Malaysian Flight 17: Who's To Blame? How Should They Be Punished?

As recriminations fly back and forth, investigators are ready to sift through the pieces of shattered airliner, Malaysian Airlines Flight 17. The flight, from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur with 298 on board, had entered airspace over eastern Ukraine traveling at 598 mph and at an altitude of 33,000'.  A question that immediately occurs is why the hell this aircraft was even flying over a de facto war zone - in which it was already known that several military cargo and transport planes had been shot down. Moreover, the MH 17 flight was actually even further north on its track than other planes also traveling to the same destination - from Amsterdam. Why? The more northerly path put it more directly into harm's way as several commentators noted last night.

Some new research also reported on smirkingchimp.com disclosed that the Ukrainian military transport, i.e. IL76, or Candid, "has the same echo as a 777 on a radar screen”. This would mean it had been even more critical NOT to fly into that airspace no matter what anyone was told about it being "safe" or how many other airlines foolishly did it to save fuel.

One Malaysian talking head this a.m. actually said:  "No one gave any instructions to change the route" - observing MH 17 flights had made 14 trips over the war zone the past two weeks. Yet an intelligent company wouldn't need "instructions", only common sense, and the U.S. had already warned about making flights over the area. It looks like, sad to say, the Malaysians screwed up again like they did with Flight 370 months ago. (Another Malaysian official stated that the Ukrainians hadn't closed the air space and 55 other international flights had transited the area the same day. This also is no excuse, and merely discloses ALL the aircraft had similarly played Russian Roulette with their passengers lives! It's still a freakin' war zone whether or not the air space was closed,  for god's sake!)

All the evidence so far, including the wide scatter area (nearly 10 miles) and debris pattern, clearly indicates a missile strike. The most probable culprit was one surface to air BUK battery missile - roughly 18 ft long, capable of a 1/2 mile per second velocity and with a range of 46,000 ft.  It is also known that such batteries have been supplied to the separatists by the Russians. It is also known they've been used to shoot down Ukrainian military transport planes. (Note: These BUK missile batteries are also possessed by the Ukrainian military so it is possible that the separatists liberated one or more from Ukrainian bases.)

Former Deputy CIA Director Mike Morrell's take this morning on CBS seems to be the accurate one:

"I think what happened here is that the separatists, who shot down a couple of aircraft this week, believed that they were targeting a Ukrainian military transport and they just made a mistake. That's what I think happened here.."

And I agree with this take, as it's the most logical conclusion given the information - including U.S. intelligence - available so far.  When asked by Charlie Rose 'What would it take to prove that?'  - Morrell responded:

"We have our own intelligence capabilities - radar tracking, satellite tracking and we marry that with any information the Ukrainians have, then when you get to the crash site you can put all those pieces together."

So okay,  the separatists are to blame, but the take is that it was not a deliberate targeting or shoot down as the paranoid Ukrainian puppet PM advanced. It was a very plausible error of the type which can be made in the inevitable 'fog of war'. (Another reason no aircraft should have been flying that route over eastern Ukraine - so the Malaysian Airlines also bears partial responsibility for wittingly or unwittingly putting its passengers in harm's way.)

Then there is the U.S. itself, which is not squeaky clean in this by any stroke. As I noted previously, this 'war zone' would never have evolved had U.S. neocons not interfered to push Ukraine into instability by ousting its democratically elected leader, Viktor Yanukyovich - replacing him with the Neocon-NATO puppet "Yats" (Arseniy Yatsenuk ).

The American -NATO aggression that initially spurred Russia to action to defend its own sphere of influence was described on the basis of game theory, e.g.

http://brane-space.blogspot.com/2014/03/a-game-theory-perspective-on-ukraine.html


Even Col. Lawrence Wilkerson (Ret.) at least understood enough Russian history to know that Putin would not tolerate a NATO client state set up on his very border via a coup. Indeed, Wilkerson even said flat out (on Chris Hayes’ All In program in March)  that if he were Putin, he’d have done the same thing! This after Gorbachev and Russia were PROMISED by Bush Sr. that NATO “would not move one more inch to the east”.

And then to foment a coup on Russia’s doorstep?  All of the chaos and conflict now could have been seen well in advance and the U.S. spy -military state knows it. Contrary to U.S. media mouthpieces, Putin’s vision is not of a “Russian-dominated former Soviet space” but of protecting his nation’s security at its border.

Lest some of us suffer from  historical memory deficits, let us also recall - since I see all kinds of talking heads like John McCain getting hysterical ("We have to do something about Russia!") that the U.S. also shot down a commercial airliner, back on July 3, 1988. Iran Air Flight 655 was an Iran Air civilian passenger flight from Tehran to Dubai that was shot down by the United States Navy guided missile cruiser USS Vincennes. The attack took place in Iranian airspace, over Iran's territorial waters in the Persian Gulf, and on the flight's usual flight path. The aircraft, an Airbus A300 B2-203, was destroyed by SM-2MR surface-to-air missiles fired from the Vincennes.All 290 on board, including 66 children and 16 crew, died. (As noted on Kornacki today also, the U.S. didn't offer ANY apology but instead advanced the question: "Why were they flying in a shooting zone?" In other words, if you're flying over a war zone you have no comebacks!)

As noted by Rachel Maddow last night, the U.S. ended up paying reparations of $62 million, an average of $213,103.45 per passenger, in compensation to the families of the Iranian victims.

In analogous fashion, and allowing that both the 1988 incident and the current one were not deliberate shoot downs  but mistakes(in 1988  the U.S. insisted the naval crew incorrectly identified the Iranian Airbus A300 as an attacking F-14 Tomcat fighter operated by the Islamic Republic of Iran) the solution is self-evident: Russia- which gave the BUK missile batteries to the separatists, needs to pay up reparations for each victim.

The amount of the reparations, I suggest, ought to be roughly what the U.S. paid to the Iranians back in 1988, but in 1988 dollars

That should be the end of it and the paranoia, including suggestions of more "sanctions" and more saber rattling.

The bottom line is that NO one's hands are clean here, no one is blameless. The Malaysian Airlines and Dutch KLM (which operated shared flights) for flying over a proven deadly war zone, the U.S. and Ukraine for installing a puppet government to begin with and destabilizing the country - leading to Russian entry and separatists, and the Russians themselves for delivering a powerful SAM- battery to the separatists who weren't savvy enough to use it properly and indeed ought not have been using it at all.

Everyone needs to settle down, think clearly and proceed with caution, especially the Amerikkan war hawks and neocons - never at a loss for more sanctimonious bullshit, and war mongering.

See also:

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/robert-parry/57044/airline-horror-spurs-new-rush-to-judgment

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/robert-parry/57004/the-human-price-of-neocon-havoc

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/russ-wellen/57040/suddenly-putin-blaming-ukraine-for-flight-17-makes-a-shred-of-sense

and:

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/walter-c-uhler/57020/whos-responsible-for-shooting-down-malaysia-airlines-flight-mh17

http://www.salon.com/2014/07/18/the_new_age_of_global_paranoia_russia_ukraine_and_the_plane_crash_heard_round_the_world/

 

Why I Don't Buy 99 Percent of What the U.S. Media Says About the Ukraine

As the tensions ramp up in the Ukraine, and Kerry makes hollow threats warning the Russians "hands off" (as if the U.S. of A. wouldn't marshal  all its might if a rabble of Communist Cubans took over downtown Miami and its venerable courthouse) one has to wonder how much of the backstory we're really being told. How much do we REALLY know of the instigators in the Ukraine ? How much do we really know about the so -called "freedom fighters"? Do we know any more about them than the "liberators" we were going to back in Syria back in July - who turned out to be terrorists?

Let's observe that there's always  been a measure of hypocrisy but Official Washington used to at least pretend to stand for “democracy,” rather than taking such obvious pleasure in destabilizing elected governments, encouraging riots, overturning constitutional systems and then praising violent putsches. As blogger Robert Parry has astutely observed:

"But events in Ukraine and Venezuela suggest that the idea of respecting the results of elections and working within legal, albeit flawed, political systems is no longer in vogue, unless the “U.S. side” happens to win, of course. If the “U.S. side” loses, then it’s time for some “shock doctrine.” And, of course, the usual demonizing of the “enemy” leader."

Maybe it's because we've ignored - or the U.S. media has - how neocons are still buried in our national policy like worms in the core of an apple. Don't believed me? Then where is the mainstream press on the "NED"? The National Endowment for Democracy, which was a central part of Ronald Reagan’s propaganda war against the Soviet Union three decades ago. It has  since evolved into a $100 million U.S. government-financed slush fund that generally supports a neocon agenda often at cross-purposes with the Obama administration’s foreign policy.  As Robert Parry notes:

"NED is one reason why there is so much confusion about the administration’s policies toward attempted ousters of democratically elected leaders in Ukraine and Venezuela. Some of the non-government organizations (or NGOs) supporting these rebellions trace back to NED and its U.S. government money, even as Secretary of State John Kerry and other senior officials insist the U.S. is not behind these insurrections."


Maybe things are even more sinister than they appear, given NED emerged at around the same time as the Nazi-backed Republican Heritage Groups. All this is well documented  by Russ Bellant, in his book 'Old Nazis, The New Right and the Republican Party' ( South End Press, Boston, 1991, p. 77). Bellant painstakingly documents how Nazis, and former S.S. infiltrated the Republican Heritage Groups and Council from the time of Reagan's ascension in 1980. He provides actual letters written and received as well as how their agenda is spelled out. He also notes a key figure who had established connections many decades earlier, i.e.

"Philip Guarino helped establish the ethnic division of the GOP in 1952. He was vice-chair of the Republican Heritage Groups Council from 1971-75."

By April 8, 1980, Guarino "was a senior member of the Republican Party National Committee, which at the time was concentrating all its efforts on getting Ronald Reagan elected President." (Recall Reagan also gave a nod to these vermin when he visited the grave site of a Waffen S.S. in Bitburg, W. Germany. The PR at the time was that it was "an accident", but don't buy it for a second!) The "ethnic division of the GOP" refers to Ukrainian and Latvian assistants and associates, or members of the extension group affiliated with the German Waffen S.S. which had helped carry out pogroms during WWII- usually butchering Jews and communists in their own nations. (Recall, Hitler often conflated the Jews with Marxists, communists based on the fact Karl Marx was a Jew.)

It then may also be no coincidence that neo-Nazis have been observed amongst these proper "democracy" protestors in the Ukraine, overturning statues, harassing those who disagree with them and in general carrying on like rogues and thugs. But how much do you hear of that in the Western Press?  To make a long story short, part of the GOP agenda dating from this Nazi infiltration, evolved to overturning elected governments that didn't meet the Reagan- Far Right "smell tests". Two recent examples are Venezuela and the Ukraine.

Let's also note Bellant's claims re: associations, groups - apart from establishing direct ties of former S.S. affiliates to the GOP, were also well substantiated in the Newsweek article ('The Right Wing Web', February 22, 1999, p.34).  The reason for reinforcing Bellant's book is that the putative basis for widespread former Nazi use and recruitment (including in our intelligence agencies, e.g. CIA) would have been laid bare....but it seemed evident to me even then that the GOP congress wished to cover its party tracks and all possible links to Nazi interests

According to a Baltimore Sun article ('Government May Soon Open Files on Nazi War Criminals', Aug. 2, 1998, p. 20A):

"Under pressure from Congress, the Justice Department and other agencies may be forced to declassify tens of thousands of top-secret documents describing the U.S. intelligence community's dealings with Nazi war criminals in the Cold War years. Legislation to open most of those files has already passed the Senate and could come up for a vote in the House this week. Some historians suspect that the opened files could cause 'tremendous embarrassments' for the United States."

Less than one year later the GOP congress voted against passage, and that was it. No one has heard much about it since. Perhaps the GOP Neocons knew then, as they do now, they didn't want to let the "cat out of the bag" regarding the NED. Robert Parry again:

 "NED was founded in 1983 at the initiative of Cold War hardliners in the Reagan administration, including then-CIA Director William J. Casey. Essentially, NED took over what had been the domain of the CIA, i.e. funneling money to support foreign political movements that would take the U.S. side against the Soviet Union.


Though the Reagan administration’s defenders insist that this “democracy” project didn’t “report” to Casey, documents that have been declassified from the Reagan years show Casey as a principal instigator of this operation, which also sought to harness funding from right-wing billionaires and foundations to augment these activities."


Let's get something else clear:  Ukraine’s ousted President Viktor Yanukovych was surely no paragon of altruistic benevolence or a flawless leader, though it looks like there are few of those in Ukraine, a country essentially controlled by a collection of billionaire oligarchs who jockey for power and shift their allegiances among corrupt politicians. But Yanukovych was elected in what was generally regarded as a reasonably fair election in 2010. Indeed, some international observers called the election an important step toward establishing an orderly political process in Ukraine.

But Yanukovych sought to maintain cordial relations with neighboring Russia, which apparently rubbed American neocons the wrong way. O(fficial Washington’s still-influential neocons have been livid with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin because he cooperated with U.S. President Barack Obama in averting U.S. wars against Iran and Syria.)

In both cases, like they did with Bush and Iraq in 2003, the neocons thought they had maneuvered Obama into confrontations that could have advanced their long-term strategy of “regime change” across the Middle East, a process that started in 2003 with the U.S. invasion of Iraq but stalled with that disastrous war.

But the filth didn't succeed.

Many in the Ukraine and a dullard, incompetent U.S. media are still wondering why Viktor Yanukovych  turned to Russia instead of the EU. They were not alert to the fact the IMF and EU demanded substantial economic “reforms,” including an austerity plan that would have turned 90 percent of the Ukraine's people into street beggars.. Yanukovych  rightfully balked at the harsh terms and turned to Ukraine’s neighbor Russia, which was offering a $15 billion loan and was keeping Ukraine’s economy afloat with discounted natural gas.

Reasonable people can disagree about whether the EU was driving too hard a bargain or whether Ukraine should undertake such painful economic “reforms” – or how Yanukovych should have balanced the interests of his divided country, with the east dominated by ethnic Russians and the west leaning toward Europe. But protesters from the western Ukraine, including far-right nationalists and neo-Nazis sought to turn this policy dispute into a means for overthrowing the elected government. Police efforts to quell the disturbances turned violent, with the police not the only culprits. Police faced armed neo-Nazi storm troopers who attacked with firebombs and other weapons.

Though the U.S. news media did show scenes of these violent melees, the U.S. press almost universally blamed Yanukovych – and took almost gleeful pleasure as his elected government collapsed and was replaced by thuggish right-wing militias “guarding” government buildings.

With Yanukovych and many of his supporters fleeing for their lives, the opposition parties seized control of parliament and began passing draconian new laws often unanimously, as neo-Nazi thugs patrolled the scene. Amazingly, the U.S. news media treated all this as uplifting, a popular uprising against a tyrant, not a case of a coup government operating in collusion with violent extremists.

Is there a Nazi connection to the NED's objectives too? In all likelihood. Governments  that permitted NED to function have  often found themselves facing internal political pressures from NED-funded NGOs to shift those countries’ policies to the right by eliminating social programs deemed “socialistic” and hewing to “reform” demands from international bankers, which usually meant ceding some sovereignty to the IMF or other global institutions.

Ukraine and Venezuela are no exceptions. Sadly,  the momentum that this three-decade-old extreme Right “public diplomacy” campaign has achieved – both from NED and various neocons holding down key positions in Official Washington – pits this shadow foreign policy establishment against the President of the United States. Barack Obama may see cooperation with Vladimir Putin as crucial to resolving crises in Iran and Syria, but elements of Obama’s own administration and U.S.-financed outfits like NED are doing all they can to create crises for Putin. 

How or when will Obama flush the  god-damned Nazi-Neocons from his midst? We don't know because we don't even know if he's aware they're embedded.  We do know that this NED shadow structure, when working in concert with domestic opposition forces, had the capability to challenge the decisions of Yanukovych’s elected government, including the recent coup – spearheaded by violent neo-Nazis – that overthrew him. Presumably, NED wanted the “regime change” without the neo-Nazi element. But that armed force was necessary for the coup to oust Yanukovych and open the path for those IMF-demanded economic “reforms.”

And  while Yanukovych and his top aides were forced to flee for their lives, the opposition-controlled parliament then passed a series of draconian laws often unanimously, while U.S. neocons cheered and virtually no one in the U.S. press corps noted the undemocratic nature of what had just happened.

The Neoliberal U.S Press corps had shown themselves to be beyond pathetic, and even now are trying to hype up all sorts of alarms and fear  as Russia rightfully gathers its forces to protect its interests the same damned way the mighty U.S. would if Cuban Communists had taken over Miami.  None of these jerkoffs deserves a hearing, especially when they give so much space and credence to the NED mouthpieces.

Oh, and remember Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Victoria Nuland, the imp that was caught out saying: "FUCK the EU!"?  (Since she's part of the Neocon-NED orbit and wanted its influence to prevail, not the EU's)

She is none other than the wife of prominent neocon Robert Kagan, and  reminded Ukrainian business leaders that, to help Ukraine achieve “its European aspirations, we have invested more than $5 billion.” She said the U.S. goal was to take “Ukraine into the future that it deserves,” meaning out of the Russian orbit and into a Western one.

Thankfully, the Russians will not allow that to occur! Neocons or no!  They will not tolerate a fascist neo-Nazi empire on their doorstep any more than the U.S. would a further communist incursion.

See also:
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/mike-whitney/54509/the-coup-in-ukraine-obamas-dumbest-plan-yet

Excerpt:
In order to topple Yanukovych, the US had to tacitly support fanatical groups of neo-Nazi thugs and anti-Semites. And, even though “Interim Ukrainian President Oleksander Tuchynov has pledged to do everything in his power to protect the country’s Jewish community”; reports on the ground are not so encouraging. Here’s an excerpt from a statement by Natalia Vitrenko, of The Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine that suggests the situation is much worse than what is being reported in the news:

“Across the country… People are being beaten and stoned, while undesirable members of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine are subject to mass intimidation and local officials see their families and children targeted by death threats if they do not support the installation of this new political power. The new Ukrainian authorities are massively burning the offices of political parties they do not like, and have publicly announced the threat of criminal prosecution and prohibition of political parties and public organizations that do not share the ideology and goals of the new regime.” (“USA and EU Are Erecting a Nazi Regime on Ukrainian Territory”, Natalia Vitrenko)

Ukraine is gradually succumbing to the loving embrace of the New World Order where it will serve as another profit-generating cog in Wall Street’s wheel. That’s the theory, at least. It hasn’t occurred to the boneheads at the New York Times or Washington Post that Ukraine is rapidly descending into Mad Max-type anarchy which could spill over its borders into neighboring countries triggering violent conflagrations, social upheaval, regional instability or–god-help-us– WW3"
 --------------------------

Check your facts and do your homework, people, before you back the U.S. Neocon Fascists!
 

Ukrainians Better Be Careful What They Wish For

"Necessitous men cannot be free men",  

-----  Franklin D Roosevelt,

"At the heart of neoliberal narratives are ideologies, modes of governance, and policies that embrace a pathological individualism, a distorted notion of freedom, and a willingness both to employ state violence to suppress dissent and abandon those suffering from a collection of social problems ranging from dire poverty and joblessness to homelessness" - Henry Giroux, 'The Politics of Cruelty - America's Descent Into Madness' (smirkingchimp.com)

With the news that former Ukraine President Viktor F. Yanukovych has abruptly left his opulent mansion behind, Ukrainians are elated now at the prospect of "freedom" and stronger ties with the European Union.  There is now a vacuum left by Yanukovych's departure and that means varied interests will contend for ultimate control.

But that's not the biggest concern. The biggest worry, according to a Sunday New York Times piece (p. 14, 'With President's Departure Ukraine Moves Toward a Murky Future') is "who will help fill the depleted coffers of a country on the brink of bankruptcy and crippled by arguably one of the most troubled economies in the world".

Well, Russia had stepped up, offering $15b in cash infusion as well as cheap natural gas (ibid.). But the Ukrainians, who glance at the European Union and behold all its  material offerings and apparent freedoms, want more, They want to be part of the EU and on their own terms.

They are dreaming.

No one in Europe or the EU wants the "red headed" poor stepchild. A point also made clear in the article. 

Ukraine’s democracy fighters ought to be very careful before they jump head first into the Western Neoliberal orbit. As the Times noted, quoting Mark Leonard, the Director of the European Council on Foreign Relations :

 

"Nobody (in the West) wants to end up owning all the problems that Ukraine faces. The country is bankrupt. It has a terrible, broken system of government and insane levels of corruption”

The article goes on to say that with this in mind, Europe and the U.S. have “largely contracted the job out to the IMF with a package that – unlike the money offered by Moscow – has numerous strings attached”

The piece mentions requirements to cut up all kinds of regulations, and cut subsidies that keep domestic energy prices low – oh and “cripple the government’s finances”.  If it’s anything like what Barbados is experiencing, it ain’t gonna to be sweet bread. We’re talking about sky high food and oil prices, as well as pensions privatized or cut and thousands of workers let go. Y’all really want that? Go for it then! And good luck, future necessitous men...and women... of the Ukraine.

Hey, Ukraine! Welcome to the Neoliberal Imperative!

In other words, the path to the future of the Ukraine, if they choose the Neoliberal imperative, is not only murky  - but likely impoverished for most of their people. If they need some fact checks on what they're in for they can Google "Greek Sovereign Debt crisis"  or examine what happened to Mother Russia after Neoliberalism crept in and replaced communism.

Author Naomi Klein gives the key information in her book 'The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism' (2007).   In  her chapter on the Russian capitalist "experiment" (pp. 282-87) she documents how a cabal of gangster capitalists under the IMF and the "Chicago gang of Milton Friedman" attempted to brutally re-make the existing Russian centrally planned economy into a Neoliberal free market outpost of  the West. The process was long and painful, entailing first getting rid of Mikhail Gorbachev - who through his glasnost and perestroika did far more than Reagan to render the world more peaceful, never mind the propaganda.

Klein makes no bones about the fact that the Friedman "school of economics" - tracing its lineage to Friedrich von Hayek (the same creep that was responsible for bringing about the economic collapse of  the Weimar Republic - opening it to Nazi takeover) was responsible largely for the ideological ruthlessness that laid waste to Russia in the early 1990s.  They only needed (Boris) Yeltsin to help dissolve the former Soviet Union.

Economist Joseph Stiglitz (p. 283) called Russia's pro-capitalist market experimenters "market Bolsheviks". As Klein put it (ibid.):

"However, where the original Bolsheviks fully intended to build their centrally planned state in the ashes of the old, the market Bolsheviks believed in a kind of magic: if the optimal conditions for profit were created - the country would rebuild itself- no planning required."

U.S. Neoliberal puppet Boris Yeltsin, meanwhile, made reckless promises that things would only be hard "for six months"  and "very soon" Russia would be an economic titan. Never happened! As Klein notes (ibid.):

"The logic of so-called creative destruction resulted in scarce creation and spiraling destruction"

Newspapers, magazines from the period (which I still have and can peruse anytime) depict horrific suffering by ordinary Russians as they had to beg, borrow or steal to survive - thanks to the Neoliberal market barbarians. Is this being an "American traitor" to reveal this, probably something most Americans don't know? Nope, because one can't be a traitor to an economic paradigm he never accepted in the first place! (And which he further condemns as itself being a betrayal to the aspirations of most people in the world.)

The sad facts?  After only a year of Neoliberal thuggery and "market therapy" millions of Russians had lost their life savings when the ruble lost nearly all its value (similar to what happened to Germans and their Deutsch mark, thanks to von Hayek). Adding insult to injury, abrupt cuts in government subsidies meant that millions of workers had not been paid in months. Consumption? The average Russian consumed 40 percent less in 1992 than 1991 - and they weren't even consuming that much in '91!

Basically, to survive, the Russian middle class was forced to sell all or most of their belongings - setting up card tables on the streets to do so. As Klein describes this travesty:

"Desperate acts, that the Chicago School of Economics praised as 'entrepreneurial' and proof that a capitalist renaissance was indeed under way."

Wonder why the Russians of today are deeply skeptical and affronted by the Neoliberal rogues and puppets of the West?   Look no further than recent Russian history and how the uber - capitalists twisted and perverted the country's whole economic foundation in order to force it into a globalized capital new world order.

If the Ukrainians are prepared to jump to the EU side and the promised "freedom" they have so yearned for, they  better look at it too!

Let's Not Get All 'Holier Than Thou' on the Ukraine - Lest We Ignore What Our Own Security State Would Do

To hear and see all the network talking heads bloviating on the violence and unrest in the Ukraine, you'd think they believe that if a similar situation erupted here in the U.S. - say with the same riots, rebellion in Washington, DC, NYC, LA  etc. our security forces would just sit back and watch. What the hell are they drinking.....or smoking?  It's got to be stronger stuff than what's legally available here in Colorado!

Any nincompoop faintly aware of the past two years would KNOW that couldn't happen. The security state would land on them faster than you can say 'NSA'  Fusion centers would send out alerts, SWAT teams would be activated along with National Guard troops and heads would be battered, busted and left with brain damage. Many protestors would be shot- not just using rubber bullets-  and even tanks could be introduced to quell the unrest.....with bodies lying all over the streets and in makeshift clinics, with stretched staff trying to care for thousands of dismembered, bleeding citizens. Those with short memories need only go back to what transpired with the mostly peaceful Occupy Wall Street movement, in 2011, see e.g.  http://www.thiscantbehappening.net/node/1494

As David Lindorff notes,  the documents he obtained show that the FBI and other intelligence and law enforcement agencies “began a campaign of monitoring, spying and disrupting the Occupy Movement at least two months before the first occupation actions began in late September 2011.”

He goes on to write:

“As early as August, while acknowledging that the incipient Occupy Movement was “peaceful” in nature, federal, state and local officials from the FBI, the DHS and the many Fusion Centers and Joint Terrorism Task Force centers around the country were meeting with local financial institutions and their private security organizations to plot out a strategy for countering the Occupy Movement’s campaign.”

But what really ought to terrify the citizen who insists lamely "That Ukraine stuff would never happen here!" is what he or she might experience if the decision is made to join even a peaceful but vigorous protest. It may not be an Occupy protest but something environmental like marching against the Keystone pipeline or fracking in their neighborhood. In such a case it is instructive to see what one of Lindorff’s PCJ -obtained documents revealed. That is,  a perp -instigator (name conveniently blanked out in the released document) who actually proposed to assassinate leaders of the Occupy Movement in Houston with “suppressed” sniper rifles. As the released PCJ document puts it:

“One identified ------ as of October planned to engage in sniper attacks against protesters in Houston, Texas if deemed necessary. An identified ----- had received intelligence that indicated the protesters in New York and Seattle planned similar protests in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Austin, Texas. ---- planned to gather intelligence against the leaders of the protest group and obtain photographs, then formulate a plan to kill the leadership by suppressed sniper rifles.”

This isn't bullshit or exaggeration! The basis for such actions inheres in the various mandates of the 'Continuity of Government' program that were insinuated into law after 9/11. Such mandates included later mutations of COG under the Bushites that  equated political dissent with treason.   In regard to the last, the definition of "terrorist" was expanded to "domestic terrorist" by congress in 2001, to include:

"…activities that involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State; appear to be intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States"

According to the ACLU, “this definition is broad enough to encompass the activities of…prominent activists, campaigns and organizations.”  That includes Occupy Wall Streeters and anyone who protests the Keystone XL pipeline!

If you think our own national security statists are simply looking at their TVs and wondering how or if they ought to intervene in the Ukraine, then you're not paying attention. In fact, they are shitting in their pants fearful of  a similar future scene erupting here in the US of A. They're also wondering  how fast they'll have to roll out the military, the EM vomit weapons, the heavy tanks, Stealth fighters and detention camps if similar events were to be triggered across the U.S. and start to spin out of control. (Remember the main directive is CONTROL! That's why the security state is so livid at Snowden - having used a cheap web crawler to gather all the NSA files.) . If you think they wouldn't do anything violent in retaliation to Ukraine-type riots,  and just allow civil violence of any type to spread,  you are dreaming.

"Oh, oh but Americans wouldn't resort to violence like that!"

Oh yeah? Imagine the scenario of a nail biting,  close election, similar to 2000, in which the Supreme Court disallows the popular vote  in a critical state (like FLA) and hence its electoral votes,  and enables a fascist thug like Ted Cruz to gain power, say with Sarah Palin as his running mate. Imagine protests spreading across the nation, and the newly "elected" Repuke team announcing martial law under the COG program.  Believe me, a scenario such as visible in the Ukraine is quite possible.

There are also any number of other scenarios one can imagine that could lead to imposition of extreme military, para-military force - or martial law- under the COG program. There are even ways the authorities can know of impending protests before they break out - and haul in all potential protestors under COG.  Don't believe it? Six years ago Christopher Ketcham disclosed the extent to which the  NSA spy state  has already been able to assemble a giant database (called Main Core) of "potential trouble makers". As he observes:

"There exists a database of Americans, who, often for the slightest and most trivial reason, are considered unfriendly, and who, in a time of panic, might be incarcerated. The database can identify and locate perceived ‘enemies of the state’ almost instantaneously.” He and other sources note the database is sometimes referred to by the code name Main Core. One knowledgeable source claims that 8 million Americans are now listed in Main Core as potentially suspect. In the event of a national emergency, these people could be subject to everything from heightened surveillance and tracking to direct questioning and possibly even detention.”

Once more, anyone who densely believes a Ukraine scenario couldn't happen here needs to go back and look at what happened to Occupy Wall Street's peaceful protestors.

Think it can't happen here? Think AGAIN! Why do you think the NSA has been gathering so much vast data, just for the heck of it or because their technology is unable to discriminate? Oh no, not that. It's because they want to stay on top of every and any situation that could possibly erupt as the one in the Ukraine is now.  They are aware of the growing gulf of inequality in this country:  the 15.9 million children who already go to bed hungry each night, the continued loss of earning power as the rich get theirs - coupled with no increase in the minimum wage for most workers, plus cuts in food stamps and unemployment benefits. They know from the history of mass civil uprisings and rebellion  that  there may well be a critical tipping point or threshold, a  'straw that breaks the camel's back'. A point at which generally passive Americans won't sit back and take it any more.

In other words, their warp and woof is to stamp out any manifestation of a potential Ukraine - type violent protest, if and when Americans get too tired of being entertained in their social media world of Twitter and Facebook, or their TV fantasies (like the Kardashians,  'Duck Dynasty' etc.) and actually take to the streets.

God forbid they ever take to the streets in the manner of the Ukrainians.

See also:
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/chris-floyd/54357/sinister-illusions-masking-tragedy-in-ukraine