US GOVERNMENT CRIMES

JOHN HELMER—According to Steenhuis, the US was asked once again “if there is any possibility to take cognizance of the [satellite] data” and for the court to judge the satellite evidence in its verdict. The Dutch request explicitly asked the Americans “to offer the investigating judge, as a judge, the same opportunity as the public prosecutor [Minks] received in August 2016, which was to have the opportunity during an intelligence briefing by the officer of the Director of National Intelligence to see the [satellite] data that are at the basis of this memorandum and to make an official record” [Min 40:49].

The official US reply, dated April 22, 2021, was: “we have concluded that the circumstances and considerations previously described remain unchanged. Thus, regrettably, we are unable to provide assistance beyond that outlined in the memorandum from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence dated 23 August 2016” [Min 41:30].

Journalist Aaron Mate and [Tehran-based] Professor Mohammad Marandi just took a trip to Syria to see the real-life impact on average people caused by the decade-long Western regime-change war and suffocating US/EU sanctions. They speak about their trip with Max Blumenthal and Ben Norton of the Moderate Rebels podcast.

CIA was interested enough in Kutner that the CIA’s top lawyer agreed to a lunch meeting. For some reason, before the lunch took place, Kutner called Oakley. According to CIA documents, Kutner asked the agency to fund his “World Habeas Corpus Centers,”66 which he hoped, with CIA backing, could be established around the world.

Kutner attempted to entice CIA with a proposal that celebrated the tough stand on human rights in communist countries taken by a “human rights” conference held in the capital of one of the most repressive cold war torture states—the U.S.-backed Shah’s Iran. It is an irony surpassed only by, perhaps, the idea of a worldwide archipelago of CIA-backed “human rights” centers.

The CIA saw the propaganda value in such an organization, but Oakley told Kutner that the organization would probably harm the project more than help it.

nvestigative journalist and academic Alan MacLeod, often associated with FAIR.org and Mintpress, brings this unsavory (but amply expected) business to the public’s attention. Of course, you won’t see this on MSNBC or CNN, or the NYTimes. Nor on PBS Newshour. What a swell guy this fellow Luis Kutner was. Impeccably liberaloid, but a fervent Zionist, he apparently developed a progressive cover for his real work helping imperialism’s major projects and agencies, and working as a “human rights lawyer” for world known fascists and reactionary figures. His sordid links with the CIA and the FBI are well documented. The CIA-controlled Wikipedia itself is clear (well it cannot be denied and Wiki needs to maintain some credibility anyhow) about Kutner’s repellent character. It says matter-of factly that he was known for, “Snitching on Fred Hampton and reporting him to the FBI, leading to Hampton’s eventual assassination in Chicago. Development of the living will and advocacy of world habeas corpus.” Kutner eventually won the post of Chief Justice of the World Court of Human Rights, itself another propaganda tool in the Cold War and thereater like Amnesty International and HRW used to shame and embroil people and institutions marked as “enemies” by the US State Department.

PAUL DOBSON—Speaking with self-declared ‘interim president’ Juan Guaidó on a weekly digital broadcast called Aló Embajador (Hello Ambassador) last Thursday, US Charge d’Affaires to Venezuela James Story manifested that sanctions relief would be a “mistake” under current conditions.

The Colombia-based diplomat went on to explain that the Biden White House would only consider a policy shift upon receiving “irreversible,” “conclusive” and “fundamental changes” from Caracas. While Washington’s representative offered no further details on what these changes may entail, Guaidó has previously established President Nicolás Maduro’s resignation, alongside new presidential elections, as preconditions for sanctions relief.

Story’s statements come amidst speculation over whether Biden plans to continue Donald Trump’s aggressive stance towards Venezuela or heed to domestic and international pressure for sanctions relief.

The blockade, which has hampered Caracas’s Covid-19 vaccination efforts and caused severe fuel and diesel shortages, has been condemned by a range of international actors, including United Nations General Secretary Antonio Guterres, Pope Francis, and most recently UN Special Rapporteur on the Negative Impact of Unilateral Coercive Measures Alena Douhan, who described it as “devastating” and “illegal” after visiting the country.