Armed Vigilantes Antagonizing Protesters Have Received a Warm Reception From Police

A FORMER Albuquerque City Council candidate who ran on a tough-on-crime platform shot a protester at an anti-police brutality demonstration on Monday and was arrested alongside members of a right-wing militia group. The shooting is an extreme example of a trend that has played out across the country as armed vigilantes pledging to protect property have shown up at protests — in many cases with encouragement or even explicit collaboration from law enforcement.

The shooter, Steven Ray Baca, had been intimidating protesters planning to topple a statue of the murderous Spanish conquistador Juan de Oñate outside the Albuquerque Museum. He was joined in this quest by members of the New Mexico Civil Guard, a militia group that emerged in the wake of coronavirus-related shutdowns.

Baca, who was recently named a board member of the Albuquerque Tea Party, claims to have family in law enforcement and has led pro-police activism in the past. Amid protests over a police killing in 2014, he created a Facebook page in support of Albuquerque officers and told a reporter that he had an uncle with the department. A profile of Baca from his 2019 run for city council notes that he is the son of a former Bernalillo County sheriff’s deputy. In a tweet, the sheriff’s office said, “His father worked for the agency nearly twenty years ago, but was no longer an employee of BCSO as of 2001.” But Baca behaved as if his father still wielded influence, according to Nicholas Soto, a protester who witnessed the shooting. After firing his weapon, Soto said, Baca asked law enforcement to call his dad, whom he said was with the sheriff’s office.

More

http://www.hideoutnow.com/2020/06/armed-vigilantes-antagonizing.html

Turkey Kills 15 Civilians in Syria, 5 Civilians in Iraq

Airstrikes pound Kurdish village in Syria's Afrin District

Turkish airstrikes and a ground offensive continue apace in Iraq, while in neighboring Syria, Turkey carried out airstrikes against a Kurdish village in Afrin District, killing at least 15 civilians, including a number of women and children.

Turkey provided no indication as to why they were attacking the village, or Afrin District in general. The area on Syria is mostly Kurdish, however, and Turkey rarely needs much of a reason to carry out operations against Kurds.

Airstrikes in Iraq’s Dohuk Province were also reported to have killed at least five civilians. These airstrikes were backing an ongoing ground offensive in northern Iraq which is aimed at the Kurdish PKK movement.

Turkey’s seizure of the Afrin District in Syria was primarily done to expel Kurdish forces from the border region, and the offensive against Iraq is likely to seek a similar end. So far, most of the casualties seem to be civilian, which is in keeping with Turkey’s domestic military operations against ethnic Kurdish territory.

https://news.antiwar.com/2020/06/19/turkey-kills-15-civilians-in-syria-5-civilians-in-iraq/

Cops Ordered to Turn Off Body Cams, Illegally Raid Journalist Who Embarrassed Them, And They Obeyed

In the land of the free, journalists are raided by SWAT teams in an effort to find out their sources in spite of the Constitution protecting journalists from this very act. Freelance journalist Bryan Carmody fell victim to the police state in California last year as multiple San Francisco cops with sledgehammers and weapons began breaking down his door in an effort to find out his source for a leaked police report. The entire raid was illegal from the get-go; and, now, we have found that orders came from the top instructing officers to hide the actions of the illegal raid by not wearing body cameras.

The Reporters Committee, which was created in 1970 to fight the very illegal act Carmody was raided over, submitted a public records request and obtained a memo with the subject “BWC usage” in regard to the unlawful raid on the journalist.

BWC stands for body-worn camera. In the short two-page memo, Lieutenant Pilar Torres states that he told law enforcement officers conducting the raid “not to utilize our Department issued BWC’s for this operation” because the video footage could compromise the “confidential investigation.”

“Body-worn cameras are designed to increase police transparency and accountability,” said Katie Townsend, legal director for the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. “The fact that officers were instructed not to use their bodycams during an illegal raid of a journalist’s home is deeply troubling.”

We agree, and when we look into the specifics of the case and find out that all the warrants issued were illegal, a troubling picture of police retaliation against journalists who embarrass them comes to light.

Over the past year, Carmody’s case received much deserved attention and and the police department came under heavy scrutiny. After the raid, Carmody filed a lawsuit to go after the tyrants who did this to him. In April, the city of San Francisco announced they will be paying $369,000 to settle claims over its police raid on Carmody’s house last May.

As the Society for Professional Journalists points out, California’s Shield Law protects journalists from being held in contempt for refusing to disclose their sources’ identities and other unpublished/unaired information obtained during the news gathering process (California Constitution, Article I, § 2(b); California Evidence Code § 1070(a)). California Penal Code section 1524(g) provides that “no warrant shall issue” for any item protected by the Shield Law.

https://www.activistpost.com/2020/06/cops-ordered-to-turn-off-body-cams-illegally-raid-journalist-who-embarrassed-them-and-they-obeyed.html

Podcast: How the Democratic Party Unleashed Decades of Racial Injustice and Police Brutality on Communities of Color

Margaret Kimberly and Monique Cullars Doty join MintCast to discuss how Democrats attempt to save face by co-opting justice movements, including Black Lives Matter, and the party’s roots in White supremacy.

Welcome to MintCast, the official MintPress News podcast hosted by Mnar Muhawesh. MintCast is an interview podcast featuring dissenting voices, independent researchers and journalists the establishment would rather silence.

In this episode, we are joined by Margaret Kimberly and Monique Cullars Doty.

Kimberly is a New York-based writer and activist for peace and justice. You can find her work at the Black Agenda Report where she is a senior columnist. Her book, “Prejudential: Black America and the Presidents,” was published in February.

Cullars Doty is a local organizer for the Black Lives Matter Twin Cities Metro and greater Minnesota region and the Twin Cities Coalition for Jamar Clark.

While some are calling it a “revolution” and others an “American intifada,” one thing is clear, that millions of people have taken to the streets to demand justice for George Floyd and an end to police brutality. This after a viral video showed Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck, slowly suffocating the life out him while he begged for his mother. Floyd struggled for air for over eight minutes. His dying words “I can’t breathe” were heard around the globe, igniting a mass uprising and calls to defund the police, place law enforcement under community control, and even to dismantle law enforcement institutions altogether.

https://www.mintpressnews.com/podcast-black-lives-matter-democratic-party-racial-injustice/268745/

Navy Now Says Vietnam Port Stop Likely to Blame for Carrier's COVID Outbreak

The investigation into a coronavirus outbreak on the Navy carrier Theodore Roosevelt didn't only lead the service to backtrack on a previous recommendation to reinstate the ship's former commanding officer – but also on how the virus ended up on the ship in the first place.

The Navy's top admiral said on Friday that they now believe the COVID-19 outbreak on the Roosevelt originated with a March port call in Vietnam, not flight crews bringing supplies to the ship. Officials in April said the timing of the first outbreaks had them eyeing carrier onboard deliveries, known as CODs, as the likely culprit.

But after a wider investigation they no longer believe that to be the case, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday told reporters. Gilday and Navy Secretary Kenneth Braithwaite briefed reporters Friday afternoon on the outcome of a months-long investigation into the Roosevelt's outbreak and the subsequent firing of the ship's commanding officer.

"We think that likely it happened during the port visit to Vietnam," Gilday said. "… But we don't have a clear understanding of Patient Zero."

Thirty-nine members of the Roosevelt's crew were quarantined after the port call in Vietnam over fears they'd been exposed to the virus, the investigation states. After two weeks though, all 39 showed no signs of having the illness and tested negative for COVID-19.

Around the same time, two air-wing sailors on the ship began showing symptoms. That was after seven COD flights from the Philippines brought passengers and detachment personnel out to the Roosevelt. Four of those personnel later tested positive for the virus, the investigation states.

"However analysis of the time of their positive results indicates that they were likely not the source of the introduction of the virus," it adds.

That raised questions about why a captain was held responsible for a situation that arose after someone higher up the chain of command made a decision that ultimately led to a health crisis on the ship. Gilday said the investigation took an "extensive look" into the decision-making before the Roosevelt stopped in Vietnam.

The port call, approved by Adm. Phil Davidson head of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command was made a week before the World Health Organization had declared the coronavirus a global pandemic, Gilday said, and there were no State Department warnings for Vietnam and no recorded COVID-19 cases in Da Nang, where the ship was headed.

In looking at Davidson's call to send the ship to Vietnam, Gilday said "we found that decision was sound."

"We found no fault with the rationale to make the decision to go into port," Gilday said.

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2020/06/20/navy-now-says-vietnam-port-stop-likely-blame-carriers-covid-outbreak.html

Number of forged 5,000-ruble banknotes grows in Moscow — police

The number increased by 13% year-on-year in the first five months of 2020

MOSCOW, June 20. /TASS/. The number of forged 5,000-ruble banknotes - the largest denomination currently in circulation in Russia - increased in Moscow since the start of the year, a spokesperson for the Main Interior Ministry Directorate in Moscow said.

According to the press service, the number increased by 13% year-on-year in the first five months of 2020.

"The most frequently forged banknote on the territory of the Moscow Region is the 5,000-ruble bill. A total of 6,400 such bills were detected in the first five months [of 2020], compared to 5,500 in the same period last year," the spokesperson said.

According to police, some 8,600 forged bank notes were seized in Moscow since the start of the year, both in domestic and foreign currencies. Therefore, forged 5,000-ruble bills make up nearly one third of them.

The most frequently forged foreign currency bank notes are 500 euros and 100 dollars.

https://tass.com/russia/1169891

Democracy Failing In Europe? Montenegro Involved In Another Shakedown

Montenegro aspires to be a respected member of the Euro-Atlantic community. Unfortunately, the blatant kleptocracy of Montenegro’s leadership calls into question its suitability as a NATO ally and fitness to join the European Union.

President Milo Djukanovic has been running Montenegro – either as Prime Minister or President — for the past 30 years. His record of venality and corruption rivals that of any autocrat. The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project awarded Djukanovic its “Person of the Year Award” in 2015, in recognition of “his work in creating an oppressive political atmosphere and an economy choked by corruption and money laundering.”

“Nobody outside of Putin has run a state that relies so heavily on corruption, organized crime and dirty politics,” the OCCRP wrote. “It is truly and thoroughly rotten to the core.”

In 2020, Freedom House downgraded its ranking of Montenegro from "a new democracy" to a “hybrid authoritarian regime," based on a sterling record of judicial interference, violations of religious freedom, attacks against the press and abuses of power. Assaults on journalists and the silencing of the opposition have become accepted practice.

Today’s Montenegro is drowning in Chinese debt, and Djukanovic has run out of money to feed the hungry mouths of his state apparatus. Which explains his latest shakedown: the Serbian Orthodox Church.

Late last year, the Government of Montenegro passed a “Law on Religious Freedom,” which in reality is a thinly disguised land-grab. The law not only requires all religious groups to register with state authorities but also to prove ownership of property built before 1918. If they cannot do this to the government ’ s land registry satisfaction, the property becomes state-owned. Should the church contest land seizures or contentious claims, they must do so before the same Djukanovic-controlled body responsible for adjudicating the legal validity of their land ownership documents. Once a decision has been made, there is no right to appeal.

This is a full-frontal assault on the Serbian Orthodox Church — the 800-year-old branch of Christian Orthodoxy that is the faith of more than 80% of Montenegrin citizens. The state authorities have made separate legal agreements with Montenegro ’s small Muslim and Jewish communities that exempt their properties. It should come as no surprise therefore that the law only passed in Parliament because Djukanovic’sgovernment detained opposing MPs, along with dozens of priests, monks and even a bishop. Tens of thousands of Montenegrins took to the streets in protest.

https://www.ibtimes.com/democracy-failing-europe-montenegro-involved-another-shakedown-2997385

Seattle police union chief calls for 'leadership' after fatal shooting in CHOP zone

The head of Seattle's police union lamented the lack of "leadership" in the city Saturday after reports emerged that an early morning shooting in the so-called 'CHOP' left one person dead and another in critical condition.

According to The Seattle Times, police homicide and assault detectives are investigating the shooting, citing a post on the Seattle Police Department's blotter.

"On June 20th, at approximately 2:30 AM, East Precinct officers responded to a report of shots fired in Cal Anderson Park," a statement on the blotter said.

"This is inside the area referred to as the Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP). Officers attempted to locate a shooting victim but were met by a violent crowd that prevented officers safe access to the victims. Officers were later informed that the victims, both males, had been transported to Harborview Medical Center by CHOP medics.

"Officers responded to Harborview and were informed that one of the victims, a 19-year-old male, had died from injuries. The other victim, also a male, unknown age, remains in the hospital with life-threatening injuries."

In an interview on "Fox & Friends Weekend" with host Pete Hegseth Saturday, Seattle Police Officers Guild President Michael Solan remarked that it is "no longer the summer of love" like Democratic Mayor Jenny Durkan claimed, but the "summer of chaos."

"Early this morning, that violence was raw and real where one of our community members lost their life and police are still not allowed into that area and were prevented to providing that police service to the area to locate victors and/or render aid. [It’s] very troubling what’s going on," Solan said.

SPD's closest East Precinct building lies abandoned following days of tense confrontations with protesters in the wake of George Floyd's death.

https://www.foxnews.com/media/seattle-police-union-chief-violence-chop-troubling

Tennessee Passes Heartbeat Bill, Protecting Most Unborn Children

The Tennessee legislature passed one of the nation’s strictest abortion bills and Governor Bill Lee promised to sign it.

The bill would mandate ultrasounds for any woman wanting an abortion and ban the procedure, in most cases, if a heartbeat is detected. That can occur as early as six weeks into a pregnancy.

The bill would also ban abortions based on “sex, race or disability diagnosis of the unborn child” meaning that a child with down syndrome could not be aborted. The law would make no allowances for pregnancies that resulted from rape or incest.

Fox News:

“We have passed the strongest pro-life law in our state’s history and I am grateful to Lt. Gov McNally, Speaker Sexton, Leader Johnson, Leader Lamberth and members of our General Assembly for making the heartbeat bill law,” he added.

The Tennessee House had approved the measure earlier in the week, but since the legislature was near the end of its session, it was a surprise when the senate brought the measure to the floor and voted on it. It was attached to the budget bill and there was apparently some serious horse trading to wrangle the bill to the floor.

While there is an exception for medical emergencies, there are no exceptions in the bill for women who are victims of rape or incest. Both sides claim they are protecting the health of mothers.

Though critics said it won’t hold up in court, Lee claimed it was “enhanced” to be more likely to survive due to its “ladder” provision, similar to the Missouri bill, “of sequential abortion prohibitions at two-week gestational age intervals, along with severability clauses for each step of the ladder.”

Planned Parenthood is obviously displeased.

“In the dead of night, Tenessee politicians hellbent on chipping away at abortion access blocked citizens from entering the state Capitol while they used this draconian abortion ban to pass the state budget,” Ashley Coffield, president & CEO, Planned Parenthood Tennessee and North Mississippi, said in a statement. “While Tennesseans are concerned about their health and safety during a pandemic, politicians used women’s lives as a bargaining chip to push their political agenda.”

The bill has several other provisions near and dear to the hearts of the pro-life community.

Southwest Times Record:

It would also make it a Class C felony for a doctor to perform an abortion in any of those situations, and the physician must also:

· Determine and inform the mother of the gestational age of the fetus.

· Allow the woman to hear the fetal heartbeat and explain the location of the unborn child within the uterus.

· Conduct an ultrasound and display the images to the mother.

· Provide an explanation of the fetus’s dimensions and which external body parts and internal organs are present and visible.

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/rick-moran/2020/06/20/tennessee-passes-heartbeat-bill-protecting-most-unborn-children-n556831

Syrian Army, Turkish Forces Clash With Each Other In Northern Al-Hasakah

On June 20, heavy clashes broke out between the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and Turkish-backed militants in the northern al-Hasakah countryside.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), the clashes took place near the towns of Umm Ushbah and al-Asadiyah in the early hours of the morning.

“No information about casualties has been received, thus far,” the London-based monitoring group said in its report.

Prior to the clashes, the Turkish military shelled the town of Qubur al-Qrajina next to Umm Ushbah and al-Asadiyah. The three towns are located near the town of Tell Tamr, where Russian forces are known to be deployed.

Earlier this week, the Turkish military and its proxies deployed large reinforcements north and northwest of Tell Tamr in northern al-Hasakah.

The recent clashes expose the fragile nature of the ceasefire in northeastern Syria. A serious confrontation could soon take place in the region, if Turkish forces continue to carry out provocations against the SAA and Kurdish forces.

https://southfront.org/syrian-army-turkish-forces-clash-with-each-other-in-northern-al-hasakah/

ISIS ‘Raqqa Emir’ Was Killed In Recent Drone Strike On Turkish-Occupied Al-Bab – Reports

The recent drone strike on the Turkish-occupied city of al-Bab in northern Syria has killed ISIS’s former Emir [governor] of “Raqqa Wilayat,” Fayz al-Akal, according to opposition sources.

The strike, that took place on June 20 noon, was reportedly carried out by a U.S. combat drone. The prominent terrorist was allegedly targeted with an AGM-114R9X “Ninja Bomb” missile.

Al-Akal, who is known by his nom de guerre “Abu Sa’d al-Shimali,” is originally from the town of Suluk in northern Raqqa. In 2008, Syrian security forces arrested him for carrying out an attack on Suluk’s police station.

The terrorist was freed from Raqqa’s prison in 2013 by the Free Syrian Army (FSA), which captured the city after a brief battle with government forces. Initially, al-Akal joined the FSA. However, soon after he enrolled in the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front, now known as Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham.

Al-Akal defected from HTS to join ISIS later. He rapidly rose within the group’s ranks until he was appointed as the Emir of Raqqa. In ISIS final days, the terrorist group falsely promoted that al-Akal was killed in order to cover his new work in its security forces

Abdu al-Nasir Qurdash, a senior ISIS commander who was recently arrested, revealed that al-Akal was very close to the group’s former leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. He was responsible for issues related to the group’s finance, recruitment and operations abroad.

In his final days, al-Akal was moving in Turkish-occupied areas using a fake ID carrying the name of Ahmad Hussein al-Darwish. His younger brother Izzu al-Akal, aka Ayman, was reportedly killed with him in the drone strike.

One of al-Akal’s brothers was Hadi, Abu al-Harith, who was a commander of the al-Nusra Front in Raqqa. He was killed in a Syrian airstrike on Raqqa in 2013. Another brother of al-Akal is Fadel. According to a recent report, Fadel attended a Turkish-sponsored meeting in northern Raqqa to plan attacks against the Syrian Democratic Forces.

If confirmed, the elimination of al-Akal would be a blow to ISIS. In the last few months, the U.S. managed to eliminated several senior commanders of the terrorist group.

https://southfront.org/isis-raqqa-emir-was-killed-in-recent-drone-strike-on-turkish-occupied-al-bab-reports/

Hundreds of millions of COVID-19 vaccine doses available for 2021 - WHO

“If we’re very lucky, there will be one or two successful [vaccine] candidates before the end of this year,” said Soumya Swaminathan, WHO chief scientist.

The World Health Organization (WHO) announced Thursday it was seeking to produce several hundred million coronavirus vaccine doses by the end of the year 2020, and at most two billion doses by the end of 2021, according to a FOX news report.

The organization, which is part of the United Nations, also noted that it was currently deciding who is eligible to receive the first batch of doses, based on specific criteria among the potential patients.

“If we’re very lucky, there will be one or two successful [vaccine] candidates before the end of this year,” said Soumya Swaminathan, WHO chief scientist, during a virtual news conference, according to Reuters.

“You have to start with the most vulnerable and then progressively vaccinate more people,” she added.

“But because of all the investments going into this, let’s say we have 2 billion doses by the end of 2021 – we should be able to vaccinate at least these priority populations," Swaminathan noted.

With regards to the specific characteristics of the those who can potentially receive the first batch, Swaminathan said that priority will likely be given to front-line workers such as doctors, nurses and others more susceptible to the coronavirus, such as the elderly and those with underlying health conditions.

Swaminathan also discussed the potential of virus mutation, saying that current genetic analysis data collected so far shows that COVID-19 has not mutated into more severe strains.

When asked about the status of the drug hydroxychloroquine, which has been touted as a cure of the coronaviurs by US President Donald Trump, Swaminathan said they have discontinued trials after evidence found that it had no effect on reducing the coronaviurs mortality rate, duration of hospital stays and the need for ventilation for COVID-19 patients.

https://www.jpost.com/international/hundreds-of-millions-of-covid-19-vaccine-doses-available-for-2021-who-632111

Syrian Army Uncovers Huge Stash of Guns, Ammo and Amphetamines Abandoned by Terrorists – Video

The cache, discovered during security operations in the country’s south, will add to the Syrian Army’s massive seized collection of foreign weapons smuggled into the country and handed out to rebels and jihadi militants over the years to try and topple the Damascus government.

The Syrian Army and local authorities has discovered a huge stock of weapons, ammunition and narcotics in the Damascus countryside.

According to SANA, the find included dozens of machineguns, sniper rifles, rocket propelled grenades, and anti-tank missiles, as well as communications equipment, night vision binoculars, and various kit. Among the weapons was a rocket launcher bearing a similarity to the Matador, an German-Israeli-Singaporean rocket launcher design.

Along with the guns and ammo, the Army seized what appears to be well over 100 large bags of narcotics. Some of the bags feature a stylized Lexus symbol – a well-known ‘brand’ of captagon amphetamine drugs commonly used by Daesh (ISIS)* and other jihadis to give fighters delusions of grandeur, allow them to stay awake longer and temporarily increase their pain threshold.

According to SANA’s source, a group of foreign-backed terrorists was arrested during the bust, with the militants engaged, among other things, in the smuggling of materials used to manufacture improvised explosive devices. This included the seizure of thousands of detonators and explosive devices.

In addition, security operations led to the discovery of several dozen tunnels, improvised weapons and ammo depots, and large quantities of logistical equipment, which terrorists used to hide in after attacking safe zones and Syrian Army checkpoints.

https://sputniknews.com/military/202006201079675225-syrian-army-uncovers-huge-stash-of-guns-ammo-and-amphetamines-abandoned-by-terrorists–video/

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>>9683858

Weapons, ammo some of which Western –made, and narcotics left behind by terrorists found in the southern region

The seized weapons included 23 and 14.5 machineguns, 12.7 Dushka, and PKC machineguns, RPGs , sniper rifles, hand grenades, and anti-tank missiles, in addition to communication devices , night- vision binoculars, thousands of various rounds, and large amounts of narcotics.

The source indicated that a group of terrorists linked to external bodies was arrested as the terrorists were smuggling materials used in manufacturing explosive devices.

Thousands of detonators and explosive devices were also seized where the terrorist group was smuggling them through trucks to transport goods , the source added.

https://sana.sy/en/?p=195033

Suspected ‘Ninja Bomb’ Strike Kills Two Individuals In Turkish-Occupied Al-Bab

A suspected U.S. drone strike on the Turkish-occupied part of northern Aleppo has reportedly claimed the lives of two individuals affiliated with ISIS.

The two individuals were traveling on a motorcycle in the vicinity of the city of al-Bab on June 20 morning, when they were targeted by a combat drone. Local sources said the drone was of the “U.S.-led coalition.”

The scene of the strike showed no signs of an explosion. This suggests that the motorcycle was targeted with a U.S.-made AGM-114R9X Hellfire missile.

https://southfront.org/suspected-ninja-bomb-strike-kills-two-individuals-in-turkish-occupied-al-bab-photos/

America’s Own Color Revolution

Color Revolution is the term used to describe a series of remarkably effective CIA-led regime change operations using techniques developed by the RAND Corporation, “democracy” NGOs and other groups since the 1980’s. They were used in crude form to bring down the Polish communist regime in the late 1980s. From there the techniques were refined and used, along with heavy bribes, to topple the Gorbachev regime in the Soviet Union. For anyone who has studied those models closely, it is clear that the protests against police violence led by amorphous organizations with names like Black Lives Matter or Antifa are more than purely spontaneous moral outrage. Hundreds of thousands of young Americans are being used as a battering ram to not only topple a US President, but in the process, the very structures of the US Constitutional order.

If we step back from the immediate issue of videos showing a white Minneapolis policeman pressing his knee on the neck of a black man, George Floyd, and look at what has taken place across the nation since then, it is clear that certain organizations or groups were well-prepared to instrumentalize the horrific event for their own agenda.

The protests since May 25 have often begun peacefully only to be taken over by well-trained violent actors. Two organizations have appeared regularly in connection with the violent protests—Black Lives Matter and Antifa (USA). Videos show well-equipped protesters dressed uniformly in black and masked (not for coronavirus to be sure), vandalizing police cars, burning police stations, smashing store windows with pipes or baseball bats. Use of Twitter and other social media to coordinate “hit-and-run” swarming strikes of protest mobs is evident.

What has unfolded since the Minneapolis trigger event has been compared to the wave of primarily black ghetto protest riots in 1968. I lived through those events in 1968 and what is unfolding today is far different. It is better likened to the Yugoslav color revolution that toppled Milosevic in 2000.

Gene Sharp: Template for Regime Overthrow

In the year 2000 the US State Department, aided by its National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and select CIA operatives, began secretly training a group of Belgrade university students led by a student group that was called Otpor! (Resistance!). The NED and its various offshoots was created in the 1980’s by CIA head Bill Casey as a covert CIA tool to overthrow specific regimes around the world under the cover of a human rights NGO. In fact, they get their money from Congress and from USAID.

In the Serb Otpor! destabilization of 2000, the NED and US Ambassador Richard Miles in Belgrade selected and trained a group of several dozen students, led by Srđa Popović, using the handbook, From Dictatorship to Democracy, translated to Serbian, of the late Gene Sharp and his Albert Einstein Institution. In a post mortem on the Serb events, the Washington Post wrote, “US-funded consultants played a crucial role behind the scenes in virtually every facet of the anti-drive, running tracking polls, training thousands of opposition activists and helping to organize a vitally important parallel vote count. US taxpayers paid for 5,000 cans of spray paint used by student activists to scrawl anti-Milošević graffiti on walls across Serbia.”

http://www.williamengdahl.com/englishNEO16Jun2020.php

West Bank Annexation Plan Tests Gulf-Israeli Relations

Most Arab states in the Persian Gulf have little choice but to come out solidly against the pending annexations, write Giorgio Cafiero and Claire Fuchs.

Despite warming relations with Israel, Gulf Arab monarchies are at least publicly opposing Tel Aviv’s unilateral decision to annex 30-40 percent of the West Bank next month. The main reason pertains to public opinion in Gulf states and the Islamic world at large remaining firmly pro-Palestinian.

Faced just nine years ago with a region-wide revolt that fueled unrest in Bahrain, and still an ongoing war in Yemen and low oil prices, Gulf leaders do not want their tacit partnerships with Israel to create new internal sources of anger that could harm their perceived legitimacy among citizens of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). Despite years of essentially abandoning the Palestinians and establishing barely covert ties with Israel, most Arab states in the Persian Gulf have little choice but to come out solidly against the pending annexations.

On June 1, the United Arab Emirates (UAE)’s minister of state for foreign affairs, Anwar Gargash, tweeted: “Continued Israeli talk of annexing Palestinian lands must stop.”

Nine days later, Abu Dhabi’s ambassador to Washington, Yousef al-Otaiba, wrote an op-ed for the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth in which he made an appeal to Israelis not to proceed with annexation. He said his country could serve as an “open gateway connecting Israelis to the region and the world” but that the annexation of the West Bank could damage the process of improving ties between Tel Aviv and Arab states such as the UAE.

Otaiba also produced a video message in English, which accompanied his op-ed. “We wanted to speak directly to the Israelis. The message was all the progress that you’ve seen and the attitudes that have been changing toward Israel, people becoming more accepting of Israel and less hostile to Israel, all of that could be undermined by the decision to annex.”

https://consortiumnews.com/2020/06/19/west-bank-annexation-plan-tests-gulf-israeli-relations/

‘Thanks for the hint’: Amazon halts sale of photo book with intro by PEDOPHILIA advocate after inquiry from RT

Amazon’s German website has halted the sale of a controversial photo book widely considered to be a work of child pornography, and featuring an introduction by a known pedophilia advocate.

The US retail giant ditched the publication only after an alert from RT Deutsch.“Zeig mal!” (“Show Me!”) was first published in Germany in 1974 as an “educational book for children.” It was authored by American photographer Will McBride, who mostly lived and worked in West Germany, and contains nude photos of pre-adolescents “discovering and exploring their sexuality.”

The book initially received some positive reviews on the both sides of the Atlantic, including from the Los Angeles Times, which called the photographs “beautiful… graceful, charming, and elegant.”

But later the work was condemned as child pornography and banned in countries including New Zealand, as well as several US states. The work is considered highly controversial in Germany, but has never been subjected to a formal ban.

Aside from the nude child photos, the German edition contains a foreword by disgraced psychologist Helmut Kentler, whose name was at the center of a child abuse scandal that Berlin is still reeling from.

Kentler was an open advocate of pedophilia, and spent much of his career arguing for the normalization of sex between adults and children, claiming it could have a “very positive effect on a boy’s personality development.”

In the introduction, Kentler wrote that “if such relationships are not discriminated against by the environment, then the more the older person feels responsible for the younger one, the more likely they are to have positive consequences for personal development.” Back in 2014, the text by Kentler was described by German reporter Stephan Hebel as an “open call for pedophilia.”

The same psychologist, who argued against people alerting law enforcement if they become aware of children involved in involuntary sexual contact with adults, has now been revealed to have run an “experimental program” in Berlin to place foster children into the care of known pedophiles. The city authorities supported the scheme throughout the 1970s, 80s and 90s.

https://www.rt.com/news/492468-amazon-brochure-pedophilia-advocate-germany/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS

Covid-19 Psychosis Defeated: How Belarus Ignored the WHO and Beat Coronavirus

MINSK – Speaking to Grodno labor collectives on June 16, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko explained that his country’s experience in combating coronavirus infection has already become “the property of the whole world”, and the World Bank is even ready to allocate $ 300 million to Minsk to share the details of its tactics.

Such statements by the Belarusian leader during the Covid-19 pandemic are not new. He had previously said that the situation in Belarus had become interesting to the world community, since they didn’t go along the path recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), preferring not to quarantine the country. At the same time, Minsk always reminded that not only Belarus decided to act according to a similar scenario, citing Sweden as an example.

The Belarusian authorities have repeatedly emphasized that they managed to prevent high mortality from coronavirus in the country due to the fact that the Soviet health care system was preserved here, and all necessary measures were taken to fight for every human life. According to the official position of the head of the Belarusian Ministry of Health, Vladimir Karanik, it helps to cope with the disease by the fact that “unlike most European countries, Belarus has maintained a sanitary and epidemiological service, the country is also provided with doctors, a bed facility, oxygen access points, and mechanical ventilation devices (mechanical ventilation) , an adequate level of laboratory diagnosis. “

“In general, low mortality in patients with coronavirus infection in the republic is explained by early diagnosis and detection of infection in people who do not have symptoms, effective measures to isolate patients and contacts. Effective epidemiological measures to protect vulnerable groups of the population – the elderly and senile, as well as those with some chronic diseases, also explain the low mortality from Covid-19 infection, ” the Belarusian department noted earlier.

Formally, the fact that Belarus really managed to turn the tide, and since the end of May the country has been on a plateau, is confirmed by official statistics. Over the past weeks, the incidence rate in the republic of coronavirus began to decrease gradually, and the number of people who recovered, on the contrary, increased sharply. For example, by June 19, Belarus already officially had an excess of the number of people recovering from Covid-19 over newly diagnosed cases for two weeks running.

Only 57,333 cases of infection were recorded, which amounted to an increase of 676 people per day (+ 1.2%). At the same time, 35,275 patients recovered, or 1,252 over the past day (+ 3.6%). 337 patients died at this incidence rate. In total, 821,887 tests were carried out in the country, which is still one of the highest indicators in the post-Soviet space. It’s worth noting that the mortality rate of 4-7 people per day, even despite a decrease in the incidence rate, remains the same. This, together with a number of other reasons, including the stable increase of about 900 people a day since the end of April, has long called into question the veracity of the information given by the Belarusian authorities about the real situation in the country.

https://www.fort-russ.com/2020/06/covid-19-psychosis-defeated-how-belarus-ignored-the-who-and-beat-coronavirus/

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