As John Robles Sees It… Broadcasting Board of Governors to be US “Ministry of Truth”, Next Step in Information War

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In what looks like a desperate move by the US government to manipulate and misinform the US populace due to the waning popularity of Congress, the Intelligence Community, the “War” Department, and the President, on 2 July the US government quietly lifted a prohibition on allowing government-produced propaganda to be directed at Americans inside the USA. The new “modifications” to the Smith-Mundt Act will allow propaganda produced by the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), the propaganda arm of the US government, which broadcasts Voice of America and Radio Liberty/Radio Free Europe, to be fed to and directed at the American populace. That is, in their words, “they’ll provide access” to their “material” so Americans can see what’s being broadcast abroad.

If you’re reading this, then, you’re one of a growing number of the world’s English-reading population that’s sought news and information from non-US corporate or government-controlled entities. Whether you’re interested in hearing unbiased reporting, seeking the truth, attempting to get the whole story, or trying to get an opposing view, you’ve come to the right place. Thanks to the internet, it’s possible for people, both in the USA as well as the world, to access non-US-based independent and alternative media in order to get a real perspective about events that don’t go through American filters, which may be biased or censored.

An example of such bias might be calling Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi a dictator rather than a leader, calling foreign-import terrorists and cannibals in Syria “rebels”, or calling Edward Snowden a traitor rather than a whistleblower. Examples of censorship and blackouts are even more numerous and insidious, some examples include the complete media blackout that exists in the UK with regard to Julian Paul Assange, the limited reporting in the USA on Snowden, or the complete and almost total blackout and manipulation that exists in Serbia and on any news coming out of that country. A couple years back, US Secretary of State Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton indignantly complained that the USA was losing the global media war. Apparently, the US government thought that the internet would be an American-controlled propaganda distribution and spying tool, but unfortunately for Washington, this hasn’t been the case, as the internet allowed Americans to access alternative media and alternative views.

This latest step in the American media mind-control battle is chilling for many reasons. The extreme and violent reaction by the US government to the recent revelations of it own illegality by WikiLeaks, Bradley Edward Manning, and now Edward Snowden, to name a few, shows just how truly terrified and obsessed the US government is, now that its illegality is revealed. The Obama Administration and the US government’s war on journalists, whistleblowers, and truth-seekers and their continuing attempts to control, muzzle, and censor the internet and the American mass media hasn’t been enough apparently. Now, the USA wants to transmit propaganda to the American populace, in effect, filling the information vacuum they’re creating with their own “manufactured” content, therefore, nullifying the mission and the purpose of the Fourth Estate.

This latest move makes it appear even more as if the US government is using George Orwell’s Oceania as a blueprint for the new “Amerika” and the “Homogenous American World” planned by the Project for a New American Century… a plan that needed an event such as 9/11 to serve as a catalyst. 9/11 allowed for the total global military expansion of the USA and its surrogate NATO, in order to force the world into submission if it decides it doesn’t want to be part of a Homogenous American World. We’ve seen the endless state of war that the citizens of Oceania had to live with brought to reality with the endless “Global War on Terror”, with endless threats and fabricated battles against “evil” leaders such as Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti, Muammar Gaddafi, Bashar Hafez al-Assad, and ex-CIA asset Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden, with countries destabilised and invaded by the USA as examples of how terrible the world is, and how “honourable and “just” Big Brother is in “protecting American lives” and “spreading democracy”.

We’ve also seen the complete and total surveillance state that the Oceanians had to live under realised though the internet and the NSA’s PRISM and related programmes. With the help of “Internet Giants”, the American populace has become glued to their monitors and their narcissistic social media pages ready to accept that everything they do on-line is recorded and watched by “Big Brother” in order to guarantee their own safety. Microsoft even has a patent, taken out in 2011, for something almost exactly like the Oceanian telescreen surveillance system. Even Oceania’s Ministry of Love and the constant fear of torture or secret indefinite arrest have been realised with the knowledge that the USA tortures and renditions, and maintains “Ministry of Love”-type installations in Guantánamo and Super Max. Moreover, the US government can now drone and indefinitely detain Americans without charge or trial or contact with the outside world. The only thing that was lacking, as if the corporate-controlled American mass media, which almost never goes against the government line, wasn’t enough, was an Orwellian Ministry of Truth. Orwell wrote, “He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past”. With the allowing of US government manufactured propaganda to be directed at Americans, the USA now has its own internal Ministry of Truth.

The wording of the legislation and the ease by which it will be manipulated will soon make Americans the subject of Ministry of Truth-type propaganda. Not only will your news be filtered, Americans, as it is now, but now it’ll also be cleverly manufactured. At this point, the only hope for Americans is that the US State Department, which controls the BBG, is as inept as “winning the hearts and minds” of Americans as they are at winning the hearts and minds of the rest of the world. There was probably a good reason why it was illegal for the US State Department to broadcast “internally-authored news stories” that are broadcast around the world by US government-controlled and -financed broadcasters. However, in the name of “security” and “terror”, Americans have been conned into letting another right fall to the wayside through the passing of this new law. In an extreme scenario, one could view this as the death of the Fourth Estate.

The bill to change the Smith-Mundt Act was introduced by US Representatives William “Mac” McClellan Thornberry (R-TX), and David Adam Smith (D-WA). They pushed the entire security and terror reasoning to the extreme with Smith saying in 2012, “Effective strategic communication and public diplomacy should be front-and-centre, as we work to roll back al-Qaeda’s and other violent extremists’ influence among disaffected populations. An essential part of our efforts must be a coordinated, comprehensive, adequately-resourced plan to counter their radical messages and undermine their recruitment abilities. To do this, Smith-Mundt must be updated to bolster our strategic communications and public diplomacy capacity on all fronts and mediums, especially online”. We know that the USA already censors, blocks, and shuts down al-Qaeda and extremist sites worldwide and the internal American internet is almost under a complete and total lockdown. So, what’s the real reason for allowing government manufactured propaganda to be directed at the American masses? Big Brother needs a voice to maintain his power and legitimacy, this change to the Smith-Mundt Act gives it that.

Look for the Ministry of Truth, coming soon, in subtle ways, to the American populace.

17 July 2013

John Robles

Voice of Russia World Service

http://english.ruvr.ru/2013_07_17/Broadcasting-Board-of-Governors-to-be-US-Ministry-of-Truth-next-step-in-information-war-2897/

Editor’s Note:

Guess Who works for the BBG? Yep… Victor Potapov. This piece means that the BBG (and RFE/RL and VOA) are on the Centre‘s shit-list. This means that Darling Fr Victor may become persona non grata at the Centre (one can hope). Freddie M-G is part of Uncle Sugar‘s spin-machine, too… she works (or worked) for NPR as a manager. Two propagandists for the price of one! Perhaps, Hilarion Kapral should rethink allowing her to speak at ROCOR parishes, as she’s part of (or was part of) the American dezinformatsiya apparat (of course, it goes twice as much for Potapov). Let’s not forget Fatso… he’s part of the rightwing K Street slimeocracy and the Moonie crowd at the Washington Times. Well, well, well… shitbirds of a feather DO flock together. Do we really want such sorts amongst us in influential places? Interesting question, no?

One last thing… the BBG is a well-known Langley front. Do we really want those mixed up with such questionable sorts as influential clerics/figures in our Church? That’s the $64,000 Question…

BMD 

As John Robles Sees It… The Tyranny of “Security”, “Likes”, and Germans Displeased With PRISM

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As the world continues to learn more about the level of American spying, knowledge made available thanks to the revelations of whistleblower Edward Snowden, few countries had the level of displeasure and public outcry as has the Federal Republic of Germany. What’s perhaps a little surprising is the level of non-response from other countries that we knew the NSA’s PRISM programme targeted, but as they were American allies, they believed themselves not to be the target of such broad and prying surveillance. Many countries such as Russia and China knew about the existence of such mechanisms being used by the NSA since their inception, as such a large data flow as that going back to the CIA and the NSA is impossible not to detect, so, their reaction was rather muted, but for German citizens in particular, who believed in the West and trusted Washington, the existence of such a scheme seems like a betrayal.

Germany, a country recently reunited, and one which was literally on the front line of the Cold War, was the subject of one of the most massive and sustained western propaganda campaigns in the history of mankind, one that sought to win the minds of East Germans, which demonised the USSR and the East German security structures such as the Ministry for State Security (Stasi), has every reason to react with outrage as they learned that their American “liberators” are even worse than the Stasi ever were. Kim Dotcom recently made the point clear by projecting the words “The United Stasi of America” onto the American Embassy in Berlin. Mr. Dotcom is just another in a long (much too long) list of victims of the hyper US Security State and another victim of the internet being used as a tool by the US government to surveil, entrap, and imprison thousands upon thousands of innocent people and anyone who goes against the official line.

We can see by the encircling of Russia by American missiles, the global spread of NATO, and the all-encompassing global surveillance system that the USA cleverly unleashed on the world under the guise of “the internet” and our precious “devices”, that the USA never stopped their activities once they “won” the Cold War. Winning that victory has called for another, that new front is complete, which has the goal of total global domination until the end of time. The world’s population believes that they can’t live without their devices and the internet, and for many, it’s become an essential tool for securing their livelihood, here, it’s important to note that our much beloved internet started out as a military intelligence communications network. So, dear reader, surprise, surprise! There was no end to the entire Cold War military industrial global domination machine that the USA built to destroy the idea of communism, it just expanded its resources to engulf everyone with the goal of complete and total global domination, or as the Project for a New American Century called it a “Homogenous American World”.

Germans are right to be upset, but getting the rest of the world to react may be an impossible task for many reasons. One is that the new generation has little memory of the world during the Cold War; there’s no clear option to “Amerika” like there once was. The Western propaganda machine distorted and demonised the social justice and equality that were the precepts of communism for so long, and with the collapse and demonisation of the USSR, no sees it as a viable option anymore. Therefore, today, there’s no option for the young. The West was so successful in its “War on Terror” fearmongering and its crackdowns on everyone who dissented that many people the world over, who are more concerned with keeping their iPhones and getting “friends” on social media, care little that they’re being spied upon or are too afraid to speak out or act. Just like the people who looked the other way as the Nazis began their rise to power, many people the world over want to hear nothing of the true plight or message of Julian Assange, Edward Snowden, Jeremy Hammond, Bradley Manning, Max Cleland, Richard Grove, Barry Jennings, Sibel Edmonds, John Kiriakou, Thomas Drake, William Binney, William Blum, Aaron Swartz, Jesselyn Radack, and even yours truly.

For Germany, the story may have some blowback and may result in some changes because the people still remember what tyranny means, but there’s reason to be doubtful. Just like in Serbia, it appears that Washington bought off German politicians; maybe, they even blackmailed them into silence or inactivity. On Friday, Hans-Peter Friedrich, the German Minister of Internal Affairs, met with US Vice President Joe Biden, US National Security Advisor Lisa Monaco, and US Attorney General Eric Holder on PRISM spying against German citizens. He came back empty handed with more empty assurances by Washington to the ire of many Germans. According to the site NEWSEUROPE, a representative of Die Linke (The Left), one Steffen Bockshahn, said, “A Minister of Internal Affairs, who does nothing against that data collection, against violations of rights, simply does not understand his tasks. It looks like Friedrich has caught a thief in a store, and thanks him for having confessed the theft, not thinking about criminal prosecution”. The reaction from others has been similar, according to the site EN.HABLER.COM, “the assurances Friedrich received during his meetings in Washington satisfied neither of Germany’s main opposition parties. Thomas Oppermann, the parliamentary floor leader of the SPD, said that Friedrich’s trip hadn’t achieved much. Konstantin von Notz, the Green Party‘s interior affairs spokesman, described Friedrich’s trip as a complete flop”. Citizens of the world, if your officials and leaders can’t or won’t do anything to stop the USA from spying on you, take measures to protect yourselves, even better just turn everything off.

13 July 2013

John Robles

Voice of Russia World Service

http://english.ruvr.ru/2013_07_14/The-tyranny-of-security-likes-and-Germans-displeased-with-PRISM-2242/

30 June 2013. RIA-Novosti Infographics. The “Clean Zone” at Sheremetyevo Airport… or… On the Trail of Edward Snowden

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Edward Snowden, wanted by the US government for transmitting classified information, “disappeared” in Sheremetyevo International Airport on the way from Hong Kong to Havana. People assume that the ex-CIA operative is in the transit area of the airport and that he can’t leave Moscow, as the he doesn’t have proper travel documents. Snowden arrived in Moscow on 23 June from Hong Kong as a transit passenger. Earlier in June, he made public a secret court order under which American intelligence agencies can get access to all calls made on the largest mobile operator Verizon, as well as information about the top-secret PRISM programme of the US National Security Agency, which tracks electronic communications. The US government said that the leak caused serious damage to American national security. On Thursday, Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser for strategic communication to US President Obama, said that the White House believed that Russia should hand Snowden over to the USA, as he’d revealed details of secret American intelligence programmes. Rhodes emphasised, “Russia has ample grounds to expel him, to coöperate with other countries to bring him to justice”.

Details of the disclosures on RIA-Novosti >>

Details of the material >>

Click here for the RIA-Novosti archive on Snowden

28 June 2013

RIA-Novosti

http://ria.ru/infografika/20130628/946458587.html

http://en.ria.ru/infographics/20130628/181936488/Hunting-Down-Edward-J-Snowden.html

Editor:

The USA is getting desperate. The longer that Snowden’s in Moscow, the greater the chance that Russian, Chinese, or Cuban (or all three) special services are getting information from him. After all, they have a trump card… “If you help us, you’d fatally disrupt the American surveillance programme”. Remember, a 2007 law of the Bushies authorised the PRISM programme. The Republicans won’t allow any of the Bushie totalitarian repressive measures to “sunset”. Truly, they’re nasty and barbaric bullyboys… as the Republicans showed abundantly in the McCarthy Era. Then, many Americans had their lives ruined by questionable sorts such as Joe McCarthy, J. Edgar Hoover, G. David Schine, and Roy Cohn, who used such dubious means as Red Channels and the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). The Republicans haven’t changed their spots. William F. Buckley, Jr, the founder of the rightwing political magazine National Review, wrote McCarthy and his Enemies defending McCarthy and his dubious methods, in which he asserted, “McCarthyism is a movement around which men of good-will and stern morality can close ranks”. Don’t forget, loud phoneys such as Rod Dreher wrote for that rightie rag… its troglodyte defence of repression hasn’t changed in the least.

I don’t believe that Snowden’s going back to the USA. Indeed, he may end up in China or Russia; especially, as he lists his religion as Buddhist, and both Russia and China have sizable Buddhist communities (Buddhism is one of the “traditional religions” in both Russia and China). The Republicans wanted to stamp their boot on their opponents by starting PRISM, but just as in the McCarthy era, they stepped on a shit-smeared punji stick instead and publicly disgraced themselves. God willing, PRISM will go the way of Red Channels and HUAC… a nasty footnote in American history. Don’t forget who brought it to you… don’t vote for Republicans under ANY circumstance… this is their preferred mode of governance. We’ve gotten a warning, no?

BMD

As John Robles Sees It… Holy Day of Vidovdan Celebrated in Serbia

The Battle of Kosovo memorial at Gazimestan for Vidovdan in 2009

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On Friday, the Serbian people and Serbian Orthodox Christians celebrated Vidovdan, their most important Holy Day. The Serbs celebrate this Holy Day on 28 June, according to the Gregorian calendar, which is 15 June according to the Julian calendar. Vidovdan also is known as St Vitus Day or the Slava of St Vitus. It’s important for many reasons. This year, the capitulation of Kosovo overshadowed the important date. One reason it’s so important is that the date is associated with the epic Battle of Kosovo, when Serbian martyrs gave their lives to defend Kosovo against the Ottoman Empire on 28 June 1389. Ergo, the Serbian Orthodox Church designates it as a Memorial Day for Prince St Lazar Hrebeljanović who led the Serbs against the massive invading army of the Ottoman Empire and perished. During the battle, the legendary Serbian knight St Miloš Obilić killed the Ottoman leader Sultan Murad I. Many other significant events in Serbian history took place on this. For example, on 28 June 1914, a Serb assassinated the Austro-Hungarian crown prince Franz Ferdinand, triggering World War I. Another important event in Serbian history occurred on 28 June 1921 when Serbian King Aleksandar I Karađorđević introduced the Vidovdan Constitution for the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes.

Unfortunately, for the Serbian people, Albanians attack, harass, and persecute them on this Slava. Last year, violence against Serbs included gunfire, buses being set on fire, and forced many Serbs, including women, to remove clothing adorned with national symbols or Cyrillic script. This year, the number of incidents was far less pronounced, but there was still violence on the part of Kosovo Albanians. Near Gazimestan, which is about 5 kilometres from Priština, which is the most important location where Serbs go to celebrate Vidovdan, Kosovo Albanian pelted buses filled with Serbs with stones and other objects, injuring several people. According to the Voice of Serbia:

Abbot Sava Janjić of Visoki Dečani Monastery stated that Kosmet Albanians stoned busses that were taking Serbs back from the celebration of St Vitus day in Gazimestan. Aleksandar Vulin, Director of the Serbian Government Office for Kosmet, noted that several people were injured on that occasion. One girl was in hospital in Sremska Mitrovica and three children were in the health centre in Gračanica. Abbot Sava added that Serbian Patriarch Irinej Gavrilović had safely left the territory of Kosmet, escorted by KFOR.

There were also protests in Serbia according to the site dss.rs in Belgrade:

More than 1,000 nationalists marched in the Serbian capital to protest against the government’s “concessions” over Kosovo in order to win Brussels support. Opposition leader Vojislav Koštunica told the protestors, “Serbian leaders are so spellbound with the EU that they’re betraying Kosovo for it”.

The date is also important for many other reasons and because of many other events other than those mentioned above. Another important event occurred on 28 June 1881, when Austria-Hungary and Serbia signed a secret treaty, giving Serbia the right of recognition as a monarchy, as long as it gave up its independence to the Habsburg Empire. Not entirely related to Serbia, but another important event that took place on 28 June was the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, which ended World War I. Yet another event on this date was the final split between the USSR under Iosif Stalin and Yugoslavia under Josip Broz Tito on 28 June 1948, when an initiative by Soviet delegates of the Communist Information Bureau (Cominform), Zhdanov, Malenkov and Suslov, entitled Resolution on the State of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia condemned the Yugoslav communist leaders, resulting in the expulsion of Yugoslavia from the Cominform. For the Soviets, that split was caused by Yugoslavia’s disloyalty to the USSR and the Eastern bloc. However, for Yugoslavia, the split came about as result of its refusal to become a satellite state of the USSR.

Another important event that marked this date was a historic speech given on 28 June 1989, on the 600th anniversary of the battle of Kosovo, by Slobodan Milošević, later called the Gazimestan Speech. During the speech, he said many things that are still true today. In the context of EU integration, and the fact the majority of the Serbian people are against it, yet, the government continues to move in that direction, the following rings true… “The Serbian leadership remained divided, prone to compromise to the detriment of its own people. … I must say that here, in this big, legendary field of Kosovo, the Serbs have not used the advantage of being great for their own benefit either”. Perhaps, Milošević pointed up a fault of the Serbian people… their tolerance of others and their acceptance and desire to help those who are less fortunate, only to have their trust betrayed.

He went on to say, “Today, Serbia is united and equal to other republics and prepared to do everything to improve its financial and social position and that of all its citizens. If there is unity, cooperation, and seriousness, it’ll succeed in doing so”. This was true, the West knew it, so, it’s kept the country as divided and fragmented as possible. Milošević characterised the Serbian role in history, “Serbs have never in the whole of their history conquered and exploited others. Their national and historical being was liberational throughout the whole of history and through two world wars, as it is today. They liberated themselves and when they could, they also helped others to liberate themselves”. Maybe, it’s time the Serbian people stood up and stopped helping others.

On the 600th anniversary, Milošević called for “unity, solidarity, and cooperation among people” and then delivered the most famous part of the speech, “Six centuries later, now, we’re being again engaged in battles and are facing battles. They aren’t armed battles, although such things can’t be excluded yet. However, regardless of what kind of battles they are, they can’t be won without resolve, bravery, and sacrifice, without the noble qualities that were present here in the field of Kosovo in days past. Our chief battle now concerns implementing the economic, political, cultural, and general social prosperity, finding a quicker and more successful approach to a civilisation in which people will live in the 21st century”. His words seem now like a prediction of the wars to come, and, today, these words ring truer than ever. “Without resolve, bravery, and sacrifice, without the noble qualities that were present there in Kosovo”, Serbs won’t have victory and independence.

“Six centuries ago, Serbia heroically defended itself at the field of Kosovo, but it also defended Europe. At that time, Serbia was a bastion that defended European culture, religion, and European society in general”. To see that role changed into one of broken subservient subject without its sovereign territory of Kosovo is heartbreaking for any unbiased intelligent observer. “In this spirit, we now endeavour to build a society, rich and democratic, and thus to contribute to the prosperity of this beautiful country, this unjustly suffering country, but also to contribute to the efforts of all the progressive people of our age that they make for a better and happier world. Let the memory of Kosovo heroism live forever! Long live Serbia! Long live Yugoslavia! Long live peace and brotherhood among peoples!” Those words still ring true today.

It is perhaps no coincidence that twelve years later, on 28 June 2001, Slobodan Milošević was taken to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia to stand trial. The Western geopolitical architects couldn’t allow such a strong leader to unite the country and defend it and make it strong because that would’ve gotten in the way of building their military bases in the very Kosovo that symbolised great Serbian victories. Now, the West is determined that Kosovo will forever symbolise the complete and total defeat and destruction of the Serbian people.

Kosovo is Serbia.

29 June 2013

John Robles

Voice of Russia World Service

http://english.ruvr.ru/2013_06_29/Holy-Day-of-Vidovdan-celebrated-in-Serbia-3261/

Editor’s Note:

Let’s keep it simple. It’s the duty of all Orthodox Christians to support Orthodox Serbia. Full stop, no exceptions. That’s why all decent Orthodox people have to oppose traitors amongst us such as Rod Dreher, Victor Potapov, Alexander Webster, Freddie M-G, Lyonyo Kishkovsky, James Paffhausen, John Jillions, and John Whiteford, who’ve sold out to Western anti-Orthodox interests, often, for the proverbial “mess of pottage”. The worst are those who support the Republican neocons… the lowest of the Anti-Christian crowd.

You can stand with HH… you can stand with Patriarch Irinej… or you can stand with the traitors named above. It’s your choice… I can’t make it for you…

Kosovo IS Serbia.

BMD