Category: Asia

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.

Front Organizations

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.

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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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A US aircraft carrier and its crew have fought Houthi attacks for months. How long can it last?

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Fatigue is setting in as a U.S. aircraft carrier nears its ninth month waging the most intense running sea battle since World War II

A US aircraft carrier and its crew have fought Houthi attacks for months. How long can it last?

Pine Gap’s secret expansion

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Pine Gap’s secret expansion (archived)

The expansion of Pine Gap’s capabilities to assist a US strike on China amplifies the risk of such a nuclear war as China and the US manoeuvre in the South China Sea, the Taiwan Strait and adjacent areas.

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At Declassified Australia I reported that Pine Gap was providing intelligence to the US for use by the Israel Defense Forces, most likely focusing on the “remote launch signals for Hamas rockets, as well as any threatened missile launches from Lebanon or Iran”. The new enhanced Pine Gap radomes add to this intelligence with rapid detection and tracking of the thermal signature of launches of rockets and missiles.

However, while Pine Gap base presently has a heightened attention to Ukraine and Gaza, these limited wars are not the main aim of the huge US investment in the Australian-sited base.

The development of the three new satellite antennas at Pine Gap is the subject of a new study by Professor Tanter. He says they indicate “a greater Australian involvement with US nuclear war fighting planning and operations”. The primary purpose of the new antennas is believed to be to hunt and target Chinese nuclear missile silos.

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With the US retaining this policy option to respond to a serious military threat with nuclear weapons, a pre-emptive nuclear war with China is not impossible. If this happened, Australia would be on the nuclear frontline.

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If China believes a war will turn nuclear, it may believe its only chance of survival is to shoot first and cripple the US to such an extent its retaliation is muted. De-escalation would be impossible.

The expansion of Pine Gap’s capabilities to assist a US strike on China amplifies the risk of such a nuclear war as China and the US manoeuvre in the South China Sea, the Taiwan Strait and adjacent areas.

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Professor Paul Dibb, an academic at the Australian National University and former director of Australia’s Joint Intelligence Organisation, in a policy paper in 2022  confirmed Pine Gap was definitely a target if a conflict between the nuclear powers arose in the Indo-Pacific.

A ‘Myriad’ of front organizations had “Media Unlocked” banned from TikTok

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Original video.

China Daily’s ‘Media Unlocked’ TikTok account banned

Media Unlocked’s accounts on Facebook, YouTube, and X, which are not flagged as government media outfits, are still up, however. Felipe F. Salvosa II

Source

IN-DEPTH: AI bolsters China state media’s TikTok offensive to influence narrative on sea dispute

Seeking credibility, China Daily’s ‘Media Unlocked’ TikTok passes off opinion as news

CNN:

Erin Burnett OutFront May 23, 2024 1PM Transcript

“RIPLEY (voice-over): Chinese state media is using A.I.-enhanced videos on TikTok, altering the reporter’s voice and face. A disclosure on screen for just a few seconds, easy to miss.

[01:39:52]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Under China’s jurisdiction.

RIPLEY: The video is pushing Beijing’s narrative on the South China Sea.

Is this a threat to democracy?

FELIPE SALVOSA II, JOURNALISM PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS: Most definitely. I think China has found a more cost-effective way to get its message across.

RIPLEY: Turning today’s digital landscape into a battleground for truth, where seeing is no longer believing.

Every time I do a story about these deepfake videos, what strikes me is the quality keeps improving. Our researcher (INAUDIBLE) spent hours putting these through algorithms to determine with 99 percent accuracy whether these videos are real, whether they’re fake, whether the voice has been altered, the face has been altered. Who on social media has time for that and a lot of people don’t take the time which experts say is dangerous, particularly in democracies when people are watching these videos and then potentially using the information they hear to make decisions about how to vote.

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Experts warn of Philippines scheming for ‘new arbitration’ on South China Sea + More

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While reiterating that the arbitral tribunal in the South China Sea arbitration exceeded its jurisdiction and made an illegitimate ruling, Chinese experts warned on Monday that the Philippines is scheming for “new arbitration” on the issue, which would undermine regional peace and stability.

Experts warn of Philippines scheming for ‘new arbitration’ on South China Sea

Related:

Philippines should use legal, moral leverage in West Philippine Sea – expert

Ray Powell, director of the SeaLight Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation at Stanford University, said China is using an “asymmetrical” strategy through military might in asserting its claims in the region.

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He also expressed support for the Philippine government’s plan to file another case against China, this time over the environmental destruction that China has caused in the West Philippine Sea.

PH to complete environmental case vs. China in ‘few weeks’- DOJ

Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin’s Regular Press Conference on May 20, 2024

The Office of Naval Research funded Stanford’s GKC

I’m no expert, but I had a feeling that they would back in April, at least:

Philippine Coast Guard clarifies ‘assertive transparency’ tact

Vietnamese Poachers using Cyanide and Dynamite Fishing in the Philippines’ EEZ

Taiwan Continues Toward US-Engineered “Ukraine-ization”

Ms. Cat

The Chinese Island province of Taiwan continues to be targeted by the US and its political proxies through efforts to further consolidate political control over it and transform it into a geopolitical “battering ram” against the rest of China.

Taiwan Continues Toward US-Engineered “Ukraine-ization”

Previously:

Containing China: US Using Taiwan as East Asian “Ukraine”

Report: US Military Advisors Deployed to Taiwan-Controlled Islands on China’s Coast

The US-backed NED candidate Willy Lie from the NED-backed party won