Tag: Foreign Relations

Four Americans and two Russians conspired to sway elections, influence politics, Justice Department says

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

The Justice Department unsealed grand jury indictments on Tuesday against four U.S. citizens and two Russian nationals who are charged with attempting to execute wide-ranging influence operation to sow political discord, sway a local election in Florida and eventually meddle in the 2020 presidential election.

The indictment, which adds to an existing July 2022 case, alleges that Moscow-resident Aleksandr Viktorovich Ionov, founder of the Anti-Globalization Movement of Russia, worked with at least two Russian intelligence officials between 2014 and 2022 “engaged in a years-long foreign malign influence campaign targeting the United States.”

Four Americans and two Russians conspired to sway elections, influence politics, Justice Department says (archived)

They’re being charged for violating Title 18 U.S.C. §951 (foreign relations, agents of foreign governments) and Title 18 U.S.C. §371 (conspiracy). These are the same violations that Maria Butina was charged with.

The misbegotten notion that the South Pacific is a US sphere of influence

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

The misbegotten notion that the South Pacific is a US sphere of influence

For its part, the U.S. has neglected the Solomon Islands and taken the country for granted for many years, and it is only when it seems to be drifting towards Beijing’s orbit that our government can be bothered to pay close attention. There hadn’t been a U.S. embassy in Honiara for almost 30 years until it announced it was being reopened earlier this year, and even that was justified as an anti-Chinese move. Washington says that it believes that small states should be able to decide for themselves about how to make their security arrangements and decide their foreign policy orientation, but it doesn’t adhere to that line when a government builds closer ties with China.

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Many Western analysts grossly exaggerated the size and importance of an agreement between China and Iran last year with references to an “axis” or an “alliance” that doesn’t exist. More recently, the Pentagon has been sounding the alarm over a possible Chinese naval base in Equatorial Guinea that isn’t being built and wouldn’t pose much of a threat if it did exist.

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The U.S. cannot neglect small nations and then expect them to fall in line when U.S. officials finally show up to complain about their relations with other states. If the U.S. wants to cultivate stronger ties with Pacific and Asian nations, it will have to make a consistent effort to work with these governments on issues of common interest. Insofar as the U.S. treats these states primarily as pawns in a rivalry with China, our government should not be surprised when some of them opt to cooperate more closely with China.

Related:

China Announces Signing of Security Pact With Solomon Islands Amid Biden’s Attempt to Sabotage Deal

Is Washington Under Alien Control?

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

BY PHILIP GIRALDI • UNZ REVIEW • JANUARY 25, 2022

The drama currently unfolding in which the Biden Administration is doing everything it can to provoke a war with Russia over Ukraine is possibly the most frightening foreign policy misadventure since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis and the 1967 Lyndon Johnson attempt to sink the USS Liberty and blame it on Egypt, either of which could have gone nuclear. I can well recall the Robert Heinlein sci-fi book The Puppet Masters, later made into a movie, which described how alien-slugs, arriving by way of a flying saucer landing in Iowa, invaded the earth and parasitically attached themselves to the central nervous systems of humans and became able to completely control their minds. What the humans know, they know. What the slugs want, no matter what, the human will do. And the tale gets really scary in geopolitical terms when some Secret Service Agents are “occupied” by the invaders and they are thereby poised to capture the President of the United States. I would point out that the movie came out when Bill Clinton was president, which should have provoked some concerns about whether it was fact or fiction.

Is Washington Under Alien Control?

President Trump’s Losing Strategy: Embracing Brazil And Confronting China [Analysis]

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)
JAMES PETRAS
H/T William Bowles

Introduction: The US embraces a regime doomed to failure and threatens the world’s most dynamic economy. President Trump has lauded Brazil’s newly elected President Jair Bolsonaro and promises to promote close economic, political, social and cultural ties. In contrast the Trump regime is committed to dismantling China’s growth model, imposing harsh and pervasive sanctions, and promoting the division and fragmentation of greater China.…

Washington’s choice of allies and enemies is based on a narrow conception of short-term advantage and strategic losses.

Read essay [PDF]