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MATT EHRET—In this week’s episode of the Great Game, we discuss the good, the bad and the ugly developments of world history and modern events. The discussion unpacks the positive developments surrounding Russia’s Eastern Economic Forum (Sept 2-4) which is unleashing a new multipolar development dynamic onto the world in total synergy with China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

MAX BLUMENTHAL—Smith Parenti explains that Sharp worked for decades at Harvard University’s Center for International Affairs, nicknamed “the CIA at Harvard,” a “think tank that was theorizing, among other things, how the US could prosecute the cold war, and win. And Gene Sharp was very clear that he was anti-communist; he was very clear … as to his preferences for economic policy; he thought the government should get out of quote-unquote ‘intervening in markets.’”

Blumenthal notes that Sharp is a “figure who has influenced so many of the people we write about at The Grayzone,” and his work is frequently cited by “US assets in countries like Nicaragua or Venezuela, who are regime-change assets essentially.” 

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Mondoweiss reminds us that the Trump mafia was pushing for an attack on Iran even in the waning days of the administration, but the mainstream journos simply ignored the story. The hostility toward Iran, however, is fully bipartisan. The New Yorker just reported that Trump nearly attacked Iran after he lost the election. But the threat was obvious, why wasn’t it reported back then?

BILL VAN AUKEN—Moïse was shot dead at 1 a.m. by a commando squad armed with military-grade assault rifles. His wife, severely wounded, was flown via air ambulance to a trauma center in Florida. According to witnesses and an audio recording of the raid, the members of the death squad spoke English and Spanish.

Sustained gunfire was preceded by one of the members of the squad shouting out in American southern-accented English, “DEA operation! Everybody back up, stand down!”, an apparent ruse aimed at identifying the gunmen as members of the US Drug Enforcement Administration.

The US State Department issued a denial that the assassins were American agents.