RT News - February 5 2023 - The Weekly

Iraq: 20 years on. Lies that have claimed lives of hundreds of thousands innocent Iraqis. The RT special series continues.

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20 years since the US pushed the invasion of Iraq at the UN. RT continues their special coverage of the legacy left behind by the devastating war. Chief UN weapons inspector to Iraq unveils the true goals of Washington in the conflict. An Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at then-president George Bush became a symbol of protest against US invasion across the world. He told RT his message to the man responsible for thousands of Iraqis deaths. (QS: not on this report - more than 2,000 tons of deplete uranium (D.U. - dirty bombs) was used to bombs Iraqi civilians. DU is "supposed" to harden shells to pierce armoured vehicles, etc but just as in Belgrade, etc, Yugoslavia, it was used to bomb civilians, their homes and other civilian infrastructure. More than 300 sites in Iraq remain contaminated. This is a link to some of the consequences - it hasn't been updated for some time https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23729095/ )
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Two more people have been found dead after the strike on an apartment block in Donetsk bringing the death toll to 3 (see 1/1a below). NATO supplied weapons were used. The area was, once again, entirely civilian only. (QS: how can this continue to be ignored. I can barely remember a day that these shellings haven't happened)
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China slams the US for shooting down its weather balloon, which floated over US territory. Despite its numerous warnings that the airship does not pose any threat to American security.
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Africa, Nigeria: Terrorism (masquerading as Islamism/jihad but likely foreign state sponsored terrorists with alphabet names) has plagued and terrified the citizens of Nigeria for years. Kidnappings and killings, ransoms happen with hardly a mention in western press. In one of the most mineral rich countries in Africa, 1 Dollar a day poverty continues and many people can't read and write, this is the legacy of colonialism. Electricity is hap-hazard to say the least, petrol/fuel is expensive despite Nigeria being Africa's top oil producer. Late last year the government decided to change the bank notes but haven't allowed enough time for the new legal tender to be swapped. Foreign, colonial-style interference and corruption has continued for years. It's worse chaos there than usual at the moment. Links to Sahara Reporter's article on currency (v. reliable, please follow them on twitter https://saharareporters.com/2023/02/05/spn-lambasts-buhari-labour-congress-over-scarcity-fuel-new-naira-notes-backs-protests ) link to another source (can't vouch for them https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2023/02/03/cbn-authorises-over-the-counter-payment-of-new-naira-notes/ ) and there is the usual stuff from the BBC etc, which aren't (in my opinion) reliable at all - search them out for yourself.
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Russian POWs are returned and talk about how they feel to be back home. Ukraine are now making POW swaps intentionally difficult. Sofia Nunes reports.
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Please see posts each day for expansion on the topics of the week, you need to press "more" if you want to open them up. They are kept for archive purposes and are searchable by keyword and date. Please see RT website if you live in a country which doesn't have censorship imposed. Please follow RT's Rumble channel for live video news https://rumble.com/vwbbjn-putin-announces-special-operation-in-donbass-special-coverage.html?mref=6zof&mrefc=6 (24 hours a day)

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Update from last week - Israel collects Palestinian taxes 3rd Feb Late https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxation_in_the_State_of_Palestine and (unchecked) https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230107-israel-seizes-39m-from-tax-revenues-collected-on-behalf-of-pa/
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Below, via RT website 1) --- Death toll in Ukrainian strike on Donetsk rises – authorities
1a) --- Donetsk apartment block hit by Ukrainian artillery – mayor
2) --- Is the FBI secretly running dark web terrorist recruitment?
3) --- US ‘empire of lies’ should be investigated – top Russian MP
4) --- Moscow ‘legitimate’ target for Ukraine – MP
5) --- US officials pressing Africans over Wagner Group – media
6) --- US announces first transfer of seized Russian assets to Kiev
7) --- Putin did not threaten Germany – Scholz
8) --- US inmates could soon be trading their organs for freedom
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5 Feb, 2023 09:53

1) --- Death toll in Ukrainian strike on Donetsk rises – authorities

Two more bodies were recovered from the debris of a residential block, the mayor has said

A Ukrainian artillery strike on the Russian city of Donetsk which took place on Saturday killed at least three people, according to the local authorities.

Writing on Telegram on Sunday, Mayor Aleksey Kulemzin said that while clearing the debris of a residential block in the northern Kievsky District, the body of a 30-year-old woman was found. Two hours later, he said that another body was uncovered from the rubble, describing the deceased as a man, but providing no further details.

The Emergencies Ministry of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) confirmed the information, adding that rescue operations are still underway.

A day earlier, Kulemzin stated that a 36-year-old man’s body was recovered from the rubble, noting that preliminary data indicates that up to five people could be stuck under the debris.

This came after the mayor said that 155mm-caliber rounds and ten missiles were fired at the city. Kulemzin said projectiles landed on several streets, hitting a four-story residential block among other buildings, destroying the roof.

The DPR and LPR, along with two other former Ukrainian regions, joined Russia following referendums last year.

The city of Donetsk has been shelled continuously by Ukrainian forces since 2014, when the DPR and the neighboring Lugansk People’s Republic refused to recognize the Western-backed coup in Kiev. The attacks intensified after Russia launched its military operation in Ukraine in February 2022.

In January, the Joint Center for Control and Coordination (JCCC), which monitors attacks on the two Donbass regions, reported that since the large-scale hostilities broke out, Kiev’s strikes have killed more than 4,000 civilians in the DPR alone. The JCCC has put the death toll for the LPR for the same period at 169 civilians.
https://www.rt.com/russia/570985-death-toll-ukraine-strike-donetsk/
============RECAP related (for those who didn't see original post)

4 Feb, 2023 13:12

1a) --- Donetsk apartment block hit by Ukrainian artillery – mayor

The city was bombarded by NATO-caliber rounds, Aleksey Kulemzin said

An apartment block in the Russian city of Donetsk was shelled with NATO-caliber munitions by Ukrainian forces on Saturday, Mayor Aleksey Kulemzin said.

Kulemzin posted photos of a four-story building, which he said had sustained a direct hit. The official later confirmed that a 36-year-old man's body was pulled from the rubble. Regional emergency officials believe several more people may still be trapped.

According to the mayor, 155mm-caliber rounds were fired at the city. Kulemzin said projectiles landed on several streets, damaging at least one other residential building. He later added that a 30-year-old woman had been wounded.

Russian officials have repeatedly accused Ukraine of using Western-supplied weapons to indiscriminately fire on cities in Donbass. Late last month, the Russian Defense Ministry said Ukraine had destroyed a hospital in the city of Novoaydar in the Lugansk People’s Republic with a US-made HIMARS multiple rocket launcher. According to officials, 14 people were killed and 24 wounded in an attack on the facility, which had been treating both military personnel and civilians.
https://t.me/kulemzin_donetsk/13325

Kiev has also accused Russian troops of targeting civilians. On Wednesday night, three people were killed and 20 injured after a missile hit a house in the Ukrainian-held Donbass city of Kramatorsk, according to Kiev-appointed regional official, Pavel Kirilenko. Moscow, meanwhile, has maintained that its forces only strike military targets and sites that are being used for military purposes.

Russia launched its military operation in Ukraine nearly a year ago, citing the need to protect the people of Donbass and Kiev’s failure to implement the 2014-15 Minsk peace accords. Ukraine has said the attack was entirely unprovoked.
https://www.rt.com/russia/570957-donetsk-shelling-nato-caliber/
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1 Feb, 2023 14:03 OP-ED

2) --- Is the FBI secretly running dark web terrorist recruitment?

US law enforcement is known for entrapment tactics, and the secrecy around a recent terrorism case is suspicious
By Felix Livshitz

A high-level conspiracy of silence surrounding a US terrorism prosecution raises serious questions over whether the FBI possesses technological means to bypass dark web user anonymity, or alternatively manages extremist group recruitment sites in secret, in order to entrap unsuspecting visitors.

US citizen Muhammed Momtaz Al-Azhari was charged in May 2020 with attempting to provide material support to ISIS. He came to the attention of the FBI due to a series of visits he made to a dark web site, which hosts “unofficial propaganda and photographs related to ISIS” in May 2019.

The Bureau pinpointed specific pages of the site Al-Azhari perused including sections on making donations, ISIS media assets, photos and videos, and stories of military operations allegedly conducted by ISIS fighters in Iraq, Syria, and Nigeria. These actions were linked to him directly by uncovering his IP address, and therefore his identity and location.

Al-Azhari accessed the site via the TOR browser, which theoretically provides anonymity to users, and makes it difficult if not impossible for a site’s owner or external prying eyes to track visitor IPs. A recent court filing by Al-Azhari’s lawyers reveals that’s precisely what the FBI did though and exactly how they achieved this is being withheld by government decree.

“[Using TOR] onion-like layers of additional IP addresses prevent the true IP address of the user from being visible like it would typically be on a clear-web site,” the filing states. “However, as the government’s complaint affidavit indicates, the government was able to bypass TOR’s protections to identify the IP address of the visitor to the ISIS website. In discovery, the government has declined to provide any information related to its TOR operation.”

Al-Azhari’s legal team attempted to compel the US government to disclose the method by which the FBI unearthed his IP address, but authorities without explanation requested the prosecuting Court treat their formal request as a “highly sensitive document.” This is a file containing “sensitive or confidential information that may be of interest to the intelligence service of a hostile foreign government and whose use or disclosure by a hostile foreign government would likely cause significant harm.”

While the filing records that “few documents” filed in US courts ever qualify as “highly sensitive,” the government’s request was granted, again without any explanation. However, the filing hints at a possible explanation chanced upon by Al-Azhari’s lawyers.

In researching how to legally compel the government to release details of their client’s identification, they discovered “at least two federal cases” in which authorities blocked disclosure of similar information on the grounds “network investigative techniques” - a euphemism for hacking - were used by investigators.

The filing suggests these techniques might have been one of the ways in which the FBI “may have bypassed TOR’s protections in the operation,” and determined Al-Azhari’s IP address. The FBI’s use of “network investigative techniques” is well-known and openly admitted. Yet, the “highly sensitive document” designation is, the lawyers acknowledge, only employed “when necessary to protect highly classified or highly confidential information.”

The filing suggests this means the FBI is attempting to classify publicly-available information as “top secret”, but another interpretation is the FBI could be actively running the website Al-Azhari visited for the purposes of entrapment. How the FBI uses “network investigative techniques” was revealed in a 2016 affidavit, related to an extraordinary Bureau operation that ensnared the users of Playpen, then one of the largest child porn sites on the dark web.

A year earlier, the FBI seized Playpen’s servers, and indicted its founder and owner, but kept the site operating from government servers rather than closing it, installing tracking viruses on the computer of each and every visitor. Then, with just one search warrant, they were able to hand over the locations of Playpen’s users across the US, leading to their mass arrest.

While it only remained open for two weeks after the FBI’s takeover, it’s estimated the Bureau distributed over one million images of child abuse during this time, and the affidavit indicates Playpen was just one of 23 child porn sites where it had the ability to identify users. Cybersecurity researchers believe it to be “a pretty reasonable assumption” that this figure meant the FBI was running around half of the dark web’s child porn sites at the time.

This led University of Kansas law scholar Corey Rayburn Yung to argue the FBI had “actively participated in the revictimization of those depicted in child pornography,”and the operation was “immoral and inexcusable,” particularly given that there was no control over whether the material was then sold and/or shared again once downloaded. While no one at the Bureau was ever penalized, let alone prosecuted, for the ruse, it created a large number of prosecutorial issues in other ways for the Department of Justice.

While the FBI accumulated 1,300 separate IP addresses through its management of Playpen, less than 100 cases actually made it to court. Judges in several US states ruled the operation was absolutely illegal, and the evidence gathered on suspects was inadmissible. In one successful trial, despite the defendant being convicted of grave crimes, the presiding justice condemned the Bureau’s “outrageous” tactic of using “child victims as bait.”

To say the least, the FBI would have every interest in concealing its deployment of the same highly controversial and likely criminal strategy from the public, its targets, and their legal teams to catch terror suspects. Alternatively, it could be the case that the Bureau has developed an entirely new technology for deanonymizing dark web users it does not want the world to know about.

In June 2021, the FBI achieved perhaps the biggest, most elaborate and successful sting in its history, which resulted in over 500 arrests all over the globe. The Bureau pulled off this coup by setting up a front company, ANOM, which sold encrypted devices that were marketed to criminals as unbreakable by any law enforcement entity or security or intelligence agency.

Over 12,000 ANOM devices were sold to over 300 criminal syndicates operating in over 100 countries. Little did the users know that every message they sent and received was stored, making a very simple matter of tracking the movements and activities of, and building cases against, major drug traffickers and mafia clans.

This is particularly relevant given that European and North American sanctions on Russia have forced millions of people all over the world to turn to the dark web to use the internet as normal, and many of the tools being promoted to people to circumvent these measures in the mainstream, such as Psiphon VPN, are quietly funded by the US intelligence community, and only provide users privacy from their own governments.

" ... The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT..... "
https://www.rt.com/news/570371-fbi-dark-web-terrorist/
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5 Feb, 2023 11:34

3) --- US ‘empire of lies’ should be investigated – top Russian MP

The US was never held to account over its 2003 invasion of Iraq, which was based on deception, Vyacheslav Volodin has said

The UN should open an investigation into Washington’s crimes against humanity, Russian State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin suggested on Sunday.

Writing on Telegram on the 20th anniversary of the infamous 2003 speech by then-US Secretary of State Colin Powell at the UN Security Council, during which he justified the ill-fated invasion of Iraq, Volodin offered a scathing criticism of what he described as the American “empire of lies.”

According to the speaker of the lower house of Russia’s parliament, this date marks “one of the biggest deceptions of the global community by the United States.” He recalled that during the landmark Security Council meeting Powell “accused Iraq of producing weapons of mass destruction, providing a vial with ‘white powder’ as proof.” At the time, the US secretary of state said the vial could be used to store anthrax.

While the UN did not approve the Iraq invasion, the US attacked the country anyway, he added. “Half a million civilians fell victims, the president was executed, the country was gone,” Volodin wrote, pointing out that Powell later admitted that the vial stunt was “a hoax,” but Washington was never held to account.

All policies of the United States and the collective West are based on lies,” the Duma speaker stressed.

He noted that the same applied to NATO’s promises not to expand eastwards after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Eastern bloc, as well as to the 2014 and 2015 Minsk Agreements. The latter were signed by Russia, Ukraine, France, and Germany in a bid to pave the way for peace in Ukraine by granting the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics special status within the Ukrainian state.

These accords “also turned out to be a deception – but [former German Chancellor Angela] Merkel and [former French President Francois] Hollande acted as Powell did", Volodin said. He was referring to the bombshell confessions by the two ex-leaders, who admitted in December that the Minsk Agreements were simply meant “to give Ukraine time” to strengthen its army.

“The UN should investigate Washington’s crimes against humanity. And the decision-makers should be punished for the millions of victims, refugees, broken destinies, destroyed states,” Volodin added.
https://www.rt.com/russia/570989-russia-american-empire-lies/
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4 Feb, 2023 07:49

3a) US must get over its ‘sense of entitlement’ – Moscow
Washington has lost its ability to use force on the global stage without facing serious pushback, a senior diplomat said

Washington shouldn't expect the world to forget that it fabricated its justification for the 2003 Iraq invasion, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told RIA Novosti on Saturday.

The Russian diplomat made the remark on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the now-infamous speech by then-US Secretary of State Colin Powell at the United Nations Security Council, during which he presented alleged evidence of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, including biological ones.

To support his case, Powell exhibited a tiny vial of white powder, which was supposed to represent anthrax, and told the council that the US had no other choice but to go to war. However, no weapons of mass destruction were ever found in Iraq.

Powell’s UN stunt “has long become the epitome of hypocrisy and the conviction of the US ruling elite in its own entitlement and its unchallenged right to arrogantly teach the rest of the world,” Ryabkov stated. He added that it was also emblematic of Washington’s willingness to “use force against an obviously weaker opponent in order to preserve its own global hegemony.”

However, the diplomat suggested that – unlike in the 2000s and during the 1999 NATO bombing campaign of Yugoslavia – Washington could not get away with “international banditry” under current conditions.

“In the rapidly changing geopolitical landscape, the US is now objectively unable to resort to a use-of-force scenario every time it feels like it, without facing serious consequences,” he noted, pointing to the “humiliating flight” of US troops from Afghanistan in 2021.

However, as Washington’s “meddling” in the Ukraine conflict has shown, this setback has not stopped the US from embracing its old ways, the diplomat continued.

“The Americans will have to adjust to the new rails and get rid of the entitlement syndrome that so clearly manifested itself during the [anthrax] vial scandal. The same applies to taking into account Russia and China, as well as other major international players that are shaping a more just multilateral world order,” Ryabkov said.

The US should not cherish any hope that “the memories of what happened 20 years ago would be buried in the shifting sands of modern history,” he concluded.
https://www.rt.com/russia/570943-us-iraq-war-impunity/
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4 Feb, 2023 21:30

4) --- Moscow ‘legitimate’ target for Ukraine – MP

Kiev won’t rule out using Western weapons to strike targets inside Russia, a Ukrainian lawmaker has said

Kiev’s forces will not hold back when it comes to hitting locations inside Russia, according to Fyodor Venislavsky, a member of the Ukrainian parliament’s National Security, Defense and Intelligence Committee. Speaking to Germany’s Bild tabloid on Saturday, he also described Moscow as a “legitimate military target.”

Anyone who believes that Kiev should commit to not using the arms supplied by its Western backers in attacks on Russian territory are living in a “parallel world,” claimed Venislavsky, who is also Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s representative in the Constitutional Court.

Venislavsky insisted that any munitions depots as well as other military facilities on the territory of Russia are “legitimate military targets,” adding that the same goes for Moscow. The Russian capital is the country’s most populous city, with around 13 million people, according to official data.

Moscow hosts the General Staff headquarters as well as Russia’s National Defense Management Center, which are both in the city center. Venislavsky stressed that he has no issue with Ukraine potentially attacking any command center in the Russian capital.

The MP did not say whether Kiev already has specific plans regarding targets, adding that it was for the Ukrainian military leadership to decide whether to strike locations inside Russia, including Moscow.

Venislavsky’s remarks come a day after the Pentagon announced it was supplying Kiev with ground-launched small diameter bombs (GLSDB) – munitions consisting of a rocket motor and an airplane bomb, with a range of up to 150km (93 miles). It is unclear if Kiev has obtained any weapons capable of striking Moscow, since the capital lies some 500km (310 miles) away from Russia’s nearest border with Ukraine.

Washington previously stated that it would not prevent Kiev from using the new weapons to strike targets deep within Russia.

The developments sparked an angry reaction from Moscow. Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev warned on Saturday that Ukraine would “burn” if it decided to attack Russian territory, including the Crimean Peninsula.
https://www.rt.com/russia/570969-moscow-legitimate-target-ukraine-mp/
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4 Feb, 2023 16:27

5) --- US officials pressing Africans over Wagner Group – media

The CIA and State Department have reportedly tried to pressure governments into kicking out the contractors

The Biden administration has attempted to pressure African nations into expelling the Wagner private military company, with the firm’s presence in Sudan and Libya “at the top of every meeting” between American and Egyptian officials, the Associated Press reported.

CIA Director William Burns focused on the group during recent trips to Egypt and Libya, while Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed Wagner with Egyptian President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi during a jaunt to Cairo last month, the news agency reported on Saturday.

“Wagner obsesses [the American officials],” said an Egyptian senior government official. “It is at the top of every meeting.”

Egypt is a key conduit for American policy, with the Biden administration going as far as using Cairo to pass messages to Moscow, rather than communicating through direct channels. According to the report, the Egyptians reached out to their Sudanese and Libyan counterparts to relay Washington’s displeasure with Wagner.

Abbas Kamel, the director of Egypt’s Intelligence Directorate Agency, urged the head of Sudan’s ruling sovereign council, General Abdel-Fattah Burhan to address Wagner’s “use of Sudan as a base” for operations in Central Africa, a Sudanese official said. Burns himself visited Libya to speak to the country’s competing governments, discussing Wagner with Libyan National Army (LNA) commander Khalifa Haftar, the report claimed.

Egypt reportedly asked that Haftar not station Wagner soldiers near its borders, while the US demanded that Wagner fighters be removed from their posts safeguarding Libyan oil facilities.

Founded in 2014, Wagner has mainly operated as a security contractor in Africa and the Middle East. The precise details of its deployments are not made public, although Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin has confirmed that his forces fought in Libya. He denied involvement in Sudan when asked by American journalists last year, saying at the time that he was “not aware of any evidence that the Wagner Group exists,” and that he had personally donated humanitarian aid to the conflict-stricken country.

“Who arranged wars and revolutions in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Mozambique, Central Africa, and so on?” he told RT last month. “Some of these countries later turned to the Wagner PMC, which put an end to these wars with an iron fist.”

The US declared the Wagner Group a “transnational criminal organization” last month, after Wagner forces notched up a series of victories against the Ukrainian military in Donbass.

Despite Washington’s apparent “obsession” with the group, “there is no evidence yet that the Biden administration’s pressure has yielded results in either Sudan or Libya,” the AP report noted.
https://www.rt.com/news/570963-wagner-group-sudan-libya/
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4 Feb, 2023 08:58

6) --- US announces first transfer of seized Russian assets to Kiev

Money confiscated from a Russian businessman will be made available to 'support the people of Ukraine'

US Attorney General Merrick Garland announced on Friday the first transfer of assets, confiscated as part of anti-Russia sanctions, to Ukraine to pay for the country’s reconstruction.

The measure affects $5.4 million expropriated from Russian businessman Konstantin Malofeyev on charges of sanctions evasion, according to the top official.

“With my authorization today, forfeited funds will next be transferred to the State Department to support the people of Ukraine,” Garland said, adding that the funds were confiscated following an indictment against Malofeyev, issued last April.

Earlier this week, a federal court in New York allowed prosecutors to confiscate $5.4 million belonging to Malofeyev, paving the way for the funds to be used to help rebuild Ukraine.

In June, millions were seized from a US bank account belonging to Malofeyev, against whom the US Treasury Department announced sanctions in April “for having acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly” the Russian government.

The businessman, who owns Russian Orthodox Christian channel Tsargrad TV, has been on the US sanctions list since 2014. Malofeyev previously claimed that he had no holdings in the West since then.

In December, US President Joe Biden signed legislation allowing the Department of Justice to transfer some forfeited assets to the State Department to aid Ukraine. US law restricts how the government can use such assets.
https://www.rt.com/business/570949-us-russia-assets-ukraine/
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5 Feb, 2023 02:26

7) --- Putin did not threaten Germany – Scholz

German tanks are also not a threat to “Russian territory,” the chancellor has said

Chancellor Olaf Scholz has claimed that a “consensus” was reached with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky that Kiev will not use Western weapons, including German Leopard tanks, to stage attacks on Russian territory. The West, however, still considers Crimea and four other new Russian regions to be parts of Ukraine.

In an interview with the Bild am Sonntag newspaper published on Saturday night, Chancellor Scholz once again placed all of the blame for the conflict on Moscow, arguing that Russia’s “unprovoked aggression” justified the collective West’s intervention with military aid to protect the “European peace order.”

“Together with our allies, we are giving battle tanks to Ukraine so that they can defend themselves,” Scholz argued. He added that Berlin “carefully weighed every arms shipment, closely coordinating… first and foremost with America.”

Scholz pledged 14 Leopard 2A6 tanks to Ukraine from the Bundeswehr’s own stocks last month, after the US promised to send some of its own M1 Abrams tanks sometime later this year. In the interview, the German leader dismissed any concerns about his country’s weaponry once again being used against Russian soldiers as “abstruse historical comparisons.”

At a ceremony marking the 80th anniversary of victory at the Battle of Stalingrad on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said it was “unbelievable but true – we are once again threatened with German Leopard tanks, with crosses on their hull. And once again seeking to battle Russia in Ukraine with the help of Hitler’s followers, the Banderites.”

“Those seeking to defeat Russia on the battlefield apparently do not realize that a modern war with Russia would be entirely different for them,” he added, promising a response that goes beyond armored vehicles.

“No, Putin didn’t threaten me or Germany,” Scholz said regarding phone conversations with the Russian leader when the interviewer brought up recent claims by ex-UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson. The Kremlin stated that Johnson had either deliberately lied about a “missile threat” or simply did not understand what Putin was talking about.

When asked if there is any kind of agreement with President Vladimir Zelensky that Western weapons will only be used on Ukrainian territory, Scholz said there is a “consensus.” He did not elaborate on whether there is a consensus regarding which territories are considered Ukrainian.

The US has also reportedly provided military aid to Ukraine on condition that it will not be used to strike targets in Russia. However, American officials have said this restriction does not apply to Crimea and other new Russian territories, and has repeatedly stated that Kiev is free to pick its own targets.

Crimea and the city of Sevastopol joined Russia in 2014 following a referendum. The Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, as well as Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions, did the same last year. Kiev has dismissed the referendums as a “sham.”

On Wednesday, Putin tasked the military with “eliminating any possibility” of Ukrainian strikes against Russia. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov clarified that this includes the territories that Ukraine still considers to be its own, saying that Moscow will “push back” the Ukrainian troops to a range at which they will not be a threat, and that “the longer range the weapons supplied to the Kiev regime have, the further the troops will need to be moved.”
https://www.rt.com/news/570971-scholz-russia-ukraine-german-tanks/
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4 Feb, 2023 16:31

8) --- US inmates could soon be trading their organs for freedom

A proposed bill in New England could see vulnerable convicts making decisions out of desperation - OP-ED by Bradley Blankenship

State legislatures around the United States are keenly watching the fate of a Massachusetts bill allowing prisoners to receive up to one year off their jail sentence by donating their organs.

According to reports, Bill HD.3822, called the "Act to establish the Massachusetts incarcerated individual bone marrow and organ donation program," would allow participating prisoners to receive a minimum of 60 days and up to a whole year off their sentence. It would be set up in a special parole hearing based similarly on commuted sentences for “good behavior.” https://www.boston.com/news/politics/2023/02/01/massachusetts-bill-prison-time-bone-marrow-organ-donations/

However, it would also encourage repeat donations, and since those incarcerated in the US are disproportionately minorities and low-income earners, it bears similarities to the country’s blood and plasma donation scheme. That system preys on low-income earners and students, encouraging them to consistently donate their blood at for-profit collection centers, effectively selling it in a sort of vampiric version of capitalism.

In a 2019 piece titled ‘Harvesting the Blood of America’s Poor: The Latest Stage of Capitalism,’ Alan MacLeod observed that “around 130 million Americans admit an inability to pay for basic needs like food, housing or healthcare, buying and selling blood is one of the few booming industries America has left.”

“The number of collection centers in the United States has more than doubled since 2005 and blood now makes up well over 2% of total US exports by value. To put that in perspective, Americans’ blood is now worth more than all exported corn or soy products that cover vast areas of the country’s heartland,“ he said.

According to MacLeod, “The US supplies fully 70 percent of the world’s plasma, mainly because most other countries have banned the practice on ethical and medical grounds. Exports increased by over 13 percent, to $28.6 billion, between 2016 and 2017, and the plasma market is projected to ‘grow radiantly,’ according to one industry report. The majority goes to wealthy European countries. Germany, for example, buys 15% of all US blood exports. China and Japan are also key customers.”

But low-incomers giving blood for money is a very different scenario from prisoners literally giving their organs for freedom. The most important difference is that the proposed organ donations by prisoners would be the result of a criminal penalty.

The US Constitution prohibits “cruel and unusual punishment” of convicts, and one could argue this makes the bill unconstitutional. But the way it is framed means the organ-for-freedom contract is not technically a punishment — but simply a voluntary system that can reduce a convict’s actual punishment. Neither is it necessarily cruel, since a person can live a normal everyday life without a kidney, nor unusual, because healthy people donate organs all the time.

The United States has slavery as a form of punishment codified in its constitution, via the 13th amendment. It is also a country where the death penalty is legal at the federal level, but mainly implemented by states in capital offenses, such as murder. US prisons also routinely implement long-term solitary confinement, recognized by the UN as a form of torture. The threshold to prove “cruel and unusual punishment” is thus exceptionally high.

One of the primary arguments put forward by proponents of the bill is that prisoners have no way, as of now, to donate organs even if they choose to. That is a pretty sound case. After all, shouldn’t they be able to exercise that right if everyone else has it? And what’s the argument against them losing this right – especially if it helps everyone, including Massachusetts’ jammed-up donor waiting list?

Unfortunately, the easily foreseen problem is that it incentivizes people to literally give up organs, parts of their bodies, for their freedom. This is inherently immoral. The people locked up in US prisons are disproportionately from minority groups, subject to awful conditions, with little access to economic aid or rehabilitation.

This is one of the main reasons why the US has the highest recidivism rate in the world, with 76% of prisoners released being rearrested within five years and an astounding 44% returning to prison within only one year. The entire system is set up for failure and for people to return to prison, thus pushing them to donate their organs but without any financial compensation, only a reduced sentence.

This is another step in America’s descent into, as MacLeod described, a horror story of late-stage capitalism that one might dub vampiric and where the wealthy feed on the blood of the poor.

" ... The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.... "

Bradley Blankenship is an American journalist, columnist and political commentator. He has a syndicated column at CGTN and is a freelance reporter for international news agencies including Xinhua News Agency.
https://www.rt.com/news/570918-us-inmates-trade-organs-freedom/
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