Daniel Tutt is in for a rude awakening. I don’t think they [Cohen and Ives] really want to talk to me,” Shaw concluded.</p>
<p>“Cross your fingers though,” interrupted Gutteierez.</p>
<p>“Oh God!” Shaw prayed. “If I can get out of this one. Heavenly Father, oh Mother. I’ll join the Christian church if I can get out of this one. Oh God!”</p>
<p>Earlier in the meeting, Shaw implied that he is planning to blackmail the PSL, which he belonged to until 2018, when he was expelled.</p>
<p>“You know the PSL leadership is sitting back like ‘ah, we hope Danny doesn’t come for us next.’ You better toss me some bone, motherfuckers,” Shaw chides. “I’ll expose the shit out of those petit-bourgeois fools.”</p>
<p>Nonetheless, Shaw indicated that he was pleased that journalist Ben Norton called to congratulate him for his attack against the ACP, Cohen, and Ives.</p>
<p><span>Norton was fired in 2021 from</span> <em>The Grayzone</em> <span>for violations of his contract and then seized the</span> <em>Moderate Rebels</em> <span>podcast and its associated Patreon page from</span> <em>Grayzone</em> <span>editor and podcast co-host Max Blumenthal, who</span> <a href="https://x.com/MaxBlumenthal/status/1709655692750033035" rel>described</a> <span>Norton as a “criminal mind.” Now relocated to China, Norton co-founded the</span> <em>Geopolitical Economy Report</em> <span>website.</span></p>
<p><strong>A history of lies</strong></p>
<p>Shaw has a history of misrepresenting his experience on the ground in Haiti to advance his career. He has often claimed to have interviewed “thousands” of Haitians, whom he depicts as having a clear and unified position against Jimmy Cherizier.</p>
<p><span>In a March 7, 2024</span> <a href="https://youtu.be/CuZLfkNYBMk?si=j9u9BmO8ZcGc7H-A" rel>interview</a> <span>with the Dominican outlet VISIONRDN entitled “Terrible gringo reveals - what Barbecue told him in Haiti”, the interviewer repeatedly and incorrectly stated as fact that Shaw had met and interviewed Cherizier, but Shaw did not correct the misinformation and stated that Cherizier was a “mercenary” and “death squad” leader.</span></p>
<p>Shaw’s attacks are the latest in a broader campaign of incitement against Cohen and Ives, a phenomenon that might be described as “Barbecue Derangement Syndrome.”</p>
<p><span>In the recording, Shaw boasts that he is “the principal voice of the anti-gang perspective,” a position which aligns with the</span> <a href="https://www.uncaptured.media/p/ex-us-special-envoy-for-haiti-dan" rel>U.S. State Department’s</a> <span>calls to “</span><a href="https://lenouvelliste.com/article/232737/gangs-armes-ils-sont-des-criminels-pas-des-revolutionnaires-selon-daniel-foote" rel>hunt down</a><span>” Cherizier, which the French and</span> <a href="https://x.com/dancohen3000/status/1625204427253551117" rel>Canadian government</a><span>s also support.</span></p>
<p><span>In recent months, Shaw has platformed two of the most vociferous counterrevolutionary Haitian voices – Jean St. Vil aka Jafrikayiti and Dahoud André – who have dedicated themselves to</span> <a href="https://x.com/dancohen3000/status/1623485127949971458/video/1" rel>smearing</a> <span>Cohen, Ives, and</span> <em>Haiti Liberté</em> <span>for their reporting and analysis on Haiti’s national liberation struggle.</span></p>
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<figcaption data-sanitized-class="image-caption">Caption: Committee to Mobilize Against Dictatorship in Haiti (KOMOKODA) propaganda against Dan Cohen and Kim Ives</figcaption></figure></div>
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<figcaption data-sanitized-class="image-caption"><span>Caption: KOMOKODA organized a tiny protest outside of</span> <em>Haiti Liberté</em><span>’s New York City office</span></figcaption></figure></div>
<p><span>The ACP was not the only organization deceived by Shaw. Numerous English and Spanish-language publications and channels have published his tirades too, including</span> <em>The Jimmy Dore Show</em><span>,</span> <em>The Grayzone</em><span>, Venezuelan-state media outlet</span> <em><span>TeleSUR,</span> <a href="https://x.com/dancohen3000/status/1881713552370610217" rel>Truthout</a><span>, NACLA</span></em><span>, and the</span> <em>Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA)</em><span>, among others.</span></p>
<p>Even as Shaw’s plot spirals out of control, he insisted he will do it again.</p>
<p>“Won’t be making any mistake like that in the next campaign,” Shaw says. “Nothing like a mistake to teach you in life.”</p>
<p><strong>A COINTELPRO operation?</strong></p>
<p>However amateurish, Shaw’s libelous smear campaign bears the hallmarks of a COINTELPRO operation, which U.S. intelligence agencies have long used to disrupt parties and organizations that they see as a threat.</p>
<p>It is notable that Shaw alleged that Cohen, Ives, Al-Din, and Pettis disparaged both the PSL and BAP, which is not only false but a typical COINTELPRO tactic to create or exacerbate acrimony between like-minded groups.</p>
<p>Whether or not U.S. intelligences agencies were involved in Shaw’s ill-conceived and sloppily executed attempt to sabotage the ACP from within and smear Ives and Cohen, the false accusations objectively aim to accomplish the same thing as any COINTELPRO operation: sow division, confusion, fear, and distrust. It is a cautionary tale of how progressive, anti-imperialist organizations and media outlets can be bamboozled by malicious actors that exploit good faith or naivete to advance a nefarious, imperialist agenda.</p>
<p>“In a Communist Party as young as ours, and which shows so much potential, wreckers and infiltrators like Shaw and Molera are to be expected,” said the ACP’s Chairman Haz Al-Din. “However, after their plot to subvert our Party’s constitution and depose me failed, their latest attempt to defame the Party has massively backfired, and our Party has emerged out of this stronger than ever.”</p>
<p>“Shaw has exposed his duplicitous and bankrupt moral character for the entire world to see,” Al-Din concluded. “Meanwhile, we will move forward with even greater resolve to meet the challenges of forming a united and independent party of the American working class.”</p>

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guid: https://thegrayzone.substack.com/p/max-blumenthal-on-judging-freedom
title: Max Blumenthal on Judging Freedom: What’s next after Gaza ceasefire
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guid: https://thegrayzone.substack.com/p/did-a-trump-executive-order-just
title: Did a Trump executive order just cripple the global US regime change network?
author: ;The Grayzone
link: https://thegrayzone.substack.com/p/did-a-trump-executive-order-just
hash: `)�mo|�����"Z
content:
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<p><strong><span>By</span> <a href="https://thegrayzone.com/author/kit-klarenberg/" rel>Kit Klarenberg</a> <span>- January 31, 2025</span></strong></p>
<h3 data-sanitized-class="header-anchor-post"><strong>With federal funding paused to USAID, pro-Western media outlets from Ukraine to Nicaragua are panhandling for donations, and a multi-billion dollar regime change apparatus is in panic mode.</strong></h3>
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<p><span>Among the flurry of executive orders issued by President Donald Trump in the first days of his administration, perhaps the most</span> <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/reevaluating-and-realigning-united-states-foreign-aid/" rel>consequential</a> <span>to date is one titled, “reevaluating and realigning US foreign aid.”</span></p>
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<p><span>Under this order, a 90-day pause was</span> <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3604r84zjyo" rel>instantly enforced</a> <span>on all US foreign development assistance across the globe – excepting, of course, the largest recipients of US aid in Israel and Egypt. For now, the order forbids the disbursement of federal funding for any “non-governmental organizations, international organizations, and contractors” charged with delivering US “aid” programs overseas.</span></p>
<p><a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/hundreds-usaid-contractors-put-leave-terminated-amid-us-freeze-global-aid-2025-01-29/" rel>Within days</a><span>, hundreds of “internal contractors” at the US Agency for International Development (USAID) were placed on unpaid leave or outright fired, as a direct result of the Executive Order. Washington Post contributor John Hudson</span> <a href="https://x.com/john_hudson/status/1884338454403899572?s=46&amp;t=Fd7hYEUhzGcQxfhYFL4LyQ" rel>has reported</a> <span>organization officials brand Trump’s directives on “foreign development assistance” a “shock and awe approach,” which has left them reeling, uncertain of their futures. One nameless USAID apparatchik told him, “they even removed all the pictures in our offices of aid programs,” as accompanying photographs attested.</span></p>
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<p><span>While the Trump administration’s purge sent shockwaves through Washington’s international development corps and the</span> <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/beltway-bandits-96591" rel>Beltway Bandits</a> <span>which feed at its trough, the sudden severing of USAID money has sparked panic overseas. From Latin America to Eastern Europe, the US has</span> <a href="https://thegrayzone.com/2023/06/27/gravy-train-independent-audit-ukraine/" rel>pumped billions</a> <span>into NGO’s and media outlets to fuel color revolutions and assorted regime change operations, all in the name of “democracy promotion.”</span></p>
<p>Now, as the global apparatus of soft American power trumpeted by President George H.W. Bush as “a thousand points of light” goes dark, supposedly independent media outfits from Ukraine to Nicaragua are fretting about their future and panhandling for donations on their websites.</p>
<h3 data-sanitized-class="header-anchor-post"><strong>US-backed media and opposition face extinction in Ukraine</strong></h3>
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<p><span>Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the US has pumped billions into Ukraine to create and propel a fervently anti-Russian opposition. As former State Department Assistant Secretary for Eastern European Affairs Victoria Nuland</span> <a href="https://x.com/bronzeagemantis/status/1176913175314350081" rel>remarked</a> <span>to an oil industry-sponsored meeting in Kiev in 2009, “we’ve invested $5 billion to assist Ukraine” to “build democratic skills and institutions” allowing it to “achieve European independence.”</span></p>
<p>The US flooded Ukrainian civil society with grants on the eve of the 2014 Maidan coup, birthing a network of pro-Western media outlets almost overnight. Among them was Hromadske, a liberal broadcasting entity which pushed for the overthrow of President Victor Yanukovych and rallied for the subsequent war with pro-Russian separatists in the country’s east – including through the glorification of Nazis who fought the Soviet Red Army during World War II.</p>
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<p><span>With Trump’s executive order cutting off USAID programs, Hromadske has suddenly been severed from its financial tube. So too have the</span> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20250130010205/https://epravda.com.ua/finances/yaki-derzhavni-organi-ta-organizaciji-ne-otrimayut-koshti-cherez-prizupinennya-finansuvannya-usaid-spisok-802602/" rel>top Ukrainian media outlets</a> <span>which emerged in the wake of the Maidan coup, including Ukrinform, Internews, and a signatory of the Poynter-run International Fact Checking Network called VoxUkraine.</span></p>
<p>The Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications and the Service of the Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, both created to propagandize for war against Russia, are also among USAID funding recipients now starving for cash.</p>
<p><span>Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky</span> <a href="https://x.com/zelenskyyua/status/1884690701071638611?s=46&amp;t=Fd7hYEUhzGcQxfhYFL4LyQ" rel>took to Twitter/X to whine</a> <span>that “critically important programs” wholly dependent on “US support” were now “suspended” as a result of Trump’s executive order. He promised that “certain key initiatives” would “be financed through our internal resources,” while begging for donations from Kiev’s “European partners” to be “intensified.”</span></p>
<p><span>Given Ukraine’s near-total</span> <a href="https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/BRIE/2024/747858/IPOL_BRI(2024)747858_EN.pdf" rel>economic destruction</a> <span>since its proxy war against Russia erupted in February 2022, and</span> <a href="https://oig.usaid.gov/node/6605" rel>complete reliance</a> <span>on USAID to pay the salaries of state employees, it is uncertain how the country’s “internal resources” can possibly be used to even vaguely offset its sudden deficit. Already, major Ukrainian media outlets</span> <a href="https://strana.news/news/479103-rjad-smi-poprosili-donatit-im-posle-ostanovki-prohramm-usaid.html" rel>are pleading</a> <span>for financial support from their readers just to keep their lights on.</span></p>
<p><span>According to Kiev’s foreign-funded Institute of Mass Information,</span> <a href="https://strana.news/news/479157-romanjuk-zajavila-chto-90-ukrainskikh-smi-zavisjat-ot-hrantov.html" rel>around 90%</a> <span>of the country’s media is “dependent on American grants.”</span></p>
<h3 data-sanitized-class="header-anchor-post"><strong>Contra 2.0 gravy train paused in Nicaragua</strong></h3>
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<p><span>Similar bleating has emanated from US-financed organizations in Nicaragua, where since the re-election of popular leftist Sandinista Front in 2006, Washington has pumped tens of millions of dollars into right-wing</span> <a href="https://thegrayzone.com/2021/06/01/cia-usaid-nicaragua-right-wing-media/" rel>media outlets</a> <span>and opposition groups.</span></p>
<p><span>In tandem, these foreign-funded fifth columnists routinely disseminate disinformation, while inciting violence against the government and its supporters, and influencing Western</span> <a href="https://thegrayzone.com/2020/04/19/media-fake-news-nicaragua-ortega-dead-speech/" rel>media reporting</a> <span>on the country.</span></p>
<p><span>As</span> <a href="https://thegrayzone.com/2021/06/12/coup-nicaragua-cpj-100-noticias/" rel>The Grayzone reported</a><span>, a USAID-funded Nicaraguan opposition outlet called 100% Noticias led a campaign of violent incitement throughout 2018, when a failed US-backed coup attempt left hundreds dead in the country. While the outlet repeatedly featured calls for the murder of President Daniel Ortega, its director, Miguel Mora, told The Grayone’s Max Blumenthal he wished for a US military intervention of the country to topple the elected government. When the Nicaraguan government finally shuttered the station and prosecuted Mora, Washington responded with accusations of repression and threats of heavy sanctions.</span></p>
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<p><span>On</span> <a href="https://nicaraguainvestiga.com/nacion/159024-trump-congela-fondos-de-usaid-que-deja-a-nicaragua-con-una-nueva-crisis/" rel>January 21</a><span>, an anti-Sandinista “news” operations called Nicaragua Investiga warned that Trump’s order “threatens to deal a severe blow” to the country and its anti-Ortega crusade, “which depends heavily on the financial and technical support provided by agencies” such as USAID. This backing, the outlet declared, was a “fundamental pillar” in the Nicaraguan right-wing’s efforts to undermine and depose the anti-imperialist President.</span></p>
<p>“Civil society organisations that rely on this assistance would be forced to reduce or cease their activities,” Nicaragua Investiga warned. The outlet further lamented that “uncertainty reigns over how and when assistance will be restored, and whether organizations critical of Daniel Ortega’s regime that still survive outside the country will be able to maintain their operations.”</p>
<p>Not coincidentally, Nicaragua Investiga was among the local outlets which largely depended on US government grants for their existence.</p>
<h3 data-sanitized-class="header-anchor-post"><strong>Has the US balked at balkanizing the Balkans?</strong></h3>
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<p><span>Across the West Balkans, USAID, self-avowed</span> <a href="https://thegrayzone.com/tag/national-endowment-for-democracy/" rel>CIA front</a> <span>the National Endowment for Democracy, George Soros’ Open Society Foundations and the panoply of NGOs and media outlets have infiltrated every conceivable sphere of public life. Following the 1992 – 1995</span> <a href="https://thegrayzone.com/2022/12/30/declassified-intelligence-files-bosnian-war/" rel>civil war</a><span>, Bosnia and Herzegovina was methodically</span> <a href="https://www.mintpressnews.com/enslaved-nonprofits-how-ngos-colonize-developing-countries/286444/" rel>transformed</a> <span>into a de facto EU and US colony, with all basic functions of the state hijacked by foreign interests.</span></p>
<p><span>Some concern about the imperial project found its way into mainstream media at the time. The New York Times</span> <a href="https://www.ohr.int/article-about-carlos-westendorp-high-representativediplomat-rules-bosnia-with-a-strong-hand-2/" rel>warned</a> <span>in 1998 that US domination of Bosnia “raised troubling questions about how the state will work without continued infusions of outside aid and direct international supervision.” A senior foreign government advisor angsted over Washington’s lack of exit strategy in the country, or any plan to end “Bosnia’s culture of dependency.” Today, at least 25,600 Western-funded NGOs</span> <a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/republika-srpska-nongovernmental-financial-flows/32337879.html" rel>are active</a> <span>in Sarajevo.</span></p>
<p><span>The pause in “foreign development assistance” has placed countless jobs and beneficiary organizations at risk of permanent erasure across the Balkans. On January 30,</span> <a href="https://thegrayzone.com/2024/08/13/crisis-balkan-network-uk-intel/" rel>Balkan Insight</a> <span>– an outlet</span> <a href="https://thegrayzone.com/2024/08/13/crisis-balkan-network-uk-intel/" rel>exposed by The Grayzone</a> <span>as a tentacle of British intelligence – published an</span> <a href="https://balkaninsight.com/2025/01/30/trumps-suspension-of-us-foreign-aid-hits-hundreds-of-balkan-projects/" rel>illuminating investigation</a> <span>into how the aid pause “has immediately affected a range of organisations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia.”</span></p>
<p><span>From 2020 until the end of 2024, Washington has funnelled a staggering $1.7 billion into the West Balkans, “supporting civil society organisations and state institutions and projects ranging from human rights and media to energy efficiency,” with</span> <a href="https://balkaninsight.com/2019/05/16/failed-privatization-is-to-blame-for-bosnians-exodus/" rel>next to no demonstrable social benefit</a><span>. Now, “all projects have been halted…until the evaluation period is over.” Expenses up until January 27 will be covered, “while everything after that has to be stopped.” Already, layoffs and huge pay cuts have been enacted at recipient entities.</span></p>
<p>Nameless NGO workers consulted by Balkan Insight fretted that the US financing freeze would not be temporary. One source speculated the Executive Order could be “just a soft way of cutting these funds permanently.” The outlet noted Washington “has supported thousands of activities” in the region, and “the precise number of affected projects” remains “unknown”. When reporters contacted local USAID offices seeking clarity on the cuts, they were redirected in every instance to the agency’s Washington headquarters.</p>
<p><span>USAID base camp “responded by sending a link to its press release” on the funding pause. “President Trump stated clearly that the US is no longer going to blindly dole out money with no return for the American people,” it</span> <a href="https://rs.usembassy.gov/implementing-the-presidents-executive-order-on-reevaluating-and-realigning-united-states-foreign-aid/" rel>bluntly declared</a><span>. “Reviewing and realigning foreign assistance on behalf of hardworking taxpayers is not just the right thing to do, it is a moral imperative.” Evidently, the new administration is not remotely concerned that entire sectors of local economies in the Balkans have been effectively shuttered.</span></p>
<p><span>Even in Albania – a doggedly</span> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/13/world/europe/afghanistan-refugees-albania.html?smtyp=cur&amp;smid=tw-nytimes" rel>pro-US country</a> <span>with an influential</span> <a href="https://www.kosovo-online.com/en/news/politics/cipa-albanian-lobby-strong-america-can-influence-presidential-elections-6-7-2024" rel>DC lobby</a> <span>– 30 Washington-subsidized projects have been suspended, including bankrolling of “courts, prosecutor’s offices and the ministries of Defence, Education and Sports, and Finance.” In Macedonia – where “most” US funding is distributed via USAID and NED – $72 million allocated to 22 projects is “now on hold.” Six wider regional USAID-backed initiatives in the Balkans, which also covers Macedonia, “worth some $140 million”, are likewise mothballed. In</span> <a href="https://telegrafi.com/en/maqedonia-vendi-peste-varfer-evropes/" rel>local terms</a><span>, these sums are monumental.</span></p>
<h3 data-sanitized-class="header-anchor-post"><strong>Georgia not on the Trump admin’s mind</strong></h3>
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<p><span>The Republic of Georgia has been</span> <a href="https://www.mintpressnews.com/coup-cia-foreign-agent-law-color-revolution-georgia/283992/" rel>the site of a series of color revolution</a> <a href="https://thegrayzone.com/2024/05/26/us-eu-color-revolution-georgia/" rel>efforts</a> <span>since the start of 2023, all in response to the government’s successful push to compel the more than 25,000 foreign-financed organizations in the country to disclose their funding sources. Western-backed NGOs and activist groups have been at the forefront of all these</span> <a href="https://thegrayzone.com/2023/10/06/maidan-color-revolution-georgia/" rel>attempted putsches</a><span>. Unsurprisingly, this shadow army of previously US-funded foot soldiers are furious about the Trump administration’s “foreign development assistance” cutoff.</span></p>
<p><span>By contrast, the Georgian government</span> <a href="https://georgiatoday.ge/ruling-party-official-transparency-law-may-no-longer-be-necessary-as-trump-temporarily-suspends-foreign-assistance-programs/" rel>appears delighted</a><span>. Parliamentary leader Mamuka Mdinaradze has even suggested the highly controversial law on foreign funding transparency “might not be needed at all anymore” after Trump’s executive order. Indeed, with untold foreign-sponsored chaos agents suddenly out of money, the color revolution coast is now clear in Tbilisi.</span></p>
<p><span>On</span> <a href="https://georgiatoday.ge/global-aid-programs-at-risk-as-us-freezes-foreign-assistance-usaids-vital-work-in-georgia-affected/" rel>January 30</a><span>, local English language publication Georgia Today published a leader mourning that, “as the future of their funding hangs in the balance, aid organizations are already laying off or furloughing staff,” and “some programs” in Tbilisi “may struggle to restart after this temporary shutdown, with many potentially disappearing permanently.” It went on to note USAID financing “has been a cornerstone of the country’s development since 1992, with over $1.9 billion in assistance provided to date.”</span></p>
<p>Prior to the funding pause, USAID alone was “investing in 39 programs across the country, with a total value of $373 million and an annual budget exceeding $70 million.” These efforts overwhelmingly focused “on promoting economic reforms” and “fostering private sector investment,” which is to say facilitating foreign financial rape and pillage of Georgia.</p>
<p><span>While domestic critics of Trump’s Executive Order</span> <a href="https://www.justsecurity.org/106876/us-foreign-aid-stop-work-order/" rel>have lambasted</a> <span>Washington’s resultant loss of expansive “soft power” influence in the Global South, such retreat can only be to the enormous benefit of target countries. As a</span> <a href="https://lefteast.org/unrest-georgia-foreign-influence-transparency-law/" rel>LeftEast essay</a> <span>noted, foreign-funded NGOs have for decades “eroded Georgian citizens’ agency and the country’s sovereignty and democracy.” Its authors explained, “Activists in Georgia know all too well what is expected of them and which behaviors are punished and rewarded: being critical of the government on Facebook will net you more grants than being out in the community helping people… Donors even monitor activists’ social media profiles, and there can be consequences for posting the wrong things.”</span></p>
<p>However, the relief could be premature for populations that have suffered decades of US “foreign development assistance,” and the attendant coups and unrest it has paid for. The “pause” on US aid may indeed be a temporary measure, or, spending on soft power could be redirected to harder options with even more grave repercussions across the world.</p>
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guid: https://antonchaitkin.substack.com/p/a-short-break-extended
title: A Short Break Extended
author: ;Anton Chaitkin
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<div><img src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1200,h_600,c_fill,f_jpg,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F14f8adb0-49c3-4609-bb79-44241dec719d_605x605.png" data-sanitized-class="ff-og-image-inserted"></div><h3 data-sanitized-class="subtitle">By Anton Chaitkin; Copyright Anton Chaitkin</h3><div dir="auto" data-sanitized-class="body markup">
<p>A Short Break Extended</p>
<p>After a two week break to take care of family business, Anton will resume his regular postings on Monday, February 10, 2025.</p>
<p>Thank you.</p>
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