Puppet Masters
The officer aroused suspicion when he became "angry and defensive" after he was confronted by customs officers on his way through Paris' central Gare de Lyon train station the day before Christmas Eve. When his volatile cargo was discovered, he tried to escape into the holiday crowds and had to be captured and restrained by multiple agents.
He was held and interrogated for over 96 hours, then finally charged with transporting explosives, arms, and ammunition without authorization, misappropriating military goods or weapons, resisting arrest, and obstructing the duties of a customs officer.
On Wednesday 9th August 2006, Ezeiza airport police arrested an important Israeli diplomat carrying a considerable quantity of explosives. The Zionist representative was en route to Chile and was detained minutes before boarding a plane. Despite his protests, airport police arrested him and informed the Argentine interior ministry of the situation which ordered that the situation be contained.
Firstly, it should be noted that the airport police, all ex-aeronautical military police, were previously under the control of the Defence ministry and military command. Since the 'Four winds' (drugs) scandal however, control of this unit has passed to political functionaries of the Kirchner (Argentine President) government. For various reasons, the unit is experiencing serious problems, among which is the precarious nature of their job security caused by the many failures of their new bosses in the interior ministry of the Kirchner government and the many conflicts between the two.
According to various airport sources, including the members of the airport security unit, a verbal argument erupted between members of the unit and and members of the Kirchner government who wanted to free the Israeli diplomat because there was no precedent for this type of arrest, which included the implication that if anything were to happen as a result of the release of the bomb-laden Israeli diplomat, the blame would fall on the airport security unit.
Comment: Needless to say, all investigations into Israeli connections into the bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Argentina in 1992, and the bombing of the Jewish Cultural Center in Buenos Aires, two years later, went nowhere. Instead, absurdly, despite zero evidence, Iran/Hezbollah are still 'officially' blamed to this day.
Although nukes and Iraq have been the main focus of the Bush Administration's pressure campaign against Iran, US officials also seek to tar Iran as the world's leading sponsor of terrorism. And Team Bush's latest tactic is to play up a thirteen-year-old accusation that Iran was responsible for the notorious Buenos Aires bombing that destroyed the city's Jewish Community Center, known as AMIA, killing eighty-six and injuring 300, in 1994. Unnamed senior Administration officials told the Wall Street Journal January 15 that the bombing in Argentina "serves as a model for how Tehran has used its overseas embassies and relationship with foreign militant groups, in particular Hezbollah, to strike at its enemies."
This propaganda campaign depends heavily on a decision last November by the General Assembly of Interpol, which voted to put five former Iranian officials and a Hezbollah leader on the international police organization's "red list" for allegedly having planned the July 1994 bombing. But the Wall Street Journal reports that it was pressure from the Bush Administration, along with Israeli and Argentine diplomats, that secured the Interpol vote. In fact, the Bush Administration's manipulation of the Argentine bombing case is perfectly in line with its long practice of using distorting and manufactured evidence to build a case against its geopolitical enemies.
Comment: So, to recap: barely a year after the end of the USSR in 1991, and thus the end of the Cold War 'titanc geopolitical struggle between Western Capitalism and Eastern Communism', a terror attack blamed on 'Islamic Jihad Organization', a previously-unknown-organization-but-trust-us-it's-linked-to-Hezbollah-and-thus-Iran, blew up the Israeli embassy in Argentina, effectively heralding the new global paradigm of what a decade later became known as the 'Global War on Terror': rabid, atatvistic, jihadist Muslims the world over just 'randomly' blowing up civilians because such a terror strategy would result, eventually, in a global, pan-Muslim movement that is politically undefinable yet somehow religiously coherent (to Muslims only, of course).
The media back then misinformed the public about the nature of both the 1992 and the 1994 bombings in Buenos Aires, which were in fact most likely caused by explosives planted within each building, thus not 'truck-bombs', much less 'suicidal truck-bombs'. The motive ascribed to these bombings at the time was that Iran was upset at the stalling of negotiations between Argentina and Iran to assist with the development of a civilian nuclear program for Israel's Mid-East rival. Iran and 'the bomb', and its having uranium processing plants at all, of course later featured heavily in geopolitical intrigues, but it's interesting to see just old (and how much of a 'red line') this issue is for the US and Israel.
The above report superbly summarizes the farcical 'investigations' into these bombings up until the time of its publication, although its author apparently missed the bombshell 2006 report in Argentine media about an Israeli diplomat who was arrested while departing Argentina for Chile with a bag full of explosives. What happened next is that the Kirchners (husband and wife, Nestor and Cristina), as successive presidents of Argentina from 2007-2015, attempted to handle this hot potato by ultimately calling for a 'truth commission', an all-encompassing re-investigaton of the bombings, to be set up in conjuction with the Iranian government.
Cristina Kirchner's impetus for doing so became clear when she publicly named Guillermo Borger, the successor of AMIA, the Jewish community's organization in Buenos Aires, as being in contact with a "foreign espionage agency that knows of a new terror attack planned against Argentina." Between the lines, all understood this to be a reference to the Mossad, not Hezbollah or Iran. This obviously spooked the Israelis, and Borger responded to the accusation by saying that such a new, open investigation "will allow a third bombing in Argentina" - effectively threatening to 'bomb more Jews' in Argentina in order to pin the blame on Iran, again, and thus on Kirchner for 'making us do this'.
But before this truth commission could get off the ground, Kirchner found herself deposed, and briefly jailed, on 'corruption charges', all of which stemmed from alleged immunity she had granted Iranian officials as part of this deal. Thusly was the last serious attempt to really investigate the Buenos Aires bombings buried under the rubble. Now it's 2023, and Argentina has just elected someone who is so pro-Israel, he wants to convert to Judaism to demonstrate his fealty...

Chinese President Xi Jinpingand Russian President Vladimir Putin shake hands during their meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia.
A Scythian envoy arrived at the Persian camp carrying a bird; a mouse; a frog; and five arrows.
And then he left, in a rush.
Wily Darius interpreted the message as the Scythians ready to submit to the Persians.
Not so fast. It was up to Darius's senior foreign policy advisor, Gobryas, who also happened to be his brother-in-law, to break the code:
"Unless you Persians turn into birds and fly up in the air or into mice and burrow in the ground or into frogs and leap into lakes, you will never get home again but stay here in this country, only to be shot by Scythian arrows."
Well, apparently this tale from the depths of the pre-Silk Roads proves the strategic nightmare of waging war against elusive nomadic horse archers on the Eurasian steppes.
But that could also be a tale about waging war against invisible urban guerrillas in sandals and RPGs hidden in the rubble in Gaza; flash mini-squads emerging from tunnels to hit and burn Merkava tanks before disappearing underground.
History also tells us that Darius failed to bring the Scythian nomads to a head-to-head battle. So, in the autumn of 512 B.C., he pulled a pre-American gambit in Afghanistan 2,500 years before the fact: he declared victory and left.
Last week I had the dubious privilege of attending a presentation by the former US Ambassador to NATO, Kurt Volker. His talk was (mis)titled: "Russia's war on Ukraine: what have we learned?" which did elicit my interest. Volker is also the President of Alliance Strategic Advisors LLC and had a role as a Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations. Interestingly, earlier in his career Walker had also worked for Britain's Defence Minister, George Robinson.
But his presentation didn't really cover anything "they" learned from Russia's war on Ukraine. Instead, it was a rehash of all the talking points we have heard in the mainstream an infinite number of times: Ukraine must win, Russia bad, freedom, democracy, human rights and so forth. It sounded exactly like they did not learn anything at all.
Framing the thinking on Ukraine
Walker was probably the source of many of the western talking points on Ukraine and Russia. During the last six years of his involvement, he was "involved in trying to frame the thinking" about the project (words in quotations are Volker's own formulations). A few weeks ago, Joe Biden stated that Ukraine successfully recaptured half of the territory it had initially lost to Russia and Walker said that same thing last night, which made me think that he may have "framed" that talking point as well.
As the news from Ukraine hasn't been great lately, he warned against getting "bogged down in day-to-day news" about the war and that the most important thing is that Ukraine "survived as a sovereign, independent European democracy." Volker repeated that same phrase in italics several times during his talk.
He explained that Ukrainian forces are no longer trying to recapture lost territory, but are instead focusing on long-range precision strikes against Russian targets, since this is a capability in which Ukraine apparently has an advantage over Russia. Also, Russia is (still) running out of missiles and ammunition (it has been running out since at least March 2022) and is facing all sorts of challenges in Ukraine: the troops' morale is low, their leadership and command is poor, and their operations are shoddy. Meanwhile, the Ukrainians are defending their homes and their freedoms so they are better motivated than the Russians.
"Unfortunately for Ireland, Catholic Emancipation was carried in 1829. 'Respectable Catholics' were contented, and became West Britons from that day." — John MitchelJust as the parasite on modern Irish Republicanism has been Marxism, the parasite on conservative movements in Ireland has been West Britonism Inc. (expressed in its contemporary form by Atlanticism, neoconservatism, Christian Zionism and, at best, watered down civic-nationalism). Like the conservative movements it emulates, who have little of their own left to conserve, West Britonism Inc. is defined more and more by its US-style devotion to the State of Israel: a cause both unpopular and unassailable. For a conservative movement always in retreat, the survival of Israel functions as a sort of vindication: patriotism by proxy. In the same way as you will struggle to find a mainstream "Irish republican" voice today who is not a repository of left-wing clichés and a proponent of "no-borders" internationalism, you will struggle to find a "respectable" conservative talking-head who is not a mouthpiece for Israeli interests.
The trial of Freedom Convoy protester Pat King has changed from a jury to a judge-alone trial and the start date has been delayed from later this month to May 2024.
Appearing in virtual court Tuesday, King's lawyer Natasha Calvinho had filed a motion asking for the trial to be adjourned to a later start date.
Calvinho told the court she received hours worth of video evidence and other materials from the Crown, but would not be able to review it all before Nov. 27, as was originally planned.
The Crown was prepared to proceed sooner and was available for earlier dates, but consented to King's decision to have his case heard by a judge.
By hearing the trial by a judge, the court can choose non-consecutive sitting days. Jury trials are typically heard consecutively to minimize the disruption to jurors' lives.
Comment: Freedom? Democracy? Right to protest? Not if your cause frightens the regime...

Full Stop Cop • Still from a U.N. film strip on the 1948 Genocide Convention, circa 1949.
In the event that another state party disputes the claim of genocide — and Israel, the United States and the United Kingdom are all states party — then the International Court of Justice is required to adjudicate on "the responsibility of a State for genocide."
These are the relevant articles of the genocide convention:
Article VIIINote that here "parties to the dispute" means the states disputing the facts of genocide, not the parties to the genocide/conflict. Any single state party is able to invoke the convention.
Any Contracting Party may call upon the competent organs of the United Nations to take such action under the Charter of the United Nations as they consider appropriate for the prevention and suppression of acts of genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in article III.
Article IX
Disputes between the Contracting Parties relating to the interpretation, application or fulfillment of the present Convention, including those relating to the responsibility of a State for genocide or for any of the other acts enumerated in article III, shall be submitted to the International Court of Justice at the request of any of the parties to the dispute."
There is no doubt that Israel's actions amount to genocide. Numerous international law experts have said so and genocidal intent has been directly expressed by numerous Israeli ministers, generals and public officials.
Comment: Abbas has always played safe - a reaction in which he obviously excels. Proven useful, he's still around.
Just like San Francisco's notorious Third World-like homelessness and squalor being hurriedly cleaned up (swept under the rug, more like it) for the media spectacle, all the signs point to no return to decent U.S.-China relations in the longer term. It's all a duplicitous facade for a passing moment on a path of enmity.
Biden held a four-hour summit with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on Wednesday in San Francisco ahead of the annual conference for the 21-nation Association of Pacific and Economic Cooperation (APEC).
It was highly notable that Biden and Xi did not hold a joint press conference following their lengthy discussions. Nor did the two leaders issue a joint statement. So much for a new beginning!
Almost comically, the supposed positive meeting was later thrown into disarray when Biden at the end of his solo press conference made a hallmark embarrassing gaffe by repeating an earlier epithet for Xi. Asked by a reporter if he still considered the Chinese president "a dictator", Biden responded, "Yes".
Antony Blinken, the U.S. Secretary of State, was visibly perplexed by his tone-deaf boss's remarks, sensing that all the effort to create an apparent amiable reset in relations was in danger of collapsing in farce.

US President Joe Biden • Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • October 13, 2023
Translated from official jargon and scrubbed of empty rhetoric and euphemisms, the long proclamation makes only two substantial points about what the US and its "allies" (really clients and vassals) must do:
Continue waging a proxy war against Russia in Ukraine, andIn that sense, there is nothing surprising, or hopeful, in collective Biden's announcement: It took them more words this time, but this Democratic administration of neocons is simply repeating the equally tone-deaf slogan of a former Republican president representing a past gaggle of neocons: Stay the course, as George W. Bush put it succinctly during the Iraq disaster. Deja Vu all over again, in the words of America's greatest philosopher.
Continue backing Israel in its genocidal war against the Palestinians.
(no, it is not a "war against Hamas," that's a side effect).
But the details of the text still merit scrutiny. Let's pick out a few highlights:
Comment: "We've caught the terrorists! And he is... one of us."