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© Thilo Schmuelgen/ ReutersFILE PHOTO: A general view of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, Netherlands, Jan. 11, 2024.
The International Court of Justice ruled that Moscow violated articles of two treaties — one on terrorism financing and another on eradicating racial discrimination — but it rejected far more of Kyiv's claims under the treaties.
It rejected Ukraine's request for Moscow to pay reparations for attacks in eastern Ukraine blamed on pro-Russia Ukrainian rebels, including the July 17, 2014, downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 that killed all 298 passengers and crew.
Comment: Russia was not responsible. This point is all the more glaring considering how, in just the last few days, Ukraine shot down a plane carrying 65 of its own troops.
Comment: This is completely outrageous. He's really being locked up because Pakistan has elections next week and Khan keeps talking about how the CIA ousted him - a wildly popular and democratically-elected prime minister - from power...
© AFPFormer Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife, Bushra (left), arrive at a court in Lahore in May 2023.
On Tuesday, Zulfiqar Bukhari said, as quoted by AP, that the verdict was announced at a prison in the northern city of Rawalpindi, not far from the capital, Islamabad. The same sentence was also imposed on former Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi.
The charges relate to the so-called cipher, a classified cable sent to Islamabad by the Pakistani ambassador to Washington in 2022, shortly after the start of the Ukraine conflict. The document allegedly suggested that the US wanted to remove Khan over his neutrality regarding the hostilities.
The ex-Pakistani PM called the cipher case on Tuesday "false," adding that it "is being completed in violation of constitutional requirements and legal regulations.""This is not a trial but a fixed match outcome of which was predetermined," he added.
Comment: This is exactly what they'd love to do to Trump. Khan thought he could stave off the CIA's maneuvering to oust him by exposing a cable documenting their efforts. Then, at the outset of the Russian SMO in Ukraine, Khan flew to Moscow in a show of support for Putin and to secure major energy deals because Khan figured, correctly, that energy markets were about to go haywire as the West imposed sanctions on Russia. At that point, Washington's stooges within Pakistani military-intelligence pounced, contriving first a 'vote of no- confidence', then criminal charges, finally his arrest, and now his incarceration.
All because he wanted to finally make Pakistan a real country and not some 'wild frontier outpost' for the Anglo-American empire.
See also:
- Ex-Pakistani PM Imran Khan sentenced to ten years in prison after being ousted in US led coup
- Secret Pakistan cable documents US pressure to remove Imran Khan
- Imran Khan and the 'successful' outcome of U.S. 'interference' in Pakistan: Fascism under a totalitarian military dictatorship
© NASA/JSC
Promises us, inflating the veins,
Destroying all borders,
Unprecedented changes,
Unprecedented riots..."[1]
Alexander Blok "Retribution", 1911.
I begin this article with the words of my best-loved Russian poet Alexander Blok, who is comparable in his gift of clairvoyance to the greatest Russian genius Fyodor Dostoevsky. I have long been watching the world inexorably moving towards a wave of military conflicts threatening to develop into a third world thermonuclear war that can in all likelihood destroy human civilization. This prognosis was one of the main reasons why I published a series of articles about why it is necessary to restore the credibility of nuclear deterrence, which kept the world safe for more than fifty years.
A massive fire broke out at Feather Crest Farms in Bryan, Texas at about 5pm Monday
A massive fire is tearing through a chicken farm in Texas sending a huge plume of smoke into the sky.
The blaze has since been contained between two buildings and tanks but officials have warned that it could take days to put the fire out.
It is unclear how the fire started and how many chickens were injured, but no injuries have been reported as the farm is located in a rural area with few homes nearby.
Comment: By this point, it's clear that there is a concerted attack on supply chains with a focus on food plants and processors, as well as energy suppliers and infrastructure; and it's global in scope.
Just last week: Explosion & major fires at food plant in Italy, shopping centre in Serbia, gas supplier in Mongolia, factory in Kazakhstan
See also: Predatory Sparrow: The terrorist attacks of an Israel-linked hacker group
© weaponsnews.com
The attack on US forces in Syria and Jordan is getting a lot of attention. Biden has vowed a response which many assume means war with the Iran.
We will hold all those responsible to account at a time and in a manner our choosing. Genocide Joe
That is, US response is likely to be asymmetric to avoid a larger war - at this time anyway.
Moon of Alabama notes:
At least 6 U.S. Air Force KC-135 Aerial-Refueling Tankers, most from March Air Reserve Base in Southern California, are heading Northeast across the United States and preparing to Transit the Atlantic towards the U.K. and Europe.He thinks that these tankers are intended for the Middle East to protect the US airbases by keeping fighter jets in the air!
Ummm ...this would require air assets to be airborne 24/ 7.
Each tanker can refuel only a few jets at a time and there a lot more airbases in the Middle East than these six tankers! In addition, tankers are big, slow, and vulnerable - rather easy targets — should push come to strike.
© 21stcenturywire.com
© ANJALI NAIR; GETTY IMAGES; PREDATARORY SPARROW VIA TELEGRAM
About eight minutes after 3 am on June 27, 2022, inside the Khouzestan steel mill near Iran's western coastline on the Persian Gulf, a massive lid lowered onto a vat of glowing, molten metal. Based on footage from a surveillance camera inside the plant, the giant vessel was several times taller than the two workers in gray uniforms and hardhats standing nearby, likely large enough to carry well over a hundred tons of liquid steel heated to several thousand degrees Fahrenheit.
In the video, the two workers walk out of frame. The clip jump-cuts forward 10 minutes. Then suddenly, the giant ladle is moving, swinging steadily toward the camera. A fraction of a second later, burning embers fly in all directions, fire and smoke fill the factory, and incandescent, liquid steel can be seen pouring freely out of the bottom of the vat onto the plant floor.
Comment: Notably, this escalation is also in line with the WEF's threat of a looming 'cyber pandemic', and it comes amidst an increasing number of serious cyberattacks:
- Norway's government ministries hit by 'extremely serious' cyber attack
- 'Malfunction' temporarily shuts down phone lines of Israel's emergency services
Best of the Web: Israel at the ICJ: Has International Law survived, or has the Western political class killed it?
© Remko de Waal / ANP / AFPICJ President Joan Donoghue speaks at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) prior to the verdict announcement in the genocide case against Israel, brought by South Africa.
© International Criminal Court
Now the ICJ did not repeat that an occupying power has no right of self-defence. It did not need to. It simply ignored Israel's specious assertion.
© Raad Adayleh / APU.S. and Jordanian forces respond to scenarios in a joint drill on Thursday, April 26, 2018, in a training area near the town of Zarqa.
A one-way attack drone crashed into the Jordanian base Saturday night, killing the three U.S. service members and injuring 25 more, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement. One of the Iran-backed militant groups operating in Syria and Iraq carried out the attack, but the facts of the incident were still being assessed, the White House also said.
"Today, America's heart is heavy," President Joe Biden said in the statement.
Comment: Was it Tower 22 in Jordan, or was it the illegal At-Tanf outpost over the border in Syria?
Either way, it's another warning to the US that, with respect to its military footprint all over the Middle East, it must "sh*t or get off the pot."
The warhawks in Washington are of course calling for the US to "hit Iran hard."
But that would trigger Armageddon.
Is that what they want?
© Tatyana Makeyeva/AFPPeople enjoy a chain swing ride during the Christmas and New Year market in front of St. Basils cathedral on Red Square in Moscow, on Dec. 30.
Between February 2022 and February 2023, Western countries imposed on Russia the most extensive sanctions regime seen since World War II. In all, several thousand sanctions on Russian individuals, businesses, and government institutions caused only a mild recession in 2022 which the Russians quickly turned around. How did they do it? Very simply. The Russians have a lot of gold, grain, oil, and friends, all of which they used effectively to defeat the sanctions. Any realistic war game could have easily predicted all of this.
Comment: It's telling that the ICJ has issued an order against Russia, but it has yet to do so against Israel over its genocide in Gaza.
Insight from journalist Kit Klarenberg: