For this month’s episode Christoph and I start by taking a look at a very important aspect of Gladio B, the East Turkestan Project, and specifically the terrorist smuggling rings that are active in bringing Uyghurs to Turkey. We start by taking a look at the most recent example of this type of operation which was just discovered in Shanghai. Christoph breaks down how widespread these large and sophisticated human smuggling rings are. We also touch on how the ongoing battle between Erdogan and Gulen has affected the political debate about the Uyghur issue in Turkey. Christoph and I highlight this point by discussing the rare admission by World Uyghur Congress President Reba Kadir that there are in fact Turkish smugglers sending Uyghurs to Syria and Iraq, and the interesting response in the Islamist Turkish media calling Kadir an “infidel” and “American agent for sale.”
Next we move on to Azerbaijan and discuss the the most recent attempts by the South Caucus nation to crack down on foreign-funded media and NGO’s. This time we look at the recent closing of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) offices in Baku and the arrest and detention of RFE/RL journalists and staff. Christoph breaks down how this recent crackdown is being spun in the West as a geopolitical shift away from NATO and the West, and into the arms of big, bad, evil Russia. Christoph and I explain how even though the rhetoric of Azerbaijan may be hostile, behind the scenes, particularly with regard to NATO, everything is going splendidly. We finish out the segment by dissecting one aspect of the Azerbaijan issue that continues to flare up, the ongoing crisis in breakaway region Nagorno-Karabahk, and how this relates to Azerbaijan’s increased “anti-Western” actions.
In our next segment we move on to the other actor in the Nagorno-Karabahk region, the small South Caucus nation of Armenia. Christoph and I start by discussing Armenia’s recent entry into the Russian-led economic bloc, the Eurasian Economic Union. Christoph explains why Armenia chose to join the EEU despite Europe’s desires to the contrary. We discuss how Armenia is stuck in a difficult position when it comes to EEU, as Russia , which they depend on to militarily back up their de-facto control of Nagorno-Karabahk, is their sole protective ally in the world. Christoph relates how Armenia’s membership in the EEU has led to the closing of the National Democratic Institute, which signals a tacit defeat for the American Deep-State’s “democracy promotion” agenda. We finish out this section on Armenia by focusing on the recent brutal murder of a family of seven by a Russian solider in the city of Gyumri and how this complicates Russian-Armenian relations.
Closing out this episode of PGG Christoph and I update the listeners on the Tajik-Afghan border crisis and the pipeline politics of Russia and Ukraine. We also comment on the recent Charlie Hebdo killings by looking at it from a geopolitical perspective. Christoph and I discuss how bizarre it is – – casting the already dead Awlaki and the practically dead Zawahiri as the masterminds of the attack. I also give my take on the situation in Yemen and how the Houthi led takover of the nation might be part of a much larger plan to get former president Saleh back in power.
Joining me for this discussion is Guillermo Jimenez along with regular guest Pearse Redmond. We talked about three recent examples of the crossover of popular culture and politics – the film The Interview, the attack on Charlie Hedbo magazine in Paris, and American Sniper. We talked about how the popular dialogue around these events has diluted and degraded the notion of freedom of speech, and outline a more careful and refined version of the same idea.
FULL DISCLOSURE: I am no longer associated with Sibel Edmond, or BoilingFrogs/Newsbud. I think she is a con-artist and a petty and vindictive individual. If you want to know more about why I broke off all ties with Sibel you can find out more here:
On this week’s episode we continued our roundtable discussion on Gladio B with Sibel Edmonds and Tom Secker. Picking up where we last left off, the three of us explored some of the reasons for Russia’s presumed intransigence in the face of mounting NATO and Gladio operations in their backyard. As a case study for this we looked at Ayman Al Zawahiri’s little-discussed imprisonment by the Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) in Chechnya in 1996 while traveling with four diplomatic passports and a laptop. We discussed why the FSB captured him as well as why they let him go. Tom provided the context of the geopolitical situation in Russia at the time, and how this directly relates to the FSB’s actions with Zawahiri; with a defeated Soviet Union, Russia had to bide its time and begin to piece together what the new NATO strategy represented. Sibel expanded on this by discussing similar “diplomatic” incidents that she saw take place while at the FBI, dealing with foreign nationals caught in counterintelligence operations in the US using “diplomatic passports” who, like Zawahiri, were quietly released back to their home nation.
Later we explored the recent uptick in violence in Chechnya and how this relates to an increase in NATO operations meant to destabilize Russia. I discussed how fragmented ISIS is and how easy it is to turn on the Chechen terrorist movement’s switch. Tom asked both Sibel and me how we thought we ought to feel towards the Chechen terrorist movement: Should we support them because of their desire to seek independence from an authoritarian state? Or instead, should we oppose them as they are a tool of NATO power? Sibel explained how the choices are always the lesser of two evils, and how both NATO and Russia are bad choices. Sibel explained Gladio’s desire to break up areas such as Chechnya and Dagestan into autonomous states so that ultimately chaos will reign supreme. We talked about the prospects for Chechnya to become one of these autonomous NATO-backed nations complete with Gulen-style schools and a Gulen power base. Sibel later spoke about the threat of Russian nationalism to Putin’s tight grip on power. Sibel explained that while NATO despises Putin, they ultimately need him in place as the alternative; strong Russian nationalism would be much more detrimental to the Gladio Deep State. We ended the conversation on a philosophical note when Sibel asked Tom and me whether we would want to live in a unipolar world dominated by NATO, or in a bipolar world dominated by NATO and Russia. This was a wide-ranging discussion that ended with more questions than answers, so we will be continuing our roundtables on these topics — and more — next month.Quick note: There is a special announcement at the end of the show about a new podcast series that Tom and I are working on. It will be dealing exclusively with our research on the CIA and Hollywood and should be out in about two months. Check out Porkins Policy Review for more updates on this.
Quick note: There is a special announcement at the end of the show about the new podcast series that Tom and I are working on. It will be dealing exclusively with our research on the CIA and Hollywood and should be out in a bout two months. Check out Porkins Policy Review for more updates on this.
