John Chuckman

COMMENT POSTED TO AN INTERVIEW WITH DOUGLAS VALENTINE IN COVERT ACTION MAGAZINE

“Inside the Organized Crime Syndicate known as the CIA”

__________________

Response to a comment which said, “Of course if he did get too close to certain truths, he would be committing suicide.

“Operation Phoenix in the Vietnam war involved murdering people on some of those lists, and they even deployed military hit-men to pull off these murders.

“Something also not mentioned in this review was the opium trade going on involving the CIA in Vietnam, Thailand, in the area known as the golden triangle.”

 

Yes, Operation Phoenix was a secret American mass-assassination operation that continued for many years during the Vietnam War.

We first learned of it in the 1970s from CIA Director William Colby who himself had earlier administered it.

The name of the program came up again briefly when it was learned that Senator Bob Kerrey, a fairly well-regarded politician running for the 1992 Democratic nomination, had served under the program as a Navy SEAL. He withdrew from the race.

Somewhere between 30,000 and 40,000 people were butchered in Operation Phoenix.

And “butchered” is the right word.

They generally had their throats slashed (for silence) by special-forces troops assigned to work under CIA. They would crawl into villages in the night to attack innocent civilians whom CIA previously had identified.

The people selected for death were those who held administrative jobs such as village mayors or just influential figures, not soldiers.

The concept was just plain terror, intended to make America’s opponents lose their capacity for resistance.

Nothing ISIS or al Qaeda ever did was more loathsome.

And, yes, CIA was in the drug business during the Vietnam War. Drugs were moved by the Agency’s private airline of the time, Air America, used for many dark operations and, of course, never stopped or questioned or searched by American officials.

The Agency often earns off-the-books money during conflicts by dealing in drugs and/or weapons. The money is good, and there are no official budget records with which to be concerned.

They likely have been part of the flood of drugs coming from Afghanistan since the US toppled the Taliban government there, a government which had banned growing opium poppies.

But the trade has flourished since the American invasion, contributing to the many gang killings over sales turf of recent years in American cities. Such volumes of opioids were flowing out of Afghanistan that prices declined on the streets, much intensifying competition.

Your American tax dollars at work.

John Chuckman

COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN THE INDEPENDENT

 

There are at least two reasons for this provocation by Turkey.

ISIS has been financing itself by stealing Syrian oil and selling it to Turkey at a discount.

Putin’s recent heavy bombardment of the trucks and facilities involved undoubtedly irritates Erdogan, and I believe his own son is involved in this whole operation.

The second reason for this is that it was meant to put a stop to a genuine anti-ISIS coalition.

When I say “genuine,” I mean one which actually targets the terrorists – as Russia is doing – and not one which targets Syria and effectively protects ISIS, which is the pattern of America’s efforts, the ones supported by a disingenuous David Cameron.

Turkey is the last country wanting a genuine coalition since it is a major supporter of ISIS. It uses those murderous thugs against both the Kurds Erdogan so hates and of course against the government of Syria, a reasonable government which opposes some of Erdogan’s fetid dreams of empire.

Of course, in any matter involving Erdogan, there is always the sheer fact of his mental instability as an explanatory variable. This man who built himself a grotesque, one thousand-room palace recently, makes contradictory statements on important matters every few days, and hates some groups like the Kurds with an intense white heat is a genuinely erratic and unstable man.

It’s all a dirty business, and the only honest major player is Putin. Cameron, Obama, Erdogan, and Netanyahu are outright liars and supporters of terror. They are also guilty of supporting criminal invasion of a peaceful country. Hollande was with them but has been wavering.

The various words by American Defense Secretary Ash Carter over recent time sound just like something from Dr. Strangelove, full of dark threats and anger over America’s dirty plans being thwarted by Putin.

If what these people were doing in Syria was honorable and acceptable to public opinion, why do they keep lying and hiding what they are doing?

There is no doubt Turkey’s act was premeditated. If the plane was in Turkish airspace, it would have been only for seconds over the point of land which sticks down into Syria.

You do not shoot someone for that, especially when it is well known what they are doing.

The plane crashed 4 kilometers inside Syria.

And we have the surviving pilot saying there was no warning at all.

In the end, I very much believe Erdogan will regret this rash act. Already, Russia is building a no-fly zone in the area.

The missile cruiser Moskva is to be stationed in the area with instructions to attack threats.

Putin is also putting the S-400 anti-aircraft system, the world’s most formidable, at the Russian base.

Still further, fighters will accompany all bombers now.

John Chuckman

COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN THE GUARDIAN

 

Why should Assad retire?

He represents the people of Syria better than anyone else.

The army supports him. The country’s main clan groups support him.

By all accounts a majority of Syrians support him.

Remember, David Cameron represents exactly 35% of British voters, hardly a democratic mandate.

Even were Cameron a more representative leader of Britain, what business is it of his to pass on the acceptability of Assad?

None.

That is clearly up to the Syrian people to decide.

Cameron of course is the recipient of regular calls from Tel Aviv on these matters, and Israel is one of the group that created the horror in Syria for its own interests.

Israel wants Assad out and Syria reduced to the kind of rump state that Iraq is after the American invasion.

What is really at stake here is never discussed in public, and certainly not by the inept and rather dishonest David Cameron.

What is at stake is the right of states to exist in peace without outside interference from aggressive states like America and Israel.

The roles of Turkey and Saudi Arabia in this horror are only possible because America approves. Nothing of this nature could happen otherwise.

 

 

 

John Chuckman

EXPANSION OF A COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN THE INDEPENDENT

Sorry, David, but I do think Jeremy Corbyn likely understands exactly what ISIS represents.

It really is you, David, who pretends not to understand.

After all, you support American policy in the region, don’t you, David, even though, if I may be permitted to say, you do so with just a trifle too much groveling?

American policy is about using filth like ISIS and al Qaeda to destroy the beautiful land of Syria. America helped round up this collection of human trash from many places, including Benghazi, and along with Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey, it armed, trained, and supported them in their murderous rampage.

Of course, the Americans do not say that openly, David, but anyone who does just a little thinking can see the pattern. Those who do not see it, choose not to see it.

The U.S. drops bombs in the desert and on Syrian infrastructure, pretending to attack ISIS. The bombing of so-called terrorists you want to do, David, is clearly of the “Me too, Mr. Obama, Sir!” kind.

You really are so transparent, David, quite an ineffective puff-ball of a Prime Minister trying to sound stern and heroic. But then you have no one to answer to, do you, with a “majority” government representing 35% of British voters? Not your fault, is it, that Britain’s election system has such a built-in democratic deficit?

By all accounts, that horrible tyrant Assad is somehow strangely supported by a substantial majority of Syrians owing to his policies of secularism and protection of religious minorities. Then there’s the fact that he accepted at least a million refugees fleeing the American-British invasion of Iraq which killed about a million people, but he’s not fooling you, is he, David? He’s a heartless tyrant who must go. After all, he didn’t listen to you about getting out of town.

I’m just waiting to see how you’ll wiggle your little trotters and oink (sorry for the reference, David, but I couldn’t resist) after Putin’s air force has sent the American-organized cutthroats running for home. There are already reports of some fleeing. Maybe you’ll take them in, David? But I understand you’re not that fond of refugees.

Putin just proves what amazing things can happen when you actually aim for the enemy you claim you are aiming at. In their first 60 sorties, Putin’s boys did more damage to ISIS than America’s claimed 6,000 or so. But then that could be because Americans spend so much effort bombing things like hospitals, or don’t you agree, David?

David, there is one thing I wish you’d clear up for all us lowly, ordinary citizens. What do Rebekah and Rupert think about ISIS? Surely, you discuss the subject on your country weekends?