US ‘perception management’: CIA’s hidden hand in ‘democracy’ groups

Freedom House, New York City

Special Report: Documents from the Reagan presidential library reveal that two major institutions promoting “democracy” and “freedom” — Freedom House and National Endowment for Democracy — worked hand-in-glove, behind-the-scenes, with a CIA propaganda expert in the 1980s, reports ROBERT PARRY*. Both these agencies operate inside Canada and are funded by the Harper government.

US ‘perception management’: The ‘evil enemy’, from Reagan to Obama

In the 1980s, the Reagan administration pioneered “perception management” to get the American people to “kick the Vietnam Syndrome” and accept more U.S. interventionism, but that propaganda structure continues to this day getting the public to buy in to endless war, writes ROBERT PARRY*.

(Dec. 28) – To understand how the American people find themselves trapped in today’s Orwellian dystopia of endless warfare against an ever-shifting collection of “evil” enemies, you have to think back to the Vietnam War and the shock to the ruling elite caused by an unprecedented popular uprising against that war.

While on the surface Official Washington pretended that the mass protests didn’t change policy, a panicky reality existed behind the scenes, a recognition that a major investment in domestic propaganda would be needed to ensure that future imperial adventures would have the public’s eager support or at least its confused acquiescence.

US monopoly interests behind Ukraine putsch

“Ukraine’s agriculture could be a real gold mine.” – U.S.-Ukraine Business Council

Behind the U.S.-backed coup that ousted the democratically-elected president of Ukraine are the self-serving predatory interests of giant corporations – from Cargill to Chevron to Monsanto – and vulture capitalists which see the country as a potential “gold mine” of profits from the plunder of its rich agricultural and energy resources, as JP SOTTILE* documents in consortiumnews.com. This underlies the sharpness of the inter-imperialist contradictions over control of Ukraine as well as the crimes being carried out by the big powers of the U.S. and Europe against the Ukrainian people. Canadians should firmly reject this meddling in Ukraine’s affairs as they can no doubt extrapolate that the same process in the Ukraine is also being carried out by the imperialists in our country and elsewhere.**

(March 16) – ON JANUARY 12, a reported 50,000 “pro-Western” Ukrainians descended upon Kiev’s Independence Square to protest against the government of President Viktor Yanukovych. Stoked in part by an attack on opposition leader Yuriy Lutsenko, the protest marked the beginning of the end of Yanukovych’s four year-long government.

That same day, the Financial Times reported a major deal for U.S. agribusiness titan Cargill.

Halifax International Security Forum: The network of subversion, annexation and war in the making – the ‘Halifax Canada Club’

By TONY SEED

This article is part of an ongoing investigation into the Halifax International Security Forum (HISF), which was formed in 2009 as a covert arm of the U.S. state that presents itself as an “independent” and “non-partisan” body with quasi-permanent status. It was originally published on November 21, 2013 and revised on April 15, 2014; November 17 and 21, 2014; February 17, 2016; and February 28, 2021. 

Topics at the 2014 HISF Forum include: “Pipeline Corridors: The Geopolical Role of Energy Infrastructure.” Given that one of the opening plenary sessions is titled “O Say, Can’t You see? The Indispensable Role of the Exceptional Superpower,” one must ask, what is behind this?

THE Halifax International Security Forum (HISF) aka the Halifax War Conference was formed in 2009 by the Washington-based German Marshall Fund and the Harper ruling clique as a parallel body to established agencies of the Canadian state such as the departments of foreign affairs and national defence. The U.S. board of directors of the HISF includes three members of the Council of Foreign Relations (CFR), the president of Freedom House, and two experienced agents with the National Endowment for Democracy, whose work in subversion throughout the world is nefarious and well-documented. The programmatic work of the CFR, which is also the “media partner” of the HISF, for the integration of Canada into the United States, has also been well exposed.

2012 Halifax International Security Forum

Analysis of the agenda, emphasis, tactics and composition of the Halifax International Security Forum, 2009-2012

Protest against 2011 Halifax International Security Forum.

By TONY SEED

At the 2011 Halifax International Security Forum

ESTABLISHED four years ago, the Halifax International Security Forum (HISF) is taking place November 16-18 at the Westin Hotel. Warmongers from as many as 50 countries are joining Peter MacKay and some 300 others at the Forum “to learn from each other, share opinions, generate new ideas, and put them into action.”

Once again this year, the organization No Harbour for War, joined by others, has come forward to say, “It is unacceptable that Halifax, or any Canadian city, be used as a venue to plan further crimes against the peace and the peoples of the world.”