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FTR#1311 This program was recorded in one, 60-minute segment.
Lviv, Ukaine, Summer of 2018. Celebration of the 75th anniversary of the 14th Waffen SS Division (Galician). Note the Ukrainian honor guard in the background.
Introduction: The war in Ukraine has served to make the normalization of Nazis almost routine. This broadcast highlights that normalization, places it in a broader historical context and sets forth essential background information that fleshes out understanding of the phenomenon.
Points of Analysis and Discussion Include:
1a.–The program begins with review of a critical insight made by Glenn Pinchback, an officer at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. This insight encapsulates an ideological dynamic that has, in part, resulted in the normalization of Nazis via the Ukraine war.
1b.–Exemplifying the normalization of Nazis is the whitewashing of the Plast organization by the New York Times, which presents it as a normal summer camp.
2.–A more accurate portrayal of the Plast organization was presented by Scott Ritter: “ . . . . Plast is to Ukrainian nationalists like the Hitler Youth was to German Nazis. . . .”
3.–The whitewashing of Plast can be seen as deriving from the cultivation of Ukrainian and other Eastern European fascist groups by the Gehlen organization.
4.–For the second time this year, Azov Nazis were feted as heroes at Stanford University.
5.–Stanford fellow and conservative luminary Francis Fukuyama was among those who celebrated the Azov Nazis.
6.–Azov’s Nazis evolved directly from the Third Reich collaborationist government of Ukraine. Roman Svarych, WWII Ukrainian Nazi satrap Yaroslav Stetsko’s personal secretary in the 1980’s, was instrumental in the spawning of Azov. Svarych was the Minister of Justice of Ukraine under three different administrations. (That is the equivalent of U.S. Attorney General.)
7.–Ukrainian revisionist Volodymyr Viatrovych served as Minister of Education in Ukraine.
8.–Ukrainian school children are now taught the doctrine of fascist and anti-Semitic ideologue Ulas Samchuk.
9.–Apologists for the Ukrainian fascists cite Vlodymyr Zelensky’s Jewish heritage as proof that Ukraine isn’t infested with Nazis. Zelensky is extensively networked with the Azov Nazis.
10.–Former U.S. Airborne soldier Brian Boyenger appears to have assisted the Georgian Legion in the Maidan false-flag sniper killings. Boyenger also presides over Task Force Pluto, which has incorporated U.S. Nazis into its ranks, including indicted murderers.
11.–Former Marine and U.S. Nazi Christopher Pohlhaus is training American Nazis to fight in Ukraine. One wonders if his trainees will return to the U.S. in order to subdue those who figure to be blamed for “losing” Ukraine.
. . . . Garrison did not provide an explanation for all of the [David Ferrie] note’s subject matter. However, he did know the meaning of “flying Baragona in the Beech.” “Beech” refers to the model of Ferrie’s airplane, a Beechcraft. Baragona was a Nazi from Fort Sill. . . .
. . . . Garrison also obtained a transcript of a letter written by Ferrie to Baragona. Next to Baragona’s name, Garrison wrote: “Note Baragona is important.” The letter had been sent to Garrison by Glenn Pinchback, and a carbon copy was sent to Mendel Rivers, a congressman from Georgia. (Pinchback worked in the Operations Command at Fort Sill, where he intercepted mail.) In the letter, Ferrie shared his dream of the re-unification of Germany and living in a world where all the currency was in Deutschmarks. Pinchback’s summation of the letter described a “Neo-Nazi plot to enslave America in the name of anti-Communism,” and “a neo-Nazi plot gargantuan in scope.” The Ferrie letter spoke of the need to kill all the Kennedys and Martin Luther King, Jr. . . . Pinchback also reportedly obtained a letter from David Ferrie to Baragona confessing his role in the assassination of Robert Gehrig, who was a Nazi and Fort Sill soldier. . . .”
1b. “Witness: Portraits of the living the news;” The New York Times; 7/9/2023; p. 2.
Kalyna Mazepa, North Collins, N.Y. A Plast is a Ukrainian summer camp, and I am the fourth generation of my family to be part of one. We spend a lot of time in nature, but we also incorporate our Ukrainian heritage into it. For the last two weeks, I’ve been training to become a counselor. It’s cool to help make memories for the younger kids. It’s more important now than ever to be surrounded by your Ukrainian heritage and have people to share it with.
. . . . On the surface, membership in Plast seems like a harmless enough activity—it is a mainstream scouting organization. Indeed, in June 2019 the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada (Parliament) adopted a law—“On State Recognition and Support of Plast.”
Plast is the National Scout Organization of Ukraine.
While there were other Scout-like organizations in Ukraine, the new law made Plast the only one authorized to operate throughout Ukraine. “The purpose of the state recognition of Plast is the institutional support of Plast so that Plast becomes accessible to every child and young person in Ukraine, while the Plast movement is accessible to all children and youngsters who permanently reside outside of Ukraine.”
Plast branches were ordered to be formed in every city, town and village in Ukraine, and obliges all “local self-government bodies” to incorporate Plast into “programs of local significance regarding children and young people.”
The Ukrainian Plast organization was established in Lvov in 1911–1912. Its purpose was to prepare its membership—children—for war, mainly through combat training and weapons handling.
Both Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevych, two notorious Ukrainian nationalists who fought alongside Nazi Germany, came up through the ranks of Plast.
Bandera and Shukhevych drew upon Plast to recruit the manpower they used to fill the ranks of the Roland and Nightingale battalions, which in 1939 swept into Poland under the operational control of Nazi Germany where they carried out the systemic rape, torture, and murder of tens of thousands of Jews and Poles.
Plast veterans filled the ranks of the legion of Ukrainian youth who flocked to the Nazi cause throughout World War Two and were responsible for some of the most horrific war crimes imaginable, including the murder in 1941 of tens of thousands of Jews at Babi Yar, in Ukraine, and more than 100,000 poles in Volhynia, Poland, in 1943.
Plast venerates both Bandera and Shukhevych as Ukrainian national heroes. To Plast members, the red and black colors on the scarf Freeland held in Toronto hold a special meaning: “Ukrainian red blood spilled on Ukrainian black earth.”
Plast is to Ukrainian nationalists like the Hitler Youth was to German Nazis.
It is an organization designed to brainwash the future generations of Ukrainian youth, whether in Ukraine or diaspora, on the white supremacist ultra-nationalistic dogma originated by its heroes, Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevych.
This modern-day Hitler Youth-like movement is now mainstreamed, by law, in Ukrainian society. . . .
. . . . Gehlen even set up a number of “cells” in the United States. . . . the trail led to the Association of American Citizens of German Origin, which was receiving large subsidies from an unspecified Federal German government department—the Bundesnachritendienst, it was later established. This foreign subsidy amounted to the handsome sum of 280,000 dollars in 1964 and was increased in later years. . . . Not so satisfactory at first were the explanations of Gehlen’s connections with the large organizations of Ukrainians, Poles, Lithuanians, Latvians and other East European immigrants in the United States, which received finance and advice from three ‘registered’ BND agents—Roman Henlinger, alias ‘Dr. Grau,’ Victor Salemann and Alexander Wieber. . . .
Conversations about white supremacy in America today typically center on right-wing media and incendiary politicians who blast out racist dog whistles.
But hate doesn’t need demagogues to get mainstreamed; it has also found an outlet at elite universities.
On June 29, Stanford University hosted a delegation from the Azov Brigade, a neo-Nazi formation in the Ukrainian National Guard. The panel, during which Azov’s neo-Nazi insignia was projected onto the wall, was attended by noted political scientist Francis Fukuyama, who posed for a photograph with the delegation.
This event — and the disturbing lack of reaction from Jewish organizations — showcases the limits of America’s commitment to combating white supremacy.
Call it the Ukraine exception.
Before Russia’s 2022 invasion, nearly every Western institution raised alarms about Azov. Putin’s brazen attack on Ukraine led to a much deserved outpouring of support for the country. Unfortunately, it also led to suppression of those who criticize the dark side of Kyiv: its reliance on far-right military elements, the most prominent example of which is Azov.
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Even amid today’s surge of antisemitism globally, Azov has become the Teflon Neo-Nazis: freedom fighters who can do no wrong, celebrated across America, including at prestigious institutions like Stanford.
All too often, this adulation of a neo-Nazi formation has been met with silence by the Jewish community.
From neo-Nazis to heroes
Azov began in 2014 as a paramilitary battalion formed out of a neo-Nazi street gang; it helped Kyiv fight back against Russian-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine. Azov eventually grew into a brigade in Ukraine’s National Guard. In addition to committing war crimes, the unit is notorious for its recruitment of radicals from around the world, including America.
Azov’s radicalism has been tracked by the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Anti-Defamation League, banned as a hate group by Facebook and blocked from receiving weapons by Congress.
But then, Russian president Vladimir Putin used Azov as “justification” for his invasion. Moscow needed to sell the war to the public — it exploited Azov’s existence by falsely painting Ukraine as teeming with fascists and Russia’s invasion as a “denazification” mission.
The reaction of the West played in Azov’s favor. The existence of white supremacists certainly doesn’t give Putin the right to invade Ukraine. The Kremlin’s premise of “denazification” also rings hollow, considering there are plenty of neo-Nazis fighting for Moscow.
But for Azov, Moscow’s obsession has been a ticket to the limelight. Buoyed by the notion that If Putin hates them, they must be the good guys, brigade members have been welcomed to Congress and lauded on television.
In addition to an Azov veteran, the Stanford appearance featured Kateryna Prokopenko, whose husband Denys was the brigade’s commander through the spring of 2022.
Denys Prokopenko has been photographed with his platoon’s informal insignia of a bearded Totenkopf, a type of skull-and-crossbones used by the SS. He was also featured on the cover of Azov’s unofficial magazine, which uses the Sonnenrad neo-Nazi rune favored by white terrorists like the perpetrator of last year’s massacre in Buffalo, New York.
Third Reich insignia on an elite campus
Last week’s event wasn’t Azov’s first Stanford tour – a delegation was also welcomed there last fall. Ironically, one of Stanford’s own institutes published a report chronicling Azov’s white supremacy mere months before the brigade’s visit.
When asked about Azov’s return to campus, a university spokesperson told me via email on June 27 that the event was co-sponsored by the Ukrainian Student Association at Stanford at the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures. “The university does not take positions on outside speakers that groups within our community want to hear from,” they added.
But Azov’s visit concerns an issue Stanford has taken a position on: Nazi symbolism.
The flyer advertising the Azov event contains the brigade’s official insignia, which is the wolfsangel, yet another hate symbol used by both the Third Reich and today’s neo-Nazis.
This isn’t the first Stanford incident involving Nazi imagery. However, the lack of response on Azov stands in sharp contrast to Stanford’s actions in previous cases.
In 2019, Stanford was embroiled in controversy after left-wing cartoonist Eli Valley was invited to speak on campus. Valley, whose artwork features grotesque satire using Nazi imagery, was met with protests. Indeed, it led to university officials issuing a lengthy statement condemning antisemitism.
This March, the school addressed the discovery of swastikas in a dormitory by stating, “Stanford wholeheartedly rejects antisemitism, racism, hatred, and associated symbols, which are reprehensible and will not be tolerated.”
When more antisemitic attacks followed in April, Stanford’s president said: “I want to make it very clear that we will not tolerate antisemitism and the symbols of antisemitism here on campus. It is something we need to eradicate.”
Yet despite these declarations of commitment to combating antisemitism, Stanford has not responded to repeated inquiries about the university’s position regarding the Azov event displaying the wolfsangel.
We seem endlessly surprised at politicians like Donald Trump who refuse to accept responsibility for actions that enable bigotry. It shouldn’t be surprising, considering demagogues don’t bother with responsibility; that’s what makes them demagogues.
But what about a pillar of education and enlightenment like a prestigious university? What’s Stanford’s excuse?
Calling out neo-Nazism: Void where prohibited
Our tolerance of Azov seems even more alarming when we consider reactions to neo-Nazism that don’t involve the brigade.
In 2018, Rep. Matt Gaetz was caught inviting a Holocaust denier to the State of the Union. Gaetz’s decision to platform hate on Capitol Hill was condemned by colleagues and the ADL.
But there have been no denunciations of numerous lawmakers who welcomed Azov fighters to Washington. This includes Rep. Marcy Kaptur, who was photographed with an Azov veteran whose Twitter contained pictures of him wearing a shirt with 1488 (neo-Nazi code) and “likes” of a Hitler photo and “Death to Kikes” graffiti.
Indeed, Azov delegations to Washington proudly advertise their meetings on the Hill.
Or see how Jewish media and the State Department took the trouble to condemn musician Roger Waters for wearing a fascist uniform during concerts (this is part of Waters’ performance of The Wall, a satire of fascism).
The very same day, The New York Times exposed the prevalence of Nazi symbols in Ukraine’s armed forces, which receive billions in American weapons. You’d imagine this news would be at least as concerning as a musician’s costume. Yet neither the State Department nor Jewish watchdogs reacted to it (and neither the State Department or the ADL have responded to my requests for comment).
Author Francis Fukuyama, a Stanford fellow, backs far-right Azov group after school visit
Francis Fukuyama, a well-known author and researcher at Stanford University, said he is “proud to support” the Azov brigade, a Ukrainian military unit with longstanding far-right ties and connections to neo-Nazis.
In an email to SFGATE, Fukuyama — who was photographed alongside representatives from the brigade at an on-campus event on June 29 — didn’t back down from associating with the group, which he said is made up of “heroes.”
“I think you need to do a little more reading on Azov,” he wrote. “They originated among Ukrainian nationalists, but to call them neo-Nazis is to accept Russia’s framing of what they represent today. By the time they defended Mariopol they were fully integrated into the [Armed Forces of Ukraine] and are heroes that I’m proud to support.”
Fukuyama is known foremost as the author of the 1992 book “The End of History and the Last Man,” in which he argued that Western liberal democracy represented the “end point of mankind’s ideological evolution.” He is also the Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, which serves as a nonpartisan research hub with a focus on international affairs.
Just last year, that same institute published a report on what’s known as the “Azov Movement,” the broader network of military and political organizations that were born out of what was originally a battalion. The institute’s report said that Azov “mixes classic right wing themes, including antisemitism, ethnocentrism, homophobia, and racism, with more populist economic proposals arguing for a greater role of the state in society.“
When Russia invaded Ukraine in February of last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin said his ostensible goal was to “denazify” Ukraine through force — a comment many saw as a direct reference to groups like Azov. While Putin’s claim that the Ukrainian government is run by neo-Nazis has been widely dismissed, and was used as a false pretense to invade Ukraine, the country nevertheless has some real far-right elements.First formed as a paramilitary group in 2014, Azov quickly earned praise for its prowess on the battlefield as it fought alongside Ukrainian forces and other paramilitary groups in clashes with Russian-backed separatists. Just months after its initial formation, the unit was integrated into the Ukrainian National Guard as an official “Special Purposes Regiment.” Since Russia’s most recent invasion, the unit has received widespread praise from Western institutions and officials for its heroics in the field — namely the role it played in defending Mariupol from Russian invaders in the spring of 2022.
But apart from its combat expertise, the brigade is also known for its association with neo-Nazi ideology and other far-right beliefs. Azov was formed by Andriy Biletsky, the founder of two other far-right groups in Ukraine, who in 2010 reportedly said that the country’s national purpose was to “lead the white races of the world in a final crusade … against Semite-led Untermenschen [inferior races].” Azov often uses symbols that are similar to those used by Nazi soldiers during World War II, including the wolfsangel, totenkopf and sonnenrad.
In fact, the group’s official insignia bears a striking resemblance to the wolfsangel; according to the Anti-Defamation League, the wolfsangel was commonly used as a divisional insignia of the Waffen-SS, the combat branch of the German military under the Nazis. The brigade has reportedly denied the association, claiming that their insignia is an amalgam of the letters “N” and “I” which stand for “national idea.” The wolfsangel appeared on materials promoting the June 29 event at Stanford.
. . . . The co-founder of the CUN and formerly Yaroslav Stetsko’s private secretary, the U.S.-born Roman Zvarych (1953), represents a younger generation of the Ukrainian émigré community active during the Cold War and a direct link from the ABN to the Azov Battalion. . . . Zvarych participated in the activities of the Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations in the 1980s. . . . In February 2005, after Viktor Yushchenko’s election, Zvarych was appointed Minister of Justice. . . . According to Andriy Biletsky, the first commander of the Azov battalion, a civil paramilitary unit created in the wake of the Euromaidan, Zvarych was head of the headquarters of the Azov Central Committee in 2015 and supported the Azov battalion with ‘volunteers’ and political advice through his Zvarych Foundation. . . .
. . . . This rehabilitation trend accelerated after the EuroMaidan. In 2015, just before the seventieth anniversary of Victory Day, Volodymyr Viatrovych, Minister of Education and long-time director of the Institute for the Study of the Liberation Movement, an organization founded to promote the heroic narrative of the OUN–UPA, called on the parliament to vote for a set of four laws that codified the new, post-Maidan historiography. Two of them are particularly influential in the ongoing memory war with Russia. One decrees that OUN and UPA members are to be considered ‘fighters for Ukrainian independence in the twentieth century,’ making public denial of this unlawful. . . .
8. “The Nazi Streets of Ukraine” by Mark Sleboda; The Real Politick with Mark Sleboda; 5/12/2023.
. . . . [Ulas] Samchuk . . . wrote articles lionizing his personal idol — ‘Adolf Hitler.’ In Ukraine today, Ulas Samchuk is promoted by the West-backed Kiev Putsch regime as a hero and great figure of Ukrainian literature and culture, taught and required reading in schools. . . .
Western media has dismissed evidence of neo-Nazi influence in Ukraine by citing President Zelensky’s Jewish heritage. But new footage published by Zelensky shows the leader openly collaborating with a fascist ideologue who once pledged to “lead the white races of the world in a final crusade…against Semite-led Untermenschen.”
Ukrainian President Vlodymyr Zelensky has uploaded a video to his Telegram channel showing him holding court with one of the most notorious neo-Nazis in modern Ukrainian history: Azov Battalion founder Andriy Biletsky.
On August 14, just over an hour after Secretary of State Anthony Blinken announced another $200 million in military aid to Kiev, Ukrainian President Vlodomyr Zelensky published the video depicting what he called an “open conversation” with Ukraine’s 3rd Separate Assault Brigade.
“I am grateful to everyone who defends our country and people, who brings our victory closer,” Zelensky wrote, following his encounter with the unit on the outskirts of Bakhmut.
While casual Western observers might not have realized it, the brigade Zelensky was addressing is actually the newest iteration of Ukraine’s neo-Nazi Azov Battalion.
“The 3rd separate assault brigade, excellent fighters,” Zelensky wrote days after the consultation, in a Twitter post which also alluded to a separate meeting with the Aidar Battalion, another neo-fascist outfit that has been accused of war crimes by Amnesty International. “They have stopped the enemy from advancing towards Kostiantynivka and pushed the occupiers back up to 8 kilometers.”
But the group’s origins are no secret. Describing their most recent rebrand in a YouTube video released in January, the unit explained: “Today we officially announce that the SSO AZOV is expanding to a brigade. From now on, we are the 3rd separate assault brigade of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.”
Like its predecessor, the unit is led by Andriy Biletsky, who founded the Azov Battalion and has long served as a figurehead for the closely-aligned National Corps political movement.
But in spite of Biletsky’s rich Nazi pedigree, the video Zelensky published shows him sharing a moment of bonhomie with a white nationalist militant who has described Jews as “our enemy,” or as the “real masters” of the oligarchs and craven politicians that have corrupted Ukraine.
. . . . Mamulashvili had worked with Ukrainian nationalists before, during the 1992 Abkhaz war he fought as a child soldier alongside the neo-Nazi Argo Battalion, the armed wing of the UNA-UNSO.
Argo worked as mercenaries during the early 1990s and carried out an unsuccessful operation to rescue Mamulashvili and his father from encirclement in Abkhazia. Mamulashvili did not forget their efforts and wasted little time repaying them during the Maidan. UNA-UNSO would later co-found the infamous fascist militia Right Sector alongside a coalition of other right-wing groups.
In early 2014, the ongoing Maidan coup reached a stalemate. Time and bitter cold had driven many of the protesters on both sides back to their homes and the revolution was facing the very real danger of simply fizzling out. To prevent this, Mamulashvili needed a spark of violence to light the fire of revolution. He hatched an audacious plan to fire on the crowds and blame the attacks on the Yanukovych government. His point man for the plan was the U.S. Army-trained sniper, Brian Boyenger.
On February 20, 2014, snipers, allegedly under the direct command of Boyenger, opened fire on the crowds from the Maidan-occupied Kyiv Philharmonic building, killing dozens of both police and protesters. The plan worked, and the sniper attacks were the pivotal moment that gave the Maidan the momentum to finally depose the democratically elected Yanukovych government. While the Maidan forces quickly blamed the government for the attacks, NATO officials suspected a provocation from the beginning.
The attacks remain officially unsolved and, as the Ukrainian government destroyed all evidence, it is unlikely that those responsible will ever be brought to justice. . . .
Adding to this, Mamulashvili’s Georgian Legion is rife with neo-Nazis and other fascists from around the world. The organization even uses Paul Gray; an infamous neo-Nazi terrorist who was one of the organizers of the deadly Charlottesville “Unite the Right” rally, as its English-speaking spokesman. Gray has made dozens of appearances on Fox News, proudly extolling the virtues and combat prowess of the Georgian Legion while begging for more weapons.
While Mamulashvili insists that all Legion recruits are vetted and neo-Nazis or fascists are rejected, Gray’s membership proves the Legion’s “vetting” is little more than PR to assuage the consciences of guilty liberals. Even a cursory Google search would reveal that Gray has been a member of multiple neo-Nazi terrorist groups, such as the Traditionalist Worker’s Party and Atomwaffen, who are infamous for calling in bomb threats against Historically Black Colleges and University’s (HBCU’s).
The implication that Berlusconi or any other fascist would oppose the Maidan or the Georgian Legion on ideological grounds is therefore ridiculous and little more than a desperate act of projection.
It should also be mentioned that the paper responsible for this exposé, now called InsideOver, currently has journalists embedded with the Ukrainian Armed Forces and is actively reporting from the front lines of the conflict. As of the time of this article, they have released 85 videos from Ukraine on their YouTube channel, the vast majority of which were made in collaboration with the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Even by the low standards of NATO propaganda, it beggars belief that the Ukrainian military would allow Russian agents into their midst, let alone work alongside them.
Regardless of when he arrived in Ukraine, Brian Boyenger’s hands are not clean. He was instrumental in the training and formation of the various far-right units including Azov, Right Sector, the Georgian Legion, and many others. These units are all credibly accused of countless war crimes, and many of them have even been convicted in Ukrainian courts of crimes as vile as raping children.
In 2015, Boyenger broke his usually immaculate OPSEC to chat with Swedish neo-Nazi and first-generation Azov member Mikael Skillt, once described by the BBC as a “White Power warrior,” for advice on smuggling anti-materiel weapons into Ukraine.
Boyenger discusses smuggling anti-materiel cannons for Azov. [Source: Twitter.com]
The conversation is clear proof that Boyenger was acting with the knowledge and in the interests of the U.S. government. Boyenger openly discussed smuggling otherwise highly illegal weapons to a known terrorist on a public forum with what he says is State Department approval. Even aside from the obvious implication of the State Department arming Nazi terrorists, it seems very unlikely that a former low-ranking enlisted Army soldier would be getting this sort of approval from the government. Unless, of course, Brian Boyenger is something more than that.
Once he arrived in Ukraine, Boyenger became more difficult to track. Unlike most mercenaries in the country, Boyenger keeps his exploits quiet. He is not the type to upload his war crimes to TikTok or brag about atrocities in interviews. Most of what we know about him is due to his loose-lipped associates and even from the bits and pieces we can gather from second-hand sources, the picture is very grim.
We do know that Boyenger was one of the founding members of the Georgian Legion from their press releases. Interestingly, the Legion repeatedly mentions that Boyenger was a former officer, while Boyenger had claimed to be a specialist in a Legion propaganda video. If Boyenger was indeed an officer, this would mean that his military career continued for years after Iraq, and the fact that he would try to hide this would indicate that he had a part of his military career he did not want to talk about.
Someone is lying, but it is unclear who and for what purpose. Did Mamulashvili lie to make Boyenger seem more important, or did Boyenger lie to conceal that he was far more than a simple soldier? It would not be out of character for Mamulashvili, a man whose past and exploits seem to grow more outrageous with each telling, to lie to the media. The only question is what would he gain for lying in this case?
Does it matter to the readers of Ukrainska Pravda if Brian Boyenger was an officer or a specialist? Would the Ukrainian readers even know the difference? As Boyenger was vetted by both the U.S. and Ukrainian governments, Mamulashvili knows the truth, but only he and Boyenger know if he is telling it or not.
It is unlikely that we will ever learn the truth of this matter. However, we do know some details of Boyenger’s exploits in Ukraine, and this is thanks mostly to his comrade at arms and close friend, a former U.S. Army soldier by the name of Craig Lang. Together, Lang and Boyenger founded a unit made up entirely of criminals, terrorists and neo-Nazis known as Task Force Pluto.
Task Force Pluto
“What they’re saying is, ‘Here’s a group in Ukraine that’s going beyond ideology, they’re a militia group that’s actively recruiting for the cause. That’s appealing to people who want to promote white nationalism or preserve European-American culture. The fact that they’re fighting is in and of itself important.”– Marilyn Mayo, ADL terrorism researcher
Craig Lang’s story is even more suspicious than Boyenger’s. Lang was a veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, who served in the Army until his dishonorable discharge in 2014. A few months prior, Lang had gone AWOL and driven across the country to murder his day-old son, wife, and her family by surrounding their home with landmines. Fortunately, Lang’s plot failed, and he was arrested and discharged soon after.
After some time working on oil rigs in North Dakota, Lang first came to Ukraine in 2015 while still in court for his earlier plot. It is difficult to imagine how a fugitive wanted for such serious crimes could leave the country, transit through several U.S.-aligned countries and make his way to Ukraine, where he passed an allegedly rigorous vetting process. Unless, like Boyenger, he had the blessing of the government.
What is even more suspicious is that Lang did it three times. He left Ukraine in 2018 after he became upset that the war had ebbed in intensity. He wanted action, and he thought he could find it in South Sudan. Lang and his comrade, another deserter-turned-terrorist named Alex Zwiefelhofer, attempted to sneak into the country via Kenya where they were caught and deported.
Zwiefelhofer, the son of a police chief from Wisconsin, is another former U.S. Army soldier who went AWOL in 2016. His social media accounts were peppered with neo-Nazi memes and “jokes,” including Zwiefelhofer wearing a Hitler mustache and a shirt that said, “Help more bees… shoot refugees.”
Like many other American neo-Nazis, notably Dylan Roof, he is an open admirer of the unrecognized colonial state of Rhodesia and its savage form of apartheid. He often posted pro-Rhodesia memes on Facebook and often suggested that Rhodesia did not go far enough in the subjugation and violent exploitation of its native people.
After deserting from the Army, Zwiefelhofer attempted to join the French Foreign Legion and was denied. Despite claims of a rigorous vetting process, Brian Boyenger ignored all these red flags when he accepted Zwiefelhofer into the ranks of Task Force Pluto. Zwiefelhofer fought alongside the unit in combat operations and became friends with Craig Lang in the process. Eventually, the two became so close that Zwiefelhofer joined Lang on his excursion.
When they landed in the United States after their deportation, Zwiefelhofer was interviewed by the FBI, who found large amounts of child pornography on his phone. He was arrested and spent several months in jail awaiting trial until he bonded out and fled to Miami alongside Lang with a plan to become mercenaries in Venezuela. The new front was the latest in the long line of America’s imperial misadventures and the target of a failed “color revolution” to overthrow the left-wing Maduro government.
However, Lang and Zwiefelhofer needed money and so they put two guns for sale on the internet to help finance their journey. The two men met the prospective buyers, Serafin and Deana Lorenzo, at a church parking lot on April 9, 2018. Rather than hand over the weapons, Lang and Zwiefelhofer opened fire, killing both the Lorenzos in a hail of bullets and then robbing their dead bodies.
Now with both money and guns, Lang and Zwiefelhofer were ready to set off for Venezuela. They tried to book passage on a ship but murdered the captain in a payment dispute. With their money gone and the walls slowly closing in on them, the two men fled Florida to the Pacific Northwest, where they split up. After disposing of the murder weapons, Zwiefelhofer returned to his home in Wisconsin and was caught about a month later.
The ever “lucky” Craig Lang easily escaped the dragnet. Four months after the murders, he drove to St. Louis, where he met with other fugitive veterans to plan a return to Ukraine. Now wanted for at least a dozen felonies, including multiple murders, Lang somehow walked through customs and immigration without anyone batting an eyelash. He even tagged himself at Kyiv Airport on Instagram.
Lang made one more attempt to return to Venezuela only a few days later. Even after charges had been filed by the Department of Justice, Lang was able to fly from Ukraine to Bogotá, Colombia, via Mexico City. In Bogotá, Lang was somehow able to convince police to sell him weapons despite his rap sheet. He paid for the guns in cash and boarded a bus to the border town of Cúcuta, which had been at the epicenter of America’s failed attempt at a coup in Venezuela.
For reasons unknown, Lang failed to cross the border for a second time. He returned to Ukraine, where he was embraced once more as an honored member of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Even after formal charges were issued against Lang and the U.S. government had officially requested his extradition, Lang lives freely in Ukraine, where he lives with his wife and child.
The Ukrainian government has refused multiple requests to extradite Lang, and his comrades in arms in Right Sector have provided for his legal defense. Brian Boyenger’s old friend Mikael Skillt, now the head of a mercenary group, even threatened violence if Lang were extradited.
“He [Lang] has a lot of friends; he’s active in social media, he’s been involved in the war as long as anyone. If they would extradite him, there would be consequences in terms of a demonstration.” – Mikael Skillt
Despite his claim to be “apolitical,” Lang often associates with neo-Nazis. Beyond his public affiliations with Right Sector, Task Force Pluto is rife with neo-Nazis and other far-rightists almost to the exclusion of all other members. Screenshots of their social media show an open admiration for Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany, the veneration of racial violence, routine use of racial slurs, and open association with other violent neo-Nazis around the world.
The unit’s prolific recruitment of American neo-Nazis became so serious that it drew the attention of the U.S. Department of Justice, who began investigating the group both for war crimes committed in Ukraine, and a serious worry that its members would bring their skills back home with them.
Besides Lang and Zwiefelhofer, other members of Task Force Pluto and associated groups have already made their way back to the United States, where they are once more active in neo-Nazi groups. Task Force member Dalton Kennedy, originally of North Carolina, has returned to join Patriot Front, another of the amalgamation of the groups responsible for the deadly Unite the Right Rally. While less public today, Patriot Front remains an active neo-Nazi terrorist group, and Kennedy is still a member. He is only one of many such cases in a vast constellation of militias operating inside Ukraine.
The implication of this at the very least is that the United States government, through Brian Boyenger and the rest of its ongoing operation, is openly arming, training, and funding neo-Nazi terrorists who have killed not just Russians and Ukrainians, but also American citizens on American soil. Perhaps most worrying, the atrocities carried out by these men in America are nothing compared to those they have been doing for years in Donbas.
What price will we pay in the future, when this bloody seed grows into a tree of hatred with roots throughout the world?
During their investigation, the FBI found evidence of routine, serious war crimes committed by Task Force Pluto members inside Ukraine. Leaked documents show the FBI requested detailed information from the Ukrainians on alleged crimes as ghastly as rape, human trafficking, production of child pornography, pillaging, torture and even beheading of POWs.
The FBI maintains an open investigation on many of the Task Force’s members, including Lang and Boyenger. No results have been released, and no action has been taken against anyone except Craig Lang. At least one of the members, Santi Pirtle, joined the U.S. Army upon his return to America and is currently an active-duty soldier based in Louisiana. It appears that Boyenger’s saga has gone full circle. The terrorist tactics he learned from Col. Steele in Iraq and taught to Task Force Pluto have been refined in Ukraine and are now being passed on to a new generation of U.S. Army soldiers. . . .
Christopher Pohlhaus, a former Marine and prominent Neo-Nazi – has purchased land in Maine to train soldiers to fight for Ukraine. He sees the war against Russia as a unique chance to fight alongside the Azov Battalion and defend a nearly “all-white nation.”
Last year, Pohlhaus bought at least ten acres of land in Springfield, Maine. Although he claims he owns over 100 acres. Pohlhaus has discussed his ambitious plans for his Maine training grounds on social media. In a Telegram channel, he posted, “There will likely not be another chance in my lifetime to fight alongside other [National Socialist] men against a multi-ethnic invading empire to defend an almost all white nation.”
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Pohlhaus confirmed he hoped his Blood Tribe would join the Azov Battalion and C14 – prominent Ukrainian Neo-Nazi militias – in the fight against Russia. Scott Horton, Director of the Libertarian Insititute, Tweeted an article about the land in Maine and asked, “They going to fight with the Azov Battalion and C14 on the eastern front?” Pohlhaus – nicknamed “The Hammer” – responded directly to Horton, saying, “Yes, actually.”
It is unclear how far the Blood Tribe fighters have progressed in their training. One reporter visited the site and said no group members were present. Local officials report Pohlhaus has not begun applying for permits to build structures on his property. Pohlhaus said he has purchased a sawmill and plans to build cabins for his soldiers.
Since civil war broke out in Ukraine after a coup in 2014, Neo-Nazis have flocked to the country to fight for Kiev. Ukrainian Neo-Nazis have held important positions in government, and national socialist militias have been a crucial part of Kiev’s war machine.
Early in the war, thousands of Neo-Nazis arrived in Ukraine to fight for a “shared vision for an ultranationalist ethno-state.” While Washington has attempted to dismiss the role of Neo-Nazis in Ukraine as Russian propaganda, the New York Times admitted that Western journalists were asking Ukrainian troops to remove Neo-Nazi symbols before taking photos of them.
Additionally, the Russian Volunteer Corps – a militia aligned with Kiev – used American weapons to carry out attacks inside Russia. The fighters in the group openly wear Nazi symbols, such as the Black Sun.
Pohlhaus also proudly displays symbols of his national socialist ideology. Earlier this year, he led a protest in Ohio with several members displaying swastikas. While most of his Blood Tribe members wore full masks, Pohlhaus exposed his face and marched with a swastika flag.
Fascism and the Dangers of Economic Concentration
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https://consortiumnews.com/2024/08/09/watch-scott-ritter-the-fbi-raid-on-my-home/
Consortium News strongly condemns the raid on the home of its columnist Scott Ritter by the F.B.l. on Thursday as a serious threat to press freedom.
https://consortiumnews.com/2024/08/09/cn-condemns-fbi-raid-on-cn-columnists-home/