Obama-Nuland-Biden(s) to Trump-Giuliani

What “American Interest” in Ukraine?

This is not a matter of genuine U.S. interest or U.S. security nor is it a matter of honest U.S. aid. So why are U.S. elements (military, arms, protesters, sundry sinister agents) situated and interfering in

An ancient Catholic/Eastern Orthodox culture (origins to 32,000 BC) that has subsisted under various ruling and divisive powers — including Lithuania, Poland, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and Russia—a Cossack republic in 17th and 18th centuries split between Poland and the Russian Empire; in the late 1940s merging (as the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic) into the Russian-dominated Soviet Union; and, finally, in 1991 taking its independence and becoming a neutral state partnering militarily with Russia and other Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS countries)?

Ivy Leaguer Robert Hunter Biden (Georgetown University, Yale Law)

Lawyer, lobbyist and partner in the international consulting firm Rosemont Seneca Partners, sat on the international board (reportedly paid up to $50,000 a month, 2014-2019) of Mykola Zlochevsky’s Burisma Holdings, the largest natural gas producer in Ukraine.

 Oligarch Oil and Gas Man Zlochevsky

With another Ukrainian businessman, Mykola Lisin, Kiev-born Ukrainian businessman and politician Mykola Vladislavovich Zlochevsky was co-founder (2002) of Burisma Holdings. In 2010 and 2012, Zlochevsky also held a position in the Ukrainian government; and at the end of 2014, under charges of “unlawful self enrichment and legalization of funds” during his tenure in public office, “Zlochevsky fled Ukraine.” On his return to the country, he was “accused of having illegally issued oil and gas licenses… to the companies that belonged to him while he was serving, in 2010–2012, as the government’s Ecology Minister.”

In addition to his Ukraine-based Burisma Holdings, Zlochevsky owns, through his “sole ownership of Cyprus-registered Burisma Holdings, … the Ukrainian gas and oil producers Aldea, Pari, Esko-Pivnich, and the First Ukrainian Petroleum Company and the investment group Brociti Investments.”

Prosecutor Shokin and Joe

Meanwhile, General Prosecutor of Ukraine Viktor Mikolajovićh Shokin, serving under President Petro Poroshenko (February 10, 2015 – March 29, 2016), had in 2015 inherited the investigation begun in 2012 of the oligarch/owner of the oil and natural gas company Burisma Holdings, Mykola Zlochevsky, over “allegations of money laundering, tax evasion, and corruption.” During Shokin’s tenure, the Obama administration and sorted sectors claimed that “Shokin was not adequately pursuing corruption in Ukraine” [as if it was any of their business; the Trump regime used the same charge more recently]

March 2016, U.S. Vice President “JOE BIDEN threatened Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko that if he did not fire Shokin, the United States would hold back its $1 billion in loan guarantees.” [another echo in today's news]

After submitting his letter of resignation on February 16, 2016, General Prosecutor Viktor Mikolajovićh Shokin (formally dismissed by parliament on March 29, 2016) retired.

U

.S. Interference continued (2019)

U.S. President Donald Trump allegedly attempted to coerce Ukraine’s government into investigating the Bidens (Joe and Hunter) or losing U.S. “foreign aid.” In September 2019, a Congressional Committee convened hearings inquiring into possible impeachable offenses of U.S. President Donald Trump.

Hawks Past and Present

Cashing, claiming U.S. interest, Breaching nations’ sovereignty

Ivy Leaguer Victoria Jane Nuland (Brown University BA)

George W. Bush Administration hire as U. S. Ambassador to NATO (June 20, 2005 – May 2, 2008)

Barack Obama Administration hire as United States Department of State (May 31, 2011 – February 11, 2013); Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs (assistant September 18, 2013 – January 25, 2017); currently on the National Endowment for Democracy board

U

.S. – Ukraine Connection: Nuland and the 44th

On the Job vulgar interference in Ukraine - BBC reporting

“An apparently bugged phone conversation in which a senior US diplomat disparages the EU over the Ukraine crisis … The alleged conversation (exact date unclear) between Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and the US Ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt, appeared on YouTube. Noted references:

• “Klitsch,” “Klitschko” for  “Vitaly Klitschko” 
• “Yats” for Arseniy Yatseniuk 
• “Tyahnybok” for Oleh Tyahnybok

Victoria Nuland: “I don’t think Klitsch should go into the government. I don’t think it’s necessary, I don’t think it’s a good idea.”   

Nuland Continued

“I think Yats is the guy who’s got the economic experience, the governing experience. He’s the… what he needs is Klitsch and Tyahnybok on the outside. He needs to be talking to them four times a week, you know. I just think Klitsch going in… he’s going to be at that level working for Yatseniuk, it's just not going to work.”

Nuland Continued

“…[T]he big guns [are] waiting in the wings - US Vice-President Joe Biden clearly being lined up to give private words of encouragement at the appropriate moment.… [T]o help glue this thing and to have the UN help glue it and, you know, F…k the EU.”

Nuland's “winners”

• Ukrainian politician Oleh Yaroslavovych Tyahnybok is “a former member of the Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine parliament) and the leader of the nationalist far-right Svoboda political party”

• 2014, after the “revolution” that removed Viktor Yanukovych from power, Arseniy Petrovych Yatsenyuk assumed Ukraine’s premiership; February16, 2016, Petro Poroshenko, Ukraine’s President, “asked Yatsenyuk to resign saying he had lost the support of the coalition”; April 10, 2016, Yatsenyuk announced that he would report to parliament on April 12, 2016, and resign as Prime Minister.; April 14, 2016, Volodymyr Groysman replaced Yatsenyuk as Prime Minister of Ukraine.

• Ukrainian politician and professional boxer, and a leading a “leading figure in the 2013–2014 Euromaidan protests,” Vitaly Vladimirovich Klitschko  has been Mayor of Kiev and head of the Kiev City State Administration since 2014. He is “a former leader of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc and former Member of the Ukrainian Parliament.

U

.S. – Ukraine Connection: Giuliani and the 45th

Under consideration by the U.S. House Intelligence Committee

BBC Analysis by Anthony Zurcher North America Reporter

“How the controversy unfolded”

• July 18, 2019: U.S. President Donald Trump orders White House aide to hold back almost $400 million in military aid to Ukraine (US media reports)

• July 25, 2019: President Trump speaks to Ukraine’s leader (Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelensky) in a 30-minute phone call

• September 9, 2019: Congress learns of a whistleblower's complaint about the call, but is blocked by the Trump administration from viewing it

• September 11, 2019: Military aid for Ukraine is cleared for release by the Pentagon and Department of State

• September 23, 2019: President Trump confirms he withheld Ukrainian aid, saying it was due to concerns about ‘corruption’ [where have we heard that one before?]

• September 24, 2019: President Trump says the aid was withheld so that other countries would pay more.

W

hy the United States in Ukraine? Not because of U.S. interest but rather because of the  self-interest of a few extremely arrogant and unfortunately high-placed, destructive people.

Sources

Wikipedia

Ukraine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukraine

Hunter Biden https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunter_Biden

Mykola Zlochevsky https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mykola_Zlochevsky

Viktor Shokin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Shokin

Victoria Nuland https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Nuland

Oleh Tyahnybok https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oleh_Tyahnybok

Arseniy Yatsenyuk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arseniy_Yatsenyuk

Vitali Klitschko https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitali_Klitschko

Volodymyr Zelensky https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volodymyr_Zelensky

BBC “Ukraine crisis: Transcript of leaked Nuland-Pyatt call” February 7, 2014: “An apparently bugged phone conversation in which a senior US diplomat disparages the EU over the Ukraine crisis has been posted online. The alleged conversation between Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and the US Ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt, appeared on YouTube on Thursday. It is not clearly when the alleged conversation took place (posted a transcript, with analysis by BBC diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus” with a warning that transcript contains swearing https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26079957

BBC “White House ‘tried to cover up details of Trump-Ukraine call’” Analysis by Anthony Zurcher North America Reporter September 26, 2019 [Senior White House officials tried to ‘lock down’ all details of a phone call between (U.S. President) Donald Trump and the Ukrainian president (Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelensky), according to a whistleblower complaint against the US president” https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-49842895

Insight Beyond Today’s News, CLB - © All Rights Reserved

Slander Slips Easily from a Slick Tongue

But Fools, to their peril, Fail to Comprehend the Power of Assembly that Knows Truth

“The United States has never believed in permanent enemies.  We want partners, not adversaries.  America knows that while anyone can make war, only the most courageous can choose peace,” U.S. President Donald Trump this week read from a prompter while standing before a world Assembly of nearly 200 nations.

“The United States does not seek conflict with any other nation.  We desire peace, cooperation, and mutual gain with all.…”

But then there's this indisputable truth.

K

NOWN U. S. engagements in Violent Aggression Post-World War II Period

Second half of	20th century U.S. Wars
Korean War	(1950–1953)
Laotian Civil War	(1953–1975)
Lebanon Crisis	(1958)
Bay of Pigs Invasion	(1961) (Cuba)
Simba rebellion (Congo) Operation Dragon Rouge	(1964)
Vietnam War (Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos)	(1955–1964/1965–1973/ 1974–1975)
Communist insurgency in Thailand	(1965–1983)
Korean DMZ Conflict (Korean Demilitarized Zone)	(1966–1969)
Dominican Civil War (Dominican Republic)	(1965–1966)
Insurgency in Bolivia (1966–1967)	Cambodian Civil War (1967–1975)
War in South Zaire (1978)	Gulf of Sidra (Mediterranean, North coast of Libya) Encounter (1981)
Multinational Intervention in Lebanon	Invasion of Grenada
(1982–1984)	(1983)
Action in the Gulf of Sidra
(1986)
Bombing of Libya	Tanker War (Persian Gulf)
(1986)	(1987–1988)
Tobruk	Invasion of Panama
(Mediterranean Sea) encounter (1989)	(1989–1990)
Gulf War (Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Israel) (1990–1991)	Iraqi No-Fly Zone Enforcement Operations (1991–2003)
First U.S. Intervention in the Somali Civil War	Bosnian War
(1992–1995)	(Bosnia/Herzegovina Yugoslav Wars)
	(1992–1995)
Intervention in Haiti
(1994–1995)	Kosovo War (Yugoslav Wars)
	(1998–1999)
Operation Infinite Reach
(Sudan and Afghanistan)
(1998)
First Quarter of	21st-century U.S. wars
War in Afghanistan	(2001–present)
Iraq War	(2003–2011)
War in North-West Pakistan	(2004–present)
Second U.S. Intervention in the
Somali Civil War	(2007–present)
Operation Ocean Shield (Indian Ocean)	(2009–2016)
International intervention in Libya	(2011)
Uganda Operation Observant Compass	(2011–2017)
American-led intervention (again) in Iraq	(2014–present)
American-led intervention in Syria	(2014–present)
Yemeni Civil War	(2015–present)
American intervention in Libya
(2nd Libyan conflict)	(2015–present)

MOREOVER

“The military of the United States is deployed in more than 150 countries around the world, with over 170,000 of its active-duty personnel serving outside the United States and its territories.”

The U.S. President’s slanderous words in the same speech before the United Nations

“

One of the greatest security threats facing peace-loving nations today is the repressive regime in Iran.  The regime’s record of death and destruction is well known to us all.  Not only is Iran the world’s number one state sponsor of terrorism, but Iran’s leaders are fueling the tragic wars in both Syria and Yemen.”

The statement is false on its face. Also see U.S. post-WWII aggression.

“

To stop Iran’s path to nuclear weapons and missiles, I withdrew the United States from the terrible Iran nuclear deal, which has very little time remaining, did not allow inspection of important sites, and did not cover ballistic missiles.”

This statement is also false as proven by repeated

IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) reports 

published before and during the Trump tenure.

“

Following our withdrawal, we have implemented severe economic sanctions on the country.  Hoping to free itself from sanctions, the regime has escalated its violent and unprovoked aggression. In response to Iran’s recent attack on Saudi Arabian oil facilities, we just imposed the highest level of sanctions on Iran’s central bank and sovereign wealth fund.”

The only grain of true in this bit is the Trump imposition of sanctions.

T

hese presidential nuggets should have been addressed to U.S. leadership, past and present government officials and their allies. 

All nations have a duty to act. 

No responsible government should subsidize… bloodlust. …

[L]eaders will have turned a proud nation into just another cautionary tale of what happens when a ruling class abandons its people and embarks on a crusade for personal power and riches.… 

[T]he world has listened to … rulers as they lash out at everyone else for the problems they alone have created. … 

[C]itizens deserve a government that cares about reducing poverty, ending corruption, and increasing jobs — not stealing their money to fund a massacre abroad and at home.… 

[I]t is time for … leaders to step forward and to stop threatening other countries, and focus on building up their own country. 

It is time for … leaders to finally put the … people first.” 

(My edits to suggest what should have been a lecture to U.S. officials, including to the reader) 

The charges of “anti-Semitism” and “Death to America” in the speech are just silly.

F

ree speech is not the exclusive right “certain” persons and nations. And disagreement is not “anti-Semitism” or “racism” or “homophobia” or any of those easy-off-the-tongue epithet or claims to such.

“Hate” is another easy concept, a little word that is too subjective ever to be pinned down, defined or judged accurately.

As to the President’s “America’s interests”— every national leader would be expected to serve that  country’s interests. I am not sure, however, that U.S. politicians are interested in serving anything other than their own private/personal interests.

T

he U.S. President at the dais before learned nations spewed his vitriol not only against Iran and its leaders but also, equally slanderously, against Venezuela and its elected leader. Said the U.S. President:

“The dictator Maduro is a Cuban puppet, protected by Cuban bodyguards, hiding from his own people while Cuba plunders Venezuela’s oil wealth to sustain its own corrupt communist rule.”

Not only is Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro Moros not a dictator, as he was duly elected (unlike the drug-lord-consorting nonentity put up by Canadian and U.S. officials to bring down the duly elected president); but the United States is without peer in its interminable, centuries-old plunder of nations’ resources

 — and at the point of bombs —

across two very big  continents,  Africa and Asia.

Not only is the U.S. itself not a “democracy” (but rather a plutocracy or oligarchy or kleptocracy, depending on the angle of view) and thus incapable of any messianic endowment of “democracy” on others; but U.S. leaders also have never given “humanitarian” (out of the goodness of their hearts) anything to anyone without demands, threats, bombs, do-as-I-say-or-else conditions.

If Venezuelans are “trapped in (a) nightmare” (as the U.S. president claims), it is due largely to U.S. interference in their affairs, provocation of conflict, imposition of crippling sanctions, and strangulation or outright assassination (as in Libya and other places) of their leaders — because they dared stand up for their country’s sovereignty, interests, culture, and independence.

T

he U.S. president also struck a condescending blow against North Korea’s leaders, as if addressing children. Said he:

 “I have told Kim Jong Un what I truly believe: that, like Iran, his country is full of tremendous untapped potential, but that to realize that promise, North Korea must denuclearize.”

What about U.S. promise and potential?

His delusion as of many U.S. leaders is that

the U.S. has achieved perfection and thus needs no improvement.

But no national leader serving his country’s interests would willingly submit to U.S. aggression, volatility, glaring character flaws, and proven untrustworthiness.

T

o say, as President Trump said before the UN General Assembly, that “we have pursued bold diplomacy on the Korean Peninsula.,” is another falsehood on its face. U.S. leadership in recent times has never engaged in true diplomacy. Violent aggression and verbal demands are direct opposites of and preclude diplomacy.

Against the People’s Republic of China, the U.S. President—who has never heard of, let alone read, a treaty or convention he has not broken or tried to break — reads condescendingly from his script:

“Not only has China declined to adopt promised reforms, it has embraced an economic model dependent on massive market barriers, heavy state subsidies, currency manipulation, product dumping, forced technology transfers, and the theft of intellectual property and also trade secrets on a grand scale.”

And on Hong Kong, where the U.S. is again interfering illegally, he read

“The world fully expects that the Chinese government will honor its binding treaty, made with the British and registered with the United Nations, in which China commits to protect Hong Kong’s freedom, legal system, and democratic ways of life. …”

Even before words are uttered or actions taken, what is thoroughly offensive is the manner in which the U.S. president (and, characteristically, a long line of U.S. leaders and officials) addresses other leaders — such as the Supreme Leader of North Korea (Chairman of the Workers’ Party of Korea), Kim Jong-un; the People’s Republic of China’s Party General Secretary and President  Xi Jinping, and presidents and officials of Persia (the Islamic Republic of Iran) and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela — a manner displaying an arrogance, disrespect and incivility that no leader can or should accept, endure or tolerate.
 

A

 certain humility is especially wise when considering the long, ancient history of cultures and peoples of Persia and the Orient; and the certainty that, given its present course, the young nation of the United States of America will have long self-destructed when these ancient cultures will be standing and thriving.

Sources

The White House “Remarks by President Trump to the 74th Session of the United Nations General Assembly” Issued on: September 25, 2019 United Nations Headquarters New York, New York https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-74th-session-united-nations-general-assembly/

Wikipedia

United States Military Deployments

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_military_deployments

List of Wars involving the United States

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_involving_the_United_States

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