Granville Post editors note: We have been running materials from our colleague F.W. ENGDAHL's book Manifest Destiny-Democracy as Cognitive Dissonance for several weeks. On this occasion, the choice of the material is exercised by Greg Maybury, a fellow contributing editor from Australia, who also publishes the invaluable site poxamerikana.com. We'll let Greg introduce the selection that follows. - PG

THE RAPE OF RUSSIA: The CIA's Yeltsin Coup d'État.

EXTRACT FROM - MANIFEST DESTINY: DEMOCRACY AS COGNITIVE DISSONANCE, by F William Engdahl © F. William Engdahl.

All rights reserved. Republished with permission from the author. [N.B.: All quotations/references/sources are cited in the text].

As noted in earlier postings, William Engdahl has given me the nod to post -at my discretion- excerpts from his new book, Manifest Destiny: Democracy as Cognitive Dissonance. Last week I published an extract from the introduction, wherein Mr Engdahl lays out his stall. His "stall" in this case is the degree to which the Home of the Brave and Land of the Free has interfered in the political and economic affairs of other countries over the decades. I'll be publishing two more extracts in the coming weeks.

This week's extract is from Chapter Three: The Rape of Russia: The CIA's Yeltsin Coup d'État. It provides a taster of the author's own detailed and insightful take on the West's historically unprecedented pillaging, raping, and plundering of the Russian Federation - the sheer scale of which I and others have noted before brought said Federation to the brink of economic collapse and disintegration as a political entity. The brazen degree in which the U.S. not only interfered in - but shaped and manipulated to its own ends -the Russian political landscape through the 90s, is laid bare by Engdahl. It perfectly case-studies the very definition of what we might think of as anarcho-capitalism, albeit a unique version thereof.

Ably 'accompliced' by their hand-picked, vodka-marinated marionette president Boris Yeltsin, his 'Bratva' (mafia) network and assorted Soviet-era (communist) apparatchiks cum Russian (capitalist) oligarchs in the making, it represented nothing less than a concerted, deliberate, and cold blooded attempt by the political and economic forces of the West to firstly bilk 'n bleed Russia, [then] bankrupt it, and finally to 'Balkanise' it.

The western propaganda machine is endlessly impressive. People are so pervasively brainwashed by mass media psyops that they now find it easier to believe that Bashar al-Assad and Vladimir Putin are deliberately killing civilians with poisonous gas for no reason whatsoever than to believe that the same empire which deceived us into Iraq is deceiving us into Iraq's next-door neighbor Syria.

There are early reports of another mass casualty chemical weapons attack in Syria, as usual in a region crawling with known terrorist forces, and as usual just as those terrorists are suffering critical defeats. As usual, the attack is placed in a location replete with children and cameras. As usual, all the expected high-profile pro-regime change propagandists are all over it, from the White Helmets to Charles Lister to Eliot Higgins to Julian Röpcke.

Details are sketchy and unconfirmed, but the early narrative being promulgated is clear.

"If 30+ died in the CW attack in Douma, then it would be the most fatalities in a chemical attack in Syria since Khan Sheikhoun just over a year ago," said the Atlantic Council's Eliot Higgins of the attack. "This could be another major moment in the conflict, something depressingly dependent on whether or not Fox and Friends covers it."

The service is conducted by Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev with his wife Svetlana Medvedev have arrived to the Easter Service in Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral.

The service, conducted by Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, is also attended by Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin and other prominent political and public figures.

The Russian Embassy in London has requested a meeting with UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, saying that discussing the Skripal case and other issues regarding Russia-UK relations is long overdue.

With the saga of the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter unfolding and London not backing down on claims of Moscow's guilt, the embassy bemoaned the level of communication with the UK Foreign Office. Calling it "utterly unsatisfactory," the diplomatic mission called for the situation to be reversed.

On September 1, 1939, German radio announced the outbreak of the Second World War by reporting Adolf Hitler's speech to the Reichstag, in which the dictator said, "This night for the first time Polish regular soldiers fired on our own territory. We have been returning the fire since 5:45 A.M. Henceforth, bomb will be met with bomb."

Under the direction of Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels, the invasion of Poland was portrayed as an act of self-defence.

A similar resort to lying and demonization has been carried out by the British, American and several European governments around the March 4 poisoning in Salisbury, England of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia.

It is now beyond any reasonable doubt that the claims of the Conservative government of Theresa May charging Russia with responsibility for the poisoning of the Skripals are fabrications.

On Tuesday, Gary Aitkenhead, chief executive of the UK's chemical weapons facility, the Porton Down Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, told Sky News that scientists had "not verified the precise source" of the material used in the attack in Salisbury on March 4. Aitkenhead's statement came on the eve of the convening at Moscow's request of the Organisation for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) at The Hague, which would have exposed the UK government's case. But this resort to damage control only underscores the monstrous hoax perpetrated by the British and American governments and their European allies.

Former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has been convicted on corruption charges and sentenced to nine-and-a-half years in prison. Lula, widely considered one of Brazil's most popular political figures, is the front-runner in the 2018 elections. We look at how this development could impact his presidential bid, and we speak with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Glenn Greenwald, co-founder of The Intercept.

South Carolina Republican Trey Gowdy is retiring from Congress an unhappy man. He's even counting the number of trips to the airport he has left until he can leave DC for good.

"I don't have a lot to show for the last seven years," he said, commenting he is not a "legislative branch guy."

"I'm an executive branch guy," he added.

Gowdy lamented the "ineffectiveness" of his tenure and Congress as a whole.

Technology titans Google, Thiel feature in Saudi Prince's visit

Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman wrapped up a whirlwind tour of technology titans on Friday, part of a three-week US visit focused on economic opportunities to diversify the oil-rich nation.

The Saudi delegation visited several Silicon Valley corporate campuses, including Apple and Facebook. But two industry players stood out on the schedule: Alphabet's Google and Peter Thiel, the billionaire venture capitalist who advises President Donald Trump.

In addition to Facebook, where Mr Thiel sits on the board, the Saudi delegation visited data-analysis startup Palantir Technologies and a trio of investment firms created by Mr Thiel: Clarium Capital, Valar Ventures and Founders Fund. Mr Thiel is chairman and co-founder of Palantir.

Pressure has been mounting on French President Emmanuel Macron to tone down support for Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, days before the kingdom's Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman (MBS) makes his way to France.

A lawmaker in Macron's party officially called for a parliamentary investigation into the legality of France's weapons sales to the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE intervened in a civil war in Yemen in 2015 against the Houthis to restore the government of the internationally recognised president, Abd Rabbuh Hadi, and have been at the helm of a coalition fighting the group.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals announced a billboard campaign Friday calling for Donald Trump Jr., the president's son, to be deported from the U.S. for his interest in hunting.

PETA, known for flashy and inventive public relations stunts, was hoping to glom on to the attention being paid to the immigration debate with its attack. The organization said it would run the billboards in the Texas towns of El Paso and Laredo.

PETA signaled solidarity with illegal immigrants surging into the U.S., saying they are asylum-seekers and should be more welcome than the president's own children.