Puppet Masters
That is inevitable in the context of a new virus about which much is still not known. And it is all the more so given that our main response to the pandemic - vaccination - while being a relatively effective tool against the worst disease outcomes is nonetheless an exceedingly blunt one. Vaccines are the epitome of the one-size-fits-all approach of modern medicine.
Into the void between our scientific knowledge and our fear of mortality has rushed politics. It is a refusal to admit that "the science" is necessarily compromised by political and commercial considerations that has led to an increasingly polarised - and unreasonable - confrontation between what have become two sides of the Covid divide. Doubt and curiosity have been squeezed out by the bogus certainties of each faction.
This phrase comes from Slate.com columnist Jeremy Stahl, for whom the alternative theories of 9-11 are "arguments that have been debunked a thousand times." This, of course, is nonsense. The debate rages to this day. But as with the issue of vaccination against coronavirus, the mainstream media will not brook the least opposition. Stahl puts great stock, for example, in the "three-year-long, $16 million investigation into the collapse of the World Trade Center for the National Institute of Standards and Technology," as if these numbers and a solemn-sounding agency title could not possibly be challenged. It doesn't seem to occur to him that the U.S. Government is itself the accused party here, and in similar circumstances has been caught fudging facts. The NIST report has actually taken heavy criticism from Architects and Engineers for 9-11 Truth, the most important group pushing alternative theories of the attack.
Why do journalists favor the government version so fiercely? The sheer vitriol of their attacks on Truthers reflects deep personal anger; clearly no Deep State maven stands over them dictating their articles. In theory, the more onerous discoveries of 9-11 investigators — the presence of explosive material in the dust that spread through Manhattan, the dubious cell-phone calls made from the hijacked aircraft, the impossibly high speeds of low-altitude flight by three of the airplanes — should be red meat to reporters. But all of it is ignored, if not ridiculed. What has happened to this "fifth column" of democracy?
Afrasiabi told RT that according to the US's own complaint, Washington was aware of his "completely legitimate" activity as a consultant to Iran's UN mission for over a decade.
The political scientist, who has penned multiple books and numerous articles for such leading media outlets like The New York Times and Huffington Post, was targeted by US federal prosecutors back in January.
Afrasiabi was briefly arrested in January and accused of violating the notorious Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). Prosecutors alleged that Afrasiabi received some $260,000 from the Iranian government through its UN mission and purveyed "propaganda" on its behalf. The political scientist also turned out to be the subject of a massive wiretapping campaign, with a US attorney presenting the court with a haul of 33,000 recordings of Afrasiabi's private phone calls.

US Marine provides security during evacuation of Hamid Karzai Intl. Airport in Kabul.
On Sunday, White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain was forced to acknowledge that around 100 Americans still remained in the turbulent country a week after the Biden administration's August 31 deadline to get everybody out expired.
Former special forces soldier-turned-journalist Michael Yon, who was among the volunteers helping to airlift Americans out of Afghanistan, has shared with RT some disturbing details of how holders of US passports were left behind by their own military.
On August 30, Taliban members delivered a mother with three children as well as 45 other American citizens to the gates of Kabul airport. Three civilian jets, which had been paid for by volunteers, were waiting for them at the airfield.
Comment: This incident was not the only frustrating complication due to half-baked US exit plans.
See also: Americans in 'hostage situation' with Taliban, stuck on planes for days
Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, head of the Taliban's political office and other officials met Martin Griffiths as Afghanistan faces a potentially catastrophic humanitarian crisis caused by severe drought and a collapsing economy. Shaheen said on Twitter:
"The UN delegation promised continuation of humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people, saying he would call for further assistance to Afghanistan during the coming meeting of donor countries."Shaheen said the Taliban assured the UN delegation of "cooperation and provision of needed facilities".
The United Nations is expected to convene an international aid conference in Geneva on Sep 13 to help avert what UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called a "looming humanitarian catastrophe".
"The news coming from Panjshir is truly worrying," Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh told reporters.
"The assault is strongly condemned."
Iran, the region's dominant Muslim Shia power, had until now refrained from criticizing the Taliban since the Sunni group seized Kabul on August 15.
The Taliban on Monday claimed victory in the mountainous Panjshir area, with a spokesman declaring "our country is completely taken out of the quagmire of war," three weeks after the extremist group captured the capital.
But the National Resistance Front (NRF) - made up of anti-Taliban militia and former Afghan security forces - said its fighters were still present in "strategic positions" across the valley, and that they were continuing the struggle.
Comment: Meanwhile in Kabul, there are signs of infighting. Taliban co-founder Baradar was reportedly injured in a gunfight with Haqqani Network fighters.
On Monday, angry Brits demanded Zahwai, the British minister responsible for the roll-out of Covid-19 vaccines, be sacked over the about-face on vaccine passports. "No one has been given or will be required to have a vaccine passport," he tweeted in January.
Despite previously ruling the passports out, however, on Sunday, Zahawi announced that they will be used in England, in certain circumstances, from the end of the month.
The vaccines minister said the end of September would be the right time to start using the passports as everyone over the age of 18 will have been offered two shots by then. The document will purportedly only be needed at large gatherings, like nightclubs and other large indoor venues.

Relatives of suspected Covid-19 patients sit by their bedside while waiting in a car park turned into a Covid ward outside a hospital in Binan town, Laguna province south of Manila on Monday, with record infections fuelled by the hyper-contagious Delta variant.
The moves come despite the Southeast Asian country reporting record infection numbers as it battles the Delta variant.
The government believed localised Covid-19 restrictions would be more effective in controlling outbreaks without constraining mobility and business activity too much, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque told a briefing.
Comment: World-wide, common sense is beginning to re-assert itself. It can't come soon enough.
- Humanity: Sweden refuses to impose new lockdown measures, 'people have suffered enough'
- Austria, Norway, Denmark, the Czech Republic announce plans to reopen at least parts of their economy - Sweden remains open
- Why Belarus hasn't faced massive spike in deaths despite lack of coronavirus lockdowns
- UK Covid rebellion: Lockdown rules REJECTED by Middlesbrough Mayor saying 'we will defy government'
- Liverpool's gyms win battle to reopen because government concedes lockdown measures were contradictory
- Texas Gov. Abbott threatens fines again against local officials and businesses that enforce mask mandates, vaccine requirements
- Common sense: Florida gov. DeSantis eliminates remaining local emergency COVID-19 restrictions
- Lockdowns are 'the single biggest public health mistake in history', says top scientist
Kinzinger said, "The question is, what is our party going to be? Are we going to be the party of opportunity and hope, or the party of anger, division, and truth has no place in it?"
Comment: With friends like this, who needs enemies? More on those "conspiracy theories":
- Media hushes up US court report suggesting FBI involvement in Capitol riot, as White House turns anti-terrorism efforts on US people
- FBI monitoring of social media posts pre-Jan 6 raises even more questions of what it REALLY knew prior to Capitol Hill riot
- Capitol Police ordered to use light touch in riot response, given inadequate equipment, failed to follow up on intel
- DC Mayor Muriel Bowser refused extra assistance for DC police day before capitol riot
- Why was Capitol police chief's request for National Guard denied ahead of riot? Republicans ask Nancy Pelosi
- WaPo using debunked reporting to issue false pro-Pelosi 'fact-check' on Capitol riots actions
- Murder on Capitol Hill: Analysis of Ashli Babbit Shooting Video Disturbingly Suggests Coordinated Action
- Fourth police officer who responded to Capitol riot dies by suicide
- Capitol police chief and her Democratic bosses are lying to you all to hold our capital hostage
- Media outrage over Capitol riot isn't about defending democracy, it's about wielding power

Incredible transformation: Yulia Skripal (left) following the alleged poisoning with the deadliest known nerve agent Novichok. Yulia and her father Sergei Skripal (right) before the alleged nerve agent poisoning.
The blood samples taken from the Skripals could have been tampered with so that they test positive for Novichok, newly disclosed information obtained from the UK Ministry of Defense reveals. Furthermore, documents show that Russia was not the only country in the world that could be linked to the nerve agent Novichok.
The US had covered up its own Novichok program masked as research on fourth generation nerve agents (FGAs) and muzzled the Organisation for the prohibition of chemical weapons (OPCW) a decade before the Skripals attack.












Comment: What is obvious cannot be said. No inconvenient truths allowed. Those who run these networks run the news. We know who they are and why they do it.