Anti-communist crusade promotes cause of Nazi SS

Harper’s fundraising for anti-communist monument

Prime Minister Stephen Harper will be the keynote speaker at a fundraiser for the memorial that is officially called “A Memorial to Victims of Totalitarian Communism – Canada, a Land of Refuge” on May 30 at the Toronto Congress Center. The anti-communist monument project in fact promotes the cause of Nazi SS. It was initiated by a private group calling itself “Tribute to Liberty” (TTL), and is based on and linked to the very similar U.S. Victims of Communism Memorial Project, whose honourary chairman is war criminal George W. Bush and which is funded by monopolies such as war contractor Lockheed Martin. Sponsorship tables for the Harper-led Toronto fundraising event are $2,500 and individual tickets are $250.

Ontario election: Conservatives’ divisive attack on public services and the workers who provide them

Ontario Political Forum (May 23) – IN THE current election campaign the Ontario Progressive Conservatives (PCs) under leader Tim Hudak have been following a strategy which borders on hate mongering and has no place in the political arena of a civilized society. Using divisive proposals and crude, inflammatory rhetoric, the PCs are blatantly attempting to divide working people into allegedly conflicting groups and to incite one group of workers against another.

Ontario election: The need to establish relations with First Nations on a modern historical basis

Philip Fernandez, Ontario Political Forum (May 22) – THE RING OF FIRE is a massive deposit of chromite and other strategic minerals in Northern Ontario worth some $60 billion. Located in the traditional lands of seven First Nations, it has been the subject of debate and discussion for a number of years since it was discovered. Its development has been blocked from proceeding because the First Nations concerned have affirmed their right to a say and control over how this mineral wealth is to be developed.

Graphic details: The Puffington Host

Source: Mad Magazine, from jimromensko.com

Biden in Romania: Talks reveals extramundane nature of US push for war

By Rick Rozoff

(May 22) – US Vice President Joseph Biden appeared at a military base in the capital of Romania on May 20 and, against the backdrop of this year’s annual Carpathian Spring joint military exercises, announced that Washington’s willingness to go to war over the mutual military support clause of the 1949 North Atlantic Treaty, the founding document of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, is not only clear and unwavering, but indeed of a mock-religious – extramundane and sempiternal – nature.

In his precise words: “America’s commitment to collective defense under Article 5 of NATO is a sacred obligation in our view – a sacred obligation not just for now, but for all time.” In aeternum, in saecula saeculorum and in line with eschatological imperatives.

Sighting. Pentagon architecture

Russia and Nicaragua to cooperate on construction of interoceanic canal

Two ports, an airport, an oil pipeline, and other facilities are also to be built as part of the project, the cost of which is estimated at $40 billion. Source: AP

Reality check: The Windsor family’s Nazi king of England

Hitler, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor in October 1937. Joseph Goebbels wrote of the former King Edward VIII: “It’s a shame he is no longer king. With him we would have entered into an alliance.”

The great times they could have had

By PAUL FOOT

Wallis: Secret Lives of the Duchess of Windsor by Charles Higham

Sidgwick, 419 pp, £17.95, June 1988, ISBN 0 283 99627 7

The Secret File of the Duke of Windsor by Michael Bloch

Bantam, 326 pp, £14.95, August 1988, ISBN 0 593 01667 X

Original source: London Review of Books, Vol. 10 No. 16 · 15 September 1988, pages 12-13 | 3450 words

A GREAT MANY BOOKS and articles have been published recently about the possibility that a former head of MI5 was the agent of a foreign power. Could there be anything more horrible, more unthinkable? Well, yes, according to Charles Higham’s extraordinary biography, there could. He suggests that not long ago the most dangerous agent of a foreign power was the King; and the second most dangerous was the King’s lover. Both were sympathetic to, and possibly active agents for, Mussolini and Hitler at a time when the British Government was about to declare war on Italy and Germany.

Africa: EU and German Bundeswehr interventions

BERLIN german-foreign-policy.com (April 2) – At the EU – Africa summit, beginning today, Berlin and Brussels are pressing forward with the expansion of their military and military policy activities on the African continent. Alongside resolutions on the EU intervention in the Central African Republic (CAR), the program will include negotiations on the further elaboration of EU supervised African security structures. African forces are supposed to apply these measures to implement what Berlin and Brussels consider “order.” According to experts, for insuring one’s influence, it is not necessary to send one’s own combat troops into a “crisis area, to assume presence and supervision.” Therefore, the Federal Republic of Germany supports the African Union (AU) in establishing military structures, and participates in “training missions” in Somalia and Mali.

Obscene wealth of Charles Windsor

The feudal Windsor monarchy has held on to its feudal aristocratic privileges with the full support of the British state. The Windsors deny every citizen the right to be recognised by the state as equal with every other citizen. They take tens of millions every year from the pockets of the people. They interfere in the government of that country and have powers in the Canadian state as sovereigns. The sychophantic fawning of the media over the current Canadian tour of Charles Windsor and the worshipping of the Windsors is nothing less than the degradation of democracy and sovereignty.

Reality check: Windsor family – the admirers of fascism

Charles Windsor, the heir to the British throne, told an individual at the Canadian Immigration Museum in Halifax on Monday May 19th that, “Putin is doing just about the same as Hitler,” ostensibly relating to the accession of Crimea to Russia in March. The venue was a meeting with World War II veterans organized by the Harper government. His press entourage was quick to sensationalize the seeming “private” comment.

US expands base in Rota, Spain

UNDER the hoax of “protecting Europe from the threat of attack from Iran” and the cause of freedom and democracy, the United States has deployed four interceptor missile warships to Rota, Spain, thereby boosting the military strategic significance of Rota, the Mediterranean Sea and North Africa.

Behind unfolding events in Nigeria: White House escalates interventionist plans

Click to enlarge.

By ABAYOMI AZIKIWE

Pan-African News Wire (May 13) – A video purportedly released by the armed Boko Haram sect based in northeastern Nigeria showed what was said to be school girls who have been held by the group for a month. The Boko Haram leader said that the young women could be released in exchange for the prisoners belonging to their organization being held by the Nigerian government.

Graphic details. The US pivot to Africa

The U.S. Military’s Pivot to Africa, 2012-2013 (key below article) ©2013 TomDispatch ©Google

US’s back-to-the-future military policies in Africa

For the third time in the past year, the Harper War Government has deployed Special Forces to Africa, this time to Nigeria, under the guise of humanitarian intervention. Nick Turse* elaborates Obama’s new model for expeditionary warfare.

Lion Forward Teams? Echo Casemate? Juniper Micron? You could be forgiven if this jumble of words looks like nonsense to you. It isn’t. 

It’s the language of the U.S. military’s simmering African interventions; the patois that goes with a set of missions carried out in countries most Americans couldn’t locate on a map; the argot of conflicts now primarily fought by proxies and a former colonial power on a continent that the U.S. military views as a hotbed of instability and that hawkish pundits increasingly see as a growth area for future armed interventions.

Since 9/11, the U.S. military has been making inroads in Africa, building alliances, facilities, and a sophisticated logistics network.

Happy Empire Day!

On this day, Black and brown colonized people like my mother were forced to march around in the blazing heat of their occupied countries waving the Union Jack and singing about how Britons never would be slaves! Then the governor of the colony would make a speech about how noble the ruler was and how grateful they should be for being allowed to be second class people in an Empire they could die for but not be equals in! Then they cheered and sang God Save the Queen! Hooray!

– El Jones, Halifax

Harper’s cynical celebration (III)

Anti-war picket in Edmonton, March 15, 2014.

Harper’s national tributes to the destruction of Afghanistan and Libya were no celebration of victory and cannot be memorialized, writes Scott Taylor, editor of Esprit de Corps magazine, in the Halifax Chronicle Herald on May 11th, as he asks, “Why single out Afghanistan?”

In his column, Mr Taylor points out that “The last time a nationwide celebration of this sort was even proposed was at the conclusion of the Great War in 1918. The idea had been the brainchild of Gen. Sir Arthur Currie, but due to the lengthy logistics involved in shipping home the Canadian Expeditionary Force it was decided to keep individual parades and tributes on a local basis.

Harper’s cynical celebration (II)

When it comes to military personnel and their families, the Canadian government is like an abusive boyfriend

TS note: This message was sent to David Pugliese, Defence Watch, from an individual who is involved in the Canadian military system and whose spouse is also in the Canadian Forces. Mr Pugliese writes, “they have asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution from government and senior leadership.”

THE Canadian government is like the abusive boyfriend who brings flowers to his girlfriend at her workplace after a fight.

Her friends think he’s awesome. They see his nice clothes and his friendly smile. They think he is hardworking and smart. They see his friends treat him with respect. But they have never been alone with him. They don’t know what is really going on behind the façade.

Harper’s cynical celebration (1)

Harper dictatorship erases memory of the victory over fascism in Europe and instead uses May 9th to pay tribute to the destruction of Afghanistan in a triumphalist ceremony on Parliament Hill. Reject all attempts to memorialize Canada’s criminal role in Afghanistan!

By TONY SEED

The Soviet Victory Banner is raised over the German Reichstag in Berlin by two Red Army soldiers, April 30, 1945, shortly before the surrender of German forces in the city and the decisive victory over the fascists on May 9, 1945. (RIA Novosti)

Halifax and War – the Castine Fund; Dalhousie University and the spoils of war

In the early 19th century, George Ramsay, the ninth Earl of Dalhousie and Nova Scotia Lieutenant-Governor at the time, wanted to establish a Halifax college open to all, regardless of class or creed.

The spoils of war helped fulfill his dream. During the War of 1812, Castine, a small port in Maine, was being used as a base by American privateers who harassed ships along the Eastern Seaboard. In August and September 1814, Sir John Coape Sherbrooke sent a Royal Navy force and 500 British troops to conquer Maine and (again) establish the colony of New Ireland.

Graphic details. CNN’s imperialist geography (1)

The highly educated and famous CNN keeps on astonishing viewers about Ukraine. On May 12, one day after the refendums in eastern Ukraine, CNN placed the city of Luhansk, capital of the new Luhansk republic, approximately in the place of Kiev, capital of Ukraine. CNN’s new political geography reflects the imperialist disinformation as to the cause of the anti-Kiev, anti-fascist resistance sweeping the region: CNN places the city of Donetsk, capital of Donetsk republic, a few hundred kilometres to the northeast from the real locale of the historic working class city. Other monopoly media are as ignorant in their arrogance, or worse. This must be really insulting to the people of Ukraine, when those who can’t even find you on a map think to teach you how you must live or lie about the situation in your country.

Harkat case: Supreme Court decision is unjust, anti-democratic and anti-Canadian

THE Supreme Court of Canada unanimously upheld revised security certificates laws Wednesday along with the use of secret evidence to deport foreign-born terrorism suspects as constitutional.

In doing so, the 8-0 decision also concluded a security certificate – a kind of special immigration warrant – issued against Algerian-born Mohamed Harkat is reasonable.

Security certificates allow the government, on the basis of secret evidence, to deport non-citizens who it deems a security threat. The person named in a security certificate receives only a summary of the case against them, stripped of supporting details to protect allegedly sensitive intelligence sources and methods. The regime also allows for detention – with no statutory limitations on the length – so long as the detention is “reasonable.” Furthermore, the disclosure of secret evidence in the security certificate proceedings does not require the judge to balance the interests of the named person for disclosure against the interests of national security for non-disclosure, as is required in the Canada Evidence Act.

Syrians gear up for presidential election as rebels retreat from Homs

The mercenaries’ gift to the Syrian people: the pulverized city of Homs. Most parts of Syria have been left in ruins, thanks to financial and material support by the US, Canada, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar, among others, to the foreign mercenaries in Syria.

Crescent-online (Damascus) – The last of the foreign mercenaries holed up in Syria’s third largest city, Homs, made their retreat on May 8 under a UN brokered deal. They were given safe passage out of the centre of the city where they were surrounded by Syrian government forces for nearly two years.   

While these mercenaries were retreating, they still continued to carry out bombings in the city. The mercenaries blew up a luxury hotel that had been used as an army-post in the heart of the city. At least 14 soldiers and pro-government militia were reported killed, according to Agency France Presse (AFP).

Segregation is back in US schools

Until 1964 the United States was officially an apartheid society where African Americans faced civil death. Now, it is an unofficial apartheid society, as the following reports demonstrate.

Reuters | Tami Chappell

RT (May 15) – Sixty years after the Supreme Curt ruled that segregated public schools were unconstitutional, a new university report has found many of the gains of integration have been reversed.

In a report published Thursday by the Civil Rights Project at UCLA, researchers found that while schools aren’t as segregated as they were before the landmark Brown v. Board of Education ruling in 1954, much of the progress that had been made after 1967 has been lost.

Life is a beach: let them eat cake and swim at the sewerage works!

US tech billionaire silent on decision to use armed guards to close California public beach

 …how can you buy or sell the sky? the land? The idea is strange to us. If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them?

Every part of the earth is sacred to my people. Every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every meadow, every humming insect. All are holy in the memory and experience of my people…. Chief Seattle

A billionaire who bought a popular beach only to close it off to the public finally spoke on the contentious issue on Monday, although his comments seem to have only generated more frustration among concerned Californians.

Vinod Khosla, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur who co-founded Sun Microsystems – a computing pioneer perhaps best known for developing the Java programming language – took the witness stand in a civil trial on Monday regarding his purchase of Martins Beach.

Graphic details. Map of US drought

Click to enlarge

As of May 6, 2014, half of the United States was experiencing some level of drought. Nearly 15 per cent of the nation was gripped by extreme to exceptional drought. For the Plains and the Southwest, it’s a pattern that has been persistent for much of the past several years.

US disinformation about Iran and nuclear weapons

Historian and investigative journalist Gareth Porter discusses on The Real News Network how fabricated documents from Israel are used to show that Iran is a dishonest negotiating partner and wants to produce nukes. Mr Porter is a historian and investigative journalist specializing in US foreign and military policy. He writes regularly for Inter Press Service on US policy towards Iraq and Iran. He is the author of five books, of which the latest is Manufactured Crisis: The Untold Story of the Iran Nuclear Scare.

May Day 2014: Worldwide actions vigorously affirm rights and reject neo-liberal agenda and war

May 1, Havana, Cuba | AFPphoto ADALBERTO ROQUE

All over the world, workers and oppressed peoples vigorously participated in May Day, the international day of working class unity and struggle.

Word. UKRAINE – What is the endgame?

Oligarchic topography of Ukraine

Screenshot of Prof Andrei Fursov

For the information of readers, we are publishing extensive excerpts from a wide ranging analysis of the 2013-2014 situation in Ukraine, its antecedents and consequences from the perspective of a senior Russian academic, ANDREI FURSOV, director of the Centre of Russian Studies. This is an unofficial transcription of a recent video lecture published on Wikispooks, The Great Game. I recommend watching it first, to see for yourself the integrity and outlook of the analyst. It is one hour, in Russian, but with good English subtitles. Prof Fursov analyzes the different vested interests in combat, their tactics and strategy, in an international context with lots of facts. The section on the Ukrainian oligarchs is very informative. His outlook might be described as Russian chauvinistic. One of his main theses rings very true: “he who is reactive is doomed.” (Update May 12: The video of the discussion following the lecture was just published on Youtube on May 10th. It is 100 minutes in length in Russian with subtitles in English, and may be viewed here.

UKRAINE: German disinformation on the Odessa massacre – a crisis of credibiity

Trade union building in Odessa where dozens of workers were murdered on May 2nd in a fire set by the U.S. and Harper-financed Ukrainian junta, and its neo-nazi Right Sector. Numbers of dissidents were also killed by gunfire. The atrocity occurred as Barrack Obama was extolling his Kiev junta in democratic colours before a Washington press conference held with Angela Merkel of Germany. The day before, the working class of Odessa had resolutely marched en masse on May First, International Labour Day.

UPDATE – Since the publication of this article, a second atrocity – the burning of local civilians who had taken refuge in a building – occurred yesterday on May 9 (the day celebrated as the victory over fascism in WWII) in the city of Mariupol in eastern Ukraine, also a key maritime port city like Odessa.

The regime’s “National Guard” – were dispatched to a police station that had been seized by anti-coup dissidents, possibly including police officers who rejected a new Kiev-appointed chief. Again, the deployment of the “National Guard” was followed by burning the building and killing a significant but still-undetermined number of people inside. (Early estimates of the dead range from seven to 20.)