What begins below is both a review of a new book, published yesterday, and an introduction to the book. At this point, The Pentagon’s B-Movie is available, for free, only as an eBook. Click on the book’s title to access the brand-new compilation of articles, most of them on a twenty-one-and-a-half-year-old event that was who knows how many years in the making. — MCM

–   –   –

The Indispensable 9/11 Writer’s Latest Book

A Review by Edward Curtin | Behind the Curtain

The Pentagon’s B-Movie: Looking Closely at the September 2001 Attacks. An eBook by Graeme MacQueen (Roslindale, Massachusetts: rat haus reality press, 15 March 2023)

This eBook by Graeme MacQueen contains a collection of his articles and essays on the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the subsequent anthrax attacks, and analyses of other false flag operations.  They are profoundly important and shatter the official versions of those events. No one reading this book can come away from it not convinced that the U.S. government is a terrorist state. MacQueen’s conclusions are not based on rhetoric but on deep empirical analyses, facts not propaganda. With this volume, Graeme MacQueen takes his place alongside David Ray Griffin as a prophet without honor in his own time. History will declare him a hero.  To write the following introduction is a great honor, for my esteem for Graeme and his work is immense.

 

Introduction

By Edward Curtin

Graeme MacQueen’s work is a testament to a man devoted to the search for truth and the freedom and peace that ensue from its discovery. I think it is surely not an accident that he is a Buddhist scholar and a former professor of religious and peace studies. In this regard, he reminds me of two other inspired theologians who carry the message of love and peace into the political realm where their extraordinary writing has given great hope to those yearning for truth and justice: James W. Douglass and David Ray Griffin, the former the great JFK scholar and the latter the author of a dozen or so groundbreaking books on the events of Sept. 11, 2001.

In this book, which is a primer on government propaganda, Graeme continues to teach how illusions must be punctured and the veil of government secrecy parted, lessons gleaned from the core of the world’s religions. That the truth will set us free is the essence of these teachings. Yet truth is a hard taskmaster and requires great courage, fortitude, and determination, which Graeme possesses in abundance, both in his person and in his writing.

Exposing the lies of the official versions of Sept. 11, 2001, the anthrax attacks, etc. takes guts, for it causes conflict with family, friends, and authorities. It brands one a ”conspiracy theorist” who has lost his reason. In Graeme’s case this is hilarious, for you will nowhere find a writer who is less doctrinaire and who sticks more closely to evidence. In fact, I, an impetuous type, have sometimes found his approach a bit too cautious, but I have always come around to see the value in it and to trust that his conclusions are based on rigorous logic and evidence.

Sometimes a photograph can reveal a person’s soul. I think the photo of Graeme that precedes his preface, taken in 2006 when he first embarked on his writing about the official lies of September 11, 2001, truly shows his spirit. Although in his late fifties, he looks very boyish, a bit of a rake, but with the countenance of a man deeply disturbed by what he is seeing through the eidola of official propaganda. There is a trace of both sorrow and determination in his eyes. His behatted head suggests a man ready to fish for truth in the deepest depths of an ocean of lies.

As a Buddhist scholar who has long known that creative writing and speech come freely from a state of mind different from, and higher than, the normal, I think it is self-evident that his inspired writing in this book is the result of a mind clarified by the realization that the inner and outer cannot be divorced, that life and death are one, and that looking out involves looking in.

For it seems to me self-evident, that those who oppose the consensus realty of a cruel and violent social order are also trying to redeem themselves from the profound tricks the ego plays on us all, while they probe the deceptions of official propaganda. And while Graeme does not explicitly state the connections between his religious writing and research and the political analyses in this book, it is evident that his work makes manifest that “Reality” is one whole, and that the isolated individual self that separates the personal from the political has led to a badly broken world.

About a decade ago, I had the privilege of being asked to review his brilliant book, The 2001 Anthrax Deception, that forms the basis for a few of the chapters in this collection. We became great friends. And if I have yet to say anything about the content of The Pentagon’s B-Movie, it is because while it is obvious that books are written by human beings (although this is changing with AI), who those authors really are is often elided.

“Great men do not play stage tricks with the doctrines of life and death: only little men do that,” wrote John Ruskin. As a compelling exposer of official stage tricks, Graeme is great, but you would never hear it from him.

He is humble and self-deprecating in the extreme. His laugh and sense of humor is contagious, although his writing only reflects this in a sentence here or there. But I have learned that those without a sense of humor or the ability to laugh at themselves are not to be trusted. Egos block the door to truth. And even as he has battled very serious illness over recent years, Graeme’s laughter on the subject of death is to me a sign of a man pure of heart and grateful for his life in all its complexity.

The articles in this collection were written over a span of sixteen years. Divided into three sections, they intersect to form a devastating critique of multiple matters, such as the government assassinations of JFK and MLK, various false flag events, but most especially September 11, 2001 and the subsequent anthrax attacks. It is impossible to read them sequentially and not be convinced of their truths. Each in its turn, reinforces the adage that “the emperor has no clothes.” More so, by stripping away every claim of the official narratives step by step, we see the emperor skinless as well, a skeleton caught dead to rights with its lethal lies conclusively exposed.

In many ways, the opening chapter, “9/11: The Pentagon’s B-Movie,” a tour-de-force, serves to foreshadow many of the themes that follow, concluding with “The Triumph of the Official Narrative: How the TV Networks Hid the Twin Towers Explosive Demolition on 9/11” with co-author Ted Walter.

Graeme makes clear from the start that it is the moving images of television and film that are central to the official propaganda. This is . . . READ MORE . . .

The essay that begins below, self-published today by a longtime Washington observer and noted investigative reporter, compares some of the foreign policy actions of the Kennedy, Reagan, Obama, and Biden administrations and notes the advice of insider dissenters in the executive and legislative branches that was not taken. The question in the headline is directed at President Biden. — MCM

–   –   –

Who’s your George Ball?

By Seymour Hersh

This is an account of another American who, like Daniel Ellsberg, did the right thing at the right time in the middle of a war. But unlike Ellsberg’s, his act of courage did not make the headlines, and he suffered little for it. His name is George W. Ball. He was a Midwestern lawyer who did not politically support John F. Kennedy in his 1960 presidential campaign and did not serve bravely or endure violence during World War II. But he had played a key role in the American postwar rebuilding of Europe and was appointed early in 1961 as an undersecretary of state in the Kennedy Administration. His main task was to deal with international economic and agricultural affairs.

Ball had directed the American postwar bombing survey in London at the end of the war. He understood, as the survey had shown, that the intense daytime bombing of German cities had not destroyed morale, as had been assumed, but had increased citizen support for the Nazi regime—and perhaps extended the duration of the war. Ball would later be the only senior Kennedy Administration official who directly warned the president of the dangers of committing American soldiers to the Vietnam War, as had been recommended by his generals. In his 2000 book Our Vietnam: The War 1954-1975, A.J. Langguth, who covered the war for the New York Times, recounted Ball’s gutsy warning in late 1961 to the president: “If we go down that road we might have, within five years, 300,000 men in the rice paddies of the jungles of Vietnam and never be able to find them.” 

In a 1982 memoir, Ball recalled Kennedy’s irritated response: “George, you’re just crazier than hell. That just isn’t going to happen.” Back in his office, Ball told an aide, “We’re heading hell-bent into a mess and there’s not a goddamn thing I can do about it. Either everybody else is crazy or I am.”

Ball, who had worked with and supported Adlai Stevenson, the liberal former governor of Illinois, in two failed presidential campaigns in the 1950s, was disdained by many of the tough-minded and tough-talking war planners inside the administration not as a truth teller but as a “dove.”

Kennedy had been shaken by his early failure to oust Fidel Castro, Cuba’s communist leader, in the first months of his administration and a brutal summit meeting weeks later with a dismissive Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev. He would make a stand in South Vietnam. In 1962 he also chose to become the first American president to try to thwart what Washington saw as the Soviet Union’s ambitions to weaponize its enormous reservoirs of oil and natural gas. Russia had announced its intention to build a 2,500-mile pipeline from its oil and natural gas fields in Tatarstan, 700 miles to the east of Moscow, that would be capable of supplying much-needed cheap energy to countries in the Soviet bloc within five or so years, with smaller pipelines that could spread deeper into Europe. All were still struggling to rebuild from the devastation of World War II.

Kennedy responded through NATO in a futile effort to impose an embargo on the imports from Western Europe to Russia of the materials to build the pipeline. In a 2018 study, Nikos Tsafos, an expert who was named last year as the energy adviser to the prime minister of Greece, described what happened next: Kennedy’s “goal was to delay or even stop the . . . pipeline that would increase Soviet oil exports. The embargo split the [NATO] alliance, with the United Kingdom being the most vocal against it; the pipeline was completed with only a slight delay, and the embargo was removed in 1966.” Tsafos quoted a colleague as noting that “one could argue that the pipe embargo caused more damage to US-European relations than to the Soviet economy.” That assessment, Tsafos noted, “applies to almost every transatlantic effort against Soviet and, later, Russian hydrocarbons.”

President Ronald Reagan came into office in 1981 determined to confront what he would come to call the “evil empire” and quickly escalated tensions between Washington and Moscow. He revived the B-1 bomber program that had been canceled by the Carter Administration; announced that his Administration would invest billions in an anti-ballistic missile defense system; and deployed Pershing II missiles, capable of delivering a nuclear warhead, to West Germany. In a 1982 speech he talked of consigning the Soviet Union to “ash heap of history.”

Reagan, too, attempted to block a second Soviet pipeline that would run from Western Siberia to Western Europe. The West German government had approved the concept and agreed in principle to lend $4.75 billion to help finance it. Reagan offered to supply the West German government with coal and nuclear power if it would withdraw from its agreement with Moscow. The Germans said no. France subsequently signed a multi-million dollar contract with the Soviet Union for the purchase of the Siberian gas. The Reagan Administration responded by escalating the existing sanctions against American business support for the pipeline to include any foreign companies doing business with Russia. All such firms would be barred from doing any business with the United States.

Enter George Ball again, now just retired after many quiet years as a managing partner of Lehman Brothers in New York. He published an essay, “The Case Against Sanctions,” in the New York Times Magazine in the fall of 1982 that is eerily prescient of the anti-Russian views repeatedly voiced today by President Biden, Secretary of State Tony Blinken, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, and Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland. 

“The Reagan Administration,” Ball wrote, “has now brought to the shaping of governmental decisions an ideological bias one might call the Manichaean Heresy. Present day Manichaeans espouse the doctrinal concept that Soviet Communism is the Antichrist—an evil element that must be extirpated if we are to have peace in the world. . . . [T]hat view is now shared by neo-conservative intellectuals. . . . As their major operational tactic, the Manicheans would have the United States seize every pretext to harass the Russians. . . .The Soviet economy is huge, the Soviet Union commands vast raw materials resources within its borders. . . . Niggling sanctions, no matter how persistently applied, could never prove more than a marginal nuisance. . . . With arrogance in inverse proportion to their own credentials of experience, Administration leaders are using crude methods to try to ride roughshod over the considered judgments and interests of allied governments, acting as though the United States had a monopoly of wisdom.”

Three decades later, in 2014, Vice President Joe Biden would reprise Reagan’s language and his fears of Russia’s gas and oil reserves in a speech to the Atlantic Council Energy and Economic Summit in Istanbul. Russia’s use of its energy was “a weapon undermining the security of nations,” he warned. “Here in Europe . . . READ MORE . . .

First, links to reports from the Associated Press, National Public Radio, Reuters, and Tass; others are accessible by clicking on their initials below. Also today, see the beginning of an essay on foreign policy dissenters in the Kennedy, Reagan, and Obama administrations, HERE. — MCM

–   –   –

What’s known and not about US drone-Russian jet encounter, by Lolita C. Baldor and Tara Copp | AP  WASHINGTON — When a Russian fighter jet collided with a large U.S. surveillance drone over the Black Sea on Tuesday, it was a rare but serious incident that triggered a U.S. diplomatic protest and raised concerns about the possibility Russia could recover sensitive technology. U.S. and Russian officials had conflicting accounts of the collision between the MQ-9 Reaper drone and the Russian Su-27 fighter jet. But a Pentagon spokesman raised the possibility that the Defense Department could eventually declassify and release video it has of . . . READ MORE . . .

–   –   –

Russian fighter jet forces down U.S. military drone over Black Sea, U.S. says. Reported by Greg Myre and Charles Maynes | NPR  The U.S. military says a Russian fighter plane clipped the propeller of an American MQ-9 Reaper drone, forcing it to crash in the Black Sea. Russia offered a very different account, claiming the American drone crashed on its own. What’s not in dispute is the inflammatory nature of the incident, which comes . . . Click HERE to listen and read.

–   –   –

North of Bakhmut, another key battle tests Ukraine’s defences, by Mike Collett-White | Reuters  * Frontline north of Bakhmut also sees fierce fighting * Small gains by Russians around Kreminna come at high cost * Ukrainian battalion says attacks have intensified * Commander defending the front sees risk of encirclement * He expects Ukrainian counter-offensive in April | NEAR KREMINNA, Ukraine — What Ukrainian forces have long described in the city of Bakhmut is also playing out to the north in Luhansk region — more Russian troops, weapons and aggressive tactics that Moscow hopes will produce a badly needed breakthrough. Medics have described heavy casualties in recent weeks, further evidence that . . . READ MORE . . .

–   –   –

Russian forces wipe out three Ukrainian S-300 radars in DPR – top brass. From Tass. MOSCOW — Russian forces destroyed three radars of Ukrainian S-300 surface-to-air missile systems in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) over the past day during the special military operation in Ukraine, Defense Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov said today. In addition, the Russian group of forces struck 101 Ukrainian artillery units at firing positions, manpower and equipment in 197 areas over the past day, he said. READ MORE . . .

–   –   –

Ron DeSantis says backing Ukraine is not in the U.S. interest, a sign of a GOP divided. Reported by Franco Ordoñez | NPR  Republican party leaders are split on whether the United States should continue to back Ukraine with billions of dollars of military equipment and aid, a rift that seems likely to become a major issue in the 2024 presidential election. The latest sign of the GOP divide on Russia’s war in Ukraine comes from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who . . . Click HERE to listen and read.

–   –   –

A center in Ukraine’s northeast offers soldiers some badly needed rest. Reported by Joanna Kakissis | NPR  As Russia’s war on Ukraine drags on, traumatized soldiers can recharge at a Western-style healing center in northwestern Ukraine before returning to the frontline. Click HERE to listen and, later, read.

–   –   –

TO BE CONTINUED

The following message was sent out today from Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth. — MCM

–   –   –

Comments are disappearing from our YouTube videos

By the AE911Truth Staff

It appears that our supporters are being censored, and it’s not us that’s doing it.

AE911Truth is receiving multiple reports that our supporters’ comments are disappearing from our videos, leading many to believe that we are banning them from sharing their thoughts.

We would like everyone to know that we, in fact, are not banning or blocking these comments, and that we welcome any open dialogue from all views, outside the narrow standard we set against excessive profanity, abuse, and spam.

We have been monitoring the situation for several months and have tested it ourselves with multiple throwaway accounts. Though we prefer to be scientific in our investigations and careful in our accusations, it does appear that some entity outside of AE911Truth is causing the comments to disappear and supporters to be shadow banned. We are sorry that this is happening and ask all our supporters to understand that we aren’t responsible for doing it, and to look at the positive side of the situation.

If such resources are being utilized to censor our channel, then that means that the information we share is right over the target.

We urge everyone to continue posting their comments in defiance of this apparent censorship. 

This revelation comes as search engines such as Google are being increasingly mutilated through algorithms to limit access to information that challenges official narratives, making it harder to find. 

As well, content is being removed by platforms like YouTube through fabricated claims of violations against their policies. 

Several months ago, AE911Truth Operations Manager and 9/11 Free Fall host, Andy Steele, discovered that three past episodes of his podcast were removed from the original 9/11 Free Fall YouTube channel on the false claim that two promoted “hate speech,” and that one promoted “spam, deceptive practices, and scams.”

After having listened to all three episodes again and confirming that there was nothing of the kind in any of them, Andy was able to challenge the bans and get two of the episodes successfully restored. One, however, from 2013 that covered Rachel Maddow’s uninformed and ridiculous attack on the 9/11 Truth movement still remains censored. 

9/11 was the biggest mass murder event in the history of the United States, and it comes as no surprise . . . READ MORE . . .

First, links to reports from Tass, National Public Radio, the Associated Press, Reuters, and Agence France-Presse; others are accessible by clicking on their names or initials below. — MCM

–   –   –

Kremlin rules out peace negotiations if Kiev ignores new realities. From Tass. MOSCOW — There can be no talk about a peace process if Ukraine ignores new realities and the latest developments, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said today. “All of Moscow’s demands are well known. The de facto situation and new realities are also . . . READ MORE . . .

–   –   –

NPR investigates Russia’s notorious 53rd Anti-Aircraft Brigade. Reported by Tim Mak | NPR  The 53rd Anti-Aircraft Brigade has been blamed for hundreds of civilian deaths even before the invasion of Ukraine. The brigade’s former headquarters has been tracked to a liberated region of Ukraine. Click HERE to listen and, later, read.

–   –   –

Russian missile hits Ukrainian apartment building; 1 killed, by Karl Ritter | AP  KYIV — A Russian missile struck an apartment building in the center of Kramatorsk today, killing at least one person and wounding three others in one of Ukraine’s major city strongholds in its eastern Donetsk region as it fights against Moscow’s invasion, officials said. Today’s victims were among at least six civilians killed and 30 wounded in 24 hours, Ukraine authorities said. Kramatorsk houses the local Ukrainian army headquarters. READ MORE . . .

–   –   –

Ukraine accuses Russian snipers of abusing child, gang raping mother, by Stefaniia Bern and Anthony Deutsch | Reuters  * Soldiers assaulted family soon after invasion, prosecutors say * Ukraine accuses Russian army of widespread sexual assaults * President Vladimir Putin’s government denies atrocities | KYIV — Ukraine has accused two Russian soldiers of sexually assaulting a four-year-old girl and gang raping her mother at gunpoint in front of her father, as part of widespread allegations of abuse during the more than one-year-long invasion. According to Ukrainian prosecution files seen by Reuters, the incidents were among a spree of sex crimes Russian soldiers of the 15th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade committed in four . . . READ MORE . . .

–   –   –

Ukraine grain deal talks ongoing after Russian proposal: UN. From AFP. GENEVA — Consultations to prolong a vital Ukrainian grain exports deal are continuing, the UN said today, after a Russian proposal for just a 60-day extension cast doubt over its fate. “The United Nations will do everything possible to preserve the integrity of the agreement and ensure its continuity,” said . . . READ MORE . . .

–   –   –

MAY BE CONTINUED

First, links to reports from Reuters, the Associated Press, Tass, and National Public Radio; others are accessible by clicking on their names or initials below. Then, a link to commentary from the Moscow Times. — MCM

–   –   –

Xi could visit Russia next week, sources say, as Bakhmut battle rages. From Reuters.  * Chinese president’s visit may come sooner than expected * Ukrainian commander says forces repel Bakhmut attacks * Wagner chief says Russian forces are advancing * Both sides report mounting enemy casualties | KYIV — Chinese President Xi Jinping is planning to visit Russia as soon as next week, people familiar with the matter said today, while Moscow and Kyiv both reported intense fighting in the war’s bloodiest battle over the eastern city of Bakhmut. Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has already publicly invited Xi to Moscow without specifying a date, would be likely to portray it . . . READ MORE . . .

–   –   –

U.S. says intelligence shows Russia stirring unrest in Moldova, by Aamer Madhani and Stephen McGrath | AP  WASHINGTON — White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby says intelligence shows that actors, some connected with Russian intelligence, are seeking to stage and use protests in Moldova as a basis to foment an insurrection against Moldova’s new pro-Western government. He said . . . READ MORE . . .

–   –   –

U.S. turns to new ways to punish Russian oligarchs for the war, by Fatima Hussein | AP  WASHINGTON — The U.S. has begun an aggressive new push to inflict pain on Russia’s economy and specifically its oligarchs with the intent of thwarting the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine. From the Treasury Department to the Justice Department, U.S. officials will focus on . . . READ MORE . . .

–   –   –

Three civilians killed, 9 more wounded in LPR’s Perevalsk in shelling by Ukrainian troops. From Tass. LUGANSK — Three civilians were killed and nine more, including children, were wounded in the city of Perevalks in the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) as a result of shelling by Ukrainian troops, Vitaly Mikhailov, head of the Perevalsk district administration, said on Sunday. “According to . . . READ MORE . . .

–   –   –

Ukraine’s farmlands are affected by the toxic remnants of war. Michel Martin of NPR speaks with Purdue University professor Joseph Hupy about soil toxicity in Ukraine farmlands as a result of the war. Click HERE to listen and, later, read.

–   –   –

Russia’s bite no longer matches its bark in Ukraine, by Mikhail Vinogradov | The Moscow Times The tougher the rhetoric of the Russian regime, the more starkly obvious the contrast between its words and actions. In his recent state-of-the-nation address President Vladimir Putin threatened to conduct nuclear tests, among other things. Moscow’s radical rhetoric failed to materialize into mega-strikes on Ukrainian territory or any other major developments. The Kremlin’s words and deeds had parted ways . . .  READ MORE . . .

–   –   –

MAY BE CONTINUED

These people won’t sit down and shut up. — MCM

–   –   –

Behind the Scenes at ‘9/11: Crime Scene to Courtroom.’ A trailer to raise money for a film series featuring the Lawyers’ Committee for 9/11 Inquiry legal team and witnesses and plentiful evidence that important parts of the official narrative for the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, are false. The LC is appealing to the United States Supreme Court. They are also appealing to potential “co-producers” to chip in for the film series production. Click HERE to watch and listen for two and a half minutes.

 

For now, links to reports from the Associated Press, Reuters, and Tass; others are accessible by clicking on their names or initials below. — MCM

–   –   –

Russian advance stalls in Ukraine’s Bakhmut, think tank says, by Karl Ritter | AP  KYIV — The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War said late Saturday there were no confirmed advances by Russian forces to capture the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut. Russian forces and units from the Kremlin-controlled paramilitary Wagner Group continued to launch ground attacks in the longest ground battle of the war. The report cited . . . READ MORE . . .

–   –   –

Ukraine, Russia say hundreds of enemy troops killed in battle for Bakhmut, by Nick Starkov | Reuters — Ukraine and Russia each claimed on Saturday that 200 hundred or more enemy troops were killed over the previous 24 hours in the fight for Bakhmut, with Kyiv fending off unabating attacks and a small river that bisects the town now marking the new front line. The eastern Donetsk town, now nearly deserted, has been the site of one of the bloodiest and longest battles of the year-long war. Both sides ave admitted to suffering and inflicting significant losses in Bakhmut. British military intelligence said . . . READ MORE . . .

–   –   –

Russian forces encircle Krasnogorovka north of DPR’s Avdeevka – military expert. From Tass. DONETSK — Russian forces have practically liberated the town of Krasnogorovka north of Avdeevka, retired colonel and military expert Eduard Basurin said today. “The complete liberation of Krasnogorovka allows the Russian forces to further encircle Avdeevka,” he . . . READ MORE . . .

–   –   –

MAY BE CONTINUED

First, links to reports from the Associated Press, Reuters, Tass, and National Public Radio; others are accessible by clicking on their names or initials below. Then, a link to commentary from Global Research. Also, see link to commentary from the Berkshire Eagle on Ukrainian and Russian “gladiating” over large arms cache in Moldova, HERE or scroll down. — MCM

–   –   –

UK: Russian advance in Bakhmut could come with heavy losses, by Karl Ritter | AP  KYIV — Russian forces have made progress in the front-line hotspot of Bakhmut, a key target of Moscow’s monthslong campaign in eastern Ukraine that has resulted in staggering casualties, but their assault will be difficult to sustain without further harsh losses, U.K. military officials said in an assessment today. READ MORE . . .

–   –   –

Briefs: Russia’s war on Ukraine latest. From Reuters. * Ukraine has decided to fight on in the ruined city of Bakhmut because the battle there is pinning down Russia’s best units and degrading them ahead of a planned Ukrainian spring counter-offensive, an aide to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said. * The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant was reconnected to Ukraine’s energy grid, grid operator Ukrenergo said. * Ukraine’s military said its forces had repelled 102 Russian attacks on the eastern mining town of Bakhmut in the past 24 hours. READ MORE . . .

–   –   –

Russia sees no chance for talks with Ukraine given Kiev’s position – Lavrov. From Tass. MOSCOW — Russia currently sees no opportunity to engage with Ukraine because of Kiev’s position, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday. “Has anyone read what [Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky has been saying?” Lavrov asked. “Does anyone remember the decree he signed back in September banning any talks?” READ MORE . . .

–   –   –

Why would Russia use hypersonic missile to strike Ukraine? From AP. The latest Russian missile barrage against Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure, on Thursday, marked one of the largest such attacks in months. These differed from earlier attacks, though, by including a larger number of sophisticated hypersonic missiles that are the most advanced weapons in the Russian arsenal. But just like previous such barrages it has failed to cause lasting damage to the country’s energy network, with repair crews quickly . . . READ MORE . . .

–   –   –

Ukraine’s best-known soldier died earlier this week defending Bakhmut. Reported by Joanna Kakissis | NPR  Ukraine’s best-known soldier began fighting Russians in eastern Ukraine in 2014, at age 18, forgoing dreams of becoming an artist. He died earlier this week on the same frontline. Click HERE to listen and, later, read.

–   –   –

Women don’t let women drive war: Feminists say fire Nuland, by Medea Benjamin, Marcy Winograd, and Melissa Garriga | Global Research When President Biden nominated Victoria Nuland as Undersecretary of State, CODEPINK feminists objected to her nomination out of concern she would bring pain and heartache to mothers and daughters as she fomented war in their midst. Instead of promoting diplomacy, Nuland lights matches wherever she meddles, agitating for war in Afghanistan, and now Ukraine. If feminists remain silent or support . . . READ MORE . . .

–   –   –

MAY BE CONTINUED

Below begins an op-ed column from today’s Berkshire Eagle by its foreign affairs writer, who reported for other news organizations for 14 years while based successively in Moscow and Kyiv. Also, see recent news stories related to war in Ukraine, HERE. — MCM

–   –   –

Russia, Ukraine gladiate over Moldova’s massive arms depot

By James Brooke | The Berkshire Eagle

Moldova has the Fort Knox of red wine. At Milestii Mici, the world’s largest wine cellar, 120 miles of underground passages connect limestone galleries where 2 million bottles age in silence. But with war raging above ground, Ukrainian and Russian military commanders are more interested in Moldova’s role as home to the largest Soviet-era ammunition stockpile in Europe — about 20,000 tons.

In the late 1940s, Stalin prepared for a confrontation with the West by forward-positioning massive amounts of ammunition and weapons in Cobasna, a Moldovan village on an east-west rail line. Not trusting his Warsaw Pact allies, Stalin also stored military materiel for East Germany and Czechoslovakia.

Today, these two states no longer exist. But two successor states, Russia and Ukraine are waging such a fierce war that both face ammunition shortages. Last Sunday, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the boss of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, wrote the Russian commander of the Ukraine campaign “about the urgent need to allocate ammunition.” Without more ammo, he warned, Russia’s offensive to take Bakhmut could fail. Now, Russians and Ukrainians eye Cobasna, located in a land pocket bordered by Ukraine on two sides.

But this vast ammo dump is marooned, cut off from the war raging 500 miles to the east.

Russia controls Cobasna, a village on the northern tip of Transnistria. This 200-mile-long breakaway republic is populated by 360,000 Russian-speakers and protected by about 100 Russian officers and 1,500 Russian Army soldiers recruited from local residents. Russia controls Transnistria, but it cannot move ammunition east through Ukraine or west through neutral Moldova.

After Russia attacked Ukraine one year ago, Ukraine closed all border crossing with Transnistria. Historically, Transnistria’s exports flowed south to Odesa, a major Ukrainian Black Sea port. In the 1990s, when the Soviet Union was awash with weapons, supplies from Cobasna reportedly were trafficked through Odesa. Hollywood captured this trade in the 2005 Nicholas Cage film “Lord of War.”

Last April, when the war was going well for Russia, top Russian commander Maj. Gen. Rustam Minnekayev said: “Russian control over the south of Ukraine is another way out to Transnistria, where there are cases of Russian-speaking people being oppressed.” He said a Russian military takeover of Odesa city and region would restore Transnistria’s access to Odesa port.

At the time, Transnistrian officials protested that Ukraine sent reconnaissance drones over the Cobasna ammunition depot and fired shots into the village. Ukraine dismissed the reports as part of a false flag operation designed to justify a Russian takeover of Moldova.

More recently, U.S. and Ukrainian officials warn that Russia is taking a political tack. It seeks to fuel a popular uprising or coup d’etat in Moldova. Early last month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine intercepted “a detailed Russian plan to destroy the political situation in Moldova.”

Zelenskyy adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said Russia is trying to seize power in Moldova, just as it did a year ago in Ukraine. He told Moldova’s TV8: “But in Moldova, Russia wants to do things differently — not by tanks, but by bandits.”

Russia denies those claims. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the allegations were “absolutely unfounded and unsubstantiated.” Her boss, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, warned the West wants Moldova “to play the role of the next Ukraine.”

Last month, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met in Munich with Moldova’s pro-Western president, Maia Sandu. Later, Blinken said the U.S. is alarmed by “some of the plotting . . . READ MORE . . .