June 12, 2018

Trump just agreed to the "Chinese plan" aka "Double Freeze"

Just heard this on MSNBC, and damned if it isn't true:

Here's the Chinese plan, which is what Trump just agreed too:

"As a first step, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) may suspend its nuclear and missile activities in exchange for the suspension of large-scale U.S.-Republic of Korea (ROK) military exercises"

http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2017-03/08/c_136112435.htm

And the US' response?

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley dismissed as "insulting" the proposal that Beijing has touted for months and repeated at an emergency Security Council meeting Monday, held in response to another nuclear test that North Korea claims involved an advanced hydrogen bomb.

"When a rogue regime has a nuclear weapon and an [intercontinental ballistic missile] pointed at you, you do not take steps to lower your guard," Haley said at the meeting. "No one would do that. We certainly won't."

That was September 2017.

https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2017-09-05/us-rejects-chinas-freeze-for-freeze-plan-for-north-korea#close-modal

May 30, 2018

John Stockwell - CIA's War on Humans

"Stockwell was one of the first professionals to leave CIA to go public by writing a bestselling book, In Search of Enemies. The CIA retaliated by suing him in the 4th District Court in Washington, D.C.. Part of the suit intended to eliminate the possibility of selling the story for the purpose of making the movie and requested all future publications be submitted to the CIA for review. Unable to afford the travel necessary to contest the case, Stockwell filed for bankruptcy in Austin, Texas. After the litigation was processed through the bankruptcy, the CIA eventually dropped the suit.

A brief story in the book is about a CIA officer having Patrice Lumumba's body in the trunk of his car one night in then Elizabethville, Congo. Stockwell mentions in a footnote to the story that at the time he did not know that the CIA is documented as having repeatedly tried to arrange for Lumumba's assassination.

His concerns were that, although many of his colleagues in the CIA were men and women of the highest integrity, the organization was counterproductive of United States' national security and harming a lot of people in its "secret wars" overseas."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Stockwell

There's also an interview here:

http://www.serendipity.li/cia/stock2.html

It should be noted that no one anywhere - except the CIA - had issues with his facts, as he was able to get at them at the time.

He was also a tireless advocate for the rule of law and for peace.

But he also had blood on his own hands - which he acknowledges repeatedly - and that blood - from illegal US state sponsored murder -
drove him to putting himself in the limelight and being attacked ruthlessly in the US media - though not the UK or European media.

If you read something or hear something he says, and think "that sounds like BS," google it. In almost every example you'll discover that he's telling the truth as was publicly known at the time.

You don't have to agree with his conclusion (illegal secret wars are counter-productive and will eventually lead to massive blowback) but the facts he uses in his thesis are worth being talked about, or at least acknowledged.

May 21, 2018

Der Spiegel: Time for Europe to Join the Resistance

As an American living abroad I See a lot of European press that most Americans probably don't. But even in that context I am surprized this hasn't become a big deal:

Time for Europe to Join the Resistance

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/editorial-trump-deals-painful-blow-to-trans-atlantic-ties-a-1207260.html



Another article from Der Spiegel that people might enjoy:

Trump Strikes a Deep Blow to Trans-Atlantic Ties
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/trump-humiliates-europe-with-exit-from-iran-deal-a-1207237.html