Better in their words…

Chuck Callesto @ChuckCallesto

FLASHBACK: A Gift from Russia to America That You Haven’t Heard About.

The Teardrop Memorial was sent by Vladimir Putin to the United States following the horrific September 11th attacks.

The “To the Struggle Against World Terrorism” or “Teardrop Memorial” is a powerful and moving tribute to the victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center.

Located in Hudson County, New Jersey, the memorial was gifted by Russia in 2006 as a symbol of international solidarity in the face of terrorism.

9:22 AM · Mar 25, 2024

Mega Geopolitics @MegaGeopolitics

Victoria Nuland a month and a half before the terrorist attack: Putin will get “[nasty] surprises”

10:44 PM · Mar 24, 2024

That was my correction. Nuland said “nasty”, not “nice.”

Megatron @Megatron_ron

A remainder of how US Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Miley persuaded the Ukrainians to launch terrorist attacks inside Russia.

“There shouldn’t be a single Russian who goes to bed without wondering if his throat is going to be slit in the middle of the night,”Miley said, according to an official who attended the event.

‘You gotta get back there, and create a campaign behind the lines’ – US Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Miley – December 4, 2023 reminds Ukrainians of terrorist attacks.

– The Washington Post

8:46 PM · Mar 24, 2024

Full article: https://washingtonpost.com/world/2023/12/04/ukraine-counteroffensive-us-planning-russia-war/…

Right. Imagine if Russia’s Chief of Staff said that about the US? Do Americans give a thought to such statements published in the official organ of the Imperial City on the Potomac? Who in Congress condemns such crazed talk? And most important of all: Who has Milley’s back?

A commenter notes that Milley was retired when he said that. IMO, that doesn’t matter. The rhetoric that is regularly employed by US Imperial officials is not merely over the top. It’s beneath contempt. And yet Americans seem to feel no shame. Imagine if Shoigu said something even remotely similar to that!

Or is it all a coincidence? Alastair Crooke, speaking to Judge Nap this morning, tied some of this at least a bit more closely together by introducing a musical note, so to speak, to some investigative facts that emerged over the weekend. As we’ll see, Crooke—former diplomat and MI6 officer—states as matter of fact that the US/UK Anglosphere Empire has armed, trained, and paid terrorists to attack Russians in the past. Well, we knew that of course—the US materially supported the Chechens, and probably still supports other jihadist groups around the Russian periphery. We know that, but this is a reminder that many of us need:

Judge Nap: From your experience dealing behind the scenes with governments do you think that any Intelligence Community consensus seriously believes that this was just ISIS K on its own?

Alastair Crooke: I’d be very surprised. ISIS K is clearly a sort of cover story, I think, because really ISIS K is not real–it’s a parallel to ISIS that was created by the Western Services as Saudi Arabia stopped supporting the mainstream ISIS because of the bad publicity that was coming from the Jihadi actions. So they [Western Services] needed something. What it [ISIS K] is, is essentially it’s a corridor that exists going from Turkey, past Northern Syria, and into Iran. It was basically aimed for infiltrating sabotage groups into Iran and some jihadis into Syria. Just to be clear, Turkey has a training ground and has been training jihadists. Some of them have gone to Ukraine–particularly the Tartars of Crimea but also others.

What effect will this have on Turkish – Russian relations? Erdogan’s pan-Turkism is in clear conflict with the aims of the multi-national Russian Federation.

It’s part of a process that Erdogan has overseen, to see a sort of pan-Turkic group emerge across the southern part of Central Asia.So, no, I don’t think so. It’s really just a funnel and it is also a source of mercenaries–these four people that took part in this Crocus operation were clearly mercenaries. They weren’t jihadists.

Elsewhere, Crooke states that he has, in his former official life, known and dealt with real jihadis. He knows them when he sees them. These weren’t jihadists.

Judge Nap: The concept that MI6 and CIA might have known about this and either facilitated it or looked the other way–is that realistic? I mean MI6 and CIA do they get involved in slaughtering innocents like this? We’re not talking about overthrowing a country. We’re talking about slaughtering young people at a concert.

Alastair Crooke: I can’t say categorically who knew and who knew what. It is very strange that the United States came out literally almost within minutes–within 55 minutes or something–and said, Oh it’s not Ukraine! but have said nothing about why they think it’s something else, why they think it should be the so-called Isis K. Equally, they [the US Embassy in Moscow] gave on the 7th of March, I think it was, this warning to keep away from any concerts. Now what’s emerged–which is quite interesting–was that one of those assailants that participated this Friday in the attack on the concert was there [at the Crocus concert hall] on the 7th of March and was photographed by one of the security staff there. They’ve matched that up and it looks a little bit as if maybe the act was intended for the 8th of March when a very famous singer, Shaman, was due to sing. He’s sort of an icon of Russian nationalism. He’s famous for his rendition of the national anthem–it really is striking if you ever listen to it. Anyway, what happened was that at that time the son of the owner came, and he’s an [Assyrian? Azerian?], he had bodyguards, and so the front was sort of full of armed men, which it isn’t normally. It looks as if they sort of planned it for the 8th of March and then postponed it.

In other words, the attack was originally planned for the Shaman concert—a powerful symbolic blow, as it were, aimed at revived Russian national feeling in the Putin era. Crooke states that Shaman is know for his rendition of the Russian national anthem. He’s perhaps best know for his song Ja Russkiy, which has become a new sort of anthem of the revived Russian identity and pride—a fitting target for obsessive Neocon hatred for all things Russian:

However, Shaman is also known for his rendition of the official Russian national anthem. Note in this video that he performs it for a pro-Putin gathering—which lends additional credence to Crooke’s speculation that the March 8 concert was the original target. Shaman is identified as a Putin supporter whose trademark is Russian identity.

Crooke continues with more interesting observations:

I remember at one point I went to Washington and gave a talk, and I said, ‘Look, this firing up of these Islamic radicals in order to hurt Russia, some of those groups are going to be huge danger to us in the future. It’ll end up in our cities, too. You need to differentiate between the ones that are okay and the ones that are dangerous to their own people–let alone dangerous to us.’ Anyway, a senator took me by the shoulder and he said, ‘Thank you for this warning, Alastair, but you know, those groups you’re warning us about, they sure kick communist ass!’

How many Americans feel shame at the rhetorical antics of our imperial officials? Note that Crooke is stating as fact—and he has the background to make such statements of fact—that the Anglosphere Empire supports Islamic radicals for the purpose of committing terrorist acts against Russia and Russians. How would we regard that if done by Russia?

OK, note how close Nuland’s retirement announcement was to the speculated original date for the attack at Crocus. This is speculation. Nevertheless … this is exactly why even American imperial officials ought to watch their rhetoric. Consider: Nuland also assured the entire world that the American Empire would not permit the Nordstream pipeline to exist. And, son of a gun (to paraphrase Zhou re Ukraine), she was right! Well, that understandably raises eyebrows with regard to the terror attack at Crocus, doesn’t it?

Judge Nap: Can you draw a line between the statements of Victoria Nuland two weeks before she resigned [she resigned March 5], ‘We have some nasty surprises for President Putin.’ Is that a bridge too far?

Alastair Crooke: Well, I think you can even go a little bit further, because you have on the day after this happened, you have Alexei Danilov–who is the secretary of the National Security Council, he’s like the National Security counselor of of Kiev–on Ukrainian television, and he said–on the day after–he said, ‘Is it fun in Moscow today? I think a lot of fun for you! I think we ought to do this sort of fun more often. You are, after all, brotherly people [obviously mocking a Putin meme] and maybe we should visit you more regularly.’ That seemed to me almost on a par with Biden’s [and Nuland’s!] comments about Nordstream, saying, ‘I assure you it won’t continue to exist, your nordstream pipeline …’

Again, Nuland and Zhou aside, Danilov and his ilk—neo-Nazis who for decades have embraced terrorism against ethnic Russians—are the people to whom the American Empire has sent untold billions of dollars. And our Neocons openly crow that America is damaging Russia on the cheap—it’s a bargain! they claim, American dollars and Ukrainian lives to harm Russia. Budanov, head of Ukraine’s Deep State, has openly stated that he was “very glad” to see the terror attack and believes there will be more such attacks “deeper and deeper” inside Russia. How must Russians, and many others around the world, view American Exceptionalism—the belief fostered by Neocons that our Empire can get away with anything? The Neocons have transformed our country into a Terrorist State while we slept. It’s all so despicable.

I saw there have been hypersonic missile attacks in Kiev and there are rumors that the intelligence building has been completely destroyed. I’m sure the leaders of the intelligence service are sitting in some bunker or elsewhere, but clearly the reaction has started. So people are rightly being very cautious, but it could end up being as much of a fiasco as the Bay of Pigs.

Questions are being raised that cannot be ignored, and so Putin is asking those questions. Those questions may not be heard in America, but they resonate throughout most of the world:

“Using various channels, the USA is trying to convince its satellites and other countries that, according to their intelligence, there is no Kiev traces in the Moscow terror attack.”

“We know by whose hands this crime against Russia and its people was committed. We want to know who ordered it.”

Those supporting the Kiev regime do not want to be accomplices to terror, but there are many questions, Vladimir Putin said.

We need to answer the question why the terrorists tried to go to Ukraine after committing a crime in the Crocus City Hall, who was waiting for them there? Putin added.