OBLONG MEDIA GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE is where independent minds meet to dissect politics, society, power, and global affairs without fear or filters. This is not mainstream media.
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“If we open a quarrel between the past and the present, we shall find that we have lost the future” –Winston Churchill. What is needed for Nigeria to make progress is ideologically driven and values orientated politics and a north that is able to balance the overall interest of Nigeria with its own sectarian interest in a fair and just manner. Northern leaders cannot continue to be selective on the ills they condemn and continue to see Nigeria as a country to exploit to serve its sectarian interests. Many of them like the rest of Nigerian ruling elites are…
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Good evening distinguished ladies and gentlemen. A MUST READ FOR ALL NIGERIANS!!! A MASTER PIECE FROM A 90-YEAR-OLD ICONIC DIPLOMAT CHIEF EMEKA ANYAOKU – Former Commonwealth Sec. Gen. Anyaoku Nigeria’s iconic 90-year-old diplomat and former Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku has said that the way forward for Nigeria is a new constitution to arrest the ongoing deterioration of the situation in the country. Anyaoku says that to achieve the desired transformation for the better, the country needs a system of government that not only addresses Nigeria’s diversity but is also based on a constitution that can correctly be…
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Hamas’s atrocities and Israel’s retaliation will change both sides for ever The miscalculations of Israel’s and Gaza’s leaders are being laid bare The first hours were chaos. Residents of southern Israel, near the border with Gaza, woke to the sound of incoming rockets and mortars. They rushed to shelters—a grim routine in this part of the country, but a routine nonetheless.Then, a few minutes later, they heard gunfire drawing steadily closer and shouting in Arabic. That was not routine at all. Nor were the unimaginable scenes outside their homes, snippets of which began to trickle out on social media: Palestinian…
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16 November 2012 On November 14, Hamas military commander Ahmed Jabari was murdered in a Israeli missile attack. In a bitter irony, barely a few hours before the attack, Hamas received the draft proposal of a permanent truce agreement with Israel. “Hours before Hamas strongman Ahmed Jabari was assassinated, he received the draft of a permanent truce agreement with Israel, which included mechanisms for maintaining the cease-fire in the case of a flare-up between Israel and the factions in the Gaza Strip.”(Haaretz, November 15, 2012) The targeted assassination of Ahmed Jabari was followed by an extensive bombing campaign under Operation Pillar of…
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As the death toll from the Israel government’s air strikes (and ground invasion) increases, consider former Rep. Ron Paul’s January 9, 2009 speech on the US House of Representatives floor explaining that Israel helped encourage the growth of Hamas to counteract the Palestine Liberation Organization. Paul, RPI’s chairman and founder, proceeds to discuss in the speech the similarity between Israel’s past actions regarding Hamas and the US Central Intelligence Agency’s support for radicalizing Muslims to compete with the Soviet Union. Watch Paul’s speech here: Richard Sale opens a window on the Israel government’s effort to aid Hamas’ growth in his June…
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Given Israel’s lie about Hamas beheadings, and its own reported murder of hostages, why are its claims of “a thousand civilian deaths” taken on faith? “I do not condemn Hamas because the resistance of the Palestinian people is a reflex response to their slow genocide…. The people I do condemn are the political class internationally who [support] “Israel’s right to self-defence”. A right they grant to the oppressor but deny to the oppressed. Those are the people who need to be condemned.” —Former UK ambassador Craig Murray “Now that I have your attention.” “There’s no way Israel did not know of what’s…
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Originally published in French by L’Humanité, and translated. This article originally appeared in Global Outlook, No 2, Summer 2002. Thanks to the Mossad, Israel’s “Institute for Intelligence and Special Tasks”, the Hamas was allowed to reinforce its presence in the occupied territories. Meanwhile, Arafat’s Fatah Movement for National Liberation as well as the Palestinian Left were subjected to the most brutal form of repression and intimidation Let us not forget that it was Israel, which in fact created Hamas. According to Zeev Sternell, historian at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, “Israel thought that it was a smart ploy to push the…
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Some have claimed that Senator Ishaku Elisha Abbo, who served as the senator representing Adamawa North, is frequently grabbing the headlines for the wrong reasons. The maverick lawmaker gained notoriety after publicly assaulting a salesgirl in an Abuja sex toy store about four years ago. This time, he claimed that Senate President Godswill Obot Akpabio was responsible for orchestrating his expulsion from the Senate. He further claimed five other senators, including the former Senate Chief Whip Orji Uzor Kalu, are targeted to suffer the same fate. Although Senator Abbo apologised to Godswill Akpabio, the President of the Senate, for his…
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“The family rallied around them in an extraordinary manner, and the fact that it’s actually happened is a miracle,” said former NBC correspondent Martin Fletcher, who is related to the pair. Two U.S. hostages abducted by Hamas, both related to former Israel-based NBC correspondent Martin Fletcher, have been released. Judith Raanan and her daughter, Natalie, fell into the clutches of Hamas after the militants on Oct. 7 launched a surprise terror attack on Israel. They had been staying on a kibbutz called Nahal Oz, in southern Israel. https://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/video/martin-fletcher-speaks-on-two-family-members-being-released-by-hamas-196095045639 Their release was announced Friday by the Israeli prime minister’s office and confirmed by Fletcher a…
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An influential Saudi prince has issued a strong condemnation of Hamas in a rare rebuke from one of the Middle East’s main power brokers. Prince Turki al-Faisal, a former Saudi ambassador to the UK and US, said he preferred “civil insurrection and disobedience” to the murderous tactics adopted by the Palestinian terror group. “I categorically condemn Hamas’s targeting of civilian targets of any age or gender as it is accused of,” Prince al-Faisal said in a speech at the Baker Institute for Public Policy, a US think tank housed at Rice University in Texas. “But equally, I condemn Israel’s indiscriminate…
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The military government in Niger says it has foiled an attempt by the deposed former President, Mohamed Bazoum, to escape from custody. The former president attempted to flee in the night with his family, cooks and security, a military spokesman said. There were plans for the group to fly out on helicopters but the plan was foiled, he added. Mr Bazoum’s lawyers have called for his immediate release, saying his detention is illegal. He has been under house arrest along with his wife and son since members of his presidential guard staged a coup in late July. The lawyers say…
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The official has characterized Washington’s rush to provide military aid as “shortsighted” and “destructive” A senior official in the US Department of State responsible for weapons transfers has resigned in protest, stating that Washington’s rush to arm Israel was “shortsighted, destructive, unjust, and contradictory to the very values that we publicly espouse.” Josh Paul had served as the director of the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs (PM) for more than 11 years. On Wednesday, he published his resignation letter on his LinkedIn profile. Huffington Post was the first major news outlet to report it on the same day. Paul said he took…
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The first time I visited Israel was in 1994 on a Christian pilgrimage. It served as a spiritual homecoming for my visiting group. To prove that the Bible is authentic and alive today, rather than just being historical or speculative, we visited the sites of worship listed in it. Our faith was strengthened by the amazing event. An obvious sore thumb was the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Different historical places were hosted by the Israeli government and Palestine. Judea, for instance, the region where John the Baptist was born, was administered by Palestine. The Palestinians also controlled Bethlehem, the location of Jesus’…
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19 November 2015 A revealing silence from the “free” western press We’ve been very patient. For the last 12 hours we’ve been constantly refreshing Google News for just one — one — western article about Putin’s bombshell comments at the G20 summit in Antalya. You would think that the Russian President stating publicly that ISIS is receiving money from 40 different countries, including G20 members, would be “newsworthy”. Right? But the western media has defied even our worst expectations: Not a single mainstream western outlet reported on Putin’s comments. Typically, at least the Daily Beast has the common courtesy to distort or misrepresent…
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17 November 2015 At G20 summit, Putin calls out member states for supporting terrorism In a classic Putin move, the Russian President presented evidence of G20 member states providing financial support to ISIS…during the G20 summit in Antalya. Speaking with reporters after the summit, Putin revealed: I provided examples related to our data on the financing of Islamic State units by natural persons in various countries. The financing comes from 40 countries, as we established, including some G20 members Putin also provided satellite images of the Islamic State’s lucrative oil smuggling operations: I’ve demonstrated the pictures from space to our colleagues, which clearly show the true size of the illegal trade of oil and petroleum…
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15 December 2015 By Pres. Vladimir Putin Copyright © Pres. Vladimir Putin, 2015
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9 October 2015 Russian air power together with Syrian ground forces constitute a potential death blow to Washington’s anti-Assad campaign – for the first time challenging it effectively, why US officials are flummoxed about what to do next. On the one hand, Putin wants terrorism defeated and Syrians alone deciding who’ll lead them. On the other, he wants ISIS and other terrorist threats prevented from spreading, especially to Russia’s homeland, a scheme no doubt Washington intends, targeting China and Iran as well. Syria’s military is rejuvenated. Russian air power raised its spirit. It’s on the move. The Syrian Arab News…
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Imagine that you despised your brother-in-law and wanted to kill him. But you didn’t have the guts to do it yourself so you hired a hit-man to do the job for you. Would you still be guilty of murder? You’re darn right, you would be. So let’s apply this same rule to US foreign policy: Would it be just as wrong to invade a country, kill its people and topple its government with militants that you funded, armed and trained as it would be with your own US troops? Yep, it sure would be. So while some people might think that…
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According to the official version, the Hamas attack “caught Israel by surprise”. However, a series of inexplicable facts do not make the official version credible. How is it possible that the Gaza barrier was breached with bulldozers without anyone noticing? The 64-kilometre barrier surrounding Gaza is made of an underground wall equipped with sensors to prevent tunnelling, and a 6-metre high fence with sensors, radars, cameras and automatic weapons systems connected to a command, and is manned by soldiers. How is it possible that on that very day, a music festival was taking place involving thousands of young people, and located in…
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Why would Netanyahu enable Hamas to attack Israel by standing down Israel security? I am being asked about the Israeli-Palestine conflict, which seems to be taking attention away from the Ukraine-Russia conflict. People, by which I mean people who pay attention, are wondering why the Palestinians would attack Israel like this as it provides Netanyahu with an excuse to grab the remaining bits of Palestine and destroy the Gaza strip, thus disposing of the two-state solution by conquest. Who can blame Israel after Palestinians killed Israelis and took hostages? I have heard the official explanation of Palestinian perfidy, but I don’t have an…
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Deliberately undermining the peace process by eliminating acceptable counterparties In the aftermath of Saturday’s terrorist and military attacks on Israel by the Palestinian group Hamas, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared, “The forces of civilization must support Israel in defeating Hamas…In fighting Hamas, Israel is not only fighting for its own people, it is fighting for every country that stands against barbarism.” Those sentiments are quite different from ones Netanyahu privately shared in 2019. “Anyone who wants to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state has to support bolstering Hamas and transferring money to Hamas,” Netanyahu told Likud Party legislators. Doing so would help prevent the…
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Israel Actively “Cooperates” with the Islamic State and Al Qaeda For those who have doubts concerning the criminality and insidious role of Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu and his government: 1. Netanyahu is on Record for Supporting and Financing Hamas Terrorists: “Anyone who wants to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state has to support bolstering Hamas and transferring money to Hamas … This is part of our strategy – to isolate the Palestinians in Gaza from the Palestinians in the West Bank.” (Benjamin Netanyahu, statement at a March 2019 meeting of his Likud Party’s Knesset members, Haaretz, October 9, 2023, emphasis added) “Hamas was treated as…
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The former president has insisted that the war with Hamas would not be happening if he were still in office Former US President Donald Trump has said that he may visit Israel in the near future. Trump’s statement came after he harshly criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his apparent failure to predict Hamas’ attack on the Jewish state. “I may, I may go,” Trump told reporters outside a courthouse in New York, where he is facing a civil fraud lawsuit. “But I believe in letting them do what they have to do,” Trump continued, “They have to straighten it out. What’s happening…
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President Obama believes we need to restore security and opportunity for working Americans with the fundamental values that made our economy the strongest in the world—making sure everyone does their fair share, everyone gets a fair shake, and hard work and responsibility are rewarded. That’s why President Obama has worked to improve the lives of all Americans, including African Americans, by providing economic and educational opportunities, improving health care coverage, and working to ensure that the criminal justice system is applied fairly to all citizens. Although much work remains to be done, African Americans have made enormous strides in many…
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A Mexican migrant to the U.S. is five times more productive than one who stays home. Why is that? The answer is not the obvious one: This country has more machinery or tools or natural resources. Instead, according to some remarkable but largely ignored research — by the World Bank, of all places — it is because the average American has access to over $418,000 in intangible wealth, while the stay-at-home Mexican’s intangible wealth is just $34,000. But what is intangible wealth, and how on earth is it measured? And what does it mean for the world’s people — poor…
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Washington is supporting arms procurement to benefit its military-industrial complex, the ex-Russian president said The US bears the ultimate responsibility for a strike on a Gaza hospital that left hundreds dead, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Wednesday amid the ongoing hostilities between Palestinian militant groups and Israel. On Tuesday, a powerful explosion rocked the Al-Ahli Arab hospital in the Palestinian enclave, killing at least 500 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Al Arabiya reported, citing local authorities, that the total number of dead and wounded is more than 800, with the death toll expected to rise even further.…
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A reported $300 billion in Moscow’s forex reserves have been seized as part of Ukraine-related sanctions Moscow will respond with similar measures if Western countries use revenues generated from frozen Russian assets, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov warned on Tuesday in an interview with Asharq TV. Siluanov was commenting on the latest proposal made by several countries to use the profits from investing Russian frozen assets to cover the cost of the reconstruction of Ukraine. “We have frozen the funds of unfriendly countries as well […] Then, we will do the same in this case,” the Finance Minister stated. Nearly $300 billion…
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Washington has given “unlimited cover” to Israel since its air campaign against Gaza began, militant leader Ismail Haniyeh said. By enabling Israel’s “brutality,” the US is ultimately responsible for the bombing of the Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh has declared. Haniyeh said that the bombing would “constitute a turning point” in his group’s struggle against the Jewish state. “The Americans who gave unlimited cover bear responsibility for the Baptist [Hospital] massacre. Whoever supports Israel is responsible for its violations in Gaza,” he said in a televised statement on Tuesday night. “The hospital massacre confirms the enemy’s brutality and the extent of his…
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The US president has pledged unwavering support to its ally in the wake of strike on Gaza hospital that many blame on Jewish state President Joe Biden has vowed continued US support for Israel, during his visit to that nation in the wake of the deadly Gaza hospital attack that many Muslim nations are blaming on West Jerusalem. Washington would forever stand at Israel’s side, Biden said, while dismissing claims about his ally’s responsibility for the strike that killed hundreds, according to a Gaza Health Ministry tally. “I come to Israel with a single message – you’re not alone,” he said…
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The US president vouched for Israeli innocence in relation to the deadly strike, at a meeting with the Jewish state’s leadership US President Joe Biden has told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he believes assurances given to him that the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) was not responsible for the strike on Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza. “Based on what I’ve seen, it appears as though it was done by the other team, not you,” he told the Israeli leader on Wednesday. Biden said he was “deeply saddened and outraged” by the incident, which has claimed over 500 lives, according to Palestinian…
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October 7 was “like fifteen” Al-Qaeda attacks, the US president said in Tel Aviv US President Joe Biden on Wednesday argued that the Hamas attack on Israel was worse than the 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, and vowed that America would “forever” stand with the Jewish state. At least 31 Americans were among “more than 1,300 innocent Israelis” killed by Hamas on October 7, Biden told the audience in Tel Aviv, from the music festival near the Gaza border to the nearby villages and kibbutzes. “Children slaughtered. Babies slaughtered. Entire families massacred. Rape, beheadings, bodies burned alive,” Biden recited, comparing Hamas to…
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Selective empathy is not empathetic at all. On October 9, two days into the current Israel-Hamas war – in which the Israeli army appears intent on semi-obliterating the Gaza Strip – the website of the New York-based magazine Women’s Health published some guidelines on “How To Cope With The Trauma Of Violent Images And Videos Of Hamas’ Attack on Israel”. It is unsurprising, of course, that the potential for trauma has been detected solely as a reaction to Hamas’s surprise attack on Israel and not to, say, the past 75 years of Israeli violence and ethnic cleansing of Palestine – the cumulative…
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The Israeli society of the 21st century (80% of Jews versus 20% of the Arab population), would be a melting pot of races, customs, languages and values that would only have in common their Hebrew origin and in which a silent blow would be produced by an ultra orthodox minority , the “haredim.” Although they represent only 10% of its population, the ultra-orthodox would be a state within the state, ready to swallow all the sensitive areas of power of the Jewish state (Interior, Housing, Mossad and the IDF commanders or Jewish army) and try to impose the “Halacha” or…
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As I am writing, a massive genocidal assault is underway on the stateless people of Gaza. Most of the 2.3 million people in Gaza were born into this open air prison where Israel is using its absolute control over what can be brought in and carried out to deny the inhabitants food, water supplies, electricity, and fuel. The inmates of this tightly packed urban space are being bombed, killing tens of thousands with the promise of a ground invasion to eliminate those trapped inside the densely packed and foul urban strip of Mediterranean coast line. The US Armed Forces are backing up…
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Israel financed and supported Hamas Islamists in Gaza and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe recognised Hamas as a “Partner for Democracy”: The Hamas manifesto calls for the whole of Israel, Gaza and the West Bank to be turned into an Islamist State. The European Centre for Law and Justice, an international, Non-Governmental human rights organisation reports that The Palestinian Legislative Council (which has the right to send a delegation to the Council of Europe and speak at the Assembly, take part in committee meetings, make proposals concerning the agenda, sign motions for resolutions and recommendations and written…
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Israel is not “defending itself” against an external aggressor, but an imprisoned internal population. Israel has always chosen occupation and supremacy over peace and security “In a few days,” writes Amira Hass, the veteran Israeli correspondent who has reported for decades from the Occupied Territories, “Israelis went through what Palestinians have experienced as a matter of routine for decades, and are still experiencing,” including “military incursions, death, cruelty, slain children, bodies piled up in the road, siege, fear, anxiety over loved ones, captivity… and searing humiliation.” The Hamas-led operation against Israeli military bases and civilian neighborhoods killed more than 1,300 Israelis,…
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The Bibi doctrine—his belief that he could control Hamas—compromised Israeli security and has now begat a bloody war Decades ago I spent three years writing The Samson Option (1991), an exposé of the unstated policy of American presidents going back to Dwight Eisenhower to look the other way as Israel began the process of building an atomic bomb. The right or wrong for Israel, in the aftermath of the Holocaust, was not the point of the book. My point was that what America was doing was known throughout the Third World, as it was then called, and our duplicity made our…
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The Palestinians and Israelis can be considered as “one and the same people”. Though it is a complex and contentious ascertion, it depends on the perspective from which it is considered. Historically, the people in the region now known as Israel and Palestine have deep historical and cultural connections. Both Jews and Arabs, comprising Palestinian Arabs, Jewish Arabs and Palestinian Jews have long-standing ties to the region. This area has been inhabited by various groups and cultures for thousands of years, and there is a shared historical presence. The formation of the State of Israel by European Zionists and western…
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Colombian Foreign Minister Alvaro Leyva said Monday that Israel’s ambassador in Bogota Gali Dagan should “apologize and leave the country” after criticizing the position taken by President of Colombia Gustavo Petro on the IDF-Hamas conflict in Gaza. The minister noted that the envoy will not be expelled, but advised Dagan to respect the host-country’s president as is mandatory in diplomatic relations. On Sunday, Dagan replied to Petro’s publication on X (formerly Twitter) in which the Colombian claimed that Palestinian militant group Hamas was an invention of Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency. The envoy wrote sarcastically that “it is true.” He added: “I would like to…
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Beijing said it will send humanitarian aid to the region as the violent escalation between Israel and Hamas continues China is concerned about the consequences of Israel’s siege of Gaza, and has announced it is sending humanitarian aid to those in need in the region, according to Beijing’s permanent representative to the United Nations Zhang Jun. Speaking on Monday, after the UN Security Council had failed to adopt a Russian-proposed resolution on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Zhang said that China will continue to call for an immediate end to hostilities in the Middle East in order to prevent them from spreading…
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Western interests prevent the global body from addressing the current conflict in the Middle East, Russia’s UN envoy said The work of the United Nations Security Council is being held up by Western interests, Russia’s permanent representative to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, claimed on Tuesday. His comments came after the council rejected Russia’s draft resolution on the Israel-Gaza conflict. The resolution condemned all acts of terrorism, as well as all violence against civilians, and called for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian armed groups. It also insisted on the release of all hostages. The document failed to gain the…
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The Veblen effect is one of a family of theoretical anomalies in the general law of demand in microeconomics. At 23, Julius Caesar was a junior politician on the way up – and he had substantial advantages: Confidence and Brains! While sailing across the Aegean Sea, he was captured by Sicilian pirates. They demanded a ransom: 20 talents of silver. That is about 620 Kg, worth about $600,000 today. Caesar told them they were being ridiculous. He couldn’t possibly allow himself to be ransomed so cheaply. The pirates hesitated; they were confused. Caesar insisted the ransom must be raised to 50…
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The First Crusade (1095-1099 AD) was a military campaign launched by Christendom in an attempt to retake Jerusalem from the Muslims to make the holy site safe once more for Christian pilgrims. The First Crusade was not the only one, but it has been argued it was the most successful because the crusaders succeeded in their objective – to establish Crusader states in the Levant, which lasted until the 13th century.Ancient-Origins What Was the Main Cause of the First Crusade? One of the factors contributing to the call for the First Crusade was the plea for aid by the Byzantine…
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The Hamas Partnership is confirmed by Netanyahu “The Cat is Out of the Bag” “Anyone who wants to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state has to support bolstering Hamas and transferring money to Hamas,” he [Netanyahu] told a meeting of his Likud party’s Knesset members in March 2019. “This is part of our strategy – to isolate the Palestinians in Gaza from the Palestinians in the West Bank.” (Haaretz, October 9, 2023, emphasis added) Does this statement not suggest that Netanyahu and his military-intelligence apparatus are responsible for the killings of innocent Israeli civilians? “Support” and “Money” for Hamas. “Transferring Money to Hamas” on behalf…
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According to the official version, the Hamas attack “caught Israel by surprise”. However, a series of inexplicable facts do not make the official version credible. How is it possible that the Gaza barrier was breached with bulldozers without anyone noticing? The 64-kilometre barrier surrounding Gaza is made of an underground wall equipped with sensors to prevent tunnelling, and a 6-metre high fence with sensors, radars, cameras and automatic weapons systems connected to a command, and is manned by soldiers. How is it possible that on that very day, a music festival was taking place involving thousands of young people, and located in…
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“As a former on-the-ground intelligence officer, I am somewhat convinced that this was likely more like a false flag operation rather than a case of institutional failure on the part of the Israelis.” It’s amazing how America’s thought-controlled media is able to come up with a suitable narrative almost immediately whenever there is an international incident that might be subject to multiple interpretations. Since 1948 Israel has expelled hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes, has occupied nearly all of the historic Palestine, has empowered its army to kill thousands of local people, and has more recently established an…
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“This is the big war in the Middle East that many of us have been fearing and it seems unstoppable as tensions have dramatically escalated” A new war in the Gaza Strip should not be a surprise to anyone who understands what the Palestinians have been going through for the last 75 years. Many people in the West, in particularly those in the United States and the European Union are shocked and very angry with the attack on Israeli territory by Hamas. The US mainstream media obviously has a biased view with mostly pro-Israel viewpoints on Israel’s latest conflict in…
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Book review of Ahmed Bensaada, Arabesque$: Enquête sur le rôle des États-Unis dans les révoltes arabes (Investigation into the US Role in the Arab Uprisings) According to the spin of the NATO countries, the aim of the 2011 uprisings in much of the Middle East and North Africa – the so-called “Arab Spring” was to embrace “Western values.” Disinformation is spread that the aim of resistance is to bring about a liberal European nation-state like those formed in the 19th century on the basis of plunder and devastation. In parallel, a similar Eurocentric and racist conceit permeates the counter-spin that the “Arab Spring” was the exclusive product of US subversion, as…
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This carefully researched article by Mahdi Nazemroya was first published in November 2011 The name “Arab Spring” is a catch phrase concocted in distant offices in Washington, London, Paris, and Brussels by individuals and groups who, other than having some superficial knowledge of the region, know very little about the Arabs. What is unfolding amongst the Arab peoples is naturally a mixed package. Insurgency is part of this package as is opportunism. Where there is revolution, there is always counter-revolution.The upheavals in the Arab World are not an Arab “awakening” either; such a term implies that the Arabs have always been sleeping…
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Adherents hold that Hinduism—one of the principal faiths in the modern world, with about one billion followers—is the world’s oldest religion, with complete scriptural texts dating back 3,000 years. The oral tradition that gave rise to the Mahabharata, for example, probably dates to about 850 BCE, although its written Sanskrit form is about 400 years younger. Zoroastrianism, the chief pre-Islamic religion practiced in Iran, draws on some of those Sanskrit oral compositions and, later, written texts. Its founder, Zarathushtra, wrote down hymns that predate written Sanskrit literature, which makes it possible to claim that Zoroastrianism is older than Hinduism, formally…
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During the 1970s, America was rife with drugs and there were a handful of dealers running the entire operation. These men lived the high life, with flashy cars, a dapper wardrobe, and an arrogance that infuriated law enforcement. One of the most damaging drugs to flood the United States was heroin, which turned people into addicts after the first hit. It caused families to be ripped apart and led to poverty and crime. But that didn’t stop the dealers from supplying it in large quantities. One of the biggest drug dealers of them all was Leroy ‘Nicky’ Barnes, who managed…
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Nostradamus was a 16th-century seer. He and his prophecies—revered by some, ridiculed by others—are still well known today, centuries after he lived, and continue to be the subject of debate. Nostradamus was born in France in 1503. He first worked as a physician and began his medical practice in the 1530s, although he did so without a medical degree. He began making prophecies about 1547, and he published his prophecies in a book entitled Centuries (1555). He wrote his prophecies in quatrains: four lines of rhyming verse. The quatrains were grouped in hundreds; each set of 100 quatrains was called a century. Nostradamus gained notoriety…
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Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Among his many literary achievements, Edgar Allan Poe is credited with creating the genre of detective fiction with his 1841 story The Murders in the Rue Morgue, paving the way for fictional sleuths from Sherlock Holmes to Nancy Drew. It is fitting, then, that the author’s own death in 1849 remains one of American literature’s great unsolved mysteries. In June 1849 Poe embarked on a speaking tour to raise funds for a literary magazine he hoped to publish. On September 27, 1849, Poe was supposed to board a ferry from Richmond, Virginia, to Baltimore, Maryland, and then on to…
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Politicians are very good at deploying fallacies to twist issues and protect their interests. In the trending story regarding the alleged certificate forgery involving President Bola Tinubu, they have not disappointed. All manner of theories and fallacies have propped up to divert attention from the main story and score cheap political point. Recall that President Tinubu allegedly forged his Chicago State University (CSU) certificate which he tendered to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to enable him to contest for the position of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. There are other controversies surrounding his background. For many…
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An Open Letter to Pope Francis10/6/2023 Dear Pope Francis, I am writing to you in the spirit of parrhesia, a biblical word you have used several times to encourage us to speak freely, boldly, and without fear of disagreement. In your opening speech to the Synod delegates on Wednesday, you said that “everyone needs to express themselves freely.” Please receive the following words freely, not from Rome, but from the peripheries, from a simple parish priest. My Papa Francesco, I must tell you that you are making my job as a parish priest difficult. I work in one of the…
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A former prime minister says “destroying Hamas” is unrealistic Few Israelis have anything close to Ehud Barak’s experience of operating in Gaza. In 2000 he was prime minister and defence minister when the second intifada, or Palestinian uprising, erupted in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. Before that he was the commander of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) when Israel carried out its first major pullback from the cities in the Gaza Strip as part of the first Oslo Accords signed in 1993. And then in his second stint as defence minister, in 2009, he oversaw Israel’s largest ground operation…
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Instead of an imported Tokunbo governance system based on foreign design, validation and backing of short termist politicians, Nigeria will do better if our INEC is choosen and guided by our civilizational leadership – Ooni of Ife with Obi of Onitsha and Aku Uka of Wukari (Middlebelt) for indigenous Africans on one side, and Sultan of Sokoto with Shehu of Bornu and Emir of Kano for the Afro-Arabic civilization on the other. Our long term cultural stakeholders should be the guarantors of our political system and short termist politicians, and not foreign stakeholders. Tinubu’s presidency hangs gingerly on the coattails…
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The Rockefeller name has become synonymous with money, symbolized by the richest individual in history, John D. Rockefeller, who left a staggering net worth of $1.4 billion. Yet, beneath this wealth lies a history of tragedy and controversy. Let’s delve into the captivating saga of the Rockefeller family… A Fine Father Figure Born in 1810, William A. Rockefeller, father to John D. Rockefeller, was a man of meager means. Though he was savvy, his dishonorable business practices and subsequent bad reputation caused the family to struggle financially. Without an actual trade to rely on, William Rockefeller worked as a traveling…
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A lovely poem by a blunt and courageous poet that will make your day…. Prof Niyi Osundare boldly lampoons and ridicules Judges And NJC in an illustrative poetry entitled: My Lord, Tell Me Where To Keep Your Bribe “My Lord, Tell me Where to Keep your Bribe. Do I drop it in your venerable chambers Or carry the heavy booty to your immaculate mansion Shall I bury it in the capacious water tankIn your well laundered backyard Or will it breathe better in the septic tank Since money can deodorize the smelliest crime Shall I haul it up the atticBetween…
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It has happened in the past that some men, great and small, were able to predict looming unsavoury fates. While some of such predictions end up as flukes, others have come in pin-point correct. A few, like Mark Twain and Abraham Lincoln, went to the extent of predicting their own deaths. It is called premonition. As the case instituted by Atiku Abubakar at the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago, to compel the Chicago State University to disclose Bola Tinubu’s academic records proceeded to a decisive end, the Nigerian President had a premonition. And…
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At the risk of sounding harsh, Africans’ main problem is the lack of civilisation. They choose to remain rooted in the most primitive stages of human development rather than progress and embrace modernity. This came into play once more with the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association’s rejection of the Minister of Abuja’s directive that livestock herding be restricted to the outskirts of the Federal Capital Territory. Given his antecedents, many anticipated a rebirth of Abuja when Ezenwo Nyesom Wike, the former governor of Rivers State, arrived as minister of FCT. The Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) hired the International Planning…
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The miscalculations of Israel’s and Gaza’s leaders are being laid bare The first hours were chaos. Residents of southern Israel, near the border with Gaza, woke to the sound of incoming rockets and mortars. They rushed to shelters—a grim routine in this part of the country, but a routine nonetheless.Then, a few minutes later, they heard gunfire drawing steadily closer and shouting in Arabic. That was not routine at all. Nor were the unimaginable scenes outside their homes, snippets of which began to trickle out on social media: Palestinian militants on the bed of a pickup truck, driving through an…
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The European Union’s “Energy Performance of Buildings Directive” — the legislative instrument that dictates the energy performance standards for buildings within the EU — will be used to achieve a massive wealth transfer scheme By 2030, the EU must meet a minimum 55% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. By 2050, they want every building — commercial, public and residential — in the EU to meet zero-emission standards. To achieve that, they will impose a slew of new renewal energy requirements on homeowners For example, heating systems that use fossil fuels are to be completely phased out of existence by 2035.…
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Responses from Starmer, Sunak, Braverman and others are especially reckless because of the horrifying language already being used by senior Israelis In moments of crisis, it’s the job of a statesman to resolve problems, not inflame them. It’s their job to show wisdom, to ignore popular clamour, to remind all parties of their obligations under international law, to emphasise our common humanity, and to look for long-term solutions that avoid a return to past horrors. Statesmanship has been utterly lacking in Britain ever since Hamas broke out of Gaza last week. Let’s look at the shocking display from Labour leader Keir Starmer on LBC radio on…
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Deliberately undermining the peace process by eliminating acceptable counterparties In the aftermath of Saturday’s terrorist and military attacks on Israel by the Palestinian group Hamas, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared, “The forces of civilization must support Israel in defeating Hamas…In fighting Hamas, Israel is not only fighting for its own people, it is fighting for every country that stands against barbarism.” Those sentiments are quite different from ones Netanyahu privately shared in 2019. “Anyone who wants to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state has to support bolstering Hamas and transferring money to Hamas,” Netanyahu told Likud Party legislators. Doing so would help prevent the…
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The Brandenburg Gate and the White House are laser-painted in Israeli blue-and-white colours. They used to harbour the Ukrainian blue-and-yellow colours. In both cases, Western governments pledge unlimited support and declare the recent attacks on Israel, as earlier on Ukraine, allegedly unprovoked and evil. Déjà vu. But there is more in common than sanctimonious self-righteousness. In both cases, there is an adamant refusal to look into the obvious causes of violence. In the case of Israel, this refusal is particularly appalling. For 75 years, Israel dispossessed, exiled, imprisoned, and tortured Palestinians who never knew a day of freedom. As the…
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Britain granted international legitimacy to Zionist colonisation, sowing the seeds for the future dispossession of Palestine’s native population The late prominent scholar of settler-colonialism, Patrick Wolfe, reminded us repeatedly that it is not an event, it is a structure. While settler-colonialism in many cases has a historical starting point, its original motivation guides its maintenance in the present. By and large, settler-colonial projects are motivated by what Wolfe defined as “the logic of the elimination of the native”. Settlers’ wish to create a new homeland almost inevitably clashes with the aspirations of the local native population. In some cases, this clash leads to…
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The postulates of the 1993 Oslo Accords signed between Fatah leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Isaac Rabin, were the creation of “an interim Palestinian self-government” for the West Bank and Gaza during a period of transition “no more than five years until it leads to a permanent solution based on UN Security Council resolution 242”. This involved “the withdrawal of Israeli forces from territories they occupied during the 1967 war and the creation of a sovereign Palestinian State alongside Israel”. However, these postulates were a missile in the waterline of the Zionist doctrine that aspires to resurrect the endemism of Greater…
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Part I Netanyahu’s “False Flag” Most people, including journalists on both sides of the aisle – mainstream and non-mainstream — seem to believe that this a one-off war, a surprise attack by Hamas, the “defenders” of Palestine. It is not. Connecting a few dots over the past 70 years may help better understand what is going on in the Middle East, Israel-Palestine – and around the world. How the bloody Israel-Palestine conflict fits into the Big Picture. What if Hamas has been created either by Israel directly, or rather by the US-UK-Israel Secret Services for the “benefit” of Israel, for…
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It is not that hard to hold elections that are free, fair, and transparent; elections that will yield acceptable results that are of world standards, if the relevant statutory bodies sincerely determine to do so. These two organizations—the Nigeria Police and the Independent National Electoral Commission—can make this happen. Others can play only ancillary roles. Unfortunately, despite their claims that they are carrying out their legal obligations to the best of their abilities, indeed, the two don’t always adhere to the law strictly to ensure free and fair elections. The best results for the gubernatorial elections in Imo, Kogi, and…
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Israel’s military and espionage services are considered among the world’s best, but on Saturday, operational and intelligence failures led to the worst breach of Israeli defenses in half a century. The reporters spoke to current and former Israeli security officials to build an understanding of how Israel failed to foresee and confront the Hamas attack. Shortly before attackers from Gaza poured into Israel at dawn on Saturday, Israeli intelligence detected a surge in activity on some of the Gazan militant networks it monitors. Realizing something unusual was happening, they sent an alert to the Israeli soldiers guarding the Gazan border,…
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The American military has brushed off media concerns about ammunition and equipment Washington can meet all of Israel’s requests for weapons, equipment and ammunition while continuing to support Kiev, a Pentagon spokeswoman told reporters on Monday. “We are able to continue our support both to Ukraine, Israel, and maintain our own global readiness,” a senior Department of Defense official said in a background briefing. “While we are providing and will continue to provide a significant amount of support to Ukraine, we are careful about ensuring we can also respond to other crises and contingencies, support other partners and maintain our own…
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Palestinians need a nation state so their interests are respected, the Russian president has said The ongoing crisis in the Middle East triggered by last week’s surprise incursion by the Palestinian militant group Hamas into southern Israel is a testament to Washington’s inability to resolve conflicts, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said. “I believe many would agree with me that it is a glaring example of the failures of the US Middle East policies. They tried to monopolize the peace settlement, but unfortunately paid no attention to searching for compromises that would be acceptable for both parties,” the Russian leader…
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What can Hezbollah demonstrate in the event of a full-fledged war with Israel? On October 7 the world was shocked by another flare-up of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and, this time, a very serious one. Not only did Hamas fire rockets at Israel, but it also penetrated Israeli territory. The operation, called Al-Aqsa Flood, has been unprecedented in terms of audacity and planning. Over a thousand Israelis have been killed, it’s estimated, and more than 3,500 wounded, territories were captured, military personnel and civilians were taken hostage. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the start of a full-scale war, promising to…
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Riyadh has said it will actively cooperate with regional actors in an effort to bring a “swift end” to the violence between Hamas and Israel Saudi Arabia continues to support the “legitimate rights” of Palestinians, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in a phone call on Monday, Saudi media reported. The latest escalation in Gaza, which broke out after a surprise attack on Israel by the Hamas militant group over the weekend, poses a threat to security and stability in the entire Middle East, the crown prince said, according to the Saudi Gazette. The kingdom plans to take “proactive…
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Former European Commission chief bashes Kyiv’s EU candidacy. Former European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has slammed the possibility of Ukraine joining the EU, lambasting the country as massively “corrupt.” “Anyone who has had anything to do with Ukraine knows that this is a country that is corrupt at all levels of society. Despite its efforts, it is not ready for accession; it needs massive internal reform processes,” Juncker said during an interview with German outlet Augsburger Allgemeine published Thursday. “Making false promises” to Ukrainians regarding EU accession “would be neither good for the EU nor for Ukraine,” added Juncker, who was boss…
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The US has continually sidelined Palestinian grievances and buried any chance for a two-state solution – and with it, any chance for peace The administration of US President Joe Biden, together with decades of failed American policy decisions in West Asia, set the stage for the eruption of the horrifying violence we see today in Palestine and Israel. By sidelining the Palestinian cause for statehood and instead seeking a symbolic normalization deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia, Washington also overlooked its own regional strategy. In the early hours of Saturday morning, the armed wing of Hamas, the Qassam Brigades, launched an unprecedented…
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My video update transcript: Click here to view the video Oct. 7th, 2023, This is Efrat Fenigson, and I’m here to share an update from Israel-Hamas War which started this morning. I’m going to share some key details and concerns, mostly based on Israeli citizens’ voices from the ground, and on official statements. This is a very tough day for me and for us in Israel. It is tough for people of Palestine too, especially now that Israel is starting to attack back. War is a horrible thing for everyone involved, except for those who get rich from it. This morning,…
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When it comes to arms supplies, the US is its friends’ worst enemy. Throughout recent history, the perceived weapon of choice for a terrorist (or freedom fighter, depending on one’s perspective) has been an AK-47 assault rifle. Today, in the aftermath of the so-called post-9/11 “global war on terror,” it’s not uncommon to see such fighters with a Glock 9mm pistol, or a Colt M4 carbine. These are weapons paid-for by the US taxpayer and ostensibly provided to forces joined in the cause of defeating terrorists and/or freedom fighters (again, depending on the political beliefs of the observer), but that…
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On Saturday morning, an ominously quiet region was set alight with rocket fire, gun battles, and declarations of war, the latter threatening to bring in a multitude of other countries on either side. Indeed, the events that took place yesterday in Palestine and Israel could very well be the powder keg that ignites the rest of the world into an open and undeniable Third World War. The clash began when fighters from Hamas launched rockets and a ground attack on villages near Gaza. Unlike previous clashes, the fighters used paratroops and parasails and also cut through the border fence to…
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Supporting your president and urging him on even when it is beyond argument that he is progressing in error is not patriotism. It is nothing short of mindless sycophancy and self service. In a nutshell, patriotism simply means loyalty to your country as a whole, not your president as an individual. The president of your country deserves your support ONLY to an extent to which he is doing only the things that are in the best interest of your country. The moment he starts working against the interest of your country and begins to bring opprobrium on the country, you…
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Four of RFK Jr’s siblings denounced the decision as “dangerous” Robert Francis Kennedy Junior announced on Monday that he was ending his challenge to the incumbent US President Joe Biden for the Democratic Party nomination and leaving the party to run in 2024 as an independent. Speaking in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, RFK Jr. declared “independence from the two political parties and the corrupt interests that dominate them, and the entire rigged system of rancor and rage, corruption and lies, that has turned government officials into indentured servants of their corporate bosses.” Kennedy launched his primary challenge to Biden in April, but has since…
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There’s a reason why the same people who uphold the absurd transgender agenda also back Kiev Voltaire famously stated, “whoever can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.” It is helpful to see the following full quote in which this line appears, to understand the meaning of this oft-cited maxim: “Formerly there were those who said: You believe things that are incomprehensible, inconsistent, impossible because we have commanded you to believe them; go then and do what is unjust because we command it. Such people show admirable reasoning. Truly, whoever can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. If…
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The Chicago State University (CSU) registrar’s deposition raised some interesting points that merit further interrogation. He gave the impression that he was purposefully omitting some information. Even if CSU is a phony institution, as the registrar’s deposition suggested, the United States of America (USA) is the host nation. The educational institutions in that wonderful country cannot engage in curious practices. Even in so-called third-world nations, it is unheard of for a student’s gender or admittance requirements to be a point of contention in a university. For instance, a university applicant in Nigeria must have completed at least five credits in…
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29 January 2019 A study by a Toronto-based consulting and research company has revealed that over the past fifty years mainstream reporting about Israel has been distorted to portray the Jewish state in positive terms while ignoring the plight of the Palestinians under Israeli occupation. The media study, based on a computer analysis of 50 years of data, found that major U.S. newspapers have provided consistently skewed, pro-Israel reporting on Israel-Palestine. The slanting in news coverage included subtle manipulations like using word associations favorable to Israel and derogatory to Palestinians as well as persistent publication of stories praising Israel while also avoiding reporting…
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Did you know the Russia-Ukraine War is a great “investment” for the United States? A terrific opportunity to kill lots of Russians and to destroy lots of their military equipment at a relatively cheap cost to us? (Just don’t mention the price paid by Ukraine.) It gives new meaning to the expression “making a killing” on the “market.” To Gordon Gekko’s infamous “greed is good” speech we must now add “war is good.” That war is “right.” That it “works”—at least for America, allegedly. War as an “investment” truly symbolizes the moral bankruptcy of conventional discourse in the U.S. political…
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This article was originally published by Mark Taliano in November 2014 The state of Israel brands itself as a peaceful, democratic, civilized oasis, steadfast in the midst of a hostile desert, surrounded by barbarity and threats to its very existence. None of it is true. Greater Israel is increasingly a rampaging Zionist project that has lost its sense of Judaism, and its democratic, civilized ideals. It is a militarized, racist, apartheid country that denies and negates the rule of international law at every convenience as it deludes itself and its allies by manipulating the memory of one of history’s most…
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John Wight argues that the West’s inconsistent application of its laws and values when it comes to Israel is thrown into high relief by its response to the war in Ukraine Mohammed Haitham al-Tamimi was just two years old when he was shot and killed by Israeli troops in the occupied West Bank. Al-Tamimi goes down as yet another child victim of the murder machine that is the state of Israel when it comes to its ongoing barbarous and brutal occupation of the Palestinians in the West Bank and its siege and asphyxiation of Gaza. The West has never been more…
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In 2009, Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) said on the House floor that Israel ‘encouraged and started Hamas.’ Paul’s comments came during a speech about ‘blowback’ due to U.S. intervention in the Middle East. “What’s happening in the Middle East, in particular with Gaza right now, we have some moral responsibility for both sides in a way because we provide help and funding for both Arab nations and Israel,” Paul said. “We have a moral responsibility, especially now today the weapons being used to kill so many Palestinians are American weapons and American funds are being used for this,” he added. “But there’s…
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There will be little sympathy in the West as, yet again, besieged Palestinians are bombed by Israel, the immense suffering justified by the term ‘Israeli retaliation’ The current outpouring of sympathy for Israel should make anyone with half a heart retch. Not because it is not awful that Israeli civilians are dying and suffering in such large numbers. But because Palestinian civilians in Gaza have faced repeated rampages from Israel decade after decade, producing far more suffering, but have never elicited a fraction of the concern currently being expressed by western politicians or publics. The West’s hypocrisy over Palestinian fighters killing and wounding hundreds…
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Predictably, the United States is declaring its unwavering support for Israel, with President Biden stating that military assistance is on its way to Israel and neo-con Nikki Haley, former SC governor and US diplomat currently running for the Republican nomination stating that Israel should “finish them,” meaning the Palestinians. The United States is joined by much of the Western world including usual suspects Britain and Germany. But the Middle East and other countries are not so willing to throw unquestioning support behind Israel, thus exposing a worldwide rift in the philosophy of the current world order. The Lead Up Israel claims that…
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Nigerians underrated the man who Forged his birth certificate. Forged his school certificate. Forged his identity and name And nothing happened. We underrated a man who got away with paying people to impersonate as bishops and pastors. Got away with drug cases even in the US. Got away with Muslim/Muslim ticket. Got away with ethnic bigotry. And we did nothing. We underestimated a man who pocketed the media for years and controlled the narrative. Pocketed Lagos for over 20 years and decided who governs her. Controlled APC and brought in Buhari to rule after he has even given up. We…
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The day I met Gregory Sallust, everything changed. It was in my first year in secondary school, and somewhere, I stumbled on a work of fiction called “Faked Passports,” by Dennis Wheatley. His Sallust was a British spy who was on the run, his plane having been shot down in Nazi Germany. People—particularly spies on the run—I would learn, need creative ways to survive. Sallust had an additional reason, as is often the case in espionage matters: a beautiful woman who, in his case, was in the hands of the Nazis. I followed sleeplessly as Sallust ran through disguises and…
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Who is the man who today sits atop the presidency of Nigeria? What is his name? Who are his parents? Who are his childhood friends? What was his childhood like? What primary school did he attend? Where did he attend secondary school? Or, the university? Is he a criminal? Is he a serial forger? On account of the above, can we trust him? Can he be trusted with the destinies of over 200 million Nigerians? Can the rest of the world trust him as the embodiment of Nigeria? Last year, I wrote about the history of certificate forgeries and identity…
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Early Saturday October 7, 2023, Hamas launched “Operation Al-Aqsa Storm” led by Hamas’ Military Chief Mohammed Deif. On that same day, Netanyahu confirmed a so-called “State of Readiness For War”. Israel has now officially declared war on Palestine. Military operations are invariably planned well in advance. Was “Operation Al-Aqsa Storm” a “surprise attack”? Did Netanyahu and his vast military and intelligence apparatus (Mossad et al) have foreknowledge of the Hamas attack? U.S. intelligence say they weren’t aware of an impending Hamas attack. Was a carefully formulated plan to wage an all out war against Palestine envisaged prior to the launching of “Operation Al-Aqsa Storm”? We bring to attention of…
OBLONG MEDIA GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE 