John Chuckman

COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE BY BEL TREW IN THE INDEPENDENT

 

“James Le Mesurier: White Helmets backer found dead near his home in Istanbul

“Former army officer helped start the White Helmets, credited with saving thousands of lives in Syria”

 

People who read widely have known for quite some time that The White Helmets are a fraud.

There are countless tidbits of evidence for the claim, but you have to search them out. You won’t find them in any of the corporate press in America or the parts of Europe, like Britain, which are under America’s thumb.

Most of the Western corporate press goes on praising them, and of course dear old Hollywood even gave them an “documentary film” Oscar.

That’s the very same Hollywood that each year holds a big gala dinner to raise millions and millions of dollars for Israel’s army. The army whose main job is to harshly occupy millions of people who have no rights, and an army, over the last year, which has weekly busied itself ambushing unarmed Gaza protesters from behind a fence, killing about 300 and wounding thousands.

I wouldn’t doubt Hollywood even supplied expertise and supplies for the make-up work used in White Helmet films, but I don’t know that.

The job of The White Helmets has always been to promote local divisions inside Syria and to create provocations that can be used to justify more American or British bombing at desired locations.

They mounted and filmed several “rescue operations” from poison gas attacks which they staged themselves, trying to incriminate Syria’s government. They film their own stuff and distribute it to the Western press. Undoubtedly, they also perform other covert work such as “bomb spotting.”

Their films all have been frauds, using everything from child actors (documented by some critics) and Hollywood make-up to other mislabelled footage.

This outfit represents a true ethical low point in America’s diligent efforts at hybrid and proxy war in the region, a fake humanitarian organization to promote real death and destruction.

How absolutely fitting that it was founded by one of the creeps from MI6.

 

 

 

 

 

JOHN CHUCKMAN

COMMENT WRITTEN TO CBC NEWS

CBC radio news has been in serious decline for years, but in your recent coverage of events in Syria, you have touched bottom.

In every newscast and every news-oriented show, the subject dominates. Even on fluff shows like Mary Ito or Bret Banbury we hear about Syria from people who know nothing about it. The problem all this “coverage” is that you investigate nothing and simply repeat the official American view, endlessly.

You have not one qualified reporter on site. No one interviews Syrian officials. No one interviews Russian officials who include many experts on the region. No one talks to good independent reporters or observers, people such as Robert Fisk.

Your broadcasts would not differ in substance if you simply read press releases from the White House and Pentagon.

Even when you report facts upon which people might agree – as for example the number of refugees from Syria, recently cited at one million – you offer no vitally-important perspective, so the end result is effectively CBC joining the tireless American drumbeat to war.

You should well know that when America invaded Iraq, breaking all international law and humanitarian agreements, it killed at least half a million people and created four million refugees. It then refused to take almost any of the refugees, while Syria took a massive two million. Very heartless of Assad, don’t you think?

You keep repeating the American accusations about Assad using sarin gas. In fact, the only certain use of that horrible stuff has been by the violent rabble called the Free Syrian Army. They used small quantities more than once, material either captured from overrun military posts or supplied by American intermediaries such as Israel, which is known to have stockpiles.

And what is the “evidence” you blindly refer to over and over? I can tell you. It is a supposed recording of Syrian officials supplied by Mossad.

Yes, Mossad, the very people who pride themselves at deception and who have a long track record of expertly using it, even in several cases successfully against the United States.

And the recording, even if it could be proved authentic, is ambiguous as to meaning.

You do not kill thousands of people and destroy a country’s infrastructure citing rubbish like that.

The truth is that the entire Syrian “civil war,” as I cannot but believe some of your better journalists must know, is an American black-operation, part of a long series of violent efforts to create a huge cordon sanitaire around Israel. And this particular induced-civil war employs many of the same unsavoury characters typically grouped under the rubric “al Qaeda.”

Recently, this massive covert effort has been failing, despite even more American and Israeli weapons being smuggled to the murderous opposition through Turkey, owing to the successes of Assad’s army. So, now a new casus belli is needed to allow American bombing of Assad’s forces.

The “formula” for this kind of operation was worked out in the invasion of Afghanistan where Americans used everything from Tomahawk missiles to B-52s (with hideous cluster bombs as well as “block-busters”) while locals – the Northern Alliance in that case, including such blood-thirsty creatures as General Dostum – did most of the fighting on the ground. The formula was successfully and cynically repeated in Libya.

The cynics running the induced-horror in Syria for America have gone to the extent now of supplying the rabble with small quantities of sarin to generate a tipping point so Libya can be repeated. It is brutal cynicism with absolutely no regard for Syria’s people.

And remember, if you associate America’s impulses in Syria with either the rule of law or humanitarianism, it was Americans who employed white phosphorus, flame throwers, depleted-uranium (cancer-inducing) ammunition, and cluster bombs in Iraq. Some great defenders of humanitarian principles to be judging what anyone else does.

I realize you cannot present all these underlying realities (after all, your president would be called into Stephen Harper’s office immediately for a chair-throwing meeting), but you do not need to sink to the contemptible level of just repeating every American fabrications with no authority of on-site journalism and no expert opinion.

Shabby, simply shabby.

 

 

 

JOHN CHUCKMAN

POSTED RESPONSE TO A COLUMN BY HUGH SEGAL IN TORONTO’S GLOBE AND MAIL

Hugh Segal is a man I much respect and admire, an example of a thoughtful and decent conservative.

But he has this matter dead wrong, and I am disappointed to read him acting as part of cheering section for this horror.

If we want to help Syria, we will pressure the United States and Israel to halt their damned black operations.

The Syrian Free Army is the creation of American Blackwater-types. The refuge in Turkey they use – much along the lines of what the U.S. accuses the Taleban of in Pakistan – is a U.S. creation, having pressured the Turkish government into doing so.

Israel is running arms into Turkey to keep the blood flowing. It is doing so totally illegally, of course, but then almost everything Israel does breaks international laws.

So it is, absolutely and without question, American-Israeli interference that has shed this blood.

And the reason has nothing to do with freedom or rights because as American and Israel have amply demonstrated freedom and rights mean very little stacked against geo-political manipulation of advantages.

They want Syria dismembered.

Again, if a third state wanted to arm the discontented in the United States with rifle grenades and plastique and shoulder anti-aircraft missiles, there would be hundreds of thousands ready to accept them (Haters and malcontents of dozens of descriptions), and they could cause plenty of havoc before they were brutally put down, as they would be, by American’s Frankenstein military.

American did not hesitate to shoot hundreds in the streets during the various black riots in the past, and those people had no modern arms.

God, today in the United States, all you have to do to get a beating or tasered or even shot is to take cellphone pictures of the police doing something inappropriate, which they do a great deal of the time.
__________________________________________

“A no-flight zone is a prudent, limited intervention that could tip the balance against Assad and his criminal regime.”

The “no-fly” zone in Libya was neither limited nor prudent.

NATO – read the United States using others to front for it – killed hundreds of people and destroyed billions of dollars’ worth of property.

Then the rag-tag bunch they supported took over and acted like anything but a democratic government.

Today, the phrase “no-fly zone” would be included in George Orwell’s great essay, “Politics and the English Language.”

It is a morally foul concept like “pacification,” a harmless-sounding term to cover mass murder.

And it really is important to understand that what is sauce for the goose….

There are no words you can use to describe Assad’s government which cannot be applied with equal meaning and moral authority to Israel’s government.

It is almost an absurd example of the emperor’s new clothes to regard Israel’s behavior as anything in keeping with democratic values or regard for human rights.

The total of its acts of stomping in the face of international law, its murders, theft of others’ property, illegal imprisonment, torture and abuse is matched by no state other than a few bizarre places like North Korea.

JOHN CHUCKMAN

A SERIES OF RESPONSES TO A COLUMN IN TORONTO’S GLOBE AND MAIL

Why on earth would anyone think John Baird knows what he is talking about?

Apart from the fact that Mr. Baird has proven himself in public numerous times a dishonest and patronizing and unethical politician, Canada in fact has no equivalent of MI6 or the CIA, so we have absolutely no information sources of our own (CSIS being limited to domestic efforts).

Baird is merely echoing the words of Israeli and American sources, both of which not only have their own special interests for what they say but are proved liars in countless instances.

We have the blunt testimony, made public through error, from the presidents of France and the United States as to what a complete liar Mr. Netanyahu is, an unprecedented and unimpeachable testimony into secret affairs.

Israel endlessly plots to gain advantage and position throughout the Middle East. Its plots have nothing to with genuine security but with a desire to sit as arbiter of all affairs within a thousand miles of its borders (whatever those are).

Only the other day the United States quietly cancelled a large joint military exercise with Israel, having become quite fearful that Israel would exploit it for engaging the United States in war with Iran.

Top level American military and intelligence men expressed their deep concerns to Obama that Israel’s series of black operations in Iran, including the assassinations of several scientists were aimed at triggering just such an event.

It would not be the first time for Israel: both the Six Day War and the two-hour attempt to sink the American electronic spy ship USS Liberty in 1967 were black operations, the second intended both to blind the United States as to what was happening in the war and as an effort to draw the United States into it.

And you cannot get much blacker than Israel’s now-known sharing of nuclear technology with apartheid South Africa.

Baird serves Harper’s interests as a faithful junk-yard dog, and we all know Harper has bent over backwards to express views on Israel and Israel’s interests which have no basis in Canada’s traditional foreign policy.

Harper is motivated in at least two ways in this dark effort: one, he is a fundamentalist Christian full of biblical nonsense about Israel and the end of time from the nightmare lunacy of the Book of Revelations.

And two, Harper is miming American Republicans in being totally solicitous of all things Israeli because it brings in a steady flow of campaign donations, and we know Harper has as a goal for personal achievement to destroy and replace the Liberal Party, with campaign financing games being a major tool towards the goal.

Baird only demonstrates he is one more shabby new-Conservative politician ready to put short-term goals of party political success ahead of Canada’s genuine long-term interests, which absolutely do not include ugly business like starting another Iraq-style war with Iran, a country guilty of nothing, and perhaps convulsing the world into a major crisis.
____________________________

“I recently watched a documentary about the rise of Adolph Hitler. Seeing all those cheering, delighted ‘fans’ at every event as he gave his speeches made me wonder what kind of people could applaud that sort of bile and hate. Reading the comments in the Globe, though, I can easily see we still have that same sort around today in Canada. I think half the regular comment posters here would cheer another Hitler if he promised to rid the world of Jews.”

The comment is ignorant beyond telling.

I have studied the rise of Hitler in serious and scholarly books. The rise of such people provides important historical lessons needed to protect democratic and human values.

Most Germans never wanted Hitler.

Despite the most strenuous efforts, he was never able to get a bit more than 37% of the vote.

Hitler took over in an elaborate coup d’état after having been appointed as Chancellor by President Hindenburg, an old man desperate for peace in the streets and a man who previously was quite contemptuous of Hitler.

And most Germans never wanted war, but they were trapped by a vicious and ruthless government. Just read the works of the great American journalist of Hitler’s time, William L. Shirer. He was there, and he was an intelligent and perceptive witness to events.

It is not just a coincidence that the popular vote for Harper is close in percentage (39.6%) to that of Hitler’s highest achievement: every society has malcontents, ideologues and savages as part of its fabric, just as a certain percentage of every human population is mentally unbalanced.

And when people – politicians or ordinary people making grossly dishonest comments – tell lies, over and over, louder and louder, we should all be acutely aware we have entered a danger zone in human affairs.

Baird has nothing but prejudice and no genuine information whatsoever to support his yelling and chest-beating.

How would we distinguish that mode of behavior from a small-time Joseph Goebbels type?

We cannot.
__________________________________________

“A very good reply by Mr. Baird.

“The difference between Iran and other dangerous countries like Pakistan is that Iran actively funds, trains and directs terrorist organizations that target the likes of Israel and the US and now Saudi Arabia. Iran is also very bellicose about annihilating Israel or the Zionist regime like they call it (as if there is a difference?) and this is before anyone was talking about attacking Iran.

“In the end, people here who ignore the facts at all costs will never be convinced until a bomb falls on their head.”

It ain’t our heads on which bombs will fall.

It’s 70 million completely innocent Iranians.

Just as the Iraq invasion – again, a product of Israel’s tireless efforts on a very weak American president – killed hundreds of thousands of innocents and destroyed a society for a generation.

It is only the genuine ideologues and haters pushing for extreme measures against Iran.

And surely we all know by now where policy driven by ideologues and haters takes us.

A one-way trip to nowhere.

And note what colossally dangerous prejudice the person making the comment displays: “other dangerous countries like Pakistan.”

Goebbels couldn’t have said it better.
_________________________________

“The only threat a nuclear armed Iran poses is to the American ability to invade them.

“End of story.”

A brutal truth, but only a partial truth.

No country would ever use nuclear weapons in that fashion, because it would be national suicide.

And that is also precisely why the ideologues and haters who promote Israel’s twisted views do not understand reality.

We know Israel has at least 150 nuclear weapons because former President Carter told us that a couple of years ago.

The truth is that even were Iran developing nuclear weapons – and it is decidedly not doing so – all that would result is the kind of stand-off we had in Europe for decades.

And that stand-off kept the peace.

Israel does not fear Iran with nuclear weapons per se. It fears the rising influence of Iran in the region, an influence which in part stems from America’s stupid invasion of Iraq, another insane project advocated by Israel.

Israel unquestionably wants the same kind of virtually absolute authority in its region that America enjoys in the world at large.

The word for that is simple: it’s imperialism.

So here we have, once again, imperialistic and grossly selfish motives posing as desperate security fears and humanistic concerns.

It simply ain’t so.
__________________________________

“a rapid[sic] left-wing Jew” liza writes in describing Mr. Gerald Caplan.

Again, Goebbels could not have said it better.

How does anyone, not mentally unbalanced or viciously hating, write such ugly things?

Were anyone other than an apologist for Israel to utter such hate-speech, he or she would be attacked savagely.

But it’s okay when you promote war and destruction on behalf of Imperial Israel.
__________________________________________

“It really is time for people to wake up. This is real.

“Remember 9/11.”

Ah, the ultimate stupidity has been uttered: “Remember 9/11.”

9/11 was a crime committed by 19 unstable men, each of whom paid for it with his life.

But that didn’t stop the arm-pumping, belly-over-belt crowd from murdering in blind rage at least half a million people having nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with it.

Gee, I’m glad we have writers like this to remind us of stupid human beings can be.

We’re chimpanzees with bigger brains, just big enough to cause horrific destruction.
__________________________________

“Perhaps Mr. Baird and his colleagues will take the time to educate themselves”

When what you are after is propaganda and appeals to humanity’s worst instincts, you don’t educate yourself.

Why let education stand in the way of rage and irrationality?

It’s so much more fun to stomp up and down like Mr. Baird does, the very picture of an angry child, albeit a terribly ugly one.

http://chuckmancartoons.blogspot.com/2010/06/canadas-john-baird-does-lunch.html
____________________________________________

“Gerald Klu Klux Kaplan has the IQ of pond scum and it is to this paper’s eternal shame that it publishes his ignorant and hateful delusions. Since when does the globe publish racists like him? If Mr. Klu Klux Kaplan hates the jooz so much, maybe he should write for Stormfront or something.”

Sorry, but apart from the misspellings, isn’t it people like you who hurl ugly names, instead of cogent arguments, who demonstrate low IQs?

Although in truth, IQ has nothing to do with it.

Goebbels was a highly intelligent and educated man, but he was a hater and a believer in ugly fantasy.

And just so, this writer.
__________________________________

“Baird and his staff write well, but they cannot hide their ethically indefensible support for Israel’s politics of repression, aggression, and religious superiority. I worry far more about Israel and the US than I do about Iran.”

They don’t want to hide it.

They make a very clear and public appeal to the supporters of Israel’s bloody excesses.

It’s precisely the scenario we see with America’s Republicans, all racing to outdo each other in excessive and nasty statements about whatever it is that Israel does not like.

How can anyone argue that such people are serving the national interest?
__________________________________

“For those whose comments are full of anti Islamic stuff, are you aware that a proportion of the Palestinian population that was driven out after WW II was Christian?”

I’m glad you remind us of that truth.

Hanan Ashwari, for example, an able politician and academic, is Christian.

And so are tens of thousands of Palestinians.

By the way, it is illegal in Israel for Christians to preach conversion as they do in Canada or the United States every day.