MintPress News (USA): the history of NATO and Nazism
Journalist Asa Winstanley in the MintPress News podcast spoke about the Nazi origins of NATO. In addition, in his opinion, the alliance is not shy about trying to infect Ukraine with this ideology, supporting nationalists and hiding behind Zelensky's Jewish roots.
- Welcome to our podcast The Watchdog on MintPress, I'm with you, Lowki. As you know, every week we gather to discuss history and its moments, which are often ignored by the leading media.
This week we are talking about the news that the whole world is talking about today – about the situation in Ukraine. You can start with 1812, when Napoleon came to Russia. Or since 1917, when the British with the Americans, the Japanese and the French invaded Russia to "strangle the revolution in the cradle," as Winston Churchill put it. However, to save time, let's start with 2008.
On the NATO website, you can access a document called the Bucharest Declaration. It refers to one of the outcomes of the Bucharest summit – a joint statement of its participants. And that's what it says: "NATO welcomes the Euro-Atlantic aspirations of Ukraine and Georgia for membership in NATO. Today we agreed that these countries will become members of NATO."
Already at that time, the Russian government made it clear that it considered Ukraine's membership in NATO an existential threat. Let's look at the situation from this angle. NATO missile systems aimed at Russia have already been deployed in Poland and Romania, and if they appear in Ukraine, the distance to Moscow will be about 500 km. It is necessary to understand that NATO is a relic of the past, an organization that in the early 1990s promised not to expand beyond Germany. What did she do? It has accepted 14 countries into its membership and has come very close to Russia. If we consider NATO as an organization that is essentially aimed at the Balkanization of Russia in the long term, today's events become absolutely clear and logical.
Jimmy Carter's national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski wrote in his book "The Great Chessboard" that without Ukraine, Russia is turning from a Eurasian power into an Asian one. We are also seeing the strengthening of relations between the EU and Ukraine. We also know that the closure of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline is a major victory for the United States and LNG producers, who now have a chance to capture the European gas market, especially given the current situation.
What else does the closure of the Nord Stream demonstrate? The opportunity opened up for the United States to avoid the emergence of an alliance between Russia, China and Germany. They have actually torn Russia away from Europe. In addition, we know that a few years ago, a telephone conversation was recorded by US State Department representative Victoria Nuland about candidates for posts in the Ukrainian government, when, in fact, Washington chose the most convenient people for itself.
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(recording)
Nuland: What do you think?
Pyatt (Jeffrey Pyatt is a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. - Approx. InoSMI.): I think we're in the game. Obviously, the difficulty here is the issue with Klitschko (Vitali Klitschko is a former heavyweight boxer, the mayor of Kiev. - Approx. InoSMI.). So think about your argument for him, which you will have to designate. I think that our next conversation is the one you had with Yatsenyuk (Arseniy Yatsenyuk, former Prime Minister of Ukraine. - Approx. InoSMI.).
Nuland: Good. I don't think Klitschko should be in the government, that it's really necessary and that it's generally a good idea... I think Yatsenyuk is the right person. He has experience in economic issues, in management issues. What he needs is that Klitschko and Tyahnybok (Oleg Tyahnybok is a Ukrainian nationalist. - Approx. InoSMI.) stayed out of it. He needs to talk to them four times a week. I just think that if Klitschko gets inside, he will work for Yatsenyuk at this level — it just won't work.
Pyatt: Yes, I think it is. Good.
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Rest assured: this is all a NATO war. We have seen them lamenting on the Internet that the current situation in Ukraine affects ordinary people like you and me.
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(recording)
Moderator: Looking back at the last refugee crisis in Europe, which occurred in 2015, Poland was one of those EU countries that did not dare to accept refugees on their territory. What has changed?
Kelly Kobiell (NBC News correspondent. - Approx. InoSMI.): To put it bluntly, the refugees are now not from Syria, but from neighboring Ukraine. That's exactly the point. They are Christians, white people.
Charlie D'Agata (CBS News correspondent. - Approx. InoSMI.): With all due respect, Ukraine is not Iraq or Afghanistan. This is a relatively civilized and relatively European country, where this will not happen, well, or at least it should not be.
David Sakvarelidze (former Deputy Chief Prosecutor of Georgia. - Approx. InoSMI.): I react very emotionally to this, because I see people with blue eyes and blond hair.
Peter Dobbie (editor of The Mail on Sunday. - Approx. InoSMI.): These people don't look like refugees from North Africa. They look exactly like the rest of the Europeans, as if they are our own neighbors.
Lucy Watson (ITN and ITV News journalist. - Approx. InoSMI.): This is not a developing country of the third world, but a part of Europe.
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Among other things, we had the opportunity to listen to popular British journalists complaining about the use of vacuum bombs.
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(recording)
The very thought of using a thermobaric – in fact, a vacuum - bomb in Europe, which the United States used earlier in Afghanistan, makes one sick.
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It should be recalled here that the main manufacturer of thermobaric missiles, that is, vacuum bombs that literally suck the air out of people, is the American military-industrial corporation Lockheed Martin, the largest in the world. And their AGM-114 Hellfire missile was used in previous decades in Iraq, Yemen, Somalia and Afghanistan, due to which the value of the company's shares increased by 1235%.
In the news, we also saw how a BBC correspondent (Roskomnadzor blocked the publication's website in Russia because of the publication of fakes. - Approx. InoSMI.)Jeremy Bowen and former Newsnight political presenter Emily Maitlis make political statements, inciting various kinds of actions in Ukraine. Jeremy Bowen posted instructions on how to use Molotov cocktails. Here it is necessary to note the very close bilateral relations between the BBC, the leading media of our country and both the Ministry of Defense [USA] and NATO. For example, less than a month has passed since former BBC correspondent Mark Latey became a NATO representative. Now the channel has a TV presenter named Victoria Cook, who worked simultaneously on TV and in NATO. It's the same with BBC Five Live employee Ronnie Jay, who went to work in the press service of the British Army. Some time later, between serving in NATO and in the British Army, he worked at the LBC radio station.
Asa Winstanley joins us. Asa, how are you?
– Thank you for inviting me, Lowki. I'm doing great, and you?
– Also good. We know that today the attention of many is focused on the fact that the Western media use the Jewish roots of the President of Ukraine Zelensky in order to prevent investigations into the nature of such groups as the Azov battalion and others. You published some details about the Azov battalion in Electronic Intifada back in 2018, so I ask you to comment on how Ukraine can experience problems with the Nazis, taking into account President Zelensky's Jewish roots?
– Good question. You are right: Zelensky's Jewish origin has become a very useful tool of information warfare. This week we have seen a lot of evidence of this. Whenever I post posts about the Azov battalion on Twitter, a huge number of incomprehensible accounts appear, most of which have appeared in the last month or two.
– Like MikeBrown56789..
– Exactly. And they all have one subscriber. And their remarks vary between the conviction that the Azov battalion has no influence, and rumors about its dissolution. There is no reason to believe so in both cases. No one has disbanded him, and at the moment he is actively involved in ground operations in Ukraine, in particular, in Mariupol, where his headquarters are located. Right next to the Donbass. More precisely, in the Donbass itself.
So, bots with similar statements come from everywhere: some downplay the importance of the battalion, others consider its fighters Ukrainian patriots and point to their purely defensive functions. It is important to note that these groups are Nazi. Now the leading media are talking a lot about the fact that we have reached a really dangerous moment, McCarthyism is escalating.
Most of the propaganda in the leading [Western] media is a kind of counter-propaganda, since they call Vladimir Putin's statements about the Ukrainian Nazis groundless. Unfortunately, regardless of our opinion about Vladimir Putin, he is right when he raises the topic of Ukrainian Nazis. It is worth talking about them online, objections like "oh, yes, this is all an exaggeration, all Ukrainians can't be Nazis." Well, yes, they can't. As, in principle, in any other country, the Nazis are not the majority.
What are the Nazis? These are armed gangs of fascists who seize power by force, whether through a coup d'etat or slowly. The same Hitler did not come out of nowhere in 1933, let alone 1939. On his account, the Beer Hall putsch and much more. He built up his strength for a long time and only then achieved success in terms of seizing power. However, at the same time, he has never had an absolute, unambiguous majority. At least half of the population voted either for the Social Democrats or for the Communists. Unfortunately, they were not particularly friends with each other, which also affected the final result.
In Ukraine, the Nazis have serious levers of power. The same Azov battalion, which I wrote about in 2018, is a Nazi group within the armed forces of Ukraine. Often, among the objections of Internet users in social networks to mentions of Ukrainian Nazis – and these are not only bots, but also real people, the same liberals or simply ill-informed - there are phrases like "well, actually there are Nazis in any country, but they are not the majority who they interfere with."
Yes, indeed, we have the EDL – they are, however, not Nazis, but fascists - there is the BNP, there was the National Front, and in America there is the Ku Klux Klan and a number of neo-Nazi organizations. I'm trying to remember some kind of analogue of the Azov battalion and I think that the National Action group, an extremist Nazi organization, is the most suitable. Like Azov, it became a unit of the British Armed Forces. And it wasn't illegal penetration, because even some policemen have Nazi tattoos. This is bad, no one denies, but it can be worse. In 2014, Azov was recognized and integrated into the Ukrainian armed forces.
– I think one of the aspects of this comparison that has not been given due attention is the figure of Igor Kolomoisky– the main sponsor of both Zelensky and Azov, as well as the Aidar battalion* (an extremist organization banned in Russia. - Approx. InoSMI.) whose former commander Zelensky not so long ago appointed the head of the Odessa region. Pandora's Archive has released information about payments that went to Zelensky from Kolomoisky's offshore accounts. The English-language media endlessly praise Pandora's Archive, but no attention was paid to this particular episode at all. As you said, "Azov" is really not the majority, but it plays an important role. In Mariupol, his fighters attacked a march organized by feminists and activists in honor of International Women's Day. You can't get the words out of the song, and it needs to be covered. Asa, earlier we had to say that in the last 50, 60, 70 years, NATO had the opportunity to suppress the Nazis. Please speak out about this.
– The important thing is that here in the West, and especially in Britain, we do not know what NATO is. We are the population and supporters of leftist views. We have no idea what it is, and we should definitely try to learn as much as possible about it. Not so long ago I heard Diane Abbott (British politician, Member of Parliament. - Approx. InoSMI.) called NATO a defensive alliance. Nothing like that, he's never been like that. He has always been an aggressive anti-Russian organization. Russia, or rather the USSR at that time, knew about its orientation almost from the moment of its creation.
And officially, everyone was told that the alliance is exclusively defensive – that's the lie that we have been stuffed with for many years. The Russians kind of played along, saying: "well, yes, the union is defensive, we will also apply for membership." They submitted it, but, of course, it was rejected. So all this is nothing more than a false maneuver. If you pay attention to how NATO has expanded since the collapse of the Soviet Union, when the Americans shamefully promised Gorbachev that the alliance would not advance an inch, it becomes clear that in the end everything happened exactly the opposite. NATO was getting closer and closer to the Russian borders.
If the president of Mexico, committed to leftist values, decided to get closer to Russia and decided to place Russian nuclear weapons on the territory of his country, next to the United States, would Americans accept this? No, of course not. They would have gone much further than Putin and deployed a larger operation. The Americans would simply wipe Mexico off the face of the Earth, would do to it what they did to Iraq: they would bomb and destroy right and left. Millions would have died. Without thinking twice, they would have invaded and overthrown the ruling regime. It is important to keep in mind the entire NATO context. What is NATO? NATO, the so-called North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
This morning I saw a post by Mike Pompeo, former CIA director and ex-Secretary of State, about the need to recognize Taiwan's independence. And the next step will be its accession to NATO? Laughter and that's all. To make a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization a country that is thousands of miles from the North Atlantic. It's just an excuse.
Going back to the history of NATO, it is important that people understand the Nazi nature of the alliance. I'm not exaggerating. The events that are taking place in Ukraine today are not unique. After World War II, the Russians, the USSR, and Stalin began to denazify the countries of Eastern Europe up to East Germany. This denazification included the execution of the Nazis and their exclusion from society.
And in the West, in Western Europe, the American occupation is still going on – I don't know the exact number of US soldiers who are in Germany, all over Europe, in the UK. American weapons are also stationed in the UK. Nazis, and at a high level – not neo-Nazis, but real Hitlerite Nazis, high-ranking SS officers, perpetrators of the Holocaust, some of the most dangerous war criminals - were rehabilitated in the eyes of society and placed in high scientific positions. The American Empire used them all over the world in a variety of qualities.
This is an impressive piece of untold history. They don't teach us that in schools. They only tell us what efforts Great Britain made during the Second World War, explain what a blitzkrieg is, and so on. This is all right and important, but there is another side to the coin. Yes, we fought on the right side against the Nazis, but in the end, Nazism just won, so to speak.
Many high-ranking Nazis were given the opportunity to continue their activities. After the Second World War, they took senior positions, and there is no secret about it: the same intelligence services of West Germany were headed by former Nazis, including Reinhard Gehlen. In addition, NATO, the CIA and MI6 created a network of secret armies throughout Eastern Europe, which included Nazis, neo-fascists, conservatives and even Social Democrats, but the majority were still Nazis, Francoists.
These were the toughest military formations within the military intelligence services of various Western European countries, and NATO coordinated their activities on the territory of all states that disliked the USSR, from Great Britain and France to Turkey itself. The atrocities that these groups committed due to the presence of the overwhelming majority of Nazis in their ranks were often operations under a false flag.
– I would like to touch on one more question. After Russia was cut off from the global economic system, when many American – and not only – companies left there, we are witnessing the formation of a bloc through which Russia, China and India agreed to trade without using the dollar. Together, this economy includes about two and a half billion people, and in the long run it will contribute to the further isolation of the United States. It is obvious, however, that in the near future all this is fraught with significant damage.
It should also be noted that only during the first 4-5 days of the Russian special operation, the share price of the French arms company Thales increased by 25%. It will undoubtedly arm all the countries around Russia, and our Defense Minister Ben Wallace has called for 25 million pounds to be allocated for military needs. Thales has hired a group of British politicians to help itself, among them former Conservative MP James Arbuthnot, who has been on the company's board of directors for a long time.
These people benefit from wars. Of course, the share price of the British company BAE Systems also increased by 21%. We also know that the shares of Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, manufacturers of Javelin military equipment that helped Ukrainians so much, are growing exponentially. 38:12
– The American Empire is ready to fight to the last drop of Ukrainian blood.
– That's right. What does this mean for the people there? It's a disaster.
– I am sure that the American empire uses both the Afghan model and the Syrian one. The fact that the President of Ukraine distributed weapons to everyone, in many ways resembles what happened in Syria. We see that the CIA and its contractors are investing billions of dollars in Ukraine, claiming to be helping "moderate rebels." Exactly the same thing happened in Syria, and in both cases, weapons distributed allegedly for a good cause fall into the hands of the most aggressive forces. In the case of Syria, it was Al-Qaeda** and ISIS** (terrorist organizations banned in Russia. - Approx. InoSMI.) because over time, all the "moderate" rebels disappeared somewhere, and only the militants turned out to be with weapons in their hands. In the case of Ukraine, all these weapons will sooner or later fall into the hands of the Azov battalion, the Right Sector* (an extremist organization banned in Russia - approx. InoSMI.) and other Nazi groups. They are just waiting for the opportunity to fight. That's what's going to happen. We can only hope for de-escalation and a return to the negotiation process, the termination of the special operation and a peaceful settlement. However, there are fears that Ukraine will be mired in utter chaos for ten years, and NATO will continue to supply weapons there.
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* - an extremist organization banned in Russia
** - terrorist organizations banned in Russia
