In an earlier post, we noted that Melania Trump’s jacket–adorned with the statement “I Really Don’t Care, Do U” resonates with a key fascist motto. The phrase “Me Ne Frego” was put forward by Mussolini himself. (“Il Duce” detailed his statement in his “The Doctrine of Fascism) as a definitive statement of the existential ethic of the fascist stormtrooper. WFMU-FM is podcasting For The Record–You can subscribe to the podcast HERE.
As indicated in the title, this show updates some paths of inquiry and introduces others.
Discussion begins with the origins of the Austrian Freedom Party (FPO). The party has its genesis with post World War II Third Reich veterans. Its first head was SS General Anton Reinthaller: ” . . . . an honorary Brigadeführer (Major General) in the SS.[1] Having initially joined the SS in December 1938 (with the membership number 292,775)[2] he achieved his highest rank on 30 January 1941. . . . Reinthaller was brought before the Austrian People’s Court and accused of ‘high treason against the Austrian people’, with the three [defendants] labelled as being those most responsible for the Anschluss [Nazi Germany’s annexing of Austria–D.E.] . . . .”
Further analysis of the development of the FPO, notes that the party was founded by Third Reich veterans and Reinthaller’s successor was also an SS officer. ” . . . . The party was founded by the original Nazis in the 1950s and led by Nazis until the 1980s. . . . Reinthaller died in 1958 and was succeeded as Freedom Party leader by Friedrich Peter, another former Nazi Party member and an officer in the SS. Peter ran the party formally until 1978 and then played an informal role well into the 1980s. . . .”
Against the background of the genesis of the FPO, we note that a former speech writer for Jurg Haider is now the interior minister of Austria.
The FPO’s Herbert Kickl is described as the “mastermind” behind the electoral successes of the FPÖ that allowed it to enter into a coalition government.
In March, a police unit headed by a Freedom Party member raided the homes of four staffers and an office of the BVT (Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz und Terrorismus Bekämpfung, i.e., Federal Bureau for the Protection of the Constitution and for Counterterrorism). The BVT is the bureau that deals with right-wing extremism.
The head of the BVT was fired several days after the raids. He had been the object of a virulent campaign by a website Unzensuriert.at which is known as “the Austrian Breitbart”. The former editor in chief of unzensuriert.at is now Kickl’s communications director.
As the article points out, having the far right in charge of Austria’s and Italy’s domestic intelligence agencies doesn’t just put the anti-extremist operations of Austria and Italy at risk. Because of data-sharing agreements across Europe, they’re also learning what other intelligence agencies of other European countries (such as Germany) decided to share with Austria and Italy.
Key points of this story include:
1.–” . . . . In Italy, far-right politician Matteo Salvini now serves as head of Italy’s interior ministry, which handles internal security and terrorism. . . . ”
2.–” . . . . In Austria, the specific incident that has crystallized wider concerns in the world of espionage and counterespionage as well as counterterror was a series of raids ordered by the far-right interior minister earlier this year on the offices of the professional domestic intelligence chief, whose organization had in the past conducted and coordinated with Germany its surveillance of right-wing extremists. . . .”
3.–” . . . . as one long-time security adviser to several French presidents told The Daily Beast, ‘The Austrian operation against the intelligence service by the ministry of interior had an impact on every other intelligence service in the West.’ . . . .”
4.–[German politician Andrej] Hunko tells The Daily Beast he is specifically concerned that Kickl and his people would be able to acquire intelligence about leftist activists who oppose right-wing extremism: ‘It is unthinkable what would happen if secret information about anti-fascist activities falls into the hands of the extreme right via Austria’s conservative-far right government.’ . . .”
Jarrod Ramos, the alleged shooter at the Maryland newspaper The Capital Gazette was influenced by a theocratic neo-Confederate ideology espoused by League of the South.
Specifically, Ramos is a believer in the worldview expressed by League of the South leaders Mike Peroutka and Michael Hill, for whom a Biblical fundamentalist interpretation of the Bible is the only REAL law and individuals are empowered enforce their interpretation of Biblical law on their own.
Hill has also called for the formation of death squads to target journalists, elected officials, and other members of “the elite”. Hill has called for young men of “Christendom” to become “citizen-soldiers” to destroy the “galloping tyranny” of our time.
” . . . . The League is a theocratic, secessionist organization whose leader, Michael Hill, had called for the formation of death squads targeting journalists, elected officials and other members of ‘the elite.’ In his essay ‘A Bazooka in Every Pot,’ Hill described such an assassination campaign as part of ‘fourth-generation warfare,’ a style of decentralized conflict that blurs the lines between war and politics, combatants and civilians. . . . .”
Mike Peroutka was one of the only politicians Ramos tweeted about (he was supportive of Peroutka). The other politician was Donald Trump.
The author notes a possible pair of events that may have catalyzed the shooting: Three days before the shooting, President Trump once again demonized member of the media as “enemies of the people,” at a big outdoor rally in California. The next day, Mike Peroutka lost his 2018 re-election bid in the Republican primary.
As Ramos’s social media posts reveal, another influence on Ramos is the “Berserk” bloody anime movie. He made numerous references to Berserk in his posts, including the last tweet made minutes before the shooting. He even described himself as playing a role in the world of “Berserk”, a world that includes vigilante “hands of God”.
In FTR #756, we noted the strong overlapping connections between Edward Snowden, Julian Assange, Ron Paul and the League of the South.
Ramos appears to have manifested the “lone wolf/leaderless resistance” strategy. ” . . . . ‘Ramos came to see himself as some kind of vigilante for righteousness, casting himself for example as a ‘crusader’ . . . . Political Research Associates analyst Frederick Clarkson told Salon. This vision was ‘not unlike the militaristic, millennial vision of Michael Hill,’ he continued. . . .”
In FTR #888, we noted that Glenn Greenwald ran legal interference for the leaderless resistance strategy, freeing up the likes of Michael Hill from civil liability for their advocacy of mayhem. Greenwald is, in effect, an accessory to the bloodshed allegedly realized by Ramos and others like him.
Next, we turn to the subject of Hindutva fascism. (For more about this subject, see, among other programs, FTR #‘s 988 and 989, 990, 991, 992, and 1015.
In FTR #1015, we highlighted the “cow vigilantes” in India–Hindutva fascist gangs perpetrating violence on Muslims and lower-caste Hindus. WhatsApp is fueling the violence.
The mayor of Jaipur, Ashok Lahoty, shared the rumor about beef being served at the hotel on a BJP WhatsApp group.
It appears that the BJP is behind much of the rumor campaigns as part of its Hindu nationalist agenda. ” . . . . Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has largely remained silent about the problem, and analysts say there’s a reason for that: Much of the fake news now spreading like wildfire has been promoted, if not created, by some of Modi’s most fervent supporters. . . .”
Modi has a well orchestrated machine for disseminating BJP’s fake news: ” . . . . In her book, ‘I am a Troll: Inside the Secret World of the BJP’s Digital Army,’ journalist Swati Chaturvedi explains how the party orchestrates online campaigns to intimidate perceived government critics through a network of trolls on Twitter and Facebook. And she cites multiple people who worked inside the BJP’s social media machine to make her case. . . . Chaturvedi’s findings were backed by another former BJP cyber-volunteer, Sadhavi Khosla, who left the party in 2015 because of the constant barrage of misogyny, Islamophobia, and hatred she was asked to disseminate online. And Prodyut Bora, one of the masterminds of the BJP’s early technology and social media strategy, recently offered a similar outlook. He described his creation as ‘Frankenstein’s monster,’ and said that it had morphed from its original aim of better connecting with the party’s supporters. ‘I mean, occasionally, it’s just painful to watch what they have done with it,’ he told HuffPost India last month. . . .”
Turning from the subject of fake news in India to fake news in the U.S., we conclude with a look at what “deep fake” video technology may harbinger.
When the ‘deepfake’ video technology develops to the point of being indistinguishable from real videos, the far right is going to go into overdrive creating videos purporting to prove virtually every far right fantasy you can imagine. Among the memes that might be reinforced by such technology is the ‘PizzaGate’ conspiracy theory pushed by the right wing in the final weeks of the 2016 alleging that Hillary Clinton and number of other prominent Democrats are part of a Satanist child abuse ring.
Right wing polemicist Liz Crokin is repeating her assertions that video of Hillary Clinton – specifically, Hillary sexually abusing and then eating the face of a child is floating around on the Dark Web is definitely real. Crokin is now warning that reports about ‘deepfake’ technology are disinformation stories being preemptively put out by the Deep State to make the public skeptical when the videos of Hillary cutting the face off of a child come to light.
Beginning our tour in Poland, we note alarming signs of that country descending into fascism, with anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim xenophobia on the ideological front burner of the ironically named Law and Justice Party: ” . . . . Tens of thousands of people — many of them young men with crew cuts, but some parents with children, too — flocked to the Polish capital to celebrate Independence Day in a march organized in part by two neo-fascist organizations. They waved white and red Polish flags, they brandished burning torches, and they wore “white power” symbols. They carried banners declaring, ‘Death to enemies of the homeland,’ and screamed, ‘Sieg Heil!’ and ‘Ku Klux Klan!’ . . . .”
The treatment accorded female counter-demonstrators exemplifies the nature of the rally: ” . . . . A dozen incredibly courageous women showed up to protest the march. After mixing with the marchers, they unraveled a long strip of cloth emblazoned with ‘Stop Fascism.’ They were immediately attacked. Their banner was ripped apart. Marchers pushed some of the women to the ground and kicked others. . . .”
At an institutional level, the Law and Justice Party is implementing an Orwellian mockery of its name: ” . . . Ever since the Law and Justice Party won both the presidential and parliamentary elections in 2015, Poland has been undergoing a disturbing political transformation. Law and Justice is an Orwellian name for a party that constantly violates the law, breaks constitutional provisions and is hellbent on subjecting the courts to its control. The party is dismantling the institutional framework of parliamentary democracy piece by piece in order to remove any restraints on the personal power of its leader, Jaroslaw Kaczynski. ‘Prezes,’ the Boss, people call him. . . .”
The xenophobia utilized by the Law and Justice Party is a common element in European and American fascist movements: ” . . . . Two years ago, the party bet that latching onto the refugee crisis in Europe would give it purchase on the votes necessary to win. Its calculation proved entirely correct. One of the first institutions the party hijacked was public television. Law and Justice has turned it into Fox News on steroids, paid for by the taxpayers. It feeds viewers nonstop propaganda about the mounting threat to Poland’s sovereignty from the European Union, specifically in the form of Muslim refugees. Those refugees present a threat to our way of life, the government and the press insist. They will assault our women, they say, and they are carrying infectious diseases to boot. A year ago, a quarter of Poles opposed accepting anyone fleeing the ravages of war in the Middle East; after months of relentless propaganda, 75 percent are now opposed. This year the country has let in only 1,474 asylum seekers, nearly all of them from Russia or Ukraine. . . .”
In Italy, CasaPound recapitulates Italy’s fascist past, in resonance with anti-immigrant xenophobia exhibited by other neo-fascist parties: ” . . . . But CasaPound is winning seats in a handful of towns, and some of its core beliefs — a fondness for Russia and sharp opposition to the European Union, globalization and immigration, which it believes sully the national identity and economy — are increasingly spreading throughout Italy. In Sicily, the new headquarters of Brothers of Italy, a descendant of the post-fascist Italian Social Movement, had the phrase ‘Italians first’ written on the wall during its recent inauguration. Anti-immigration sentiment has grown so popular that the once-secessionist Northern League has dropped the word ‘Northern’ from its name as it looks for inroads to the south. . . .”
Much of our tour is in Ukraine, where the OUN/B fascists are rewriting history.
Key elements of this Orwellian re-write include:
1.-The Institute of National Memory, headed by Volodomyr Viatrovych, is standing World War II history on its head. internationalists. . . .”
2.-Viatrovych and his Institute are marketing a “pet Jew” UPA soldier to prove the open-minded, politically correctness of the UPA and the OUN/B.
3.-Wholesale support for Viatrovych’s Orwellian re-write of Ukrainian history has come from Poroshenko government: “. . . . The controversy centers on a telling of World War II history that amplifies Soviet crimes and glorifies Ukrainian nationalist fighters while dismissing the vital part they played in ethnic cleansing of Poles and Jews from 1941 to 1945 after the Nazi invasion of the former Soviet Union. . . . And more pointedly, scholars now fear that they risk reprisal for not toeing the official line — or calling Viatrovych on his historical distortions. Under Viatrovych’s reign, the country could be headed for a new, and frightening, era of censorship. . . .”
4.-More about Viatrovych’s historical propaganda: “. . . . To that effect, Viatrovych has dismissed historical events not comporting with this narrative as ‘Soviet propaganda.’ [This is true of information presented by anyone that tells the truth about the OUN/B heirs now in power in Ukraine–they are dismissed as ‘Russian dupes’ or “tools of the Kremlin’ etc.–D.E.] In his 2006 book, The OUN’s Position Towards the Jews: Formulation of a position against the backdrop of a catastrophe, he attempted to exonerate the OUN from its collaboration in the Holocaust by ignoring the overwhelming mass of historical literature. . . .”
5. The Polish fascists described above have remained silent about Viatrovych’s academic coverup of the Ukrainian fascists’ extermination of ethnic Poles during World War “. . . . UPA supreme commander Dmytro Kliachkivs’kyi explicitly stated: ‘We should carry out a large-scale liquidation action against Polish elements. During the evacuation of the German Army, we should find an appropriate moment to liquidate the entire male population between 16 and 60 years old.’ Given that over 70 percent of the leading UPA cadres possessed a background as Nazi collaborators, none of this is surprising. . . .”
6. Ukraine’s Ministry of Education is echoing and amplifying Viatrovych’s narrative: “. . . . Seventy historians signed an open letter to Poroshenko asking him to veto the draft law that bans criticism of the OUN-UPA. . . . After the open letter was published, the legislation’s sponsor, Yuri Shukhevych, reacted furiously. Shukhevych, the son of UPA leader Roman Shukhevych and a longtime far-right political activist himself, fired off a letter to Minister of Education Serhiy Kvit claiming, ‘Russian special services’ produced the letter and demanded that ‘patriotic’ historians rebuff it. Kvit, also a longtime far-right activist and author of an admiring biography one of the key theoreticians of Ukrainian ethnic nationalism, in turn ominously highlighted the signatories of Ukrainian historians on his copy of the letter. . . .”
7.-More about Minister of Education Kvit, and Viatrovych: “. . . . Last June, Kvit’s Ministry of Education issued a directive to teachers regarding the ‘necessity to accentuate the patriotism and morality of the activists of the liberation movement,’ including depicting the UPA as a ‘symbol of patriotism and sacrificial spirit in the struggle for an independent Ukraine’ and Bandera as an ‘outstanding representative’ of the Ukrainian people.’ More recently, Viatrovych’s Ukrainian Institute of National Memory proposed that the city of Kiev rename two streets after Bandera and the former supreme commander of both the UPA and the Nazi-supervised Schutzmannschaft Roman Shukhevych. . . .”
8.-In keeping with the re-writing of Ukraine’s wartime history, the city of Lvov [Lviv or Lemberg, when it was part of Poland] has established a festival in honor of Roman Shukhevych, the head of the Einsatzgruppe Nachtigall or Nightingale Battalion, on the anniversary of the beginning of a pogrom that he led.
More about this pogrom:
1, “The Ukrainian city of Lviv will hold a festival celebrating a Nazi collaborator on the anniversary of a major pogrom against the city’s Jews. . . . On June 30, 1941, Ukrainian troops, including militiamen loyal to Shukhevych’s, began a series of pogroms against Jews, which they perpetrated under the auspices of the German army, according to Yale University history professor Timothy Snyder and other scholars. They murdered approximately 6,000 Jews in those pogroms. . . .”
2.-The Einsatzgruppe Nachtigall was an SS extermination unit. “. . . . In 1959 [SS officer Theodor] Oberlaender was the center of a storm that finally forced his resignation in May 1960. He was blamed for the mass murder of thousands of Jews and Polish intellectuals who had been liquidated in July 1941 when a special SS task force under his command occupied the Polish city of Lemberg (Lvov). . . . As briefly mentioned in a previous chapter, Minister Oberlaender is accused of having been involved in the so-called “Lemberg massacre,” in which several thousand Poles and more than 5,000 Jews were slaughtered. Dr. Oberlaender does not deny a] that he was the commanding officer of a special SS task force, the Nightingale Battalion, made up of nationalist Ukrainians; and b] that this battalion was the first German unit to move into the Polish city of Lemberg on June 29, 1941, where it remained for six or seven days. . . .”
The official founding of the UPA (October 14)–the group whose troops comprised the Einsatzgruppe Nachtigall–is now a national holdiay Ukraine: ” . . . . Thousands of Ukrainian nationalists have marched through the capital, Kyiv, to mark the 75th anniversary of the creation of the controversial Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA). March organizers said as many as 20,000 people participated in the October 14 march, which was supported by the right-wing Freedom, Right Sector, and National Corp political parties. . . . Journalists reported seeing some marchers giving Nazi salutes. Since 2015, the October 14 anniversary has been marked as the Defender of Ukraine Day public holiday. . . . .”
Program Highlights Include:
1.-We return to the subject of the Lithuanian Rifleman’s Union, who are engaging with maneuvers with similar organizations from Latvia and Lithuania.
2.-Reviewing information about the Lithuanian Riflemen’s Union, we highlight its activities as part of the Nazi military effort in the Baltic states, including participation in administering Hitler’s “Final Solution.”
3.-Reminiscent of the Nazi “punisher battalions,” the Lithuanian Rifleman’s Union–a fascist militia–has been expanded to meet the so-called “Russian threat.” Like the OUN/B’s military wing–the UPA–the Lithuanian Rifleman’s Union continued the combat of World War II until the early 1950’s. Formed during the waning days of the Second World War, they jumped from the Third Reich to the Office of Policy Coordination, a CIA/State Department operational directorate. (This is covered in FTR #777, as well as AFA #1.)
4.-Review of inforation from FTR #779, noting that Svoboda was networking with Roberto Fiore’s Forza Nuova. Svoboda has threatened Ukrainian Jews who protested the establishment of an official holiday in Ukraine honoring Ukrainian pogromist Simeon Petlyura, whose troops killed 50,000 Jews in Ukraine.
In programs and posts, we have highlighted the fascist element in the Zionist movement and Israel. We have also covered the Bormann network’s strategic use of Jews to head many of its operations. It turns out that Benjamin Netanyahu and close associates have been deeply involved with ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems. The Thyssen interests are at the core of the Bormann capital network and, in turn, are profoundly involved with the evolution and history of the Bush family’s business dealings. Ehud Barak recently noted that the “seeds of fascism” had been planted in Israel. All of the contents of this website as of 12/19/2014–Dave Emory’s 37+ years of research and broadcasting–as well as hours of videotaped lectures are available on a 32GB flash drive. Dave offers his programs and articles for free–your support is very much appreciated.
The startling resignation of Pope Benedict XVI (nee Joseph Ratzinger) brings to mind a number of considerations. Ratzinger was something of a caretaker, charged with sustaining the Opus-Dei style reaction gripping the Vatican and keeping the lid on potentially damaging inquiries.. He took office with the Holy See engulfed in scandal and inquiry, including the burgeoning priest molestation investigations, renewed inquiries into money laundering by the Vatican Bank and inquiries concerning the Vatican’s behavior during and after World War II. Might some of those issues overwhelmed his papacy, forcing the first Papal resignation in history?
The more things change, the more they stay the same. The EU’s leaders want to welcome you to the new “New Normal”.
We recall the tsunami of praise, Hosannas and Hallelujahs gushing forth from the world’s media and political punditry. Hailing the “Arab Spring” as the dawning of a new enlightenment in that part of the world, they missed the boat–fundamentally. We, on the other hand, were warning that this phenomenon was a Nazi operation, having been initiated by powerful corporate forces in the second administration of George W. Bush, it had its trigger with the WikiLeaks milieu–itself a far-right, Nazi-linked entity, as we demonstrated in FTR’s 732 and #745. (In addition to the documentation in the original WikiLeaks/Arab Spring series, see the article excerpted below.) Before delving into details, an excellent overview of recent events in Egypt was provided in an English-language blog by a citizen of that tortured country. The contradictions and deadly undercurrents of unfolding events were eloquently summed up by Mahmoud Salem in “Imagine.”
Supporters of Berlin’s austerity drive across the eurozone were relieved by Ireland’s approval of the ‘Fiscal Compact’ on Thursday. But this ‘good news’ coincides with a growing backlash by key leaders an officials against the endless calls for austerity without a ‘pro-growth’ component. Except, as usual, not really.
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