Month: June 2024

CIA Front, East-West Center honors PH STAR editor-in-chief

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East-West Center honors STAR editor-in-chief

MANILA, Philippines — The East-West Center in Hawaii has chosen The Philippine Star editor-in-chief Ana Marie Pamintuan as one of this year’s Journalists of Courage and Impact.

In conferring the award, the East-West Center said Pamintuan and the six other honorees from across Asia, the Pacific and the United States “have displayed exceptional commitment to quality reporting and freedom of the press often under harrowing circumstances.”

Also receiving the award on Monday night were Sincha Dimara, news editor, Inside PNG in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea; Tom Grundy, founder and editor-in-chief, the Hong Kong Free Press (Hong Kong); Alan C. Miller, founder of the Washington-based News Literacy Project; Soe Myint, editor-in-chief and managing director of Mizzima (Chiang Mai, Thailand); John Nery, columnist and editorial consultant of Rappler and Kamal Siddiqi, former news director of Aaj News (Karachi, Pakistan).

Related:

WikiSpooks:

The East–West Center (EWC), or the Center for Cultural and Technical Interchange Between East and West, is an education and research organization established by the U.S. Congress in 1960, officially to strengthen relations and understanding among the peoples and nations of Asia, the Pacific, and the United States. It is headquartered in Honolulu, Hawaii.
The center had long been affiliated with CIA activities in the Asia-Pacific region. Barack Obama’s mother Ann Dunham worked on behalf of a number of CIA front operations, including the East-West Center at the University of Hawaii.

Observations on the pundits in the PH media

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Retired Supreme Court associate justice Antonio Carpio says the Philippine government should accept Vietnam and Malaysia’s invitation to take China to an arbitral court on their territorial disputes.

Source

US-funded Rappler:

[OPINION] Ayungin and why PH should respond as one team, one nation (archived):

This crisis should be turned into an opportunity.

We have postponed the replacement of the BRP Sierra Madre for years, for fear of escalating tension at Ayungin Shoal. Now is the time to either construct a concrete facility or deploy a self-propelled oil platform inside the shoal as a permanent station for our troops; which should be far superior in terms of habitability, self-defense, and supportability. If completed, some of the Navy’s missile boats can be redeployed to secure the shoal, instead of languishing in Mindanao and conducting anti-smuggling operations.” – Retired Rear Admiral Rommel Jude Ong.

One thing that I’ve noticed about these pundits being quoted in the PH media, is that all of them have ties to the Stratbase Group, which includes the Stratbase ADR Institute and BowerGroupAsia.  Both the Stratbase ADR Institute and BowerGroupAsia have connections to Ray Powell and the U.S. government. 

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What the LA synagogue pro-Palestinian protest was really about

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President Biden said he was ‘appalled’ by the scenes outside Adas Torah

What the LA synagogue pro-Palestinian protest was really about

US State Department, YouTube Unveil Global Music Alliance

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US State Department, YouTube Unveil Global Music Alliance

U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and YouTube’s Global Head of Music Lyor Cohen announced today a new Department of State-YouTube partnership in support of the Department’s Global Music Diplomacy Initiative, a worldwide effort to elevate music as a diplomatic platform to promote peace and democracy in support of the United States’ broader foreign policy goals. At the core of the partnership is a roster of U.S. Global Music Ambassadors, which builds on the legacy of the iconic Jazz Ambassadors of the 1950s and 1960s and promotes peace across generations of people worldwide.

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In addition to the new U.S. Global Music Ambassadors, the Department and YouTube will join efforts to enhance English language learning through music and across the YouTube platform. This new partnership will support opportunity and equity in the creative economy through in-country engagements with audiences and aspiring creators – beginning in Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, and India. It will offer micro-grants to State Department exchange program alumni around the world who use music as a means to expand access to education, economic opportunity and equity, and inclusion. And it will raise even greater awareness and inspire action globally around the unifying power of music, during global moments, such as the G20 meetings in Brazil later this year.

Related:

Devil In A New Dress

A simple phrase used to describe a temptation or a woman you are tempted to go out with even though you know she is a deceiver.

Devil In A New Dress Lyrics

 I’m makin’ love to the angel of death

Angel of mercy (criminology):

An angel of mercy or angel of death is a type of criminal offender (often a type of serial killer) who is usually employed as a medical practitioner or a caregiver and intentionally harms or kills people under their care. The angel of mercy is often in a position of power and may decide the victim would be better off if they no longer suffered from whatever severe illness is plaguing them. This person then uses their knowledge to kill the victim. In some cases, as time goes on, this behavior escalates to encompass the healthy and the easily treated.

State Department, YouTube Unveil US Global Music Ambassadors

[2013] Cultural Exchange and the Cold War: How the West Won

Blinken picks up guitar for new US music diplomacy push

SCS: PLA Navy ramps up training, patrols to deter potential provocation

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US keeps stoking tensions despite Philippine’s failed latest provocation

PLA Naval deterrence

The Chinese PLA Navy has reportedly ramped up training exercises and patrols in and near the South China Sea amid the recent tensions in the region caused by the Philippines’ continuous provocations.

A naval task force featuring landing ships the Danxiashan, the Laotieshan and the Lushan recently carried out a four-day all-weather full-course combat exercise in the South China Sea, as the warships practiced air defense, alongside berthing and personnel rescuing, China Central Television (CCTV) reported on Saturday.

Observers said these landing ships are of the Type 072 and Type 073 series, which are smaller than the PLA Navy’s Type 071 amphibious landing ship and Type 075 amphibious assault ship.

While the larger amphibious vessels can carry more troops and equipment and release them at a certain distance away from the shore, the smaller landing ships can conduct grounding operations directly on islands and reefs, giving the latter special roles to play, a Chinese military expert who requested anonymity told the Global Times on Sunday.

For example, Type 072 series landing ships have participated in multiple major military operations, including the building of the maritime observation station on Yongshu Jiao (also known as Yongshu Reef) in the Nansha Qundao (also known as the Nansha Islands) in the South China Sea in 1988, thepaper.cn reported.

The drills came after Philippine media reported the presence of a Type 071 amphibious landing ship and a Type 075 amphibious assault ship near the Nansha Qundao this month, as the PLA Navy has reportedly its vast amphibious arsenal deployed in the region. 

Amphibious vessels are not the only forces the PLA Navy has deployed in the South China Sea, as it has also sent some of its most powerful surface warships to the region for drills and patrols.

The armed forces of the Philippines on Friday confirmed the transit of four PLA Navy warships headed by the Type 055 large destroyer Dalian through the Balabac Strait on Wednesday, Philippine media outlet the Daily Tribune reported on Saturday.

The Philippine side said that the Balabac Strait, connecting the South China Sea and the Sulu Sea, “is commonly used by international vessels.”

Earlier this month, official Chinese media revealed that three other Type 055s, widely believed to be the world’s most powerful destroyer, the Xianyang, the Zunyi and the Yan’an, had also recently conducted round-the-clock long-endurance combat exercises in the South China Sea.

This means that all four Type 055 large destroyers currently in service with the navy of the PLA Southern Theater Command facing the South China Sea were sailing in or near the South China Sea recently.

South China Sea: Philippines’ anti-ship missile base puts Scarborough Shoal in cross hairs (more information)

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What the article left out is; to shoot far, the Philippine military needs to see far. However, the Philippines don’t have any over-the-horizon (OTH) radar, military satellites, AWACS planes or other long-range ISR capabilities, to make use of the full range of the BrahMos missile. Without it the missile is limited to the range of its available ISR assets, which are measured in just dozens of kilometers.

However, if a BrahMos missile is ever launched against a long-range Chinese target, it will be easy to guess who would have supplied the essential Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) information and target identification to the Philippine military.

StarBoySAR

South China Sea: Philippines’ anti-ship missile base puts Scarborough Shoal in cross hairs

Even if the Philippines lacks the advanced communications, intelligence, and targeting systems needed to maximise the BrahMos’ capabilities, it could still leverage US support in these areas, Koh said, citing the sinking of Russia’s Moskva warship by Ukraine in 2022, which he said was achieved thanks to “targeting support provided by Kyiv’s allies, chiefly the Americans”.

The flagship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, the Moskva became the largest warship lost in combat since the second world war when it was hit by two Ukrainian Neptune anti-ship missiles in April 2022. US officials later told the media that the Pentagon had provided intelligence that led to the ship’s sinking.

For the Philippines, the BrahMos missiles are “significant game changers” [🙄], according to security strategist Chester Cabalza, president of the International Development and Security Cooperation think tank in Manila.

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However, Don McLain Gill, an international-studies lecturer at De La Salle University in the Philippines, questioned whether the BrahMos purchase alone would deliver robust deterrence against China.

“It will be crucial for the BrahMos to be supplemented by efficient intelligence, surveillance, target-acquisition and reconnaissance, which is critical to track targets and ensure they can be used by command,” he said, warning Manila must invest further to maximise the missiles’ deterrent value.

Previously:

Philippines Builds First BrahMos Anti-Ship Missile Base Facing South China Sea