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Footprints

Western mercenaries used to fill Kiev's expertise gaps, ex-CIA man tells RT


RT
Fri, 19 Jan 2024 13:52 UTC
johnson
© RTFormer CIA analyst Larry Johnson
French fighters killed in Ukraine could have been clandestine weapons specialists, Larry Johnson has said...

Ukraine is likely experiencing a shortage of soldiers capable of operating complex Western weapons systems, former CIA analyst Larry Johnson has told RT. A Russian report this week about a strike on "French mercenaries" in Kharkov may be a warning to would-be clandestine arms technicians that Paris plans to supply, he believes.

In response to the Russian Defense Ministry's statement, France has denied having mercenaries in Ukraine or any other part of the world. Moscow claimed that approximately 60 foreign fighters, mostly French, were killed in the long-range attack. Meanwhile, President Emmanuel Macron has announced plans to supply additional air-launched SCALP cruise missiles to assist Kiev in its fight.
"I strongly suspect that many of those French 'mercenaries' - and I wouldn't be surprised to see Brits and Americans scattered in there as well - are being brought in to help operate systems that they've been trained on previously in prior military careers."
He named the US-made long-range Patriot anti-aircraft missile and the Storm Shadow, the British counterpart to SCALP, as examples of donated arms that may require competent foreign staff to deploy.

Comment: Kiev is in critical manpower crisis as Zelensky pressures anyone semi-upright to take up arms and pretend they are soldiers...women, elderly, the infirm. French mercenaries? In a minute.

The following information is in regard to French PMCs (Private Military Company):
Site: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation

With the ongoing developments in Ukraine, French PMCs offer their services to train Ukrainian forces in Eastern European countries. Since June 2022, they have been bringing onboard volunteers to participate in hostilities on Kiev's side. Former members of the armed forces of EU countries and nationals of African countries are their first choice. French nationals taking part in the hostilities in Ukraine often get there via foreign PMCs or the Ukrainian International Legion.

Under French law, most of them do not fall under the Criminal Code article on mercenarism, because their remuneration for taking part in combat operations does not exceed the salary paid under a corresponding position in the French armed forces. Ukrainians that go to Ukraine from France in order to participate in the conflict, including the ones who are "on leave" from the French Foreign Legion are not qualified as mercenaries even if they hold French citizenship, since the people who are originally from a country participating in an armed conflict cannot be considered as such.

Military support functions are often delegated to "expendable" PMCs which recruit low-level personnel on the ground. A similar arrangement is used in Ukraine as well. Former French Foreign Legion members hailing from the countries in question often act as instructors. Ample supply of personnel from the ranks of former legionnaires makes it simple to create and use expendable PMCs for missions where use of force and/or participation in hostilities is likely.

About 100 French PMCs operate internationally. They are usually headed by former gendarmerie officers, and sometimes by retired security service officers. Mostly, these firms are mission-specific outfits and are put together for limited periods (for example, Lyon-based Byblos provided evacuation of French citizens from combat zones early on during the special military operation in Ukraine).

— -

The most prominent French PMCs are as follows:

Aeneas Groupe, founded in 2004, provides consulting, security, and defence services, and trains personnel in France and abroad.

Anticip performs a variety of missions in war zones, such as crisis management, physical protection, armed escort, and site protection. It has worked in Iraq and Afghanistan and has subsidiaries in Nigeria and the UAE.

Chiron participates in the training of Ukrainian special forces. The instructors are former military members and French special service employees.

Défense Conseil International (DCI) is one of the leading companies of that kind and is unofficially used by the French Defence Ministry to perform a wide range of missions in the interests of friendly countries where, for some reasons, the use the French Armed Forces is impractical. It operates through 23 training centres in France and branches in 50 countries, such as Brunei, India, Kuwait, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Qatar, and the UAE, to name a few. It provides combat training for ground, air and naval forces, special forces, advanced training in cybersecurity and radio electronic warfare, as well as interaction between different branches of the military. DCI operates through six subsidiary PMCs, the most famous of which - La Cofras - was hired by international organisations for demining in the Gulf area, Angola and Mozambique.

Gallice Défense is a group based in France, Europe and Africa that was founded in 2007. Its employees work under short-term contracts in the Sahel, LAC, Europe, Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

Geos was founded in 1998 by Stephane Gerardin, a former employee of the Main Directorate of Foreign Security (foreign intelligence), to address specific tasks abroad. It is staffed mostly by former employees of special services, the Defence Ministry and the Interior Ministry. It specialises in providing government customers with consulting services, economic intelligence, risk assessment-based analytical materials for major projects in various regions of the world, but also offers physical security and protection services. Operating in 80-plus countries, Geos has offices in Algeria, Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Germany, Libya, Mexico, Nigeria, Panama, Saudi Arabia, the UK, Ukraine and Venezuela,. The company is actively involved in training AFU personnel. Since June 2022, it has been recruiting volunteers to participate in combat operations on Kiev's side. In total, at least 2,000 people have been recruited. The European Peace Foundation provides the funding. Candidates are trained in Eastern Europe.

Groupe Corpguard was founded in 2006. In 2016, it concluded a contract with the Government of Côte d'Ivoire as part of the operation to maintain peace and stability in the country.

Salamandre was founded in 1996. It brings together intelligence, counterintelligence and nuclear specialists. It has close ties with the French Directorate General for External Security and often acts on its behalf.

KBS Sécurité was founded in Lyon in 2007 as a company specialising in arms and military equipment sales. Currently, it offers security services and operates in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.
See also:

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Wolf

Venezuela's Maduro: Argentine leader follows 'Nazi ideology'


RT
Fri, 19 Jan 2024 18:54 UTC
maduro milei venezuela argentina president
© XArgentina's president-elect Javier Milei and Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro.
Venezuela's head of state claims Javier Milei is working on behalf of "North American imperialism"

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has accused his Argentine counterpart of embracing "Nazi ideology," after Javier Milei launched a broadside against socialism at this week's World Economic Forum in Switzerland.

Maduro described Milei's speech as a "blunder" and "a shameful expression of his Nazi ideology, of his McCarthyite ideology," referring to the Cold War-era anti-communist US lawmaker Joseph McCarthy.

"You are wrong, Milei. They put you in Argentina to destroy the rule of law, to destroy all social and labor rights. To destroy the national economy and to colonize Argentina and deliver it on its knees to North American imperialism," he said.

Comment: Milei is a Deep State Trojan horse, who has already scuppered Argentina's entry into BRICS, which could have been a financial life-line for that beleaguered country . What other havoc will he wreak on Argentina?

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Document

West offering Ukraine 'half-baked' defense promises - Lavrov


RT
Thu, 18 Jan 2024 16:55 UTC
zelensky sunak
© Getty Images / UKRAINIAN PRESIDENCY / HANDOUT; AnadoluBritish Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky
Western promises to Ukraine are "half-baked" and do not actually include any legal obligations to Kiev, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said during a press conference on Thursday. He was speaking several days after Ukraine signed a bilateral security cooperation agreement with the UK.

Addressing an event dedicated to the results of Russian diplomacy in 2023, Lavrov claimed that, despite signing defense agreements with Kiev, Western countries do not truly wish to see Ukraine become a full-fledged member of NATO or the European Union.

The minister pointed to the numerous clashes between Western countries in regard to Kiev's membership in the two blocs, noting that many member states of these organizations believe its potential accession to be a "pointless, reckless and risky step for European security."
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Arrow Up

Clown Prince Zelensky gives China the finger

Declan Hayes
Strategic Culture Foundation
Sun, 21 Jan 2024 16:37 UTC
Clown Zelensky
© Strategic Culture Foundation
Before getting on to how Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky gave the finger to China at Davos, to put this Ukrainian clown's latest car crash in context, let me refer you to this joke at 2:50 in this video then POTUS Ronald Reagan told about the Soviet Union.

Reagan's joke goes as follows: Less than one family out of seven in the Soviet Union owns an automobile. Most of the automobiles are driven by the bureaucrats. The government furnishes them and drivers and so forth. So an order went out one day to the police that anyone caught speeding, anyone no matter who, gets a ticket. Well, Gorbachev came out of his country home, his dacha. He was late getting to the Kremlin. There was his limousine and driver waiting. He told the driver to get in the back seat; he'd drive it. Down the road he went and he passed two motorcycle cops. One took off after him and, pretty soon, he's back with his buddy and his buddy says "Well did you give him a ticket?" And he said "Noo". "Well", his buddy said, "why not"? "Oh", he said, "too important". "Well" his buddy said, "we are told to give anybody a ticket, no matter who it is". "Oh, no no" he said, "this one was different, I couldn't...". "Well", his buddy said, "who was it"? He said "I couldn't recognise him, but his driver was Gorbachev".

As jokes go, it is funny enough and it lands the appropriate ideological punch, which Reagan delivers well. The importance to us of this joke and of Reagan is that Reagan had been a successful communicator and Hollywood actor, once starring in Bedtime for Bonzo opposite an actual monkey. Further, unlike the Ukrainian dictator, Reagan was a democrat of sorts, who insisted that his opponents in the New Hampshire primary be allowed argue their corner. Zelensky, as we know, simply offs them.

So, on the one hand, we have Reagan the great communicator and successful actor and, on the other, we have the dregs of Kiev, who could not even dress or act appropriately when meeting the Pope, to whom we shall shortly return in the context of China.

But, to be fair to Zelensky, he is an even-handed ignoramus. Having been refused a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang at the World Economic Forum gathering in Davos, Zelensky suggested Li was not a high enough official to be worth meeting as the Chinese Premier, according to this idiot, does not call the shots in China.
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Eye 2

US "Pedophile brotherhood": Businessmen and officials from Joe Biden's inner circle and members of Senate are involved in child sexual abuse


Foundation to Battle Injustice
Sat, 20 Jan 2024 09:15 UTC
The Foundation to Battle Injustice has obtained previously unpublished evidence of child abuse practices by high-ranking U.S. officials and businessmen. The Foundation to Battle Injustice examined methods of protecting high-ranking pedophiles from media attention and prosecution. Human rights activists assessed the extent of official legalization of pedophilia in the U.S. and found out what facts of the scandalous Jeffrey Epstein case are still classified. The Foundation also obtained the names and positions of President Biden's administration officials, businessmen and lawmakers, possibly involved in lewd acts of a sexual nature against minors, and revealed details about American elite pedophile organizations.

pedophile brotherhood 1
The first references to U.S. high-profile politicians, popular actors, directors and successful businessmen being linked to pedophilia and the sexual exploitation of minors began to emerge long before the scandal involving Jeffrey Epstein, a U.S. financier accused of trading sexual favors for U.S. officials and public figures. The investigation is a result of a long and complex work with several sources, including an investigative journalist for a major U.S. news outlet, a former Joe Biden's 2020 presidential campaign staff member, and a former employee of Protect Us Kids Foundation, a U.S. human rights organization. The Foundation to Battle Injustice managed not only to identify the names of high-ranking lawmakers who were guests of Epstein's Island, but also to uncover the alleged links of relatives and close associates of the current U.S. president with pedophile organizations. The Foundation identified when and under whose leadership the U.S. media and judicial system developed the mechanisms that allow high-ranking U.S. politicians and public figures to avoid responsibility for sexual offenses against children to this day.

Birth and development of the "pedophile brotherhood" in the USA

pedophile brotherhood 2
After reviewing information from public records and anonymous sources in the U.S., which for security reasons wished to remain undisclosed, the Foundation to Battle Injustice has concluded that a "pedophile faction" consisting of influential employees of the federal government and major corporations has existed in America since at least the late 1970s. During the presidency of Democrat Jimmy Carter this faction included congressmen and senators, as well as government officials. At the same time, an elite "pedophile lobby" was created. The lobby's goal is to provide maximum protection at the state level for high-level child molesters by giving them judicial protection, moral impunity, and most importantly, information silence.
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Vader

US is lying to the world about its involvement in Yemen says analyst Scott Ritter

Scott Ritter
RT
Sat, 20 Jan 2024 21:13 UTC
Yemen airstrikes RAF Typhoon
© AFP / British Ministry of DefenceA RAF Typhoon aircraft taking off RAF Akrotiri to join the US-led coalition to conduct air strikes against military targets in Yemen.
While Washington maintains that the strikes on Houthi installations are defensive and fully legal, neither is the case

"The strikes in Yemen were necessary, proportionate, and consistent with international law." With this statement, the United States delegate to the United Nations defended the joint US-UK military strikes against targets affiliated with the Houthi militia undertaken on the night of January 12, 2024.

The irony of this statement is that it was made before a body, the United Nations Security Council, which had not authorized any such action, thereby eliminating any claim to legitimacy that could possibly be made by the US.

The Charter of the UN specifies two conditions under international law in which military force can be used. One is in the conduct of legitimate self-defense as articulated in Article 51 of the Charter. The other is in accordance with the authority granted by the UN Security Council through a resolution passed under Chapter VII of the Charter.

Comment: Yemen's Houthis fought Saudi Arabia (which had the full backing of the US) to a standstill. Threats from a tottering empire don't seem to be fazing them much.

Rumors, but still not impossible. Iran would have to cooperate to close the Gulf. The UAE would have something to say about that:



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Heart - Black

'Building trust'? The World Economic Forum is the West's perfect 'white-collar euthanasia agent'

Peter Koenig
Global Research
Thu, 18 Jan 2024 00:00 UTC
WEF image
The World Economic Forum's (WEF) motto for Davos24 (ongoing) is "Rebuilding Trust". This is worse than a joke because what the WEF propagates openly - a Polygon Cyberattack, a not yet identified virus "X", already somewhere out there (say Bill Gates and WHO's Tedros), and more — as well as the untold secret behind closed-door topics, is anything but "Building Trust". See this.

See this brief fictitious address to Klaus Schwab by an apparent official WEF invitee, captured by a 19-second video-clip that flashed around the world today, 17 January 2024, in warp speed. It is fake, a satire, produced by Artificial Intelligence (AI).


Yet, it is telling in more ways than one. It reflects the sentiment of just about the entire non-elite world, some 8 billion people. And second, the fact that it was produced by high-quality AI - the very AI pushed to the crushing end by the WEF and its handlers — also shows that AI can be neck-breaking, even, or especially, for those who propagate AI and absolute digitization, including by transforming humans to "humanoids".

Inventions no matter how brilliant, used for diabolical purposes, tend to backfire on those who misuse them. WEF beware!

Comment: Can you feel the blood rush at Davos? Hell is rising. The signs are everywhere.

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Star of David

NATO's mass murdering Arab children is 'a philosophical not a moral question'

Declan Hayes
Strategic Culture Foundation
Mon, 15 Jan 2024 00:00 UTC
ruins gaza
© social mediaGaza: Half year later
Though South Africa is to be congratulated for giving this philosophical debate over Israel's war crimes the proper international arena it deserves, the time for talk is over...

"If Israel were attacking indiscriminately or targeting civilians — it's not — that would indeed constitute a war crime". So runs the lead story in Newsweek's 12th January 2024 edition, which dismisses criticisms of the turkey shoot the Israeli Defence Forces, the world's most moral serial killers, are currently conducting in Gaza. It tells us:
"Israel is focused on conduct — each individual strike and its compliance with the requirements of international law — while Washington is focused on results, which means the state of Gaza overall as a result of strikes. It is a philosophical disagreement that helps explain the nature of Israel's attacks and the ferocity of the public debate."
What this philosophical disagreement means is the United States would have gone about things differently and, if we regard Gaza as a small lake, then the Yanks would have 'done an Iraq' and bombed, mined and poisoned the entire lake on day one. In contrast, the Israelis are being more methodical, starting on the northern shores of that lake and murdering, mining and pillaging their way southwards, a piece at a time to ensure nothing and no one, fish or foul, young or old, male or female, escapes their wrath.
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Dominoes

Erdogan's double game: Praising Palestine, aiding Israel

Mohamad Hasan Sweidan
The Cradle.co
Thu, 18 Jan 2024 00:00 UTC
Neti and Erdo
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahua and Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
While the Turkish president loudly praises the Palestinian resistance, he is quietly and ferociously pursuing pro-Israel economic and energy policies...

Once idolized for schooling then-Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres on war crimes before famously storming off at the 2009 Davos Summit, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has once again struck out by ordering officials to boycott this year's World Economic Forum (WEF) over Israel's genocidal war in Gaza.

Anyone who has paid attention to Erdogan's statements since the onset of the war could be forgiven for thinking that Turkiye is at the forefront of nations opposing Israel and championing the Palestinian cause. Few around the world are as willing to adopt as sharp a rhetoric against Tel Aviv's policies as the populist Turkish head of state is.

Comment: Leadership anomaly or purposeful positioning? Erdogan only takes sides as it benefits Turkey.

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Pistol

Scott Ritter: Russia won't hesitate to eliminate Western troops in Ukraine

Scott Ritter
Sputnik
Thu, 18 Jan 2024 00:00 UTC
big gunblast
© Pavel Lisitsyn/Sputnik/Go to the mediabank
In the aftermath of the failed Ukrainian counteroffensive, foreign mercenaries have been recruited to replenish the lost manpower in the Ukrainian military ranks.

A strike on a building in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkov on Tuesday resulted in 60 mercenaries killed — mostly of French nationality.

The presence of armed Frenchmen in Ukraine's second-largest city has prompted speculation about who they are working for, Scott Ritter, former US Marine Corps intelligence officer and UN weapons inspector, told Sputnik. He said it potentially exposes covert French direct involvement in NATO's proxy war against Russia.

"If you are fighting for the Ukrainian side, whatever your nationality is, you are now a legitimate target," Ritter noted.

Ritter focused on two key aspects of the attack: He said it showed Russian military planners no longer discriminate between foreign mercenaries and Ukrainian soldiers.
"Russia has not shown any hesitancy to eliminate foreign mercenaries fighting on behalf of the Ukrainian military."
It also raises the intriguing possibility that French troops could be directly involved in the Ukrainian conflict against Russia.
"At least some of these French-speaking individuals weren't mercenaries, but actually French serving military personnel, that is military personnel who worked for the French government, who were in Ukraine at the behest of their government. And now they're dead."
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