This War Wasn’t Just Provoked — It Was Provoked Deliberately
Caitlin’s Newsletter, CAITLIN JOHNSTONE, SEP 24, 2023
In an interesting speech about the way US imperial aggression provokes violence around the world, antiwar commentator Scott Horton made reference to an April 2022 article from Yahoo News that had previously escaped my attention.
The article is titled “In closer ties to Ukraine, U.S. officials long saw promise and peril,” and it features named and unnamed veterans of the US intelligence cartel saying that long before the February 2022 invasion they were fully aware that the US had “provoked” Russia in Ukraine and created a powderkeg situation that would likely lead to war.
“By last summer [meaning the summer of 2021], the baseline view of most U.S. intelligence community analysts was that Russia felt sufficiently provoked over Ukraine that some unknown trigger could set off an attack by Moscow,” a former CIA official told Yahoo News’ Zach Dorfman, who adds, “(The CIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment.)”
Dorfman writes that initial support provided to Ukraine during the Obama administration had been “calibrated to avoid aggravating Moscow,” but that “partially spurred by Congress, as well as the Trump administration, which was more willing to be aggressive on weapon transfers to Kyiv, overt U.S. military support for Ukraine grew over time — and with it the risk of a deadly Russian response, some CIA officials believed at the time.”……………………
“I understand the moral argument,” says former CIA official Jeffrey Edmonds regarding the weapons transfers into Ukraine, “but I also understand the argument that, well, why would you want to give these things if it’s just going to increase the chances that Russia does something?”
So while we members of the public were blindly speculating about whether or not Russia would attack Ukraine, the US intelligence cartel was fully aware that the US was taking actions ensuring that that would happen. That’s the environment the US security state knew it was operating under when it continued to taunt the idea of adding Ukraine and Georgia to NATO right up until the final moments before the invasion.
It’s been funny to watch the response of empire apologists to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg’s surprising refutation of a year and a half of empire propaganda by openly admitting that NATO expansion provoked the invasion of Ukraine and acknowledging that NATO powers rejected Moscow’s proposed compromises which could have averted the war. Basically the only argument they now have after this admission is to say that Russia should not have viewed NATO expansion as an existential threat.
Their only remaining trick is to argue with reality; to basically say that yes it’s reality that NATO expansion provoked this war because Moscow saw it as a threat, but reality shouldn’t have been what reality was. They argue that Russia should have felt completely different feelings about a military threat on its border than nations like the United States would feel, since as we’ve discussed previously the last time there was a credible military threat near the US border the US responded so aggressively that the world almost ended.
That’s really all they’ve got: “Yes it’s true that all the people who’ve died and lost their homes in this war did so because we were amassing a hostile military alliance near Russia’s border, but in our defense the Russians should’ve thought different thoughts in their heads than the ones that we ourselves would think about a hostile military threat on our border.”
If all westerners deeply understood all the suffering and danger that has been unleashed upon our world by this war, and deeply understood the fact that their own governments played a role in starting it, the political status quo of the western world would be impossible to maintain. Which is why such unprecedented levels of propaganda and internet censorship have gone into preventing westerners from coming to such an understanding. https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/this-war-wasnt-just-provoked-it-was?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=82124&post_id=137340680&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1ise1&utm_medium=email
White House Close To Providing Kiev With Cluster-Armed ATACMS
This comes amid Kyiv’s failing counteroffensive and poses a major risk of escalation, President Volodymyr Zelensky has desired to use the long-range weapons to attack the Russian mainland.
By Connor Freeman / Antiwar.com https://scheerpost.com/2023/09/23/white-house-close-to-providing-kiev-with-cluster-armed-atacms/
The White House is close to deciding it will provide Ukraine with a cluster-armed version of the Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS), which has a range of nearly 200 miles and can be fired from HIMARS launchers, according to the Washington Post. The HIMARS in Kyiv’s possession are currently firing munitions with a range of 50 miles. The US arming Ukrainian forces with ATACMS would mark a significant escalation in the proxy war with Russia and cross Moscow’s “red line.”
Sending ATACMS was ruled out until recently over concerns that the weapons could be used by Kyiv for attacks inside Crimea and the Russian mainland. However, for months, as Kyiv has launched more attacks against Russian territory and previous US concerns of escalation waned, there have been reports saying that the White House was increasingly considering sending the ATACMS to Ukraine.
Earlier this month, during an appearance on ABC’s ‘This Week,’ Secretary of State Blinken was asked if he approved of Ukraine using the US-provided ATACMS to carry out strikes deep inside Russian territory. “In terms of their targeting decisions, it’s their decision, not ours,” Blinken stated emphatically.
As the Post has previously reported, the Discord Leaks revealed that “behind closed doors, [President Volodymyr Zelensky] has proposed going in a more audacious direction… privately pining for long-range missiles to hit targets inside Russia’s borders, according to classified US intelligence documents detailing his internal communications with top aides and military leaders.”
Kyiv is currently carrying out myriad drone strikes in Crimea and Russia, which rely on US targeting intelligence.
The plan to provide ATACMS was postponed ultimately because there were not enough kept in US stocks, and officials said arming Kyiv with the long-range missiles would have a negative effect on the Pentagon’s readiness for other wars and conflicts.
Although, sources speaking with the Post explain that now the White House is instead planning on sending a version of the ATACMS armed with cluster submunitions, or bomblets, as opposed to a single or “unitary” warhead.
The cluster-armed version of the ATACMS is not considered a front-line US weapon anymore and is in much more plentiful supply. Kyiv is requesting hundreds of these missiles.
Interagency discussions on the issue have reportedly moved from the deputies committee to the principals committee, which includes the heads of each national security state agency. The final decision will ostensibly be made by President Joe Biden.
Cluster bombs open up in the air and scatter scores of small bomblets and submunitions across large target areas; however, a certain percentage of these don’t explode on initial impact and are called duds. These unexploded bomblets often kill and maim civilians who come upon them years and decades after the conclusion of the conflicts in which the arms have been used.
The Cluster Munition Coalition has found the primary victims of the duds are children who pick up the bomblets which look like metal balls. Shepherds and scrap metal collectors are often killed by these submunitions as well.
During the Vietnam War, US forces dropped hundreds of millions of cluster bomblets on Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. People still die in Laos on a yearly basis because of the tens of millions of unexploded ordinances left behind following US bombing campaigns.
More than 120 countries have signed on to a United Nations convention prohibiting the munitions which kill indiscriminately. Washington, Kyiv, and Moscow are not signatories.
The cluster bombs Washington is providing Kyiv with now have a dud rate of 14%, according to the New York Times. It is unclear what the dud rate on the cluster-armed ATACMS will be, and a 2022 Army publication suggests different versions hold between 300-950 submunitions.
EDF and French government clash over nuclear strategy
The French government and the chief executive it handpicked to run
state-owned nuclear power group EDF have clashed over strategy and
financing just as the country gears up for its biggest reactor construction
programme in decades.
The state, which recently renationalised EDF, is at
odds with boss Luc Rémont over some of his plans to try to make the group
more profitable after his appointment a year ago, people close to the
discussions said. “It’s pretty tense,” one person familiar with the
talks said. In particular, a looming overhaul of the way nuclear power
prices are regulated in France has created fractures as EDF seeks higher
prices to bring in much-needed capital, while the state wants to contain
energy costs for households and businesses as much as possible, the people
added.
“For Rémont, electricity prices need to be sufficiently high so
that the group can invest, and the government needs to have prices that are
acceptable to consumers,” another person said. At its core, the debate
around EDF is an existential one — whether its executives can and should
run the group as a normal company despite it being state-owned. EDF has net
debt of close to €65bn. The group’s finances have improved and it
returned to profit in the first half of 2023, but Rémont has outlined
annual spending needs of €25bn per year, higher than the €16bn-€17bn
it used to budget for, and which he does not want to finance with more
loans.
FT 24th Sept 2023
https://www.ft.com/content/eaee5a3d-ba76-40ba-8300-082f586574e8
Is World War III About to Start? Part I: Drift Toward War
We have now come full circle. Warnings from Washington continue that Putin had better not go nuclear, which can be read as inviting him to do so. This is obviously a new phase of brinkmanship that could give the U.S. a pretext for themselves moving to nuclear war.
Nuke rattling from both sides over Ukraine.
SCHEERPOST, By Richard C. Cook September 23, 2023
It is likely that billions of people around the world view the conflict in Ukraine as a proxy war being waged by the U.S. against Russia. US President Joe Biden has pledged to aid Ukraine’s pursuit of victory “for as long as it takes,” without defining what the end state might be. Russian President Vladimir Putin has interpreted U.S. intentions to mean a fight “to the last Ukrainian.”
Anyone with a discernible pulse is aware of the danger that the conflict could escalate into a conflagration large and destructive enough to morph into World War III. The threshold would likely be crossed once nuclear weapons were unleashed. The military doctrines of all nuclear powers stipulate that such an attack would justify an in-kind response, though without always ruling out the same for lesser provocations of a potentially existential nature.
President Biden has said “the world faces the biggest risk of nuclear Armageddon since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.” The context of Biden’s statement came a month earlier on September 21, 2022, when Putin warned the West he was not bluffing when he said he would be ready to use nuclear weapons to defend Russia against what he said was “nuclear blackmail.” Earlier, in an April 21, 2021, speech, Putin said:
We really do not want to burn bridges. But if someone mistakes our good intentions for indifference or weakness and intends to burn or even blow up these bridges, they must know that Russia’s response will be asymmetrical, swift, and tough. Those behind provocations that threaten the core interests of our security will regret what they have done in a way they have not regretted anything for a long time.
Another to speak of nuclear war has been former Russian president and prime minister Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy head of the Russian Security Council and one of Putin’s top advisers. Commenting on Ukraine’s highly touted but now failed 2023 “spring offensive,” Medvedev said in July 2023 that if Ukraine succeeded in taking Russian sovereign territory—including Crimea plus the four Donbass oblasts (regions) annexed by Russia last year—Russia “would have to use nuclear weapons by virtue of the Russian Presidential Decree.” This decree stated that any assault on Russian territory justified a nuclear response.
On Hiroshima Day, August 6, 2023, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said, “The drums of nuclear war are beating once again. Mistrust and division are on the rise. The nuclear shadow that loomed over the Cold War has re-emerged.” One who has predicted world war has been UK Defense Minister Ben Wallace. On May 19, 2023, he warned “that the UK could enter a direct conflict with Russian and China in the next seven years and has called for an increase in military spending to counter the potential threat.” Speaking to London’s Financial Times, Wallace said “a conflict is coming with a range of adversaries around the world.”
More recently, independent commentator Tucker Carlson, who has said the U.S. is intentionally seeking war with Russia, remarked in a September 2023 interview on The Adam Corolla Show that the Biden administration would attempt to stay in power by starting a “hot war” with Russia before the 2024 election. Carlson argued that the U.S. was “already at war” with Russia in Ukraine. He added, “I don’t think we’ll win it.”
………………………………………………………………… Nor are proxy wars anything new. They began with the Korean War. Of course, there were U.S. “boots on the ground,” but North and South Korea also fought against each other with Russia/China and the U.S./UN having the backs of each respectively. The Vietnam War was fought with U.S. troops and weapons aiding the South Vietnamese against the Russian-backed Hanoi regime and its ally, South Vietnam’s Viet Cong. The Korean conflict became a stalemate; Vietnam, a debacle. ……………………………………………………………
Purporting to be offended by the U.S.-Soviet nuclear standoff, whereby peace was assured only by the logic of “Mutually-Assured Destruction,” Reagan proposed an armada of “defensive” weapons in space. The military-industrial complex seized on Star Wars as a cornucopia of lucrative research and development projects that ended when space shuttle Challenger blew up. The space shuttle was being converted to a testing platform for space weaponry, as I saw personally at NASA when I worked there in 1985-1986…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
9/11, the Neocons’ “new Pearl Harbor,” produced the “War on Terror,” the Patriot Act, the Department of Homeland Security, the military doctrine of Full-Spectrum Dominance, and the assaults on Afghanistan, Iraq, and later Libya. The ideological focal point was demonization of all things Islam. The rationale? “They hate our freedoms.”
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..UKRAINE — THE CROSSROADS
Now the U.S., with the Neocons firmly entrenched in the State Department and elsewhere, surrounded Russia with military bases………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Finally, after eight years of Ukrainian provocations, the death from Ukrainian shelling of more than 10,000 Donbass civilians, and the treachery of Germany and France in failing to uphold the Minsk agreements they had guaranteed, Russia entered Ukraine with its military forces in February 2022. The conflict was on, a conflict that Russia is winning. U.S.-led sanctions against Russia failed to bring down its economy or force regime change against Putin. But each Ukrainian setback on the battlefield has been followed by more weapons and money supplied to the Volodymyr Zelensky regime by the U.S., UK, Germany, France, and other NATO members.
But who was calling the shots? In March 2022, Russian and Ukrainian negotiators reached agreement on a tentative settlement at meetings in Istanbul. UK prime minister Boris Johnson then rushed to Kiev to induce Zelensky to tear up the agreement and continue the war. Western escalation has included billions of dollars worth of heavy tanks and other weapons to Ukraine, along with cluster munitions and depleted uranium projectiles. There have been drone attacks on Russia itself and on Crimea. But the Ukrainian counteroffensive has collapsed, with speculation increasing of a major Russian counterattack, possibly even cutting Ukraine off from the Black Sea.
We have now come full circle. Warnings from Washington continue that Putin had better not go nuclear, which can be read as inviting him to do so. This is obviously a new phase of brinkmanship that could give the U.S. a pretext for themselves moving to nuclear war. Meanwhile, the U.S. understands that it could in no way challenge Russia in a conventional war even with the entire NATO alliance being activated. Even then, divisiveness within NATO and the absence of sufficient military force anywhere in Europe make this impossible at present. Veteran military analyst Scott Ritter writes in Sputnik News on September 21, 2023, that even were the U.S. to activate its entire military force stationed in Europe against Russia, it would be defeated within one to two weeks of intensive combat. The only alternative would then be to activate a gigantic airlift of additional forces into Europe with U.S. cargo planes sitting ducks for destruction en route. Impossible.
There are now signs that the U.S. may be pressuring Ukraine to agree to a cease-fire, with a “freeze” along the lines of the decades-old Korean settlement. But all this would do would be to “kick the can down the road”—possibly until after the 2024 U.S. presidential election, likely to be preceded by elections in Ukraine in March. There are no signs that the U.S. is ready to concede a Russian victory involving the redrawing of the European security apparatus with Russia a respected party. The Ukrainian government speaks of a “long-term” conflict lasting decades. So there is no way to aver that the war in Ukraine is ending or to speculate about the next phase.
So, is a nuclear World War III a possibility? https://scheerpost.com/2023/09/23/is-world-war-iii-about-to-start-part-i-drift-toward-war/
Another reason to oppose expanding nuclear power
Another reason to resist the expansion of nuclear power; the Price Anderson Act (PAA) was passed originally in 1957 to promote the nuclear industry by providing a shield from liability in the event of an accident or unforeseen disaster.
Without any public hearings, the renewal of the PAA was inappropriately buried in the National Defense Authorization Act before Congress. Nuclear power plants are so risky private insurance companies will not insure them. Corporations involved with nuclear power self-insure by contributing to a fund now estimated at $13 billion. If there is a Fukushima-like event, with damages in the hundreds of billions of dollars, either those who lose their homes and businesses would have no redress, or Congress would have to come up with a huge source of funding. The PAA provides immunization from liability for any damages above $13 billion. Taxpayers will likely foot the bill.
Contact your Congressmember to find out if they are aware of this and urge them to oppose continuation of nuclear power! There is too much at risk.
Antony Blinken wary on Iran, doesn’t criticise Saudi Arabia
Blinken Says Iran’s Nuclear Program ‘Profoundly Destabilizing’, Saturday, 09/23/2023 Author: Iran International Newsroom
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has refrained from criticizing the Saudi Crown Prince for suggesting his country will get nuclear weapons if Iran does so first.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salam speaking to Fox News this week referred to the danger of Iran producing nuclear weapons and said, “If they get one, we have to get one, for security reasons and the balance of power in the Middle East. But we don’t want to see that.”
Asked during the press conference if this kind of Saudi desire is not destabilizing, Blinken replied, “I think the comments that you alluded to point to the fact that Iran’s own activities in pursuing a nuclear program are a profoundly destabilizing element and one that risks the security of countries not only in the region but well beyond it…” He went on to say, “And so the problem is very clear, and the problem is Iran. That is the destabilizing element.”
Tory MP inexplicably asks for nuclear powered frigates
By George Allison, September 24, 2023 https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/tory-mp-inexplicably-asks-for-nuclear-powered-frigates/
In a recent parliamentary query, Conservative MP Andrew Rosindell raised eyebrows with a question about converting Royal Navy warships from diesel power… to nuclear power.
For smaller surface vessels like frigates, the benefits of nuclear power do not outweigh the significant costs and potential environmental concerns. Furthermore, integrating such systems into existing fleet designs would pose significant engineering and logistical challenges.
Rosindell asked the Secretary of State for Defence, “what his Department’s projected spending on nuclear powered surface vessels for the Royal Navy is in the (a) 2023-24, (b) 2024-25 and (c) 2025-26 financial year; and if he will make a statement.”
Not stopping there, he further inquired about the Defence Department’s plans, asking “what his Department’s timeline is for converting the remaining diesel-powered Royal Navy surface fleet to nuclear power.”
In a straightforward response, James Cartlidge, the Minister of State for the Ministry of Defence, clarified, “The Royal Navy has never had any surface vessels that are nuclear powered and there is no programme or intention to convert the current fleet to be nuclear powered in future.”
Thus, the notion of the Royal Navy converting its frigates into nuclear-powered surface vessels remains firmly off the table for the foreseeable future, there are no plans to add warp cores or hyperdrive engines either..
Cannon Fodder: Number of Ukrainian Amputee Soldiers Going Through the Roof
Ekaterina Blinova, 21 Sept 23
Tens of thousands of Ukrainians have become amputees, while many more sustained other injuries or died on the battlefield. The scale of amputations in Ukraine has reached that of the First World War, according to Western media.
Between 20,000 and 50,000 Ukrainian soldiers have lost one or more limbs since the beginning of the conflict, Western press has reported.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense recently announced that 40% of wounded Ukrainian soldiers have serious limb injuries that appear to be incurable.
However, it is difficult to know for sure how many Ukrainian soldiers have disabilities, because this information is top secret, according to a Norwegian media outlet.
A commonly cited ratio for dead and injured in wars is 2-4 people wounded for each person killed. Sometimes, the number of those wounded may be 13 times as high depending on what weapons systems are used on the battlefield. One could easily calculate what price Ukrainians paid for the counteroffensive encouraged and sponsored by the West.
As per the Russian Defense Ministry, over 71,000 Ukrainian troops have been killed during the three months of the Kiev regime’s counteroffensive.
Given that Ukraine and Russia have been involved in high-scale counter-battery duels since the outset of the conflict, most of the wounds at the front have been caused by shrapnel and artillery fire, military personnel and war correspondents have said. Meanwhile, Ukrainians also sustained heavy losses while trying to storm Russia’s sophisticated defense lines and minefields, which have been largely blamed by the Western press for the failure of the Kiev regime’s offensive operations.
Ukrainian Amputees Evoke Scale of WWI
Western journalists assume that during 18 months of the special military operation in Ukraine, there have been at least 10 times the number of Ukrainian amputees than Americans with the same sort of injuries over 20 years in Iraq and Afghanistan combined.
For their part, US medical experts say that injuries of this magnitude had not been seen by Western military surgeons since World War II. The First World War saw at least 67,000 Germans and 41,000 British amputees, according to some estimates.
Several clinics in Ukraine cite 20,000 amputee cases, but the actual figure may be higher as it takes time to register patients after undergoing the amputation procedure, per the media. Some patients have to wait for weeks or even months for the surgery as the Ukrainian healthcare system is overwhelmed.
During the unfolding conflict, the Ukrainian Armed Forces suffered a scale of losses for which the army’s medical service was unprepared, Tetiana Ostashchenko, commander of the Medical Forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, told a Ukrainian broadcaster on August 26.
“Neither the legislative framework nor the system itself was designed for such volumes of medical care,” Ostashchenko stressed.
She said that new problems emerge every day and despite the nation’s healthcare system trying to solve them, it is not working as quickly as required.
To complicate matters further, the battlefield first aid straps used by Ukrainian during combat to stem bleeding, are often fitted too high to the injured limb and left on for too long. As a result, the cells in the limb die and a whole arm or leg will need to be removed instead of just part of it. What’s worse, sometimes these surgeries are done in horrific conditions, according to the British press.
Prosthetics is yet another problem faced by Ukrainian military amputees. One arm could cost $100,000 while a hook in place of a hand is an additional $8,000. A number of Western charities help some Ukrainian soldiers to get new artificial limbs but there are too many amputees returning from the battlefield.
Kiev Throws Ukrainians Into ‘Meat Grinder’
Previously, former Prime Minister of Ukraine Nikolai Azarov stated that Kiev is deliberately hiding the figures of real losses in order to avoid payments to the families of fallen soldiers, attributing them to the number of missing people instead.
There have also been cases when wounded Ukrainian soldiers were left to die by their fellows on the battlefield. On September 12, captured Ukrainian serviceman Yevgeny Zinovik told Sputnik that he had been abandoned by the Ukrainian military and laid on the ground suffering from wounds for four days, until Russian reconnaissance officers found him. Zinovik confessed that he was glad to be captured after all this suffering. He said that he had undergone treatment in a Donetsk hospital.
………………………………………………………………………….. Ukrainians Hide Abroad or Surrender
A glaring indicator of Kiev running out of military personnel is Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky‘s order to conduct a full review of all mobilization exemptions granted by Military Medical Commissions (MMCs) starting from February 24, 2022.
In addition to bringing young and elderly to the front, the Kiev regime has requested European states extradite Ukrainian draft-age adults. However, EU states are resisting those requests, citing European laws that prevent them from deporting refugees or altogether refusing to send Ukrainians back home. One should bear in mind that Ukrainians are a source of cheap labor in Europe…………………..
https://sputnikglobe.com/20230921/cannon-fodder-number-of-ukrainian-amputee-soldiers-going-through-the-roof-1113563445.html
US government and media lying about Ukrainian counteroffensive – Seymour Hersh
https://www.rt.com/russia/583351-ukraine-counteroffensive-failed-hersh/ 21 Sept 23
A source has told the veteran reporter that Kiev and Washington are deceiving the public about the situation on the ground
US intelligence analysts believe that Ukraine has given up on its counteroffensive against Russia and the only thing prolonging the conflict is the unwillingness of Washington and Kiev to acknowledge its failure, a source has told investigative journalist Seymour Hersh.
Writing on Substack on Thursday, the veteran reporter cited an unnamed source, who “spent the early years of his career working against Soviet aggression and spying” as rejecting the Ukrainian narrative about slow but steady progress in its counteroffensive.
“‘It’s all lies,’” the source said, according to Hersh. “‘The war is over. Russia has won. There is no Ukrainian offensive anymore, but the White House and the American media have to keep the lie going.’”
This sentiment is shared by many figures in the US intelligence community, and the CIA in particular has been skeptical of Kiev’s claims of a continued push forward, unlike the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), he explained.
Trent Maul, the director of analysis for the DIA, touted Ukraine’s success to The Economist earlier this month and claimed Kiev’s forces had a “realistic” chance to break through Russian defense lines this year. The British outlet contrasted the assessment with that of an unnamed senior US intelligence official, who said the battlefield “could look broadly similar” in five years.
The source cited by Hersh blasted the leadership in both Moscow and Washington for acting “stupid” during the crisis. Russian President Vladimir Putin got “provoked [into] violating the UN charter” with a poorly-prepared military campaign, he argued. US President Joe Biden retaliated with a proxy war and has had to rely on the vilification of Putin by the media “in order to justify our mistake.”
“The truth is if the Ukrainian army is ordered to continue the offensive, the army would mutiny. The soldiers aren’t willing to die any more, but this doesn’t fit the B.S. that is being authored by the Biden White House,” the source concluded.
Moscow has denied the US claim that the operation against Ukraine was an act of “unprovoked aggression,” insisting that the people of Donbass had the right of self-determination under the UN Charter and acted accordingly when they broke away from Ukraine after the 2014 armed coup in Kiev.
The Russian government has maintained that it acted lawfully when it recognized the independence of the Donetsk and Luganks People’s Republics in February 2022. Days later, after Kiev refused to stop attacks on Donbass and pull out its troops, Moscow launched its offensive.
If Fukushima water is safe, store it in Japan, says Prime Minister of Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands acknowledges ‘inconclusive,’ IAEA report on Japan nuclear waste
If Fukushima water is safe, store it in Japan, says Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare
Riyaz ul Khaliq |23.09.2023 ISTANBUL https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/solomon-islands-acknowledges-inconclusive-iaea-report-on-japan-nuclear-waste/2999123
The Solomon Islands acknowledged a Friday that a report released by the UN nuclear watchdog on Fukushima radioactive water was “inconclusive,” but launched into a scathing criticism about Japan for the release of nuclear waste into the sea.
“We note IAEA’s (International Atomic Energy Agency) assessment report is inconclusive and that the scientific data shared remains inadequate, incomplete and biased,” Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare told the 78th session of the UN General Assembly in New York.
“Solomon Islands stands with like-minded Pacific islanders and is appalled by Japan’s decision to discharge over a million tons of treated nuclear wastewater into the ocean,” he said.
Tokyo began releasing nuclear waste from the crippled Fukushima power plant last month, triggering severe reaction from China, which banned seafood imports from Japan.
Ahead of Japan’s release of nuclear waste, the IAEA released a report that claimed Tokyo’s move would have no effect on human and marine life.
But it neither recommended nor backed Japan’s decision.
Sogavare said “concerns were ignored.”
“If this nuclear waste water is safe, it should be stored in Japan. The fact that is dumped into the ocean shows that it is not safe,” he told the UN.
He urged Japan to stop the release of the radioactive water and said: “The effect of this act is transboundary and intergenerational and is
an attack on global trust and solidarity.”
“The increased warming and acidification of the ocean against the discharge of treated nuclear water over a period of 30 plus years poses worrying risks for our people’s wellbeing and future,
“If we are to rebuild trust and reignite global solidarity, we must be honest and frank in protecting our oceans which is the lifeblood of our people,” said Sogavare.
Possibly contaminated iron scraps from near Fukushima plant sold
Workers at a demolition site near the meltdown-stricken Fukushima No. 1
nuclear power plant took and sold iron scraps from waste possibly
contaminated with radioactive materials, Environment Ministry officials
said Tuesday. Workers at a subcontractor of Kajima, tasked with the
demolition, took the scraps without permission, violating the process of
dealing with contaminated waste as stipulated by law.
Japan Times 20th Sept 2023
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2023/09/20/japan/fukushima-iron-scraps-radioactive-material/
‘Biden’s phase’ of Ukraine war is beginning
This Week, Blinken explicitly stated for the first time that the US would not oppose Ukraine using US-supplied longer-range missiles to attack deep inside Russian territory, a move that Moscow has previously called a “red line,” which would make Washington a direct party to the conflict.
BY M. K. BHADRAKUMAR Indian Punchline
The ground war in Ukraine has run its course, a new phase is beginning. Even diehard supporters of Ukraine in the western media and think tanks are admitting that a military victory over Russia is impossible and a vacation of the territory under Russian control is way beyond Kiev’s capability.
Hence the ingenuity of the Biden Administration to explore Plan B counselling Kiev to be realistic about loss of territory and pragmatically seek dialogue with Moscow. This was the bitter message that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken transmitted to Kiev recently in person.
But President Zelensky’s caustic reaction in a subsequent interview with the Economist magazine is revealing. He hit back that the western leaders still talk the good talk, pledging they will stand with Ukraine “as long as it takes” (Biden mantra), but he, Zelensky, has detected a change of mood among some of his partners: “I have this intuition, reading, hearing and seeing their eyes [when they say] ‘we’ll be always with you.’ But I see that he or she is not here, not with us.” Certainly, Zelensky is reading the body language right, as in the absence of an overwhelming military success shortly, western support for Ukraine is time-limited.
Zelensky knows that sustaining the western support will be difficult. Yet he hopes that if not Americans, European Union will at least keep supplying aid, and but may open negotiations over the accession process for Ukraine possibly even at its summit in December. But he also held out a veiled threat of terrorist threat to Europe — warning that it would not be a “good story” for Europe if it were to “drive these people [of Ukraine] into a corner”. So far such ominous threats were muted, originating from low ranking activists of the fascist Bandera fringe.
But Europe has its limits, too. The western stockpiles of weapons are exhausted and Ukraine is a bottomless pit. Importantly, conviction is lacking whether continued supplies would make any difference to the proxy war that is unwinnable. Besides, European economies are in doldrum,’ the recession in Germany may slide into depression, with profound consequences of “deindustrialisation.”
Suffice to say, Zelensky’s visit to the White House in the coming days becomes a defining moment. The Biden Administration is in a sombre mood that the proxy war is hindering a full-throttle Indo-Pacific strategy against China. Yet, during an appearance on ABC’s This Week, Blinken explicitly stated for the first time that the US would not oppose Ukraine using US-supplied longer-range missiles to attack deep inside Russian territory, a move that Moscow has previously called a “red line,” which would make Washington a direct party to the conflict.
The well-known American military historian, strategic thinker and combat veteran Colonel (Retd.) Douglas MacGregor (who served as advisor to the Pentagon during the Trump administration), is prescient when he says that a new “Biden’s phase of the war” is about to begin. That is to say, having run out of ground forces, the locus will now shift to long-range strike weapons like the Storm Shadow, Taurus, ATACMS long-range missiles, etc.
The US is considering sending ATACMS long-range missiles that Ukraine has been asking for a long time with the capability to strike deep inside Russian territory. The most provocative part is that NATO reconnaissance platforms, both manned and unmanned, will be used in such operations, making the US a virtual co-belligerent.
Russia has been exercising restraint in attacking the source of such enemy capabilities but how long such restraint will continue is anybody’s guess………………………………………………………… more https://www.indianpunchline.com/bidens-phase-of-ukraine-war-is-beginning/
Okinawa Disproves The US Narrative About Overseas Bases
Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix, CAITLIN JOHNSTONE, SEP 22, 2023
Okinawa governor Denny Tamaki has implored the UN for international backing in his opposition to the prefecture being overrun with US military bases.
The Japan Times reports:
“I am here today to ask the world to witness the situation in Okinawa,” Tamaki told a session of the world body’s Human Rights Council, arguing that the concentration of the military bases there threatens peace.
Tamaki, the first Okinawa governor in eight years to address the council, said, “The reclamation work proceeds despite the fact that it was clearly opposed by Okinawan voters in a democratically held referendum.”
Whenever I talk about the rapidly increasing number of US military bases and operations surrounding China I get empire simps telling me “But the people in those countries WANT us there!” Okinawa shows it’s always been a nonconsensual relationship disguised as a consensual one.
And it should here be noted that Japan’s national government was itself the product of extensive US manipulation after World War II. A 1994 New York Times article titled “C.I.A. Spent Millions to Support Japanese Right in 50’s and 60’s” details the massive amount of energy the US intelligence cartel poured into stomping down the Japan Socialist Party and ensuring that the Japanese right wing “maintained their one-party rule, forged close ties with Washington and fought off public opposition to the United States’ maintaining military bases throughout Japan.” https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/okinawa-disproves-the-us-narrative?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=82124&post_id=137283613&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1ise1&utm_medium=email
Our nuclear legacy and the weight of history
Sep. 22, 2023, Nancy Dickeman, https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/our-nuclear-legacy-and-the-weight-of-history/
The bus plowed through dust on the road winding through the Hanford Site, the horizon dotted with specters of reactors that had been dismantled or “cocooned.” All seats full, the bus was a mishmash of Richland natives like my sisters and me, returning home for the experience; locals; other nuclear tourists; and visitors from Japan.
The route through the nuclear production complex took me on what I imagined my father’s trip to work at the area had been, through a desolation that held its own beauty. It was also through ancestral tribal lands that had been confiscated in 1943 from Native American tribes — the Wanapum Tribe, Nez Perce, the Confederated Tribes of the Yakama Nation, and the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation — to create the nuclear complex. The guide pointed out hills, like Mooli Mooli, meaning “little stacked hills,” that rolled beyond us, a sacred tribal site. Tribal members have battled the government for access per their treaty rights, and have been crucial in the cleanup process.
Outside a tank storage facility, we briefly exited the bus. Over 56 million gallons of radioactive waste is held in 177 underground containers; approximately two-thirds of the tanks have leaked, and at least 1 million gallons of highly radioactive waste have seeped into the ground. Over 40 years, Hanford produced the plutonium for nearly two-thirds of the U.S. nuclear arsenal.
We passed the burial site of the core of a nuclear submarine. It might seem an unusual burial object, except that such submarines represent another nuclear legacy for Washington, with eight Trident submarines stationed at the Bangor Base, each carrying multiple nuclear weapons with many times the destructive power of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
At the B Reactor — its huge block building and companion spire visible from a distance — we saw where plutonium for the Trinity test (depicted in the film “Oppenheimer”) and Fat Man, the world’s second atomic bomb, was produced. Entering the vast chamber, we were carefully guided to the displays: Control panels. An office where toilet paper was distributed for workers to take home. A giant wall of graphite and tubes.
The Fat Man bomb was dropped on Nagasaki on Aug. 9, 1945, three days after Hiroshima was devastated by Little Boy. Both bombs created instant death: Children turned to shadows and birds burned in the air. Over 200,000 people were killed. Thousands more suffered for years after, including infants born with birth defects.
In Washington, that history is remembered. Richland holds a remembrance ceremony each Aug. 9 along the Columbia River for the bombing’s victims. In Seattle, From Hiroshima to Hope, one of the largest commemorations outside Japan, is held each Aug. 6, with candlelit lanterns on Green Lake carrying messages of peace and hope.
We were coming to the end of our drive through lands where we’d never been, and where we’d never been allowed. Past vast horizons and sagebrush, past a building that changed the world.
When we rolled to our final stop at the visitors’ center outside of Richland, the bus deposited us back on solid ground. To the heat. To a single bright sun. To a film of dust rising from dust devils coating our arms, our newly knowledgeable faces.
Reflecting on the tour, I was left with a sense of urgency. The government must prioritize funding, timelines and worker safety for cleanup.
Carrying the weight of history, we can strive for a future where diplomacy and treaties take precedence. We can stop funding development and production of new nuclear weapons. We can take steps to ensure that nuclear weapons are never again used — that nuclear explosions remain in the past.
Nearly 10 million Ukrainians have fled to EU – commissioner
https://www.rt.com/news/583216-eu-number-ukraine-refugees/ 21 Sep 23
The collective bloc is the biggest host of those leaving the country, according to Thierry Breton’s numbers
The EU migration crisis is a challenge that should be handled not by a single European country or region, but by the entire bloc as it deals with millions of asylum seekers, particularly from Ukraine, Thierry Breton, EU Commissioner for Internal Market, has said.
Speaking to Sud Radio on Monday, the official suggested that migration – which has recently been on the rise, especially in Italy – “affects us all,” including southern and eastern countries. “We have welcomed … almost 10 million Ukrainian refugees,” he said, adding that the Czech Republic stands out in terms of the number of people it has hosted.
……… In early March 2022, shortly after the start of the conflict between Moscow and Kiev, the EU for the first time in its history invoked the Temporary Protection Directive, which can be used only in exceptional circumstances to deal with a “mass influx of refugees.”
The legislation guarantees Ukrainians access to accommodation, welfare, and healthcare and gives them the right to enter the labor market, and enroll children in educational institutions.
In terms of absolute numbers, Russia accommodates the most Ukrainian refugees (1.27 million), followed by Germany (1.09 million), and Poland (968,000), according to Statista.
Breton’s comments come as some 7,000 migrants swarmed the small Italian island of Lampedusa last week, which itself has a population of less than 7,000 people. Local mayor Filippo Mannino said that the crisis had reached a “point of no return,” while the UN Refugee Agency described the situation as “critical,” adding that moving people off the island was “an absolute priority.”
According to official data, more than 127,000 refugees have arrived in Italy as of September this year, double the number for the same period in 2022.
1 This Month
19 November – Webinar – The Reality of Reprocessing
Time: 11:00 AM Pacific Time (US & Canada) / 2:00 PM Eastern / 7:00 PM UK / 8:00 PM CET
Register for the Zoom Event Here
Shut down the radiation-damaged Heysham nuclear reactors now
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
Say No to NASA’s Reckless Nuclear Reactor on the Moon
Say No to NASA’s Reckless Nuclear Reactor on the Moon
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