A Quick Look at the News

Orban's "I told you so", SVR predict the future, Russia begins Syrian withdrawal, NED gets examined, International Fugitive first guest to Washington, Defend the Guard passes unanimously in Virginia

Published: 2025-02-05

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“Now lie in it!", Viktor Orban, Twitter, 2025-02-04

Yesterday we held the first EU-summit in Brussels since President Trump was inaugurated. It was a strange gathering. Everyone in Brussels can see the Trump tornado coming, but most still think they can get away from it. They won't.

In 14 days, Donald Trump has already turned the world upside down with a few measures. The gender madness in America is over, the financing of globalist Soros organizations is over, illegal migration is over, and support for the Russian-Ukrainian war is also over. In other words, everything that the bureaucrats in Brussels have tried to force down our throats in recent years is over.

But there is something else here. We can also say goodbye to the rules of world trade as we know them. President Trump will stand up for American interests, even against Europe. The European Union faces difficult months ahead and the bureaucrats in Brussels are going to have a tough time.

We need to make an agreement, a deal, to preserve our economic relations with the United States. And a really good deal can be made by those who not only know but also respect each other.

We always knew that President Trump would return, so we were prepared. We are constantly negotiating and we will make a good deal with the new administration of the United States.

And what about the bureaucrats in Brussels? You’ve made your bed, now lie in it!

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[NATO prepares a campaign to discredit V. Zelensky] Натовцы готовят кампанию по дискредитации В. Зеленского ; SVR, Russian Government; 2025-02-03

SVR, Russia's Foreign Intelligence Directorate issued a Press Release on Feb 3rd, 2025. It claims to base its information on the SVR's sources at NATO HQ in Brussels and declared that Zelensky is seen as "spent material".

The SVR wishes us to understand that NATO wants to preserve Ukraine as an anti-Russian beachhead, and to do this it needs to "freeze" the conflict while a resolution is negotiated. However, the SVR claims, NATO sees Zelensky as the main impediment to this, and so he needs to be removed.

NATO’s strategy, claims the SVR, is "pseudo-elections" ahead of which an undermining campaign will be used to secure a replacement leader. The campaign will involve details of corruption by Zelensky and his "team" including $1.5 Billion from embezzling the wages of 130 thousand dead Ukrainian soldiers and the sale of weaponry to African nations.

All of this assumes that Zelensky does not play ball ahead of time, or voluntarily withdraw. Kellog is due to visit Kiev just after Feb 11th, before the Munich Security Conference from 14th to 16th.

One day later ...

Ukraine freaks out as US and Russia push for elections; politico.eu; Archive.today; 2025-02-04

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Russian military withdraws from Syria amid tensions with Damascus regime; Intellinews; Natylie's Place: Understanding Russia; 2025-02-04

The withdrawal appears to present two possibilities: either Russia has found the new regime’s conditions unacceptable, or the military withdrawal is a temporary measure during negotiations.

Based on the Foreign Ministry’s carefully worded statements, Russia appears unwilling to extradite Assad but may be open to discussing other forms of cooperation.

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Trump's Foreign Aid Freeze Throws Russian Civil Society Into Crisis; The Moscow Times; Natylie's Place: Understanding Russia; 2025-02-03

Just as the new US administration's freeze on foreign aid has shocked 90% of Ukrainian media which lived off it, so too for a collection of "independent" publishers in Russia.

The pro-Western Moscow Times described the situation as a crisis.

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Forty Years Bashing the National Endowment for Democracy; Jim Bovard; The Libertarian Institute; 2025-02-04

Bovard reissues his warnings and documentation of the fraud, waste and abuse endemic to the public arm of the CIA, the NED:

… one of the most prestigious boondoggles on the Potomac, ... an International Political Action Committee, the Taxpayer Funding of Foreign Elections Program, and a slush fund for political hacks who like to travel to warm climates in cold weather".

It was a “jobs for the boys” program that enabled politicians to launder money to plenty of their aides and donors, so it survived one pratfall after another.

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International Fugitive Benjamin Netanyahu Goes to Washington; Jeremy Scahill; Drop Site News; 2025-02-04

Israeli prime minister and international fugitive Benjamin Netanyahu is the first foreign leader to be hosted in Washington, D.C., by President Donald Trump.

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Without a doubt, Trump wants to preside over a normalization agreement between Saudi Arabia and Israel, though the Saudis have said they will not enter into such a deal without a “credible, irreversible” pathway to create an independent Palestinian state. Israeli officials have made clear Netanyahu wants to push Trump to fully embrace his position that Hamas should be wiped out completely and there are indications the Israeli leader does not want the so-called ceasefire to move to the second phase—which envisions a withdrawal of Israeli forces, further exchange of captives and discussions on a large reconstruction plan for Gaza—or toward an actual rebuilding of Gaza.

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Trump says he’s given instructions for Iran to be ‘obliterated’ if it assassinates him, Associated Press, SCMP, 2025-02-05

This is very dangerous rhetoric. A nation which may assassinate Trump wants a war with Iran.

Recall that the CIA mouse trapped Obama after he described chemical weapons as a 'red line' in Syria. The CIA funded and armed insurgents began staging chemical attacks and using the MI-6 coordinated and funded "White Helmets" to blame them on Assad. The West's stenographic media played along.

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Probing UK Special Forces' War Crimes in Afghanistan; Richard Norton-Taylor; Consortium News; 2025-02-04

Norton-Taylor documents the destruction of evidence to prevent British military police investigating British SAS soldiers murdering civilians in Afghanistan.

This is nothing new. Similar heavy handed cover-ups have been employed in Canada and Australia (c.f imprisoned Australian military whistleblowing lawyer David McBride). This is the 5-EYES network in action covering up at the periphery similar war crimes also committed by US special forces and others in the NATO coalition for occupation and corrupt profiteering.

See the SIGAR reports for the trillions of US dollars laundered during the 20 year long illegal occupation.

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Unions Sue to Block Data Intrusion by Musk's DOGE; Jake Johnson; Consortium News (republished from Common Dreams); 2025-02-04

“The scale of the intrusion into individuals’ privacy is massive and unprecedented,” the complaint states.

See also FISA Section 702 and the rest of Snowden's revelations, litigants. For the NSA and GCHQ combined there is no data anywhere which the US and UK spies deny themselves. Everywhere is "foreign" to one of them.

It is the US+UK dragnet which is "massive and unprecedented". It is everything, everywhere, forever with no meaningful oversight.

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Virginia House Unanimously Passes Defend the Guard Act; Dave DeCamp; Antiwar; 2025-02-04

When Defend the Guard legislation is introduced, generals are always sent to discourage lawmakers from advancing it, meaning grassroots support is needed for it to succeed.

“The generals never fail to show up and apply pressure,” Diego Adrian Rivera, Director of Field Operations for Bring Our Troops Home, told Antiwar.com. “They never fail to call, to show up to testify, and threaten the lawmakers. Every time the grassroots fail to show up, the generals get their way.”

However, "Defend the Guard legislation has a better chance of advancing under the new Trump administration since Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth endorsed the movement before his confirmation."

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Russia, Iran, and the Caucasian Chalk Circle; Pietro Shakarian; Antiwar; 2025-02-04

An insightful and in depth look at the Caucasus region with specific focus on Armenia and Azerbaijan and their conflicts in Nagarno-Karabakh over the last few years.

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Sources

In situ

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