Captain Brittany Ramos-DeBarros: “They Want Us To Believe The Lie…”

by Jerry Alatalo

nited States Army Reserve Captain Brittany Ramos-DeBarros, veteran of the war in Afghanistan, faces retribution from her military superiors. She speaks out about her experience in Afghanistan and what she has learned with respect to the truth of why America initiates wars, which, from the military’s harsh reactions, suggests a continuing emphasis on secrecy, silence or non-transparency fueling the U.S. soldier/war organizational culture.

During a public event speech which put her in legal jeopardy, Captain DeBarros told the crowd gathered:

“They want us to believe the lies that the precious lives of our soldiers are being spent for the protection of our freedoms. But I spent a year witnessing the bravery and beauty of the Afghan people – men and women, fathers and mothers, risking their lives and their families to overcome oppressive organizations that we funded and enabled.”

While appearing for a new documentary promoted by Veterans for Peace, Brittany DeBarros describes the essential experience of contrariness as someone both in the U.S. military and speaking out against American involvement in war:

“It feels like a moment where your life feels like … the sum of your life means, could be made explicit in that moment. And you have to make a decision about what matters enough to you to put yourself at risk, and what risk you’re willing to take in order to defend that.”

Her and a growing number of American veterans of war are frustrated in the near absence of awareness in the people of the United States with regard to current levels of military engagement now occurring by their armed forces:

“People don’t realize that we’re at … almost at the height of what our bombing campaigns have been, – that we’re dropping a bomb every 12 minutes when you average out the numbers.”

“What is driving a lot of our actions is very likely not what we think, which is freedom and, you know, protecting our country and bringing democracy to the world, and liberating oppressed peoples, as it’s been sold to the American people.”

Captain Brittany DeBarros and her fellow veterans opposed to war feel,  – after learning about the lies they and their fellow Americans have been told regarding military operations in Afghanistan, Syria and elsewhere around the Earth – that their voices are just as important to become heard as the generals, admirals, Secretaries of Defense, Presidents … and so on.

“I believe what I heard someone else say, which was: ‘If someone can stand in uniform as an officer and as a leader, and speak about why we should be in war, – why shouldn’t I as a leader be able to stand in my uniform and say that we shouldn’t be at war?'”

She also expresses her shocked amazement and frustration in knowing that, not taking into account the nation’s civilian population of 330 million-plus being unaware, even her own fellow soldiers are often-times “out of the loop” on the true levels or magnitude of military operations being carried out by United States armed forces around the world.

“When there’s that little awareness … awareness-raising is ground zero.”

***

For more information, please visit AboutFaceVeterans.org 

(Thank you to The Peace Report at YouTube)

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Donald Trump Silent On White Helmets Scandal.

by Jerry Alatalo

Among the participants and attendees of the December 20, 2018 United Nations meeting on the activities of the White Helmets were Syrian Ambassador Bashar Jaafari and Russian Federation Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia

eople who watch the DECEMBER 20, 2018 United Nations meeting, which presented evidence of horrific crimes committed inside Syria by the so-called “rescue” organization and Academy Award-winning “White Helmets”, will come to a full understanding of the true reason U.S. President Donald Trump went on Twitter (Date: DECEMBER 19, 2018).

President Trump announced a major, surprise change in his administration’s foreign policy 24 hours before the U.N. meeting exposing the White Helmets international scandal – and wrote that, essentially: “We (U.S. military forces) are leaving Syria … immediately!”. Is it possible, or even probable, that Mr. Trump was aware of the U.N. meeting scheduled for the 20th of December, and that his no-cost Twitter foreign policy statement was delivered to place a global media roadblock in front of the White Helmets bombshell, set to explode the next day?

We sense the answer is “yes”. However, the only way of knowing for certain is hearing from Donald Trump himself for his opinion of the “extremely inconvenient, taboo…” details presented at the December 20 event. Trump’s 12/19/2018 action, a military psychological operation if the described theory becomes proved true, was put forward to soak up all global media attention, which indeed was the result. In other words, – Mr. Trump took a calculated public relations action to protect the diminishing reputation of the White Helmets, or to bury any chance of any appreciable amount of people worldwide learning details of the White Helmets criminal scandal revealed on 12/20/2018.

Developments in the near (3) weeks since Trump’s announcement seem to confirm the theory. Donald Trump and members of his administration have not said anything about the White Helmets in those (3) weeks, – most especially relaying nothing publicly whatsoever about, or since, the damning December 20 U.N. meeting.

Trump’s Twitter action could be described using Trump terminology as “fantastic, and very successful”; very few people worldwide heard news of the White Helmets scandal revealed at the December 20 United Nations meeting; Trump’s National Security Adviser John Bolton has issued, as more than once in the past, a warning to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad about potential use of chemical weapons, and, once more, threatening the severest of military responses.

With the already-suffering reputation of the White Helmets terrorist group effectively “saved” thanks to Donald Trump’s Twitter psychological operation and public relations fix, the rising odds for another false flag chemical attack in Syria (possibly Israel due to growing Neocon desperation) becomes more plausible as a predictive. This creates legitimate worries that another deception-based military response from the United States (Trump), United Kingdom (May) and France (Macron) will bring much more unnecessary death,injury and harm than previous illegal bombing operations.

What public responses, if any, have the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister Theresa May and French President Emmanuel Macron issued on this very serious matter?

Who will become the first courageous U.S. journalist submitting to the president of the United States of America the following question?

“With respect to extremely troubling revelations made on December 20 at the United Nations, President Trump, could you please share with Americans and people of the world your honest assessment of the White Helmets?”

Future history books may record, teach and describe the 2-hour December 20, 2018 meeting at the United Nations as a pivotal and important, world changing event

***

(Thank you to Nizar Abboud at YouTube)

Trump, May, Moreno Still Silent On Julian Assange.

by Jerry Alatalo

U.S., U.K., Ecuador leaders ignore U.N. international law judgment regarding Julian Assange

German Parliament members and Julian Assange’s father spoke to reporters after meeting with the long-time illegally detained and silenced publisher in London.

n many discussions over the past (8) months since  Ecuador’s government shut off Julian Assange’s ability to communicate from inside Ecuador’s embassy in London to the outside world via phone, internet, mail or during visitations with family and friends, people have wondered aloud how Julian Assange and WikiLeaks would have reported on important news events.

Had Mr. Assange never been framed for crimes he did not commit, or faced extradition to the United States as part of the plan which included the bogus charges, his need for seeking (and receiving) asylum of (now) over (6) years ago from then-President Rafael Correa of Ecuador would never have arisen, and he and WikiLeaks would have continued reporting on world affairs.

Muhammad Ali explains why he decided to refuse induction into the U.S. Army and oppose the Vietnam War.

One becomes reminded of the great heavyweight champion boxer Muhammad Ali, whose refusal to join the U.S. military during the Vietnam War led to his losing the ability to box professionally for years, personally devastating because he was in his physical prime, at the height of his athletic prowess. Ali’s morality-based stance – highlighted by the famous statement “I don’t have anything against those Vietnamese people” – became vindicated later on after it became clear the Vietnam War was initiated based on the false flag lies surrounding the now-infamous “Gulf of Tonkin” incident, which in fact never occurred. Millions of Vietnamese and near 60,000 U.S. servicemen died unnecessarily in what many describe as America’s worst foreign policy catastrophe ever.

Similar to the experiences of Muhammad Ali, Julian Assange has been unjustly persecuted for his antiwar actions. Ali came from the arena of professional sports, Assange from the arena of publishing, and both paid a very high price. Both men knew that their actions risked certain, serious backlash, personal risk and negative consequences from those pushing war agendas, but with conscious intent both Ali and Assange stood firm against the individuals, groups and/or governments who opposed them.

Muhammad Ali eventually regained his freedom and boxing career, going on to take part in some of the most memorable heavyweight fights in history. He boxed well into his 40’s, long after professional boxers retire from the ring, and suffered debilitating physical damages from the accumulated head punches received in matches conducted after  he passed his physical prime.

Boxing legend Muhammad Ali lit the symbolic torch to begin the 1996 Olympic Summer Games in Atlanta, Georgia.

Ali, – like Assange with his antiwar publishing actions – received both strong public criticism and support for his opposition to the Vietnam War, and eventually, as the years passed after the end of the war in Vietnam, became widely regarded as a hero in the public’s perceptions. Despite having lost much of his former ability to speak due to the head injuries from boxing, Ali’s popularity continued, highlighted by his symbolic lighting of the torch in the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. Muhammad Ali passed away in 2016 at the age of 74.

The fate of Julian Assange remains uncertain and perilous, however the millions around the world who support him and demand his freedom received encouraging news in the past few days. Supporters, many contributing their efforts as volunteers through the growing #Unity4J Movement, are hoping for a snowball effect to grow the level of public outcry globally calling for Assange’s release.

On December 20, two members of the German Bundestag’s Foreign Affairs Committee – Heike Haensel and Sevim Dagdelen of the Die Linke or Left Party – met with illegally imprisoned WikiLeaks publisher/leader Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.

At the end of their meeting they held a press conference outside the embassy and released a declaration signed by more than (30) members of European Parliament and the German Bundestag calling on the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno and U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May to take steps toward Assange’s “immediate release”, and that he be granted “safe passage to a safe country” as soon as possible.

The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) accused Theresa May’s administration of violating international law over an issue of press freedom on December 21st. It is unknown whether Theresa May or anyone in her administration have officially responded to WGAD’s allegations.

To Mr. Trump of the United States, Ms. May of the United Kingdom, and Mr. Moreno of Ecuador:

The ball is now in your court(room). Do the right thing.

Free Julian Assange.

(Thank you to Sputnik at YouTube)

 

IFMSA and IPPNW Students Issue Joint Call for Nuclear Abolition and Peacebuilding

Members of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War and International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations are offering world leaders – and particularly leaders of the nine (9) remaining nuclear-armed nations on Earth – their most timely, honest and accurate diagnosis, treatment and cure. It is certainly no stretch to describe nuclear weapons as a deadly cancerous threat to both this current generation and those generations yet unborn.
Now more than ever is the time for responsible international leaders in all fields of human endeavor to remember the wisdom of the generally-accepted rule advising to “…follow doctors’ orders.” Successfully treating and removing the very real deadly threat and manifesting true healing means ridding the Earth of nuclear weapons. That means as rapidly as possible, starting here and now in late 2018.
It means increasingly powerful efforts and striving to achieve what cynical doubters and self-interested warmongers say is impossible. The obvious cure, the surest path to peace and wisest action, is ridding the Earth of immeasurably dangerous nuclear weapons now … and forever.

IPPNW peace and health blog

Press release, dated 26 November 2018, from the students of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War and the International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations (IFMSA).

The prevalence of peace is a major determinant of a society’s health and together they represent a vital determinant of a sustainable future and society. The deterioration of peace in many regions of this world has been associated with negative outcomes on health. Recent war strategies have breached international humanitarian law and used attacks on not only healthcare facilities but also healthcare workers and civilians as a tactic causing death tolls to rise.

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