Texac Chronicle No. 5: Odessa—A Fate Worse Than Death

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  =   War Diary by Russell “Texac” Bentley  =

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Azov swearing in. The Nazi evocations are intentional.

Azovs swearing in. The Nazi invocations in emblems and gestures are intentional. (Click on images for best resolution.)

If you are under 21, do not read this. If you are over 21, you have a moral obligation to read this, and view the photos, to look into the depths of human depravity, into the face of pure evil, to ponder it, to understand it, because if you do not understand it, you cannot fight it, and if you do not fight it, you cannot defeat it.  And if we do not defeat it, it will defeat us…

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“Nazi slaves”. Painting hanging in Donetsk museum. (Courtesy of the author. Be sure to click on image for best resolution.)

When I was on my way to Donetsk, I stopped in Rostov for a few days. I became friends with Mikael, the owner of the hostel I stayed at. He was a big, tough guy, a real Russian badass, tall, bald and muscular. He was also a veteran of the Russian Army, and a combat veteran of both Chechen wars. When I told him I was going to Donbass to fight fascists, he said ” War is bad”, and he meant it.  I replied “Fascism is worse than war”. The story I am writing today explains what I meant by that…

Fascism is the philosophy of masters and slaves. Ukrainian fascists want to enslave the Russian people of Donbass, and to exterminate the ones who refuse to be slaves. If the Nazis were to take over Donbass, the men and boys here would be worked to death in the coal mines, and for the women and girls, the fate would be even worse.

I was recently speaking with a friend, a soldier in the NAF who fought at Debalsevo. He told me that during the battle, he came across a wounded Pravy Sektor Nazi with swastika tattoos and a shirt that had “Мастер”, “Master”, emblazoned across the front. The “Master” was begging for mercy. My friend finished him off, and I would have done the same. Do you think that is bad? Well, if you have been in battle against Nazis, you are entitled to an opinion about it. If you haven’t, then you’re not. Either way, read the rest of this article before you decide.

Azovs at a staging point prior to deployment.

Azovs at a staging point prior to deployment.

 

[dropcap]W[/dropcap]hen I first got to Donbass, I heard the rumors about girls being plucked off the streets of cities under fascist control and never being heard from again. I was a soldier then, and tried not to think about it much. The NAF was not in a position to liberate Mariupol or Odessa, so I felt there was nothing I could do. Now, I have the proof that the rumors are true, and I have to share this information with you and with the world, to get the truth out about what the fascists are doing to our people, and why we will die before we surrender.

And why you should too…

Igor-Kolomoisky

Igor Kolomoisky, the cherubic bastard who happens to be co-owner of Ukraine’s largest financial institution, the Privat Bank, and one of the oligarchs controlling one of Ukraine’s notorious private armies, the neoNazi thugs of the Azov Battalion. A billionaire Jewish capitalist employing a fierce Nazi formation: go figure. Only in a chaotic state like today’s Ukraine.

Azov's emblem.

Azov’s emblem.

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]here have been at least 31 documented cases of good looking teenagers, (some as young as 11 years old) who have disappeared off of the streets of Odessa in the last year. (See links below.) Not street urchins or orphans, but kids from normal families, or rather, what used to be normal families, because how can any family ever be normal again after a child from that family is kidnapped by Nazis, and the best you can hope for is they only want the organs. But judging from the age and the looks of these kids, the Nazis who stole them from their families, want to do to those kids what they will do to all of us left alive, if we let them… Make us into slaves.

What is a slave? You are a slave if you can’t say “no”. You can’t say “no” regardless of how cruel or wrong or absolutely evil your masters, the guys with the whips and the guns, are.

And no matter how twisted or depraved the orders, you will obey or you will suffer, or you will die. That is what it means to be a slave, and these little boys and girls are now slaves.

“Ukrainian fascists want to enslave the Russian people of Donbass, and to exterminate the ones who refuse to be slaves…”

And as utterly horrific as it is to imagine what those kids are going through, take a moment to consider what their parents and siblings are also going through. To know what has happened, and probably what is happening, at any given moment you think about it. And to know that the cops and the government and media aren’t going to say a goddamned thing about it, much less actually DO ANYTHING about it, because it is THEM, and their friends and flunkies who are doing it. And you can’t do shit about it. And if you try, you’ll end up in a shallow hole, with a few holes in the back of your head, or even worse…  Like your kid did.


The Obamas feast Mikheil Saakashvili (then President of Georgia ) and his wife, Sandra Roulofs, in 2009. All the vultures know each other after a while. (Click to max resolution.)

The Obamas feast Mikheil Saakashvili (then President of Georgia ) and his wife, Sandra Roelofs, at the White House in 2009. All the vultures know each other after a while. (Click to max resolution.)

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he governor of Odessa Oblast (region) is Mikael Sakashvili. He was appointed by Petro Poroshenko and granted Ukrainian citizenship, in spite of being wanted on criminal charges in his former country of Georgia (where he was president!). Sakashvili and his wife, Sandra Roelofs, have long been rumored to be major players in the international illegal human organ trade, based in Israel.  Roelofs’ wikipedia page states that “SOCO” the privately financed “charity” she founded, has, since 2007, “been actively taking care of reproductive health and child welfare in Georgia.” Probably the same way they have been in Odessa. Odessa Oblast is under the military control of the “Azov” battalion, one of the most ruthless, criminal and openly neo-Nazi units in the AFU.  Members of the Odessa police not only allowed the mass murder at the Worker’s Union Hall to take place last year, they were active participants in it. What help do you think they will give to these missing children or their families? Criminal government, criminal army, criminal police. THAT is what it means to live under Fascism.

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S I D E B A R
THE AZOV BATTALION: FROM NEONAZI MILITIAS TO PART OF UKRAINE’S NATIONAL ARMY.  Click on the bar below

The Azov Battalion


Colonel and Member of Parliament Andriy Biletsky, commander of Azov Battalion. The unit's actual strength is a matter of dispute, but most observers put it between 300 and 1,000 members.

Colonel and Member of Parliament Andriy Biletsky, commander of Azov Battalion. The unit’s actual strength is a matter of dispute, but most observers put it between 300 and 1,000 members.

(Ukrainian: Батальйон Азов) is a far right neo-Nazi[1][2][3][4] all-volunteer infantry military unit forming part of military reserve of National Guard of Ukraine.[5][6][7][8] The unit is based in Mariupol in the Azov Sea coastal region.[9] It saw its first combat experience recapturing Mariupol from pro-Russian separatists forces in June 2014.[7] Initially a volunteer militia, formed as the Azov Battalion on 5 May 2014 during the 2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine, Azov has since been incorporated into and is armed by Ukraine’s Ministry of Internal Affairs.[10] All members of the unit are under contract of National Guard of Ukraine.[11] More than half of the Battalion members are from eastern Ukraine and speak Russian,[12] and many of its recruits come from the eastern cities of Donetsk and Luhansk.[13] The regiment’s commander is Andriy Biletsky.


Azov-battalion-rally

In its early days, Azov was the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ special police company, led by Volodymyr Shpara, the leader of the Vasylkiv, Kiev, branch of Patriot of Ukraine and Right Sector.[14][15][16] Patrons of the battalion included Oleh Lyashko, a member of the Verkhovna Rada,[17] and billionaire Ihor Kolomoyskyi.[18] Many members of the unit were labelled “neo-Nazi” or “a far-right Ukrainian militia”.[19][20][nb 1], an accusation that Ukrainian ministerial adviser, Anton Geraschenko has denied [10][21][nb 2][nb 3]. Its polished English-language social media pages and far-right ideology have attracted fighters from other locations in Europe.[2]


fascistwithNaziFlags

On 11 June 2015 the US House of Representatives passed amendments blocking any training of Azov by US forces, citing its neo-Nazi background as the reason.[24] On 26 June, Canadian defense minister declared as well that training by Canadian forces or support would not be provided to Azov.[25]

SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA


OUR COMMENT: The above statements are so much hot air, of course, the usual “plausible denials” tendered by the empire’s “clean faces”, the politicians babbling public relations lies about the dirty tricks that come to the surface from time to time. But you can bet the empire will find ways to fund the Nazis or whoever they want to employ to carry out their filthy agenda in Eastern Europe anyway, behind the people’s back. That’s what the CIA and a multitude of other sordid secret channels do, all day long.

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[dropcap]T[/dropcap]here has been no action or comment by Odessa authorities about the mass disappearances of children in Odessa. A single case has been solved – a criminal gang, driving around Odessa in a BMW, one member dressed in a police uniform, kidnapped an underaged girl and demanded a $20,000 ransom for her return. According to the news report, while waiting for the ransom, the gang repeatedly “raped the underaged girl in unnatural ways”. The gang was captured, and the girl rescued when they tried to collect the ransom. Note the BMW, note the police uniform, note the fact that the gang thought the family could actually pay a ransom of $20,000. They picked the wrong kid, that time, one with a family whose power and connections to the government were stronger than theirs.

Not just the children and their families, the entire society of Odessa has also been terrorized. Because if the Nazis can take the kid down the street, they can take yours too. Think for a moment what that would be like. The Horror… THAT is what we fight against here. So, pull your boots on, lock and load, and no mercy for Nazis. Victory or Death.


Russell1Russell Bentley is an advocate of the victims of the Novorussian War, and war correspondent for many media outlets, especially for The Greanville Post, the online magazine“New Eastern Outlook”, and a select number of other leading political sites. 



This is a simulpost with Journal NEO

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IMPORTANT LINKS
(Some of these materials are in Russian.)

Photos of 31 missing kids
OdessaKidsDisappeared
https://vk.com/album-17330910_221977716
 
https://en.poiskdetei.ru 
News story about Odessa kids missing
 
https://arhano.ru/articles/v-odesse-i-oblasti-massovo-pohishchayut-detey-i-devushek


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ADDENDUM

The following is a compilation of related materials. More will be added at a later date. 

The point here is that while prostitution did exist in the USSR, it was a matter of choice for women looking for some luxury items in return for sexual favors. As a social problem it was minuscule, since everyone was assured some social security, however modest. In the post-Soviet era, as mentioned earlier, these issues became magnified, in some regions and sectors of society reaching epidemic proportions.

Now with the advent of a broken, failed, Fascist-controlled state in Ukraine, the same problems have reached yet a new level of virulence, making the safety of ordinary citizens, especially the young, who have some value in the sexual markets, not to mention people mired in poverty, the primary targets. It is precisely this tragedy that Texac addresses in this dispatch.—PG

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Israeli Organ Trafficking and Theft: From Moldova to Palestine

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Israeli Organ Harvesting: From Moldova To Palestine

By Alison Weir

In this photograph taken March 22, 2007, Vasile Dimineti holds a picture of his 24-year-old son, who died a year after selling his kidney. The family lives in the impoverished Moldovan village of Mingir, where about 40 of its 7,000 residents are thought to have sold a kidney. AFP photo/Daniel Mihailescu/Files

[dropcap]I[/dropcap]n August Sweden’s largest newspaper published an article suggesting that Israel had been taking Palestinian internal organs. The article, by veteran photojournalist Donald Bostrom, called for an international investigation.

Israel and its partisans immediately cried “anti-Semitism,” and Commentary’s Jonathan Tobin asserted that the story was “the tip of the iceberg in terms of European funded and promoted anti-Israel hate.”

The fact is, however, that Israeli organ harvesting—sometimes with Israeli governmental funding and the participation of high Israeli officials, prominent Israeli physicians, and Israeli government ministries—has been documented for many years. Among the victims have been Palestinians.

alisonWeir

Alison Weir executive director of If Americans Knew and is on the board of the Council for the National Interest.

Nancy Scheper-Hughes is Chancellor’s Professor of Medical Anthropology at the University of California Berkeley, the founder of Organ Watch, and the author of scholarly books on organ trafficking. She is the pundit mainstream media call upon when they need expert commentary.

While Scheper-Hughes emphasizes that traffickers come from numerous nations and ethnicities, including Americans and Arabs, “Israel,” she states, “is at the top. It has tentacles reaching out worldwide.”

In a lecture last year she explained that Israeli organ traffickers “have a pyramid system at work that’s awesome…they have brokers everywhere, bank accounts everywhere; they’ve got recruiters, they’ve got translators, they’ve got travel agents who set up the visas.”

But this is no ordinary business. Organ traffickers prey on the world’s poorest, most desperate citizens, promising them what seem like astronomical sums of money ($1,000 to $10,000) in return for vital internal organs. As Scheper-Hughes points out, organ trafficking consists of “paying the poor and the hungry to slowly dismantle their bodies.”

Organ sales have been illegal in most countries for years, and the Convention against Transnational Organized Crime includes in its definition of human exploitation the extraction of organs for profit. Until very recently, however, the Israeli government not only permitted organ trafficking, it funded it.

Israelis are the leaders in “transplant tourism”—traveling to other nations to buy internal organs. While affluent individuals from numerous countries engage in this practice, Israel is unique in several ways.

First, Israelis partake at an extraordinarily high rate. According to a 2001 BBC report, Israelis buy more kidneys per capita than any other population.

Second, Israelis have the lowest donor rate in the world—one-third to one-fifth that of Europe—due in part to beliefs that Jewish religious law prohibits organ removal as “desecration of the body.”

Third, the Israeli government has enabled it. In testimony before a congressional subcommittee in 2001, Scheper-Hughes described what she termed Israel’s “national ”˜program’ of transplant tourism.” For many years the Israeli health system subsidized its citizens’ “transplant holidays,” reimbursing Israelis $80,000 for medical operations abroad, with the remaining costs largely covered by government-subsidized insurance plans. In addition, Israel’s Ministry of Defense has been directly involved, as members of the ministry or those closely related to them accompany transplant junkets.

Israeli traffickers have utilized people from diverse locations—the West Bank and Gaza, the Philippines, Eastern Europe. A BBC report described the situation in Europe’s poorest country—homeland of Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman—where 90 percent of the people earn less than $2 a day: “Hundreds of Israelis have created a production line that starts in the villages of Moldova, where men today are walking around with one kidney.”

In China not long ago an Israeli paid a broker $100,000 for a kidney transplant from an 18-year-old girl. She herself received $5,000, and died following surgery. In Brazil a legislative commission found that Israeli traffickers no longer were content with just kidneys; they had begun inquiring into additional body parts—lungs, livers and corneas.

In her testimony, Scheper-Hughes pointed out that “The sale of human organs and tissues requires that certain disadvantaged individuals, populations, and even nations have been reduced to the role of ”suppliers.’ It is a scenario in which only certain bodies are broken, dismembered, fragmented, transported, processed, and sold in the interests of a more socially advantaged population…of receivers.”

In a 2008 lecture Scheper-Hughes discussed the motivations of Israeli traffickers. One was greed, she explained. The other was “revenge, restitution, reparation for the Holocaust.” She said some Israeli brokers and doctors had told her: “It’s kind of ”˜an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ We’re going to get every single kidney and liver and heart that we can. The world owes it to us.”

Organ Theft

At times traffickers coerce reluctant sellers. Levy Izhak Rosenbaum, the alleged trafficker recently arrested in an FBI sweep in New Jersey, reportedly carried a gun; when a potential organ seller wanted to back out, Rosenbaum would use his finger to simulate firing at the person’s head. Rosenbaum, believed to be part of a ring centered in Israel, is the first case of trafficking to be prosecuted in the U.S.

More often organ theft involves dead bodies—or those alleged to be dead.

Israel’s very first successful heart transplant, in fact, used a stolen heart.

In 1968 Avraham Sadegat unexpectedly died two days after being hospitalized for a stroke. When his family was able to retrieve his body (the hospital initially refused to release it) they found his chest covered with bandages—odd, they thought, for a stroke victim. Upon removing the bandages they discovered that the heart was missing.

During this time, the press was announcing Israel’s first heart transplant. The family began to raise questions, but the hospital denied any connection. After the family raised a media furor, petitioned three cabinet ministers, and signed a document that they would not sue, the hospital finally admitted it had used Sadegat’s heart.

An Israeli newspaper quoted Sadegat’s tearful wife: “From the moment he entered the hospital, they apparently saw him only as a potential source of organs and not as a man in need of treatment. They only thought about how to do the deed without us knowing.” Sadegat’s medical condition pre-organ removal is unclear. According to an Israeli media report, “Once a heart stops beating, it is no longer fit for transplantation.”

Sadegat’s family was Israeli. Had they been Palestinian, it is doubtful they would have been able to force a hospital confession—and suggestions that the first Israeli heart transplant utilized a stolen organ would, quite likely, be termed blood libels.

Yehuda Hiss, Keeper of the Morgue

Perhaps one of the most long-term and high-level cases of organ theft concerns Dr. Yehuda Hiss, Israel’s chief pathologist and, from 1988 to 2004, director of Israel’s state morgue, the Abu Kabir Institute of Forensic Medicine.

One of the first indications of malfeasance occurred in 1998 and concerned a Scottish tourist named Alisdair Sinclair, who died under questionable circumstances after being taken into Israeli custody.

His family brought his body home and found that it had been autopsied. They commissioned a second autopsy at Glasgow University and discovered that Alisdair’s heart and a tiny throat bone, the hyoid, were missing. The British Embassy filed a complaint with Israel.

A heart was then sent to Scotland, but when the family requested a DNA test to confirm its identity, Hiss refused, citing prohibitive cost. DNA tests were eventually conducted but proved inconclusive. According to several reports, a researcher had put in a request for a hyoid bone around the time of Sinclair’s death and eventually received a bill for shipping costs.

Over the following years Hiss was often the center of accusations. An Israeli newspaper published an investigative report charging that diverse body parts—“legs, thighs, ovaries, breasts and testicles”—had been removed without permission and sold to medical institutions. The bodies were stuffed with broomsticks and cotton wool.

Although government investigations confirmed the main facts, little was done, and complaints continued—often from parents of dead Israeli soldiers. Finally, in 2004, Israel’s health minister removed Hiss as director of the morgue, while retaining him as Israel’s chief pathologist.

Hiss had been involved in previous controversies concerning the Israeli government. In one he was suspected of falsifying a DNA test in an investigation into the “Yemenite Children Affair,” in which a thousand children of immigrants disappeared. (Many believe that some, at least, were adopted out, for pay.) Hiss has also been accused of falsifying evidence to the commission investigating the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

Palestinian Victims

For decades Palestinians have charged Israel with taking organs from Palestinians its soldiers wounded or killed.

In her subcommittee testimony Scheper-Hughes stated, “Human rights groups in the West Bank complained to me of tissue and organs stealing of slain Palestinians by Israeli pathologists at the national Israeli legal medical institute in Tel Aviv.”

A 1990 article in the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, for Middle East Affairs reported “widespread anxiety over organ thefts which has gripped Gaza and the West Bank since the intifada began in December of 1987,” and quoted a forensic physician: “There are indications that…organs, especially eyes and kidneys, were removed from the bodies during the first year or year and a half.”

Such statements were largely ignored, often portrayed as anti-Semitic exaggeration. According toThe Forward magazine, however, the Israeli government corroborated them in 2001. The Forwardreports that an investigation into Hiss revealed that he “seemed to view every body that ended up in his morgue, whether Israeli or Palestinian, as fair game for organ harvesting.”

Over the years a great many Palestinian bodies have “ended up” in the Israeli morgue.

Israeli forces have frequently taken custody of Palestinians they have wounded or killed. Sometimes the bodies were kept in Israel, buried in unidentified graves in what are known as “cemeteries of numbers.” In other cases they were returned late at night days later with crudely stitched naval-to-chin incisions, and Israel requiring the bereaved families to bury their children, husbands, and brothers immediately—sometimes with the electricity shut off—and Israeli soldiers overseeing the funeral.

In 2005 an Israeli soldier described a military doctor who gave “medics lessons” using the body of a Palestinian killed by Israeli forces. Haaretz reports: “The soldier said that the Palestinian’s body had been riddled with bullets and that some of his internal organs had spilled out. The doctor pronounced the man dead and then ”˜took out a knife and began to cut off parts of the body. He explained the various parts to us—the membrane that covers the lungs, the layers of the skin, the liver. ”˜I didn’t say anything because I was still new in the army. Two of the medics moved away, and one of them threw up. It was all done very brutally. It was simply contempt for the body.’”

Palestinians, of course, are an unusually vulnerable population. Human rights reports have documented a situation in which Palestinians have few real rights: Israeli forces have killed civilians with impunity, imprisoned massive numbers without charges or trials, abused prisoners, and strip-searched children. And just as Palestinians have little ability to protect their bodies when they’re living, they’re equally unable to prevent their desecration when they’re dead. By Israel’s own admission, Israeli authorities cut open Palestinian corpses without permission of the families, without public transparency, and without, it appears, normal autopsy reports.

At the same time, some Israelis hold extremist views regarding organ extraction. In 1996 Jewish Week reported that Rabbi Yitzhak Ginsburgh, a leader of the Lubavitch sect of Judaism and the dean of a religious Jewish school in a West Bank settlement, had stated: “If a Jew needs a liver, can you take the liver of an innocent non-Jew passing by to save him? The Torah would probably permit that.”

Ginsburgh elaborated: “Jewish life has infinite value. There is something infinitely more holy and unique about Jewish life than non-Jewish life.”

While the Israeli government briefly arrested Ginsburgh, and most Israelis decry such beliefs, an Israeli scholar on Jewish scriptural views and ethnic chauvinism said: “The sad thing is, these statements are in our books.” He pointed out that while such Talmudic texts were “purely theoretical” at the time they were written, now they’re being cited “in circumstances where Jews have a state and are empowered.”

Dr. A. Clare Brandabur, an American professor, writes that information in the Swedish article resonated with reports she heard during the first intifada.

She described interviewing the head of the Red Crescent in Gaza, mentioning “reports of shootings of Palestinian children at times when there were no ”˜clashes’ going on—a solitary 6-year-old entering his schoolyard in the morning with his book-bag on his back. The soldiers abducted the wounded child at gunpoint, then his body would be returned a few days later having undergone an ”˜autopsy at Abu Kabir Hospital.’”

She asked the director “if he had considered the possibility that these killings were being done for organ transplant, since…it is not allowed to take Jewish organs to save a Jewish life, but it is allowed to take the organs of non-Jews to save Jewish lives.”

He had “suspected such things,” he replied, “but since they had no access to the records of Abu Kabir Hospital, there was no way to verify these suspicions.”

The Swedish newspaper’s call for an investigation into Israel’s treatment of Palestinian bodies is now being echoed by others. Such an investigation could dispel inaccurate suspicions, absolve the innocent, and discover the guilty.

Israel and its powerful advocates abroad are doing their best to prevent that from happening.

Alison Weir is executive director of If Americans Knew. An Internet petition calling for an investigation can be viewed at
<www.ipetitions.com/petition/investigateorgantheft>. An expanded and footnoted version of this article can be viewed on the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs,’s Web site
.

 

An Internet petition calling for an investigation can be viewed at:

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/investigateorgantheft/

Footnotes:

  1. Bostrom, Donald, “Our sons plundered for their organs,” Aftonbladet, Aug. 17, 2009 , translated by Tlaxcala. http://www.tlaxcala.es/pp.asp?reference=8390&lg=en. (Original Swedish version at http://www.aftonbladet.se/kultur/article5652583.ab)
  2. Israel Insider, “Netanyahu to press Sweden to condemn blood libel,” Aug. 23, 2009 http://israelinsider.ning.com/profiles/blogs/netanyahu-to-press-sweden-to
  3. Tobin, Jonathan, “Swedish Anti-Semites Dig Up a Blood Libel,” CommentaryMagazine.com, Aug. 20, 2009 http://www.commentarymagazine.com/blogs/index.php/tobin/76522
  4. Cassel, Matthew, “Baseless organ theft accusations will not bring Israel to justice,” The Electronic Intifada, Aug. 24, 2009 http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10730.shtml
  5. Scheper-Hughes, Nancy, “The Organ of Last Resort,” UNESCO, www.unesco.org, July, 2001
    http://www.unesco.org/courier/2001_07/uk/doss34.htm. University of California Berkeley Anthropology Faculty CV: Nancy Scheper-Hughes, Chancellor’s Professor in Medical Anthropology, Head, Doctoral Program in Medical Anthropology, Critical Studies in Medicine, Science and the Body, Director, Organs Watch http://anthropology.berkeley.edu/nsh.html
  6. Griffin, Drew and David Fitzpatrick, “Donor says he got thousands for his kidney,” CNN Special Investigations Unit, CNN, Sept. 2, 2009 http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/09/01/blackmarket.organs/
  7. Scheper-Hughes Lecture, New York PBS 13 Forum
  8. Osava, Mario, “BRAZIL: Poor Sell Organs to Trans-Atlantic Trafficking Ring,” Inter Press Service (IPS), Feb. 23, 2004 http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=22524
  9. Yeshiva World News, “CNN: Israel a Leader in Organ Trafficking,” Sept. 3, 2009 http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/General+News/38973/CNN:+Israel+a+Leader+in+Organ+Trafficking.html
  10. Chabin, Michele, “Organ Donation: Legal, But Still Controversial,” Jewish Week, April 9, 2008 http://www.thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c40_a7588/News/Israel.html
  11. Rohter, Larry, “Tracking the Sale of a Kidney on a Path of Poverty and Hope,” The New York Times, May 23, 2004 http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/23/international/americas/23BRAZ.html?th=&pagewanted=print&position=
  12. Shapira-Rosenberg, Efrat, “A mitzvah called organ donation,” Ynet News, June 10, 2007 http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3388529,00.html
  13. Rohter, Larry, op. cit.
  14. Ibid.
  15. “Organs for Sale: China’s Growing Trade and Ultimate Violation of Prisoners’ Rights,” Hearing Before the Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights of the Committee on International Relations, House of Representatives, 107th Congress, First Session, June 27, 2001, Serial No. 107–29 http://commdocs.house.gov/committees/intlrel/hfa73452.000/hfa73452_0f.htm
  16. Lloyd-Roberts, Sue, “Europe’s poorest country supplying organs to its neighbours,” BBC Newsnight, 9/7/01 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/events/newsnight/1437345.stm
  17. “BRAZIL: Poor Sell Organs to Trans-Atlantic Trafficking Ring,” Mario Osava, IPS, Feb. 23, 2004 http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=22524
  18. New York Times
  19. “Israeli organ traffickers shift operations to China,” BioEdge, June 4, 2004
    http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/7726/ http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/23/international/americas/23BRAZ.html?th=&pagewanted=print&position=
  20. “CNN: Israel a Leader in Organ Trafficking,” Yeshiva World News, Sept. 3, 2009 http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/General+News/38973/CNN:+Israel+a+Leader+in+Organ+Trafficking.html
  21. “Tracking the Sale of a Kidney on a Path of Poverty and Hope,” New York Times, Larry Rohter, May 23, 2004 http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/23/international/americas/23BRAZ.html?th
  22. “40 years after Israel’s first transplant, donor’s family says his heart was stolen,” Dana Weiler-Polak, Haaretz, Dec., 14, 2008 http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1046041.html
  23. “40 years on, medical staffers from Israel’s first human heart transplant reminisce about the feat,” Judy Siegel, Jerusalem Post, Dec. 7, 2008 http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1P1-159077338.html
  24. “Shas swing vote pushes through organ donor law,” Shahar Ilan, Haaretz, March 25, 2008 http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/968084.html
  25. “With top rabbis’ blessing, Knesset approves organ donation law,” Shahar Ilan, Haaretz, Aug. 7, 2008 http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/967871.html
  26. “Scottish Tourist’s Family Rejects Out-of-Court Settlement,” Netty C. Gross, The Jerusalem Report, Jan. 29, 2001
  27. “Attorney-General lodges complaint against Abu Kabir coroner,” Dan Izenbert, Jerusalem Post, Dec. 11, 2003
  28. “Hiss fired for repeated body-part scandals,” Judy Siegel, Jerusalem Post, May 11, 2004
  29. “Infamous Chief Pathologist to Once Again Evade Punishment,” Ezra HaLevi, Arutz Sheva Israel National News, Sept. 26, 2005 http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/90518
  30. “Were the Children Sold?” Yechiel A. Mann, Stop-Abuse.net
    http://stop-abuse.net/ym5.htm
  31. “The Missing Children,” Yechiel A. Mann, Stop-Abuse.net http://stop-abuse.net/ym1.htm
  32. “Infamous Chief Pathologist to Once Again Evade Punishment,” Ezra HaLevi, Arutz Sheva Israel National News, Sept. 26, 2005 http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/90518
  33. “Infamous Chief Pathologist to Once Again Evade Punishment,” Ezra HaLevi, Arutz Sheva Israel National News, Sept. 26, 2005 http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/90518
  34. “Illicit Body-Part Sales Present Widespread Problem,” By Rebecca Dube, Forward, Published Aug. 26, 2009, issue of Sept. 4, 2009 http://www.forward.com/articles/112915/
  35. “Palestinian corpse used for IDF anatomy lesson,” Amos Harel, Haaretz, Jan. 28, 2005 http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=533018
  36. “The Swedish canard – not only smoke, but also fire,” Shraga Elam, Aug. 25, 2009 (posted Sept. 4, 2009) (Hebrew: http://cafe.themarker.com/view.php?t=1192567 ) http://shraga-elam.blogspot.com/2009/09/swedish-canard-not-only-smoke-but-also.html
  37. “Israeli lawyer sues Swedish paper,” JTA, Aug. 27, 2009 http://jta.org/news/article/2009/08/27/1007480/israeli-lawyer-sues-swedish-paper
  38. “Israeli lawyer sues ‘Aftonbladet’ in NY Court,” E.B. Solomont, Jerusalem Post, Aug. 26, 2009 http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1251145124980&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
  39. “Israeli Reservists To Sue Swedish Newspaper,” David Bedein, The Bulletin, August 30, 2009 http://thebulletin.us/articles/2009/09/04/news/world/doc4a9aa59f46ce3700709743.prt

FIRST TGP ITERATION 26 OCT 2015 @ 20:53 PM[/learn_more]


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The Spirit of the Lincoln Battalion Lives On in Donetsk




Texac’, somewhere between the Bad and the Ugly…

Badges? We don’t need no stinkin’ badges!

Texas-Altai, the Essence of Time Info Service, DNR

Photo: Altai, the Essence of Time Info Service, DNR (Click to expand!)


[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his is a recent photograph of “Texas”, the American volunteer in Donbass, who has been helping the Novorossiyans defend themselves from the fascist Ukrainian forces who have been targeting civilians with heavy artillery for many months, causing great morbidity and mortality, including hundreds of thousands of refugees.  Definitely in the spirit of the brave Lincoln Brigade of volunteers helping defend the Spanish against the fascists in the Spanish Civil War, in the run-up to World War II.

Russell Bentley first employed the Automat and the RPG against the Ukrop Nazis.  Now he works full time with the new Donetsk news service, DONi (dninews.com).   Russell titled this image, ” ‘Texac’, somewhere between the Bad and the Ugly…”  Note that “Texas” has now replaced the “s” with a Cyrillic “c”, in a nod to his new home.

—Daniel Wirt




In the middle of a protracted and often brutal civil war, life in Novorossiya goes on

The best proof of Novorossiya’s indomitable spirit and quiet steadfastness in the face of unrelenting attacks and threats by the illegitimate Kiev regime is that the people in the new republics of Donetsk and Luhansk choose to live their lives as normally as possible. 


DONI News agency Daniel Wirt:

In festive mood, people attend football match between Donetsk and Luhansk teams

FootballGameinDonetsk

On 8 August the first in the DPR’s history football match took place on the “Metallurg” stadium. About three thousand people attended the match. It was a comradely match between the DPR and LPR teams. The game ended with a score of 4:1 in favor of the DPR’s team. 

The match was also watched by the vice-speaker of the People’s Council Denis Pushilin who congratulated the winners. Also in attendance were the fighters of the international platoon “Pyatnashka”.

[cycloneslider id=”doni-football-01″]

Screen Shot 2015-08-05 at 6.19.17 PM

 

Yes, Novorossiya now has an official news outfit, DONiNEWS (Donbass International News Agency), distributing information about life and events affecting the people in Eastern Ukraine, chiefly Donetsk and Luhansk.

Plus, now a new radio dedicated to news on the Donbass homefront has also started operations, Radio Free Donbass. Janus Putkonen, Anna Tuv, and our own international brigadista, Russell Bentley, better known as “Texas”, are working to make these news resources a valuable asset in the information battle between the Western disinformation machine and simple truth.


 

RadioFreeDonbass



Contact DONiNEWS through Janus Putkonen. He can be reached at

doninews@dnr-online.ru

 

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FACT TO REMEMBER:
IF THE WESTERN MEDIA HAD ITS PRIORITIES IN ORDER AND ACTUALLY INFORMED, EDUCATED AND UPLIFTED THE MASSES INSTEAD OF SHILLING FOR A GLOBAL EMPIRE OF ENDLESS WARS, OUTRAGEOUS ECONOMIC INEQUALITY, AND DEEPENING DEVASTATION OF NATURE AND THE ANIMAL WORLD,  HORRORS LIKE THESE WOULD HAVE BEEN ELIMINATED MANY YEARS, PERHAPS DECADES AGO.  EVERY SINGLE DAY SOCIAL BACKWARDNESS COLLECTS ITS OWN INNUMERABLE VICTIMS. 

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Meet the Texan Fighting for the DPR: Russian Roulette (Dispatch 107)

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  =   War Diary by Russell “Texac” Bentley  =  

russellBentley Screen Shot 2016-02-01 at 5.18.25 PM

Meet the Texan Fighting for the DPR: Russian Roulette (Dispatch 107)

Screen Shot 2015-06-11 at 6.00.22 PM

Russell Bentley (aka “Texas”) joined the Vostok Battalion to fight what he (correctly) sees as the attacks on the Donbass people by an illegitimate fascist entity: the Kiev government installed and supported by the US after a thinly-veiled coup using color revolution technology. His example evokes the deeds of the Lincoln Battalion, the American volunteers who fought in the Spanish Civil War. Note how the interviewer —reflecting its affiliation with VICE, an outift attached to HBO, a huge American television producer, keeps pressing him with the official lies about the true nature of the Kiev regime. Sometimes “Texas” is almost appalled by the very audacity of such questions. 

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 russellBentley2RUSSEL BONNER BENTLEY, Senior Contributing Editor, Novorossiya Correspondent, Donbass Chronicles Most of our editors and contributors are gifted in many areas, but few merit the label of “polymath” as richly as our Novorossiya correspondent, Russell Bentley, “Texac”. He has been called poet, musician, soldier, political activist, outlaw, smuggler, convict, fugitive, philosopher, lover, teacher and friend—and, indeed, he is all those things, but his course is always guided by an unswerving commitment to the construction of a better world in which peace, genuine freedom, and social justice reign supreme. A native of Texas, Russell joined—at the tender age of 54— the Novorossiyan Armed Forces (NAF) to fight what he sees as the attack on the Donbass people by an illegitimate fascist entity: the Kiev regime installed and supported by the US after a thinly-veiled coup. His example evokes the deeds of the Lincoln Battalion, the American volunteers who fought in the Spanish Civil War. As his writing gifts abundantly prove, he also channels John Reed and Hemingway in a rare, seamless, package. 


 

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• Prigozhin’s Gambit—Treason by any other name

Please make sure these dispatches reach as many readers as possible. Share with kin, friends and workmates and ask them to do likewise.


SCOTT RITTER

Editor's Note: It's still too early to have a clear picture of what actually transpired in the last few weeks, or perhaps longer, culminating with Prigozhin's revolt on 24 June. At this point we only have a few facts on which to pin educated interpretations. The reality of this event may turn out to be much different than what we presume at this time. For all we know, the seeds of disgust with the Kremlin were maturing in Prigozhin's head for quite some time, probably many months, especially if he is, as some have posited, the visible part of a faction utterly unhappy with the MoD's slow, "meat grinder", conduct of the war. Consider, therefore, this post and others we run on this topic, as respectable opinion that may or may not be eventually corroborated by fact. See, for example, the recent interview on George Galloway's show with retired US Army Col. Douglas Macgregor, which seems to contradict, to some extent, Scott Ritter's spin on this issue.—PG


Prigozhin’s Gambit—Treason by any other name } JUN 24, 2023

Unexpected (if short-lived) antagonists: Prigozhin and Putin.


In the 1997 Disney animated musical fantasy film, Hercules, there is a particularly catchy number, Zero to Hero, which describes the rise of the star of the film from a clumsy boy into a strong and capable man. In the span of less than 24 hours, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the public face of the Wagner Group, a Russian private military contractor with shadowy ties to Russian military intelligence, has flipped the script of this ashes to diamonds tale, transforming an organization that had, through virtue of its impressive battlefield performance, become a legendary symbol of Russian patriotism and strength, into a discredited band of disgruntled traitors seeking the violent overthrow of the constitutional government of Russian on behalf of nations who seek the strategic defeat and ultimate destruction of Russia.

If Disney were to write a song about Prigozhin and Wagner today, it would be called Hero to Zero.

Let there be no doubt in anyone’s mind—Yevgeny Prigozhin has become a witting agent of Ukraine and the intelligence services of the collective West. And while there may be those within Wagner who have been unwittingly drawn into this act of high treason through deception and subterfuge, in the aftermath of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s address to the Russian nation on June 24, and Yevgeny Prigozhin’s impolitic reply, there can be no doubt that there are only two sides in this struggle—the side of constitutional legitimacy, and the side of unconstitutional treason and sedition. Anyone who continues to participate in Prigozhin’s coup has aligned themselves on the wrong side of the law and have themselves become outlaws.

Having taken Wagner down this unfortunate path, one needs to examine the motivations—stated and otherwise—that could prompt such a dangerous course of action. First and foremost, Prigozhin’s gambit must be looked at for what it is—an act of desperation. For all its military prowess, Wagner as a fighting force is unsustainable for any period without the logistical support of the Russian Ministry of Defense. The fuel that powers Wagner’s vehicles, the ammunition that gives its weapons their lethality, the food that nourishes its fighters—all comes from the very organization that Prigozhin has set his sights on usurping. This reality means that to succeed, Prigozhin would need to rally sufficient support behind his cause capable of not only sustaining his gambit but offsetting the considerable power of the Russian Ministry of Defense and the Russian Federation which, if left intact, would be able to readily defeat the forces of Wagner in any large-scale combat.

In short, Prigozhin is looking to create a so-called “Moscow Maidan” designed to replicate the success of the events of early 2014 in Kiev, where the constitutionally elected government of President Victor Yanukovych was toppled from power through violence and force of will that was orchestrated by Ukrainian nationalists supported by the US and Europe. The fantasy of a “Moscow Maidan” has been at the center of the strategy of the collective West and their Ukrainian proxy from the very start. Premised on the notion of a weak Russian president propped up by a thoroughly corrupt oligarch class, the idea of creating the conditions for the rise of sufficient domestic unrest capable of bringing down the Putin government like a proverbial house of cards was the primary objective of the sanctions regime imposed by the West after the initiation of the Special Military Operation (SMO) on February 24, 2022. The failure of the sanctions to generate such a result compelled the collective West to double-down on the notion of collapsing the Russian government, this time using a military solution. The British Prime Minister pressured his Ukrainian counterpart to forgo a negotiated settlement to the conflict that was ready to be signed in Istanbul on April 1, 2022, and instead engage in a protracted war with Russia fueled by tens of billions of dollars’ worth of military and financial assistance designed to inflict military losses on Russia sufficient to trigger domestic unrest—the elusive “Moscow Maidan.”

This effort likewise failed.

Failing to create the conditions conducive for the collapse of domestic support for Putin and the Ukrainian conflict by pressuring Russia from without, the collective West began working to create the conditions for bringing down Russia by sowing internal seeds of dissention. This strategy hinged on a very sophistical information warfare scheme which simultaneously sought to suppress and discredit narratives which sustained the official position of the Russian government, while building up covert agents of influence within social media outlets deemed to be influential amongst the Russian public. Using these channels, the pro-Ukrainian practitioners of information war began promulgating narratives intended to highlight the failings of the Russian government and, more specifically, persons close to President Putin who were affiliated with the SMO. By focusing their angst on what these channels were highlighting as the “failures” of the SMO, the information warfare practitioners were able to wrap themselves in the mantle of “patriotism,” claiming only to be looking out for the best interests of “Mother Russia,” all the while denigrating the character of the constitutional government.

There were several compelling narratives that were used by these information warfare specialists to serve as the foundation of their attack on Putin’s Russia. One of the more popular was grounded in the mythology of “2014” and the early resistance to the Ukrainian nationalists who sought to impose their policies of cultural and linguistic genocide on the ethnic Russian population of the Donbas. Let there be no doubt—the fighting that took place in the initial months and years of the Donbas conflict was difficult and bloody, and those who rallied to the cause of the ethnic Russians of the Donbas deserve tremendous credit for their courage and resilience in the face of a dangerous enemy. But this resistance also served to foster a sense of entitlement among the early leaders and participants of this resistance which often transformed into resentment against Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, for abandoning the citizens of the Donbas to their own fate.


BELOW: Tweet by Anton Gerashchenko (who self-describes as "Ukrainian patriot. Advisor to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine. Founder of the Institute of the Future. Official enemy of Russian propaganda"), happily reposting an Igor Gerkin speech lambasting Putin's leadership and suggesting he should resign. The Western media (and social media) are giving these statements great play, as befits an imperialist machinery of disinformation. Notice that Gerashchenko calls Gerkin "terrorist", since the latter is nothing if not a confirmed enemy of the Neonazi regime in Kiev. 


Kremlin critic Igor Gerkin (Strelkov). Ironicaly, he warned about a Prigozhin rebellion weeks ago.

The combination of resentful entitlement turned into hostility after the initiation of the SMO, when these “originals” took umbrage at whet they deemed to be the inadequate intervention on the part of the Russian government and the perceived incompetence of the Russian military. Characters such as Igor Girkin (perhaps better known by his nom de guerre, Strelkov) and Russell “Texas” Bentley perfected the art of “patriotic” criticism which, intentionally or not, was used by Russia’s enemies to further the notion of a weak and ineffective Russian government vulnerable to intervention by “real” Russian patriots who were concerned about “corruption” and “inefficiency” in the Putin regime. The pro-Ukrainian information warfare outlets were able to help magnify these “patriotic” voices of dissent by disseminating their message using Telegram and YouTube channels.


 Alexander Mercouris commentary
 

Prigozhin Uprise Collapses, Putin in Full Control, Prigozhin Agrees to Go Into Exile in Belarus, Wagner to be Brought Under Russian MoD Control


An expansion on the theme of “betrayed patriot” involves the Wagner Group itself and is pertinent to the present matter. The origins of the private military contract company, Wagner, are murky, but appear to be linked to the events of 2014 in the Donbas and the need for the Russian government to create a vehicle for the provision of relevant military expertise and material to the ethnic Russian resistance in the Donbas that would not conflict with Russian constitutional prohibitions against the deployment of regular Russian Army personnel on foreign soil. From its inception, Wagner was an adjunct of Russian Military Intelligence (GRU), and responsive to the commands of the Russian General Staff. This placed Wagner in the shadowy space between being an official agent of government policy and an independently-funded private military contractor.

Following the initiation of the SMO, the role played by Wagner in the Donbas conflict expanded, transitioning from an advisory capacity to major combatant by expanding the scope and scale of the Wagner presence. Wagner grew into a Corps-sized formation equipped with heavy weapons, including armor and artillery, as well as fixed-wing fighter aircraft, and was assigned responsibility for a section of the frontlines which included the twin-salt mining towns of Soledar and Bakhmut, both of which had been heavily fortified by the Ukrainian military. The bloody fighting for the Soledar-Bakhmut complex, which became known by the sobriquet “the meatgrinder,” helped transform Wagner into a legendary combat force in the minds of most Russians, and elevated Prigozhin’s profile considerably.

Wagner units in Rostov on Don, which they entered without much opposition. Most of the population, still seeing them as heroes, gave them a warm welcome.

Wagner achieved its well-deserved martial reputation largely because it was able to operate independent of the suffocating bureaucracy of the Russian military. Thus liberated, Wagner was able to best exploit the experience and skill of its veteran fighters, streamlining command and control and tactical decision-making to enable Wagner to seize and maintain operational initiative, allowing Wagner to dominate the battlefield. While Wagner had operational independence, it received its operational tasking from the Russian General Staff, which also provided Wagner with the weapons, ammunition, fuel, and other logistical sustainment necessary to carry out its assigned mission.

The legal status of Wagner was secure so long as the territory it operated on was not Russian. This changed, however, in the aftermath of the September 2022 referendum which saw the Donbas transition from being an independent entity to being part of Russia. Wagner was able to maintain its unique status during the political transition of the Donbas to full Russian constitutional control, but once this transition was completed, sometime in early 2023, reality came home to roost. Logistical requisitions, which used to be treated as special requests approved as part of the general support provided by Russia to the Donbas, were not treated as part of the routine logistical establishment of the Russian ministry of Defense. From a practical standpoint, this meant that the quantities of ammunition, especially in terms of artillery shells, was cut back to reflect the “norm” used to support military formations of a similar size. Wagner tactics, however, were contingent upon the ability to support their operations with overwhelming fire support. Denied the quantities of ammunition they were used to receiving, Wagner’s assault detachment began to take heavy casualties, prompting Prigozhin to initiate a public feud with both Shoigu and Gerasimov, whom he accused of incompetence and corruption.

Prigozhin’s antics, which were played out in intimate detail on social media, caught the attention of pro-Ukrainian information warfare specialists, who began promoting the narrative of Prigozhin—a former convict with zero political experience—assuming a leadership position in Russia. Prigozhin himself seemed to feed off this notion. While publicly denying any such ambition, Prigozhin continued his public trolling of Shoigu and Gerasimov. The vitriol became so intense that Putin was compelled to summon both men to the Kremlin, where they were read the riot act by an irate Russian President and told in no uncertain terms to cease and desist or pay the consequences. Putin also at this time had Shoigu step back from being the overseer of Wagner logistical support, instead turning that task over to General Sergey Surovikin, a senior military commander overseeing the air component of the SMO.

In retrospect, this was a mistake, as it only reinforced the notion in Prigozhin’s mind that if he made a big enough scene, Putin would yield to his desires.

At some point in time, Prigozhin appears to have gone off the rails completely. Even after the presidential intervention, Prigozhin continued his public feud with both Shoigu and Gerasimov, at one point threatening to pull Wagner out of Bakhmut before that battle was concluded. Prigozhin went out of his way to promote himself as a frontline commander, appearing in videos he published on Telegram visiting the Wagner fighters on the frontline, often under fire, and then contrasting this with what Prigozhin articulated as the timid behavior of Shoigu and Gerasimov, whom Prigozhin mocked for managing the SMO from the safety of bunkers far from the zone of conflict.

At some point in time Prigozhin’s antics caught the attention of Ukrainian intelligence, and their British and US counterparts. The narcissistic need for attention, coupled with grandiose notions of self-importance, made Prigozhin an ideal candidate for recruitment by a hostile foreign intelligence service. A financial component—basic greed—can be added to this behavioral model as well. In addition to seeking to bring Wagner under the operational control of the Ministry of Defense through the rationing of ammunition, Defense Minister Shoigu announced that Wagner fighters would have to sign legally binding contracts with the Russian Minister of Defense to allow them to continue to serve in their capacity as a combat unit. The reason for this was the constitutional ban on private military companies operating on Russian soil. The Russian government was willing to turn a blind eye to this legality while the battle for Bakhmut raged, but once the “meatgrinder” shut down, and Wagner was withdrawn from the front for a period of well-deserved rest and refitting, the Ministry of Defense announced that before Wagner could resume its combat operations (Prigozhin indicated that Wagner would return to fighting around August 5), its fighters and commanders would have to sign contracts. The deadline for signing contracts was set for July 1.

According to Prigozhin, the military council of commanders—the real leaders of Wagner—refused to allow these contracts to be signed. Wagner and Shoigu were heading for a confrontation. Wagner was, during this time, building upon the good will of the Russian people that had been earned in the bloody fighting for Bakhmut. Wagner was engaged in an unprecedented public relations campaign designed to imprint on the Russian people the heroic status its fighters enjoyed, all the while seeking to recruit new fighters into it ranks. The success of this public relations campaign only reinforced in the mindset of Prigozhin the notion that he and Wagner were more popular amongst the Russian people than were Shoigu, Gerasimov, and the Russian Ministry of Defense.

The collusion between Prigozhin and the Ukrainians, while unproven at this juncture, appears obvious in retrospect. One of the key indicators is the decision by the Ukrainians to send so-called “anti-Putin” Russian forces across the border into the Belgorod region of Russia, helping create the impression of Russian impotence and incompetence, notions Prigozhin was only too happy to magnify on his own Telegram channels. This message was then further disseminated by Ukrainian-controlled Telegram channels, including those which operated under the guise of serving “Russian patriots.”

Soon both Prigozhin and the ostensible “pro-Russian” social media accounts were highlighting the potential of a Russian Civil War and the collapse of the Putin regime in a repeat of the collapse experienced in the Russian Army in 1917, leading to the downfall of Tsarist rule and the Romanov dynasty. Indeed, informed observers have stated that many of the Wagner fighters who accompanied Prigozhin into Russia as part of the ongoing armed insurrection apparently believed that they were being dispatched to reinforce the border region to guard against future incursions into Russia by forces loyal to Ukraine.

If the goal of Prigozhin was to achieve the collapse of the Putin regime, it appears to have failed miserably. No political leaders, no military leaders of units, no oligarchs have rallied to Prigozhin’s cause. Russia appears to be firmly behind President Putin, and supportive of his stated goal of bringing this insurrection to an end using all means necessary. While Prigozhin claimed to have assembled a force of some 25,000 men for his march of Moscow, the reality is the total number of Wagner soldiers involved is no more than half that number.

Unless Wagner receives substantial assistance, this invasion force will soon run into sustainability issues—gas, ammunition, and food supplies will become problematic. Moreover, as Russian forces begin to physically confront Wagner, it will become crystal clear to the actual fighters that far from defending Russia from a corrupt and inept regime, Wagner has become a pariah, forever linked in the minds of Russia as traitors who sought to stick a knife in Russia’s back at a time of great peril to the survival of the nation—in short, Wagner will have transitioned from Hero to Zero.

What Prigozhin and his supporters, both in the command and rank and file of Wagner, and those collaborators in the social media universe, have done in attacking the constitutional government of Russia is nothing short of treason. Unless something extreme happens in the next day or two, it is inevitable that Wagner will be defeated. The history books will always punctuate its existence as an organization with perfidy of having betrayed Russia to its enemies. But the critical point here isn’t Wagner’s treasonous behavior, but rather the fact that Russia’s enemies—in particular the British and American intelligence services—saw fit to facilitate a substantive armed insurrection designed to remove from power the government of a nuclear armed power. Imagine, for a moment, the righteous ire that would be on display in the halls of Congress and within the walls of the White House if Russian intelligence had actively conspired to have an entity like Blackwater march on Washington, DC with the goal of removing President Biden from power.

It would, some might say, constitute an act of war.

Russian nuclear doctrine allows for Russia to use nuclear weapons when faced with an existential threat to the survival of the Russian state.

If the CIA and MI-6 were involved in the recruitment of Prigozhin with an eye toward facilitating Wagner’s march of Moscow, then they would have been directly engaged in an action that constituted an existential threat to Russia.

Russia would, under its doctrine, have every right to use nuclear weapons in response.

For everyone cheering Prigozhin along this morning, think on that long and hard as you chew on your breakfast.

Because if Prigozhin were to succeed, there might  be no tomorrow.


POSTSCRIPT

ABOUT THE AUTHOR / SOURCE
William Scott Ritter Jr. (born July 15, 1961) is an American author, pundit, former United States Marine Corps intelligence officer, former United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) weapons inspector.


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