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Ukraine Labels Schiller Institute Leaders and Others as ‘War Criminals’

July 31—Although the Nazi-like blacklist published by Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation (CCD) on July 14, fingering 78 prominent international individuals as purveyors of alleged “Russian propaganda,” has received wide coverage in western news outlets, including leading corporate media, all the coverage, with the single exception of that of Executive Intelligence Review.

The reportage has left out the most important truths behind this despicable attack by the U.S., UK and NATO funded operation in Ukraine: first, that the primary target is the Schiller Institute, given that the first thirty names on the list were speakers at Schiller Institute conferences in 2022, with Helga Zepp-LaRouche, the founder of the Schiller Institute, appearing prominently on the list; and, secondly, that on the same day the list was released, the acting head of the CCD, Andriy Shapovalov, in an address to a round table on countering disinformation, said that those on the list were “information terrorists,” and that “Information terrorists should know that they will have to answer to the law as war criminals.” That roundtable was organized in part by the U.S. Civilian Research and Development Foundation with the support of the U.S. State Department. 

The Danger to Those Targeted

This is not only a threat to the safety and even the lives of those placed on the list, it also opens the door for the British and U.S. governments and their human rights mafia to bring the International Criminal Court and other imperial legal institutions to bear. 

Scott Ritter, the outspoken former Marine Corps intelligence officer and UN weapons inspector, who also appeared on the CCD list, wrote an open letter to his Congressional representatives (U.S. Senators Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.), and Rep. Paul Tonko (N.Y.)), demanding they “take the appropriate action necessary to ensure that funds appropriated by the United States Congress are not used to suppress the free speech rights afforded to citizens of the United States, including myself, by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.” Ritter notes that all three of them supported H.R. 7691, “The Additional Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2022,” which provides funding for the Ukrainian government and its Center for Countering Disinformation that has targeted him.

Ritter writes: “As a constituent whose name has appeared on a so-called ‘blacklist’ published by the Ukrainian Center for Countering Disinformation, my personal and professional life has been, and continues to be, detrimentally impacted by the chilling effect of being labeled a ‘Russian propagandist’ for simply exercising the right to free speech guaranteed by the United States Constitution. Moreover, Ukraine has a history of converting ‘blacklists’ of this nature into ‘kill lists,’ where those who speak out against the policies of the Ukrainian government are being murdered or threatened with violence. I am certain you agree with me that Congress cannot be in a position where, through its actions, foreign governments are provided the means to intimidate citizens of the United States from exercising their Constitutionally protected rights regarding free speech.”

Schumer’s Role in Targeting his Opponent Through Ukrainian Nazi Lies

Even more threatening to U.S. law and the rights of its citizens is the fact that Diane Sare, officially on the ballot as a LaRouche candidate for the U.S. Senate seat in New York State, now held by Chuck Schumer, is also targeted on the Ukraine hit list. Thus, Schumer is openly supporting the funding of a foreign organization which is dangerously targeting his opponent in an extremely important political election in the United States—an interference in the American electoral process that puts to shame Schumer’s discredited claim of Russian interference in U.S. elections. 

In a personal response issued by Sare on July 31, she states: “I would like to underscore what Scott Ritter has said, and ask the additional question of Senate Majority Leader Schumer, ‘Is it your intent to silence my voice in an indirect, but menacing fashion, by voting to fund Ukrainian civil servants who have stated that I should be arrested for war crimes?’ ” 

According to the CCD, the July 14 conference was “supported”—that is, funded—by the State Department, while the Ukrainian office of the U.S.-headquartered Civilian Research and Development Foundation (CRDF Global) was responsible for organizing the event, along with several Ukrainian outfits. Funders of CRDF Global, a public-private organization “founded in 1995 in response to the collapse of the Soviet Union,” include the State Department, State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, the Defense Department and its Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), and the UK government and its Counter Proliferation and Arms Control Centre. CRDF Global, led and staffed primarily by people with long careers in the U.S. MICIMATT (Military-Industrial-Congressional-Intelligence-Media-Academia-Think-Tank complex), has “Countering Disinformation and Cyber Security” as one of its “strategic areas,” along with nuclear proliferation, bioweapons lab operations, and a few other areas. CRDF Global’s Eastern Europe and Eurasia Hub has operated out of Kiev since 1997.

In April 2022, U.S. Department of State Senior Assistance Coordinator for Ukrainian Affairs, David Schlaefer, played a leading role in a meeting of the “national cybersecurity cluster” held by the National Cybersecurity Coordinating Center of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, with support from CRDF Global and the U.S. State Department Office of the Coordinator for Assistance to Europe and Eurasia, according to CRDF Global. See this CRDF Global news release.

Thus, the State Department “knew or should have known” of the threats issued at the event they sponsored. The question arises: Were any State Department officials involved in drawing up the hit list and encouraging its publication? It is clear that, should anything happen to any of the 78 people included on the Ukrainian hit list, the U.S. State Department could be held co-responsible for that harm.


Kremlin Spokesman: Russia Stands in “Absolute Solidarity” With China

Aug. 3 (EIRNS) – Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated yesterday that Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan was “purely provocative. We see this, it is being recorded by all countries of the world. We stand in absolute solidarity with China here. Its sensitivity to this issue is understandable. It is justified. And instead of respecting this the US is choosing the path of confrontation. It doesn’t bode well,” the Kremlin spokesman said, adding that Washington’s decision is “only regrettable.”

 Asked whether the Pelosi visit could lead to “global war,” Peskov said her visit was a “clear provocation,” but “I would suggest not to throw around words as serious [as ‘global war’]. That said, “underestimating the level of tension sparked by this visit” is not advisable either, he added.

 Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, asked by journalists on Wednesday what was behind the Pelosi trip, stated: “It was the drive to prove to everyone their impunity and to act accordingly. ‘I do whatever I want’, something like that. I can hardly imagine any other reason to create a flashpoint out of thin air, despite knowing what it would mean for China.”


Former New Zealand Minister Denounces Ukraine Hit List, Calls for Government Investigation

Aug. 1, 2022 (EIRNS)—A former New Zealand Minister, Matthew Robson, who was placed on the Ukraine/NATO hit list has responded with a powerful blast at the attack and a call for the New Zealand government to investigate. Robson is the former New Zealand Minister of Disarmament and Arms Control and Associate Minister of Foreign Affairs.

His full statement reads:

I have been placed on a blacklist by the Ukrainian government, in the company of many prominent scholars and well-known public figures.

I am quite flattered to be in the company of such an eminent list of people with widely varying opinions on the nature of the war in the Ukraine.

But all of them are engaged in the time-honored tradition of scholars and democratic societies of honest and open debate rather than the “group think” demanded by NATO governments.

The New Zealand Bill of Rights Act, Section 14, provides the following guarantee:

Freedom of expression: Everyone has the right to freedom of expression, including the freedom to seek, receive, and impart information and opinions of any kind in any form.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights to which New Zealand and, I presume, the Ukraine are signatories guarantees the same. I am writing to the Prime Minister of New Zealand to ask her to take up with the government of the Ukraine this breach of my right, under both New Zealand and international law, to freely express my opinions, and my being on a list that endangers my safety.


Jan Oberg’s Response to the Ukraine Blacklist

July 28, 2022 (EIRNS) Copenhagen–Today Danish peace policy leader Jan Oberg responded to being put on the Ukraine blacklist, issued July 14. He was a speaker at the Schiller Institute’s May 25, 2022, online conference from Denmark and Sweden, and three of the other speakers were also put on the list. His posting follows below and is available at this link.

Ukraine Smears People Around the world as Part of the Disinformation War
28 July, 2022

The government of Ukraine runs a Center for Countering Disinformation. It seems to be tasked with telling the world who carries the truth and who are spokespeople who are pushing a rhetoric that is in tune with Russian propaganda.

I’m included in a list issued by the Center together with around 70 people, many of whom I am honored to be grouped with. The Center published the list on its Facebook page with a rather weird text about how they have put us all in three categories: the third, for instance, “condemn Russian aggression, but inclined Ukraine to negotiate and oppose the supply of weapons to our state (20%).” Condemning Russian aggression and being in tune with Russian propaganda. Oh, well!

I suppose I am in that category since I distanced myself from the Russian invasion of Ukraine but also believe that the present arming of Ukraine is utterly counterproductive and will have unspeakably destructive consequences for Ukraine in particular. But, sadly, the US and NATO countries are united – so far – in (mis)using Ukraine as the battlefield to weaken Russia and “win” over it. That is, as a proxy – fighting for itself and Ukraine to the last Ukrainian. See my article on that here.

On the list are a series of diplomats, professors, politicians, media people and even former CIA people and some of them have already expressed their surprise at seeing themselves on that list – for instance, Edward Luttwak who has lobbied NATO governments to send weapons to Ukraine and is generally known as a hawk.

In summary, it is one of those intellectually and morally poor attempts, of course, to smear people who have a balanced view or are not 100% on your side. It’s based on a simple twofold table and not a fourfold table – as I say in the video below. The Center’s employees have no idea about how one makes a professional conflict analysis and choose to do what many do these days: Attack your position without understanding analytical content.

The whole thing appears bizarre, hilarious. Unintentionally comic.

[Jan Oberg continues with a reference to his interview with RT about the list.]

Russia TodayRT – is the Russian equivalent to, say, CNN or BBC. But unless you have a proxy server, you cannot see their articles and programs because numerous Western countries have prevented access to it – in violation of your human rights, but that doesn’t bother them. They wanted to do a report and panel discussion and approached me as one of the participants. The other participant is Bradley Blankenship who is also on the Ukrainian list.

Let me be very clear – also with reference to my principled media policy: If a Ukrainian TV channel had done the same, I would of course be pleased to accept its invitation too. Let’s see whether they dare do a face-to-face with the people they have smeared on their list – best Joe McCarthy 1950 style.

I hope the link below works for you, if not here is the link to RT on Yandex: https://disk.yandex.ru/d/DGF7e1ijMBsJKw


You know, RT has been thrown out of YouTube…Enjoy!


Lavrov’s In-Depth Briefing on the Strategic Situation to African Union Members

July 28 (EIRNS)—Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov culminated his four-nation African tour on July 27 in Addis Ababa with a thorough, broad-ranging briefing at the Russian embassy to the permanent representatives of the member countries of the 55-nation African Union and to the accredited diplomatic corps in Ethiopia. As he did in similar briefings in the three other nations he visited—Egypt, Uganda and the Republic of Congo—Lavrov cut through Western lies about how Russia had caused the global food and fertilizer shortage, explaining the role that sanctions played, but also hitting the “reckless policy of the Western countries on the so-called Green Transition, and all this has brought the price of fertilizers high, which of course affected the price of food.” Problems in the world food market actually started at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, he noted.

The Foreign Minister also went through a detailed history of the 2014 Maidan coup, the years-long assault by Kiev Nazis on the populations of the Donbas and the “red lines” that Russia had established, the crossing of which would force to respond.

Lavrov made clear that a new paradigm is emerging to replace the old “rules based order” –an order in which there is “no single criteria, no single principle except one. If I want something, you have to obey. If you don’t obey you will be punished.” He expressed the certainty that the overwhelming majority of the world’s countries don’t want to live “as if the colonial times came back.” They prefer to be independent, to rely on their own tradition, their history, and their old friends. They don’t wish to betray their old friends. That is clear, he said, in the fact that except for two or three developing countries, “no one else in Africa, Asia or Latin America joined the illegal American and European sanctions” against Russia.

Most normal countries, Lavrov said, want to be independent, want to choose their own development model, based on the will of their people. “Nobody wants to have enemies.” 
Contrast this to NATO, he said, which as it just did at its Madrid meeting, “appoints enemies, they appoint the order in which they handle these enemies. Now Russia is the first, China is earmarked as the existential challenge for the long term.” Now, the West is trying to figure out how to confiscate Russian money, but “if they become irritated by somebody else tomorrow or the day after, they might do the same.” There is no rationality in the way the West operates, Lavrov emphasizes.

This is the context in which Lavrov suggested that reliance on the dollar as the instrument supporting the world economy “is not very promising,” and it’s not by accident that more and more countries are shifting to using alternative currencies, shifting to use national currencies more and more “and this process will be gaining momentum.” He cautioned that Russia isn’t proposing a revolution against the dollar and the U.S., but the point is that the U.S. has tossed out all principles of the free market, fair competition, sanctity of private property, presumption of innocence. “All these principles have been thrown down the drain.” They are now punishing Russia, he said, but warned that any other country that “irritates” them will be punished likewise. This is a full transcript of Minister Lavrov’s remarks and questions to him.


Gerhard Schroeder Reiterates: Talk to Russia, Negotiate Ukraine Resolution

July 11, 2022 (EIRNS)–Despite continued attacks by anti-Russian witch hunters, German ex-Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has kept his personal channel to Russian President Vladimir Putin open. As he told the Frankfurter Allgemeine news daily, he opposes the present government’s reluctance to talk to Russia: “Why are they focusing on the delivery of weapons? I do not believe in a military solution. The war can only be ended by negotiations. The fate of the soldiers and the Ukrainian civil population can only be eased by diplomatic negotiations.”

Schroeder said that he concludes from his meeting with President Putin in Moscow in March, that Russia is interested in a diplomatic solution. “How such a solution may look like, can, however, only be clarified in talks,” Schroeder said, adding that everything should be done by all sides “to prevent another escalation of the conflict.”


U.S. Freeze of Afghanistan’s Assets Kills Landmine Clearing Effort

July 8, 2022 (EIRNS)—According to a Reuters wire dated July 7, one of the devastating effects of the Western refusal to allow Afghanistan to use its foreign assets and operate a normal banking system, will be a rise in the deaths of farmers and children due to landmines.

“Foreign governments have now frozen development aid to the Afghan government, unwilling to use their taxpayers’ money to prop up the Taliban, an Islamist group that restricts women’s rights and has been at war with much of the West,” writes Reuters.

Hence, “In a previously unreported development, the Afghan government agency that oversees mine clearance told Reuters it had lost its roughly $3 million funding and laid off about 120 staff in April—the majority of the organization—because it couldn’t pay salaries.” All the sanctions have severely affected us,” said Sayed Danish, deputy head of the agency, the Directorate of Mine Action Coordination (DMAC). “We can’t do strategic work, which is our main responsibility.”

The loss of demining funds could have profound consequences for the country of 40 million people which is one of the most heavily mined places on Earth, after four decades of war. Almost 80% of civilian casualties from “explosive remnants of war” are children, partly due to their curiosity as well as their regular role in collecting scrap metal to sell to bolster families’ incomes. In the seven months since last March, about 300 Afghan children were killed or maimed by landmines and other unexploded devices. Landmines are also a big worry for farmers.

Late last month, a temporary deal was reached when DMAC agreed that the UN could set up an office in the country for about six months. But with funding for the stopgap UN regulator only half that of the Afghan agency before the NATO withdrawal and the Taliban takeover, it has only employed about 30 from the original 120 staff, according to Paul Heslop, Chief of the UN Mine Action Program in Afghanistan. He added that for long-term sustainability, the responsibility of coordinating demining should be with a state, and not an outside humanitarian body like the UN agency. “We’re in a situation where we have a government that’s not recognized,” said Heslop, adding that the lack of funding was “very difficult.” “Even if you pay people, they can’t get the money out of the banks, it’s very difficult for the people of Afghanistan at the moment, they are really suffering.”


Retired German General: Nuclear Simulations Show the Danger—Negotiate, Before It Is Too Late to Prevent Nuclear War!

July 5, 2022 (EIRNS)–“We may be closer to a Cuban Missile Crisis-type situation than many think possible,” former Bundeswehr Chief of Staff and Chairman of the NATO Military Committee Gen. Harald Kujat warned in a June 12 assessment for Preussische Allgemeine Zeitung. “The difference being that the epicenter would not be in the Caribbean, but in Europe. So it is essentially in Europe’s interest to prevent a development of the Ukraine war that would expose us to this danger.”

How great is the danger? Kujat points to reports that Russia had simulated attacks using Iskander missiles (which can be armed with both conventional and nuclear warheads) from its Kaliningrad exclave. The practice launch was reported to have been a simulated launch at a military target in response to a nuclear attack.

“The message from the Russian Defense Ministry is apparently intended as another warning that the use of nuclear weapons is a realistic option for the Russian government,” he writes.

He warns that “the carefully safeguarded strategic stability between the two great powers [U.S. and Russia] does not mean that the risk of a nuclear war limited to Europe is eliminated. On the contrary: If the Russian leadership is of the opinion that the use of short-range nuclear missiles will not trigger a nuclear counterattack by the United States, the risk of a nuclear first use for Russia would be calculable. … [T]he former presidential adviser to Yeltsin and Putin, Sergey Karaganov, recently stated: ‘I also know from the history of American nuclear strategy that the United States will probably not defend Europe with nuclear weapons.'”

The potential for the threat is that the Ukraine conflict is not a Ukraine-Russian dispute, but a NATO-Russia conflict. Kujat warns that Western politicians are increasingly emphasizing that the arms deliveries are intended “not only for the defense of Ukraine, but also for Ukrainian victory over Russia.” He quotes U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin from late April saying that the United States “wants to see Russia weakened to the point where it can no longer do the things it did when it invaded Ukraine.”

“This is a significant change in the focus of U.S. strategy in the Ukraine war,” Kujat writes. “The center of gravity is no longer to support Ukraine in its defensive struggle, but to weaken Russia as a geopolitical rival.”

“However, the course of the war so far shows that there will be no military victor in this conflict. The rational consequence, therefore, is not to prolong the war by setting strategic goals further, but to end it through a negotiated peace. The appeal to seek a negotiated peace is also not a call for Ukraine to surrender. It is not even directed at Ukraine.

The main military players in this war are the United States and Russia. “There have been no negotiations between the two great powers since the war began. War has taken the place of diplomacy. It is the task of politics and an imperative of reason to end the suffering of Ukrainians and the destruction of the country and to prevent the war from slipping into a European catastrophe,” Kujat concludes. The full article is here (in German) and here in English machine translation.


Drumbeat for War-time Rationings in Germany

Drumbeat for War-time Rationings in Germany

July 2, 2022 (EIRNS)–Speaking of an expected total halt in Russian gas supplies from July 11 (the start of the annual routine maintenance of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline), Klaus Mueller, head of the German Federal Grid Agency (a Green Party and “renewables” fanatic), hints that strict energy emergency management may be invoked from that day on. Apart from the fact omitted by him that Russian gas pumping through the Ukrainian pipelines to Central and Western Europe is still occurring and will likely also continue beyond July 11, Mueller is himself politicizing the issue which he falsely blames on the Russians. The absence of gas would create a “very serious situation” and force his agency to decree substantial rationing, Mueller said yesterday, calling on citizens as well as industries to assist by “voluntarily” cutting the use of gas themselves.

The aim of such scenario-mongering is to cover up the fact that there are alternatives to freezing during the winter which the government and Mueller’s agency hysterically reject: giving the okay for the opening of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline for continued pumping of Russian gas to German and Europe in the range of what Nord Steam1 supplies.


Italian Gen. Tricarico: “Biden Does Not Want Peace”

April 16 (EIRNS) – Gen. Leonardo Tricarico, former chief of staff of the Italian Air Force, former deputy commander of the multinational force in the Balkan war (1999) and currently chairman of the think-tank Fondazione ICSA (Intelligence Culture and Strategic Analysis), said the U.S.-UK-NATO axis is working against peace in Ukraine.

“The word ‘negotiation’ has never been pronounced either by U.S. President Biden nor by NATO secretary general Stoltenberg, nor by Secretary of State Blinken, nor by UK Prime minister Johnson. This is very serious, because the first efforts to reach an agreement have occurred in a quite improbable way. I know what I am saying: Biden does not want peace,” Tricarico said in an interview with La7 national TV.

“A serious effort for a major structuring of negotiations has never been made by anyone and especially by the U.S.A. and the UK. If we review all public and non-public statements by the characters I mentioned, we will never find words such as ‘negotiation’ or ‘ceasefire’. Evidently, they do not want peace. If Biden does not want peace, nobody else wants it, because Stoltenberg is the direct resonance room for Biden and the British are even more aggressive and imperative than the Americans. This is the situation; it is useless to dance around it: Biden wants Putin in the dust.” (The full interview is found here.)


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