US De-Lists Uyghur Terrorist Organization Aimed at China

 November 12, 2020 (Brian Berletic - NEO) - The US State Department quietly de-listed the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM) - a terrorist organization linked to Al Qaeda. 

AFP in an article titled, "US removes group targeted by China from terror list," would report: 

The United States said Friday it had removed from its list of terror groups a shadowy faction regularly blamed by China to justify its harsh crackdown in the Muslim-majority Xinjiang region.

In a notice in the Federal Register, which publishes new US laws and rules, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he was revoking the designation of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (Etim) as a "terrorist organization".

The AFP article also claims: 

"Etim was removed from the list because, for more than a decade, there has been no credible evidence that Etim continues to exist," a State Department spokesperson said. 

Yet this - according to US State Department-funded sources themselves - is entirely untrue. This includes articles as recent as 2018 from the Department's own Voice of America admitting the ongoing threat the group still poses not only to China but to the world. 

VOA's 2018 article titled, "Uighur Jihadis in Syria Could Pose Threat," admits that: 

Analysts are warning that the jihadi group Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP) in northwestern Syria could pose a danger to Syria’s volatile Idlib province, where efforts continue to keep a fragile Turkey-Russia-brokered cease-fire between Syrian regime forces and the various rebel groups.

In essence - the US State Department is simply removing a known and still very active terrorist organization from its lists to both politically attack and undermine China further - but to also likely provide more direct support to the group and those affiliated with it in Washington's widening conflict against Beijing. 

ETIM has carried out bus bombings, shootings, suicide bombings, mass knife attacks, and other forms of terrorism stretching across a period of more than 20 years. It has been listed by the UN Security Council as a terrorist organization for nearly as long and is still designated as such to this day. 

A post on the UN Security Council's official website titled, "EASTERN TURKISTAN ISLAMIC MOVEMENT," notes that: 

The Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement was listed on 11 September 2002 pursuant to paragraphs 1 and 2 of resolution 1390 (2002) as being associated with Al-Qaida, Usama bin Laden or the Taliban for “participating in the financing, planning, facilitating, preparing or perpetrating of acts or activities by, in conjunction with, under the name of, on behalf or in support of” or “otherwise supporting acts or activities of” Al-Qaida. 

Similar patterns by the US were seen in relation to proxy warfare waged by Washington against the nations of Libya and Syria. Terrorist organizations like the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) were likewise removed from US terror lists despite at the time the group still openly carrying out armed violence. 

New US Ambassador Seeks to Drag Thailand into US-China Conflict

September 9, 2020 (Joseph Thomas - NEO) - The English-language Bangkok Post helped reveal Washington's growing obsession with Beijing and its attempts to drag Thailand into the middle of its conflict during an interview with the newly appointed US ambassador to Thailand, Michael DeSombre. 

In an article titled, "US turns focus to South China Sea," the Bangkok Post claims:

Early this month, China held a five-day naval drill near the contested Paracel Islands. Then the US carried out military exercises in the waterway showing support for the free and open Indo-Pacific, as the South China Sea has been subject to overlapping claims by many countries, including China.

 The article then claims:

In an interview with the Bangkok Post, US Ambassador Michael George DeSombre said the US had carried out its military engagement in support of freedom.

"That is what we have done in the Spanish-American War, World War I and World War II. That is the role we see our military provides in promoting freedom around the world and ensuring other countries have the ability to be sovereign, safe and secure, which is the foundation of our Indo-Pacific strategy," he said.

This fantastical claims made by the newly appointed US ambassador flew in the face of facts, both in historical and contemporary terms. The new ambassador also never convincingly explained what Washington's fixation over China had to do with Thailand or what Thailand would gain by supporting the US against Thailand's largest and most important economic partner.

While another Thailand-based English-language newspaper, The Nation, conducted a similar interview, it included a clear graph illustrating that China's foreign direct investment (FDI) in Thailand was over 13 times larger than the United States', perhaps letting economic realities speak where Nation reporters were too polite to point out the increasingly quixotic nature of US foreign policy.

The US Tramples National Sovereignty Worldwide, Not Defends it 

In historical terms, it was at the end of the Spanish-American War mentioned by US Ambassador DeSombre in the Bangkok Post that the United States transformed the Philippines into a literal US colony.

The US military brutally put down various attempts afterward at achieving Philippine independence from America including during the Philippine-American War (1899-1902) in which the US used torture and genocide to maintain its grip over the Southeast Asian nation.

Nothing could have been further from "ensuring other countries have the ability to be sovereign, safe, and secure."

Today, the United States militarily (and illegally) occupies the nations of Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.

US-backed Opposition Prime Suspects in Thai Bombings

August 3, 2019 (Tony Cartalucci - NEO) - Several small bombs detonated across Bangkok on Friday, August 2, amid a meeting between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) the US, China, and Russia.

There were several injuries reported, but no deaths.

Despite a Western media deliberately feigning confusion over motives and possible suspects while attempting to depict the capital as "in chaos" and the current Thai government "humiliated" - its image "tarnished" - US-backed opposition groups are the prime suspects, their motives including growing desperation.

Also absent from Western media coverage was any genuine context surrounding Thailand's ongoing political crisis as foreign-backed opposition groups attempt to  reverse the nation's growing ties with China, Russia, and developing nations across Eurasia.

US-Backed Opposition Growing Desperate 

The US-backed opposition consists of former prime minister, billionaire fugitive Thaksin Shinawatra, his Pheu Thai Party (PTP), his violent street front - the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD) better known as "red shirts," and a number of new parties Thaksin created to hedge his bets in elections earlier this year.

The most prominent among these parties is Future Forward headed by billionaire Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit.

Thanathorn faces multiple criminal charges including election law violations. His political future is nonexistent - a miniature Thaksin Shinawatra minus the initial success and popularity Thaksin once enjoyed when first coming to power in 2001.

Thaksin's various proxies parties faired poorly in the last election, with Palang Pracharath Party (PPRP) winning the popular vote and forming a larger coalition. PPRP is headed by military figures responsible for ousting Thaksin  in 2006 - and his sister Yingluck Shinawatra from power in 2014.

Having lost elections and lacking public support - with expensive and violent protests a now exhausted option - few options are left besides violence. Many hardcore Thaksin supporters are fond of repeating the quote, "those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."

While they are by no means interested in any sort of principled revolution, they are most certainly fond of pursing violence.

US-Backed Opposition's Verified History of Violence and Terrorism 

Thaksin - since his ouster in 2006 - has resorted to large scale violence in a bid to seize back power. This is in addition to his poor human rights record during his time in power which saw over 2,000 people extrajudicially executed during a 90 day "drug war."

Should evidence tie Thaksin to the recent blasts - it wouldn't be the first time he and his political allies would have targeted an important ASEAN summit hosted by Thailand.

The Guardian in its article, "Protesters storm Asian leaders' summit in Thailand," would admit that in 2009 during another large ASEAN meeting, Thaksin's red shirts would storm the convention center forcing ASEAN representatives to flee by helicopter. During related protests, Thaksin's red shirts would kill two shopkeepers while trying to loot their businesses.

In 2010, Thaksin would deploy between 300-500 heavily armed militants who - even according to Human Rights Watch - murdered soldiers, police, and civilians. Despite HRW admitting this, it and the Western media still depicts the violence as a "government crackdown" to this day.  Leading up to the protests, Thaksin's militants threatened judges deciding on a court case over the seizure of $1.4 billion of his assets. This included grenade attacks on court buildings.

There were also other senseless grenade and bomb attacks carried out throughout Bangkok as a crude attempt to coerce the government to meet Thaksin's demands in 2010.

In 2014 when protesters took to the street to oppose Thaksin Shinawatra's sister - Yingluck Shinawtra - his militants would once again return, carrying out gun and grenade attacks leaving up to 20 dead including women and children. Violence continued until the military intervened, ousting Yingluck, and taking over as an interim government.

In fact, only Thaksin Shinawatra and his political supporters have a verified record of carrying out violence and terrorism in and around Bangkok - and for over a decade.

Southern Separatists? 

Three of Thailand's southern-most provinces have faced a low-intensity insurgency since Thaksin took power in 2001 and violated a 20-year peace deal.

Claims that separatists in Thailand's deep south might have been responsible for the recent blasts are dubious at best. Separatists have never attacked Bangkok.

Additionally, as revealed by Thailand's HRW representative Sunai Phasuk in a Wikileaks cable - Thaksin maintains, "strong organization and funding" for activities in the deep south and could organize violence in Bangkok meant to scapegoat separatists.

US vs China: Smartphone Wars

July 7, 2019 (Joseph Thomas - NEO) - If Washington's goal was to pressure and isolate China by targeting smartphone giant Huawei, it seems to have accomplished the exact opposite. In the process, the US has only accomplished in exposing its own growing weakness and unreliability as a trade partner amid a much wider, misguided and mismanaged "trade war."

While we're only talking about smartphones and economic competition, however fierce, the outcome of this smartphone battle amid a much wider trade war will have an impact on global power and who wields it in the years to come.

Losing Ungracefully  

By May 2019, Huawei had firmly climbed to the number two spot in global smartphone sales at the expense of US-based Apple. By the first quarter of 2019 it had shipped 59.1 million phones compared to Apple, now third place, at between 36-43 million phones, IDC (International Data Corporation) reported.

IDC and many other articles based on its data would note that while Huawei and Apple have traded places in the past over who held second place among global smartphone sales, Huawei's ascension this time seemed much more permanent.

Those watching the trajectory and inner workings of both tech giants will have noticed Apple's decline as endemic internal management problems coupled with growing global competition tattered its reputation and consumer appeal.

Was it just a coincidence that just as first quarter sales data emerged, the US announced one of its more dramatic turns amid its wider trade war with China? The Trump administration would announce a ban on all American-made goods to Huawei including microchips made by Intel and Qualcomm as well as the Android operating system (OS) made by US tech giant Google.

Coupled with this move was a public relations blitz across the US media and their partners working within nations moving closer to China. In Thailand, for example, local media trained and influenced by US interests attempted to undermine consumer confidence in Huawei in the wake of US sanctions against the company.

This one-two punch was a partial success. Sales did slump and Huawei was faced with significant obstacles. But significant obstacles are not the same as insurmountable obstacles, and overcoming obstacles is often how true competitors strengthen themselves.

What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger 

For Huawei, a tech giant integral to China's wider economic and political success upon the global stage, it has all the resources and support it needs to weather the toughest of storms.

In the wake of US sanctions, and even in the lead up to them, Huawei has begun to source critical parts from non-US companies. It is also investing significantly in its own in-house alternatives to US manufactured microchips and even in an alternative OS to replace Android.

Digital Trends in its article "Huawei’s Android-alternative operating system: Everything you need to know," helps illustrate just how determined Huawei is to overcome these obstacles.

The fact that work on the OS supposedly began as early as 2018 indicates that Huawei executives are under no illusions regarding American goodwill. If America is to play nicely with Huawei and other Chinese companies, it will be because Huawei and other Chinese companies took steps leaving the US no other choice but to do so.

US War on Huawei is a War on Tech Sovereignty

June 5, 2019 (Gunnar Ulson - NEO) - Unable to compete on equal terms with Chinese telecom giant Huawei, the United States and the corporations that influence its domestic and foreign policy have decided instead to simply cut Huawei off from its many monopolies including chip manufacturing and mobile phone operating systems.

But US measures come at a time when Huawei is already well on its way to unseating US tech monopolies. US measures may only spur Huawei (and many other companies and countries) to further work toward creating alternatives to current US tech monopolies and establishing enduring technological sovereignty from US control.

US Cites False Pretext to Cripple a Competitor 

The US Department of Commerce claims:

...Huawei is engaged in activities that are contrary to U.S. national security or foreign policy interest. This information includes the activities alleged in the Department of Justice’s public superseding indictment of Huawei, including alleged violations of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), conspiracy to violate IEEPA by providing prohibited financial services to Iran, and obstruction of justice in connection with the investigation of those alleged violations of U.S. sanctions.

Evidence (as is the case with most US allegations) is lacking, yet US measures prohibiting "the sale or transfer of American technology" to Huawei coincidentally gives a boost to US tech companies unable to compete against Huawei in free and fair global markets.

Fortune, in its article, "Huawei Wants to Play Nice With Google and Microsoft, But Has Its 'Last Resort' Ready," elaborates further on what this ban means to Huawei.

Microsoft removed Huawei laptops from its online store, while chip manufacturers including Qualcomm, Intel, Nvidia, Lattice and ARM are poised to stop supplying Huawei assembly lines.

Google is also reportedly preparing to cut Huawei off from its Android mobile phone operating system. Android and Apple's iOS, both US-based, currently dominate the markets and without access to either, Huawei would face significant challenges, giving US tech companies a chance to catch up. This, more than any sort of ambiguous "security threat" explains the motivations of the US Department of Commerce.

Self-Inflicted Wounds Amid a Senseless Fight

US bans targeting Huawei will not be painless for US corporations involved. Huawei currently occupies second place, just behind Samsung, in the smartphone market. Depriving Huawei of US-made components will deprive US corporations of associated profits at least in the short-term. How fast other corporations fill the void left behind by Huawei, if a void appears, is hard to say. If US corporations are counting on US corporations and US-friendly nations and the respective telecom industries filling a potential void, it is a long bet.

USAID and Wall Street: Conflicts, Coups, and Conquest

November 17, 2017 (Tony Cartalucci - NEO) - In 1928 when the US-based United Fruit Company - now known as Chiquita Brands International - faced labor issues in Columbia, it had at its disposal Colombian troops which gunned down hundreds of strikers to maintain production and profits.

Ensuring that Columbia protected "American interests" was the US State Department who hosted company representatives at the US embassy in Bogotá, which in turn was in contact with Washington.

The United Fruit Company's actions in Columbia was far from an isolated incident. US Marine Corps General Smedley Butler would write a book regarding his personal, first-hand experience in fighting wars on multiple continents for oil companies, bankers, and fruit companies.

Nearly a century ago large corporate interests already possessed full control over the mechanisms of American governance, determining its domestic and foreign policy, and readily using the nation's military might for their own personal gain across the globe.

The arrangement has not disappeared over time. It has simply evolved.

The US Chamber of Commerce and USAID 

The US Chamber of Commerce on its own website admits it is a lobbying organization and while it claims it represents millions of businesses big and small - it is an organization dominated by, and existing solely for it largest members.

These include Chevron, Citi, Coco-Cola, Chevrolet, McDonald's, Ford, Dow, Exxon, Honeywell, Proctor & Gamble, Visa, Yum, Monsanto, and many more.

US Cuts Funds for Disarming Explosives It Dropped on Cambodia

November 15, 2017 (Tony Cartalucci - NEO) - In an article by Thai PBS titled, "US cuts 2018 funding for demining operations in Cambodia," it's revealed that next year's meager $2 million in US government funding for demining operations of US unexploded ordnance (UXO) in eastern Cambodia leftover from the Vietnam War has been discontinued without warning or explanation.

The move caused confusion across Cambodia's government, as well as across partner nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Cambodia participating in the US program.

Speculation over the move revolves around growing tensions between Washington and Phnom Penh as the United States desperately attempts to reassert itself in Asia Pacific, while Asian states - including Cambodia - continue to build closer and more constructive ties with Beijing at the expense of Washington's waning influence.

Cambodia has recently exposed and ousted a myriad of US-funded fronts posing as NGOs and independent media platforms executing a campaign of US-backed political subversion. This includes the disbanding of the Cambodia National Rescue opposition party and the arrest of its leader, Kem Sokha, who bragged of his role in a US conspiracy to overthrow the Cambodian government and install him into power.

Tensions in Cambodia represent a wider, regional trend where US footholds face increasing scrutiny and resistance as Washington's abuse of "NGOs," "rights advocacy," and "democracy promotion" is systematically exposed and rolled back.

Cut or Renewed, US UXO Assistance is Meaningless  

The US embassy in Cambodia would claim after receiving backlash for the move that the US had unilaterally decided to shut down funding in order to open up bidding for a new and "world-class removal program" - the details of which have yet to be confirmed or released.

The US boasts that it has spent "more than 114 million dollars" over the past 20 years to clear explosives it itself helped drop on Cambodia as part of its nearly two decades-long war in Vietnam and wider intervention in Southeast Asia - or in other words - the US has spent over 5,000 times less in 20 years on removing UXO in Cambodia than it does annually on its current military operations around the globe. In fact, a single F-35 Joint Strike Fighter warplane costs roughly the same amount of money the US has spent on demining Cambodia over the last 20 years.

There are an estimated 6 million pieces of UXO still littering Cambodia, which since the end of the Vietnam War and the rule of the Khmer Rouge have cost nearly 20,000 Cambodians their lives - with casualties still reported monthly.

Efforts that last 20 years, cost as little as a single warplane in Washington's current arsenal, and still leave people dead or maimed monthly indicate efforts that are halfhearted - a diplomatic stunt more than sincere reparations or humanitarian concern.

Regime Change and Continuity of Agenda: Trump Adviser Now Chairs NED

March 1, 2017 (Joseph Thomas - NEO) - While supporters of recently elected US President Donald Trump believe steadfastly that among other things, his administration will role back what has been essentially a century of American expansionism worldwide through overt wars and more "covert" methods toward achieving "regime change," by all metrics it appears such methods will only expand.

Image: Dr. Judy Shelton, now Chairperson of the NED and Trump adviser, presides over an award ceremony in 2010 for US CIA asset, the Dali Lama, a decades-long integral component of American policy to encircle, contain and divide China.

Not only do observers note continued subversive activities coordinated through local US embassies around the world since Trump's presidency began, including across Southeast Asia as part of America's continued attempts to isolate and contain China, but also movement within US agencies charged with organising and financing this subversion, such as the US State Department's National Endowment for Democracy (NED).

Recently, NED announced its new chairperson, Dr. Judy Shelton. The announcement, published on NED's website includes the following background information on Dr. Shelton:

 Dr. Judy Shelton was elected the new Chairman of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) by NED’s Board of Directors at its January 10, 2017 meeting. An economist who has written widely on issues of international finance and monetary policy, she has also been consulted on international economic and financial issues by the Congress, the White House, and the Pentagon. Shelton previously served on the NED Board from 2005-2014, and was Vice Chairman from 2010-2014.

In other words, not only is Dr. Shelton now the new chairperson of NED, she has been directly involved with NED since at least 2005, long before, and all during NED's role in training, funding and backing the armies of regime change that swept the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) beginning in 2011. She also served on NED's board during the US-backed coup in Ukraine between 2013-2014.

Before that, between 2009-2010, NED-backed mobs took to the streets in Bangkok, Thailand in attempts to overthrow both the sitting government at the time, and also the Thai military and Thailand's head of state.

While these events have been assigned to the Obama administration for political convenience and compartmentalisation, it is actually organisations like NED that serve as the working mechanics that make such events possible.

In other words, Dr. Judy Shelton has been directly involved in NED through the entirety of America's most recent chapters of expansionism and regime change worldwide. She has also served on the board of directors for Hilton Hotels and Atlantic Coast Airlines, providing another example within NED of corporate and financial special interests driving the organisation's agenda rather than actual "democracy promotion."

An example of Dr. Shelton's activities within NED can be gleamed from a 2012 NED news letter under a headline titled, "Democracy Service Medal Presented in Cuba," in which it claims:

NED Vice-Chair Judy Shelton (second from right) presented it in person to Berta Soler, the leader of the Damas de Blanco movement founded by Laura Pollán; Héctor Maseda Guitiérrez, Pollán's widower and a journalist who spent eight years imprisoned by the Cuban government; and Laura Labrada Pollán, Pollán's daughter and a member of the Damas de Blanco.

Here, Dr. Shelton is directly involved in lending legitimacy to US-backed subversion in Cuba as part of a decades-long attempt to overthrow the government in Havana and expand US hegemony over the Caribbean.

US Claims its Anti-China US-ASEAN Summit "Not Anti-China"

February 20, 2016 (Tony Cartalucci - NEO) - For decades the US has sought to stitch together a united front stretching from Central Asia, across Southeast Asia, and even into East Asia itself to encircle and contain China.

From the 70 year occupation of Japan, to the Korean and Vietnam wars, to the 15 year occupation of Afghanistan, to political meddling and attempted regime change in Southeast Asia up to and including today, the United States has invested untold of sums in its bid to maintain what US policymakers openly call American "primacy" in Asia.

The most recent manifestation of this policy of encirclement and containment has focused prominently on Southeast Asia, both through the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade agreement, and the US' sponsorship of an ongoing South China Sea dispute. 

US Nominates War College Grad as Ambassador to Thailand

May 2, 2015 (Tony Cartalucci - NEO) - There are two kinds of "ambassadors" the US employs across the globe to project its unwarranted power and influence beyond its borders. One is a friendly face covert subversion and manipulation can hide behind, the other is a strong voice that subversion and manipulation can openly rally around.



Thailand had previously hosted the wildly unpopular Kristie Kenney, who while serving as US Ambassador to Thailand from 2010 to 2014 feigned profound ignorance to all that unfolded around her, including US-support for the proxy regime of mass murderer and convicted criminal Thaksin Shinawatra. During her tenure, from 2013-2014, Shinawatra's proxy regime, headed by his own sister, Yingluck Shinawatra, employed heavily armed terrorists who mass murdered nearly 30 and maimed over 800 in a series of pistol, grenade, M16, AK47, and M79 attacks.

Kenney remained muted and ambiguous about condemning the violence, openly carried out by the regime which both she and the special interests she represents defended vigorously as the "democratically elected" and "legitimate" government of Thailand. Her inability to more overtly take the side of the regime and its terroristic supporters, or condemn the violence, made her and the nation she represented reviled by both sides.

The military coup that swept the Shianwatra regime from power in May 2014 and put an end to nationwide terrorism it was carrying out saw Kenney leave her post and leave the position of US Ambassador to Thailand vacant.

During the interim, the US State Department would make various demands that the military-led government "return power" to what it called "civilian rule." Decoded, this message means returning convicted criminal Thaksin Shinawatra to power either directly or through the installation of one of his nepotist proxies.

The military has resisted these calls, understanding that Thailand cannot afford to allow a convicted criminal to run the country from a hotel room in Dubai, where Thaksin Shinawatra has fled since being convicted of corruption and sentenced to two years in prison. And because of the Thai military's refusal to allow the US to dictate Thailand's destiny indirectly behind the guise of "democracy," it appears the US is gearing up for a more direct and "muscular" attempt to influence Thailand's political landscape.

Thai Coup Stings Western Meddlers

May 25, 2014 (Tony Cartalucci-NEO) - "America's Pacific Century," Foreign Policy magazine declared in an op-ed published by then US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The by-line would continue by saying, "the future of politics will be decided in Asia, not Afghanistan or Iraq, and the United States will be right at the center of the action." 

And indeed, it has been in the middle of the action. With an army of deeply entrenched US-funded NGOs masquerading as human rights, press freedom, and pro-democracy advocates, the US has been busy subverting and attempting to overthrow indigenous institutions across Southeast Asia either in support of US proxy regimes already in power, or to pave way for disruptive "color revolutions" seeking to install them. 

The idea is to align Southeast Asia, along with India and Pakistan, as well as Korea and Japan, into three united fronts to encircle and contain China. Detailed first in the Vietnam-era "Pentagon Papers" and continuously updated over the following decades, confrontation with China is now the admitted purpose of the US "pivot."  

For Thailand, the only Southeast Asian country to avoid European colonization, it has suffered over a decade of rule by a US-proxy regime installed for just this purpose - the regime of convicted criminal, fugitive, billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra - supported fully by an army of faux-rights advocates, with the full weight of the Western media behind it, and with the support of the US State Department itself. 

Beginning in the 1990's Shinawatra was a Carlyle Group adviser. Upon taking office he would privatize Thailand's petrochemical conglomerate, raise limits on foreign shares, and sell it off to Chevron and Hess. He would send Thai troops to Iraq in support of the US invasion and occupation, as well as allow the CIA to conduct their horrid "rendition" program on Thai soil. He would try, but fail to ramrod through a US-Thai free trade agreement, and has been supported either directly or indirectly by an army of Washington-based lobbying firms for years. 

A recent, peaceful military coup, the second aimed at uprooting Shinawatra's regime, has been successfully carried out this week. Unlike the previous coup of 2006, this coup is proving to be far more effective and thorough with nearly every aspect of the ousted regime being exposed, detained, warrants arranged, and trials to follow. Assets are being traced and face possible judicial review for their subsequent freezing and/or seizure. In other words, the regime is being utterly uprooted, financially and politically. 

US State Department-Funded BBC World Service "Jammed" in China

West feigns indignation as China allegedly shuts down US State Dept-funded BBC propaganda. 

February 26, 2013 (AltThaiNews) - Headlines across the Western corporate-media read, "BBC says 'extensive, coordinated efforts' to jam world service frequencies in China" (Fox News), "BBC blocked in China just days after reporting on Chinese hackers" (Washington Post), and "BBC "strongly condemns" China's attempts to jam World Service broadcasts" (Radio Times), before weaving a lofty narrative of a "repressive regime" trying to gag freedom of the press.

In reality, BBC's World Service is directly funded by the US State Department and is insidious propaganda admittedly designed to politically subvert not only China, but Iran, Russia, and many other nations perceived by Wall Street and London as intolerable competition. In March of 2011, the London Guardian in its report, "BBC World Service to sign funding deal with US state department," stated explicitly: 

The BBC World Service is to receive a "significant" sum of money from the US government to help combat the blocking of TV and internet services in countries including Iran and China.

In what the BBC said is the first deal of its kind, an agreement is expected to be signed later this month that will see US state department money – understood to be a low six-figure sum – given to the World Service to invest in developing anti-jamming technology and software.

The funding is also expected to be used to educate people in countries with state censorship in how to circumnavigate the blocking of internet and TV services.

It is understood the US government has decided the reach of the World Service is such that it makes investment worthwhile.

Of course, "blocked" content translates to US State Department and other Western interests' propaganda in the form of the openly US State Department-run "Voice of America," and a myriad of faux-NGO's funded directly by the US government's National Endowment for Democracy (NED). In China particularly, NED has been cultivating a troupe of misfit "activists" and faux-fronts with names ranging from the cartoonish - the "Blind Activist" aka the "Barefoot Lawyer," to the very ironic - "China Labor Watch, Inc," which we must assume "watches" on, as exploited children and adults labor for WalMart and Apple.  

US Arming Asia

Arming Asia: Empire, Boogeymen and Defense Contractors 

January 4, 2013 (RT - Corbett Report)

....

For more information on the US "pivot" toward Asia, see the following:

Supranational ASEAN is Super Folly for Southeast Asia 
Hillary Clinton and the New American (Pacific) Century

What has US 'return' to Asia Pacific brought to SE Asia?

December 7, 2012 (People's Daily Online) - "Returning to Asia-Pacific" is a significant adjustment of U.S. diplomatic strategy made in recent years and has triggered a complex reaction among Southeast Asian countries.

Chheang Vannarith, executive director of the Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace, said that the United States plans to comprehensively re-engage in the Asia-Pacific region strategically, economically, and culturally. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) does not hope that its “return” will bring new conflicts and tensions to the region. ASEAN countries generally welcome U.S. presence and positive engagement in Asia, and hope to strengthen economic relations with the United States.

Larry Strange, executive director of the Cambodia Development Resource Institute, said that ASEAN countries hope to maintain strong relations with both China and the United States, but ASEAN’s economic development in future largely depends on its relations with China. It should be noted that the United States, which is “returning” to the Asia-Pacific region, should not show special support for certain countries.

A political scientist at Thammasat University said that due to military spending cuts, the United States will have to take advantage of military alliances to maintain its leading status in the Asia-Pacific region. ASEAN countries should seriously consider China’s reactions to their alliances with the United States.

Simon Tay, chairman of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs, said that if the United States wants to successfully “return” to Asia, the fastest-growing region in the world economy, the most important thing is to properly handle its relations with China.

However, there are still some problems with the relations among certain Asian organizations or countries, so the United States still has a chance to implement its “rebalancing” strategy.

Asian countries should accelerate improving their internal relations, and make full use of such platforms as the ASEAN and ASEAN plus Three (China, Japan, and South Korea) to solve certain problems, when the United States intends to “return” to Asia Pacific.


Read the Chinese version: 美国“重返亚太”给东南亚带来了什么？, source: People's Daily

Malaysia: Victim of America’s “Irregular Warfare” Ops?

2010 US Unconventional Warfare Manual (.pdf)

November 21, 2012 (Nile Bowie) - The issue of civil society groups receiving foreign funding has been a major point of discussion in Malaysia during recent times, causing controversy and drawing criticism from activists to members of Parliament alike. Some activists tend to view Putrajaya’s investigation into rights advocacy groups like SUARAM (a noted recipient of foreign funding) as a desperate attempt to stifle dissent and attack civil society. Former PM Mahathir Mohamad’s has repeatedly warned of a foreign-funded destabilization campaign aimed at regime change in Malaysia – a claim that has been generally dismissed by Bersih goers and the like. With the nation’s 13th General Election looming, some see talk of “foreign plots” as tired rhetoric, while others fail to grasp the deeper machinations of foreign influence and do little more than finger pointing at political opponents. In this instance, the pages of a leaked US military document provide valuable insight into the nature of “foreign plots” potentially aimed against Malaysia.
 

“TC 18-01 SPECIAL FORCES UNCONVENTIONAL WARFARE” is listed on the US Army’s official website and can only be accessed by authorized officials within the American government (a leaked copy has been made available and can be viewed by clicking here). [1] The document is significant because it provides a step-by-step definition of Washington’s “irregular warfare” and unconventional warfare tactics. The manual illustrates the sheer impunity with which the United States conducts its foreign policy, aimed at illegally interfering into the political affairs of foreign nations with an aim to destabilize and reorder them to further American economic interests; Dr. Christof Lehmann describes the manual as:
 

“…a step by step guide of how to create, manipulate, co-opt and make use of a countries population, persons of special interest inside the country as well as expatriates, organizations inside as well as outside the country, towards a subversion. Beginning with manipulating dissent into demonstrations, the polarization of a population, riots and armed insurgencies that require action by security forces, and psychological warfare by means of media, step by step, in logical sequence, towards a full scale war, based on humanitarian principles and the pretext of bringing democracy and freedom.” [2]

3 Stops on America's Asian Tour of Shame

America's new Asian allies: Dictator-for-life Hun Sen of Cambodia, Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi and her genocidal "Saffron monks," and the despotic hereditary Shinawatra regime of Thailand.

November 19, 2012 (AltThaiNews) - US President Barack Obama is embarking on what the Western media is calling a "historic trip." In reality he is coddling dictators and human rights abusers of the highest caliber, even while waging proxy-war against Syria based on alleged "human rights" concerns.

1. Thailand: President Obama and US Secretary Hillary Clinton first arrived in Bangkok, Thailand in efforts to legitimize and prop up politically, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, sister of deposed despot Thaksin Shinawatra, who is using her to run the country by proxy as he evades a 2 year jail sentence and 2 arrest warrants.

Image: "The Thai Gov'ts War on Drugs: Dead Wrong. Stop the Murder of Thai Drug Users." During Thaksin Shinwatra's 2003 "War on Drugs" it wasn't only drug users who were brutally, extra-judicially murdered in the streets, but over 50% of the 2,800 killed during the course of 3 months, were completely innocent, involved in no way with either drug use or trade. This atrocity has been overlooked as he and now his sister, Yingluck Shinawatra have proven their utility to advancing the interests of Wall Street and London.

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Transpacfic Free Trade Deal Lacks Transparency

On TPP Secrecy, US And Five Others Decline To Answer UN

November 14, 2012 - (IP Watch) The nine countries asked by a United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur to respond to a complaint over the alleged secret and bureaucratic negotiations for the draft Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement either failed to respond or defended the backdoor talks, according to the advocacy group Knowledge Ecology International (KEI).
 
In a statement today, KEI said out of the nine countries asked for response by the UN Special Rapporteur for the right to health Anand Grover, only Australia, Chile and New Zealand responded, and all three defended the need to have secret negotiations for TPP. KEI claimed that the three countries were also “lying about or minimizing the expected impact of the negotiation on access to medicines.” The responses can be found here.

The rest, led by the United States, did not respond, a move which KEI found disappointing especially on the part of the US, as it is “the leading target of the complaint and the most aggressive proponent of of high drug prices.”
 
“In 2009, President Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, for ´his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. ´Apparently these ´extraordinary efforts´ do not extend to engagement with the UN’s Special Rapporteur for the right to health on a topic that concerns life and death issues for millions of persons,” KEI Director James Love said.
 
The TPP is a multilateral free trade agreement touted as boosting the economies of countries bordering the Pacific.

Hypocrisy: US Destroys Syria While Propping Up Cambodian Dictator

US funds terrorists to overthrow Syrian government based on "humanitarian concerns," while US President Obama to lend legitimacy to "dictator-for-life" Hun Sen of Cambodia with upcoming visit.

Tony Cartalucci
AltThaiNews
November 10, 2012 

The US President shaking hands with Cambodian dictator Hun Sen in 2010.

The United States and its allies have maintained that their commitment to supporting militants operating inside of Syria is based on "humanitarian concerns" and in helping "oust a dictator." The US has recently handpicked the Syrian opposition, and has pledged funds and logistical support to help arm militants who have, since 2007, been identified as sectarian extremists affiliated with Al Qaeda, not secular "pro-democracy" "freedom fighters."

This was first exposed by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh in his 2007 New Yorker report titled, "The Redirection: Is the Administration's new policy benefiting our enemies in the war on terrorism?"

In the report it specifically stated:

2012 US Elections - The People Have Spoken: No Confidence

Voter turnout expected to be lower than 2008, US President's mandate ranges between 25-35%.

Tony Cartalucci
Land Destroyer
November 8, 2012

Here is some math the establishment hopes you never do. Take the popular vote the newly elected president received, and see what percent of voter turnout it actually makes up. You will find that out of all eligible voters, the president is put into power with only between 25-35%. This isn't just with President Obama in 2012, but is a common feature of most US elections, and many elections around the world.

Image: This infographic was assembled using information from CNN's  "Election 2012: Results," USA Today's "This year's voter turnout may fall short of 2008," and George Mason University's "2012 General Election Turnout Rates." The numbers may still change, but the difference will be negligible.

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In countries like Thailand, where violent mobs hold the nation hostage, representing a fraction of 1% of the population, it is claimed by the Western media that these are "the people." Come election time, the Western-backed party claiming to run on "people's power," garnered the support of a measly 32% of all eligible voters. Likewise in Syria, where "the people" are rising up, in a nation of 20 million - if even half rose up armed with only broom handles, the so-called revolution would have been over in a week.

This is the myth of democracy, representative governance, and manufactured dissent. It does not represent the vast majority of the people who are affected by the decisions these governments or movements then make with their self-proclaimed mandates. While numbers are still coming in, USA Today has reported that voter turnout in the 2012 US Elections most likely will fall short of 2008 elections. The article titled, "This year's voter turnout may fall short of 2008," quoted Michael McDonald of the George Mason University who stated:

"It doesn't look like we had a 2008-level turnout. I'm certain about that. There was some waning of interest in voting. I don't see this election as some kind of wholesale collapse of turnout, either."

While polling experts claim the slump in voting is a result of "waning interest," it really isn't explained as to why interest in determining one's own destiny would ever wane. The most likely answer is that many people feel that voting accomplishes nothing. It is done after a grueling, repetitive campaign of lofty, vague promises that most mature adults know will never be kept, by special interests who have organized against them, and are merely telling us all what we want to hear as they proceed to exploit us and plunder our nation. 

The next question becomes, what do we do about it?

2012 US Elections: Obamney vs. Rombama

War, economic collapse, and personal devastation await Americans no matter who they vote for - and what we should do instead.

Tony Cartalucci
Land Destroyer
November 6, 2012

Editor's Note:  The US elections do serve as a point of interest for those in Thailand. Many labor under the misconception that US politics represent an ideal toward which Thailand should reach. In reality, the corporate-financier interests ruling over America have simply dressed up exponentially deeper corruption and control over all political parties with vastly superior propaganda and the superficial trappings of "democratic" processes.  

There is absolutely no difference between Romney and Obama - as illustrated in detail below, the very same policy makers will be handing the same script to the "president" no matter who wins in November. Beware of the retrenched false left-right paradigm run in concert by convicted criminal George Soros and Neo-Con media projects like Glenn Beck and World Net Daily (WND). They are desperately trying to keep Americans interested, invested, and involved in this false paradigm so that we do not start getting involved in creating a paradigm of our own. 

Likewise, the illusion maintained in US politics is intented to project legitimacy across a greater "international order" that is being built in the image of Western institutions and practices, many of which will be features in the coming ASEAN supranational union. Understanding the deceit behind American politics helps unravel the truth behind Western corporate-financier driven globalization in general.  

(Originally posted on August 25, 2012) -A vote for Obama will bring war with Syria, Iran, and eventually Russia and China. The economy will continue to suffer in order to bolster the interests of off-shore corporate-financier interests, while  the collective prospects of Americans continue to whither and blow away. A vote for Romney, however, will also bring war with Syria, Iran, and eventually Russia and China. The economy will also continue to suffer in order to bolster the interests of off-shore corporate-financier interests, while the collective prospects of Americans continue to whither and blow away. Why?

Because the White House is but a public relations front for the corporate-financier interests of Wall Street and London. A change of residence at the White House is no different than say, British Petroleum replacing its spokesman to superficially placate public opinion when in reality the exact same board of directors, overall agenda, and objectives remain firmly in place. Public perception then is managed by, not the primary motivation of, corporate-financier interests.

It is the absolute folly to believe that multi-billion dollar corporate-financier interests would subject their collective fate to the whims of the ignorant, uninformed, and essentially powerless voting masses every four years. Instead, what plays out every four years is theater designed to give the general public the illusion that they have some means of addressing their grievances without actually ever changing the prevailing balance of power in any meaningful way.

The foreign policy of both Obama and Romney is written by the exact same corporate-financier funded think-tanks that have written the script for America's destiny for the last several decades.

Bush = Obama = Romney

As was previously reported, while the corporate media focuses on non-issues, and political pundits accentuate petty political rivalries between the "left" and the "right," a look deeper into presidential cabinets and the authors of domestic and foreign policy reveals just how accurate the equation of "Bush = Obama = Romney" is.

Image: Professional spokesmen, representative not of the American people but of Fortune 500 multinational corporations and banks. Since the time of JP Morgan 100 years ago, the corporate-financier elite saw themselves as being above government, and national sovereignty as merely a regulatory obstacle they could lobby, bribe, and manipulate out of existence. In the past 100 years, the monied elite have gone from manipulating the presidency to now reducing the office to a public relations functionary of their collective interests.

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George Bush's cabinet consisted of representatives from FedEx, Boeing, the Council on Foreign Relations, big-oil's Belfer Center at Harvard, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Circuit City, Verizon, Cerberus Capital Management, Goldman Sachs, and the RAND Corporation, among many others.

Image: The Henry Jackson Society is just one of many Neo-Conservative think-tanks, featuring many of the same people and of course, the same corporate sponsors. Each think-tank puts on a different public face and focuses on different areas of specialty despite harboring the same "experts" and corporate sponsors. 

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His foreign policy was overtly dictated by "Neo-Conservatives" including Richard Perle, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Jeane Kirkpatrick, Paul Wolfowitz, James Woolsey, Richard Armitage, Zalmay Khalilzad, Elliot Abrams, Frank Gaffney, Eliot Cohen, John Bolton, Robert Kagan, Francis Fukuyama, William Kristol, and Max Boot - all of whom hold memberships within a myriad of Fortune 500-funded think-tanks that to this day still direct US foreign policy - even under a "liberal" president. These include the Brookings Institution, the International Crisis Group, the Foreign Policy Initiative, the Henry Jackson Society, the Council on Foreign Relations, and many more.

Image: A visual representation of some of the Brookings Institution's corporate sponsors. Brookings is by no means an exception, but rather represents the incestuous relationship between US foreign and domestic policy making and the Fortune 500 found in every major "think-tank." Elected US representatives charged with legislative duties, merely rubber stamp the papers and policies drawn up in these think-tanks.  

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Obama's cabinet likewise features representatives from JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, the Council on Foreign Relations, Fortune 500 representatives Covington and Burling, Citi Group, Freedie Mac, and defense contractor Honeywell. Like Bush's cabinet, foreign policy is not penned by Obama sitting behind his desk in the Oval Office, but rather by the very same think-tanks that directed Bush's presidency including the Council on Foreign Relations, RAND Corporation, the Brookings Institution, the International Crisis Group, and the Chatham House. There are also a myriad of smaller groups consisting of many of the same members and corporate sponsors, but who specialize in certain areas of interest.

Image: Obama, not a Marxist. A visual representation of current US President Barack Obama's cabinet's corporate-financier ties past and present. As can be plainly seen, many of the same corporate-financier interests represented in Obama's administration were also represented in Bush's administration. 

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And with Mitt Romney, "running for president" against Obama in 2012, we see already his foreign policy advisers, Michael Chertoff, Eliot Cohen, Paula Dobrainsky, Eric Edelman, and Robert Kagan, represent the exact same people and corporate-funded think-tanks devising strategy under both President Bush and President Obama.

While Presidents Bush and Obama attempted to portray the West's global military expansion as a series of spontaneous crises, in reality, since at least as early as 1991, the nations of Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, Sudan, Somalia, and many others that previously fell under the Soviet Union's sphere of influence, were slated either for political destabilization and overthrow, or overt military intervention. While the public was fed various narratives explaining why Bush conducted two wars within the greater global "War on Terror," and why Obama eagerly expanded these wars while starting new ones in Libya and now Syria, in reality we are seeing "continuity of agenda," dictated by corporate-financier elite, rubber stamped by our elected representatives, and peddled to us by our "leaders," who in reality are nothing more than spokesmen for the collective interests of the Fortune 500.

Image: The International Crisis Group's corporate sponsors reveal a pattern of mega-multinationals intertwined with not only creating and directing US, and even European foreign policy, but in carrying it out. ICG trustee Kofi Annan is in Syria now carrying out a ploy to buy time for NATO-backed terrorists so they can be rearmed, reorganized, and redeployed against the Syrian government for another Western-backed attempt at regime change - all done under the guise of promoting "peace." 

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No matter who you vote for in 2012 - until we change the balance of power currently tipped in favor of the Fortune 500, fed daily by our money, time, energy, and attention, nothing will change but the rhetoric with which this singular agenda is sold to the public. Romney would continue exactly where Obama left off, just as Obama continued exactly where Bush left off. And even during the presidencies of Bill Clinton and Bush Sr., it was the same agenda meted out by the same corporate-financier interests that have been driving American, and increasingly Western destiny, since US Marine General Smedley Butler wrote "War is a Racket" in 1935.

What Should We Do About It?