Oh breakups are so messy.
When control of the American government was seized by a confluence of
neoconservatives and neoliberals in 2000, Bush declared “You are either with us
or you are against us.” Either you clear
the way for American hegemony or we’ll bomb you back to the Stone Age.
Since 2000 the various conservative think tanks in
Washington, drunk with power have been on binge of hegemony in the Middle East
and Eurasia. The European Union like an
abused wife trapped in a loveless marriage has finally had enough. The choice is stark, break free and swim for
the surface or you will drown with your abuser.
Russia has provided a “Battered Wife” safe house and the European
nations are flocking to the safety Russia has offered. For America the drunken binge is over, it’s
Sunday Morning Coming Down.
In July, 2015 Russian President Vladimir Putin banned the
NGO National Endowment for Democracies from Russia after the U.S. imposed
sanctions on Russia for “human rights abuses”.
From The Guardian:
Excerpt:
The National Endowment for
Democracy, a Washington-based nonprofit funded largely by the US Congress, has
become the first group to be banned in Russia under a law against “undesirable”
international nongovernmental organisations.
According to its website, the
National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is “dedicated to the growth and
strengthening of democratic institutions around the world” and has funded local
non-governmental organisations in more than 90 countries. But in a statement on
Tuesday, the prosecutor general’s office said it “poses a threat to the
constitutional order of the Russian Federation and the defensive capability and
security of the government”.
“Using Russian commercial and
noncommercial organisations under its control, the National Endowment for Democracy participated in work to declare
the results of election campaigns illegitimate, organise political actions
intended to influence decisions made by the authorities, and discredit service
in Russia’s armed forces,” the statement said.
Of course America’s boilerplate response was Putin is trying
to quash dissent. From Fiscal Times:
Excerpt:
The National Endowment for
Democracy, a U.S.-based non-profit that
promotes the spread of democratic government worldwide, is the first victim
of a new law in Russia that allows the country’s prosecutor general to declare
foreign entities “undesirable organizations” and bar them from operating in the
country….
The decision appears to be the
first use of the new authority granted to the Prosecutor General earlier this
year, and which appears to be another
effort by the government of President Vladimir Putin aimed at stifling dissent.
Though structured as an independent
organization with a board of directors
made up of private citizens, NED it is widely seen an arm of the United
States government, receiving almost all
of its funding from congressional appropriations. And while its board members are not current
government employees, many have had considerable careers in the government
prior to joining.
A grant-making organization, NED
has provided millions of dollars in financial support to civil society
groups in Russia, some of which have challenged official state policies. The
decision makes it illegal for Russian citizens to interact with the
organization, on pain of fines or prison time…..
…. when a group is designated as
undesirable, “all its assets in Russia
must be frozen, offices closed and distribution
of any of its information materials must be banned. If the ban is violated,
both the personnel of the outlawed group and Russian citizens who cooperate
with them face punishments of heavy fines, or even prison terms in case of
repeated or aggravated offence.”
My, my, my. Who to
believe Putin or the NED? Let’s take a
look at some of the previous handiwork of the NED spreading democracy. How about their democracy spreading work in
Egypt and Syria. From Global Research:
Excerpt:
National Endowment for Democracies Broke U.S. Laws by Funding
Terrorists in Egypt and Syria
What's that you say?
The National Endowment for Democracies broke U.S. Laws funding
terrorists in Egypt and Syria? Hmmm,
Information obtained under the
Freedom of Information Act, interviews, and public records reveal Washington’s “democracy assistance” may
have violated Egyptian law, which prohibits foreign political funding.
It may also have broken US government regulations that ban the use of
taxpayers’ money to fund foreign politicians, or finance subversive activities
that target democratically elected governments.
Washington’s democracy assistance
programme for the Middle East is filtered
through a pyramid of agencies within the State Department. Hundreds of
millions of taxpayer dollars is channeled through the Bureau for Democracy,
Human Rights and Labor (DRL), The Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI),
USAID, as well as the Washington-based, quasi-governmental
organisation the National Endowment for Democracy (NED)….
A main conduit for channeling the State Department’s democracy funds to Egypt has been the National
Endowment for Democracy. Federal documents show NED, which in 2011 was authorised an annual budget of $118m by
Congress, funneled at least $120,000 over several years to an exiled
Egyptian police officer who has for years incited violence in his native
country.
This appears to be in direct
contradiction to its Congressional mandate, which clearly states NED is to
engage only in “peaceful” political change overseas.
Oh, dear. Are you
saying the “non-profit” NED was given $118 million in American taxpayer money
in 2011 to spread democracy in Syria and Egypt by congress? Isn’t 2011 when congress passed the Budget
Control Act? From Center on Budget and Policy Priorities:
Excerpt:
The Budget Control Act (BCA) of 2011 imposed caps on discretionary
programs that will reduce their funding by more than $1 trillion over
the ten years from 2012 through 2021….
Broadly speaking, for 2013 the
across-the-board cuts will mean about an
8.4 percent cut in most affected non-defense
discretionary programs, a 7.5
percent cut in affected defense programs, an 8.0 percent cut in affected mandatory programs other than Medicare,
and a 2.0 percent cut in Medicare
provider payments.
For 2014 through 2021, the Medicare cut will remain at 2 percent while
the percentage cuts in other programs will gradually shrink.
Well I’m sure the American people don’t mind cutting VA
Benefits, Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment benefits, Social Security and all so
that the National Endowment For Democracies can “spread democracy” in Egypt and
Syria. So let’s see what the American
people got for their money from the NED:
Colonel Omar Afifi Soliman – who served in Egypt’s elite investigative
police unit, notorious for human rights abuses – began receiving NED funds in
2008 for at least four years.
During that time he and his
followers targeted Mubarak’s government, and Soliman later followed the same
tactics against the military rulers who briefly replaced him. Most recently
Soliman set his sights on Morsi’s government.
Soliman, who has refugee status in the US, was sentenced in
absentia last year for five years imprisonment by a Cairo court for his role in inciting violence in 2011 against the
embassies of Israel and Saudi Arabia, two US allies.
He also used social media to
encourage violent attacks against Egyptian officials, according to court
documents and a review of his social media posts.
US Internal Revenue Service
documents reveal that NED paid tens of
thousands of dollars to Soliman through an organisation he created called
Hukuk Al-Nas (People’s Rights), based in Falls Church, Virginia. Federal forms SHOW HE IS THE ONLY EMPLOYEE.
 |
Former Egyptian police colonel Omar
Afifi works from his command center in his apartment in Falls Church, Va.
|
After he was awarded a 2008 human rights fellowship at NED
and moved to the US, Soliman
received a second $50,000 NED grant in 2009 for Hukuk Al-Nas. In 2010, he received $60,000 and
another $10,000 in 2011.
Well, sounds like this Soliman guy doesn't have to worry
about living on Social Security or relying on Wall Street profit drive Obama
Care for his medical needs. Why old
Soliman must be grateful to the NED for this largess he received for his “2008
human rights fellowship at NED” being a wanted man in Cairo and all.
In an interview with the
Investigative Reporting Program at UC Berkeley, Soliman reluctantly admitted he received US government funding from
the National Endowment for Democracy, but complained
it wasn’t enough. “It is like $2000
or $2,500 a month,” he said. “Do you think this is too much? Obama wants to give us peanuts. We will
not accept that.”
NED has removed public access to its Egyptian grant recipients in
2011 and 2012 from its website. NED officials didn’t respond to repeated
interview requests….
US taxpayer money has also been sent to groups set up by some of Egypt’s richest people, raising
questions about waste in the democracy programme.
Well, well, well. So
Americans on Social Security Disability will have their benefits cut by 20% in 2016 as part of the “agreement between the
Obama Administration and congress” to give Soliman $2,000 to $2,500 per month
which he calls “peanuts.” And, that’s
not all, the lawless Obama Administration also has broken an American law
called the Leahy Amendment by arming terrorists in Syria to overthrow the
elected government. From InformationClearing House:
Excerpt:
Enacted in 1997, the so-called Leahy Amendment, named after its
author Senator Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., makes
it illegal for the U.S. to arm or train foreign militaries credibly accused of
human rights violations. While the law hasn’t stopped all U.S. support for
atrocities, it is an eminently reasonable measure that now the Obama administration wants to do away with.
The president claims the arms will
only be delivered to “vetted” rebel groups, avoiding the hundreds of other
rebel factions said by United Nations investigators to have committed war
crimes. But it’s virtually impossible to
funnel weapons into a chaotic civil war without them getting into the wrong
hands.
Milton Bearden, a 30-year CIA veteran who oversaw the $3 billion
covert program to arm the Afghan mujahideen against the Soviets told Foreign Policy that the Obama
administration should beware. “If you [arm the rebels], don’t try to convince
yourself that you’re in control,” he said…
This makes it difficult for the
Obama administration to abide by the spirit of the Leahy Law, given that many
of Syria’s rebel groups have engaged in
torture, extra-judicial killings, and mutilation of the dead. The leading
rebel groups have close ties to al-Qaeda groups….
The U.S. has a long history of supporting extreme brutality, even
genocide, through unsavory proxy militias. And now, as the Obama administration is increasing its support for fighters in
places like Syria, Honduras and Nigeria, Washington is looking to revive that storied pastime.
When they say the “The
U.S. has a long history of supporting extreme brutality, even genocide, through
unsavory proxy militias” I assume that “storied history” goes back to 1983 when
Reagan’s National Endowment for Democracies was started.
But there’s trouble in Paradise, the EU has sobered up and
now Putin has provided a way out of this endless American made nightmare. Unfortunately the American government and the
NED is addicted and the only hope for America is an intervention, tough
love. And that tough love is now being
imposed by Vladimir Putin. From PaulCraig Roberts:
Excerpt:
A Decisive Shift In The Power
Balance Has Occurred — Paul Craig Roberts
The world is beginning to realize
that a seachange in world affairs occured on September 28 when President Putin
of Russia stated in his UN speech that Russia
can no longer tolerate Washington’s vicious, stupid, and failed policies that
have unleashed chaos, which is engulfing the Middle East and now Europe.
Two days later, Russia took over the military situation in Syria and began the
destruction of the Islamic State forces.
Perhaps among Obama’s advisors there are a few who are not drowning in hubris and can understand this
seachange. Sputnik news reports that some high-level security advisors to Obama
have advised him to withdraw US military forces from Syria and give up his plan
to overthrow Assad.
They advised Obama to cooperate with Russia in order to stop the
refugee flow that is overwhelming Washington’s vassals in Europe. The influx of
unwanted peoples is making Europeans
aware of the high cost of enabling US foreign policy. Advisors have told
Obama that the idiocy of the
neoconservatives’ policies threaten Washington’s empire in Europe….
If you are an advisor to Obama and you are sane, there’s no
chance that he will listen, especially with self-declared Zionist Joe Biden and
John Kerry pushing for more arms to be given to “moderate rebel” terrorists.
The neoconservatives’ plan for a UN no-fly zone over Syria in order
to push out the Russians is a pipedream.
No such resolution will come out of the UN. Indeed, the Russians have already
established a de facto no-fly zone.
Putin, without issuing any verbal threats or engaging in any name-calling,
has decisively shifted the power
balance, and the world knows it.
Washington’s response consists of name-calling, bluster and more lies,
some of which is echoed by some of Washington’s ever more doubtful vassals. The
only effect is to demonstrate Washington’s impotence.
If Obama has any sense, he will dismiss from his government the neoconservative morons who have
squandered Washington’s power, and he will focus instead on holding on to
Europe by working with Russia to destroy, rather than to sponsor, the terrorism
in the Middle East that is overwhelming Europe with refugees.
If Obama cannot admit a mistake, the United States will continue to
lose credibility and prestige around the world.
Well Dr. Roberts therein lies the problem, Obama’s ego will
not allow him to admit a mistake and he’ll take America down with him. Obama’s America is drunk with power and has
gone on a binge from which he has yet to wake up. When the sun comes up, the drunk is going to
find his battered wife, European Union has fled to Putin’s safe house, and now
it’s Sunday Morning coming down.
By Patricia Baeten
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