China's warning to U.S.: Stop the proxy Ukrainian war against Russia

A much-ignored huge news report from Reuters on Friday, February 27th, was headlined "Chinese diplomat tells West to consider Russia's security concerns over Ukraine."

China's Ambassador to Belgium (which has the capital of the EU) said that the "nature and root cause" of the Ukrainian conflict is "the West," and that "The West should abandon the zero-sum mentality, and take the real security concerns of Russia into consideration."

By "real security concerns," he is clearly referring to NATO's expansion right up to Russia's border, and America's surrounding Russia with U.S. military bases, now increasingly including the most strategic of Russia's bordering countries: Ukraine.

In other words, this diplomat says: "the West" has a "zero-sum" attitude toward Russia, instead of seeking to move forward with an approach in which neither side among the nuclear superpowers benefits at the other's expense — the entire world moves forward together.

This is a direct criticism of Barack Obama, and of all of the pro-Obama, anti-Putin, EU leaders.

It's also an implicit repudiation of Obama's having repeatedly referred to the U.S. as "the one indispensable nation." (Another example of that phrase is here.) Obama keeps saying: every other nation, except the U.S., is "dispensable." He clearly thinks that Russia is.

That's not merely an insult: it's an act of provocation; it is virtually asking for a fight. And all for what? For whose nuclear char?

This criticism of the aggressive nationalist Obama does not come from China's top leadership, but it would not have come at all if they had not approved of it in advance.

China thus now tells Obama: Stop it. Stop it in word, and in deed.

Implicitly, China is also telling Obama: China is not dispensable, either. In fact, the entire mentality, which Obama embodies, is not just callous and insulting; it's dangerous.

Like President G.W. Bush, Obama is increasingly an embarassment to his country.

Shortly before Obama's coup in Ukraine, Gallup International issued, on 30 December 2013, a poll of 65 countries, which found that:

"The US was the overwhelming choice (24% of respondents) for the country that represents the greatest threat to peace in the world today. This was followed by Pakistan (8%), China (6%), North Korea, Israel and Iran (5%). Respondents in Russia (54%), China (49%) and Bosnia (49%) were the most fearful of the US as a threat."

More details of that poll were reported here.

When the U.S. Government is hankering for a war with the only other nuclear superpower, such findings certainly make sense. And the 54% of Russians who cited the U.S. as the greatest threat to peace would probably be far higher today. But Gallup International didn't publish any update on that poll-question, perhaps because the original financial backer (which was unnamed) wouldn't fund it.

Already, the finding was bad enough. But Obama keeps calling the U.S. "the one indispensable nation in the world." He keeps telling other nations: you are dispensable. He keeps rubbing it in — not the fact, but his own nationalism.

It reminds some people of Mussolini, and of Hitler. But Obama pretends to be a democrat, not a fascist.

Maybe he's just a bigger liar than they were. Maybe that's what he is so arrogant about: his terrific ability to deceive.

After all, he won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize for it: for lying. For misrepresenting himself as being progressive, instead of regressive.

Well, now: anyone who doesn't know the reality is deluded by propaganda — and it's not coming from Russia, nor from China. It's coming from their own nation's 'news' media.

Which heads-of-state want to be publicly associated with a foreign leader like that, one who tells the given leader's public: your nation is dispensable. Fools. Only fools.

Obama is encouraging other countries to oppose the United States.

Wow. He's the black George W. Bush.

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Thousands flee as Villarica volcano erupts in southern Chile

© AP/Aton Chile

One of South America's most active volcanoes erupted early Tuesday in southern Chile, spewing heavy smoke into the air as lava surged down its slopes, prompting authorities to evacuate thousands of people.

The Villarrica volcano erupted around 3 a.m. local time, according to the National Emergency Office, which issued a red alert and ordered evacuations. Local media showed images of the volcano bursting at the top, glowing in the dark amid heavy smoke and rivers of lava. Authorities worried that mudslides caused by melting snow could endanger nearby communities, but no injuries were reported.

The 9,000 foot (2,847-meter) volcano in Chile's central valley, 400 miles (670 kilometers) south of Santiago, sits above the small city of Pucon, which has a population of about 22,000 people.

© AP/Gabriela Ulloa

The Villarica volcano erupts near Pucon, Chile, early Tuesday, March 3 , 2015. The Villarica volcano erupted Tuesday around 3 a.m. local time (0600 GMT), according to the National Emergency Office, which issued a red alert and ordered evacuations.

"It was the most amazing thing I've ever seen," 29-year-old Australian tourist Travis Armstrong said in a telephone interview from Pucon. "I've never seen a volcano erupt and it was spewing lava and ash hundreds of meters into the air. Lightning was striking down at the volcano from the ash cloud that formed from the eruption."

Chilean authorities had issued an orange alert on Monday because of increased activity at the volcano. About 3,500 people have been evacuated so far, including tourists, said Interior and Security Minister Rodrigo Penailillo.

© AP

Penailillo warned that the eruption was causing numerous rivers in the area to rise as snow along the sides of the volcano began melting. Villarrica is covered by a glacier cap covering some 40 square kilometers (15 square miles) and snow from about 1,500 meters (about 5,000 feet) on up.

Authorities were keeping an eye on four nearby communities that could be endangered by mudslides as the snow melts. Officials were also monitoring nearly 200 people who were cut off from main roads when two bridges were destroyed by rising waters from nearby rivers.

Rodrigo Alvarez, director of the National Service of Geology and Mining, issued a warning for people in the area, especially at tourists, to be careful. "This is not a fireworks show," Alvarez said, calling on people to obey official prohibitions to stay away from the volcano.

"It's an unstable volcano, all of its borders are altered," Alvarez added.

President Michelle Bache let arrived in Pucon amid cheers and boos later Tuesday to check on safety preparations, and declared an agricultural emergency to help local farmers.

"You never know when an eruption will take place but what we do know is that the activity is lower, that's visible," Bachelet said after flying over the affected areas and meeting local authorities.

Witnesses said Pucon looked like a deserted town at dawn. But as the volcanic activity decreased, some local residents had decided to return to their homes, more cars were seen in the streets, and some people had even decided to sunbathe at a nearby lake. By midday, the community's bus terminals, banks, restaurants and other businesses were operating normally.

© AP/Gabriela Ulloa

People leave their houses after Villarica volcano erupted near Pucon, Chile.

The eruption "was something beautiful and amazing. We're still a bit shocked but the volcano has calmed down so I'm going to continue with my vacation," Alejandra Paz Bustos, 29, said as she sunbathed at nearby lake Villarrica.

Jose Manuel Reyes, the 37-year-old manager of La Bicicleta hostal in downtown Pucon, said visitors from France, Canada, Australia, South Africa and Brazil watched the early morning eruption from the building's terrace.

"We're still a bit nervous because we don't know what's happening," said Reyes. "There was nervousness, but we haven't seen any panic."

Tourists flock to the area around Villarrica for outdoor activities like kayaking, horseback riding, fishing and hiking around the volcano, which last had a major eruption in 1984. Dozens of tourists were among those evacuated. Officials said late Tuesday that about 15,000 people living in rural areas near the volcano were suffering water shortages after the eruption, and kept the red alert for nearby areas.

The Villarrica has a crater of about 200 meters (yards) in diameter and a lake of lava about 150 meters (yards) deep. It has periodic eruptions every 10 or 15 years.

Chile has more than 2,000 volcanoes in the Andes cordillera and about 90 of them remain active. Villarrica is considered among the country's most dangerous.

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Private Police: Mercenaries for the American Police State

"Corporate America is using police forces as their mercenaries."—Ray Lewis, Retired Philadelphia Police Captain

© Flickr/​Jamie Manley

The University of Chicago Police Department is one of the largest private security forces in the country.

It's one thing to know and exercise your rights when a police officer pulls you over, but what rights do you have when a private cop—entrusted with all of the powers of a government cop but not held to the same legal standards—pulls you over and subjects you to a stop-and-frisk or, worse, causes you to "disappear" into a Gitmo-esque detention center not unlike the one employed by Chicago police at Homan Square?

For that matter, how do you even begin to know who you're dealing with, given that these private cops often wear police uniforms, carry police-grade weapons, and perform many of the same duties as public cops, including carrying out SWAT team raids, issuing tickets and firing their weapons.

This is the growing dilemma we now face as private police officers outnumber public officers (more than two to one), and the corporate elite transforms the face of policing in America into a privatized affair that operates beyond the reach of the Fourth Amendment .

Mind you, it's not as if we had many rights to speak of, anyhow.

Owing to the general complacency of the courts and legislatures, the Fourth Amendment has already been so watered down, battered and bruised as to provide little practical protection against police abuses. Indeed, as I make clear in my book A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State , we're already operating in a police state in which police have carte blanche authority to probe, poke, pinch, taser, search, seize, strip and generally manhandle anyone they see fit in almost any circumstance. Expanding on these police powers, the U.S. Supreme Court recently gave law enforcement officials tacit approval to collect DNA from any person, at any time.

However, whatever scant protection the weakened Fourth Amendment provides us dissipates in the face of privatized police, who are paid by corporations working in partnership with the government. Talk about a diabolical end run around the Constitution.

We've been so busy worrying about militarized police, police who shoot citizens first and ask questions later, police who shoot unarmed people, etc., that we failed to take notice of the corporate army that was being assembled under our very noses. Looks like we've been outfoxed, outmaneuvered and we're about to be out of luck.

Indeed, if militarized police have become the government's standing army, privatized police are its private army—guns for hire, if you will. This phenomenon can be seen from California to New York, and in almost every state in between. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the private security industry is undergoing a boom right now, with most of the growth coming about due to private police doing the jobs once held by public police. For instance, Foley, Minnesota, population 2600, replaced its police force with private guards

Technically, a private police force is one that is owned or controlled by a non-governmental body such as a corporation. Those who advocate for privatized services and limited government hail the shift towards private police as a step in the right direction by getting the government out of the business of policing and allow market principles to dictate an officer's success, i.e., if an officer abuses his authority, he can easily be fired.

Read the fine print, however, and you'll find that these private police aka guns-for-hire a.k.a. private armies a.k.a. company police officers a.k.a. secret police a.k.a. conservators of the police a.k.a. rent-a-cops don't exactly remove the government from the equation. Instead, they merely allow them to work behind the scenes, conveniently insulated from any accusations of wrongdoing or demands for transparency. Indeed, most private police officers are either working for private security firms that are contracted by the government or are government workers moonlighting on their time off.

What began as a job detail for wealthy communities and businesses looking to discourage burglaries has snowballed into a lucrative enterprise for private corporations. Today these private police can be found wherever extra security is "needed": at hospitals, universities, banks, shopping malls, gated communities, you name it.

As historian Heather Ann Thompson notes,

"private security firms have come substantially to supplement, if not completely to replace, the publicly-funded public safety presence of troubled inner cities ranging from Oakland, to New Orleans, to small towns in states such Minnesota, to entire neighborhoods—sometimes extremely rich, sometimes desperately poor—in urban centers such as Atlanta and Baltimore."

For example, in New Orleans, a 50-person private police squad funded by a "voluntary" hotel tax is being charged with enforcing traffic, zoning and other non-emergency laws in the French Quarter.

In Seattle, off-duty Seattle Police officers moonlighting as a private security force patrol wealthy neighborhoods "approximately six nights/days a week for five hours each shift. Officers are in uniform, carry police radios and their police firearms and drive unmarked personal vehicles."

In California, private mercenaries—many of them ex-U.S. Special Forces, Army Rangers and other combat veterans—equipped with AR-15 rifles use unmarked helicopters to police cannabis farms and cut down private gardens without a warrant.

Yet while these private police firms enjoy the trappings of government agencies—the weaponry, the arrest and shoot authority, even the ability to ticket and frisk— they're often poorly trained, inadequately screened, poorly regulated and heavily armed. Now if that sounds a lot like public police officers, you wouldn't be far wrong.

First off, the label of "private" is dubious at best. Mind you, this is a far cry from a privatization of police. These are guns for hire, answerable to corporations who are already in bed with the government. They are extensions of the government without even the pretense of public accountability. One security consultant likened the relationship between public and private police to public healthcare: "It's basically, the government provides a certain base level. If you want more than that, you pay for it yourself."

The University of Chicago's police department (UCPD) is a prime example of how private security firms are being entrusted with the legal status of private police forces (which sets them beyond the reach of the rule of law) and the powers of public ones. With a jurisdiction that covers a six-square-mile area and is home to 65,000 individuals, the majority of whom are not students, UCPD is one of the largest private security forces in America.

The private police agency, modeled after the tactics of NYPD chief William Bratton, criminalizes nonviolent activities such as loitering, vandalism, smoking marijuana, and ​dancing "reck​l​essly" and punishes minor infractions severely in order to "discourage" violent crime. To this end, the UCPD can search, ticket, arrest, and detain anyone they choose without being required to disclose to the public its reasons for doing so. Not surprisingly, the UCPD has been accused of using racial profiling to target individuals for stop-and-frisks.

Second, these private contractors are operating beyond the reach of the law. For example, although private police in Ohio are "authorized by the state to carry handguns, use deadly force and detain, search and arrest people," they are permitted to keep their arrest and incident reports under wraps. Moreover, the public is not permitted to "check the officers' background or conduct records, including their use-of-force and discipline histories." As attorney Fred Gittes remarked, "There is no accountability. They have the greatest power that society can invest in people — the power to use deadly force and make arrests. Yet, the public and public entities have no practical access to information about their behavior, eluding the ability to hold anyone accountable."

So what happens when the government hires out its dirty deeds to contractors who aren't quite so discriminating about abiding by constitutional safeguards, especially as they relate to searches and heavy-handed tactics? If you think police abuses are worrisome, security expert Bruce Schneier warns that "abuses of power, brutality, and illegal behavior are much more common among private security guards than real police."

As Schneier points out,

"Many of the laws that protect us from police abuse do not apply to the private sector. Constitutional safeguards that regulate police conduct, interrogation and evidence collection do not apply to private individuals. Information that is illegal for the government to collect about you can be collected by commercial data brokers, then purchased by the police. We've all seen policemen 'reading people their rights' on television cop shows. If you're detained by a private security guard, you don't have nearly as many rights."

Third, more often than not, the same individuals are serving in both capacities, first on the government payroll, then moonlighting for the corporations. Not surprisingly, given the demand for private police, you'll find that police in most cities work privately while they are off-duty. Some private officers started off as public officers, then made the switch once they saw how lucrative the field could be.

This gives rise to another interesting phenomenon, a schism, if you will, between what is permissible in the private sector versus and what is allowed in the public sector, and how it affects those who travel between both worlds. We saw this played out in St. Louis, Missouri, when an off-duty police officer, working a secondary shift for a private security firm, shot and killed a teenager.

Fourth, what few realize is that these private police agencies are actually given their police powers by state courts and legislatures, which do not require them to act in accordance with the Constitution's strictures or be accountable to "we the people." As legal analyst Timothy Geigner observes,

"They're hiding from public scrutiny behind the veil of incorporation, which may rank right up there among the most cynical things a government organization has ever done . It's a move one might find in the corporate republic of some dystopian novel. I say that because it's truly not as though the police departments in question are attempting to claim some kind of exemption within public records law. They're just putting up a stone wall."

It's not as if we have much in the way of local, publicly accountable police forces now; they all answer to the militarized agencies that provide their equipment and training. These private cops simply swell the government's ranks and serve as the private arm of the law.

In fact, the Department of Justice has been one of the most vocal advocates for the benefits that private security—which has twice the budget and manpower as their government counterparts—can provide in partnership with public police. These so-called "benefits" are outlined in the DOJ's guidebook entitled Operation Partnership: Practices and Trends in Law Enforcement and Private Security Collaborations , which focuses on how both sectors can share cutting-edge technology, information, and personnel resources. Sounds cozy, doesn't it?

As history shows, we're not forging a new path with these private police agencies, either. In fact, we're simply following a model established long ago, not only by Hitler and Mussolini, who relied on private guards to do their bidding, but also by the likes of Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller, who relied on their own private police force, the Pinkertons, who had broad authority to "harass or hurt anyone their employers deemed a threat—be they a worker trying to get a fair wage or a poor person begging near the doorstep of a mansion."

Nevertheless as historian Heather Ann Thompson points out, "despite countless historical accounts of why private policing of public spaces is a bad idea in a democracy, ordinary Americans have raised little ruckus today when, once again, only those Americans with money are assured access to security and protection." Thompson continues:

Worse, astonishing faith has been expressed in the much-touted proposition that private police forces, in fact, act in the best interests of the public. Where is the concern, if not the outrage, that there is virtually no regulation when it comes to private policing in America's inner cities? Not only can individuals with little if any training police public spaces, but in various locales they are even authorized to make arrests and wield firearms. What is more, unlike public police, private security officers are not required by law to read a suspect his or her Miranda Rights and, more incredibly, they are allowed to use force, in some circumstances even deadly force, if they deem it necessary to do so.

What we're finding ourselves faced with is a government of mercenaries, bought and paid for with our tax dollars, all the while claiming to be beyond the reach of the Constitution's dictates.

When all is said and done, privatization in the American police state amounts to little more than the corporate elite providing cover for government wrong-doing.

Either way, the American citizen loses.

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William Shatner steals space shuttle Enterprise to look for reborn Leonard Nimoy

An arrest warrant has been issued for actor William Shatner, who is reported to have stolen the space shuttle Enterprise.

It is believed that Shatner carried out the audacious theft with a group of friends after claiming they just wanted to 'look the old bird over' before she was broken up.

NASA are reported to be incredulous about the crime, as the Enterprise was retired from service in 2012.

A spokesperson said, "We just don't understand how they got her going. She's a relic on a one-way trip to the scrap heap."

"Quite simply, the engines cannae take it. The only way they could get that old tub going again would be to steal parts from a nuclear vessel, and who has the ability to do that?"

Shatner to search for Nimoy

Shatner and his crew - reported to comprise Nichelle Nichols, George Takei and Walter Koenig - are understood to believe that Leonard Nimoy will have been reborn on a new, Edenic alien world as suggested in a 1984 documentary.

When asked their course, shortly before passing out of radio range, Shatner is reported to have replied "Second star on the left, and straight on 'til morning."

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Relentless heat plagues Boulia, Queensland

© News.com.au

Here's how hot it is today near Boulia, a small town of 230 in the Queensland outback which locals like to tell you is halfway between Melbourne and Darwin.

It's so hot that even inside with the air-conditioning on, the floorboards are pretty much too hot to walk on. In fact, it's so hot that you can barely even tell when the air-conditioner is on.

"We have to walk outside to check," local grazier Ann Britton tells news.com.au. That's when the furnace hits you in the face.

Ann Britton runs Goodwood Station just outside Boulia with her husband Rick. It's half a million acres, give or take. Every summer's a hot summer in far western Queensland, but lately even the locals have been sweating.

Today the mercury is heading for 45 degrees, which is hotter than it has been most days. But it's not the temperature extremes that have made the last few weeks unbearable. It's the relentlessness of the heat. The fact it's there one day after the next after the next.

For 25 days straight now, the mercury has nudged or exceeded 40 degrees. "We normally get a break," Britton says. "Not this year. The heat just seems to be really claustrophobic, a really burning heat which just saps everything out of you.

Think about that for a minute if you live in one of the southern capitals. You know how we talk about heatwaves when it's been 40 degrees for a day or two? Well imagine it's been 40 for 25 days straight. Not only that, but it's been above 42 degrees for 10 days straight now. Don't mean to go all on you, but that's not a heatwave, THIS is a heatwave.

The Brittons say they've turned a little Mexican in their attempt to beat the heat. "We get a bit of a reprieve from the heat in the morning so we're up early and work till lunchtime. Then we have a break in the middle of the day, a long siesta, and we might not go back to work till 4 or 5 in the afternoon."

Scott Adams, from the Mt Isa Bureau of Meteorology office (about three hours north), says it's all due to the failure of wet season, which means moisture has not been dragged down into central and southern outback Queensland.

"I'm just looking at the figures for Boulia now. Yeah, it's been really hot and dry. In recent weeks we've had a very static weather pattern which means no change of airmass which means it's just been heating up."

And up. And up. The average February maximum temperature of 40.5 degrees was two degrees above normal overall.

© Bom.gov.au/NewsComAu

Fourth column from the left tells you everything you need to know.

Back at Goodwood Station, the cattle selloff has begun in earnest because there's just not enough feed to go around. The property is broken into several disjointed paercels. Some of them have had storms, others haven't.

"Where we've had storms we've been able to fatten cattle, but we're selling off now. At the best of times we can hold 6000 head or more but we're down to 4,000 now.

As the dry season approches, Ann Britton knows that rain in March is crucial if she's to avoid selling off virtually the whole herd except the precious breeders.

"It's not panic stations yet." she says. But it could be.

"We had a dust storm the other day just to add to the heat. I long to hear the patter of rain on the roof. So many people are just wanting that general wet."

© News.com.au

Until that happens, the Brittons will keep cooking outside on the Webber. When the weather's so hot that you can't even tell that the air-conditioner is on, the last thing you feel like doing is heating up the kitchen.

And as for when the hot streak will end? Well, the forecast for Boulia for the next four days is 44, 41, 42 and 43. Relief will come on Friday. Sort of. It's only going to be 39 degrees that day.

© News.com.au

This image illustrates the grass cover on one of the better parts of the station. Good enough for now, but more rain is needed in this drought-declared area.

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FLASHBACK: America's Chechen proxy fighters: The big picture

The media is awash with expert commentary on the various world trouble spots. Many of the reports you see make similar claims about the presence of ethnic Chechens amongst the various fighting forces in Iraq, Syria, Kenya, Ukraine and other war-torn states that the US has vested interests in. However there is one point all these authors have missed.

On September 1 Iraqi News reported that "Iraq's counter-terrorism office announced the killing of 23 fighters of Chechen nationality who belong to the organization of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, in Sulaiman Bek district, east of Tikrit."

Whether these people were really Chechens has not been established, as "Chechen" has been equated with "terrorist" for a long time, so if you don't know where a dead terrorist comes from he is called a Chechen. But there is a reason this state of affairs came to be, and it does not derive from Russian propaganda, as sources such as Arab News try and make out.

On June 23 drew attention to the fact that "While most of the world is focused on the battle between Assad and the Syrian rebels, Chechens are becoming known as some of the best fighters in Syria. Their prominence is growing, and it is alarming."

This article detailed how the Chechens had split into different groups, some pro- and some anti-ISIL, based on their original allegiances. However it did not say why these Chechens were interested in Syria and how they got there, or how they became such good fighters.

On July 22 Cristina Maza, writing in , stated that "according to Murad Batal al-Shishani, a London-based expert on Islamic groups and a specialist on Islamic movements in Chechnya, the majority of the Chechen fighters in Syria right now are from the Pankisi Gorge."

The article also pointed out that "the number of residents in the region [Pankisi] has doubled over the past decade due to an influx of refugees from Chechnya." It described how they are "volunteering" to fight in Syria, encouraged by "radicals" and lack of opportunity in the gorge. Once again however the article failed to mention why the Chechens and [even some Saudi nationals] suddenly took such an interest in this part of Georgia, if there are so few opportunities there.

The point everyone is missing is that what Henry Kamens has been saying for more than 10 years is being proven true every day. The Chechens being recruited in the Pankisi Gorge did not end up there by accident, they were inserted by the CIA and funded and trained in terrorist warfare by the CIA in order to destabilise other countries the US was interested in. Those same Chechens are not volunteering for service but are being sent there by the US, as part of a co-ordinated plan, to serve US interests, and being moved around to wherever they are needed.

Roddy Scott, a young British journalist and filmmaker, was killed for knowing and saying this, and that was no accident either. He was following the money and weapons, the NGO mechanism used to fund the freedom fighters and provide fake passports to people who, based on the American definition, were terrorists. So let us consider the facts.

Safe haven for chosen terrorists

From 2001 onwards an extensive media campaign was conducted by international outlets which claimed that Pankisi, which none of those reporters had previously seen, was a "terrorist haven". No actual evidence was provided to support this, but it made people feel better to think all the terrorists came from one place and it had been identified.

These reports were used as the justification for sending US military advisers to the Gorge in April 2002, purportedly on a mission to contain al-Qaeda loyalists who might have been operating there. It is only after this, however, that most of the Chechens later branded as terrorists actually moved to this isolated valley, as Cristina Maza's article implies.

The US intervention there would therefore seem to have been an utter failure, which would cause heads to roll. However, the sudden influx of terrorists was used as the excuse for the establishment of the 64 million dollar Train and Equip Program. This provided precious few weapons to the Georgian Armed Forces and their "training" was exposed for what it was during the 2008 Russia-Georgia war. It has, however, led to a succession of fearsome Chechen warriors, highly-trained, well-armed and successful, emerging from the gorge and appearing in US-backed wars all over the region, as the articles cited state.

This activity was not hidden. Within weeks reports about what was really going on there, dismissed as rumour at the time, started appearing. Nikolaus von Twickel of the soon reported that Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) officials had confirmed that Ramzan Turkoshvili, 34, a Russian citizen born in Georgia, had been co-ordinating the activities of illegal armed groups in the Northern Caucasus by order of Tbilisi.

He told Itar-Tass that the Pankisi Gorge, "despite repeated statements of the Georgian leadership and their Western allies, is still used as a base of terrorists acting in the North Caucasus and by various terrorist and extremist organisations. Ringleaders of terrorist groups from the Georgian territory provide financial support to bandit groups, coordinate activities for the preparation of terrorist acts, as well as recruiting Muslim youth of the Akhmed districts of Georgia and involving them in extremist activities."

One of the Chechens who appeared in Pankisi Gorge at that time was Imran Akhmadov. When journalists such as Jeffrey Silverman, who was then working as an editor-and-chief of the , followed up on his Chechen and intelligence connections they were told that he had been killed by the FSB. Not only is Akhmadov still alive, he is one of the leaders of ISIL.

He had in fact been provided with a fake Georgian passport, in the name Kavtarashvili, and shipped to Turkey by the US Embassy when people started enquiring about him. The snipers in Maidan Square, who shot at everyone indiscriminately and were also described as Chechens, were similarly removed from the scene, and sent to Syria, on fake Georgian passports when it was reported that they were neither protestors nor Ukrainian security services personnel.

Akhmadov's brother was also reported killed by the FSB, as if to provide support for the claim that Imran had died. He too is still alive, and is a senior Georgian intelligence operative. As official investigations are now revealing, he was involved in the planning of the prospective murder of tycoon Badri Patarkatsishvili, obviously not a matter for low level operatives.

Knowing too much

It was in October 2002 that Roddy Scott accompanied the Chechens as they crossed from Georgia into the Russian republic of Ingushetia, whilst making a documentary. The 31-year-old journalist was killed filming a firefight between Chechen fighters and the Russian army in the village of Galashka in the Ingush region of the Russian Federation. Roddy worked for Frontline TV, a British TV company, was no stranger to hotspots and knew how to protect himself.

Scott had made no secret of the fact that he felt the wrong information about Pankisi was being reported in the West. He had written to a friend shortly before he left:

"I personally think it's a great story, it's about the first time I have ever seen the possibility for someone to really lift the lid on everything, rather than the usual 'journo-grasping-at-straws-with-no-good-sources' which seems to emanate from the region. And what really gives it the boost is that it is tied into US policy, which gives it the international rather than local/parochial flavour. As you saw, there are plenty of boyeviks [terrorists/fighters] in Pankisi, and pretty much they operate openly; but the story has never really come out because most journals don't have access. And there is a real danger of kidnapping if you are there too long without the protection of a Chechen commander. Equally, the Chechens have a vested interest in making sure the full story never comes out (in print, photos or TV). It's the kind of thing that might just provoke the Russians to do something, (or give them excuse, I guess)."

After the rebels were driven back Russian Federal Forces found Scott's body. Any such death is generally investigated. When Jeffrey Silverman, who had been one of his sources in Georgia, started asking deep questions he was warned by a former employee of the BBC (and possibly MI6, the British intelligence service):

"Your digging around Roddy has no such safety net, be careful. His mother's appetite for information will never be satisfied, make sure you know where the limits are - and when to stop digging. I do it because I am a hired gun; I always have a focus, and a programme to deliver at the end of the day. Don't get too carried away chasing shadows without a clear aim. Didn't mean for this to turn into a lecture - just be careful, and know why you are taking risks."

Nor was Scott's an isolated case. As a Moscow-based US journalist later reported, "I would not take any of the stories about Pankisi seriously - Roddy Scott and I worked on what was going on there some years ago, and it got him killed, the dime was dropped on him by an American working for OSCE who intentionally shared information with GRU, Russian Military Intelligence about the mass movement of Chechens.

"The result was that Scott ended up dead and I was beaten up - even arrested getting off an airplane in the United States and held in total isolation while a secret court hearing took place, in an effect to try to strip me of my US passport and ability to work as a journalist."

Why would such action be taken against anyone? Clearly, the OSCE operative was not seeking to prevent acts of terrorism being carried out, monitoring the Georgian-Russian international border during this period, as his mandate obliged him to do. He and whoever controlled him, one a compromised Danish General, wanted to make sure that the story Scott was working on would never be told in the West and his treasure trove of information on what was happening in Pankisi would go to the grave with him.

First hand

I have been to Pankisi Gorge and lived with the locals for weeks on end. I have seen the Georgian military supposedly cracking down on terrorists patrolling with no bullets in their weapons. I have seen the newcomers, the Chechen terrorists, Arab nationals, the cars they drive, their clothes, their flats in Tbilisi. None of them work, and they do not live like that on remittances from relatives abroad or herding sheep.

I have also investigated the Akhmadov brothers further. They were involved in the kidnapping of two Polish journalists who might have stumbled on the story, Zofis Fischer and Ewa Marchwinska-Wyrwal, two Spanish businessmen and the faked abduction of British banker Peter Shaw, who staged it himself. The murder of Anthony Russo, an Italian journalist, also remains unresolved, and has never been properly investigated, like all the other cases linked with the Akhmadov brothers.

None of this is coincidence. The appearance of Chechens from the Pankisi Gorge, who moved there after the US sent people to root out terrorists, in all the wars the US is involved in is not coincidence. The US has put those people in those places to conduct whatever terrorist operations serve its interests, even if it means sacrificing those same terrorists.

All we are seeing now is part of a long lasting, co-ordinated programme of state-sponsored terrorism conducted by the guardians of freedom and democracy, using people it labels as terrorists who it has armed and trained to do all these things. Iraq, Syria, Ukraine, all the conflicts we are seeing are part of the same programme.

I've been saying all this for a very long time. A lot of people have a vested interest in proving me wrong, and will give anyone trying to do so all possible assistance; go ahead, the world is waiting, make my day!

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Bibi the Clown in Congress: Iran = most terrible, horrible, no good thing ever, in the universe

© AP Photo/ Andrew Harnik

"Silence, my subjects! I am not finished!"

During his speech before Congress, Prime Minister Netanyahu used a number of grand, rhetorical sound bites. It was all part of a concentrated effort to convince a foreign legal body to disregard their own president's policies in favor of his own. And judging by the standing applause, these ten lines may have been the most convincing - and baffling.

1. It was "never my intention" for speech to become political.

As anyone with even a cursory knowledge of American politics knows, anything and everything is political once it comes before Congress. A New York soda ban last year made buying Coca-Cola a radical statement. Even Clint Eastwood's "American Sniper" became a way for Republicans to show their bonafides. But sure, Netanyahu thought everyone would be cool with him circumventing the leader of the United States.

Bibi speech had more references than a Drake song: Game of Thrones, Google, tweets, Farewell to Arms, Robert Frost, Moses #NetanyahuSpeech— Kia Makarechi (@Kia_Mak) March 3, 2015

2. "Iran is busy gobbling up nations."

"Gobbling" is defined as "eating (something) hurriedly and noisily," making it a curious choice of words. Given that Netanyahu is trying to reinforce the image of Iran as a source of ancient evil in the region, it seems odd he would choose language more evocative of a McDonald's cheeseburger than a mortal threat to global security.

3. "To defeat ISIS and let Iran get nuclear weapons would be to win the battle, but lose the war."

Somehow it seems harnessing nuclear energy is much less threatening than a group of fundamentalist marauders beheading any journalist they can get their hands on. Even aside from the broader fact that the Iran-ISIL comparison is a false equivalency, that sounds like a battle worth winning.

4. "We must all stand together to stop Iran's march of conquest, subjugation, and terror."

There has indeed been a recent wave of conquest, subjugation, and terror, but the marching hasn't been done by Iran, but - again - by ISIL. As seen, quite literally, below.

© AP

5. "The days when the Jewish people remained passive in the face of genocidal enemies are over."

The sentiment is correct. It goes without saying that no one should tolerate genocide. But there is very little in modern history to suggest that Israel has remained "passive." There was the Six-Day War in 1967. There was the 1981 airstrike which destroyed the only nuclear reactor in Iraq. Not to mention the military strikes which killed six members of Hezbollah in the Golan Heights two months ago.

6. "This deal will change the Middle East for the worse and will spark a nuclear arms race in the region."

If you listened to the rest of the speech - or read the previous 5 quotes - it should be pretty clear that Netanyahu believes a nuclear arms race is already taking place in the region.

7. Netanyahu's insistence that Iran will always be an enemy of the United States.

Bibi may have gotten confused here. When addressing a joint session of the US Congress, it's easy to forget that you do not, in fact, represent the United States. He is also not a representative of Iran, making his bold statement about the relationship between the two nations a little speculative.

8. The standing ovation received after Netanyahu called for a nuclear free Middle East.

Good, then everyone is in agreement. Israel, as a preeminent member of the Middle East, must surrender any and all nuclear weapons it has developed.

9. "Israel's neighbors know that Iran will become more aggressive...when sanctions are lifted."

There he goes again, speaking for a number of nations which he does not, in fact, represent.

10. That Robert Frost reference.

Toward the speech's closing, Netanyahu referenced the famous Frost poem, "The Road Not Taken," to encourage US lawmakers to make a difficult choice. But as several scholars have noted, this interpretation is a gross misunderstanding of the poem's meaning, which is, in fact, a somber acknowledgement that our choices mean less than we think.

Probably not the message Bibi traveled 9,000 miles to deliver.

One person, at least, wasn't watching. According to Reuters, President Obama told reporters that he didn't watch, but read the transcript, and didn't see anything new.

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