By Carey Wedler and Nick Bernabe
The world’s eyes and ears have once again turned toward Syria following last week’s chemical weapons attack and U.S. President Donald Trump’s subsequent airstrikes on the Assad government. Mainstream media, independent media, and social media platforms are fixing fierce attention on the ongoing developments.
These events undoubtedly deserve widespread, ongoing scrutiny. From the United States government’s lack of evidence that the Syrian government was behind the chemical attack to the media’s complicity in driving a pro-war narrative and president Trump’s hypocrisy in bombing Syria — after criticizing former president Barack Obama for doing the same thing — further critical analysis of the recent airstrikes is vital.
But even as skepticism toward these events should remain heightened, so should awareness of countless other major developments. Here are five to follow:
1. Trump Appoints Pharmaceutical Consultant to Head the FDA — This week, the president appointed Scott Gottlieb, a pharmaceutical industry insider who has served the boards of multiple pharmaceutical companies, to chair the Food and Drug Administration. Gottlieb currently still works as a consultant for GlaxoSmithKline. He has received $414,000 from GSK, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Valeant Pharmaceuticals. He has also received tens of thousands of dollars in speaking fees from pharmaceutical companies like Merck and Mikart, as well as other corporations — including Goldman Sachs. He has taken several trips through Washington’s revolving door, with brief stints at the FDA mixed in with multiple positions consulting pharmaceutical companies. Trump’s pick follows in the footsteps of Barack Obama, who also appointed a pharmaceutical industry insider to chair the FDA.
The Army also activated 1,500 troops last December for Freedom’s Sentinel, suggesting the latest deployment amounts to the continuation of a seemingly endless war in the violence-ravaged country — regardless of who is president
3. WikiLeaks reveals CIA tactics to implant malware in Windows-based computers — On Friday, WikiLeaks continued the release of its Vault7 Series, documents it claims to have hacked from the CIA that detail the extent of the agency’s overreach. Ars Technica reported:
Friday’s installment includes 27 documents related to ‘Grasshopper,’ the codename for a set of software tools used to build customized malware for Windows-based computers. The Grasshopper framework provides building blocks that can be combined in unique ways to suit the requirements of a given surveillance or intelligence operation.
The leaks also included the CIA’s tactics for bypassing anti-virus protection and its use of bank-fraud malware called Carberp. “Once the Carberp source code was leaked in 2013, security experts warned it was akin to ‘handing a bazooka to a child,’” Ars Technica noted.
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The leaks follow previous revelations that documented the extent of the CIA’s surveillance abilities, including its capacity to hack into iOs and Android operating systems. Those leaks also revealed the U.S. government was actively working to undermine the security of U.S. tech companies.
The same agency taking it upon itself to hack into private networks has also spent $1 billion annually arming radical rebels in Syria, some of whom have been implicated in the 2013 chemical attack former President Barack Obama used to justify his attempt to bomb the war-torn nation.
4. Tensions between the United States and North Korea continue to escalate — As Trump bombs Syria, the situation on the east Asian peninsula looks like it could devolve into violence, as well. The U.S. is accusing North Korea of aggression over its development of missiles and nuclear weapons — two technologies the U.S. also has at its disposal. However, unlike the United States, North Korea has never used missiles or nuclear weapons against another country. NBC News has reported that the U.S. may move its own nuclear weapons into South Korea as a deterrent to the North. All the hype about North Korean “aggression” should be taken with a grain of salt considering the country hasn’t officially attacked another country outside of Korea ever.
5. Tensions escalate in the South China Sea after Trump meets with Chinese president — Trump was physically meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping while the Tomahawk missiles began dropping on Syria. We cannot discount the possibility that Trump may have been trying to send China a message of military strength and unpredictability.
The U.S. and China have been on a collision course as China has sought to assert itself defensively in the South China Sea. China has constructed and militarized artificial islands, while the U.S. has positioned its navy for a confrontation in the region. U.S. allies like Japan and the Philippines are locked in a perpetual chess match with China as the powers seek to stake their territorial claims to resources in the China Sea.
China is also North Korea’s closest ally and is viewed as the only entity capable of externally controlling the North. At the time of this article’s publication, China is in the process of moving 150,000 troops to its border with North Korea in preparation for a possible U.S. intervention and the subsequent fallout from it.
***
While the United States starts possibly another war against a sovereign country under Trump’s leadership, it’s important to pay attention to other, equally concerning events unfolding in the U.S. and around the world. While the media and politicians heap praise on Trump for bombing a new country and anti-war marchers take to the streets, we must inform ourselves now and take action before further U.S.-sanctioned carnage engulfs the world and before domestic corruption usurps our rights and freedoms at home.
By Carey Wedler and Nick Bernabe / Creative Commons / Anti-Media / Report a typo
Those Windows systems are riddled full of holes…
Anyone who wants to browse with some privacy would use a Linux Live CD, and keep their critical systems offline altogether… Many a pre-patented plan has been stolen from people putting them on a system connected to the internet!
Agree. If direly concerned I would suggest someone use a Live CD version of TAILS Linux. Knowledge further might warrant someone using an OpenBSD or NetBSD system they secure.
When your only tool is a hammer, all problems look like nails.
(Notice how even the alt media is parroting the “chemical weapon attack” without one shred of evidence just like last time. Yes, the author of the article changed the statement later but why even open with this sentence like they did. Makes,me think they are all following the same script. Repeat a lie enough and people will believe it.)
Question everything !
The whole system is beginning to smell like they are ALL full of it, even the so called alt media.
If they can infiltrate the MSM and completely dominate it, how hard would it be to do the same with alt media.
Remember the video clip compilation of MSM anchors parroting the same scripted lines on dozens of media outlets? Same echo chambers in most alternative media outlets.
All Americans can prove that statement by switching through each MSM channel during their reports. You will hear the same talking points, and phrases just like they are ALL reading from the same main script. Their commercials even air at the same time.
At the beginning of this classic video compilation, news anchors were using the same exact corny line verbatim: “Economic factors may take some spring out of the Easter Bunny’s step this year.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jH8dejYGa5A&t=55s
This week it’s; Assad’s ‘horrific use of chemical weapons against his own people’.
Kinda like Saddam’s; ‘Weapons of Mass Destruction’.
Yes, I agree memes are repeated until the public obediently parrots them exactly on cue. That list is a ‘slanted’ red herring, imo.
As far as I can tell, except for N. Korea, virtually all nations have a good working relationship with Rothschilds’ Bank of International Settlements. BIS being the institution Carroll Quigley explained is the primary tool to create world government.
Take Iran, for instance. It’s been working with BIS for quite some time including the entire time ‘W’ was labeling Iran part of the “axis of evil” and Netanyahu was making an a$$ of himself displaying the cartoon bomb. BIS officials are working in Iran with Iranian central bank officials to bring it up to full conformation with Basel II banking practices. I read a recent statement in Financial Times from an Iranian banking official who stated despite the sanctions, Iran has been able to get around the resulting banking restrictions through end runs that the US and BIS are allowing and could easily halt if they wanted (penalizing banks transacting with Iran’s central bank).
Re Iran: There’s more evidence we were being played. US and Israel quietly sending Iran advanced military parts and weapons (AFAIK, most of it was for fighter jets), despite the sanctions. In turn, Iran was sending these items to Syria. In the 90s, Iran adopted UN Agenda 21 and IMF economic and social restructural guidelines. Currently, Iran is rapidly implementing UN Agenda 2030 and all the deep internationalist tentacles it brings. Under Operation Merlin, the Clinton admin ‘accidentally’ passed Iran technology advancing its nuclear weapons program. Official documents released last year confirmed Khomeini was a friendly US asset in contact with govt officials since at least 1963, and the hostage crisis has all the earmarks of having been a joint US-Iran false flag. That’s the stuff we know. Imagine what we don’t know! Remember Sutton’s “Best Enemies Money Can Buy”? The practice never stopped.
“This is the stuff we know..imagine the stuff we don’t know?”
We can know a great deal…but judging by the lack of commentary & the sheer apathy that has shrouded ergo blinded the masses & has now been ingrained & subliminally inculcated into the alpha~waved collective psyche of the ‘mob’…. I would suggest the gene pool is shrinking dramatically with regards to the surviving people that can can actually still access their innate inborn logical ‘critical-thinking skills’…in relation to the machiavellian will of the relative very few 0.001% neoziocon ponerological / kakistocrats…to that of the sheer volume of the potential will of the world wide 99% for good. (imo)
Ever notice how we have had so many reports in detail about all the criminality going on and it still continues?
We’ve allowed it to become nothing but entertainment anymore. We are being conditioned to be crisis junkies just looking for the next horror story.
All the best reporting in the world without action is just entertainment.
If these reports are meant to inform and educate, why is nothing ever done?
Because they are just entertainment without ACTION. Why report something if you’re not going to do anything about it? (besides getting a paycheck)
Great post, Common Sense. Thank you.
Indoctrination toward acceptance and apathy.
Defeatism.
and of course, the pedogate investigations stop…
Another one would be the Euro/banking crisis. Especially in Italy.