Throwing Ukraine Under the Bus

"The goal is an endless war, not a successful war." ~ Julian Assange

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President Volodymir Zelensky stands beside a downed drone. BBC

When I think of Ukraine, I can’t help but think of Afghanistan.

“The goal is to use Afghanistan to wash money out of the tax bases of the US and Europe through Afghanistan and back into the hands of a transnational security elite. The goal is an endless war, not a successful war.” ~ Julian Assange, 2011

Why does that sound so familiar? Oh yes, it’s exactly what’s happening in Ukraine. Why would we enter into another pointless war when we’d just come out of a war that “took the USA four presidents, trillions of dollars, thousands of lives, and twenty years to replace the Taliban with the Taliban”.

It seems pointless until you start asking the question, “Where did those trillions of dollars go?” Into the pockets of those who started the war, of course. Around and around the money flows and where it stops nobody knows, except the ones who are stuffing it into their pockets.

By May 2021, Afghanistan was used up and the war machine was looking elsewhere, namely, at Ukraine. Trump wasn't interested in war, much to the chagrin of Washington. But once Biden got in, it was all systems full steam ahead.

And so, the United States packed up and walked out of Afghanistan, leaving behind an estimated 15,000 Americans and 78,000 Afghans who had loyally served the United States government and applied for special visas.

What became of those who were abandoned? Poof! Gone! Old news!

A new war came along with new victims and, anyway, how can we ever keep up with the constant flow of disasters clogging our social media accounts? We are drowning in a sea of sound bites.

That’s why I can’t help but remind people of Afghanistan. It’s the same playbook, new victims; the same one John Perkins described so well in Confessions of an Economic Hitman:

"Fear and debt drive this system. We are hammered with messages that terrify us into believing that we must pay any price, assume any debt, to stop the enemies who, we are told, lurk at our doorsteps.”

As the public has grown weary of war, it’s interesting to see Washington shift the narrative from bombs to something far more intriguing: the shadowy underworld of spies.

A few days ago, I read two LA Times articles, The Spy War: How the C.I.A. Secretly Helps Ukraine Fight Putin. and In an Age of Intercepts, the C.I.A. Makes the Case for Spies.

The Spy War sets the stage for the abandonment of Ukraine, but in a more philosophical manner than what happened in Afghanistan. Whether the war fizzles out or expands beyond the borders of Ukraine, it won’t be the fault of the United States, the country that wanted the war in the first place. It will be the fault of Russia, of course, but it will also be the fault of Ukraine, and Europe won't be immune either.

In an Age of Intercepts tells us that the C.I.A. has thrown off its cloak of secrecy with an in-house podcast called “The Langley Files,” that “recently interviewed the director, William J. Burns, and revealed secrets of past operations. The new episode goes directly to the issue at the heart of the C.I.A.’s mission: the importance of recruiting foreign spies”.

There’s always been something sexy and suave about spies. Nostalgic, too. Taking us back to a time when wars, cold or hot, were clearcut.

We were the good guys. They were the bad guys. Think James Bond. Or the classic, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. I recently watched The Ipcress File which takes place in the 1960s. I really enjoyed it. I love spy stories.

All this nostalgia reminds us today that it’s okay for the United States to go into Ukraine and basically take over the country. It’s been a slow, civilized invasion and thank goodness we did it! Thank goodness for our spies. Thank goodness for Zelensky, so amenable to Ukraine being a testing ground for anything the United States government choses to use it for.

In the Age of Intercepts talks broadly about spies, explaining how “the crackdown on dissent by dictatorships has also given the agency new opportunities”.

In the [podcast] interview, the deputy director said that people who are frustrated with the direction of their country offer to provide information.

“They believe they’re doing something above and greater than themselves, and that they are willing to provide us the information that is so crucial in helping policymakers make the right decisions in the world,” Mr. Sylvester said.

Beautiful, isn’t it? It’s like a church revival. People in countries everywhere are coming forward and offering themselves to the United States for the greater good of the world.

The Spy War zooms in on Ukraine, describing a secretive intelligence partnership between the two countries and how “the details of this intelligence partnership… have been a closely guarded secret for a decade”.

This love affair between the US and Ukraine was a closely guarded secret—until now. Surely the timing is relevant.

Over the past 8 years, “a C.I.A.-supported network of spy bases was constructed that includes 12 secret locations along the Russian border… the C.I.A. began training an elite Ukrainian commando force” … and “helped train a new generation of Ukrainian spies who operated inside Russia, across Europe, and in Cuba and other places where the Russians have a large presence”.

According to the article:

The relationship is so ingrained that C.I.A. officers remained at a remote location in western Ukraine when the Biden administration evacuated U.S. personnel in the weeks before Russia invaded in February 2022.

Despite the revelations of this vast network of spies, the article claims that “the C.I.A. didn’t push its way into Ukraine”:

Toward the end of 2021, according to a senior European official, Mr. Putin was weighing whether to launch his full-scale invasion when he met with the head of one of Russia’s main spy services, who told him that the C.I.A., together with Britain’s MI6, were controlling Ukraine and turning it into a beachhead for operations against Moscow.

But the Times investigation found that Mr. Putin and his advisers misread a critical dynamic. The C.I.A. didn’t push its way into Ukraine. U.S. officials were often reluctant to fully engage, fearing that Ukrainian officials could not be trusted, and worrying about provoking the Kremlin.

I mean, who would ever describe the C.I.A. as “pushy”!?? Or of meddling in the affairs of foreign countries. The idea it would seek to “control a country” is preposterous. It’s the needy countries that twist the arm of the C.I.A. and beg it to come in and take over.

The article unfolds an epic tale of how the C.I.A. became involved in Ukraine in the first place, thanks to courage, perseverance and ingenuity. It praises how successful this partnership has been. Even during Trump’s presidency:

But whatever Mr. Trump said and did, his administration often went in the other direction. This is because Mr. Trump had put Russia hawks in key positions, including Mike Pompeo as C.I.A. director and John Bolton as national security adviser. They visited Kyiv to underline their full support for the secret partnership, which expanded to include more specialized training programs and the building of additional secret bases.

General Budanov, whom Mr. Zelensky tapped to lead the HUR in 2020, said of the partnership: “It only strengthened. It grew systematically. The cooperation expanded to additional spheres and became more large-scale.”

The result of this cozy partnership was that “the relationship was so successful that the C.I.A. wanted to replicate it with other European intelligence services that shared a focus in countering Russia”.

Basically, we have the United States using the war in Ukraine as a cover to infiltrate and build up its presence across Europe—in the nicest possible way—ensuring it is perceived as a guardian angel rather than an invading army.

While Putin was invading Ukraine, the United States was doing exactly the same thing. While the fear is that Putin will expand his reach into neighboring countries, recreating the glory days of the Soviet Union, that’s what the United States is already doing thoughout Europe.

Every time the war in Ukraine threatens to wind down, the news cycle is flooded with scary stories about Putin.

Last Thursday, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warned the House Armed Services Committee that Putin would not "stop" if Moscow wins the war in Ukraine and that NATO will be drawn into war. The purpose of the hearing was to discuss Austin’s recent absence while hospitalized for complications from prostate cancer surgery, but Austin couldn’t resist putting in a plug for more war funding.

Article after article now give warnings like this:

Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has started alerting that Germany should rapidly rebuild its armed forces. This action is emplaced in light of the event that Vladimir Putin does not halt at the Ukraine border.

I very much doubt Putin has any desire to invade Europe. Yet, somehow, Russia is supposed to turn a blind eye to the buildup of forces around its borders. Keeping the narrative alive, that everyone is to blame except the United States, is the only way to justify the billions of taxpayer dollars that continues being funneled through Ukraine.

NATO is made up of 31 countries with Sweden now joining. If money talks, and it does, we only have to look at this chart to know who owns Europe:

NATO's 31 members have agreed on a target of spending at least 2% of gross domestic product on defense, but NATO estimates have shown that only 11 are spending that much. There’s a lot of worry that if Donald Trump becomes president again, he will attempt to upset the applecart, just like he did last time.

At a recent political rally in South Carolina Trump appeared to:

recount a meeting with NATO leaders, quoting the president of “a big country” that he did not name as asking, “Well sir, if we don't pay, and we're attacked by Russia - will you protect us?"

"I said: 'You didn't pay? You're delinquent?' He said: 'Yes, let's say that happened.' ‘No I would not protect you. In fact I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want. You gotta pay.’"

CNN admitted that Trump’s beliefs are:

…rooted in the uncomfortable truth that European nations have underfunded their militaries for decades on the assumption that war was unlikely and that if the worst were to happen, the US would rush to their aid.

However naive that might sound, Trump trashed that assumption. And his hostility toward the Ukraine war effort has an impact even now, playing into the Republican Party’s reluctance to pass more US funding for Ukraine.

“When Trump came along it woke us up to the fact that the US might not always act in European interest, especially if it goes against American interest,” a senior EU diplomat told CNN. “It sounds naive saying it out loud, but that was the assumption a lot people made.”

All of this hand-ringing about Europe contributing more to its own self-defense has achieved one important goal. It has driven home the message that Europe had better do what its benefactor says. Or it will be abandoned. And we all know that isn’t an empty threat. Just look at Afghanistan.

The war in Ukraine has been used for many purposes. For money-laundering and to enrich the coffers of the rich and powerful. To test abilities for intelligence gathering. To test new weaponry. To further trap all of Europe under the umbrella of the United States.

US (and British) companies have raked in billions of dollars in arms sales.

The industry has grown from $575.33 billion in 2023 to $616.32 in 2024 and it is expected to reach almost a trillion dollars by 2028.

2022 was a glorious year for arms dealers and their friends.

20 members of Congress personally invested in top weapons contractors that would profit from the just-passed $40 billion Ukraine aid package. FYI, there is no law prohibiting lawmakers from sitting on congressional committees, writing legislation, or voting on bills that might affect them financially. 

Here are a few examples of those who benefited, from both sides of the aisle:

• The day Russia invaded Ukraine, Republican Rep. John Rutherford of Florida purchased between $1,001 and $15,000 worth of Raytheon stock.

• Two days after the war started, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia bought between $1,001 and $15,000 in Lockheed Martin. She wrote in a Twitter thread: "War is big business to our leaders."

• Sen. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat of Colorado, held between $100,000 and $250,000 in Raytheon shares, according to his most recent annual disclosure.

• Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat of Rhode Island, held $15,001 to $50,000 in Lockheed Martin stock. He also held between $50,001 and $100,000 in stock in United Technologies, which was acquired by Raytheon.

While ordinary citizens suffered and died, those who profited celebrated.

In December 2022, the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington DC hosted a lavish party in honor of the 31st anniversary of the country’s armed services. The sponsors of the event were unabashedly put on the invitation: Northrop Grumman, Raytheon Technologies, Lockheed Martin.

In 2022 alone, Lockheed’s stock rose by about 38 percent.

In the same year, Raytheon won a $1.2 billion contract for six surface-to-air-missile systems. “Over the first 10 months of the war, Ukraine has consumed as many Stinger anti-air missiles as Raytheon makes in 13 years,” the trade publication Breaking Defense noted.

The war has given start-ups an opportunity to acquire government contracts.

Like Anduril, which secured a $1.5 billion investment in 2022. As I wrote about in March 2023, in Acceptable Torture:

Anduril makes massive AI surveillance defense systems for the United States military as well as for other agencies. Sensors are used for tracking people, along with motion detectors and cameras that can find and follow anyone wherever they go, monitored by a networked system that relies on computer-vision algorithms.

Anduril’s tracking, and surveillance systems can be used in “urban environments, in battlefields, and in multiple different environments for the enhancement of security. There are implications for military use as well as for civilian security needs”.

This year, the Pentagon hired Anduril to get its large underwater drones into the hands of the Navy.

In Acceptable Torture, I looked into the founder of Anduril, Palmer Luckey, who is also the founder and designer of Oculus VR and Oculus Rift. What he’s done has been to go from playing with people’s lives in virtual reality to playing with their lives in the real world.

Luckey expressed his ultimate dream on his blog; how great it would be to create a game where, “If you die in the game, you die in real life”. From Acceptable Torture:

It bothered him that “pumped up graphics might make a game look more real, but only the threat of serious consequences can make a game feel real to you and every other person in the game.”

So, what did he do? He refined “a microwave emitter within the game”, hidden so that employees, regulators, and partners didn’t know about it, that could be “overdriven to a lethal level.” Luckey refined it by “tying three explosive charge modules to a narrow-band photosensor so that when the screen flashes red at a specific frequency, a game-over screen is displayed and the charges are fired, instantly destroying the brain of the user.”

Of course, it wasn’t perfect, he lamented. The person about to die might remove their headset (indeed, why wouldn’t they). Never fear, his “plans for an anti-tamper mechanism…will make it impossible to remove or destroy the headset”.

He finished his post by saying that as far as he knows, it’s “the first non-fiction example of a VR device that can actually kill the user.  It won’t be the last.”

We created the atomic bomb, but our weapons still aren’t good enough at killing the enemy. They will never be good enough; not as long as psycho gamers and narcissistic billionaires who like to play with expensive and dangerous toys are in charge.

These are the people working together with our government to build our war machine. And who ever met a politician who wasn’t an opportunist?

Stealing from the enemy is another way to line pockets.

The United States has effectively stolen $300 billion from Russia. Facing increasing reluctance from the American public to continue funding the black hole that is the war in Ukraine, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has now suggested that the United States seize the $300 billion and spend it on Ukraine “as soon as possible”.

What kind of country do we live in? No amount of romantic spy stories in the New York Times can hide the fact that our government says blatant stealing is fine. They don’t want to hide it. The spy stories are supposed to make it all justifiable.

It’s all part of “Operation KleptoCapture,” the “lawful” seizure of Russian oligarchs' assets in the wake of Russia's assault on Ukraine. On what basis is it lawful—and why is it called “klepto” of all things? Can the United States now make random laws anytime a country dares to defy it?

At least $9 billion worth of luxury real estates, superyachts and private jets belonging to Russian billionaires have been frozen or seized. Here’s a couple of examples:

• Billionaire Suleiman Kerimov's 348-foot yacht Amadea, valued at more than $300 million.

• Two aircraft belonging to billionaire oil magnate Roman Abramovich, including his massive Boeing 787 Dreamliner, reported to be one of the most expensive private planes in the world, valued at $350 million.

I guess they are using the same tactics they’ve been using on American citizens for a long time. In 2016 alone, assets of American citizens seized by Federal Law Enforcement Agencies exceeded burglaries when the Treasury and Justice departments deposited more than $5 billion into their respective asset forfeiture funds.

According to Attorney General Merrick Garland, seizing Russian billionaires’ assets is part of a campaign to "hold accountable those who facilitate death and destruction in Ukraine”.

Oh, the irony. Maybe the government is sending a message to its own billionaires. Watch out or we’ll do this to you, too. But that begs the question, who is behind the government because we all know it isn’t those weaselly politicians, especially not the president, that’s in charge.

Ukraine is a vassal of the United States. Everyone that’s anybody is flocking to Ukraine and using it as they wish.

Everyone is crazy for drones.

dronexl.co

Ukraine’s Army of Drones program has investors pumping money into projects, testing their new technology in this tiny country where the people have lost all say in how their homeland is being used. Companies include at least four Western-backed venture-capital funds: Green Flag, ffVC, Koryos, and D3 (couldn’t find a website), the latter backed by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt.

• Green Flag invests in artificial intelligence, fintech (that would be digital banking systems), and climate tech. “Ukraine's tech sector is this decade's most promising investment frontier”, they say.

• Koryos describes Ukraine as:

“…quickly becoming the main innovation hub and testing ground for Cybersecurity, Defense and Security technologies. We wish to help the Ukrainian entrepreneurs and engineers to bring their skills and technology to the world and, doing so, contribute to rebuild Ukraine and defend the free world.”

• D3 stands for Dare to Defend Democracy. It is a secretive initiative focused on developing unmanned aircraft for battlefield use, claiming it is “Building the Perfect AI War-Fighting Machine”. Forbes described its major funder, Eric Schimdt as “one of the defense industry’s loudest advocates in Silicon Valley”.

  “With the frontline just a ten-hour car ride away from Kyiv, the opportunity to vet new companies and technologies is unparalleled,” said D3’s Verkhovodov.

FPV Killer Drones

The topic of drones fascinates me, and I’ve written quite a bit about them. One of the most hair-raising things I discovered while researching this essay was that Ukraine’s plans for 2024 include one million FPV (first person view) drones and hundreds of other types of drones that meet the needs of the Defense Forces.

Described as a “dark omen to the future of robotic warfare and an ingenious invention for the needs of the moment,” the killer FPV drone is cheap and not much different from those a photographer or a gamer might use.

FPV derives its name “from the special set of goggles the pilots wear that allows them to control the drone in a way akin to a video game. Multiple clips posted online highlight the skill of the FPV pilots by grimly taking the lives of men fleeing for their lives”.

Something tells me Palmer Luckey is all over this. You can watch how terrifying these drones are here:

Some of you might recall my recent post SHOCKING NEWS: Anyone can fly a drone over a school, about a man sitting in a park near the elementary school my grandson attends and flying a small drone over the school when kids were outside playing. The teacher was so concerned, she started taking the children into the classroom whenever she saw the drone. There is no law against what this man is doing.

The implications are bad enough, but they become downright terrifying when you consider “The People’s Drone Project.”

President Zelensky’s announcement to acquire a million FPV drones includes enlisting 200 Ukrainian companies to manufacture the kamikaze drones and proposing that civilians start making them at home. The ‘People’s Drone’ project was launched on January 13 and participants can take a free engineering course to learn how to assemble a 7-inch FPV drone in their home.

Anybody can buy a simple drone and use it to kill people—a neighbor for example, kids in a school. Imagine a ‘People’s Drone Project’ in the United States or other countries. Just wait until every wacko has a drone.

It All Comes Together with the Digital State

Just weeks before Russia attacked Ukraine, Zelensky announced the building of an “IT Army” with the launch of a massive project called “Diia City initiative.”

…President Zelenskyy and representatives of the IT industry held a meeting to discuss urgent issues of industry development and the launch of a special legal and tax regime "Diia City." The president made it clear he wanted to "build a digital state. And we succeed in that."

"We are transforming Ukraine into a country of IT companies and startups. Thanks to Diia City, the share of IT in our country's GDP will increase from 4% to 10%, and the industry's revenues will grow up to $ 16.5 billion. This will allow Ukraine to become the largest IT hub in Europe.”

Zelenskyy noted that the Ukrainian government seeks to build the most convenient state in the world in terms of public services. That is why the government is currently working to ensure that talented Ukrainians and foreigners from all over the world, the technology business that is shaping the digital economy, come to work on the Ukrainian market.

As I wrote in Ukraine's Diia City Initiative:

Money began pouring into Ukraine. By March 2, 2022, while the country was in the throes of the war, Oleksandr (Alex) Bornyakov, the country’s deputy minister for Digital Transformation told TechCrunch that “$100 million had been raised through various online donations from around the world.”

As of December 2022, the US alone had sent $68 billion to Ukraine.

As of January 2023, the U.S. had announced its largest Ukraine aid package yet, worth $3.75 billion, as well as $907 million in more financing for Ukraine and its neighbors to buy American-made weapons and equipment.

It was never about winning a war against Russia. It was about using war as an excuse. Ukraine has been thrown under the bus. It will never be free. It will always remain as a buffer against the enemy.

As for Europe? It had better shape up or else.

I highly recommend reading Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins, first published in 2005 and updated in 2023. The playbook never changes, only the victims.

"When men and women are rewarded for greed, greed becomes a corrupting motivator. When we equate the gluttonous consumption of the earth's resources with a status approaching sainthood, when we teach our children to emulate people who live unbalanced lives, and when we define huge sections of the population as subservient to an elite minority, we ask for trouble. And we get it."

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