Nobody talks about Libya anymore

Mustafa Fetouri

Despite increasing lawlessness and a rash of kidnappings in Libya nobody seems to be interested in the case and the global media is completely silent.

The kidnappings and the latest fighting around Tripoli’s main international airport are just another example of the strength of the country’s rogue militias and the weakness of its central caretaker government. They also indicate the lawlessness of the capital and the rest of Libya, where kidnapping for ransom has been the norm since October 2011.

Some 2 million people — almost the entire population of the capital — are hostage to the warring militias. This has been the case since Muammar Gaddafi was toppled in October 2011.

In March 2012, a friend of mine, a university professor, was snatched from his car in broad daylight. He spent nearly 19 months in an illegal jail. Luckily, he was freed after the government of Ali Zeidan managed to take control of that jail in Tajura, east of Tripoli. In April of this year, another friend, also a university professor, was kidnapped in a predawn raid on his family home. Along with his two brothers, he was taken at gunpoint to a nearby jail, where they spent four months before being released after paying a ransom.

Two of my relatives have been kidnapped in broad daylight: Uday, 18, is the son of my brother-in-law, while Sufyan, 19, is the son of my sister-in-law. The young men disappeared July 3 while traveling together from Janzour to Gargarish, west of Tripoli, where their ailing grandmother lives. Sufyan had come from Cairo to visit her and see his friends before returning to Egypt, where he has lived with his mother since October 2011.

On July 6, the family got the first phone call from the kidnappers, asking for a ransom of 2 million Libyan dinars (1.6 million US$). They received another call on July 12 with a new ransom demand of half a million dinars (406,000 US$).

The two young men were visiting a friend in Janzour when they were stopped, and then disappeared without a trace. The mother in Cairo received the most recent phone call on July 20, in which she heard her son crying while being tortured.

They are two peaceful young men who happened to be in Libya, where peace is long gone and security is an aspiration that has eluded the nation since NATO and Qatar-backed rebels toppled Muammar Gaddafi in what became known as the February 17 Revolution. This revolution has brought Libya destruction and death over the last four years.

These cases are only a representation of the whole of Libya, where lawlessness prevails across the country and criminal gangs are free to do whatever they like. Hundreds of Libyans in Tripoli have been under siege, terrorized daily over the last four weeks because Islamist-backed Misrata militias are trying to take over the national airport south of the capital, which is controlled by the Zintan militia and its allies. So far, dozens of civilians have been killed, particularly in Qasr bin Ghashir, where the airport is located.

Libya’s weak caretaker transitional government could do nothing but issue a statement on July 13 calling on both sides to stop fighting. It did not even dare to call the militias by their names for fear of revenge.

Last week, Libya’s foreign minister appealed to the UN Security Council for help, but nothing has happened so far.

It is important to remember that this is the same international body that adopted its infamous Resolution 1973 in March 2011 to “protect” Libyan civilians against what it called the brutality of the former regime. The resolution was adopted under Chapter VII of the UN charter, which meant it automatically authorized member states to use military force in order to implement it. However, it is unlikely that now any country will rush to arms like in 2011, when the NATO allies hurried to enforce international law and protect the Libyans. Alas, it was all a false cry to achieve the objective of ending Gaddafi’s reign while leaving Libya in the mess it is in now.

The difference between now and then is that Gaddafi is gone while the “freedom fighters,” installed by NATO and Qatar, turned out to be hoodlums and bandies with no interest in freedom as a noble cause. They are no better than gangs serving their own criminal agendas, and the same has to be said about the foreign countries that armed and trained them and let them loose in the country.

The UN Support Mission in Libya could also do nothing more than pull out its staff and relocate them to safety in neighboring Tunisia, leaving Libyans to their own fate.

The world has completely forgotten the plight of thousands of Libyan civilians languishing in illegal jails, particularly in Misrata, for the crime of belonging to another tribe or not supporting what has falsely become known as the February 17 Revolution. Sufyan and Uday are quickly becoming numbers among them. We are witnessing another episode of destruction and evil brought upon a nation that garners little international interest, as the world is occupied with other crises, such as the war waged against Gaza’s entire population by the brutal Israeli army.

NATO, Qatar, and other countries that supported the rebellion in 2011 are still responsible for Libya and the fate of its civilians, as per the same UN resolution they claim to respect and were willing to enforce in 2011.

While my family continues to pray for the safety of its sons, it is only yet another dark reminder of what became of the once stable Libya.

US tries to increase EU-Russia Rift

Finian Cunningham  Strategic Culture Foundation

The downing of Malaysian Airlines MH17 over eastern Ukraine with the loss of all 298 onboard comes amid mounting frustration between Washington and its European allies over the imposition of further trade sanctions on Russia.

Days before the doomed flight, American officials were quietly voicing their agitation at European leaders’ reluctance to apply sanctions that would hit Russia’s key economic sectors. 

While media reports earlier this week suggested that the US and the European Union were adopting a “united front” in the ramping up of penalties on Moscow, the underlying reality was very different. EU leaders were actually telling media that they were not yet ready to go beyond existing sanctions against Russian individuals, by following Washington’s latest measures against Russia’s energy, banking and defense sectors.

Now various Western media pundits are talking of a “game-changer” with the downing of the Malaysian Boeing 777 near Donetsk in eastern Ukraine. The flight was most likely hit by a sophisticated surface-to-air missile while cruising at a mid-air altitude of 10,000 meters (33,000 feet).

Perhaps significantly, most of the passengers onboard the flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur were European nationals, mainly from the Netherlands and Britain, as well as Germany and Belgium. With over 170 passengers, the Dutch contingency was the largest onboard.

Let’s step back a bit

Following the Western-backed coup in Ukraine on February 23, geopolitical tensions escalated further during March when the southern Crimea Peninsula voted in a referendum to join the Russian Federation. Washington and its European allies immediately launched vitriolic attacks on Russian President Vladimir Putin for what they said was an illegal annexation of Ukrainian territory. Western media chimed in with lurid claims that Putin was the “new Hitler” and that the Russian leader was trying to resurrect the old Soviet Union.

Initially, Washington and European governments threatened that they would together ratchet up trade sanctions on Russia if Moscow did not hand back Crimea and also if it did not stop stoking other separatist revolts in the Ukraine’s eastern regions of Luhansk and Donetsk. 

On March 25 while hosting US President Barack Obama in The Hague, Dutch premier Mark Rutte spoke of a united front. 

Rutte told US news channel CNBC: “It’s difficult to foresee whether he [Russian President Vladimir Putin] will retract from Crimea or not, but I do feel that Russia senses we are serious and we want them to give up the Crimea, and at least prevent this conflict from spiraling to other regions of Ukraine.”

However, since that time there has been a notable divergence between the American and European positions over the Ukraine crisis. Washington has been pushing a more aggressive policy to hit Russian economic sectors, while Europe is reluctant to go beyond the more symbolic sanctions that target Russian individual politicians and businessmen.

With Europe heavily dependent on Russian trade, particularly in the energy sector, European governments soon realized that ratcheting up more aggressive sanctions would inflict serious damage on their own economies far more than the American economy. 

Germany, Austria, Italy, Greece and Spain have emerged as the main political obstacles in Europe to implementing the US tough line. 

Prominent among the European commercial concerns are those of its energy companies. Royal Dutch Shell is one of the most exposed European conglomerates if Western sanctions were to be stepped up further on Russia.

It is notable that within days of the Dutch premier’s seemingly tough stance reported in March, the Chief Executive of Shell, Ben van Beurden, visited Moscow to meet Vladimir Putin at the latter’s Moscow residence. The Shell boss reportedly reassured Putin that the energy giant was still proceeding with ambitious plans to expand oil and gas projects in Russia’s far-east despite Western sanctions.

Shell is partnered with Russia’s state-owned Gazprom in developing the Sakhalin-2 Project, which is reputed to be one of the world’s biggest oil and gas exploration ventures. In particular, the project is aimed at developing Liquefied Natural Gas for the Japanese and South Korean markets — in direct competition to American commercial interests in its own new LNG industry.

If the EU were to adopt US-led sanctions on Russia’s energy sector, Royal Dutch Shell and other European giants, such as British Petroleum, stand to lose billions of dollars-worth of investments. It can be safely assumed therefore that these companies have been lobbying their respective governments to show restraint on applying sectoral sanctions. 

This was clear earlier this week when the White House announced a further round of economic penalties against Russia.

The New York Times reported: “President Obama escalated sanctions against Russia on Wednesday by targeting a series of large banks and energy and defense firms in what officials described as the most punishing measures to date for Moscow’s intervention in Ukraine.”

But The Times further adds: “The moves were coordinated with European leaders, who were meeting in Brussels on Wednesday to consider their own package of penalties against Russia. The Europeans declined to go as far as the United States, instead focusing on a plan to block loans for new projects in Russia by European investment and development banks.”

What would it take for the Americans to pull the Europeans into a more aggressive line?

Within hours of the Malaysian airliner smashing into the wheat fields in eastern Ukraine near the Russian border, US official sources began drip-feeding their trusted news outlets with a narrative implicating Russia.

On Friday, the Reuters news agency reported: “One US official said Washington strongly suspected the Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 was downed by a sophisticated surface-to-air missile fired by Ukrainian separatists backed by Moscow.”

On the same day, the Wall Street Journal had this: “US agencies are divided over whether the missile was launched by the Russian military or by pro-Russia separatist rebels, who officials say lack the expertise on their own to bring down a commercial airliner in mid-flight.”

An astounding giveaway in the above Reuters report is the following editorial comment carried in subsequent paragraphs:

“While the West has imposed sanctions on Russia over Ukraine, the United States has been more aggressive than the European Union in this respect. Analysts believe a robust response of Germany and other European powers to the incident (of the downed airliner) could be crucial in deciding the next phase of the stand-off with Moscow”.

Officially, Washington has refrained from making explicit accusations against Moscow. That role has been taken up by hot-heads and mavericks like the Senator John McCain and former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who both rushed to lay the blame on Russia over the crashed airliner.

The Washington-installed regime in Kiev has also predictably piled on the inflammatory rhetoric accusing Moscow of involvement in the catastrophe without producing a shred of evidence.

The dubiously elected pro-Western President Petro Poroshenko immediately labelled “Russian-backed terrorists” as the culprits, while the acting Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk demanded international action against Moscow.

With typical hysteria, Yatsenyuk said: “This is a crime against humanity. All red lines have been already crossed [...] We ask our international partners to call an emergency UN Security Council meeting and to do everything we can to stop this war: a war against Ukraine, a war against Europe, and after these terrorists shot down a Malaysian aircraft, this is a war against the world.”

Yatsenyuk added: “Everyone is to be accountable and responsible. I mean everyone who supports these terrorists, including Russians and the Russian regime”.

The Kiev junta may lack the sophistication of Washington in the finer points of black arts. But it seems clear that there is a concerted effort to frame Russia over this horrendous air disaster. In the stampede to lay the blame, crucial facts are irrelevant or dismissed. What about local eyewitness reports that claim they saw Ukrainian army units fire surface-to-air missiles, or official Russian military sources who say they have radar traces on the ill-fated day also implicating the pro-Kiev forces?

When assessing culpability, it is not only significant to ask the criminologist’s question: who benefits? It is also significant to observe how the political and media reaction to events quickly takes on an unmistakably scripted pre-ordained formula. In this case, there is more than a pungent whiff of premeditated action-reaction dialectic going on.

US geopolitical interests are best served by this atrocity, which may help shocking a laggardly Europe into adopting aggressive sanctions towards Russia, even though that militates against European economic concerns. Shooting down a civilian airliner would ensure blowing a decisive rift between Europe and Russia.

Links July 2014 Update

This update is published as a separate post because two essential points made in the “roundup section” of Links July 2014 were totally underscored by the most recent developments just as I put the post out.

Facts about Flight MH17

On July 17 the Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed over the separatist held Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, approximately 31 miles from the Ukraine-Russia border. The Boeing 777 airliner was flying at 33,000 feet when air traffic control suddenly lost contact. 295 passengers and crew died. This is the most deadly plane crash since September 2011.

Photos of the crash site show plane wreckage and human bodies strewn over a particularly large area, suggesting that Flight MH17 broke up in the air before hitting the ground. A spokesperson for the separatist forces told reporters that they have found the Malaysian plane’s black boxes and plan on sending them to Moscow for inspection.

The separatists deny involvement in the crash, saying that they lack the capability to target a plane flying that high, and accuse the Ukrainian military. The Ukrainian government, in turn alleges that the Malaysian plane was shot down by a BUK surface-to-air missile.

Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council spokesman Andrei Lysenko said that the Ukrainian army is not equipped with the SA-11, while militia members told Russian media last month that they had captured several Ukrainian Army SA-11 systems.

It is seriously doubtful, that rebel fighters from Donetsk could have the skills to operate weapons systems as technologically sophisticated as the BUK (also known as SA-11 or SA-17).

Last month, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu told Russian parliamentarians that Moscow might seek to create a no-fly-zone over eastern Ukraine.

Lufthansa, Air France, Aeroflot, Transaero, and Turkish Airlines have suspended flights over Ukrainian airspace.

The US Federal Aviation Authority warned US carriers already on April 25 to stay out of the region, where Ukraine’s military and pro-Russian separatists are fighting.

It is doubtful, that clear responsibility will ever be established. It could have been the separatists, (with especially trained “volunteers” from Russia or Belarus), it could have been Russia, it could have been the Ukrainian army or Western special forces (black ops, false flag). While the Europeans try to contain the crisis, the USA wants an escalation, so the latter possibility makes some sense.

It could have been a mistake like in 2001, when Siberia Airlines Flight 1812, en route from Tel Aviv to Novosibirsk, was shot down by the Ukrainian military over the Black Sea. The Ukraine eventually admitted that the disaster was caused by a missile from its armed forces and paid 15 million US$ to surviving family members of the 78 victims.

The downing of Flight MH17 is a gruesome reminder, that there is a full scale war going on in Europe with troops, militias, and mercenaries from Ukraine, Russia, Poland, and possibly several other countries involved.

As written before, this could go on for a long time and it could get more and more ugly (bloody).

The annihilation of Gaza

As predicted, Israel’s gradual and systematic annihilating of Gaza has indeed again infuriate the Arab populations and sparked protests in most Arab capitals.

Even Arab media, usually divided over crucial issues as Syria, Libya, Iraq, Egypt, appears united in representing the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza and exposing the Israeli actions as an assault on a trapped and besieged population.

But while the public has been unified in expressing solidarity with Palestinians, the positions of governments have varied based on their stance toward the Muslim Brotherhood. Nowhere was this discrepancy reflected more clearly than in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, where a number of prominent politicians and pundits have made negative remarks about Hamas (Hamas has been bought by Qatar, which is also the main backer of the Muslim Brotherhood).

The reluctance of Saudi Arabia and Egypt to take a bold position for ending the assault on Gaza has given other regional parties an opportunity to step in. Qatar and Turkey (which is also sympathetic to the Muslim Brotherhood) tried to take up the role that Egypt usually plays, but both have been rebuffed by Israel.

Repercussions in Jordan

Jordanians have taken to the streets in Amman and several other towns (Karak, Irbid, Tafileh, Mafraq, and Jerash), calling on the government to expel the Israeli ambassador, shut down the embassy, cut all relations, and revoke the peace treaty with Israel.

At a rally led by the Muslim Brotherhood on July 9, protesters attempted to storm the Israeli Embassy, but were prevented from reaching the diplomatic mission by Jordanian security forces. Six people were arrested and then released shortly afterwards.

In a display of support for the Palestinians in Gaza, protesters filled the square in front of the Kalouti Mosque in west Amman after Friday prayers on July 11 and the Ramadan special evening prayers on July 15, a few blocks from the Israeli Embassy. Banners depicting the Nazi swastika next to a Star of David and reading “Jordanian government, shut down the Zionist embassy, kick the ambassador out.”

Following an emergency meeting called by the Palestine Committee in the lower house of parliament last week, 20 Jordanian MPs announced they would head for Gaza in a display of solidarity. But Egyptian authorities denied the Jordanian MPs access to the enclave, voicing security concerns.

Links July 2014

Environmental news:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/grassroots-campaigns-increasingly-hurting-large-german-projects-a-980527.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/07/raju-elephant-cries-rescue_n_5564543.html
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/11/miami-drowning-climate-change-deniers-sea-levels-rising

Economic news:
http://truth-out.org/progressivepicks/item/24431-banks-systemic-corruption-and-governments-conflict-of-interest
http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2014-07-08/news/51191366_1_bmw-car-sales-luxury-rolls-royce-middle-east-sales
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/markets/10965052/Bank-for-International-Settlements-fears-fresh-Lehman-crisis-from-worldwide-debt-surge.html Though this particular discussion between economists is completely missing the point (if there is even a point), it illustrates the fragility of the global financial system.
http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2014/07/divergent-languages-business-medicine.html

Imperial news:
http://firedoglake.com/2014/07/01/america-ranks-36th-in-feeling-free-to-choose-what-to-do-with-your-life/
http://www.workers.org/articles/2014/07/02/rights-activists-protest-human-rights-watch/
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jun/30/washington-political-power-corporations-campaign-donations
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/07/oligarchy-blues.html
http://www.oaklandinstitute.org/sites/oaklandinstitute.org/files/OI_Report_Down_on_the_Farm.pdf

Imperial conquest news:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/10930345/Syrian-rebel-army-sacked-over-corruption-claims.html
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/02/us-usa-somalia-idUSKBN0F72A820140702
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/07/israel-targets-agricultural-sector-gaza-assault.html
http://rt.com/op-edge/169364-isis-american-wars-mosul/
http://www.intifada-palestine.com/2014/07/sacred-treason-palestinian-israeli-alliance-2/

Media news:
http://www.medialens.org/index.php/alerts/alert-archive/2014/770-some-deaths-really-matter-the-disproportionate-coverage-of-israeli-and-palestinian-killings.html
http://consortiumnews.com/2014/07/11/no-lessons-learned-at-the-nyt/
http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/24701-nyt-protects-the-fogh-machine

Everything else news:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/07/11/on-israel-ukraine-and-truth/Must read.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-lessons-of-world-war-i-the-100th-anniversary-of-the-assassination-of-archduke-franz-ferdinand/5388551
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/06/ignacio-portes-paul-singer-v-argentina-thriller-reaches-climax.html
http://rt.com/business/172020-russia-cuba-debt-writeoff/
http://rt.com/news/169156-us-denmark-turkey-rasmussen/
http://www.globalresearch.ca/acquiescing-to-big-biotech-relentless-drive-to-force-gmo-crops-into-britain/5389562
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/24811-el-salvadoran-farmers-successfully-oppose-the-use-of-monsanto-seeds
http://cindysheehanssoapbox.blogspot.com/2014/07/born-on-4th-of-july-s-brian-willson-by.html

The links this month are a rather arbitrary selection because I had not enough time to sift through all relevant alternative news sources. I possibly have missed some excellent analysis and enlightened commentary.

The genuine alternative media voices (mainly bloggers) for the most part have agreed on the interpretation of the two main news stories, which are the advances of the “Islamic State” (ISIS, ISIL, DAESH) in Iraq and Syria, and the military campaign against separatists in eastern Ukraine.

The return of the caliphate

IS (Islamic State) is seen as just another creation of the Western colonial powers, similar to the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. Just another tool, another useful pawn for destabilizing non-desirable governments. A new caliphate is surely not a frightening possibility for Western strategists — forget about democratization, social equality, or human rights, Islamic despots are the best keepers of Middle Eastern oil, as the Gulf potentates have resoundingly proven since the 1930s.

There is clear and undeniable evidence that IS is doing the job of the Western powers. Saudi Arabia is bankrolling it, Turkey provides logistic support and a deployment zone, the USA coordinates and helps with intelligence from spy satellites, surveillance drones, and CIA/NSA data gathering.

The reported details are partly speculation, though some look quite plausible and are solidly backed by facts like the undeniable support from Turkish authorities and the very noticeable eagerness of the US to get rid of Maliki, who is (rightfully) perceived as an Iranian ally. 

Saudi Princes Bandar bin Sultan and Abdul Rachman al-Faisal are named as organizers behind the scene, CIA director and former CIA station chief in Riyadh John Brennan shall be involved. Francis J. Ricciardone, US ambassador in Turkey, is named as main facilitator, heading a control room in the embassy in Ankara.

IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s four years at US-prison camp Bucca as a “civilian internee” could have been a chance to seal a deal, and there are even theories about CIA mind-control. Baghdadi’s detention in Bucca is surrounded by mystery and it is not clear how much time he really spent there.

Though the mentioned details are mostly speculation, they are at least educated guesses.

IS has seized a big chunk of eastern Syria and western Iraq, erased the border between the two nations, and declared an Islamic State. As little as 8,000 fighters strong only two month ago, the movement has been rapidly growing in numbers as their success attracted new recruits. The caliphates territory hasn’t actually grown much more in the past couple of weeks, but IS certainly intends to expand. Right now the jihadists are attacking the Syrian Kurdish city of Kobani.

It is possible that the Kurds in the north and Jabhat al-Nusra, the official al-Qaeda representative in Syria, are faltering under the impact of IS forces, who are energized by their recent successes and strengthened by tanks and artillery captured from the Iraqi army. IS has in the last days taken over most of the Syrian oil fields that it did not already control.

Known for the imposition of medieval Sharia Law, for summary executions and exceptional brutality, the IS conquerors have shown some restraint in the new acquired territories, but they nonetheless have ordered government workers to stop giving food rations to Christians and Shiites in Mosul, they have demolished ancient shrines and Shia mosques (Al-Qubba Husseiniya mosque) have occupied churches and removed crosses (St. Ephrem Cathedral), imposed a poll tax on Christians, ordered all women to veil themselves, closed beauty salons and barber shops, summarily executed Iraqi army prisoners.

IS fighters burnt down a 100 year old library in Tal Afar. Built by a Shia scholar, it was the oldest and largest library of its kind in the city. It contained thousands of rare books and manuscripts.

IS fighters are going from door to door and search for unwed women who they could marry. 

The Sunni caliphate at the moment just rules a large, impoverished and isolated area from which people are fleeing. Yet several million Iraqis in and around Baghdad and Syria’s Kurds are vulnerable to attack and IS control of long stretches of the Euphrates gives it additional leverage. There is more trouble to come for sure, but despite IS propagandists fantasizing about a caliphate from Portugal to India, this movement will not succeed. It faces a battle hardened Syrian army, Shia Iran, and Shia dominated southern Iraq.

The rivalries and ideological rifts between Turkey (which is sympathetic to the Muslim Brotherhood) and Saudi Arabia will come to the surface one day, the atrocities committed by Israel, which is systematically ethnically cleansing the West Bank and annihilating Gaza will infuriate the Arab populations and lead to the fall of Arab monarchies who collaborate with Israel. The Hashemite dynasty in Jordan will be first, because King Abdullah II is an idiot and nobody cares about Jordan anyway.

The new caliphate will be a welcome excuse to continue the perpetual war against terror and its mix of fanaticism and good organization will make it difficult to dislodge the islamic fighters from the newly conquered territories. Maybe IS will be allowed to take over Jordan but much further they will not come.

Their ideology is not very different from Saudi Arabia’s, therefore it is not impossible that after many (deliberately) confusing twists and turns the Islamic Caliphate will join the family of nations and deliver the oil under its control at the usual prices to Western consumers.

And this is the only thing that counts in the end.

The pacification of eastern Ukraine

The Ukrainian troops and the National Guard (which is now the official and government approved organization of the Pravy Sektor nazis), spearheaded by mercenaries from Poland, Germany, and USA, occupied Slavyanks and Kramatorsk after a tactical retreat of separatist forces under Igor Strelkov (Igor Girkin Vsevolodovich). This is a big morale boost for the Kiev government. On the other hand, there are reportedly 3000 Ukrainian soldiers surrounded in the “southern cauldron” (the region along the Russian border) and several Ukrainian columns with tanks and APCs have been attacked and partly destroyed near Lugansk. Another Ukrainian Mi-24 helicopter was downed near Sneshny, two Sukhoi-25 were destroyed near Grlovka and Perevalsk.

The death toll is mounting and the official reports from Ukrainian authorities count 258 killed and 922 injured security personal. The Ukraine claims that a military transport plane was shot down by a missile fired from Russian territory, Russia accuses the Ukraine of shelling the border town Donetsk inside Russia, killing one person. Two Russian paratroopers were reportedly killed by Ukrainian fire near the Russian border, but this story is probably incorrect.

The civilian death toll is also mounting and has surpassed 1,000, though Kiev only acknowledges 478 casualties. 30 civilians died in the village of Maryinka during nightly shelling and an airstrike destroyed an apartment block in rebel-held Snizhne, killing 11 people. Another airstrike on Shakhtyorsk caused apparently only material damage. Rockets struck Luhansk’s southern suburb of Mirny, setting cars on fire in a car park.

Pro-Ukrainian forces are deliberately destroying infrastructure like water pumps and power lines, they are bombarding civilian areas. Half a million Ukrainian citizens have fled from the Donetsk and Lugansk regions of eastern Ukraine to Russia. This is ethnic cleansing.

Russia has sent “volunteers” and equipment (for instance Sam-6 radar guided missiles, allegedly even S-300) to the separatists, but the separatist militia has only about 26,000 fighters and they are facing up to 53,000 pro-Ukrainian troops with 280 armored vehicles, 250 cannons and mortars, 12 helicopters and 25 aircraft.

Russia is said to consider “surgical strikes” in the separatist regions, but this is unlikely, because the Russians have learnt from the US strategy in Syria and will give the Ukraine the same treatment the Islamist fanatics are giving the Assad government, grinding the state down “on the cheap” with irregular militias while avoiding any decisive overt move which could lead to a dangerous military escalation.

This could go on for a long time and it could get more and more ugly because the new regime in Kiev is under pressure from the West (represented by the EU and the IMF) to keep the eastern regions.

The Western plan is simple: IMF imposed austerity will further reduce economic output. Falling revenues and the IMF-loan precondition of balancing the budget will force the government to sell off all public assets to Western corporations. Increasing unemployment will force the best and brightest to emigrate, providing European companies with skilled but nevertheless cheap workers, technicians, specialists, a development which will inevitably lower average wages and keep the unions in check.

If it indeed turns out this way, it will be a win-win for the corporations — and this is the only thing that counts in the end.

The efforts of the Western media to suppress crucial information and to hide what is really going on in Iraq and the Ukraine, the deluge of misinformation and absurd assumptions would be comical if it were not about a human tragedy of unimaginable proportions (at least unimaginable for me).

Millions of Arab children grow up in war zones. They live in countries where the education system is either destroyed or taken over by Islamic fanatics. There is hardly any education in the refugee camps. Girls are mostly not educated at all, boys are put in Madrassas (religious schools), where they are brainwashed and indoctrinated with religious nonsense. They don’t learn the necessary skills to improve the live of their communities and build up a stable and peaceful society.

These children are traumatized, their heads are filled with religious garbage, their hearts are filled with hate and despair. They grow up to become the cheap and easily disposable cannon fodder for the next imperial wars. Busy with negotiating their way through a complicated world which they don’t understand and busy with combat training and learning to handle the weapons which the agents of death handed to them, they will not realize that they are just used (used up) by the masters of war.

If you think the situation is bad now, wait till this generation of war children will enter the scene.

The worst is yet to come!

The picture is not as dark in the Ukraine, but resentment, hate, and despair are growing there as well on both sides.

Corporate journalists have become goofy clowns and spineless lackeys. Their contrition and remorse is evident between the lines. They must have a hard time to reconcile the contradictions and ignore their cognitive dissonance. It is safe to assume, that many of them will suffer from insomnia.

As I revealed in previous blog posts, my sympathies are for the Assad government and for Russia. President Putin is one of the most intelligent players on the world stage. He also seems to be comparatively integer and more cautious (less ruthless) that other leaders.

And yet I have no stake in this, and here are the reasons why:

Syrian ally Iran is a theocracy (which is bad in my view) and promotes population growth (also bad). Iraq’s Nouri al-Maliki was a member of the Islamic Dawa Party and pursues a sectarian (Shia) agenda. Women’s rights in Iraq are greatly diminished, they are the biggest losers of the US invasion. The Iraqi administration is corrupt, but this is nothing special, because Middle Eastern leaders seem to be in general either corrupt stooges, parasites, religious fanatics, or all of this combined.

Bashar al-Assad could be the rare exception, but I’m not sure about this.

And it is all about oil exploration, which contributes to climate change and natures contamination with synthetic chemicals.

The conflict in the Ukraine is also about energy politics and old fashioned economic schemes. The EU wants to expand and to grow the economies, Russia want economic growth too. None of the political leaders has understood until now that unlimited growth on a limited planet is not possible.

Russia provides Western Europe with natural gas and intends to become a major provider of fossil fuels to China. Russia intends to start fracking (hydraulic fracturing) and offshore oil exploration in the arctic. Putin signed a nuclear energy deal in Argentina (meaning additional units in Argentina’s nuclear Atucha 3 power plant). Isn’t Chernobyl and Fukushima enough?

Could there have been a better way to thwart the Western plans of taking over Ukraine than sending weapons and “volunteers” to Donetsk and Luhansk? What about civil obedience, economic sabotage, simply ignoring the government in Kiev and secretly building up a parallel administration? What about bleeding the Western-imposed administration economically instead of militarily?

Such procedures would have been painful too, but not deadly.

Bread and circuses

Not even a consumer society dropout like me is able to escape the FIFA-Worldcup reporting. While looking through the headlines for clues about the latest directives for corporate journalists from the “Ministry of Truth,” I was inevitably confronted with the news, that the “herrenmenschen” from Germany had told the Latinos a lesson they wouldn’t forget for a while.

It was just another humiliation for the Argentinians after the Malvinas war (Guerra del Atlántico Sur) in 1982, the bankruptcy in 2001, the blockade of the iconic sailing ship ARA Libertad in Ghana, and the assault by Paul Singers vulture fund (invigorated by a US Supreme Court ruling), which threatens a second bankruptcy.

Neocolonial and imperial politics aside, the sad fact is, that millions of people spend countless hours watching 22 or so guys running after a ball in a childish and stupid competitive game. They could instead learn useful skills, pursue art and other creative pastimes, participate in social, local communal activities, spend time with family and friends, observe and enjoy nature, work in the garden, meditate.

Gazing at the TV screen and watching spectator sports — what a waste of human intelligence and energy!

News from cat land

The cats are mostly fine. Wendy had an abscess caused by a bite from another animal, maybe a marten or a weasel. I accidentally discovered the abscess while combing her and I brought her instantly to the vet, who also found an infected tooth which had to be removed. I had to give her antibiotics for a week, which was not easy because Wendy was not cooperative at all.

But Wendy seems to be fine now and the missing tooth seemingly is not diminishing her appetite. I’m nevertheless a bit worried about my cat girl, because bad teeth at an age of only six years are not a good sign. Wendy had always a fragile health.

Our 16 year old lady, Miss Marple, still has a constipation and needs laxatives. Miss Marple is as uncooperative as Wendy and always spits out a good part of the medicine.

Linda, an approximately two-and-a-half month old kitten, has joined the cat family. Somebody had dumped her into the forest, leaving the helpless and panicked cat baby by herself. There in the wilderness I found her running around desperately meowing. When I took her in my arms she was clearly relieved and grateful and instantly started purring. Linda was in a bad shape, full of dirt, and limping.

After feeding her I drove to an animal clinic in a town 20 km away (my preferred veterinarian unfortunately is on holiday), where they diagnosed a sprain and gave her analgesics and fever medication. But two days later her left paw was ridiculously swollen and I rushed again to the animal clinic where they made an x-ray and discovered an abscess on the joint.

The pus is removed now and Linda swallows her daily medicine without objection. She is still limping a little bit but otherwise lively and cheerful. I’m not convinced that Linda got the best possible treatment in the animal clinic and I’m glad when our vet is back from the holidays.

I called her Linda because this name came into my mind intuitively as I brought her home from the forest. Maybe Eileen (I lean) would be more appropriate for a limping cat, but Linda will not limp for too long. The name Liza would be more glamorous, but Linda is not glamorous, she is just an ordinary house cat. She is not especially pretty or ugly, she is quite clever but maybe not a cat genius — though this has still to be determined and it cannot be ruled out that she is indeed an extraordinary intelligent cat.

Linda is an average but nevertheless a very special cat, because she is one of the three cats in my life which I rescued from misery and certain death. The other two were Lizzy and Cindy, both have passed away some years ago.

Linda has instantly accepted me as step mother, she is very attached to me and for a few days always ran after me and meowed pleadingly when the distance between us exceeded more than a few meters. This is getting better now and I can let her alone for a little time though she will at one point getting anxious and try to find me. Linda of course sleeps beside me laying on the pillow or on the blanket. She is completely clean, I only had to show her the litter box once and she uses it since then appropriately. It is clear that she spent the first two month of her life in an indoor cat family.

And I still wonder: How can anyone have the nerve to depose such a cute little kitten in the woods?

Linda is most times around me, she drinks from my tee, nibbles on my bread, eats from the rice. I don’t mind, because if the cats indeed carry a zoonotic disease, I will have it contracted already since a long time. Hygiene is not a priority concern alone for practical reasons and increasing hygiene as a top-down initiative is not an option, because the level of hygiene in a cat household is clearly defined by the cats and by nobody else.

The name Linda reminds me of Novel Price laureate Linda Brown Buck, a biologist best known for her work on the olfactory system (alone for this fact Linda seems to be very suitable as a cat name). Linda reminds me of Jazz vocalist Linda Ciofalo.

The name Linda also sparks unpleasant associations to the Gates Foundation. Unpleasant because the Gates Foundation is a racket to promote hardcore neoliberal policies under the disguise of philanthropy.

The Gates Foundation tries to get rid of the US public education system by funding ALEC (a right wing front organization for corporate America), by introducing technology (online courses), by promoting charter schools and high-stakes standardized testing, by firing teachers and closing schools when test scores don’t rise, by narrowly focusing on students short-term employability.

The Gates foundation tries to get rid of Africa’s small farmers by backing agrobiz giant Cargill, pushing Monsato’s GM-seeds, forcing farmers to produce cash crops (Cocoa Livelihoods Program), revolutionizing farm practices (meaning destroying reliable and proven traditions) cooperating with fast food and chicken chain KFC and other corporations.

The Gates foundation tries to get rid of everybody else by promoting nuclear energy (TerraPower’s research in traveling wave reactors, thorium reactors, molten salt reactors).

Back to my friend Linda, who just lays beside me, softly purring. At the moment the other cats are jealous and Gandhi Jr. is outright horrified. They will slowly get used to the new family member, Princess Min Ki and Wendy already sniffed on Linda and didn’t mind eating beside her. To facilitate reconciliation, I will have to spend even more time with the cats.

I don’t complain, this is time well spent!

I couldn’t help myself adding another few to the millions of cute kitten photographs on the web.