A World War Has Begun: Break the Silence

OffGuardian

by John Pilger, reposted from teleSUR

I have been filming in the Marshall Islands, which lie north of Australia, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Whenever I tell people where I have been, they ask, “Where is that?” If I offer a clue by referring to “Bikini”, they say, “You mean the swimsuit. Few seem aware that the bikini swimsuit was named to celebrate the nuclear explosions that destroyed Bikini island. Sixty-six nuclear devices were exploded by the United States in the Marshall Islands between 1946 and 1958 — the equivalent of 1.6 Hiroshima bombs every day for twelve years.

Bikini is silent today, mutated and contaminated. Palm trees grow in a strange grid formation. Nothing moves. There are no birds. The headstones in the old cemetery are alive with radiation. My shoes registered “unsafe” on a Geiger counter.

Standing on the beach, I watched the emerald green of…

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The Saker: Putin withdrawing from Syria because he won

OffGuardian

An Antonov transport plane at the Russian Khmeimim base in Syria’s Latakia province.

The Saker analyses the Russian military pullout from Syria:

[…] It is way too early right now to give a categorical evaluation of the timing and consequences of the Russian withdrawal from Syria.  Let us also keep in mind that there is a lot we don’t know.  What we do know is that Sergei Lavrov has had an absolutely crazy schedule over the past month or so and that Russian diplomats have been holding intense negotiations with all the regional powers.  I am confident that the Russians planned their withdrawal at least as carefully as the planned their intervention and that they have left as many open options as possible.  By the way, the big advantage of a unilateral decision is that, unlike one taken as part of an agreement with other parties, it can…

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Savchenko’s case: crime and punishment

SLAVYANGRAD.org

Original: Ria Novosti
Translated by Alexander Fedotov

Lawyer Ilya Remeslo summarises the process in the case of Nadezhda Savchenko and considers options for further developments.

Ilya Remeslo, a lawyer for Rossiya Segodnya [Russia Today –trans.]

In the Donetsk City Court is coming to an end the criminal trial of Ukrainian servicemen Nadezhda Savchenko accused of complicity to murder of correspondents VGTRK [The All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company –trans.] Anton Voloshin and Igor Korneliuk. The prosecution has asked for Savchenko penalty of 23 years imprisonment. March 9 court will hear the last word of the defendant, and then retire for sentencing.

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Jean-Claude Juncker Damns Obama’s Plan for Ukraine

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by Eric Zuesse, originally posted at strategic-culture.org

Jean-Claude Juncker, the most powerful person in Europe, the chief of the European Commission and therefore Europe’s closest equivalent to America’s President, said, in a little-noticed comment on March 3rd, “Ukraine will definitely not be able to become a member of the EU in the next 20-25 years, and not of NATO either.” The article reporting this, at europeonline-magazine.eu, also observed that, “The commission, the EU‘s executive, plays a leading role in accession negotiations between the bloc and aspiring members.”

The main reason why U.S. President Barack Obama had perpetrated his coup in Ukraine in February 2014, and why his CIA hired racist anti-Russian paramilitaries to carry it out as they did behind the cover of the popular anti-corruption “Maidan” demonstrations in Kiev, was in order to get Ukraine into NATO, so that U.S. missiles can be placed near-enough to Moscow for a…

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Widows of Donbass war: at the gates of grief

SLAVYANGRAD.org

Original: dnipress.com
Translated by Alexander Fedotov

We are in a small Donbass village situated between Gorlovka and Zhdanovka; the place is grim, the roads are full of potholes, a Lada [brand of Russian cars –trans.] approaches dragging a trailer with two punctured wheels making strange soft sound as there is no asphalt onroadsin the village. Warmer weather has turned the place into a cesspool by which small poor and quirky houses are aligned. It is, nevertheless, still Donbass, that is the wealthy capital of Donetsk with its monuments, theatres and universities and this village clinging on a hillside. Only the sunof alatecold daymitigatesthis impression.

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NATO’s Full-Spectrum War against Yugoslavia: Demonization of Serbs Was Key

OffGuardian

by Edward S. Herman, reposted from sott.net

Many well-qualified observers of the Bosnia wars were appalled at the biased reporting and gullibility of mainstream journalists.

The successful demonization of the Serbs, making them largely responsible for the Yugoslav wars, and as unique and genocidal killers, was one of the great propaganda triumphs of our era. It was done so quickly, with such uniformity and uncritical zeal in the mainstream Western media, that disinformation had (and still has, after almost two decades) a field day.

Mostar’s Ottoman-era bridge damaged by Croatian forces’ shelling

The demonization flowed from the gullibility of Western interests and media (and intellectuals). With Yugoslavia no longer useful as an ally after the fall of the Soviet Union, and actually an obstacle as an independent state with a still social democratic bent, the NATO powers aimed at its dismantlement, and they actively supported the secession of Slovenia, Croatia…

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