Secret History: The U.S. Supported and Inspired the Nazis - Washington's Blog

Unless We Learn Our History, We’re Doomed to Repeat It

Preface: I am a patriotic American who loves my country. I was born here, and lived here my entire life.

So why do I frequently point out America’s warts? Because – as the Founding Fathers and Supreme Court judges have explained – we can only make America better if we honestly examine her shortcomings. After all:

“Dissent is the highest form of patriotism.”

Only when Americans can honestly look at our weaknesses can we become stronger. If we fail to do so, history will repeat …

While Americans rightly condemn the Nazis as monstrous people, we don’t know that America played both sides … both fighting and supporting the Nazis.

Americans also aren’t aware that the Nazis were – in part – inspired by anti-Semites in America.

Backing Nazis

Large American banks – and George W. Bush’s grandfather – financed the Nazis.

American manufacturing companies were big supporters of the Nazis. here are 6 historical examples …

(1) IBM. CNET reports:

IBM has responded to questions about its relationship with the Nazis largely by characterizing the information as old news.

“The fact that Hollerith equipment manufactured by (IBM’s German unit) Dehomag was used by the Nazi administration has long been known and is not new information,” IBM representative Carol Makovich wrote in an e-mail interview. “This information was published in 1997 in the IEEE Annals of the History of Computing and in 1998 in Washington Jewish Week.”

***

IBM also defended Chairman Thomas Watson for his dealings with Hitler and his regime.

Complete story at - Secret History: The U.S. Supported and Inspired the Nazis Washington's Blog

Schroeder slams Merkel’s Russia policy

Former German chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder, has lashed out at his successor, Angela Merkel over her policies towards Russia, saying he understands Moscow’s foreign policy concerns.
Schroeder made the remarks in an interview with the German daily Der Spiegel published on Saturday.

The former chancellor who ruled Germany from 1998-2005 said he fully recognizes Moscow’s concerns as since the Eastern European defense alliance, the Warsaw Pact, ceased to exist with the end of the Soviet Union, the Western military alliance “NATO not only survived, but also has extensively expanded to the East.”

Schroeder added that he sees no grounds to fear a possible Russian threat in Eastern Europe and Russia would not “consider placing in question the territorial integrity of Poland or the Baltic states.”
In addition, Schroeder insisted that attempts by the United States and the European Union (EU) to internationally isolate Russia over the crisis in Ukraine are “wrong,” arguing, “It is during a crisis that dialogue should be maintained.”

Western governments, including Germany have imposed sanctions on Russia, accusing Moscow of interfering in neighboring Ukraine. However, the Kremlin denies the accusation.

According to Schroeder, Berlin should have prevented the European Commission (EC) from “holding talks on Ukraine’s association with the EU solely with Kiev without involvement of Moscow.”

A political crisis erupted in Ukraine in November 2013 when the country’s then president, Viktor Yanukovych, refrained from signing an Association Agreement with the European Union in favor of closer ties with Moscow.

The move sparked pro-EU protests, with its center in Kiev’s Maidan Square, and in February 2014, Yanukovych was ousted by Western-backed groups. The ouster triggered in its turn pro-Russian protests in the country’s southern and eastern regions.

Complete story at - PressTV-Schroeder slams Merkel’s Russia policy

Germans Furious After Varoufakis/Tsipras Admit "Greece Will Never Repay Its Debts" | Zero Hedge

The Greco-Germanic war of words continues... Having pissed off The Greeks with his "Troika" remarks, Germany's Schaeuble went on today to more ad hominum attacks by reportedly calling the Greek FinMin "foolishly naive." The Greek ambassador has 'officially' complained to "friend and ally" Germany about the personal insult. But The Greeks had the last laugh, as first Varoufakis and then Tsipras explained respectively that "Greece would never pay back its debts," and "Greece cannot pretend its debt burden is sustainable." The German response, via tabloid Bild, "there must be an end to this madness. Europe must not be made to look stupid."

As Bloomberg reports, Germany and Greece confirmed Thursday that the Greek ambassador in Berlin made an official protest late Tuesday to the German Foreign Ministry over comments made by Schaeuble.

Schaeuble and his Greek counterpart Yanis Varoufakis have traded barbs in recent weeks, with Schaeuble on Tuesday suggesting that Varoufakis needed to look more closely at an agreement that Greece signed in February: “He just has to read it. I’m willing to lend him my copy if need be.”

“It was a complaint after what he (Schaeuble) said about Mr. Varoufakis. As a minister of a country that is our friend and our ally, he cannot personally insult a colleague.”

Koutras did not specify what the insult was, but Greek media had reported that Schaeuble had said that Varoufakis was “foolishly naive.”

Complete story at - Germans Furious After Varoufakis/Tsipras Admit "Greece Will Never Repay Its Debts" | Zero Hedge

Colonel Cassad (in English) - Destabilizing the old world order

Britain's Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond gave a speech in London in which he again spoke about the destabilizing role of Russia in the Ukrainian crisis.

"President Putin's actions — illegally annexing Crimea and now using Russian troops to destabilize eastern Ukraine – fundamentally undermine the security of sovereign nations of Eastern Europe," — said Hammond, speaking in the Royal United Services Institute in London.

According to Hammond, Putin is not going to follow the rules accepted in the international community, the goal of which is to keep peace between nations. Quite the opposite he is bent on "subverting it", due to which Russia is potentially the "single greatest threat to Britain's security."
Earlier in his BBC interview the head of the British Foreign Office said that there are no signs of changing the Moscow's policy towards the Ukrainian conflict.

He added that additional sanctions against Russia may be passed in the case of the worsening situation in Ukraine.

Ukrainian authorities and the western countries accuse Russia of giving military aid to the separatists in the east of Ukraine and of sending military force to participate in the conflict.

Moscow consistently denies direct participation in the armed conflict in Donbass and accuses the west of not having the desire to settle the crisis peacefully.

Merkel convinced Obama.

On Monday evening it became known that the US president Barack Obama decided not to ship lethal weapons to Ukraine for now.

As the Associated Press agency was told by the ambassador of Germany in Washington Peter Wittig, Obama made this decision in February after the talks in the White House with Chancellor Angela Merkel. According to Wittig, the American president agreed with Merkel that more room needs to be given to diplomacy in the situation of the cease-fire that started.

The only thing in which it is possible to agree with Hammond is that the current Russian line is destroying the existing world order, willingly or unwillingly, which its current masters naturally don't like. Few can be deceived by hypocritical lamentations that the existing world order served the goal of keeping peace, because it is precisely the masters of the existing world order who lead in the number of aggressive wars and foreign-inspired coups, which violate the sovereignty of independent and formally independent countries. It is hard to say that Russia consciously sought actions that destroy this world order. For many years Russia tried to integrate into this system, but no matter how our westernizers tried, they were regularly shown the door. In the end, Russia was forced to throw monkey wrenches into the works of the wheels of the existing world order, first in Georgia, then in Syria, and now in Ukraine. Not in any single one of these crucial events Russia wasn't the initiator of the process. Rather, it stood in defense, in some cases successfully, in other cases not so much. But this is unacceptable for those who benefit the most from the fact that our world works in this specific way and not in some other way.

Russia is currently unable to offer some kind of global project or a paradigm of development to the world. The rejection of superpower status is fixed at the level of the basic ideological postulates. Russia cannot replace the USA, even if she strongly wanted it. So there is no speaking about Russia trying to bring the USA down from their high horse and take the place of the world hegemony. Only China may entertain such ideas, and only in the long term. Russia simply wants to lock certain spheres of influence behind her and to review the rules of the game where the USA act as not the first among equals bur rather like a sovereign among vassals (perhaps, disloyal vassals). That is why the conflict based on the foundation of such postulates destroys and will continue to destroy the existing world order, both due to the natural development of the cold war between the USA and the RF and also due to the long-term consequences of wars and political and economic crises generated by this conflict.

Complete story at - Colonel Cassad (in English) - Destabilizing the old world order

Germans Furious After Varoufakis/Tsipras Admit "Greece Will Never Repay Its Debts" | Zero Hedge

The Greco-Germanic war of words continues... Having pissed off The Greeks with his "Troika" remarks, Germany's Schaeuble went on today to more ad hominum attacks by reportedly calling the Greek FinMin "foolishly naive." The Greek ambassador has 'officially' complained to "friend and ally" Germany about the personal insult. But The Greeks had the last laugh, as first Varoufakis and then Tsipras explained respectively that "Greece would never pay back its debts," and "Greece cannot pretend its debt burden is sustainable." The German response, via tabloid Bild, "there must be an end to this madness. Europe must not be made to look stupid."

As Bloomberg reports, Germany and Greece confirmed Thursday that the Greek ambassador in Berlin made an official protest late Tuesday to the German Foreign Ministry over comments made by Schaeuble.

Schaeuble and his Greek counterpart Yanis Varoufakis have traded barbs in recent weeks, with Schaeuble on Tuesday suggesting that Varoufakis needed to look more closely at an agreement that Greece signed in February: “He just has to read it. I’m willing to lend him my copy if need be.”

“It was a complaint after what he (Schaeuble) said about Mr. Varoufakis. As a minister of a country that is our friend and our ally, he cannot personally insult a colleague.”

Koutras did not specify what the insult was, but Greek media had reported that Schaeuble had said that Varoufakis was “foolishly naive.”

Complete story at - Germans Furious After Varoufakis/Tsipras Admit "Greece Will Never Repay Its Debts" | Zero Hedge

COMMENT: The Germans don’t want to bail out Ukraine | Business New Europe

Walter Russell Mead, a dedicated conservative who for some strange reason insists on calling himself a liberal, is a prolific observer of foreign affairs. Mead is regularly published in a number of centrist, establishment publications and for that reason is extremely useful as a bellwether of elite opinion: he’s not too far right to anger big-time Democrats, and he’s rightwing enough to please Republican “thought leaders.”

Mead recently wrote an article "The Open Ukrainian Society and Its Enemies" in which he describes the emerging Washington consensus about Ukraine, and outlined a strategy that would work to isolate, and eventually defeat, Vladimir Putin's Russia.

Mead's strategy is internally consistent and logical. It astutely recognizes that any push-back against Russia must be multifaceted and rely on a combination of military, economic and political pressure. So if Mead's strategy is logical and if it recognizes what needs to be done, why does it fail? A very simple reason: it takes no account of political reality.

Mead understands that the only way Ukraine will ever be able to stand up to Russia is if its economy is put on a much sounder footing. Apart from cheering the International Monetary Fund (IMF) lending package, his economic prescription amounts to the following:

One approach would be to create a mutually beneficial system of credits that Ukraine could use to purchase needed goods from Eurozone countries — stimulating their economies and creating jobs where Europe badly needs help, but also helping Ukraine get a leg up. Again, this unifies the West rather than divides it.

It’s unclear what planet Mead has been on for the past five years if he thinks that a programme of aggressive Keynesian stimulus would “unify rather than divide” the West. The odds of the EU engaging in this particular policy is somewhere between “infinitesimally small” and “zero.” Why? The answer is extremely simple: the German voter.

Stimulus a dirty word

In both words and deeds since the onset of the global financial crisis, Germany has been incredibly consistent in the belief that Europe already spends too much money and that “structural reforms” are the only way to jolt the economy back to life. “Stimulus” is a dirty word to German voters and to the center-right government now running the country.

One thing about which almost everyone agrees is that Angela Merkel is a canny and astute politician. It’s not an accident that she's won so many elections and has such consistently high poll numbers. A recent Vanity Fair profile made clear one of the reasons for Merkel’s long winning streak: she conducts a ridiculously large number of polls on the German electorate's opinions, more than 600(!) between just 2009 and 2013. That is to say that Merkel, on average, commissions more than one poll a week. She is clearly someone with their finger on the pulse of the German public.

Complete story at - COMMENT: The Germans don’t want to bail out Ukraine | Business New Europe

What the BRICS plus Germany are really up to? — RT Op-Edge

Winston Churchill once said, “I feel lonely without a war.” He also badly missed the loss of empire. Churchill’s successor – the ‘Empire of Chaos’ – now faces the same quandary. Some wars – as in Ukraine, by proxy – are not going so well.

And the loss of empire increasingly manifests itself in myriad moves by selected players aiming towards a multipolar world.

So no wonder US ‘Think Tankland’ is going bonkers, releasing wacky CIA-tinted “forecasts” where Russia is bound to disintegrate, and China is turning into a communist dictatorship. So much (imperial) wishful thinking, so little time to prolong hegemony.

The acronym that all these “forecasts” dare not reveal is BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa). BRICS is worse than the plague as far as the ‘Masters of the Universe’ that really control the current - rigged - world system are concerned. True, the BRICS are facing multiple problems. Brazil at the moment is totally paralyzed; a long, complex, self-defeating process, now coupled with intimations of regime change by local ‘Empire of Chaos’ minions. It will take time, but Brazil will rebound.

That leaves the “RIC” – Russia, India and China - in BRICS as the key drivers of change. For all their interlocking discrepancies, they all agree they don’t need to challenge the hegemon directly while aiming for a new multipolar order.

The BRICS New Development Bank (NDB) – a key alternative to the IMF enabling developing nations to get rid of the US dollar as a reserve currency – will be operative by the end of this year. The NDB will finance infrastructure and sustainable development projects not only in the BRICS nations but other developing nations. Forget about the Western-controlled World Bank, whose capital and lending capacity are never increased by the so-called Western “powers.” The NDB will be an open institution. BRICS nations will keep 55 percent of the voting power, and outside their domain no country will be allowed more than 7 percent of votes. But crucially, developing nations may also become partners and receive loans.

Complete story at - What the BRICS plus Germany are really up to? — RT Op-Edge

The Political Motivation Of Chancellor Merkel’s Embrace Of Yulia Tymoshenko, And War | Dances With Bears

By John Helmer, Moscow

Two-front wars in Europe aren’t good for Germany.

Kaiser Wilhelm and Adolph Hitler don’t need to rise from their graves to make the point to the present German Chancellor, Angela Merkel. But is it her policy to pursue war against Russia in the east, and against Greece in the south, while claiming the conflicts have been forced on her by chekist Russians and chekist Greeks? The German characterization of both enemies as chekist comes from a high-level German figure who is close to the Chancellery and how Merkel thinks. In Berlin’s version of war in Europe, the new Nazis are in Moscow and Athens.

As for one of the leaders of the war party in Kiev, Merkel has privately and publicly endorsed every claim of Yulia Tymoshenko, promoting her release from prison and protecting her campaigns for war against Russia, even though – according to the high-level German source – “they [Chancellery, Foreign Ministry] have known for years that [Tymoshenko] was a crook.”

Since the civil war in Ukraine started after President Victor Yanukovich was ousted from Kiev on February 21, 2014, Merkel has repeatedly said in public that if Germany gives military support to the Kiev side, it will lead to war between Germany and Russia. This is how she said it after meeting with President Vladimir Putin at the G20 conference in Brisbane, Australia, last November: “This [Ukraine] conflict is not to be solved militarily. This would lead to a military engagement with Russia which would with certainty not be a local one.” Manipulation by Merkel’s aides of what she meant, as distinct from what she said, led to this cut and pasting in the Anglo-American press.

The Brisbane meeting was for Merkel a “turning point”, according to the Financial Times version, reported this week (February 2). According to the authorized Merkel leak, “a person familiar with the meeting”, Putin “shocked” Merkel by proposing that the Kiev government should resolve the conflict in Donbass “by buying them off with autonomy and money. A reasonable idea, perhaps, to an ex-KGB colonel. But for an East German pastor’s daughter, with a deeply-ingrained sense of fairness, this was unacceptable.”

Complete story at - The Political Motivation Of Chancellor Merkel’s Embrace Of Yulia Tymoshenko, And War | Dances With Bears

Vladimir Suchan: Logos politikos: Angela Merkel, the New Dominatrix of Europe, Demands from Putin Proper Behavior over Ukraine

Angela Merkel is more and more assuming a role of dominatrix with respect to Russia. After hosting Yatsenyuk, the "let's-cleanse-the subhumans" prime minister of Ukraine who, on that occasion, vowed to save Germany and Ukraine from a repeat of "Russian aggression" from 1945, Merkel is now openly trying to dictate to Putin and Moscow Russia's actions (or the lack of actions) in Ukraine. She declared that the four-party meeting in Astana over Ukraine will not happen unless Russia properly behaves and makes some decisive concession (carrying out its "obligations" which Moscow took upon itself under the Minsk Deal).

That was the stern message which Merkel delivered as a dominatrix's non-negotiable demand to Putin over the phone on Saturday, January 10.

This demand--to deliver on the would-be capitulation in Minsk--has thus become now an explicit and open demand without further ado by this new dominatrix of Europe. That Russia offer the people of Donbass and antifascist fighters on a platter to the Nazi junta and Merkel's new Germany is now an apparently non-negotiable demand and the EU/West's negotiating position for tomorrow's meeting of the foreign ministers of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France, which will apparently determine if the Astana meeting due on January 15 will be held. Merkel is trying to make it clear that the West and she too is willing to negotiate only Russia's defeat and surrender.

In this regard, Merkel had no problem inviting and embracing Yatsenyuk, who is actually one of the junta's key decision-makers responsible for the Odessa massacre, in which over 100 people were burned alive and hacked and beaten to death by Ukranian Nazi paramilitary battalions with the assistance of the junta's security.

Complete story at - Vladimir Suchan: Logos politikos: Angela Merkel, the New Dominatrix of Europe, Demands from Putin Proper Behavior over Ukraine

Is Germany's Merkel in melt down mode?

Angela Merkel’s hypocrisy now mirrors exactly her American counterpart’s. Speaking of Russian President Vladimir Putin this week, Merkel digressed still further down the murky hole that is western hypocrisy. After just having completed a “put up” photo shoot to capitalize on dead cartoonists, Germany’s top official finally reveals the ultimate audacity.

Six months ago German Chancellor Angela Merkel looked 20 years younger than contemporary western politician Barack Obama. The latter, an American president tagged “worst ever,” he’d have to gain weight to resemble a skeleton about now. Something happened in those six months though, because the Deutsche republic’s leader looks almost as gaunt these days. What manner of decisions must drive these people? It’s a question we probably should, but seldom do ask. If Obama’s karma is making him into Jack Skellington (as below), then Merkel is resembling more and more Bond villain Colonel Rosa Klebb out of From Russia With Love. Whoever is pulling the strings of power in Germany now, he’s twisting the thumb screws on Angela, that’s sure. Maybe those NSA spying stents on Berlin payed off? Who can know?



President Barack Obama at the Pentagon in Arlington, looking so, so worried and drawn. Va., Oct. 8, 2014. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

With the G7 about to take place in Bavaria in June, Merkel went on record to sling more mud on the Russian leadership. She told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper yesterday:

“The G7 and former G8 group has always viewed itself as a community of values.”

Really now? Formerly the G8, the economic summit that was supposed to solve for “X” where free world money matters are concerned, it’s failed, failed, failed, and failed some more to stabilize a monetary house of cards that now threatens the world. Sounds dire, doesn’t it? Well, it is. The euro zone is in deep peril, sanctions on Russia over mostly allegations from Washington, the further imperil all the nations of the EU. Ramped up oil production by the Saudis (at the behest of the US State Department) they now threaten hundreds of thousands of jobs and dozens of smaller energy companies.

Complete story at - Is Germany's Merkel in melt down mode?

Prominent German Signatories – Open Letter: Another war in Europe? Not in our name! | War Is A Crime .org

Letter published first in the german newspaper DIE ZEIT on December 5th, 2014

https://cooptv.wordpress.com/2014/12/06/very-prominent-german-signatories-another-war-in-europe-not-in-our-name/

Nobody wants war. But North America, the European Union and Russia are inevitably drifting towards war if they do not finally halt the disastrous spiral of threat and counter-threat. All Europeans, Russia included, jointly hold responsibility for peace and security. Only those who do not lose sight of this goal are avoiding irrational turns.

The Ukraine-conflict shows that the addiction to power and domination has not been overcome. 1990 at the end of the Cold War, we were all hoping for that. But the successes of the policy of detente and the peaceful revolutions have made us sleepy and careless, in the East and the West alike. For US-Americans, Europeans and Russians the guiding principle to banish war permanently from their relations has been lost. Otherwise, the for Russia threatening expansion of the West to the East, without simultaneously deepening cooperation with Moscow, as well as the illegal annexation of the Crimea by Putin, can not be explained.

In this moment of great danger for the continent, Germany has a special responsibility for the maintenance of peace. Without the will for reconciliation from the Russia people, without the foresight of Mikhail Gorbachev, without the support of our Western allies and without the prudent action by the then Federal Government, the division of Europe would not have been overcome. To allow German unification to peacefully evolve was a great gesture, shaped by reason from the victorious powers. It was a decision of historic proportions.

From overcoming the division in Europe a solid European peace and security order from Vancouver to Vladivostok should have developed, as it had been agreed to by all 35 Heads of State and Government of the CSCE Member States in November 1990 in the “Charter of Paris for a New Europe”. On the basis of agreed established principles and through first concrete measures a “Common European Home” was supposed to be established, in which all the States concerned should have equal security. This post-war policy goal has to this day not been redeemed. The people of Europe have to live again in fear.

We, the undersigned, appeal to the federal government of Germany to assume their responsibility for peace in Europe. We need a new policy of détente in Europe. This is only possible on the basis of equal security for all with equal and mutually respected partners. The German government is not following a “unique German path”, if they continue to call, in this stalemated situation, for calm and dialogue with Russia. The Russians’ security requirements are as legitimate and just as important as those of the Germans, the Poles, the Baltic States and Ukraine..

We should not look to push Russia out of Europe. That would be unhistorical, unreasonable and dangerous for peace. Ever since the Congress of Vienna in 1814 Russia has been recognized as one of the global players in Europe. All who have tried to violently change that have failed bloody – the last time it was the megalomaniac Hitler’s Germany that set about a murderous campaign to conquer Russia in 1941.

We call upon the Members of the German Bundestag, delegated by the people to deal appropriately with the seriousness of the situation, to attentively preside over the peace obligation of their government. He, who props up a bogeyman ascribing blame to one side alone, exacerbates tensions at a time when the signals should call for de-escalation. Inclusion instead of exclusion should be the leitmotif for German politicians.

We appeal to the media to comply with their obligations for nonbiased reporting, more convincingly, than they have thus done. Editorialists and commentators demonize whole nations, without crediting their history. Every able foreign policy journalist will understand the fear of the Russians, since NATO members in 2008, invited Georgia and Ukraine to become members of the alliance. It’s not about Putin. State leaders come and go. What is at stake is Europe. It’s about taking away the people’s fear of war. Towards this purpose, a responsible media coverage based on solid research can help a lot.

On October 3, 1990, on the Day to Commemorate German Reunification, German President Richard von Weizsäcker said: “The Cold War is overcome; freedom and democracy will soon be put in place in all countries … Now they can conduct their relationships within a compact and secure institutional framework, from which a common life and peace order can arise. For the people of Europe a completely new chapter in their history begins. The goal is a Pan-
European project. This is a huge challenge. We can archive it, but we can also fail. We face the clear alternative to unite Europe, or in line with painful historical examples, to fall back again into nationalist conflicts in Europe. “

Until the Ukraine conflict we thought we here in Europe were on the right track. Today, a quarter of a century later, Richard von Weizsäcker’s words are more relevant than ever.

Signatories

Mario Adorf, Actor
Robert Antretter (Former Member of German Parliament)
Prof. Dr. Wilfried Bergmann (Vice-President Alma Mater Europaea)
Luitpold Prinz von Bayern (Königliche Holding und Lizenz KG)
Achim von Borries (Regisseur und Drehbuchautor)
Klaus Maria Brandauer (Schauspieler, Regisseur)
Dr. Eckhard Cordes (Chair of Ost-Ausschuss der Deutschen Wirtschaft)
Prof. Dr. Herta Däubler-Gmelin (Former Federal Minister of Justice)
Eberhard Diepgen (Former Mayor of Berlin)
Dr. Klaus von Dohnanyi (First Mayor der Freien und Hansestadt Hamburg)
Alexander van Dülmen (Vorstand A-Company Filmed Entertainment AG)
Stefan Dürr (Geschäftsführender Gesellschafter und CEO Ekosem-Agrar GmbH)
Dr. Erhard Eppler ( Former Federal Minister for Development)
Prof. Dr. Dr. Heino Falcke (Propst i.R.)
Prof. Hans-Joachim Frey (Vorstandsvorsitzender Semper Opernball Dresden)
Pater Anselm Grün (Pater)
Sibylle Havemann (Berlin)
Dr. Roman Herzog (Former President of Federal Republic Germany)
Christoph Hein (author)
Dr. Dr. h.c. Burkhard Hirsch (Former Vice-President of Federal Parliament)
Volker Hörner (Akademiedirektor i.R.)
Josef Jacobi (Biobauer)
Dr. Sigmund Jähn (Former Astronaut)
Uli Jörges (Journalist)
Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Margot Käßmann (ehemalige EKD Ratsvorsitzende und Bischöfin)
Dr. Andrea von Knoop (Moskau)
Prof. Dr. Gabriele Krone-Schmalz (Former Correspondent ARD in Moskau)
Friedrich Küppersbusch (Journalist)
Vera Gräfin von Lehndorff (artist)
Irina Liebmann (author)
Dr. h.c. Lothar de Maizière (Former Minister-President)
Stephan Märki (Intendant des Theaters Bern)
Prof. Dr. Klaus Mangold (Chairman Mangold Consulting GmbH)
Reinhard und Hella Mey (Liedermacher)
Ruth Misselwitz (evangelische Pfarrerin Pankow)
Klaus Prömpers (Journalist)
Prof. Dr. Konrad Raiser (eh. Generalsekretär des Ökumenischen Weltrates der Kirchen)
Jim Rakete (Fotograf)
Gerhard Rein (Journalist)
Michael Röskau (Ministerialdirigent a.D.)
Eugen Ruge (Schriftsteller)
Dr. h.c. Otto Schily (Former Federal Minister of the Interior)
Dr. h.c. Friedrich Schorlemmer (ev. Theologe, Bürgerrechtler)
Georg Schramm (Kabarettist)
Gerhard Schröder (Former Head of Government, Bundeskanzler a.D.)
Philipp von Schulthess (Schauspieler)
Ingo Schulze (author)
Hanna Schygulla (actor, singer)
Dr. Dieter Spöri (Former Federal Minister of Economy)
Prof. Dr. Fulbert Steffensky (kath. Theologe)
Dr. Wolf-D. Stelzner (geschäftsführender Gesellschafter: WDS-Institut für Analysen in Kulturen mbH)
Dr. Manfred Stolpe (Former Minister-President)
Dr. Ernst-Jörg von Studnitz (Former Ambassador)
Prof. Dr. Walther Stützle (Staatssekretär der Verteidigung a.D.)
Prof. Dr. Christian R. Supthut (Vorstandsmitglied a.D. )
Prof. Dr. h.c. Horst Teltschik (Former Chancellor advisor for Security and Foreign Policy)
Andres Veiel (Regisseur)
Dr. Hans-Jochen Vogel (Former Federal Minister of Justice)
Dr. Antje Vollmer (Former Vice President of the Bunderstag)
Bärbel Wartenberg-Potter (Bischöfin Lübeck a.D.)
Dr. Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker (scientist)
Wim Wenders (Regisseur)
Hans-Eckardt Wenzel (songwriter)
Gerhard Wolf (Schriftsteller, Verleger)

Complete story at - Prominent German Signatories – Open Letter: Another war in Europe? Not in our name! | War Is A Crime .org

War Again in Europe? Not in Our Name! | DeepResource

More than 60 very prominent Germans have signed a document that calls for a new European-Russian detente policy and rejects the (American) idea of confrontation with Russia. Initiated by former chancellor-adviser Horst Teltschik (CDU), former defense secretary Walther Stützle (SPD) and former vice ‘speaker of the house’ Antje Vollmer (Grüne). Prominent signatories:

former government chiefs of Hamburg, Berlin and Brandenburg, Klaus von Dohnanyi, Eberhard Diepgen and Manfred Stolpe, former SPD-chairman Hans-Jochen Vogel, former chancellor Gerhard Schröder and former president Roman Herzog.

[zeit.de] – “Wieder Krieg in Europa? Nicht in unserem Namen!”

Editor: more good news. What we need now is a European Declaration of Independence from the United States, removal of failed chancellor Angela Merkel from power and a joint German-French government declaration that both countries will leave NATO immediately and all the other western institutions and join SCO and BRICS, as well as the formation of a European army. American troops are told to leave Germany, but US nuclear weapons are only returned if the US returns all the gold it holds in its vaults on US soil.

Complete story at - War Again in Europe? Not in Our Name! | DeepResource

Bundestag MP: Merkel is playing with fire at Washington’s behest | Ukraina.ru

At a Bundestag meeting, Deputy Head of the Left Party’s faction Sahra Wagenknecht sharply criticized Chancellor Angela Merkel’s policy toward Russia

The MP accused the Chancellor of following instructions from Washington and neglecting national interests.

"Ms. Merkel, there is something that you consider to be more important than the interests of German business: that is the interests of the American government and American business," the MP said.

According to Sahra Wagenknecht, Angela Merkel is responsible for drawing the country into a new edition of "cold war" with Russia. Moreover, she is outraged at Merkel’s cooperation with the Ukrainian regime, in which the police and security service functions are performed by people who are reliably attested as Nazis.

"Instead of dealing with these thugs, we need a foreign policy, for which the security and peace in Europe can be more important than Washington’s instructions. Get back on the path of diplomacy, and cancel the sanctions. Stop playing with fire!" she said.

According to Wagenknecht, Angela Merkel has forsaken the policy of détente and led Europe into a new cold war, because, according to the MP, the Chancellor does not have enough courage to confront the US government.

Complete story at - Bundestag MP: Merkel is playing with fire at Washington’s behest | Ukraina.ru

Article: Leading German Journalist Admits CIA 'Bribed' Him and Other Leaders of the Western 'Press' | OpEdNews

Eric Zuesse

Udo Ulfkotte, a former editor of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (which is one of Germany's largest newspapers), has decided to go public about the corruption of himself and the rest of the Western 'news' media, because he finds that this corruption is bringing Europe too close to a nuclear war against Russia, which he concludes the U.S. aristocracy that controls the CIA wants to bring about, or else to bring closer to the brink.

He told Russian Television:

I've been a journalist for about 25 years, and I've been educated to lie, to betray, and not to tell the truth to the public. ... The German and American media tries to bring war to the people in Europe, to bring war to Russia. This is a point of no return, and I am going to stand up and say ... it is not right what I have done in the past, to manipulate people, to make propaganda against Russia, and it is not right what my colleagues do, and have done in the past, because they are bribed to betray the people not only in Germany, all over Europe. ... I am very fearful of a new war in Europe, and I don't like to have this situation again, because war is never coming from itself, there is always people who push for war, and this is not only politicians, it is journalists too. ... We have betrayed our readers, just to push for war. ... I don't want this anymore, I'm fed up with this propaganda. We live in a banana republic, and not in a democratic country where we have press freedom. ...

The German media, especially, my colleagues ..., day by day, write against the Russians, [these journalists] who are in transatlantic organizations, and who are supported by the United States to do so. ...

I became 'honorary citizen of the state of Oklahoma,' ... Why? Because I write pro-American. I was supported by the Central Intelligence Agency, the CIA. Why? Because I am pro-American. I am fed up with it; I don't want to do it anymore; and so I have just written a book, not to earn money, no, it will cause a lot of trouble for me. [I wrote it instead] to give the people in this country, Germany, in Europe, and all over the world, just a glimpse of ... what goes on behind the closed doors. ...

[4:40 on the video] Most of the journalists you see in foreign countries ... European or American journalists ..., like me in the past, are so-called non-official cover. ... Non-official cover means what? You do work for an intelligence agency, ... but ... when they [the public] find out that you are not only a journalist but a spy too, they [the CIA] will never say this was one of our guys. ... So, I have helped them in several situations, and I feel ashamed for that. ... I feel ashamed that I ... was bribed by billionaires, I was bribed by the Americans, not to report exactly the truth. ...

Complete story at - Article: Leading German Journalist Admits CIA 'Bribed' Him and Other Leaders of the Western 'Press' | OpEdNews

Let Yury Rubtsov - Fate of Ukraine According to General Plan Ost (I) - Strategic-Culture.org - Strategic Culture Foundation

On October 3 German Bild reported that Germany is mulling the deployment of 200 soldiers to the eastern part of Ukraine. The paratroopers from Seedorf, Lower Saxony, are to protect and assist monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OCSE). Perhaps dissatisfied with the fact that the information had leaked before time, a spokesman for the German Ministry of Defence confirmed the report. It should be noted that aside from military exercises this will be the first time German soldiers will be deployed in Ukraine since 1944 (!).

Some may believe that the fact is mentioned out of place. They may say that it were the troops of Hitler’s Germany that the Red Army pushed away from Ukraine, but now we’re talking about the military of a democratic state coming as peacekeepers. The denazification of Germany was a success and is a thing of the past now.

Taking into consideration the literally touching support of the Kiev regime by Merkel’s government, there is some ground for taking a different point of view. The Kiev regime has all the makings of a neo-Nazi state; the most vivid proof of the fact is the genocide against Russian and Russian-speaking population in the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics. According to international law, the Russian Federal Investigative Committee has opened a case to make an inquiry into the details of the alleged crime.

The investigators have made it precise that the Ukrainian regime used multiple launch rocket systems Grad and Uragan, air-to surface rockets with cluster warheads, tactical missiles Tochka-U and other offensive weapons. As a result, two and a half thousand men have lost their lives. Over 500 living houses, utilities objects, hospitals, schools and educational institutions have been destroyed. Over 300 thousand people have had to leave their homes and flee to the Russian Federation looking for a refuge.

Are they not aware of it in Berlin? Do they know what’s happening and believe there is nothing criminal taking place? Is it the reflection of instincts enrooted in the times of the Third Reich? Willy-nilly the articles published by the British New Statesman and Spanish El Pais come to mind. The authors compared Angela Merkel with Hitler. Perhaps the British and Spanish journalists went a bit far being too excited, but a question pops up – is there really a big difference between giving an order to commit an act of mass extermination and rendering political and financial aid to those who give such orders?

Complete story at - Let Yury Rubtsov - Fate of Ukraine According to General Plan Ost (I) - Strategic Culture Foundation - on-line journal

MH17: Relatives of German victims to sue Ukraine for negligence, says lawyer - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Relatives of German victims of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 downed over Ukraine plan to sue the country and its president for manslaughter by negligence in 298 cases, the lawyer representing them said.

Professor of aviation law Elmar Giemulla, who is representing three families of German victims, said that under international law Ukraine should have closed its air space if it could not guarantee the safety of flights.

"Each state is responsible for the security of its air space," Mr Giemulla said in a statement emailed to Reuters.

"If it is not able to do so temporarily, it must close its air space. As that did not happen, Ukraine is liable for the damage."

Bild am Sonntag Sunday newspaper quoted Mr Giemulla as saying that by not closing its airspace, Ukraine had accepted that the lives of hundreds of innocent people would be "annihilated" and this was a violation of human rights.

Complete story at - MH17: Relatives of German victims to sue Ukraine for negligence, says lawyer - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

​From Minsk to Wales, Germany is the key — RT Op-Edge

 The road to the Minsk summit this past Tuesday began to be paved when German Chancellor Angela Merkel talked to ARD public TV after her brief visit to Kiev on Saturday.

Merkel emphasized, “A solution must be found to the Ukraine crisis that does not hurt Russia.”

She added that "There must be dialogue. There can only be a political solution. There won't be a military solution to this conflict.”

Merkel talked about “decentralization” of Ukraine, a definitive deal on gas prices, Ukraine-Russia trade, and even hinted Ukraine is free to join the Russia-promoted Eurasian Union (the EU would never make a “huge conflict” out of it). Exit sanctions; enter sound proposals.

She could not have been more explicit; “We [Germany] want to have good trade relations with Russia as well. We want reasonable relations with Russia. We are depending on one another and there are so many other conflicts in the world where we should work together, so I hope we can make progress”.

The short translation for all this is there won’t be a Nulandistan (after neo-con Victoria ‘F**k the EU’ Nuland), remote-controlled by Washington, and fully financed by the EU. In the real world, what Germany says, the EU follows.

Geopolitically, this also means a huge setback for Washington’s obsessive containment and encirclement of Russia, proceeding in parallel to the ‘pivot to Asia’ (containment and encirclement of China).

Complete story at - ​From Minsk to Wales, Germany is the key — RT Op-Edge

German Handelsblatt Releases Stunning Anti-West Op-Ed, Asks If "West Rabble-Rousers Are On The Payroll Of The KGB" | Zero Hedge

Up until this point Angela Merkel, and German media in general, had been staunchly on the side of the west when it comes to dealing with Russia, Putin and realpolitik in broader terms. That changed dramatically today when Gabor Steingart, the chief editor of Handelsblatt, Germany's leading economic newspaper, came out with a stunning op-ed, in German, English and Russian, titled simply that "The West on the wrong path" in which the editor comes out very vocally against the autopilot mode German media has been on for the past several months and calls for an end to a strategy of sanctions and Russian confrontation that ultimately "harms German interests" and is a dead end.

Some of the "must read" excerpts:

• The politics of escalation does not have a realistic goal – and harms German interests.
• Newspapers we thought to be all about thoughts and ideas now march in lock-step with politicians in their calls for sanctions against Russia's President Putin. Even the headlines betray an aggressive tension as is usually characteristic of hooligans when they 'support' their respective teams. The Tagesspiegel: “Enough talk!“ The FAZ: “Show strength“. The Süddeutsche Zeitung: “Now or never.“ The Spiegel calls for an “End to cowardice“: “Putin's web of lies, propaganda, and deception has been exposed. The wreckage of MH 17 is also the result of a crashed diplomacy.“
• Our purpose is to wipe off some of the foam that has formed on the debating mouths, to steal words from the mouths of both the rabble-rousers and the roused, and put new words there instead. One word that has become disused of late is this: realism.
• Germany has waged war against its eastern neighbor twice in the past 100 years. The German soul, which we generally claim to be on the romantic side, showed its cruel side.
  The politics of escalation show that Europe sorely misses a realistic goal. It's a different thing in the US. Threats and posturing are simply part of the election preparations. When Hillary Clinton compares Putin with Hitler, she does so only to appeal to the Republican vote, i.e. people who do not own a passport. For many of them, Hitler is the only foreigner they know, which is why Adolf Putin is a very welcome fictitious campaign effigy. In this respect, Clinton and Obama have a realistic goal: to appeal to the people, to win elections, to win another Democratic presidency.
• Even the idea that economic pressure and political isolation would bring Russia to its knees was not really thought all the way through. Even if we could succeed: what good would Russia be on its knees? How can you want to live together in the European house with a humiliated people whose elected leadership is treated like a pariah and whose citizens you might have to support in the coming winter.
• It is not too late for the duo Merkel/Steinmeier to use the concepts and ideas of this time. It does not make sense to just follow the strategically idea-less Obama.
• Everyone can see how he and Putin are driving like in a dream directly towards a sign which reads: Dead End.
• Demonizing Putin is not a policy. It is an alibi for the lack thereof. He advises condensing conflicts, i.e. to make them smaller, shrink them, and then distill them into a solution. At the moment (and for a long time before that) America is doing the opposite. All conflicts are escalated. The attack of a terror group named Al Qaida is turned into a global campaign against Islam. Iraq is bombed using dubious justifications. Then the US Air Force flies on to Afghanistan and Pakistan. The relationship to the Islamic world can safely be considered damaged.
• The American tendency to verbal and then also military escalation, the isolation, demonization, and attacking of enemies has not proven effective. The last successful major military action the US conducted was the Normandy landing. Everything else – Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan – was a clear failure.

Complete story at - German Handelsblatt Releases Stunning Anti-West Op-Ed, Asks If "West Rabble-Rousers Are On The Payroll Of The KGB" | Zero Hedge

Land for gas: Merkel and Putin discussed secret deal could end Ukraine crisis - Europe - World - The Independent

NoBC4U Note:  Not sure what to make of this, but will post it anyway.  Who knows if there's anything to this one? 

Germany and Russia have been working on a secret plan to broker a peaceful solution to end international tensions over the Ukraine.

The Independent can reveal that the peace plan, being worked on by both Angela Merkel and Vladimir Putin, hinges on two main ambitions: stabilising the borders of Ukraine and providing the financially troubled country with a strong economic boost, particularly a new energy agreement ensuring security of gas supplies.

More controversially, if Ms Merkel’s deal were to be acceptable to the Russians, the international community would need to recognise Crimea’s independence and its annexation by Russia, a move that some members of the United Nations might find difficult to stomach.

Sources close to the secret negotiations claim that the first part of the stabilisation plan requires Russia to withdraw its financial and military support for the various pro-separatist groups operating in eastern Ukraine. As part of any such agreement, the region would be allowed some devolved powers.

At the same time, the Ukrainian President would agree not to apply to join NATO. In return, President Putin would not seek to block or interfere with the Ukraine’s new trade relations with the European Union under a pact signed a few weeks ago.

Second, the Ukraine would be offered a new long-term agreement with Russia’s Gazprom, the giant gas supplier, for future gas supplies and pricing. At present, there is no gas deal in place; Ukraine’s gas supplies are running low and are likely to run out before this winter, which would spell economic and social ruin for the country.

Complete story at - Land for gas: Merkel and Putin discussed secret deal could end Ukraine crisis - Europe - World - The Independent

M of A - Germany Getting Ready To Divorce U.S. Ally

From recent talks and discussions in Germany I conclude that the U.S. is losing more and more support and sympathies. The admiration of earlier times has turned into disgust. While a lot of higher politicians and some journalists still cling to some (well paid) myth of U.S. friendship the party base in all political parties as well as the general public has changed its opinion.

The NSA spying headlines are only one, though important issue. Consider how you would feel about such an intrusive "ally":

• German intelligence employee arrested on suspicion of spying for US on Bundestag NSA committee
• NSA whistleblowers testify in Bundestag inquiry, disclose ‘totalitarian’ surveillance
• Germany NSA's main target, claims ex-staffer
• Irked by N.S.A., Germany Cancels Deal With Verizon
• German parliament drops US telecom firm Verizon over links to NSA spying
• NSA Turned Germany Into Its Largest Listening Post in Europe
• Report: NSA targeted German privacy activist
• NSA targets Tor administrators and people searching for privacy tools, reports claim

The German constitution, as interpreted by the constitutional court, defines privacy as a basic human right. That the U.S. is so casually violating the basic human rights of all German citizens is met with utter disgust. Even the paid and trained Atlantic Council (a U.S. lobby) trolls in German news-site comments have problem defending this issue.

But the NSA spying is not the only problem. The economic breakdown after 2008 clearly had its roots in the United States and is, in Germany, blamed on lax U.S. regulations. And while Germany itself pressed for a change in government in Ukraine the outbreak of violence, the bloody coup and the fighting in the east is considered as "Fuck the EU" U.S. intervention in European affairs.

It may still take a decade or more but my sense is that the U.S.-German alliance in on its way to an unfriendly divorce. Something that 15 years ago seemed unthinkable.

Complete story at - M of A - Germany Getting Ready To Divorce U.S. Ally