Israeli TV: Netanyahu blocked peace in Gaza while Biden did nothing to stop the slaughter

    By Reginald Johnson

  

  An investigation by Channel 13 in Israel has revealed that during the first 16 months of the Gaza War, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu actively impeded efforts to bring about a peace settlement and that at no point did the US administration of former US President Joe Biden demand that Israel curtail its brutal military operation and agree to a cease-fire, despite a mounting death toll.

The bombshell report also showed that American officials were aware of Israeli war crimes but covered them up in order to give legal clearance for continuing to ship weapons to Israel.

The report was posted on the Drop Site News site on X.

“A sweeping Israeli channel 13 investigation has exposed the administration’s complicity in Israel’s 19-months long war in Gaza. Nine top Biden officials acknowledged avoiding real pressure on Israel – even as the death toll surpassed 30,000. Israeli leaders openly bragged they dragged out the war playing for time until Donald Trump’s return to the presidency,” said the cover story by Drop Site News. Former Israeli officials were also interviewed.

“God, did the state of Israel favor that Biden was the president,” said former Israeli Ambassador Michael Herzog. “We fought for over a year in Gaza and the administration never came to us and said ‘cease-fire now.’  It never did. And that’s not to be taken for granted.”

 The report said that Biden aides privately admitted that Netanyahu was prolonging the war. “He’s undercutting it every step of the way,” said Ilan Goldenberg, a senior national security aide. “All the security people are coming out and saying it,” he said.

The report said Netanyahu spurned possible peace plans, including a proposal by the US and Saudi Arabia. That plan collapsed because it required acceptance of a “political horizon” for the Palestinians and Netanyahu would not agree to it.

The Channel 13 investigation also said Netanyahu sabotaged the talks on the release of the Israeli hostages, in order to extend the war. The Israeli prime minister “deliberately tanked negotiations” fearing a deal would force him to end the war.

  The investigation also found that American officials were aware of Israeli forces illegally blocking humanitarian aid shipments into Gaza but covered it up. State Department official Stacy Gilbert resigned after the revelations about the Israeli violations were taken out of a required aid compliance report.

  “The final version cleared Israel of violating US law despite overwhelming evidence of aid obstruction.” Gilbert called it “shocking in its mendacity”  and said “everyone knows this is not true.”

  The Channel 13 story added, "Even as settlers looted Gaza-bound trucks and Israel blocked humanitarian aid, Biden certified compliance and kept weapons flowing."

   The Gaza War began in October of 2024, after Hamas militants raided a southern Israel music fair, and killed 1200 people. Some 240 hostages were taken. Israel then launched a furious air and ground assault into the Palestinian enclave and thousands were killed in the first few weeks.

  The war has dragged on since then with staggering results. Some 60,000 Gazans, mostly civilians, are dead; much of Gaza's infrastructure has been leveled, including universities and apartment buildings; and most of Gaza's hospitals are destroyed or heavily damaged. Now 2.2 million residents are under threat of starvation, as Israel has imposed a food and water blockade.

  UN officials have accused Israel of waging a genocide in Gaza, which Israel has strenuously denied.

  The US has fully backed Israel in the war and billions of dollars in military aid has been provided.

At long last, some justice for Leonard Peltier

      

    By Reginald Johnson

    It's wonderful news that indigenous rights activist Leonard Peltier is finally going home. It took far too long, but at least it's finally happening.

President Biden's decision to commute Peltier's life sentence stemming from a bogus murder conviction case caps a 50-year campaign by Peltier, his family, friends and supporters to win clemency. Presidents Clinton and Obama had previously rejected his bid.

“It’s finally over — I’m going home. I want to show the world I’m a good person with a good heart. I want to help the people, just like my grandmother taught me,” Peltier said, according to a report on Democracy Now.

Peltier will be leaving prison on Feb. 18. Friends are trying to get that date moved up, as Peltier, 80, has pressing health problems and needs to see a doctor. Hopefully, authorities will recognize those concerns and release him early.

A banner calling for Leonard Peltier's release at a New York demonstration in 2015. The Native-American activist has been locked for the past 50 years following his conviction in a much-criticized murder case. (Photo Wikimedia Commons).

Peltier was charged with the killing of two FBI agents in a shootout on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in 1975. The incident occurred during a period of intense activism by Native-Americans and others to improve conditions for indigenous people. Many legal experts have raised doubts about the validity of the case.

It would have been nice if Biden had granted Peltier a full pardon --- as he did for many of his family members just minutes before he left office --- but I'll take the commutation. At least Peltier will get out of prison, and be at home with family. He will be in home confinement serving his term.

Almost the unthinkable

  

    By Reginald Johnson

   A nuclear catastrophe was narrowly avoided in the Ukraine-Russia War last weekend.

  According to former intelligence officer and arms control expert Scott Ritter. Ukraine had been pressing Washington for permission to use long-range ballistic missiles to hit targets deep within Russia and it appeared that the US was about to greenlight this request. But President Biden backed off at the last minute after a stern warning from Russian President Vladimir Putin that the use of the missiles would be crossing the Rubicon.

 Putin had said that such strikes would be regarded as an attack by NATO against Russia and all bets would be off in terms of how Russia would respond. Ritter says that Ukraine, led by crazed leader Volodomyr Zelensky, was all set to use the missiles. Thank god Biden saw the light.  Otherwise, according to Ritter, none of us would be reading these words today. 

It is vital that negotiations bring this highly volatile conflict between Ukraine and Russia to an end as soon as possible, for the sake of humanity.

(Ritter's piece, "72 Hours" can be read at https://consortiumnews.com/category/u-n-security-council/)

Jill Stein: act now to stop World War III

 

        By Reginald Johnson

     Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein said this week it is critical that the United States act quickly to stop Israel from continuing its genocidal war in Gaza and aggressive military actions against Iran and Lebanon.

   Otherwise, she said, we may be headed towards the unthinkable.

   “It is imperative that the US stand up now before it’s too late, before we’re dragged into it which we should not be. This is an absolutely deadly conflict which has every capacity to spiral into not only a major regional but potentially a World War III type conflict that could readily go nuclear. And with Netanyahu and the fascist government that they have now, it is not hard to envision they’re using a nuclear weapon.”

  Speaking on the Krystal Kyle and Friends show, Stein said President Biden has to call Netanyahu and warn him that Israel has to stop its military campaign otherwise US aid will immediately end all aid and the US will get behind an economic boycott of Israel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bj2PZ-Pd8PA&t=499s

  Israel cannot wage its war without “full-bore” military support from the US, she said.

 Stein said that previous presidents, including Ronald Reagan and Dwight Eisenhower, had prevented Israel from pursuing dangerous military actions at different times by threatening to withhold aid.

 So far, President Biden and the presumptive Democratic Party nominee for president, Vice President Kamala Harris have only made mild criticisms of Israel’s campaign in Gaza. They have also said nothing about the recent missile assassination strikes against Hamas and Hezbollah leaders in Beirut and Tehran ---actions which many observers believe could touch off a regional war.

                                              

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

UN warned about danger of nuclear war over Ukraine

 

      By Reginald Johnson

     The outstanding writer and peace activist Dan Kovalik urged the UN Security Council this week to deal with the growing crisis in Ukraine, which threatens to spark a nuclear war between the United States and Russia.

  Speaking as a member of the executive committee of the U.S. Peace Council, Kovalik said “we are very alarmed by what appears to be a creep towards World War III emanating from the Russia-Ukraine conflict.”

  Kovalik said the Biden administration’s recent decision to allow Ukraine to use US weaponry to strike deep inside Russia is a provocative step that ratchets up tensions with the Russians. He said that Ukraine will now be able to hit early warning radar systems that were built by the Russians years ago to warn them about incoming ICBM missiles from the US.

  “This raises the question for Russia: what are you attacking these particular radar sites for? Are you planning for a first strike?” he said.

  Kovalik said the situation is similar to the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 when America and the Soviet Union almost went to war over the placement of Russian missiles on Cuban soil.

   The author and human rights activist also criticized the Biden administration for its decision to arm the Azov Battalion, a neo-Nazi group in Ukraine.

  The administration announced its support for Azov shortly after the 80th anniversary celebration of D-Day in World War II when American and Allied forces launched the invasion of Europe and began the offensive which led to the defeat of the Nazi regime in Germany.

  He said the Azov Battalion is part of a right-wing network which is spreading racism and Naziism in Europe.

  "How can the West and the United States in particular talk about democracy and human rights when it is arming Nazis in Ukraine?" Kovalik asked. 

 He urged the Security Council to “address this issue and halt support for modern-day Nazis in Europe.”

 To hear the full briefing by Kovalik before the Security Council, go to https://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k1h/k1heo8r3qy?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR2bKtEdznDmvUYSyvwgRcbVEUFlv1kzWS6Qrz-QRlUJ5Wj60uiSteoGceI_aem_ZmFrZWR1bW15MTZieXRlcw

 

For peace now, impeach now

                             

                   Commentary

           By Reginald Johnson

  I think impeachment is something that has to be talked about vis a vis Joe Biden.

 The unlawful and highly dangerous air strikes on Yemen are the last straw for me.

 Biden has enabled two major wars, one in Ukraine and the other in Gaza/Palestine that are creating massive death tolls and have the potential for becoming catastrophic regional or even world wars.

In so doing, he has endangered the safety not only of all Americans, but everyone in the world.

 He lied repeatedly about growing US involvement in Ukraine and spurned peace agreements. He has failed to get Congressional approval for our near direct involvement in Ukraine and for the Yemen attacks, though the Constitution says Congress, not the Executive Branch, makes war.

 His greenlighting continuous military aid to Israel while that nation carries out a genocide in Gaza, makes the US an accessory to genocide, a violation of the genocide treaty.

 I know people may say, "It's an election year, people can vote him out, so what's the point?" But do we have time to wait?

 Peace now!

City panel to take up Gaza ceasefire resolution

 

   By Reginald Johnson

    BRIDGEPORT --- As the brutal Israel-Hamas War drags on --- with more than 18,000 people dead and 1.8 million people displaced --- more cities around the country are passing resolutions demanding the Biden administration support a ceasefire.

 Already, cities such as Oakland, California and Detroit, Michigan have passed resolutions calling for a ceasefire. Leaders in New Haven are considering one.

Now activists in Bridgeport are pushing the City Council to approve a resolution calling for an “Immediate de-escalation and permanent ceasefire in Israel, Gaza and the occupied West Bank.”  A number of pro-Palestinian supporters spoke at public forums prior to the last two city council meetings to urge passage of the statement.

 The council referred the proposed resolution, offered by Council Member Jazmarie Melendez, to the Miscellaneous Matters committee for review.

 The committee will take up the proposal at its meeting Tuesday, Dec. 26^th, at 6 p.m. in the Wheeler Room, City Hall, 45 Lyon Terrace.

  If the panel votes in favor of the resolution, it will go back to the full council for a vote.

  Melendez told fellow council members, “We cannot conduct business as usual here, because of what we are bearing witness to in Palestine….If we as a legislative body choose to remain silent, then we are complicit.”

  Peace activists in Bridgeport and elsewhere hope that passage of these resolutions will add to the pressure on both the Biden administration and members of Congress to take a stand and support a ceasefire.

 While officials in the Biden administration have recently been raising concerns about the level of civilian casualties in Gaza caused by the Israeli military, the administration is still pledging support for Israel and its continued military campaign against Hamas. Likewise, the vast majority of the members of Congress, both in the House and Senate, are backing Israel fully and have not signed on to the idea of a ceasefire.

  No one in Connecticut’s congressional delegation --- including five House members and two Senators --- is supporting a ceasefire.

G-7 leaders promise peace, then back war

  

   By Reginald Johnson

     

    Commentary

   

   During the G-7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan, world leaders laid wreaths at the Hiroshima Memorial, which commemorates the atomic bombing in 1945 at the end of World War II.

  The American bombing of Hiroshima on August 6 of that year, together with the bombing of Nagasaki three days later, killed over 200,000 innocent civilians. The savage attacks constituted the worst war crimes in history.

  It was the first and only time --- so far ---that nuclear weapons have been used. The bombings ushered in the nuclear arms race and left the world’s population living in a permanent state of fear of potential nuclear annihilation.

  “Here we remember the terrible cost of war,” said Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission. “And we are reminded of our duty to preserve peace.”

 What hypocrisy.

 The G-7 leaders, mostly from western countries, were not remembering “the terrible cost of war,” and they certainly weren’t heeding any “duty to preserve peace.”

  Instead, this cabal of warmakers spent most of the summit discussing ways to help Ukraine “win” its war with Russia. European leaders talked about what further sanctions they would apply against Russia to strangle the Russian economy and undermine the stability of the Russian government.

  The group also heard President Biden announce that he had agreed to have US military personnel train Ukrainian pilots on how to fly F-16 fighter jets. While Biden said that the US was not itself going to provide the planes, some of its European allies would agree to do that.

  So this means that Ukraine will get an advanced fighter jet in the war against Russia and ramps up an already intense conflict.

  The Ukraine-Russia War, underway for 15 months, has already left 300,000 dead or wounded and forced millions of refugees to flee the country. With Russia nuclear-armed and the US and its NATO allies also nuclear-armed, there’s the possibility that the war could turn nuclear.

 By allowing F-16s to be used by the Ukrainian armed forces, Biden reversed his earlier pledge saying that he would not do this because such a step meant the warplanes could be used to hit targets deep inside Russia and thus was potentially a dangerous escalation in the war.

The memorial in Hiroshima, Japan commemorating the thousands of innocent people killed when the US dropped an atomic bomb on August 6, 1945 

  According to the New York Times, this is the latest promise that Biden has broken regarding giving advanced weaponry to Ukraine, including HIMARS rocket launchers, Patriot air defense missile systems and Abrams tanks.

  “In each case, the president at first refused, only to change his mind under pressure from European allies,” the Times reported in its May 20 addition.

  Revelations by a military whistleblower in April also disclosed that the US has dispatched a small number of US combat personnel to Ukraine despite pledges by Biden previously that he would never do that because it could touch off  “World War III.”

  According to the Times, the allied leaders at the G-7 summit issued a joint statement in which they said they were committed to “continuing our security assistance to Ukraine as it defends itself against Russia’s aggression tailoring our support to Ukraine’s needs.” The report added that the group vowed to provide “financial, humanitarian, military and diplomatic support to Ukraine for as long as it takes.”

  So there you have the commitment to “peace” by the G-7 leaders. They are pledged to advance war and little else.

  It is galling that this group of leaders would dare to meet in Hiroshima, Japan, a sacred place, and insist they were promoting peace with their aggressive Ukraine war policy --- which could lead to a nuclear war wiping out the human race.

 The Orwellian claim that more war will create peace must be rejected. It is encouraging that protests took place outside the G-7 summit. Protests around the world need to spread until this misbegotten war ends and a nuclear catastrophe --- which would dwarf what happened in Hiroshima --- is averted.

 

 

 

 

 

 

US closer to full-out war with Russia

By Reginald Johnson 

 

  Are we moving closer to a hot war with Russia?

  It certainly looks that way.

   Contradicting previous statements by the Biden administration, new information shows the US now has a small number of combat troops on the ground in Ukraine, and some are reportedly deployed with Ukrainian forces fighting Russia in the eastern part of the country.

 The recent leak of classified Pentagon documents by Air National Guardsman Jack Teixiera disclosed that 14 US Special Forces troops are in Ukraine, along with more than 80 special forces troops from other NATO countries, including the UK and France, according to a report in the BBC.

  Information in the leaked documents didn’t say where the troops are deployed or how they’re being used, according to the story. Pentagon spokesman  Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder confirmed last November that the US had a small contingent of military personnel in Ukraine connected with the US embassy, but they were there only to inspect deliveries of weapons to Ukraine and would not be involved in combat. 

 However, Special Forces are elite fighting units in the Army and are not generally connected with embassies or used for inspections.

  Also, Democratic Party presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr said on the Tucker Carlson show last week on FOX that his son had been deployed to Ukraine as a Special Forces “machine gunner” and fought alongside Ukrainian forces against the Russian army during “the Kharkiv campaign.”

 The leaked documents also showed the administration has been lying about progress by Ukraine in the war, with statements by officials like Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austen that Ukraine was doing well, with Russian military strength “waning.”.

For the past year, US officials have painted a rosy picture of how well Ukrainian forces are doing in the war with Russia. But the recent leak of Pentagon documents tells a different story.

   To the contrary, the documents reveal that Ukraine is suffering a high casualty rate, with seven Ukrainians dying for every one Russian. Also the information shows that Ukraine’s air defense system is nearly destroyed.

  In the wake of the new information, some Republicans in Congress are pressing the administration to make clear exactly what US forces are doing in Ukraine.

  “We’ve been engaged over there for a year and we’ve been hearing ‘transparency’ and ‘we will not let troops on the ground.’  Sadly, we now get information like this,” said Sen. Mike Braun of Indiana on the Tucker Carlson show on FOX April 20^th.

  “A few days ago we filed a letter (to the administration), tell us, who authorized this, how many are actually there, and what are they doing?” said Braun.

  It could not be learned how many other members of Congress had signed onto the letter and who they were.

  Braun commented to Carlson that “This is eerily familiar to what we should have learned decades ago in Vietnam. Mission creep comes into play. Afghanistan, Iraq --- it looks like it’s reeling all over again. The big difference is, this is where two world wars started.  Much different setting, much different context. We’re going to be sure to get to the bottom of this.”

 On his April 13^th show, Carlson said the leaked information “in fact shows that this is not Ukraine’s war. It is our war. The US is a direct combatant in the new war against Russia. As we speak American soldiers are fighting Russian soldiers. So this is not a regional conflict in Eastern Europe. This is a hot war between the two primary nuclear superpowers on earth. And yet this war has never been formally declared – it has not been authorized by Congress.

 “That means this war is a violation of American law. It is a crime,” he said.

Carlson and another guest on his show, investigative writer Glenn Greenwald decried the media’s performance in covering the Pentagon leak. Both charged that the press showed more interest in helping the government catch the person responsible for the leak and punish him, rather than reporting on the contents of the leak and their significance.

 Teixeira should be “celebrated” for the public service he performed, rather than demonized, Greenwald said.

Ukraine War: peace now --- or else

 

 By Reginald Johnson

      Commentary

 

     While the United States and NATO continue to fuel the Ukraine-Russia War by sending more lethal aid to Ukraine, former President Donald Trump warned last week that peace talks are needed immediately to avert disaster.

  “It’s far past the time for all parties involved to pursue a peaceful end to the war in Ukraine before this already horrific catastrophe spirals out of control and ends up leading indeed to World War III and this would be a war like no other war, because this would be a nuclear war,” he said on his social media platform, Truth Social.

   You can trash Trump all you want, but he’s right on this one. The war is threatening to spiral out of control and a nuclear confrontation with Russia is entirely possible.

 The implications of that are terrifying --- a nuclear clash would likely be a world-ending event.

 Just last week President Biden went ahead and approved the dispatch of M-I tanks to Ukraine, breaking a promise he made in March when he said he would never do that because it would mean “World War III.”

  Now there’s talk of sending fighter jets. The Russians have warned that such a step could have very serious repercussions. Again, Biden has said he won’t go that far. But will he keep his word?

  Sending the jets may be crossing the Rubicon for the United States.

  It’s a sad commentary on the state affairs in our country when the much-criticized Donald Trump is the only national political leader who’s making any sense on Ukraine.

  Are there any leading Democrats speaking out on the need for peace and urging that the administration change course to avoid disaster? The answer is, sadly, no. This is an utter disgrace. We have the prospect of nuclear war on the horizon and the Democrats say nothing; in fact they’re getting on board for sending more aid to Ukraine to “help Ukraine win.”  Win what? A radiated wasteland?

 Unfortunately, the Democrats today are not the party of George McGovern, Gene McCarthy, Wayne Morse and Al Gore Sr. --- courageous statesmen who spoke out generations ago against the terrible Vietnam War and urged peace. Far from it.

  But the Republicans are not much better on the war. Except for some libertarians in the House, there is little opposition from the GOP on Ukraine. And some Republicans, like Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, are goading Biden to ratchet up the war by sending the fighter jets.

  Already the Ukraine-Russia War has been disastrous. There’s been 200,000 casualties, including tens of thousands of deaths. More than 5 million people have been forced to flee Ukraine and the country’s infrastructure has been devastated.

     

The US is sending M-I battle tanks to Ukraine, in a major escalation of the war. (Photo, Wikimedia Commons)

  Right from the beginning the Biden administration has turned its back on tentative peace deals that could have settled the conflict and opted instead to provide an unending stream of military aid to the Eastern European country.

  Biden’s flip-flop on delivering tanks to Ukraine recalls the lying by another president in the lead-up to the Vietnam War. Lyndon Johnson had pledged during his 1964 campaign for president against the hawkish GOP candidate Barry Goldwater that he would never send American soldiers to Southeast Asia, where the US was supporting South Vietnam in its efforts to beat back a communist insurgency. America had limited its involvement to providing military advisors and equipment.

But within eight months of his victory in the ‘64 election, Johnson  went back on his word and dispatched 40,000 troops to Vietnam, and the United States became fully involved in a land war in Asia.

   After that, the US spent eight years trying to win in Vietnam with a seemingly unending series of troop deployments (the US troop total rose to over 500,000) and relentless bombing campaigns against North Vietnam and targets in South Vietnam. The US effort ultimately failed and America had to pull out of Vietnam in defeat.

  Some 54,000 Americans and 3 million Indochinese lost their lives during that war. The Vietnamese countryside was left poisoned by environmental toxins used by the US to defoliate the jungle during combat operations.

 Where is the Ukraine War headed? Nowhere good, in my view --- unless political leaders, the media and yes, the peace movement, wake up from their comatose state, realize the severity of the situation and demand an end to the fighting.

   Fortunately, there is some ray of hope that the peace movement may be finally expanding to stop the war. A rally called “Rage Against the War Machine” will take place February 19^th in Washington DC. What is noteworthy here is that several prominent activists associated with the left and people tied to the libertarian movement on the right are joining forces in the protest.

 Anti-war activists and left-leaning figures such as Jill Stein, Max Blumenthal, David Swanson, Chris Hedges and Ann Wright will be speaking out against the war along with libertarians like Ron Paul.

  The event is being sponsored by the Libertarian Party and the People’s Party. A statement by the People’s Party said “While the People’s Party and the Libertarian Party do not agree on a number of substantial issues, we agree that there is no “Life Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness” in a world devastated by nuclear war. We agree that US resources should be used to improve the lives of Americans, not to prolong wars around the world that profit the war industry. We agree that diplomacy has not been given a chance in Ukraine and that the senseless deaths and destruction could have been avoided and needs to be stopped.”

  The statement added, “To make a difference in this country, we need to be able to come together with a diversity of voices and opinions.”

  Some people on the left may quibble with the idea of joining forces with libertarians on the right but this is no time to insist on ideological purity. This is a time when people of diverse views but who share a common desire for peace have to come together to stop the madness.

 

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Secret files said to link CIA to JFK assassination

 

      By Reginald Johnson

 

   In an astonishing newscast last week dealing with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, FOX’s Tucker Carlson said a source who has access to still-unreleased CIA files on the case stated “unequivocally” that the agency “was involved” with Kennedy’s murder.

 “We spoke to someone who had access to these still hidden CIA documents, a person who was deeply familiar with what they contained,” said Carlson. “We asked this person directly,  ‘did the CIA have a hand in the murder of John F. Kennedy, an American president?’ And here’s the reply we received, verbatim: ‘The answer is yes. I believe they were involved. It’s a whole different country from what we thought it was. It’s all fake.’ “

   “It’s hard to imagine a more jarring response than that,” Carlson said. “Again, this is not a conspiracy theorist that we spoke to. Not even close. This is someone with direct knowledge of the information that once again is being withheld from the American public. And the answer we received was unequivocal --- ‘yes. the CIA was involved in the assassination of the president.’ ”

  Carlson’s show ran the same day that the Biden administration opted to release some of the secret CIA files dealing with the assassination ----- but not all.  Some of the most sensitive documents are still hidden, despite the fact that a congressional act was passed more than 30 years ago mandating that all the records relating to Kennedy’s assassination should be made public by the year 2017. That has not taken place, with successive administrations, Republican and Democrat, slow-walking the process.

  It’s long been speculated that the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) was involved with the JFK assassination, which took place on November 22, 1963 in Dallas, Tex. Thousands of books and articles and been written about the case, and many authors have either speculated about the CIA’s responsibility, or in some cases pointed the finger directly at the CIA. Kennedy had a bad relationship with the agency, after he faulted the CIA for the botched Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961.

  Oliver Stone’s film, “JFK,” also told a story about FBI, CIA and military officers being involved in the murder, in what was portrayed as a coup d’etat.

   However, no one in the mainstream press, in Congress or in the government bureaucracy has ever dared to come out and say that the CIA might have been tied to the president’s killing. The establishment view on the assassination for years has remained that the Warren Commission --- which reviewed Kennedy’s murder in 1964 --- was correct in concluding that the 35^th president was murdered by a lone gunman, Lee Harvey Oswald, and there was no conspiracy involving other actors or government officials.

  Carlson’s show therefore was unusual --- a highly rated commentator on a mainstream channel voicing the strong possibility that a branch of the United States government was involved in the murder of a sitting president.

 The FOX commentator also said if what the source is saying is true, it confirms the belief held by many over the years --- that the US has a democracy in name only.

  “It means that within the US government, there are forces wholly beyond democratic control. These forces are more powerful than the elected officials that supposedly oversee them,” Carlson said. “These forces can affect election outcomes. They can even hide their complicity in the murder of an American president. In other words, they can do pretty much anything they want. They constitute a government within a government, mocking by their very existence the idea of democracy. As cynical as we have become after 30 years of watching government officials ignore the voters who employ them, we were shocked to learn of this. It’s not acceptable,” Carlson stated.

  Robert F. Kennedy Jr, the son of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy who, like his brother, was also assassinated, called the Carlson show,  “The most courageous newscast in 60 years. The CIA’s murder of my uncle was a successful coup d’état from which our democracy has never recovered.”

  Sen. Kennedy was killed in 1968, also allegedly by a lone gunman, Sirhan Sirhan. Sirhan, now in his late 70s, is serving a life sentence.

 Robert Kennedy Jr. has said previously that he believed that neither Oswald nor Sirhan acted alone in the two murders.

  In a follow-up show on the JFK case on Dec. 16, a lawyer who is pushing for the full release of the CIA files on Kennedy, told Carlson the Biden administration’s decision to only release part of the files was “very disappointing, frustrating and infuriating.”

  New York Law School Adjunct Prof. Lawrence Schnapf said, “Essentially what we got yesterday was old wine packaged in new bottles. The 13,000 records released yesterday were basically records that had already been released and maybe with less redactions.”

  He added “the spin that the CIA is doing is unfortunately (something) that the New York Times and the Washington Post have taken hook, line and sinker … this is a big nothing burger.”

  The Mary Ferrell Foundation, the nation’s largest nonprofit repository of the assassination records has sued the administration to make all the documents public. The foundation says the CIA is withholding most of the records at issue.

 The Assassination Records Review Board that was established under the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992 has also tried to obtain more Kennedy files from NBC that it says the company is holding,  according to Schnapf.

 “To show you the level of obstruction in our government, the review board prepared a subpoena to serve on NBC and the Department of Justice refused to serve it,” Schnapf said.

  The attorney urged Carlson and his listeners to pressure leaders of the new incoming Congress to hold hearings and subpoena CIA officials to come and testify why they are not turning over the Kennedy files as required by law.

  The last few years have seen more calls for Congress to set up a new "Church Committee" to investigate abuses by the intelligence community, including the CIA, FBI and NSA.

  In the 1970s, a Senate committee headed by Sen. Frank Church of Idaho conducted a sweeping investigation of irregularities at the agencies and that triggered a number of reforms.

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

  

 

 

"Christmas Truce" in Ukraine?

 

     By Reginald Johnson

       Commentary

 

    For two wonderful days in December, 1914 during World War I, the guns fell silent and tired soldiers on both sides of the conflict crawled out of their trenches to shake hands with combatants on the other side and celebrate Christmas.

  English, French, and  German soldiers came together in a spontaneous moment to eat dinner, sing Christmas carols and even play soccer.

  The informal cease-fire was dubbed “The Christmas Truce.”

 Though the truce didn’t last long ---  the war resumed and dragged on for another four years --- the Christmas Truce is long remembered as a special moment in history, when the killing stopped and there was a glimmer of hope that a brutal conflict could somehow be brought to an end.

  Now, peace advocates are urging that a “Christmas Truce” be called in the Ukraine War, also a brutal conflict that has left 200,000 Ukrainian and Russian soldiers killed or injured in just nine months.

“The Christmas Truce of 1914 was a symbol of hope and courage, when the people of warring countries organized an armistice on their own authority and joined in a spontaneous act of reconciliation and fraternization,” said a statement by CODE Pink, an anti-war organization.

  “In this same spirit, we ask you to join us in urging President Biden, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and congressional representatives to support the International Peace Bureau’s call for a Christmas Truce in Ukraine,” the statement said. 

“A truce --- a moment of holiday peace --- could pave the way for negotiations to reach a lasting security agreement to end the bloodshed once and for all.”

  A petition has been set up on the CODE Pink website for people to sign and indicate their support. https://www.codepink.org/christmas_truce_in_ukraine_gen

   The peace group and other organizations such as the Fellowship of Reconciliation have also been urging leaders of the faith community and social justice movements to support the campaign.  Dr. Cornel West and the Rev. Jesse Jackson have gotten behind the effort.

 The Ukraine War began in February when Russia invaded Ukraine in what Russia called a “Special Military Operation.”  US and Ukrainian officials called the invasion an act of naked aggression --- completely unjustified and illegal under international law.  Russian officials maintained, however, they acted after a series of provocations by Ukraine and the US-led military alliance, NATO, which has bases in many countries close to Russia.

  The US has supplied over $100 billion in military aid to help Ukraine to fight the war.

 Negotiations to end the war have stalled, with Biden administration officials indicating little interest in peace talks. A tentative plan to end the war last April --- agreed to by Russia and Ukraine --- fell apart after the US rejected the deal.

  The possibility the war could turn nuclear arose after Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky suggested preemptive strikes against Russia to prevent the Russians from using nuclear weapons. Russian officials said they interpreted Zelensky's remarks as suggesting that NATO should launch a nuclear first strike against Russia.

. Russian President Vladimir Putin said his country would not fire a nuclear first strike at Ukraine, but said Russia would use nuclear weapons in response to a nuclear attack.

 Noam Chomsky,  the world renown intellectual and long-time foreign policy critic, warned recently that there could be dire consequences for the human race if the war is not brought to a close in the near future.

  Chomsky foresees possible catastrophe in two ways --- first by the possibility of a nuclear war starting in Ukraine; and second, by the environmental consequences of more widespread use of highly-polluting liquid natural gas, as the flow of Russian gas has been stopped. He said the world only has limited time to shut down high-carbon fossil fuel usage and control global warming, and the wider use now of dirty fuel will hasten the arrival of a total climate collapse.

  “Every possible path to a diplomatic settlement should be pursued,” Chomsky told an audience at The Peoples Forum. “There is no time for delay.”

  The International Peace Bureau is calling for a ceasefire in Ukraine for Christmas 2022/2023 from Dec. 25^th to January 7^th  “as a sign of our shared humanity, reconciliation and peace.”  https://www.ipb.org/ipb-christmas-peace-appeal/

To ask for a Christmas Truce in Ukraine, call the White House at 202-456-1111 and your members of Congress, at 202-224-3121.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    

'A state beyond insanity'

      

    By Reginald Johnson

     World renown intellectual and social critic Noam Chomsky is warning of catastrophe if the Ukraine War continues.

  The MIT professor emeritus of linguistics and longtime anti-war activist told an audience at the Peoples Forum in New York City recently that the war creates the potential for disaster in two ways – first by triggering a sharp increase in the use of highly polluting fossil fuels at a time when the world has only limited time left to avoid a climate collapse, and second, by creating the real possibility of nuclear war between the United States and Russia.

 “The longer the war continues the greater will be the toll, reaching very fast perhaps, to the end of organized human life, speak of the vast number of species we are wantonly destroying,” Chomsky said.

 “And that of course is assuming we can ward off the option of destroying ourselves more expeditiously with nuclear war, a possibility that is casually being discussed, as if it were an option – it’s an indescribable descent to a state beyond insanity.”

  “Sorry if these remarks seem hyperbolic. They are not,” Chomsky said. “All of this tells us that every possible path to a diplomatic settlement should be pursued in accord with the wishes of almost the entire world, including the core of Europe… There is no time for delay,” he said.

  Chomsky delivered his sobering message during a panel discussion entitled “The Real Path to Peace in Ukraine.” The event, co-sponsored by the ANSWER Coalition, was designed to discuss ways to develop a wider protest movement aimed at stopping the war.

  Among those joining Chomsky was peace activist Medea Benjamin of Code Pink; Dr. Jill Stein, former Green Party presidential candidate and historian and commentator Vijay Prashad.

  The discussion took place as the Ukraine-Russia war is now in its ninth month and shows little signs of letting up. Approximately 100,000 casualties have been reported and there’s been widespread damage to Ukraine’s infrastructure. Leaders of both Ukraine and Russia have said the use of nuclear weapons is not out of the question.

 Meanwhile, the Biden administration has shown no interest in promoting peace talks to end the conflict; in fact, a tentative deal to end the war last April was rejected by the White House.

 Administration officials as well as leaders in both political parties in Congress maintain that continued aid is needed to help Ukraine win back its freedom, resist “Russian aggression” and stop a claimed “threat” posed to the rest of Europe.

  Critics charge however, that the real goal of the United States in funding the war is a geopolitical one: weaken Russia and eventually spark regime change in that country; Ukraine is simply being used in that process.

  So far the United States has given nearly $100 billion --- much of it lethal military hardware --- to help Ukraine fight Russia.

                                                          

The Ukrainian military has gotten billions of dollars in aid from the US to fight Russia.

  “We’re saying ‘no’ to this proxy war, we’re saying ‘no’ to the US government policy of bleeding Russia through the lives of countless Ukrainians,” said Manolo De Los Santos, co-director of the People’s Forum, in introductory remarks.  “We are not going to wait for nuclear war.  We are not going to wait for global famine. We are not going to wait for a further energy crisis…We will not allow them to sacrifice either  Ukrainian or Russian people or better yet we will not allow them to sacrifice the planet for their new war of greed.”

  Benjamin said it will take a broad-based grassroots movement to force a change in US policy on the war, which is supported even by so-called “progressive Democrats” in Congress.

  “It’s important to gather up our forces and to extend them to get the people in the environmental movement to recognize that this war has only led to production of more dirty energy, giving a green light to the oil and gas and coal and nuclear weapons and power producers,” Benjamin said, adding, “we have to get the environmental movement to work with us to say that this war and all wars are so destructive of the environment and they have to stand with us for peace.”

  The Code Pink founder continued, “We also call on the faith-based movement to say war is immoral, all wars are immoral and they need to come with us and call for a ‘Christmas Truce’ like the one that happened during World War I… We are calling on faith-based leaders around the country to join the Pope, who has said we must get all sides to the table.”

Noam Chomsky

     In her remarks, Stein said the war represented “end-stage capitalism” in which only the elites are benefitting from war --- through arms sales and oil profits – while the vast majority of people around the country and the world are seeing a decline in their quality of life.

  “The chickens have come home to roost back here in the seat of the Empire,” she said. “The chickens have come home to roost in the struggles of the poor and the working poor who are growing by the millions in the US and around the world. Hundreds have joined the ranks of the billionaire class while hundreds of millions have joined the ranks of poverty.

  “So the system just doesn’t last,” Stein said. “And we’re all in the crossfire – not just the people of Ukraine who are being set up to the last person, man, woman and child --- their lives are being expended --- we are all part of this vast exercise of unaccountable and abusive power on the part of economic elites. We are saying no more. The buck stops,” she said.

  The 2016 presidential candidate said there is a disconnect between how members of Congress see the nation’s priorities and how regular people see them. She said that Gallup polls indicate that economic priorities --- such as inflation and cost-of-living issues relating to housing and healthcare are at the top of the list of concerns cited by working people.

  Stein said “70,000 people in the United States are dying for lack of health insurance every year and housing is an acute crisis with 11 million people facing eviction.” But Congress is not targeting funding to deal with these problems.

“If you look at Congress it’s very clear and explicit that it’s funding for a new generation of nuclear weapons and more tanks for Ukraine and armaments that is their number one priority,” she said.

  Santos said about the panel discussion, “This is not “a one-off event. This the beginning of a movement to fully challenge NATO and US imperialism.”

  A series of actions and anti-war protests are planned for January, he said.

    

 

 

 

Ukraine War protestors: "Negotiations Now!"

 

By Reginald Johnson

 

 

    MIDDLETOWN, CT ---   Peace activists took to the streets here on Saturday to protest the war in Ukraine and warn people that the conflict threatens to become a nuclear holocaust.

Gathering on the corner of Main and Washington, the demonstrators held signs and passed out fliers which said “Prevent Nuclear War” and “Negotiations Now.”

“We’ve gotten a number of horn honks and people have taken leaflets,” said Steve Krevisky, one of the organizers.

  As parents walked by with their children dressed up in halloween costumes, Krevisky added, “We know there’s a halloween celebration down the street and you don’t want to spoil a good mood, but the threat of nuclear war should bother people. So considering, we’ve had a pretty good response.”

 The Middletown protest was one of more than 70 actions that took place around the country and Canada in the past week sponsored by an umbrella peace group, the United National Anti-war Coalition (UNAC).

 “We did not expect such an overwhelming response from our movement, but we learned people are ready to hit the streets and build a strong unified antiwar movement,” a UNAC official said.

 The protests erupted as the Ukraine-Russia war, now seven months old, has reached a more dangerous phase. Neither side seems to have the upper hand in the war and leaders of both nations have talked of the possibility of using nuclear weapons.

 NATO, the US-led military alliance which is aiding Ukraine, recently began nuclear war training exercises in eastern Europe and Russian President Vladimir Putin said his country may do the same.

Protestors in Middletown warn of nuclear war danger in Ukraine.

 Over the months, the US and NATO have pumped billions of dollars in lethal aid into Ukraine and military observers believe the weaponry has allowed Ukraine to launch effective counter attacks against Russian forces and prolong the war. Thousands of combatants have died in the conflict and there’s been massive damage to civilian infrastructure.

 Meanwhile, there is no movement towards negotiations to achieve a peaceful settlement. While several European leaders including France’s Emanuel Macron as well as Putin and Ukrainian leader Volodomyr Zelensky have indicated at different times that they were open to peace negotiations, the United States has been a roadblock.

  The administration of President Joseph Biden has rebuffed the idea of peace talks several times, including in April shortly after the war began when a tentative settlement was on the table, but the US rejected it.

 Recently, Biden reaffirmed American opposition to negotiations when he told CNN that he had no interest in meeting with Putin at an upcoming G20 summit and he was not interested in negotiations to end the war.

  Nonetheless, Biden himself commented recently on the gravity of the present situation. He said the risk of a nuclear “Armageddon” was higher now than at any time since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.

 The US refusal to get behind peace talks is a sore point for activists like Krevisky.

  “I feel from my own perspective that I have to be critical of the Biden administration not only because they still refuse to negotiate, but in fact they seem to be upping the ante,” he said.

  A member of the Connecticut Peace and Solidarity Coalition, Krevisky said that he and others in the group are also trying to make people understand the “connections” between US war policy and military spending and the fact that domestic needs are not being met at home.

   “One of my favorite slogans is,  ‘money for jobs and education, not war and occupation.’ So we wanted to connect issues and get people to recognize the danger of the situation especially since a lot of us think that the corporate media is brainwashing people to go along with a war that many of us think the West wanted a long time ago,” he said.

                                        

Congressional candidate Dr. Amy Chai takes a stand on the Ukraine War.

  Also protesting the war --- at the same time she was campaigning --- was Dr. Amy Chai of New Haven who is running for Congress as an independent against long-time Democratic incumbent Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro in the Third Congressional District. DeLauro has, like other Democrats, fully backed the massive military aid packages being sent to Ukraine.

 “I’m against all proxy wars --- the war in North Africa, sending arms to Yemen and sending arms to Ukraine,” said Chai. “I’m against the US being the arms dealer for the world and I’m against that because I don’t want people using my tax dollars to kill people --- that goes against everything I believe in as a doctor.”

  Asked about the administration’s claim that the American support for Ukraine was about defending Ukrainian democracy and freedom, she said, “That’s baloney. That’s baloney. It’s about corruption and money --- making money for the arms dealers. It’s a corrupt scheme that serves some people’s interest but not ours,” she said.