February 19, 2025

MASTER LIST of Articles for DWF NEWS 2/19/25

U.S. a kakistocracy? Rulers reject law & order for a kleptocracy.

The Mafia State Exposed

Chris Hedges       ScheerPost 

 U.S. used ISIS terrorists to overthrow al-Assad's Syrian government

Fear and Loathing in the "New" Syria

Daniel Kovalik       CovertActionMagazine

The Demise of USAID: Few Regrets in Latin America

John Perry & Roger D. Harris      RESUMEN

False confessions to cover-up who really did 9/11?

Sept. 11 Plea Deal Includes Lifetime Gag Order On CIA Torture Secrets

Carol Rosenberg     New York Times

"Multilateralism" a step toward democratic world federation -"new UN"

China Drums Up Support for Multilateralism as the US Backs Away

Damilola Banjo     PassBlue

Unlocking Africa's Potentials Under New AUC Leadership

Kester Kenn Klonegah      The Intel Drop

February 19, 2025

San Francisco

WELCOME TO WORLD PUBLIC INTEREST JOURNALISM

EARTH CONSTITUTION: Article 10, the Enforcement System 

10.1.1 The enforcement of world law and world legislation shall apply directly to individual, and individuals shall be held responsible for compliance with world law and world legislation regardless of whether the individuals are acting in their own capacity or as agents or officials of governments at any level or of the institutions of governments, or as agents or officials of corporations, organizations, associations or groups of any kind.

10.1.2 When world law or world legislation or decisions of the world courts are violated, the Enforcement System shall operate to identify and apprehend the individuals responsible for violations. 

U.S. a kakistocracy? Rulers reject law & order for a kleptocracy.

The Mafia State Exposed

Chris Hedges ScheerPost

Editor's note: When a nation's government is taken over with corruption, what can a citizen do? U.S. citizens can go to the US Supreme Court, but there is a strong possibility that the Court can't be trusted--some of its members may be either bribed or blackmailed hence political and corporate criminals become free from law and order, free to plunder the nation. The solution is not with the UN or International Criminal Court as they lack enforcement powers. There's no sheriff at the global level, a glaring error corrected by the EARTH CONSTITUTION -- R. Kotila, PhD

EXCERPTS

"America has become a full blown kleptocracy."

The mafia state makes no pretense of defending the common good. Trump, Musk and their minions are swiftly repealing executive orders regarding health, environmental and safety regulations, food assistance, as well as child care programs such as Head Start. They are fighting a court order to halt their dismantling of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which has ensured that Americans have been reimbursed with more than $21 billion due to cancelled debts, financial compensation and other forms of consumer relief. They are abolishing the U.S. Agency for International Development. They are closing federal defenders’ offices, which provide legal representation to the poor. They have cut billions of dollars from the budget of the National Institutes of Health jeopardizing biomedical research and clinical trials. They have frozen permits for solar and wind projects, including sign-offs needed for projects on private land. They fired more than 300 staffers at the National Nuclear Security Administration, the agency that manages our nuclear stockpile. They are gutting the workforce of the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service and the United States Geological Survey.

The mafia state, its blueprint contained in Project 2025, ignores the dire lessons from history of extreme social inequality, political disintegration, wanton ecological plunder and the evisceration of the rule of law.  READ MORE

 U.S. used ISIS terrorists to overthrow al-Assad's Syrian government

Fear and Loathing in the "New" Syria

Daniel Kovalik       CovertActionMagazine

EXCERPTS

Thus, Tulsi Gabbard cited the fact that the CIA, beginning under President Barack Obama, carried out its most expensive regime-change program ever in Syria, termed “Operation Timber Sycamore”—a $1 billion-a-year program which included the arming and funding of terrorist groups like al-Qaeda and ISIS to undermine the government of Bashar al-Assad.

In Syria, the U.S. has now reaped what it has sown, with the group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (“HTS”)—an al-Qaeda offshoot—having come to power under the leadership of Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa, whose nom de guerre as al-Qaeda chief was Abu Mohammad al-Julani. 

Al-Julani, which I will call him hereinafter, has just declared himself president of Syria, scrapped the socially progressive Constitution of 2012, and has announced that there will be no elections forthcoming for at least four years and possibly five.  

It appears that al-Julani and his HTS terrorists need this time to purge the country of certain groups to ensure that they will be successful in any election that will take place. And, indeed, al-Julani has alluded to this fact, having stated that the current violence against certain minority groups, such as Alawites and Christians—violence he initially tried to distance himself from—is “normal and may continue for two or three years.”  READ MORE

https://covertactionmagazine.com/2025/02/15/fear-and-loathing-in-the-new-syria/

 The Demise of USAID: Few Regrets in Latin America

John Perry & Roger D. Harris       RESUMEN 

EXCERPTS

“Take your money with you,” said Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro, when told about Trump’s plans to cut aid to Latin America, “it’s poison.”

USAID (US Agency for International Development) spends around $2 billion annually in Latin America, which is only 5% of its global budget. The temporarily closed-down agency’s future looks bleak, while reactions to its money being cut have been wide-ranging. Only a few were as strong as Petro’s and many condemned the move. For example, WOLA (the Washington Office on Latin America), a leading “liberal” think tank which routinely runs cover for Washington’s regime-change efforts, called it Trump’s “America Last” policy.

While USAID does some good – such as removing landmines in Vietnam (themselves a product of US wrongdoing) – as an agency of the world’s hegemon, its fundamental role is aligned with projecting US world dominance.

Although USAID provides about 42% of all humanitarian aid globally, the Quixote Center reports that most of the funds are spent on delivering US-produced food supplies or on paying US contractors, rather than helping local markets ...

Indeed, the dumping of subsidized US food products undermines the recipient country’s own agriculturalists. While hunger may be assuaged in the short-term, the long-term effect is to create dependency, which is the implicit purpose of such aid in the first place. In short, the US globally does not promote independence but seeks to enmesh countries in perpetual relations of dependence. READ MORE

 https://resumen-english.org/2025/02/the-demise-of-usaid-few-regrets-in-latin-america/

False confessions to cover-up who really did 9/11?

Sept. 11 Plea Deal Includes Lifetime Gag Order On CIA Torture Secrets

Carol Rosenberg New York Times

Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the prisoner at the military prison in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, who is accused of plotting the Sept. 11 attacks, has agreed to never disclose secret aspects of his torture by the C.I.A. if he is allowed to plead guilty rather than face a death-penalty trial.

It has been publicly known for years that Mr. Mohammed was waterboarded 183 times by the C.I.A. It has also been revealed that waterboarding was done by a three-person interrogation team led by Bruce Jessen and James E. Mitchell, two former contract psychologists for the agency. Details of Mr. Mohammed’s violent treatment, including rectal abuse, have emerged in court filings and leaks.

But the agency has protected the names of other people who worked in the “black site” prisons, notably medical staff, guards and other intelligence agency employees. That includes the people who questioned Mr. Mohammed hundreds of times as he was shuttled between prisons in Afghanistan, Poland and other locations, which the C.I.A. has not acknowledged as former black sites.

The settlement and similar agreements with two of Mr. Mohammed’s co-defendants, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi, are still mostly under seal while defense lawyers seek to enforce the agreement and hold a sentencing hearing at Guantánamo Bay.        READ MORE

 https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/07/us/politics/sept-11-plea-deal.html?

"Multilateralism" is a step toward a democratic world federation--a "new UN"

China Drums Up Support for Multilateralism as the US Backs Away

Damilola Banjo     PassBlue

EXCERPTS

In a packed Security Council, foreign ministers from countries in Asia and Africa reinforced the need for global cooperation in solving some of the world’s biggest problems as the United States, like a lone ranger, pulls out of multilateral organizations, castigates Europe and knocks the UN all at once.

Practicing multilateralism and improving global governance was the theme of the Security Council ministerial-level debate chaired by China on Feb. 18. It provided ample time for dozens of countries to speak their piece on the broad but crucial topic as wars and smaller armed conflicts afflict many parts of the world, leaving innocent people crushed in their wake.

In his remarks, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi called for a realignment of the international order and a global governance that recognizes the valuable role of the global South.

“Under the new circumstances, international affairs should no longer be monopolized by a small number of countries,” Wang said.

“Countries in the global South have the right to speak up for and defend their legitimate rights and the fruits of development should no longer be taken by just a few countries.” READ MORE

https://mail.aol.com/d/folders/1/messages/ACfTG4B8Ryi-Z7WexAT9WKDMQEo

Unlocking Africa's Potentials Under New AUC Leadership

Kester Kenn Klonegah      The Intel Drop 

On February 16, Djibouti’s foreign minister, Mahmoud Youssouf emerged the winner of the keenly contested election, defeating Kenya’s former prime minister, Raila Odinga ...

Under the new AU leadership for the next four years, the widely expectations are that there will be, some sort of, strategic policies to reshape especially the entire Africa’s economic system, to drastically address development largely from inside rather than maintaining the status quo, over-dependence on foreign financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.

Across Africa, there have been buzzing narratives and renewals to step up economic transformations, responsibly guard against foreign exploitative tendencies towards the continent’s untapped natural resources, engage in a more refined approach with external investment partners. ... Africa is recognizably the least developed region in the world. The outlook shows that it lags behind on the UN’s sustainable development goals. Paradoxically, Africa has huge resources both natural and human, but wrapped with its own distinctive complexities and contradictions, grossly unsuccessful enough in providing sustainable development. With estimated population of 1.5 billion people, more than 60% live in abject poverty.  READ MORE