For today, links to seven reports: from Reuters, the Associated Press, National Public Radio, and Common Dreams, and to commentary from Middle East Eye; others are accessible by clicking on their initials below. (GAZA and UKRAINE entries for this date are HERE and HERE.) — MCM

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Syrian Shi’ites and other minorities flee to Lebanon, fearing Islamist rule. From Reuters. BEIRUT, Lebanon / NUBL, Syria  Tens of thousands of Syrians, mostly Shi’ite Muslims, have fled to Lebanon since Sunni Muslim Islamists toppled Bashar al-Assad, fearing persecution despite assurances from the new rulers in Damascus that they will be safe, a Lebanese official said. READ MORE . . .

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Thousands of Syrians celebrate in central Damascus during first Friday prayers since Assad’s fall, by Albert Aji and Matthew Lee | AP  DAMASCUS — Thousands of Syrians gathered today at Umayyad Square, the largest in Damascus, to celebrate after the first Muslim Friday prayers following the downfall of former President Bashar Assad. READ MORE . . .

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With the collapse of the Assad regime, families across Syria search for loved ones. Reported by Leila Fadel | NPR  People in Syria are looking for their relatives and friends in prisons, hospitals and morgues. The U.N. estimates over a 100,00 people have gone missing in Syria under the Assad regime. Click HERE to listen and, later, read.

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FROM DEC. 12  On the road from Beirut to Damascus, people find their footing in a new Syria. Reported by Leila Fadel | NPR  The road to Damascus tells the story of a new Syria emerging from 54 years of authoritarian rule by one family, the Assads.  Today’s Syria is no longer theirs.. Click HERE to listen and read.

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FROM DEC. 10  UN envoys condemns Israel’s military advance on Syria, by Jake Johnson | Common Dreams / Consortium News  The United Nations’ special envoy to Syria said Tuesday the Israeli military’s rapid move to seize Syrian territory following the Assad government’s collapse is a grave violation of a decades-old agreementthat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claims is now dead. READ MORE . . .

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FROM DEC. 12  UN chief warns of Israel’s Syria invasion and land seizures, by Brett Wilkins| Common Dreams  United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said Thursday he is “deeply concerned” by Israel’s “recent and extensive violations of Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” including a ground invasion and airstrikescarried out by the Israel Defense Forces . . . READ MORE . . .

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FROM DEC. 12  A former prisoner shares what life was like in the infamous Sednaya prison in Syria. Reported by Jordan-Marie Smith, Juana Summers and Justine Kenin | NPR  Omar Alshogre spent time in Sednaya prison in Syria. He gives a real-life look at what life was like there, and what it was like to escape and live as a civilian. Click HERE to listen and read.

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As a new era dawns in Syria, could there be hope for Palestine? by Abed Abou Shhadeh | Middle East Eye  On Sunday, as Syrian opposition forces entered Damascus and ended the Assad family’s decades-long rule, we were reminded of a fundamental truth: no tyrannical regime or colonial entity can endure forever — as long as . . . READ MORE . . .

For today, links to six reports from the Kyiv Post, CNN, Agence France-Presse, Tass, the Kyiv Independent, and the Anadolu Agency, and to commentary from Le Monde; others are accessible by clicking on their names or initials below. (GAZA and ASSANGE entries for this date are HERE and HERE.) — MCM

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Washington to approve deployment of U.S. military contractors to Ukraine. From Kyiv Post. CNN reported on Tuesday that White House officials are thrashing out the details of a plan to allow military contractors to deploy to Ukraine to help Kyiv’s military to maintain U.S.-provided weapons systems. While stressing that the proposal had not yet been submitted to or agreed by President Joe Biden, CNN reported . . . READ MORE . . . Click HERE for report from CNN.

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Moscow calls ICC arrest warrants for military leaders ‘absurd.’ From AFP. The Kremlin today dismissed arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court for ex-Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Army Chief Valery Gerasimov, calling them “absurd” and lacking in legal force. The Hague-based court said Tuesday it had issued the warrants over a barrage of Russian missile strikes against Ukrainian energy infrastructure and civilian sites that . . . READ MORE . . .

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Russian troops wipe out three U.S.-made HIMARS rocket launchers in Ukraine operation. From Tass. MOSCOW — Russian troops destroyed three U.S.-made HIMARS multiple launch rocket systems over the past day in the special military operation in Ukraine, Russia’s Defense Ministry said today in a broader statement. READ MORE . . .

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U.S. efforts to sanction Russia, Iran hampered by desire to keep gas prices low, sources tell WSJ, by Nate Ostiller and news desk | The Kyiv Independent  U.S. efforts to sanction Russia, Iran, and Venezuela have collided with President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign and related desire to keep domestic gas prices low, resulting in measures that are weaker than some in the administration would like to see, the Wall Street Journal reported today, citing sources. READ MORE . . .

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Outgoing Dutch Premier Rutte becomes next NATO chief, by Burak Bir | Anadolu Agency  LONDON — NATO allies have selected outgoing Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte as the military alliance’s next secretary general, according to an official statement released today. He will succeed Jens Stoltenberg. READ MORE . . .

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Ukrainians have reached the stage where, exhausted by a sprint, they realize they actually have to run a marathon,’ by Sylvie Kauffmann | Le Monde  A new noise has joined the air raid sirens in Kyiv, disturbing the deceptively carefree appearance of the Ukrainian capital under the June sun: the rumble of generators. The din is a . . . READ MORE . . . Click HERE to read column in French.

For today, links to reports from the Moscow Times, the Kyiv Post, the Kyiv Independent, Reuters and the Associated Press, and to an invitation to register for a free online discussion. (GAZA entry for this date is HERE.) — MCM

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2 Belgorod civilians killed in ‘massive’ border shelling, governor says. From the Moscow Times. Two civilians have been killed in a Ukrainian shelling attack on southwestern Russia’s Belgorod region, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said today as anti-Kremlin militias of Russian nationals threatened more cross-border incursions. “The Graivoron district has. . . READ MORE . . .

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Roadblocks set up in Russian Belgorod region as anti-Kremlin militias continue attacks, by Julia Struck | Kyiv Post  Starting today, entry is limited in seven settlements in Russia’s Belgorod region, with roadblocks positioned at their entrances, Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov announced. Simultaneously, sources from the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense said . . . READ MORE . . .

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Drone strikes reportedly hit Russia’s Engels airbase, other locations in Belgorod, Saratov oblasts, by Nate Ostiller and news desk | The Kyiv Independent  Drones reportedly hit Russia’s Engels military airbase in Saratov Oblast overnight, and other drone strikes were reported in Belgorod Oblast, Russian authorities and Telegram channels said today. Sources from Ukraine’s military intelligence said its operatives . . . READ MORE . . .

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Russia says it is pushing Ukrainian forces back, will create two new armies, by Guy Faulconbridge | Reuters  MOSCOW — Russia said today its soldiers were pushing Ukrainian forces back and that Moscow would bolster its military by adding two new armies and 30 new formations by the end of this year. Russia controls . . . READ MORE . . .

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A Russian border region reels from sustained Ukrainian artillery and drone strikes, by Emma Burrows | AP  Russia’s Belgorad border region, pounded by Ukrainian shelling and drones, is expanding its closure of schools and colleges amid a major evacuation plan, authorities announced today, as Kyiv’s forces extend their campaign of long-range strikes that aim to put the Kremlin under pressure. Ukraine lacks ammunition supplies . . . READ MORE . . .

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Update on Ukraine with James Brooke. From the Osher Institute for Lifelong Learning (OLLI) at Berkshire Community College. An online discussion with former New York Times foreign correspondent and former Ukraine reporter James Brooke, will begin Tuesday, April 9 at 7 p.m. EDT. Online via Zoom. Free & open to all. He is back to give another in-depth analysis of the war in Ukraine drawing on a total of 14 years living and working Kyiv and Moscow. Click HERE for more details.

To begin, reports from the Associated Press, Reuters, and National Public Radio. Then, via Global Research, Popular Resistance and the New York Times, analysis, reporting and commentary. It should be kept in mind that the Times published the article and the op-ed two or three days before U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s telephone conversation with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on May 13 (recorded in this blog the following day). — MCM

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Interrogation, uncertainty for soldiers abandoning Mariupol, by Oleksandr Stashevskyi and Ciaran McQuillan | The Associated Press KYIV — Russia said today that nearly 1,000 Ukrainian troops at a giant steelworks in Mariupol have surrendered, abandoning their dogged defense of a site that became a symbol of their country’s resistance, as the battle in the strategic port city appeared all but over. Ukraine ordered the fighters to save their lives — and said their mission to tie up Russian forces is now complete — but has not called the column of soldiers walking out of the plant a surrender. The fighters face an uncertain fate, with Ukraine saying they hope for a prisoner swap but Russia vowing to try at least some of them for war crimes. READ MORE . . .

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Russia uses new generation of laser weapons in Ukraine, by Guy Faulconbridge | Reuters LONDON — Russia today said it was using a new generation of powerful laser weapons in Ukraine to burn up drones, deploying some of Moscow’s secret weapons to counter a flood of Western arms supplied to its former Soviet neighbor. President Vladimir Putin . . . mentioned one called Peresvet, named after a medieval Orthodox warrior monk Alexander Peresvet who perished in mortal combat. Yury Borisov, the deputy prime minister in charge of military development, told a conference in Moscow that Peresvet was already being widely deployed and it could blind satellites up to 1,500 km above Earth. He said, though, that . . . READ MORE . . .

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A lawmaker returned home to Ukraine’s south and formed his own reconnaissance team. Reported by Frank Langfitt | National Public Radio Col. Roman Kostenko, a Ukrainian lawmaker, has built a reconnaissance and sabotage team to target Russian forces. His ultimate goal: free his family village from Russian control. Click HERE to listen and, tomorrow, read.

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A Ukrainian refugee is still teaching her students, who are spread around the world. NPR’s Ari Shapiro talks with Ukrainian refugee Daria Bietschasna about what life is like some two months after she fled Ukraine. “All what we get from life is opportunities,” she said, among other things. Listen HERE.  

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The significance of McDonald’s golden arches in Russia. NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly speaks with Kristy Ironside, a Russia historian at McGill University, about the significance of McDonald’s leaving Russia. Listen HERE.

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Are the U.S. and Ukraine Winning? By Julian Macfarlane | Global Research As you may know, some organizations, including SouthFront are talking about UAF “successes” in the Karkhov region as the RF pulls back and re-positions to strengthen itself in the Izyum area. SouthFront has generally taken the position that the Russians are fighting with one hand tied behind their collective back, and need to devote more resources to the Ukraine — and just get it over with. Theirs is a more conventional military view than mine, although . . . READ MORE . . .

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N.Y. Times Shifts Pro-war Narrative, Documents Failure of U.S. in Ukraine, by John V. Walsh | Popular Resistance The New York Times has a job to do — and it has done that job spectacularly well over the past few months. The Times is a leader, in the opinion of this writer, THE leader in spelling out the U.S. narrative on the war in Ukraine, a tale designed to keep up morale, give the war a high moral purpose and justify the untold billions pouring from the taxpayers’ pockets into Joe Biden’s proxy war on Russia. Day in and day out in page after page of word and picture it has been instructing one and all, including politicians and lower level opinion shapers, exactly what to think about the war . . . . So, when the Times says that things are not going well for the U.S. and its man in Kiev, Volodymyr Zelensky, it . . . tells . . . READ MORE . . .

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Russians Hold Much of the East, Setbacks Aside, by Michael Schwirtz, Marc Santora and Michael Levenson | The New York Times Russia’s . . . invasion of neighboring Ukraine has been punctuated by flawed planning, poor intelligence, barbarity and wanton destruction. But obscured in the daily fighting is the geographic reality that Russia has made gains on the ground. The Russian Defense Ministry said [early last week] that its forces in eastern Ukraine had advanced to the border between Donetsk and Luhansk, the two Russian-speaking provinces where Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting Ukraine’s army for eight years. The ministry’s assertion, if confirmed, strengthens the prospect . . . READ MORE . . .

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America and Its Allies Want to Bleed Russia. They Really Shouldn’t. By Tom Stevenson | The New York Times The war in Ukraine has entered a new phase. . . . At first, the Western support for Ukraine was mainly designed to defend against the invasion. It is now set on a far grander ambition: to weaken Russia itself. Presented as a common-sense response to Russian aggression, the shift, in fact, amounts to a significant escalation. By expanding support to Ukraine across the board and shelving any diplomatic effort to stop the fighting, the United States and its allies have greatly increased the danger of an even larger conflict. They are taking a risk far out of step with any realistic strategic gain. READ MORE . . .

First and second, links to Reuters and Associated Press reports from early afternoon EDT, both linked to the news services’ related stories. Then, via Popular Resistance, an assessment by Moon of Alabama. Next, from TeleSUR, a report on the Kremlin response to a U.S. State Department statement on possible additional sanctions. — MCM

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CIvilians evacuated from Mariupol; U.S. Speaker Pelosi visits Kyiv. From Reuters. * U.N. confirms ‘safe passage’ operation under way from Mariupol * Pelosi says U.S. stands with Ukraine after meeting Zelenskiy * Russia says it destroyed weapons supplied by Western nations * Moscow steps up assault in Ukraine’s south, eastern Donbas * Kharkiv residents warned to stay in bomb shelters today | KYIV/BEZIMENNE, Ukraine — Around 100 Ukrainian civilians were being evacuated from a ruined steelworks in the city of Mariupol today, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, after the United Nations had confirmed a “safe passage operation” was in progress there. Mariupol, a strategic port city on the Azov Sea, has endured . . . READ MORE . . .

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Evacuations underway in Mariupol; Pelosi visits Ukraine, by Cara Anna and Yesica Fisch | The Associated Press ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine — A long-awaited effort to evacuate people from a steel plant in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol was underway today, the United Nations said, while U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi revealed she visited Ukraine’s president to show unflinching American support for the country’s defense against Russian aggression. . . . As many as 100,000 people are believed to still be in blockaded Mariupol, including up to 1,000 civilians who were hunkered down with an estimated 2,000 Ukrainian fighters beneath the Soviet-era steel plant — the only part of the city not occupied by the Russians. Like other evacuations . . . READ MORE . . .

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Ukraine — Doubling Down, by Moon of Alabama | Educate! The Russian side is making some progress in the war In Ukraine. While the differences on the map look small, the repositioning of forces that had threatened Kiev is finished and the Russian military is now seriously degrading and grinding down the Ukrainian forces in Donbas. According to the daily reports of Russia’s Ministry of Defense the Ukraine is losing several hundred soldiers and some 30 armored vehicles per day, most of them to artillery. . . .  “Western” propagandists are noting that their side is losing. . . . The typical U.S. reaction to losing is to double down. This can be done financially . . . Most of above sums will go the U.S. arms industry to deliver weapons for which the Ukraine has little use or which never will reach the frontline. The rest will be pilfered by Ukrainian oligarchs. . . . . There is also the possibility of . . . READ MORE . . .

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Russia: US Bill on Frozen Assets Is a Distortion of Int´l Law. From TeleSUR. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday that Washington is considering the possibility of seizing the sanctioned assets of the Russian government and using them in projects to help Ukraine. Moscow views the U.S. bill allowing the transfer of the seized Russian assets to Ukraine as a “flagrant” distortion of the law, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday. According to Peskov, such legislation is nothing but “expropriation of private property”. “This clearly . . . READ MORE . . .

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TO BE CONTINUED

First and second, Associated Press and Reuters summaries of events related to the war in Ukraine. Next, a seasoned commentator’s look at Vladimir Putin and the war at this stage. Fourth, a brief update this afternoon by the French newspaper Le Monde. And last, teleSUR reports that economist Jeffrey Sachs frowns on the U.S. expecting that extensive Western sanctions against Russia will achieve hoped-for political aims. — MCM

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Rescuers search for survivors in smashed Mariupol theater, By Andrea Rosa | The Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine — Rescuers searched for survivors Thursday in the ruins of a theater ripped apart by a Russian airstrike in the besieged city of Mariupol, while a ferocious bombardment left dozens dead in a northern city over the past day, authorities said. Hundreds of civilians had been living in the grand, columned theater in central Mariupol after their homes were destroyed in three weeks of fighting in the strategic port city. Nearly a day after the attack . . . READ MORE . . . 

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Russia getting bogged down in Ukraine, Western nations say, By James MacKenzie, Natalia Zinets and Oleksanr Kozhukhar | Reuters * Theatre blown up in besieged Mariupol * 53 civilians killed in Chernihiv, governor says * Putin lashes out at “traitors and scum” at home * War enters fourth week | KYIV/LVIV, Ukraine — Russian forces in Ukraine are blasting cities and killing civilians but no longer making progress on the ground, Western countries said on Thursday, as a war Moscow was thought to have hoped to win within days entered its fourth week. Local officials said rescuers in the besieged southern port of Mariupol were combing the rubble of a theatre .   .   .    READ MORE . . .

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Putin Can’t Afford to Win War, Can’t Afford to Lose It, by Max Boot | The Washington Post Here’s the central dilemma of the Ukraine invasion: This is a war Russian dictator Vladimir Putin believes he “cannot afford to lose” (in the words of U.S. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines), but it’s also one he cannot seem to win. It took . . . READ MORE . . .

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Negotiations cease, 100,000 more refugees in 24 hours, the E.U. Accuses Russia of ‘war crimes‘ From Le Monde Accused of “war crimes” by the European Union and the United States, the Kremlin has rejected the decision by the International Court of Justice ordering it to suspend its offensive. At Mariupol, 30,000 persons have been evacuated in a week. And at least 27 were killed Thursday by Russian strikes in the Kharkiv region. The number of refugees exceeds 3 million.

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Sachs: Sanctions ‘unlikely’ to succeed in achieving political aims. From teleSUR, one of five items in a package. “The United States and the EU are very energetic in the imposition of sanctions, trade barriers, technology barriers, and financial barriers towards Russia… I do not agree with this,” said Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University and a senior United Nations advisor. Perceiving sanctions as Washington’s widely used instrument, Sachs said, “the rampant use of extra-territorial sanctions and secondary sanctions . . . READ MORE . . .

A Reuters summary of this week’s events related to Ukraine war events leads. Next, the Associated Press reports that Ukrainian officials say Kyiv is under increased artillery bombardment. Both articles link to others. Then, two National Public Radio views of the war; the first is from Kyiv, the second from Moscow on Russian government attempts to control perception. Then, a related AP piece on Russian government partial control of internet traffic. Next, an observer of U.S. foreign policy on how and why he thinks this whole thing got started in the first place. Finally, teleSUR reports on a Russian Foreign Ministry statement repeating its call for an international verification mechanism within the framework of the Biological and Toxic Weapons Convention.  — MCM

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Three EU leaders to visit Kyiv to show Ukraine support, by Pavel Polityuk and Natalia Zinets | Reuters  * Updates with EU leaders’ trip. * Shells hit Kyiv * Czech, Polish, Slovenian leaders head to Kyiv * Zelenskiy aide says war over by May | LVIV, Ukraine, March 15 (Reuters) – Three European prime ministers were travelling to Kyiv on Tuesday, the first foreign leaders to visit the Ukrainian capital since Russia launched its invasion in a striking symbol of Ukraine’s success so far in fending off Russia’s assault. Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala and Poland’s Mateusz Morawiecki announced plans for the visit, saying they and Slovenia’s Janez Jansa would meet Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Zelenskiy’s office confirmed the plans. “The purpose of the visit is to confirm the unequivocal support of the entire European Union for the sovereignty and independence of Ukraine,” Fiala said, adding the three leaders would present a broad support package for Ukraine. Morawiecki’s aide, Michal Dwoczyk, told reporters the delegation had crossed the Polish-Ukraine border and was heading to Kyiv by train, in what the Polish leader said was a historic mission. READ MORE . . .

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Ukraine’s capital city under fire; 3 EU nation leaders to visit, by Andrea Rosa | The Associated Press | KYIV, Ukraine — Russia’s relentless bombardment of Ukraine edged closer to central Kyiv on Tuesday, with a series of strikes hitting a residential neighborhood as the leaders of three European Union countries planned a bold visit to Ukraine’s embattled capital in a show of support. Shortly before dawn, large explosions thundered across Kyiv from what Ukrainian authorities said was artillery strikes. The shelling ignited a huge fire and a frantic rescue effort in a 15-story apartment building in a western district of the city. At least one person was killed in the blast. Shockwaves from an explosion also damaged the entry to a downtown subway station that has been used as a bomb shelter. City authorities tweeted an image of the blown-out facade, saying trains would no longer stop at the station. READ MORE . …

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A look inside the war in Ukraine from the capital city of Kyiv On NPR’s ‘Morning Edition,’ the program’s co-host Rachel Martin talks with another co-host, Leila Fadel, who was in Kyiv. Listen HERE.

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Amid misinformation, how do Russians perceive Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine? On NPR’s ‘Morning Edition’ program, a segment in which A. Martinez talks with Julia Ioffe of the media company Puck about Russia’s crackdown on free speech. Listen HERE.

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War censorship exposes Putin’s leaky internet controls, by Frank Bajak and Barbara Ortutay | The Associated Press BOSTON — Long before waging war on Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin was working to make Russia’s internet a powerful tool of surveillance and social control akin to China’s so-called Great Firewall. So when Western tech companies began cutting ties with Russia following its invasion . . . READ MORE . . .

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Nuland’s War? The U.S. & Its Secret Biological Weapons Labs, by Michael A. Armstrong | Armstrong Economics There are Biolabs in Ukraine funded by the U.S. There was never any real question if they existed or not. The rumor two days after the Russian invasion began, the claim was that Russia was targeting them for destruction. I wrote on Feb. 26, 2022, that such a rumor was false and I pointed out that Russia would never target those labs for destruction. Instead, they would prefer to capture them to illustrate that people like Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland, a notorious Neocon who just wants war has for decades, played the Neocon agenda of offensive war against everyone other than the United States – yes even Europe. Nuland is a strategic player in government for the Neocons who have led U.S. foreign policy from one disaster to another for the past 30 years while avoiding accountability. Nobody really understands that these people are directing the country without Congressional knowledge or the approval of the people. READ MORE . . .

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Russia Calls for Verification Mechanism On Ukrainian BioLabs From TeleSUR For the past 20 years, the U.S. has blocked a Russian proposal on the creation of a verification mechanism within the framework of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention. Today, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stressed the importance of establishing a verification mechanism as U.S.-funded biological laboratories in Ukraine have caused concern. “The issue of U.S.-funded biological laboratories in Ukraine must be addressed within the framework of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention,” he said. . . . In addition to over 30 biolabs in Ukraine, the United States has created “hundreds of such laboratories” in other countries, Lavrov noted. READ MORE . . .

This was the week Skyhorse Publishing came out with Robert F. Kennedy’s new book, The Real Anthony Fauci; this coming week readers, viewers and listeners will see what the mainstream news media have to say about it, if anything. This was also the week that an AE911Truth affiliate, 9/11 Free Fall, responds to a rare mainstream news media segment defending the National Institute for Standards and Technology report on the collapse of the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.

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Excepts from Chapter 1: “Mismanaging a Pandemic” is the title of the first chapter of The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health. In its first segment, titled “Arbitrary Decrees: Science-Free Medicine,” Kennedy relies heavily on Yale epidemiologist Harvey Risch; Dr. Peter McCollough, an internist and cardiologist at the Baylor University Medical Center and the Baylor Heart and Vascular Hospital; and Dr. Pierre Kory, a pulmonary and critical care specialist.

Kennedy calls Risch “one of the leading global authorities in clinical treatment protocols.” Of McCullough, he says, “His 600 peer-reviewed articles in the National Library of Medicine make him the most published physician in history in the field of kidney disease related to heart disease, a lethal sequela of Covid-19.” Kory is president of Frontline COVOD-19 Critical Care Alliance, a former associate professor and medical director of th Trauma and Life Support Center at the Univeristy of Wisconsin Medical School Hospital, and the Critical Care Service Chief at Aurora St. Luke’s Mmedical Center in Milwaukee.

Here are some quotes from the three in that segment:

”The Best Practices for defeating an infectious disease epidemic dictate that you quarantine and treat the sick, protect the most vulnerable, and aggressively develop therapeutic drugs, and use early treatment protocols to avoid hospitalizations. . . . Unless you are an island nation prepared to shut out the world, you can’t stop a global viral pandemic, but you can make it less deadly. Our objective should have been to devise treatments that would reduce hospitalization and death. We could have easily defanged Covid-19 so that it was less lethal than seasonal flu. We could have done this very quickly. We could have saved hundreds of thousands of lives.” — Dr. Harvey Misch

”We could have dramatically reduced Covid fatalities and hospitalizations using early treatment protocols and repurposed drugs including ivermectin and hydroxychlorine and many, many others. . . . The strategy from the outset should have been implementing protocols to stop hospitalizations through early treatment of Americans who tested positive for Covid but were still asympomatic. If we had done that, we could have pushed fatality cases below those we see with seasonal flu, and ended the bottlenecks in our hospitals. We should have rapidly deployed off-the-shelf medications with proven safety records and subjected them to rigorous risk/benefit decision-making. . . Using repurposed drugs, we could have ended this pandemic by May 2020 and saved 500,000 American lives, but for Dr. Fauci’s hard-headed, tunnel vision on new vaccines and remdesivir.” — Dr. Peter McCullough

”I find it appalling that there was no consultation process with treating physicians [regarding repurposed medicines for use in fighting Covid-19]. Medicine is about consultation. You had [Dr. Deborah] Brix, Fauci, and [former Centers for Disease Control Director Robert] Redfield doing press conferences every day and handing down these diktats and not one of them ever treated a Covid patient or worked in an emergency room of ICU. They know nothing.” — Dr. Pierre Kory

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AE911Truth Board Members Critique NBCLX Broadcast: Usually mainstream media outlets deal with the WTC building collapses on Sept. 11,  2002, by ignoring assertions of controlled demolition. Around the time of the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks, however, NBCLX broadcast a four-minute video defending the 2004 National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) report that concluded that jet fuel-ignited office fires brought down the Twin Towers. HERE, 9/11 Free Fall host Andy Steele interviews structural engineer Kamal Obeid and architect Kent Rattan from the board of Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth in an hour-long show about the broadcast and the NIST conclusions.

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AE911Truth Wants to Advertise Again in Times Square: Roland Engle, the new CEO of Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth, is appealing to friends to send $17,000 to pay for a one-month billboard across the street from the New York Times. Engle notes that the Times has “led the way in pushing the official story and denigrating those who question it.” “It’s time,” he says, “to start calling out ‘the newspaper of record’ more directly for its role in covering up the truth about the murder of nearly 3,000 people.” Actually, it will be at least the second billboard AE911Truth will have used at Times Square, but this calls attention to the new documentary “The Unspeakable.” Read Engle’s message HERE.

— Mark Channing Miller

Attacks Changed Life for Muslims in U.S. Islamic families in the United States faced “increased discrimination, hate crimes and marginalization . . . after the largest attack on U.S. soil was reported to have been orchestrated by al-Qaida, an extremist group that aligns with Islam but had nothing to do with Muslim Americans,” writes Massarah Mikati in today’s Albany Times-Union.

She begins with the account of Sarah Syed, a Pakistani-American who lives in Niskayuna, whose family had their house egged, had a haystack piled in front of the entrance, and found a homemade bomb in their mailbox. (It didn’t go off, Syed said. Her parents told their children it was a prank.)

The report, HERE, is headlined “Tragedy’s long shadow: Muslim Americans talk of fears, lack of acceptance, prejudice after 9/11.”

Sahar Alsahlani of the New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations says: “When 9/11 happened, everyone started making fun of your culture and religion. … All these ramifications of 9/11 gave them an excuse to invade our countries, invade our resources, target our people and target our identity.”

and . . .

“You don’t expect to see on television, ‘The U.S. is at war with Iraq.’ You don’t expect to see your grandparents’ neighborhood being bombed and everybody around you watching like it’s a video game. . . . You guys are collecting the remains of my ancestors [as seen] . . . on your television sets, but you won’t let us in after you bombed the crap out of us. And by the way, we had nothing to do with 9/11. And then I’m just thinking, how could you manipulate an act of terror to get resources that you want, and put us and many other Middle Eastern countries in prehistoric conditions, and then call me savage?”

Mikati notes, “The Taliban, an extremist organization that was originally funded and trained by the Central Intelligence Agency in the 1980s during the Soviet military intervention in Afghanistan, was operating out of Afghanistan along with al-Qaida — hence the link the federal government drew to the orchestrated 9/11 attacks.”

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One Victim’s Identification: How have the remains of individuals whose lives ended in the World Trade Center attacks become identified? When a part of the remains is finally connected with a name, it’s because medical examiners have gotten a treated bone fragment to correspond with a DNA sample provided by a victim’s family.

In today’s New York Times, reporter Carey Kilgannon explains how it worked in one case, that of Dorothy Morgan, who last month posthumously became the 1,646th victim to be identified this way. (Click HERE for the story as it appeared in the Indian Express.)

In newsprint editions of the Times, the story is headlined, “Nearly 20 Years Later, Confirming the Identity of a Victim of Sept. 11.” Anyone interested in medical examiners’ work or the field of forensic biology should find it fascinating.

Apart from that, Kilgannon’s story is notable for at least two omissions. There is no breakdown of the percentage of the identified remains of victims who died in either WTC Tower, as opposed to the percentage of the identified remains of victims who had been aboard either commercial jetliner — American Airlines Flight 11 or United Airlines Flight 175 — reported to have crashed into the Twin Towers on Sept. 11, 2001, before they collapsed. The story doesn’t mention the planes.

— Mark Channing Miller